Perhaps the biggest blow to the economy would be the property tax revenue or sales tax revenue. What may come in may not bolster the tax base in the same way.
How many times over the decades has this been a threat? How many times has Granite City been chosen to remain open in some way while other mills across the country have been shuttered? The People of Granite City braced themselves numerous times. When the threat was over, the mill kept humming and Madison County's largest tax payer kept coming through.
But when did local officials ever gather in a room and say "What would a post Granite City Steel, Granite City look like...?"
Maybe they have discussed the prospects and I didn't read up on it...or any action items that may have been proposed.
But if it is the fault of the politicians, it's the ones who live (or had lived) closer to you than you think. It's the failure of yesterday to plan for today.
Many will lose their job, even people who may be related to me. They are skilled people and they will not be looking for very long.
If you're sitting there in 1970 and saying "The mill will be all we ever need..." I can see where a town at its zenith may see itself as doing just fine with little need to change.
But if you're sitting there in 1985, or 1995 and still not seeing the writing on the wall with population decline and shifts in the operations of the mill.....and not planning for a post-mill Granite City, then that's on the leadership.
There was a big sigh of relief when National Steel sold out the US Steel as I recall... and even then, that should have been a time of considering what it might be like without the mill.
You just want someone to blame, someone who's convenient to blame, and do what the voices in your mindless echo chamber tell you to do, blame anything Democrat.....and bow every morning to the Orange idol.
Fair enough, that can't be fixed. I can't rightly convince you that your energies are being misplaced. However, the energy used to blame should probably be used to find solutions, that is if Granite City is important to you at all.
Because whenever you're done........ there will still be a Post-Mill Granite City.
Whatever planning wasn't done, might need to start today.
Already, the blow will be softened by that fact that a majority of Granite City does not work at the mill anyway.
Being that said, what other industrial opportunities are there?
One company that I have seen take off from a distance is Nucor Steel. They mainly melt down scrap metal from what I can see. Their operations seem a little smaller in scope than the size of Granite City works. Then I hear about this Sun Coke as well. Maybe there are others who can benefit from blast furnaces, pickling lines and other processes that I know nothing about.
It's just time to start looking for solutions and also too, diversify the economy of the region.
It has a lot going against it..... it's not a poor area surrounded by wealth. It's a working class area surrounded by poorer areas. I think it's a miracle that Granite City is where it is today...and I am still ever the optimist.
It's easy to figure out who to blame. It's convenient and it's cheap.
None of it will help your hometown meet the challenges of tomorrow.
When you ban books before you ban guns, you've admitted that you're more afraid of children learning than you are of children dying.