How an American City Can Become a Manufacturing Hub

Matthew Tuerk (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Tracy Alloway (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:22)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Joe, do you ever discover little cultural blind spots that you had in your life?

Joe Weisenthal (0:30)

I'm sure.

Tracy Alloway (0:30)

Like things you missed?

Joe Weisenthal (0:32)

Where are you going with this?

Tracy Alloway (0:34)

So, I discovered one recently, and it kind of led to a minor epiphany for me, but I had heard the Billy Joel song, Allentown. I had never watched the video, and in preparation for this episode, I watched the video, and suddenly a bunch of Simpsons references made sense to me.

Joe Weisenthal (0:51)

Interesting.

Tracy Alloway (0:52)

And I don't mean to be very grand millennial by making Simpsons references here.

Joe Weisenthal (0:57)

Isn't it depressing how if you make a Simpsons reference to someone younger in the office, they look at you with a blank stare?

Tracy Alloway (1:02)

I know.

Joe Weisenthal (1:03)

It's really depressing. I just don't do it anymore, because it's so depressing.

Tracy Alloway (1:07)

I know, and here I am doing it on the podcast, but I actually-

Joe Weisenthal (1:11)

We're the same generation, so we can do it among each other.

Tracy Alloway (1:13)

We can do it. This is a safe space.

Joe Weisenthal (1:14)

Our listeners might not get it.

Tracy Alloway (1:16)

So the reason I bring it up though is for kind of a serious point, not just to talk about Billy Joel music, although now that I think about it, he has a lot of songs about the political economy of America. But it is because Allentown, Pennsylvania basically became a poster child for deindustrialization and the hollowing out of American manufacturing in the 1980s.

Joe Weisenthal (1:37)

That was a great intro.

Tracy Alloway (1:39)

Oh, thank you.

Joe Weisenthal (1:39)

And of course, right, so we know, and obviously over the years on Odd Lots, we've talked a lot about industrialization, deindustrialization, reindustrialization, great, all very interesting themes. Everyone maybe like feels in their gut somehow that they're like pro-reindustrialization, whatever that means, right? But then the gap between like somehow like we feel good about producing physical things, we want more of that. What does that actually look like in practice? What are these jobs? What are these potential industries? Then it suddenly gets much more hazy, right? People don't know what that actually looks like in practice. Right.

Tracy Alloway (2:18)

How do you actually go about implementing industrial policy on a local scale? And I have to say, the other thing I found out in researching for this podcast, I had no idea, but Allentown, Pennsylvania was also the site of the first, some of the first mass-produced transistors, which are like the precursor to semiconductors of today.

Joe Weisenthal (2:39)

Can I say one random thing about Billy Joel before we go further? You know, because obviously you mentioned he talks about a lot of political economy things, including, of course, in We Didn't Start the Fire. The final line of that song is like something about the Cola Wars. And he's like, I can't take it anymore. And I just think it's really funny that the Cola Wars, Coke versus Pepsi is the thing that tipped him over the edge. Like Vietnam War, all these things happened. And finally, the thing that tipped him over the edge was the Cola. Anyway, sorry, Chuck, but I just had to get that out.

Tracy Alloway (3:08)

We should do a whole episode on Billy Joel's songs at some point, including my favorite karaoke standard, which is Downeaster Alexa, all about the decline of the fishing industry. But anyway, Allentown, Pennsylvania, let's focus. We do, in fact, have the perfect guest. We're going to be speaking with the mayor of Allentown, Matt Tuerk. So thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Matthew Tuerk (3:29)

It's a grand placer. It's a huge pleasure to be here.

Joe Weisenthal (3:32)

That actually helps because we are at the CityLab Conference in Madrid.

Tracy Alloway (3:36)

We just saw you have a medal from the marathon over the weekend. Tell us about that.

Matthew Tuerk (3:42)

I landed on Saturday, went right to the Marathon Expo, picked up my bib.

24 hours later, I was starting the Madrid 42K, not 26 miles, but 42 kilometers marathon. It was hot, it was hilly, it was beautiful, great crowd support, phenomenal marathon. Finished the marathon and then went right to a reception for Bloomberg CityLab, and I've been nonstop since then.

Tracy Alloway (4:07)

That is dedication to both cardio and city planning, so congrats on that. I mentioned Allentown, the song and the video in the intro, and I discovered there's some controversy about this because apparently the steelmaking was more in Bethlehem rather than in Allentown. So should Billy Joel have been talking about semiconductors instead of steel?