Allentown Overhauls Zoning to Drive Light Industrial Reshoring

阿伦敦全面改革区划以推动轻工业回流 市长 Matthew Tuerk 表示，推进区划法规现代化并善用邻近主要市场的优势，能让后工业城市围绕高附加值零部件和增重型消费品重建制造业。 主持人 Tracy Allaway 和 Joe Weisenthal 与市长 Matthew Tuerk 探讨了阿伦敦如何从后工业衰退的典型代表转型为繁荣的现代制造与物流枢纽。Tuerk 市长详细介绍了该市的整体战略，包括利用其邻近全美40%人口的区位优势吸引饮料灌装等“增重型”产业。他还重点谈到了现代基于形态的区划改革、支持当地劳动力发展的联邦拨款，以及该市如何适应人口结构变化和高科技制造业的崛起。 尽管 Billy Joel 在1982年创作的歌曲《Allentown》让该市成为铁锈地带衰退的代名词，但阿伦敦拥有深厚的精密制造底蕴，涵盖丝绸、Mack Trucks、二战战机以及 Western Electric 早期的量产半导体等产业。 (5:00) 阿伦敦没有依赖大型工厂的迁入，而是制定了专注于占地10万平方英尺以下的轻型特色制造业的再工业化战略，使制造业在当地就业岗位中的占比达到了17%。 (10:00) 从阿伦敦出发一天车程可覆盖全美超过40%的人口，这使其成为饮料灌装等“增重型产业”的理想选址，这类产业可以在靠近终端市场的地方添加水等大重量的本地原料。 (20:00) 高附加值、轻量化零部件制造有助于城市地区降低国家供应链风险，并在小至4万平方英尺的紧凑空间内开展灵活的专业化生产。 (23:00) 阿伦敦通过了一项全面的基于形态的区划法规，以取代过时的欧几里得区划，使无干扰的手工制造业能够与适宜步行的居住社区共存，并让年轻人重新接触到工匠与技工类职业。 (26:00)

According to Allentown Mayor Matthew Tuerk, mid-sized legacy cities can revive their manufacturing base by focusing on light, high-value component production, adaptive reuse of older facilities, and updated urban planning rather than attempting to recruit massive assembly plants. By capitalizing on strategic geography, municipal zoning modernization, and targeted federal investments, the city has maintained an industrial workforce significantly above national averages. Geographic Logistics and Niche Component Manufacturing (20:00) Allentown’s modern industrial model prioritizes light, high-value component fabrication and "weight-gaining" industries over sprawling mega-factories. Located within a single day's drive of more than 40% of the U.S. population (over 100 million people), the Lehigh Valley is economically suited for operations where adding heavy local resources like water near consumer markets minimizes long-distance shipping costs. This geographic advantage anchors food, beverage, and packaging firms such as Ocean Spray, Boston Beer Company, Keurig Dr Pepper, and packaging supplier Schless Bottle. To accommodate light manufacturers seeking spaces between 40,000 and 80,000 square feet—often priced out of costlier markets like Brooklyn—the Allentown Economic Development Corporation repurposed historic multi-story, gravity-flow industrial facilities rather than converting them into residential units. Today, manufacturing accounts for roughly 17% of regional employment, supported by precision suppliers like Westport Axle for Mack Trucks, defense vehicles via Mack Defense, and regional anchors such as Air Products, Olympus, and B. Braun Medical. Form-Based Zoning and Mixed-Use Urban Integration (26:00) To reintegrate production into city life, Allentown updated its land-use policy in early 2026 by adopting a form-based zoning code. Unlike historical Euclidean zoning, which rigidly separated industrial operations from residential neighborhoods to limit exposure to smoke and noise, form-based codes regulate physical massing, scale, and facade appearance. This approach permits clean "craft manufacturing" and small electronics assembly on the ground floors of walkable, mixed-use developments. Mayor Tuerk contends that making work visible within residential neighborhoods helps rekindle youth interest in skilled trades, which waned as factories migrated to exurban fringes. Simultaneously, Allentown modified its zoning rules to address data center growth. To protect residential areas from high infrastructure strain without issuing outright bans, the city requires formal municipal reviews of water, power, and environmental impacts to prevent sharp increases in residential utility bills. Aligning Federal Grants with Local Workforce Needs (31:00) Allentown capitalized on national industrial policy by building analytical capacity through programs like the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Utilizing localized labor data, municipal planners identified that while the city’s overall prime-age employment gap (adults aged 25 to 54 not working or seeking work) was approximately 6%, it reached 12% in specific neighborhoods encompassing roughly 23,000 residents. Using these findings, the city secured a $20 million implementation grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Recompete Pilot Program following an initial grant in late 2023. The municipality allocated these funds to reduce labor-market barriers through subsidized, flexible childcare, enhanced public transit connecting to suburban employment clusters, and infill industrial development inside city boundaries. To