Aviators No More

Matt Welch | January 14, 2005

The Boobs-a-lot Age is not the only era that has vanished since Howard Hughes' heyday. Consider this: Just today, Boeing announced that it is shutting down the last commercial aircraft built in California, the 717 in Long Beach.

That's just astonishing, to a kid like me who grew up within walking distance of what was then the McDonnell Douglas plant, which at its peak employeed nearly 50,000 people, including about one-third of the fathers in my neighborhood. The fact that Lakewood and Long Beach managed to absorb such a blow (this last one will cost about 750 jobs) is a testament to the dynamism and resiliency of the Southern California economy. Which, as Howard Hughes knew but few non-Californians realized, had much more to do with aerospace than Hollywood, producing a swath of Red State culture a 40-minute drive from the capital of the Blue.

The Press-Telegram story, by the way, features quotes from the two first bars I ever snuck into. Sniff.

Comments

|1.14.05 @ 3:38PM|#

I think it's more specific to military-connected industry, Evan. The side more interested in blowing people up will spend more on equipment built for that purpose.

Matt Welch|1.14.05 @ 3:40PM|#

Evan -- Add to whatever formula you come up with the fact that SoCal aerospace jobs were part of the Fight Against Communism, and many of the jobs (and cheap suburban housing) were given to returning vets from WWII.

|1.14.05 @ 3:44PM|#

matt & joe:

thanks for shedding a bit more light on that...

|1.14.05 @ 4:35PM|#

"Boeing announced that it is shutting down the last commercial aircraft built in California, the 717 in Long Beach."

That may be the last commercial plane but Boeing still has the C-17 to keep them busy.

|1.14.05 @ 6:58PM|#

Long Island underwent this transformation about 25 years ago. Republic and Grumman were the big outfits. Loss of the aircraft industry was part of an employment trend away from making stuff to the service economy, and the absolute metastasizing of government jobs. The Feds plunked an IRS processing office down five minute from where I grew up, frex. That this went on amid the Ford/Carter stagflation made it tough for many families to keep their houses, or for their children to stay in the area after they finished school.

Nassau and Suffolk counties had been reliably Republican, to the point of machine politics. Nowadays they are part of "blue state suburbia." I hear tell that Orange County, CA is sliding that way, too.

Kevin

Matt Welch|1.14.05 @ 7:49PM|#

kevrob -- Interesting. I'd always assumed that the OC transformation was largely immigration-driven....

|1.15.05 @ 1:51AM|#

Matt:

Orange County's ethnic mix is supposed to have changed over the years, true. The anecdote I'm familiar with is that Loretta Brixey was a loser, but when she waited a few years and ran as Loretta Sanchez, she won. I'm not up on its job mix, though.

LI isn't completely white. It's got pockets of African-Americans and Hispanics, especially Puerto Ricans. Nowhere near 50%, though enough for politicians to have to deal with.

Suburbs close-in to many big cities are at least competitive for the Big Two parties, as the solid Republican majorities are found in the newer `burbs.

Kevin