The manufacturers left standing in Maryland are more new-economy than old, from medical device maker BD Diagnostic Systems in Baltimore County to radar maker Northrop Grumman in Anne Arundel. Most say they're having trouble finding enough skilled workers.
"Manufacturing is not dead. It has transformed," said Mike Galiazzo, executive director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland. "They're hiring people with master's degrees and doctorates."
The new economy means schools are increasing their focus on science and math. Upscale grocers are coming into the city. And developers are planning shops and luxury apartments on three square blocks in East Baltimore that used to be untouchable.
David Holmes said he and a partner bought the land because it is catty-corner to the continually growing Johns Hopkins Hospital. He said his lenders are enthusiastic despite the national credit turmoil.
He hopes his $230 million project will help tie together an impoverished neighborhood and a powerhouse hospital that have been worlds apart. The hospital's strength as an anchor will allow him to bring in the grocery store that neighbors want, he said.
"The community benefits," said Holmes, with Capital Development LLC of Baltimore.
But plenty of people feel left behind - or pushed out - by new-economy growth.
Lucille Gorham lived in the city's Middle East neighborhood for more than 30 years before the eastside biopark construction forced her from her home. "When I got my letter to move, it hurt," said Gorham, 77. "It was like sticking a knife in my chest."
East Baltimore Development Inc., the nonprofit managing the biopark, moved her from a rowhouse on East Chase Street into a larger single-family house in Northeast Baltimore. She has a big yard and a garden. The problem is, it's not home.
"You would think it's a step up," she said. "But I'm here and nobody knows I'm here. On Chase Street, I could open my front door and see everybody on my block. Here, I can open my front door and not see anybody for months."
For manufacturing workers and retirees, the new economy might as well not exist. Insult followed injury for Bethlehem Steel retirees: First they lost their benefits and had their pensions turned over to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. when their former employer went bankrupt. Last year, many learned that those pensions would be cut because the government says it had overpaid them earlier.
