Small town America battles downturn
Al Jazeera English
Transcript
Danville is getting a facelift and not a moment too soon this Riverfront building used to be a textiles Factory it's been empty for 15 years now it's being transformed into a state-of-the-art Technology Center the early 1990s signaled the beginning of the end for danville's traditional Industries textiles manufacturing and tobacco hundreds of jobs went overseas and plants shut down leaving virtual an entire Workforce with skills no longer needed or wanted interviewing it's a two-step process when Al jazer first visited the city in March 2009 its unemployment rate was 14% twice the national average at the time and it to go into T2 but the city's leaders refuse to give up and have focused on retraining its people and enticing International corporations to invest if you'll notice the robot there is it seems to be working over 700 jobs okay in the past several month that's not bad in these tough times about $426 million in recent investment that's not bad in these tough times and people are doing it because they believe in us for now though they're just numbers it will take at least 12 to 18 months for the jobs to materialize and deliver any meaningful economic gain to the city that's for you we tap it's the recruiting agencies that are busy now with job vacancies coming in across the board in manufacturing retail and Hospitality certainly with job Seekers we have seen probably 40 or 50% become reemployed so they're positive when they see someone else that sits at their table not show back up the next week because they've gotten a job so I I do I think the attitude is continuing uh to be positive most of the retail space in danville's Main Street is empty and it's been like that for years the city council has just announced a new incentive program worth more than $300,000 to try and attract businesses back to the area but it comes with several strings attached among the conditions to qualify for a grant business owners must commit to staying here for 7 years on a street which is often practically deserted I've been here about 6 years and there's probably at least 15 stores or businesses that have moved on uh most have just closed up there has been one or two that have relocated but most have just said they couldn't fight it any longer new companies and centers such as the YMCA are planning to open up downtown in the near future the revitalized downtown would be compelling proof of danville's recovery from its worst economic crisis in decades it's like a rodeo you know you you get on that bad boy you know and it throws you off you get up you duck yourself on you get back on and at some point you learn how to stay on or the animal get tired of throwing you off okay and then you just ride C Turner Al jazer Danville Virginia