guard against potential federal policy changes, administrators accelerated timelines to fully obligate the awards following late 2024. Demographic Shifts and Regional Competitiveness (52:45) Mayor Tuerk emphasizes that Allentown’s economic and cultural identity has transformed since it was portrayed as an emblem of rust-belt decline in Billy Joel’s 1982 song. While the city was predominantly white and of European descent in the 1980s, it transitioned to over 55% Latino by 2026. Tuerk points to this demographic change and immigration as crucial drivers of workforce talent and small-business formation. To capture spillover gains from broader regional development, municipal leadership collaborates across state and party lines, engaging with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Republican Senator Dave McCormick. Although large-scale industrial projects—such as Eli Lilly’s $3.5 billion GLP-1 manufacturing site, projected to yield 850 jobs—are situated outside city lines, Allentown positions its urban workforce to compete for those jobs and its local suppliers to service the expanding regional supply chain. While Allentown has maintained an industrial workforce representing 17% of total regional jobs, its strategy must navigate the tension between increasing factory automation and the goal of preserving labor-intensive employment. Sustained progress also hinges on protecting residential utility rates from data center demand and executing grant-funded workforce initiatives amid shifting federal priorities.

宾夕法尼亚州阿伦敦市市长Matthew Tuerk指出，面对去工业化的历史遗留问题，该市通过聚焦高附加值轻型零部件制造、重构基于形态的现代区划法规，并结合联邦再工业化产业政策，成功实现了城市经济的结构性复兴。 历史工业底蕴与现代再工业化路径 阿伦敦在历史上曾因Billy Joel在1982年发布的流行歌曲《Allentown》而被外界贴上去工业化和铁锈地带衰退的标签。然而市长Matthew Tuerk指出，该地区的产业底蕴不仅限于临近城市伯利恒著名的钢铁产业，还涵盖了Mack Trucks的汽车制造、雪茄制作、丝绸加工以及Western Electric对早期商业化晶体管的生产。早期的工业积淀为该地区留下了深厚的精密制造经验，使相关技术逐步演进为包括Broadcom供应链在内的现代半导体产业生态。自2008年全球金融危机爆发后，阿伦敦通过阿伦敦经济发展公司（AEDC）推动既有工业建筑的改造利用，并联合旧金山、底特律等多地机构共同发起城市制造业联盟（Urban Manufacturing Alliance）。 增重型产业聚集与供应链精准去风险 (20:00) 在地理区位上，阿伦敦地处单日车程即可覆盖全美40%以上人口（超过1亿人）的关键物流走廊，毗邻纽约大都市圈。该优势使阿伦敦成为典型的“增重型产业”（weight-gaining industries）枢纽，特别是在需要在原料中添加本地水等重型投入品的食品与饮料行业。例如，Ocean Spray的蔓越莓汁主要产能、波士顿啤酒公司（Samuel Adams）与Keurig Dr Pepper的灌装厂均设在当地，并直接吸引了像Schless Bottle这样的塑料包装制造企业入驻，以实现就近生产和即时运输。针对制造业回流，阿伦敦并未盲目追求占用超大规模土地的整车组装总装厂，而是定位于高价值、高技术的关键零部件制造，如专门为Mack Trucks供应特种车轴的Westport Axle。这种4万至8万平方英尺规模的紧凑型厂房，既能分散国家供应链风险，又与城市既有空间肌理相契合。 区划改革与人本制造的日常回归 (26:00) 为了打破传统欧几里得区划对居住与工业的绝对空间隔离，阿伦敦在2026年初通过了全面的基于形态的区划法规（form-based zoning code）。传统重工业污染严重的时代已经过去，新型轻型制造和工艺制造业具备低污染、低噪音特征；基于形态的区划重点规范建筑体量与外观尺度，而非强制限定内部使用性质，从而允许微型酿酒、轻型电子装配等小型工坊嵌入可步行的商住混合社区中。Tuerk强调，将制造业重新带回市民的日常生活视线之中，能够重塑青年群体对技能工种的认知，重构对“劳动尊严”的文化认同，抵御纯粹追求极致压缩用工成本的过度自动化倾向。 落实联邦产业资助与跨党派经济合作 (31:00) 在承接联邦《芯片与科学法案》和《通胀削减法案》等宏观政策红利方面，阿伦敦市政府借助彭博哈佛城市领导力倡议建立起数据化申报能力。2023年年中，该市针对25至54岁黄金年龄段劳动力未就业差距突出的社区，成功从美国经济发展署（EDA）申请到Recompete试点计划的2000万美元实施资助，专项用于解决补贴性托育、跨区域通勤交通以及城市空闲地块的工业回填开发。在地方与州级层面，Tuerk采取跨党派务实合作策略，与共和党参议员Dave McCormick及宾夕法尼亚州长Josh Shapiro协同推进产业竞争力。例如，礼来公司（Eli Lilly）在阿伦敦周边投资35亿美元建设GLP-1药物制造工厂，预计带来850个岗位，阿伦敦正积极争取本地居民就业与配套供应链接入；同时，市内军工承包商Mack Defense也持续承担美军重型战术卡车的制造。 数据中心规划防线与城市人口结构转型 (50:00) 面对人工智能与数据中心建设热潮带来的资源竞争压力，阿伦敦前瞻性地修改了区划法案，筑牢监管防线。鉴于超大规模数据中心可能推高居民电费与水费负担并挤占城市空间，新规强制要求所有潜在数据中心项目在获批前必须接受严格的能源供应来源、水资源消耗及基础设施负荷审查。此外，Tuerk指出阿伦敦的人口构成已发生重大转变：相较于1982年以欧洲裔白人为主的单一结构，如今阿伦敦拥有超过55%的拉丁裔人口，移民群体已成为推动该市科技创新与制造业复兴的关键智力与劳动力资本。 阿伦敦的实践展示了中小型工业城市利用地理优势、存量空间改造与现代区划创新实现制造业重塑的路径；但如何在推进高科技自动化的同时持续保障基层劳工的就业机会与生活成本稳定，仍是市政管理中悬而未决的长期挑战。

## Background 本期节目由彭博社（Bloomberg）于 2026 年 5 月 7 日发布在播客及网络平台，录制于西班牙马德里举行的彭博 CityLab 峰会现场。内容围绕宾夕法尼亚州阿伦敦（Allentown）如何摆脱比利·乔尔（Billy Joel）同名老歌中所固化的铁锈地带萧条符号展开，由现任市长马修·图尔克（Matthew Tuerk）分享该市通过立足地理区位、发展“增重型产业”、推行区划改革与落地联邦产业政策以重振实体制造的系统战略。 ## TL;DR 阿伦敦市长马修·图尔克系统回顾了该市从轻纺重卡、晶体管量产先驱到如今维持 17% 制造业高韧性就业的工业脉络，阐释了盘活旧厂房立体空间以发展精品零部件制造的思路。依托单日车程覆盖全美近 40% 人口的腹地优势，阿伦敦大力集聚就地加水的饮料加工与吹瓶包装等“增重型产业”，并通过推行基于形态的新区划法典打破功能隔离，让清洁轻工重新融入日常生活。面对国家产业政策回归，阿伦敦成功锁定 2000 万美元 EDA 联邦试点资金，着重破除托育与通勤壁垒以弥补壮年人口就业鸿沟，同时在严苛防范超大数据中心抬升民生电费的前提下，跨党派对接制药与国防重大制造项目。对谈还透过百年热狗老店风波，展现了这座拉丁裔人口已超 55% 的多元摇摆州城市在现代自动化浪潮下捍卫“劳动尊严”的务实实践。 ## Atmosphere & style 访谈氛围睿智、风趣且极具烟火气，两位主持人以老歌流行梗和对电子游戏《模拟城市》的经典吐槽切入，与刚跑完 42 公里马德里马拉松便携奖牌赴会的图尔克市长碰撞出高度默契与松弛感。叙事在宏大的联邦产业政策、微观的空间经济学与鲜活的街头热狗点餐法则之间自由穿梭，既有严谨的市政治理考量，又流淌着市井生活的温情。听众能强烈感知到一线城市行政官在抵抗私募资本过度追求“无人化”利润时的价值坚守，呈现出一种既清醒务实又饱含产业浪漫主义的鲜活录音现场感。 ## Bulletin - `20:00` 宾夕法尼亚州阿伦敦依托覆盖全美近40%人口的单日车程区位优势，大力发展“增重型产业”，通过就近加水灌装和本地制瓶配套降低重载物流成本，吸引了优鲜沛、萨缪尔·亚当斯和Keurig Dr Pepper等巨头落户。 - `25:00` 阿伦敦于2026年初通过重大的分区法典改革，推行“基于形态的编码”，允许清洁、低噪的高科技与精品轻制造安全重返城市街区，打破产城割裂。 - `33:38` 针对特定社区高达12%的壮年就业缺口，阿伦敦成功锁定联邦EDA“重返竞争试点项目”2000万美元落地资金，通过在市区建厂并配套托育与交通打破就业屏障。 - `50:00` 面对超大规模数据中心的涌入，阿伦敦在区划条例中设立了严苛的前置审查，主要防范电网负荷过载推高居民公共电费账单，同时反思极端低就业的商业模式对劳动尊严的侵蚀。 ## Key takeaways - `00:00` 流行文化中比利·乔尔的名曲《Allentown》将该市定格为去工业化萧条符号，但当地早前便拥有晶体管量产、马克重卡及军工等多维产业根基，如今现实已大不相同。 - `10:00` 里海谷早在20世纪90年代预判钢铁业衰落后就提前布局多元化，引进了贝朗医疗、奥林巴斯并依托空气化工与里海大学，使制造业就业占比稳定维持在17%左右的高位。 - `12:38` 阿伦敦盘活市区10万平方英尺以下的锯齿顶及“重力流”多层存量老厂房，避开市郊大厂房同质化竞争，专注于培育高附加值、轻量化精品型小微制造业。 - `14:48` 2010年前后兴起的创客运动与“城市制造联盟”探索虽然曾被软件风口掩盖，但为阿伦敦摸排工业存量并出台2014年“再工业化战略”打下了关键基础。 - `20:00` “增重型产业”依赖向原料中大量加水，成品物流极度敏感，阿伦敦地处全美1亿人口的一日配送圈，成为食品饮料加工及本土包装制瓶上下游集聚的理想温床。 - `25:00` 城市制造业无需动辄数百万平方英尺的巨型整车厂，高价值、技术密集的关键零部件与轻工制造（约4万平方英尺）更适合安全嵌入现代城市生活。 - `30:00` 传统区划制度与类似《模拟城市》的规划思维将工厂完全推至偏远郊区，严重割裂了工人的生活与生产，导致年轻一代丧失对实体制造劳动的直观感知与认同。 - `31:18` 依托“彭博-哈佛城市领导力倡议”重塑团队能力后，阿伦敦利用数据分析积极争取联邦资金，将国家产业政策愿景切实转化为地方落地实操。 - `33:38` 阿伦敦攻坚25至54岁壮年人口就业鸿沟，识别出缺乏托育和交通是核心堵点，从而通过2000万美元EDA拨款将生产基地与配套设施引入低收入社区内部。 - `40:00` 地方产业政策超越党派分歧，市长聚焦争取礼来制药35亿美元基地等外围投资向市内辐射850个高薪岗位，并积极激活本地深厚的国防制造基因。 - `45:00` 全自动化、投币洗衣房和自助仓储等追求极致资本效率的“零雇佣”模式遭到市长质疑，城市治理必须坚守创造就业机会与维护工人劳动尊严的底线。 - `50:00` 全美市长对超大规模数据中心的真正焦虑并非仅是土地短缺，更在于其庞大的电力消耗可能转嫁成本，引发居民公共电费账单暴涨的民生危机。 - `53:30` 阿伦敦人口结构历经巨变，拉丁裔居民占比已突破55%，本土百年老字号Yocco's热狗风波折射出传统工业怀旧与现代多元文化之间的摩擦与最终包容。 - `57:15` 现代轻制造业已具备洁净、静音的高科技特征，城市区划应彻底摒弃陈旧的强制隔离政策，推动产城融合以实现人性化的步行与骑行通勤社区。 ## Detailed walkthrough ### `00:00` 流行文化符号与美国去工业化叙事：从比利·乔尔的歌谈起 节目开场，主持人特蕾西·阿洛威（Tracy Alloway）与乔·威森塔尔（Joe Weisenthal）从一次偶然的文化发现切入。特蕾西提到自己最近补看了一直只听过音频的经典老歌《Allentown》（比利·乔尔于 1982 年发布的名曲）的音乐录影带，瞬间看懂了许多美剧《辛普森一家》（The Simpsons）里的陈年老梗。两人调侃起“千禧一代”与更年轻同事之间的代沟——现在只要在办公室里随口抛出《辛普森一家》的梗，年轻人往往只会报以茫然的注视，“这太让人沮丧了，以至于我现在都不敢再提了”。 然而，这并非单纯的复古怀旧，而是指向了一个深刻的政治经济学命题。20 世纪 80 年代，宾夕法尼亚州的阿伦敦（Allentown）随着这首歌曲红遍全美，几乎成了美国去工业化、制造业被掏空以及蓝领工人被时代抛弃的标杆象征。乔和特蕾西指出，近年来在播客以及公共舆论中，大家都在热烈讨论“工业化、去工业化与再工业化”，大众在直觉上普遍支持重振实体制造业，但人们内心深处对“制造实体物品”的向往与现实之间存在着巨大的鸿沟。现实中的再工业化究竟长什么样？到底能创造什么样的岗位？地方政府又该如何落地实施产业政策？这些问题在口号之下往往显得极其模糊。 特蕾西还在前期调研中发现了一个鲜为人知的冷知识：阿伦敦在 20 世纪 50 年代曾是全美最早量产晶体管（Transistor）的基地之一，而这正是现代半导体芯片的雏形。随后，两人还忍不住调侃了比利·乔尔作品中的时代气息，比如其另一首名曲《We Didn't Start the Fire》将越南战争等一系列历史重大事件列了个遍，最后却唱到因为“可乐大战”（可口可乐与百事可乐的营销大战）而情绪崩溃（“I can't take it anymore”），特蕾西也顺便安利了自己最喜欢的卡拉 OK 保留曲目——讲述渔业衰落的《The Downeaster 'Alexa'》。 --- ### `05:00` 马德里马拉松与《Allentown》引发的本地争议 在西班牙马德里举行的彭博城市实验室峰会（Bloomberg CityLab Conference）现场，主持人正式引出了本期嘉宾——阿伦敦现任市长马特·图尔克（Matt Tuerk）。图尔克一落座便展示了自己刚拿到的完赛奖牌：他周六飞抵马德里后直奔马拉松博览会领取号码牌，24 小时后便踏上了全程 42 公里的马德里马拉松赛道。在战胜了炎热天气与连续起伏的陡坡后，他冲过终点线，随即马不停蹄地赶往彭博峰会的迎宾招待会。特蕾西对此由衷赞叹，称这是“对有氧运动与城市规划的双重奉献”。 谈及比利·乔尔那首以阿伦敦命名的代表作时，话题转向了当地人复杂而微妙的心态。特蕾西指出，历史上大规模炼钢产业其实更多位于邻近的贝斯莱赫姆（Bethlehem，又译伯利恒），质疑比利·乔尔是不是当年为了押韵而把半导体或卡车制造张冠李戴成了钢铁业。图尔克证实了这一说法，笑称：“他完全可以写马克卡车（Mack Trucks），或者写真丝纺织，但‘Bethlehem’确实不如‘Allentown’更容易跟‘shutting factories down’（工厂关门）押韵。” 图尔克分享了一则生动的轶事：他原本以为全美所有地方对这首歌的感受都差不多，直到他遇到了俄亥俄州托莱多市（Toledo）的市长。对方兴奋地对他说：“那是一首多棒的歌啊！写尽了劳动阶级的奋斗！”图尔克当时心里大呼不解：“你在说什么呢？我们整个利哈伊谷（Lehigh Valley）地区的人最怕听到的就是这首歌！”对于阿伦敦本地人而言，那首歌虽然或许精准定格了 1982 年萧条时期的社会切片，但在数十年后的今天，它与这座城市的现实早已相去甚远。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 阿伦敦工业演进简史 accDescr: 展现阿伦敦从 18 世纪建城到 20 世纪末去工业化与转型的产业演变路径。 subgraph Early ["早期奠基与轻工"] A["1762年建城 / 1867年建制"] B["兰开斯特烟草运入<br/>雪茄烟制造业兴盛"] C["丝绸纺织加工业蓬勃发展"] A --> B A --> C end subgraph Heavy ["重工与军工黄金期"] D["1915年前后：马克卡车从布鲁克林迁入"] E["二战军工：伏尔提轰炸机制造"] F["贝斯莱赫姆钢铁厂巅峰协同"] B & C --> D D --> E D --> F end subgraph Tech ["高科技与后期调整"] G["1950年代：西方电气率先量产晶体管"] H["1970-80年代：工厂外迁与重组<br/>(演化为博通 / 马克卡车迁往麦昆吉)"] I["1980年代：AEDC 盘活锯齿顶老厂房<br/>打造成轻型制造孵化器"] J["1998年：贝斯莱赫姆钢铁最后一次浇注"] E & F & G --> H H --> I H --> J end ``` --- ### `07:15` 阿伦敦的工业编年史：从雪茄、丝绸到芯片与重卡 为了理清阿伦敦究竟是如何从制造业重镇走入低谷再寻求转型的，市长图尔克系统梳理了城市的工业演变史。阿伦敦建于 1762 年，在美国独立战争期间曾作为藏匿独立钟（Liberty Bell）的避难所，随后在 1867 年美国内战后的重建时期正式设市，步入工业化快车道： - **早期轻工与纺织业**：起初，宾夕法尼亚州兰开斯特种植的烟草被顺水运至阿伦敦，催生了大规模的雪茄烟制造业；紧接着，外来蚕丝在此深加工，阿伦敦一跃成为重要的丝绸纺织加工中心。 - **重卡与航空制造**：大约在第一次世界大战期间（约 1915 年），著名的马克卡车公司（Mack Trucks）将制造基地从纽约布鲁克林整体搬迁至阿伦敦，开启了重型商用车辆的规模化生产。二战期间，阿伦敦更是军工核心，为军方大规模制造伏尔提（Vultee）轰炸机，并与邻近蓬勃发展的贝斯莱赫姆钢铁厂形成了紧密的重工业走廊。 - **微电子与晶体管的摇篮**：战后，西方电气（Western Electric）进驻阿伦敦，在此实现了早期晶体管的突破性量产。尽管该工厂在 20 世纪 70 年代关闭，但技术血脉被保留并不断演化（历经朗讯科技、Agere Systems 等，最终演变为今日的博通 Broadcom 等科技巨头）。时至今日，当地周边郊区仍保留着晶圆抛光和芯片生产线，该地区始终保留着半导体制造的“肌肉记忆”。 - **去工业化与空间改造**：战后军机停产，伏尔提工厂随之关闭；到了 20 世纪 80 年代，马克卡车也将大部分装配流水线搬到了郊外的麦昆吉（Macungie，至今仍在运作）。图尔克早年工作过的阿伦敦经济发展公司（Allentown Economic Development Corporation, AEDC）在此背景下介入，收购并重新利用了大量马克卡车的废弃老厂房。这些建于 20 世纪初的厂房多为带有锯齿形屋顶（Sawtooth roof）的建筑，层高仅在 12 到 18 英尺（约 3.6 至 5.5 米）之间。这种空间结构难以容纳现代化大型流水线，因此 AEDC 转变思路，将其开辟为专注于特定细分制造的“制造业企业孵化器”。 - **钢铁时代的终结**：伴随着全美传统重工业重组，1998 年贝斯莱赫姆钢铁厂完成最后一次浇注，宣告了利哈伊谷传统钢铁大生产时代的正式落幕。 ### `10:00` 里海谷的产业多元化与传统制造业底蕴 在全美许多地区还在为去工业化阵痛叹息之前，宾夕法尼亚州的里海谷（Lehigh Valley）实际上早在数十年前便开启了未雨绸缪的多元化布局。该地区的工业转型依托于西方电气（Western Electric）开创的早期半导体制造传统，同时借助里海大学（Lehigh University）持续输送的工程技术人才，率先将触角延伸至生命科学领域，生产医药前体与医疗器械，例如全球知名的医疗器材巨头贝朗（B. Braun）。此外，工业气体巨头空气化工（Air Products）也是当地的工业支柱之一。主持人风趣地提到他们最近刚做了一期关于氦气（Helium）的节目，马修·图尔克（Matthew Tuerk）市长则笑着回应，能遇上听过自己节目的听众实属难得，但他解释道，向普通人介绍当地工业产出时说“我们在制造一种化学元素”，往往会让人摸不着头脑，但这正是空气化工在阿伦敦落户以来的拿手绝活。 这种提前布局的深层动力，来自于当地政商领袖对贝斯莱姆钢铁（Bethlehem Steel）衰落的清醒预判。早在20世纪90年代初，地方领袖就预见到这家钢铁巨头终将走向黄昏（后被阿赛洛米塔尔的前身等企业收购整编）。阿伦敦与宾夕法尼亚州政府联手，积极推动科技经济发展政策以实现多元化转型。该战略最耀眼的成果之一发生在2006年，当时当地成功说服日本奥林巴斯（Olympus）将其北美总部迁至贝斯莱姆郊区，专门研发和生产手术与医疗设备。正是这种持续的努力，使得里海谷今天的制造业就业岗位占比依然维持在17%左右，不仅远高于美国多数地区，而且历经经济周期依然保持坚挺。 - **核心支柱企业**：西方电气（半导体先驱）、贝朗医疗（B. Braun，医疗耗材）、空气化工（Air Products，工业气体与氦气）、奥林巴斯（Olympus，2006年落户的外科手术器材巨头）。 - **学术与人才支撑**：里海大学（Lehigh University）源源不断输出高素质工程科技人才。 - **就业结构韧性**：全区制造业岗位占比至今稳定维持在约17%，远超全美平均水平。 --- ### `12:38` 危机中的破局：小户型制造与重力流厂房的改造构想 许多经历过去工业化的铁锈地带城市都宣称要重振制造业，但大多停留在零敲碎打地招商引资。而阿伦敦的不同之处在于，它从一开始就具备系统性的顶层设计。2008年全球金融危机爆发初期，图尔克加入了当地的经济发展公司（AEDC）。当时机构旗下运营着名为“布里奇沃克斯”（Bridgeworks）的制造业孵化器，然而讽刺的是，当时的孵化器正试图逃离制造业；全靠一栋容纳了T恤印染厂、工业阀门制造商和大篷帐篷制造商的老工业大楼租金，机构才得以勉强维系。在大萧条的阴影与焦虑之下，图尔克敏锐地意识到，里海谷原生的制造根基绝不能被轻易丢弃，反而是一张可以差异化破局的底牌。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Historic Gravity Flow Manufacturing Model accDescr: Diagram illustrating how historic multi-story industrial buildings processed materials from top to bottom floors. subgraph Flow["重力流（Gravity Flow）立体制造模式"] A["顶层：原料吊装输入与初步加工"] B["中间楼层：逐步装配与组装（产品重量持续增加）"] C["底层：最终表面处理、质检与仓储出货"] A --> B B --> C end ``` 图尔克与当时的执行董事合作，针对城市存量资产展开了重新定位。阿伦敦城区拥有大量面积在10万平方英尺以下的小型工业建筑，不少是多层结构。这种老厂房在历史上采用经典的“重力流”（gravity flow）生产线——原材料从顶层吊入，随着加工装配重量不断增加，产品逐层下移，最终在首层完成组装喷涂并直接装车运输。图尔克认为，尽管这些老厂房无法满足现代占地数百万平方英尺的巨型工厂，却非常契合新一代“精品型”（boutique）小微制造企业的需求。他回忆道，大约在2009或2010年，他在《华尔街日报》上读到一篇关于旧金山本土箱包品牌的报道，该品牌以“旧金山制造”为荣，这让他深受启发，随即主动联系对方取经。 - **Bridgeworks 孵化器**：阿伦敦早期保留的工业孵化空间，曾靠工业阀门、服装和大型帐篷制造商维持运转。 - **空间再利用逻辑**：盘活面积小于10万平方英尺的多层存量老厂房，避免与市郊低密度大厂房打同质化竞争。 - **重力流立体厂房价值**：利用旧工业时代的垂直重力流动布局，赋能高附加值、轻量化或精品定制类的现代化小型工坊。 --- ### `14:48` 城市制造联盟与被遗忘的创客浪潮 在2010年前后，创客空间（Makerspaces）与3D打印技术正值萌芽期，小型化、模块化的分散制造展现出惊人潜力。阿伦敦紧跟这股技术浪潮，联合旧金山、纽约普瑞特艺术学院（Pratt Institute）、费城工业发展公司（PIDC）以及底特律等有着深厚工业印记的城市和机构，共同发起了“城市制造联盟”（Urban Manufacturing Alliance，UMA）。各大城市定期研讨如何重塑都市型制造业，并在彼时就早早开启了关于“回流”（reshoring/onshoring）的探讨，尽管在当时离岸外包如日中天的背景下，回流听上去还显得有些遥不可及。 主持人感叹，这一段创客与3D打印的小型制造探索在今天几乎被公众遗忘了。回顾整个2010年代，人们谈论经济增长几乎言必称互联网、软件与硅谷科技风投；而到了后疫情时代，讨论又迅速切换成了供应链重组的大规模国家级制造业回流，中间这轮草根创客运动仿佛成了“被遗忘的过渡章节”。图尔克对此深表认同，但他强调，正是这种前沿探索为阿伦敦打下了扎实的基础。2014年，阿伦敦聘请专业团队对整座城市的工业建筑存量进行了全面盘点与评估，制定了系统的“再工业化战略”（Reindustrialization Strategy）。随后转入区域级经济发展机构工作的图尔克发现，市场对进驻里海谷以及利用此类中小户型工业空间的需求不仅真实存在，而且咨询合作的客商络绎不绝。 - **城市制造联盟（UMA）**：由阿伦敦携手旧金山、底特律、费城PIDC和纽约普瑞特艺术学院等机构组建的跨城市协作网络。 - **被忽略的技术周期**：2010年代初以创客空间与3D打印为先锋的分布式微型制造浪潮，虽被后来的软件繁荣掩盖，却为地方培育了制造敏捷性。 - **2014年再工业化战略**：阿伦敦首度全面摸排辖区内所有工业建筑存量与供需画像，明确了主打紧凑型、高技术密度制造业的市场定位。 ### `20:00` 地理区位、“增重型产业”与制造业的集聚效应 在阿伦敦（Allentown）和里海谷（Lehigh Valley）推进再工业化策略时，面临的一个现实矛盾是空间错配。当时由于电子商务的兴起，整个里海谷的经济重心正迅速向交通运输与仓储物流倾斜，市场上铺天盖地兴建的都是占地达百万平方英尺、层高在 24 到 36 英尺（约 7.3 至 11 米）之间的巨型物流仓库。然而，经济发展部门同时收到了大量来自小型制造企业的强烈进驻意向——尤其是来自纽约布鲁克林等租金昂贵、空间受限地区的小厂，他们急需 4 万到 8 万平方英尺的中小型厂房，希望在这里舒展身手并获取技能型产业人才。但当地当时缺乏适合这类规模的建筑空间。因此，阿伦敦再工业化战略的关键一步，便是重新调整建成环境以匹配这一需求，其中核心举措就是将现有的旧工业厂房重新改造修复并保留其工业属性，而不是彻底拆除或转作他用。 阿伦敦之所以具备不可替代的产业吸引力，很大程度上源于其得天独厚的区位优势：该地区位于全美近 40% 人口的一日车程范围内，覆盖超过一亿居民。这一地理位置不仅让阿伦敦成为电商仓储的黄金枢纽，更使其成为发展“增重型产业”（weight-gaining industries）的绝佳温床。所谓“增重型产业”，本质上是指“原材料运来后需要大量加水”的生产形态。由于水极为沉重，把大量水运输到很远的地方完全不符合物流经济学。例如，里海谷区域经济发展公司成功招引了优鲜沛（Ocean Spray），将其大部分蔓越莓汁放在里海谷生产——蔓越莓浓缩原浆运抵工厂后兑入大量水制成成品，随后直接就近分销至纽约大都市圈及周边广大市场。波士顿啤酒旗下的萨缪尔·亚当斯（Sam Adams）啤酒、Keurig Dr Pepper 饮料等大型食品饮料制造厂也基于同样的逻辑在此扎根。 这种产业集聚进一步催生了上下游供应链的创新扩散，完美契合了经济学家 Ricardo Hausmann 的产业邻近度与知识跨界理论（即“像猴子在相邻的树枝间跳跃”一样延伸产业链）。随着食品饮料加工和电商物流在此集聚，包装与制瓶工业应运而生。阿伦敦近期的代表性招商案例便是引进了 Schless Bottles 制瓶公司：该企业选择紧挨着饮料生产端设厂，在阿伦敦本地吹制瓶子，直接送往相邻工厂灌装饮品，再整箱运往纽约市场。对话中主持人与市长还幽默地打趣，称他们在马德里参加 CityLab 峰会大吃大喝也是在进行个人的“增重型产业”（“weight-gaining industry”），调侃应该去跑个马拉松来消耗掉热量。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 增重型产业与本地供应链集聚逻辑 accDescr: 展示了从原材料输入到增重制造、配套包装再到最终消费市场的完整流动过程。 subgraph Input["原材料输入"] A["高价值浓缩原浆 / 麦芽配料"] end subgraph WeightGaining["增重型制造（加水）"] B["饮品灌装与酿造<br/>(Ocean Spray, Sam Adams, Dr Pepper)"] end subgraph Packaging["上下游配套产业"] C["本地包装与制瓶工业<br/>(Schless Bottles)"] end subgraph Market["区域分销优势"] D["1 日车程覆盖全美 40% 人口<br/>(邻近纽约大都会圈)"] end A --> B C --> B B --> D ``` - **核心地理辐射**：阿伦敦处于全美 40% 以上人口的单日卡车车程内，辐射人口远超 1 亿人。 - **代表性落户企业**： - **Ocean Spray**：里海谷厂区生产其大部分蔓越莓汁产品。 - **Sam Adams（波士顿啤酒）**：在该地区酿造其主力啤酒产品。 - **Keurig Dr Pepper**：设立了大型现代化饮料生产基地。 - **Schless Bottles**：就地设立塑料瓶制造厂，向本地饮料灌装产线直接供货。 --- ### `25:00` 供应链去风险、轻工业分区改革与重塑城市街区活力 针对全球制造业曾大规模流向中国等海外低成本地区的历史背景，马修·特克（Matthew Tuerk）指出，早在 2010 年代初制定回流与在地化策略时，决策者并未预料到后来的全球疫情危机，当时的出发点主要是两项朴素的逻辑：一是“生产地点贴近终端消费者”的物流效益，二是警惕在海外可能发生的知识产权（IP）被盗窃风险——把最核心的技术资源白白拱手让人并不明智。随后 COVID-19 疫情引发的全球断链，将供应链安全的问题赤裸裸地暴露在所有人面前，让本土制造的紧迫性成为普遍共识。 对于城市而言，最适合布局并保持持久竞争力的制造业并非像 Lordstown 或福特 River Rouge 工厂那样需要数百万平方英尺的巨型整车组装厂，而是高价值、技术密集型的“关键零部件制造”（components manufacturing）。例如，阿伦敦曾生产晶体管，如今有为马克卡车（Mack Trucks）制造车轴的 Westport Axle 公司，以及一家土耳其塑料袋包装工厂。零部件制造的形态更加紧凑，可以容纳在 4 万平方英尺左右的厂房内，甚至能够以“匠人制造”（craft manufacturing）的形式嵌入商住混合建筑的一层。过去人们对工厂的印象停留在 20 世纪初烟囱密布、浓烟锁城的匹兹堡，或是像 2017 年天津那样雾霾笼罩看不清桥梁的重工业时代，但现代高端轻制造已经做到了清洁、静音和高科技，完全可以安全、和谐地重返城市腹地。 围绕城市规划（Zoning），主持人笑称玩《模拟城市》（SimCity）最深刻的经验就是“工业区一旦划在住宅区旁边，市民满意度就会暴跌”。特克市长解释，阿伦敦在 2026 年初刚刚通过了重大的分区法典与分区地图改革，全面推行了“基于形态的编码”（Form-based code）——其监管核心不再僵化地限制建筑物内部做什么，而是重点规范建筑的外观尺度、街区界面与外部形态。在保证环境安全的前提下，城市并不需要让重污染的橡胶轮胎厂进驻市区，而是敞开大门接纳精酿啤酒、个性化小批量服装剪裁等干净的高附加值制造。 特克回顾了自己在城市制造业联盟（Urban Manufacturing Alliance）任职时的观察：当今年轻人对投身制造业兴趣寥寥，根源在于生产空间与生活空间的过度割裂。1923 年马克卡车迁入阿伦敦时，厂区就建在工人住宅区隔壁，工人每天步行上下班。街边玩呼啦圈的孩子们从小看着父辈拎着午餐盒昂首阔步走向卡车厂或丝绸纺织厂，能直观感受到劳动者的尊严与制造业的脉搏。而当过去几十年把所有工厂一刀切迁入郊区工业园、所有人只能开车进出封闭厂区时，制造业在下一代的日常视野中彻底消失了，重塑邻里型制造业正是找回这一认同感的重要途径。 - **建筑与形态对比**：整车组装需要像 River Rouge 那样的巨幅地块，而零部件与轻工制造仅需 40,000 平方英尺甚至更小的建筑空间，非常适合城市内部布局。 - **分区改革节点**：阿伦敦在 2026 年初通过了分区法典（Zoning code）和分区地图改革，转向更具弹性的“基于形态的规划”（Form-based code），允许轻工业按特定规范在居住与混合社区中合法落地。 - **历史坐标**：Mack Trucks 于 1923 年迁至阿伦敦，开创了工厂紧邻工人社区、职工步行上下班的紧密型产城融合模式。 ### `30:00` 让制造业回归日常生活与《模拟城市》的谬误 当制造业从日常视野中彻底消失时，公众往往再也体会不到实体制造工作的尊严，年轻一代也随之丧失对技术工种的兴趣。图尔克（Matthew Tuerk）市长指出，过去即便教育界尝试引入 3D 打印等创客项目试图唤起青少年的热情，但如果生产本身脱离了城市社区与日常生活，这种隔阂就难以弥合。唯有将制造业重新嵌回城市生活的肌理，才有机会重塑大众对实体制造类职业的向往。 主持人随即引发了一段幽默的调侃：或许播客应该专门做一期节目，探讨电子游戏《模拟城市》（SimCity）是如何“误导并毁掉现代城市规划”的。在游戏设定的影响下，几代人都下意识地认为工厂就必须全部推到偏远的远郊（exurbs），导致工人和生产过程被完全隔绝在市民视野之外。图尔克市长深有共鸣地大笑附和，直言任何玩过《模拟城市》的人，在真正坐上市长办公桌的那一刻，都会当场醒悟：“我的天哪，这游戏教的全是彻头彻尾的胡话（total BS）。” --- ### `31:18` 联邦产业政策回归与市长上任初期的能力重塑 新冠疫情之后，出于供应链韧性与国家安全考量，美国迎来了重燃制造业热潮的拐点，相继出台了《芯片与科学法案》（CHIPS and Science Act）以及《通胀削减法案》（IRA）。对一线经济发展从业者而言，这意味着传统上被美国长期淡化的“国家产业政策”宣告强势回归。联邦政府明确展现出推动本土生产制造的导向，发出了“重新把东西造出来”的清晰信号。 然而，地方将宏大愿景落地的过程充满了现实挑战。图尔克市长在 2022 年宣誓就职时，手中带着一整套竞选承诺，但坐进市长办公室后迅速发现，城市面临的紧急挑战完全是另一副图景：市政团队存在大量认知盲区、部分合作伙伴关系破裂亟待修复，且政府内部已严重丧失创新和突破的机制与能力。转机出现在他入选“彭博-哈佛城市领导力倡议”（Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative）项目之后，该项目为市政管理能力的重建注入了关键资源。 作为一名自行车和跑步运动爱好者，图尔克首先将抓手放在了迫在眉睫的道路安全问题上。借助彭博与合作伙伴设立的“地方基础设施中心”（Local Infrastructure Hub），市政团队学会了如何运用数据分析去争取联邦资金，并探索全新的公私合作模式。市长甚至曾当面向交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格（Pete Buttigieg）直接陈情争取支持，最终成功为阿伦敦斩获了联邦“人人安全街道”（Safe Streets for All）规划赠款。这次成功的申报经历，系统性地重塑了阿伦敦市政团队争取联邦大型资金的实操能力。 --- ### `33:38` 锁定 EDA 竞赛与解决“壮年人口就业鸿沟” 在掌握了联邦资助的申报密码后，阿伦敦迅速迎来了更大的机遇。2023 年 6 月，美国经济发展局（EDA）宣布启动“重返竞争试点项目”（Recompete Pilot Program），专门扶持那些存在严重“壮年人口就业鸿沟”（prime-age employment gap，即 25 至 54 岁黄金年龄段人口失业或脱离劳动队伍比例显著偏高）的地区。数据显示，阿伦敦全市的壮年人口就业缺口约为 6%，但在深入挖掘具体社区微观数据后，团队发现某个约有 2.3 万居民的特定社区，该项缺口竟高达 12%。 通过与里海谷经济发展公司（Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation）深度合作，团队发现当地制造业和医疗行业存在极其旺盛的用工需求，但阻碍低收入居民获得这些优质岗位的核心堵点在于配套基础设施匮乏：一是缺少灵活可负担的托儿幼教服务（childcare）；二是交通障碍，如果优质工厂全部迁往郊区且居民没有私家车，日常通勤便成了天堑。为此，阿伦敦在申报方案中提出将工业生产重新引入市区核心地带，打破交通与照料屏障。该方案于 2023 年 12 月顺利拿下战略开发赠款，并在随后成功锁定了高达 2000 万美元的项目落地实施资金。 在被主持人问及这些联邦拨款是否已全额落袋时，市长给出了肯定的回答。面对 2024 年 11 月 5 日大选后的政局潜在变化，市政团队提前开启了全速冲刺模式，确保所有关键资金不会面临被撤回或流失的风险。市长坦言，由于里海谷地区具有极高的政治敏感度，且这些拨款依托于两党支持的法案，针对城市的道路改善、植树绿化（曾专门致信农业部秘书长争取城市林业资金）及创造蓝领就业等项目，本身就属于高度务实、利国利民的非党派议题，应当被稳定持续推进。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 阿伦敦市解决壮年人口就业鸿沟与再工业化路径 accDescr: 流程图展示了阿伦敦市如何识别就业障碍并通过EDA资助建立市区工厂、托育与交通配套体系。 subgraph Problem ["核心痛点识别"] GAP["特定社区壮年就业鸿沟达 12%<br>（约 2.3 万人脱离劳动力市场）"] BAR1["缺乏灵活可负担的托育服务"] BAR2["缺乏私家车与郊区通勤交通工具"] GAP --> BAR1 GAP --> BAR2 end subgraph Solution ["政策与资金支持（EDA Recompete）"] GRANT["成功申请 EDA 2000万美元落地资金<br>（联合里海谷经济发展公司）"] ACT1["在城市内部设立新型工业与制造基地"] ACT2["配套可达性强的公共交通与社区服务"] BAR1 & BAR2 --> GRANT GRANT --> ACT1 GRANT --> ACT2 end subgraph Outcome ["最终产出与目标"] OUT["制造业与医疗岗位实现本地对接<br>居民无需私家车即可享有高薪体面就业"] ACT1 & ACT2 --> OUT end ``` - **壮年就业鸿沟数据**：全美关注指标聚焦 25 至 54 岁人口；阿伦敦市整体缺口为 6%，但重点攻坚社区的缺口高达 12%，涉及约 2.3 万脱离劳动力市场的居民。 - **EDA 拨款规模**：阿伦敦于 2023 年 12 月获得前期规划赠款，随后成功斩获 2000 万美元的正式实施投资，全部源自《芯片与科学法案》项下的 EDA 试点授权。 - **市政应急风控**：在 2024 年 11 月 5 日大选节点前后，阿伦敦团队迅速进入战备状态，加急锁定并固化已获批准的各项联邦基础设施与产业转型资金。 --- ### `36:28` 商业赞助插播 访谈在此处切入播客赞助内容，依次呈现了三家商业品牌的合作推广： - **4imprint**：宣传其在企业定制促销礼品、团队服装与高档饮水用具方面的全面解决方案，强调无起版费选项、快节奏交付和 360 度质保承诺。 - **Public.com**：介绍其平台新推出的 AI 自动化投资代理工具。投资者可用自然语言下达逻辑指令（如“当恐慌指数 VIX 达到 25 时买入标普 500 看跌期权”或“现金余额超标时自动划入直接指数化投资”），并提供 Public API 账户完全读写权限。 - **Optum**：介绍该健康医疗公司如何通过打通患者护理、药房服务与底层医疗数据科技，简化复杂的就医流程并提升护理人员匹配效率。 ### `40:00` 华盛顿产业政策与地方落地的张力：跨党派合作与制造业投资 在谈及联邦层面的产业政策时，主持人指出华盛顿特区（无论是特朗普政府还是拜登政府）的设计构想，与地方市长在实际落地和支配资金时的诉求之间存在明显的脱节。阿伦敦（Allentown）市长马修·图尔克（Matthew Tuerk）坦言这种紧张关系确实存在。他认为联邦政府能做的最核心的事情，是兜底最基础的民生需求——让民众不必为医保、一日三餐等生计问题焦虑，从而能够专注于融入“美国梦”、感受劳动的尊严（dignity of work），联邦政客应当少在这些基本保障上搞削减。 此外，图尔克强调了移民作为经济引擎的重要性。许多城市并未充分认识到这一点，但要让美国城市持续具备吸引投资的能力，就必须源源不断地吸引新人口、新思想以及智力资本（intellectual capital），让大家安心在城市里制造产品、研发新技术。 在地方政治生态中，市长往往呈现出极强的跨党派合作姿态（bipartisan）。图尔克提到，虽然自己是民主党人，而宾夕法尼亚州联邦参议员戴夫·麦考密克（Dave McCormick）是共和党人，但他非常赞赏麦考密克对提升竞争力以及为宾州吸引制造业的专注投入。麦考密克在制造业落地上表现得相当务实，无论是落地在郊区还是市区，只要能让宾州保持竞争力即可。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 区域产业协同与地方经济辐射 accDescr: 展示以礼来制药投资与国防工业为代表的外部大项目如何与阿伦敦市区的劳动力及供应链形成联动对接。 subgraph RegionalInvestments["区域重大制造业投资"] A["Eli Lilly (礼来制药)<br>35亿美元 GLP-1 生产基地 (郊区)"] B["宾州国防制造体系<br>(Mack Defense / 弹药与重型军卡)"] end subgraph CityGoals["阿伦敦市 (Allentown) 核心对接目标"] C["劳动力红利传导<br>确保市区居民获得850个新增高薪岗位"] D["本地供应链嵌合<br>承接上游耗材与配套制造能力"] E["重塑国防制造荣耀<br>延续二战造船/轰炸机/军卡传统"] end A --> C A --> D B --> E ``` - **礼来制药（Eli Lilly）巨额投资**：礼来宣布在阿伦敦市郊投资 35 亿美元建设用于生产 GLP-1 药物的制造基地，预计创造约 850 个就业岗位。图尔克的目标是确保阿伦敦市区居民能够真正获取这些工作机会，并全力争取让相关供应链环节落户市内。 - **国防制造业潜力**：宾州州长乔希·夏皮罗（Josh Shapiro）推出了积极的经济发展战略。图尔克与布鲁金斯学会前学者布鲁斯·卡茨（Bruce Katz）探讨认为，鉴于国际局势（如伊朗局势），军需弹药及装备需求旺盛，宾州完全有条件重塑为国防制造业核心。 - **制造业传统沿革**：阿伦敦拥有深厚的军工传统，从二战时期伯利恒钢铁（Bethlehem Steel）造船、伏尔提（Vultee）生产轰炸机，到如今坐落于阿伦敦的马克防务（Mack Defense）为美军打造重型军用卡车，都是城市引以为傲的工业基因。 --- ### `45:00` 摇摆州的聚光灯与制造业的“浪漫主义”诉求 作为关键摇摆州（swing state）的城市，宾州在历次全国大选中都成为兵家必争之地。主持人打趣道，相比佛罗里达等州的市长，宾州的政客仿佛享受着全美选举机器的百般讨好。图尔克笑称这确实带来极高的关注度，甚至让他接待过来自世界各地的外国媒体团——记者们总喜欢扎堆跑去宾夕法尼亚的传统小餐馆（diner）采访选民。但图尔克直言，狂欢过后，市长工作的本质依然极度纯粹而务实：解决本地居民最切身的现实诉求。 随后，对话切入当下制造业复兴背后的深层矛盾：公众对制造业的狂热源于就业机会与国家安全（减少对外部供应链的依赖），但现代先进制造业高度依赖机器人与自动化技术，其单位资本所吸纳的劳动力已大不如前。面对这种“制造业浪漫想象”与“低劳动力密度现实”之间的脱节，图尔克坦承，站在市长角度，自己内心其实偏向“浪漫主义”，始终憧憬一个人人能够亲手劳作（"putting their hands on stuff"）的世界。 ```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: 劳动力密集度与社会价值取向的对比 accDescr: 对比资本极致追求的无人化低人力商业模式与城市发展追求的劳动尊严模式。 subgraph CapitalEfficiency["资本效率至上取向 (PE 逻辑)"] direction TB X1["户外广告牌 (Billboard)"] --> X2["投币洗衣房 (Coin Laundromat)"] X2 --> X3["自助仓储 (Self-storage)<br>极低人工成本 / 榨干最后一分钱"] end subgraph CityDignity["城市与社会价值取向 (市长视角)"] direction TB Y1["有体温的实体制造"] --> Y2["抵御算法与全自动化的手工偏好"] Y2 --> Y3["创造工作机会与维系劳动尊严 (Dignity of Work)"] end ``` - **一线民意对全面自动化的抵触**：图尔克指出，市长往往能最先感知到基层的微妙社会情绪变化（"vibes"）。阿伦敦及其他城市正涌现出一股强烈的“手作情结”以及对纯机器人、AI（无论是艺术生成还是工业制品）的反弹，消费者层面依然对人类亲手制作的产品怀有情感认同。 - **劳工尊严与资本效率的博弈**：图尔克分享了自己研究生毕业后在巴拿马从事广告牌（billboard）行业的经历。曾有一位私募股权（PE）投资人兴奋地对他说：“广告牌太棒了，唯一比广告牌更好的生意就是投币洗衣房（coin laundromat）！”因为这类生意几乎不需要雇人，甚至走向全无人化的自助仓储（self-storage）。图尔克坚决反对这种在城市中过度蔓延的极端低就业模式，强调城市管理者必须是就业岗位的创造者，即便自动化能“榨出每一分钱的利润”，社会与城市依然需要让普通人依靠双手工作来维系社会的健康与尊严。 - **数据中心（Data Centers）引发的政治拉锯**：当被问及对数据中心的看法时——其特点正是占地巨大、消耗海量能源却创造极少长期岗位——图尔克表示自己对此既有深入周密的思考，也有直观的研判。如今数据中心已演变成一个高度敏感的政治议题，引来了跨党派的激烈交锋与立法层面的规制博弈。 ### `50:00` 数据中心与区划防线：市长们真正焦虑的公用电费危机 阿伦敦在更新区划条例后，紧接着就对涉及数据中心的内容进行了修订。市长 Matthew Tuerk 坦言，像阿伦敦乃至全美绝大多数成熟城市，核心现实就是根本没有充裕的土地容纳超大规模数据中心（hyperscaler）。除非像某些极端设想那样成片买下民宅并全部强拆，否则超大数据中心根本进不来。这种动辄占地上百英亩的项目可能属于菲尼克斯（Phoenix）那种广袤的沙漠边缘，绝非阿伦敦的现实。然而，市政府依然在区划法中设立了极其严苛的先决条件，目的就是防患于未然，避免市政陷入法律被动——在地方治理中，最糟糕的莫过于某种不受居民欢迎的产业突然落地，而因为区划原本合法，市政当局却束手无策。 为了确保城市在法律层面“对数据中心具备免疫力”（data center proofed），阿伦敦目前建立了一套严格的审查机制：任何拟建的数据中心项目，不仅要论证公路通行和工业用水需求，更必须证明其电力供应来源及其系统合规性。主持人指出，技术的微型化正在发生，有些小团队在纽约用民用电网接入小规模运行英伟达（NVIDIA）芯片进行训练，未来数据中心的物理足迹在某些垂直领域可能会大幅缩小甚至搬进市中心。但 Tuerk 市长指出，如今全美市长对数据中心的真正警惕，往往不是出于土地短缺或带不来就业岗位，而是最直接的民生痛点——居民公共电费账单（utility bills）的暴涨。在食品价格居高不下、油价高企、住房成本不断攀升的通胀背景下，数据中心吸干电力负荷并推高电费，直接触碰了选民的生活底线。 市长坦承自己对人工智能一直持怀疑态度，但近期与约翰斯·霍普金斯大学（Johns Hopkins）学者的交流让他有了新的思考。学者提醒他不要过度悲观：AI 虽然可能会减少部分人与人之间的直接面对面交互，但它能大幅赋能市政雇员，让政府更高效地去服务市民。同时，关于数据中心的短期恐慌或许存在一定程度的误读与过度放大。不过作为地方行政长官，只要有政治资本和资本炒作卷入其中，保持审慎与怀疑永远是必要的。 - 空间限制：阿伦敦市中心及周边缺乏未开发净地，超大规模数据中心若不拆除既有民宅社区根本无法进驻。 - 区划前置审查：要求任何申报的数据中心必须披露能耗来源、电网负荷承载力、用水量以及对城市基础设施的影响。 - 政治核心痛点：市长们对数据中心的担忧主要源于公用电费激增，与家庭生活开支紧缩产生直接政治冲突。 --- ### `53:30` Yocco's 热狗风波：人口结构演变与阿伦敦的在地文化 谈话转向了阿伦敦在搜索引擎上颇具知名度的本地文化争议——百年老字号热狗店 Yocco's。在宾夕法尼亚州的里海谷（Lehigh Valley），热狗有着近乎宗教般的地域阵营划分：阿伦敦居民只效忠于本地的 Yocco's，而邻城伯利恒（Bethlehem）的居民则酷爱 Potts 热狗。