Youngstown still sees its shadow

ERIC PLANEY

Youngstown still sees its shadow

I always enjoyed the Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day,” where he is stuck in a constant cycle of living the same day over and over again. Its funny that the month of February is host to this most peculiar of American holidays as well as host to the most peculiar of calendar anomalies, Leap Year Day. Personally, to really make it a holiday, they should move Groundhog Day to February 29, where every four years we would celebrate the awakening of the slumbering groundhog to tell us if there would be four more years of seeing our shadow. But in reality, Youngstown already has this celebration. However, instead of a Groundhog, Youngstown gets Democratic presidential candidates, who tell us that the shadows that the smokestacks used to cast will be replaced with four years of long-awaited sunshine. After the last ballot is cast in the general election, they disappear into their nocturnal Washington slumber.

This past Presidents Day weekend there was so much coverage of Youngstown nationally that I felt that I was at my childhood home in Lansingville instead of Brooklyn. My favorite coverage was of Kelly Pavlik continuing the Youngstown tradition of winning titles while shouldering the pride of a hardened yet spirited Mahoning Valley. But it seemed that there were more punches being thrown over the weekend between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Ohio is the key battleground for the Democratic nomination. And it is fantastic, in my opinion, that the citizens of the Mahoning Valley and the state will have such influence over the future of our country. Each vote cast on March 4 will have great influence on how centrist or left the Democratic platform will be come November.

Bill Clinton’s message

Youngstowners have earned that responsibility. I recall in 1992 when Bill Clinton and Al Gore rolled into the Southern Park Mall parking lot and charmed a packed crowd, myself included, with the energy and passion for change that many in the Valley were seeking. As much as I liked Bush Sr., I voted for Clinton that year, mesmerized by his message.

But I also recall a commitment to land a Defense Department payroll center that the elder Bush administration short-listed Youngstown for and Clinton committed to keep. When Clinton’s defense secretary abolished the bidding process because he didn’t like competition among cities, people were left with a sour taste in their mouths. Come 1996, Bill Clinton swooped into downtown Youngstown (on the Fourth of July no less) to give a stirring speech that erased that bad taste by the time Air Force One left Vienna. But I always wondered how different Youngstown would have been if we landed that defense center and the several thousand white-collar jobs around it. Would the Valley still be as hopeful to the promise for a better tomorrow, or would Youngstown be further down that road already?

I found it ironic that Senators Clinton and Obama kicked off their Youngstown lovefest at GM Lordstown and RTI Titanium, respectively. GM Lordstown is still around because local and state politicians teamed up with both GM management and the UAW to find a way to keep the plant competitive in today’s global market. There was no federal involvement. Further, GM’s financial health is tied to America remaining open to global markets — ideas to which Clinton is now beginning to recant. Lordstown’s current success is solely due to the Valley coming together from all sides and rolling up their sleeves to make a better plant and a better car then was ever made there. Obama visited RTI, a firm that has grown because in part due to increased defense spending and the subsequent support on the aerospace industry as a whole. His presidency may have a negative impact on RTI given that defense spending has not been one of his campaign priorities.

Obama has a message that reaches to many Democrats and independents because he is inspirational and eloquent. He appeals to those of us that want not to be cynical towards Washington, but hopeful that our leaders can restore the pride that we have lost in government. Clinton appeals to many in the Valley because her message is of support for the ordinary citizen who is struggling to live the American dream. Both messages resonate and have embedded truths. But if these candidates want Youngstown to favor them, they must understand that there is a cost. And that cost is straight talk with the Valley that occurs more than once every four years. If such a pledge is lost in translation for them, then Youngstown has the right and the obligation to itself to look outside the Democratic party for such candor in November.

X Eric Planey, a Mahoning Valley native, is now a banker in New York City.