In the nineteen-fifties, the bridge to Canada was built and gave the city another financial lifeline. Some executives at Ottawa-based companies liked the idea of locating their U.S. subsidiary so close that they could visit and be back home for dinner. The combination of bridge, port, and rail connections led to a mid-century manufacturing boom. Acco Brands made Swingline staplers here. Standard Shade Roller made window blinds. Newell made fittings for window drapes. Since the nineteen-eighties, this kind of simple manufacturing has largely been relocated to Mexico and China and other lower-wage countries. The city then had its next stroke of luck: the state of New York placed two prisons on the grounds of the then largely defunct mental-health hospital.
Since the eighteen-hundreds, the city’s destiny was not determined at city hall. Instead, people in Albany, or Washington, D.C., or Ottawa, would set Ogdensburg up for a generation or two of economic stability. Then there would be a period of desperation, tension, and hoping that something would replace whatever was then dying. Many cities around the United States have a similar history. They were founded, typically, in the eighteen-hundreds or earlier, often because they were located near a body of water. Then, they owed their survival—or could blame their collapse—on decisions made by powerful people far away.
It is an odd facet of the American economy that infrastructure is, generally, ignored and then, at moments of crisis, heatedly debated in Washington and state capitals. A brief, hurried period of rushed decision-making and politicking plays an outsized role in determining the future successes and miseries of swaths of the country. Yet, when people try to make sense of their frustrations, of their anger at a city that just doesn’t seem to work, it’s easier to blame your neighbors, your local officeholders. They’re right there.
Biden’s American Jobs Plan will have the power to determine the economic viability of Ogdensburg and many other similar communities: Rust Belt towns in the Northeast and Midwest; former textile-mill towns in the South; Native American reservations; Appalachian hollers. The dynamic is simple. The U.S. economy is dependent, mostly, on big cities and a handful of large industries that generate the bulk of our G.D.P. Towns and cities too far away to serve as bedroom communities or to host suppliers to industrial centers are dependent on the redistribution of wealth through government tax and spending systems.
I found myself, at times, thinking that any money spent on Ogdensburg might be wasted. Spending, here, would do what spending has done for a century: it will keep the city alive artificially for a bit. Maybe a reclaimed bridge, some prettified waterfront property, and an influx of government cash will allow the city to stop its squabbling and keep a few more of its high-school graduates from moving elsewhere for opportunity. But, inevitably, those people or their children will be back in the same place, squabbling again, hoping someone far away will send the money needed to buy them another generation or two.