Tuerk 市长开玩笑地表示，虽然他很爱伯利恒的邻居们，但他绝对一口都不会去吃 Potts。在 Yocco's 点餐有一套不成文的本地规矩，一旦露怯就会暴露外地人身份，正统的搭配是点两根加上全套特制辣肉酱配料的热狗（"two dogs with everything"），再配上一盒冰巧克力牛奶，也有人喜欢加一份波兰饺子（pierogies）。 这一充满市井烟火气的热狗店在几年前曾掀起一场严肃的公共舆论风波。当时经营该家族产业的 Gary Iacocca 公开抱怨，位于阿伦敦市中心第 7 街的老店难以继续维持，并将原因归咎于阿伦敦的人口结构变化（demographic changes）。这一言论迅速引发了舆论哗然。作为阿伦敦历史上首位拉丁裔市长，Tuerk 曾就此与对方展开过激烈的公开交锋与争论。市长直言，这就是为什么比利·乔尔（Billy Joel）那首著名的《Allentown》在如今看来早已脱节：1982 年歌曲发行时，阿伦敦的人口高度同质化，绝大多数都是欧洲白人后裔；而今天，阿伦敦超过 55% 的居民是拉丁裔。声称老店因人口变化而无法开下去，在市长看来无异于对如今充满活力的新阿伦敦的否定。 尽管两人经历过理念碰撞，但市长表示他们如今已经冰释前嫌成了好友，老店门前那座标志性的大热狗雕像虽然经历了几度搬迁，也依旧是城市的独特风景。主持人调侃道，点热狗的文化规矩就像当年总统候选人约翰·克里（John Kerry）在费城买奶酪牛肉三明治（cheesesteak）时错点了瑞士奶酪引发政治公关灾难一样，地方特色餐饮暗藏着政治雷区。甚至在里海谷，连奶酪牛排都有自己的特制版本，与费城正统流派截然不同，而这种对特定点单方式与特定香肠风味的固执偏好，恰恰构成了美国丰富而鲜活的地方文化拼图。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 阿伦敦人口演进与本地热狗争议 accDescr: 展示从1980年代同质化白人工业小城到如今55%拉丁裔多元都市的变迁，以及由此引发的Yocco's热狗店文化冲突与和解过程。 subgraph Historical["历史背景与文化符号"] A["1982年 Billy Joel《Allentown》<br>单一白人/欧洲后裔工业城市"] B["本土饮食阵营：Yocco's 热狗<br>规矩：全套配料 + 巧克力牛奶"] end subgraph Transformation["城市结构巨变"] C["去工业化与人口重组<br>2020年代：拉丁裔占比突破 55%"] D["首位拉丁裔市长 Matthew Tuerk 上任"] end subgraph ConflictResolution["文化碰撞与共融"] E["店主言论引发风波：<br>抱怨市中心老店因人口变化难以为继"] F["市长反驳与理念交锋：<br>捍卫新阿伦敦的多元城市认同"] G["化解分歧达成和解：<br>保留传统美食，拥抱多元包容"] end A --> C B --> E C --> D D --> F E --> F F --> G ``` - 人口结构转变：从 1980 年代典型的宾州白人劳工阶层聚居区，转变为如今拉丁裔人口占比超过 55% 的年轻化多元城市。 - 点餐在地法则：标准组合为两根配辣酱洋葱的全套热狗加上盒装巧克力牛奶，点错会被视作外行甚至引发政治笑话。 - 最终走向和解：文化摩擦在经过公开讨论后并未演变成持久仇恨，传统标志性热狗品牌与现代多元城市文化最终达成了共存。 --- ### `57:15` 赛后复盘：增重型制造、创客浪潮与现代混合区划的启示 市长离席后，节目主持人 Tracy Allaway 和 Joe Weisenthal 对整场访谈进行了深入复盘。两人首先追溯了 2010 年代初在全球金融危机后兴起的“美国制造”手工艺与创客文化（craft manufacturing）。那个时代伴随着 MakerBot 消费级 3D 打印机的风靡和创客嘉年华（Maker Faire）的狂欢，资本市场上 3D 打印概念股也一度暴涨。尽管那波过度神话桌面制造的浪潮随后迅速幻灭并被主流遗忘，但它所孕育出的极客动手能力、非标准化生产尝试，以及对传统工业流水线的反思，为今天的先进制造埋下了种子。 两名主持人重点讨论了本期节目中令人大开眼界的工业概念——“增重型制造业”（weight-gaining industries）。这种产业的物理逻辑非常严密：如果生产过程中某种工序会大幅增加成品的重量或体积（最典型的就是添加水、液体稀释或重型包装），企业在物流上就绝不能把工厂设在远离市场的原料端，而必须把厂址精准布局在直面消费终端的“最后一公里”（last mile）节点上。阿伦敦之所以能够在这类制造业中脱颖而出，核心就在于其无可比拟的地理位置——从这里出发，一天的卡车车程可以覆盖美国近 40% 的人口（近 1 亿消费者），这使得啤酒饮料、日用化学品等增重型轻工业与电商分拨中心在此天然集聚。 最后，主持人们高度评价了现代城市混合区划（mixed zoning）的颠覆性价值。传统城市区划之所以将工业区与居民区严格物理隔离，是因为一二十年前甚至更早的重工业普遍伴随着黑烟、刺鼻气味和巨大噪音。然而在电气化、自动化和绿色高科技主导的当下，现代轻型制造业已经完全能够做到洁净、无害且安静。城市必须及时修正陈旧僵化的区划法案，允许高科技厂房与住宅公寓、零售街区有机共存。这种混合功能规划打破了漫长的通勤苦旅，让工人们能够真正实现提着午餐盒步行或骑自行车上下班，描绘了一幅重新回归人性尺度的后工业时代城市图景。 - 增重制造逻辑：原料轻、成品重（如加水产品），工厂必须靠近高密度消费中心以最小化长途重载运输成本。 - 区位交通辐射力：阿伦敦地处美国东北走廊咽喉，单日卡车货运半径辐射近 1 亿人口。 - 混合区划再思考：现代制造业的环境足迹已大幅降低，工业区与居住区从过去的“强制隔离”转向“产城融合”，使步行或骑行通勤成为可能。 ## Notable quotes > `05:00` Bethlehem 确实不如 Allentown 更容易跟 shutting factories down 押韵。 — Matt Tuerk > `05:00` 那是一首多棒的歌啊！写尽了劳动阶级的奋斗！ — 托莱多市长 > `05:00` 你在说什么呢？我们整个利哈伊谷地区的人最怕听到的就是这首歌！ — Matt Tuerk > `10:00` 我们在制造一种化学元素。 — Matt Tuerk > `25:00` 工业区一旦划在住宅区旁边，市民满意度就会暴跌。 — Joe Weisenthal > `30:00` 我的天哪，这游戏教的全是彻头彻尾的胡话（total BS）。 — Matt Tuerk > `45:00` 广告牌太棒了，唯一比广告牌更好的生意就是投币洗衣房！ — PE投资人 > `53:30` two dogs with everything — Matt Tuerk ## Mentioned Tracy Alloway, Joe Weisenthal, Matt Tuerk, Billy Joel, Allentown (歌曲), We Didn't Start the Fire, The Downeaster 'Alexa', The Simpsons, Bloomberg CityLab, Mack Trucks, Western Electric, Vultee, Bethlehem Steel, Broadcom, Agere Systems, Allentown Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), B. Braun, Air Products, Lehigh University, Olympus, Bridgeworks, Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA), Pratt Institute, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Ocean Spray, Sam Adams, Keurig Dr Pepper, Schless Bottles, Ricardo Hausmann, Westport Axle, SimCity, CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Pete Buttigieg, Economic Development Administration (EDA), Recompete Pilot Program, Dave McCormick, Eli Lilly, Josh Shapiro, Bruce Katz, Mack Defense, NVIDIA, Johns Hopkins University, Yocco's, Potts Dogs, Gary Iacocca, John Kerry, MakerBot ## Video description <p>The residents of Allentown are still sore about that Billy Joel song. While it's true the Pennsylvania city became synonymous with deindustrialization after the US steel industry began its decline in the 1970s, Allentown should be known for more: In the 1950s, for instance, some of the first mass-produced transistors were made in the city, which were the precursor of today's semiconductors. The city is also a unique logistics and e-commerce hub &mdash; it's a day's drive from nearly 40 percent of the US population. Mayor Matthew Tuerk, who has held office since 2022, has made reindustrialization a focus of his mayorship. In today's episode, recorded in Madrid at the Bloomberg CityLab conference, we speak to Mayor Tuerk about the city's grand strategy for building back and sustaining its manufacturing base, implementing industrial policy on a local level, how rezoning has changed in the last decade, the political puzzle of data centers, recruiting companies to come to Allentown, de-risking the American supply chain, and our favorite new category of industry &mdash; weight-gaining industries &mdash; which Allentown specializes in.