“We Disagree about Dalton”
I recently gained a new appreciation for the power of media
as an article in the New York Times painted a less than desirable picture of my
home town. The article titled “No End to
Housing Bust in Carpet Capital of the World” labels Dalton as a declining city
far too dependent on one industry. Since
this article was published, it has been the hottest topic in the area. I cannot recall one day in the last month
that I have not heard a resident or business owner reference this article. The most common reaction seems to be anger
as people in Dalton understand that the current economic conditions have
affected our area, but they never considered it to be close to the nightmare
that the New York Times described.
Here is a brief history on Dalton: In the late 1800’s a process called tufting was developed in the area to enable quicker manufacturing of textiles,
mostly bedspreads. In the 1950’s this process
was implemented in the carpet trade, which subsequently exploded with the post
war housing boom. The industry grew
rapidly; Dalton, GA was the hub. In a
matter of no time, there were 300 carpet mills in the area employing 25,000
people. 90% of the world’s carpet was
made in 60 mile radius of Dalton, GA.
The industry created many millionaires and gave seemingly endless work
to laborers. There simply were not
enough workers. Technology improved and
machines got more efficient, but the increasing demand kept up with new
efficiencies. In the 1960’s, there were
more millionaires per capita in Dalton, GA than anywhere in the world and by
2000, five of the ten richest people in Georgia were tied to the Dalton carpet
industry.
Dalton’s economic a base is manufacturing. Any such town will have a tight correlation
to certain markets and thus be sensitive to certain economic pressures. In other words, the downturns can certainly hurt
us. But is it as bad as this article
claims? Absolutely not! It all starts with the numbers; the writer
suggests that according to the records Dalton lost a higher percentage of jobs
in the last year than any other metropolitan area. The question is where do these numbers come
from? The answer is they come from
economic modeling, which is subject to misrepresentation. Another interesting part of this article is
the gloomy picture that the writer paints of Downtown Dalton. She says “Now, downtown Dalton holds not much
more than three pawn shops, an espresso bar that plays Christian soft rock and
the Headquarters for the Carpet and Rug Institute”. This quote makes it clear that no one from
the New York Times has been to downtown Dalton, which has more businesses than
it has ever had. Downtown Dalton is home
to several big branch banks, countless restaurants, and hundreds of unique businesses. Getting back to the numbers, Dalton actually
is one of the few metro areas in Georgia which has more jobs than
residents. I think this one fact
disputes the theme of her entire article. If I have to give the author anything it is
that according to the numbers (which are very questionable) Dalton has
experienced about a 13% drop in employment in the last 4 years, roughly two
times that of the entire state. However,
is that not to be expected? When you
consider how tied Dalton is to housing, this number is neither severe nor
surprising. When the housing sector
comes back, which it will, the lost jobs will return to Dalton. I like what the mayor said in response to
this article: “This $18 billion
industry centered in Dalton did not receive federal bailouts; and it continued
to pay millions of dollars in taxes while managing to remain profitable and
employ thousands of people in northwest Georgia and southeast Tennessee.” Another error the author made that astonished
me was that she interviewed someone and dubbed this person the “carpet king of
Dalton”. I can name several people that
could accurately be considered carpet kings, but I have never even heard of
this person named in the article. I do
not mean to insult this person’s accomplishments, but this reinforces the fact
that the author of this article simply did not do her homework. It is one thing to bash our town, but it is
another to do so when you don’t have the facts.
It is easy for an author to
criticize industry, but before you do, I think it is smart to consider all of
the facts about that industry. Dalton
has a special place in American manufacturing- while the author’s iPad was
slapped together in China, the world’s carpet has essentially been made in the
US (Dalton) for 60 years employing thousands of people while paying fair
wages. Authors like this seem to have
little understanding or appreciation for American business. The carpet trade is
huge, not only for Dalton, but for the United States and insulting one of the
last major businesses to support American manufacturing is simply un-American. The
bottom line is this, yes Dalton has taken a hit, but it is still a great place
to live. Dalton has actually been
through this before; in 1991, Dalton had 9.5% unemployment, but came back in a
strong way. Dalton is in position to
bounce back as hard as it was hit as soon as we see substantial recovery in the
housing market. In the interim, we continue to see retail development, a
solvent local government, hard working entrepreneurs, and an excitement for the
future. The residents of Dalton have
never depended on anyone or anything and because of our quintessential
entrepreneurial attitude, we will be back.
Anyone who counts us out, like this author did, will soon be proven
wrong.
RWC, Jr.