The Comeback Investment in Cities

In his book Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town, Brian Alexander chronicles the rise and fall of his hometown of Lancaster, Ohio. The factory town was the headquarters of the glassware company Anchor Hocking, once the world’s largest glassware manufacturer. But the firm was acquired by the first of a series of out-of-town corporations in 1987, and the Lancaster’s fortunes swiftly declined with it.

It’s an often-repeated story: Global economic forces lay waste to a hometown company whose corporate identity was intimately tied to its host community. It’s big challenge for local leaders trying to create a unity of purpose within a city. As locally owned and controlled companies become the exception rather than the rule, how can a city restore the local benefits such firms once bestowed, spark investments in the region, and unite residents with the business and philanthropic sectors under a shared sense of destiny?