</p> <p data-renderer-start-pos="1232">Read more:<br><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-04/new-brookfield-venture-may-restart-abandoned-us-nuclear-project?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">New Brookfield Venture May Restart Abandoned US Nuclear Project</a><br><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-proto-town-texas/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">Texas Ranch Lures Futuristic Startups to Revive US Manufacturing</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p> [Source](https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/8a94442e-5a74-4fa2-8b8d-ae27003a8d6b/e2537d51-1bd2-449b-b065-b442010d29aa/audio.mp3?in_playlist=982f5071-765c-403d-969d-ae27003a8d83)

[5:00] Matt Tuerk: Bethlehem 确实不如 Allentown 更容易跟 shutting factories down 押韵。 [5:00] 托莱多市长: 那是一首多棒的歌啊！写尽了劳动阶级的奋斗！ [5:00] Matt Tuerk: 你在说什么呢？我们整个利哈伊谷地区的人最怕听到的就是这首歌！ [10:00] Matt Tuerk: 我们在制造一种化学元素。 [25:00] Joe Weisenthal: 工业区一旦划在住宅区旁边，市民满意度就会暴跌。 [30:00] Matt Tuerk: 我的天哪，这游戏教的全是彻头彻尾的胡话（total BS）。 [45:00] PE投资人: 广告牌太棒了，唯一比广告牌更好的生意就是投币洗衣房！ [53:30] Matt Tuerk: two dogs with everything

[0:00] Tracy Allaway: Allentown, Pennsylvania, basically became a poster child for deindustrialization and the hollowing out of American manufacturing in the 1980s. [5:00] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: That is the song that everybody in our region and the Lehigh Valley just dreads hearing... In 2026, it couldn't sound further from the truth. [10:00] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: We felt like there was an opportunity to leverage the existing industrial inventory to attract manufacturers that were more boutique... with these strong roots in manufacturing to bring some of it back. [20:00] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: Anything you add water to basically, right? When you have the cranberries come into the plant to become cranberry juice, you add a ton of water. It doesn't make sense to produce that far away and then ship all that water. [26:00] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: When children saw people walking to work with the lunchbox and knew that that person was going to work in the silk plant or in the truck plant, they saw a person working and a person who was connected to manufacturing... If you can get back to that point where you can add manufacturing back to everyday life, I think there's an opportunity to rekindle interest in these careers. [45:00] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: There's still this belief that we need to preserve the dignity of work... While there may be some value to squeezing out every single nickel of cost from some operation, there's a lot to benefit cities and to benefit society of having people actually putting their hands on things. [52:45] Mayor Matthew Tuerk: The other thing that makes the Billy Joel song so wrong in 2026 is that in 1982... everybody in Allentown was white, European. Today, we're 55 percent Latino... We are a very different city.

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Health care doesn always work great If you ever waited on a refill or couldn schedule an appointment you get it That the kind of stuff Optum is changing They using data and technology to integrate patient care pharmacy and everything else So health care is connected not complicated What that look like Cheaper prescriptions that are easier to get and care that looks at the whole person how you need it Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Learn more at business.optum.com. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Tracy Allaway. And I'm Joe Weisenthal. Joe, do you ever discover little cultural blind spots that you had in your life? I'm sure. Like things you missed? Where are you going with this? 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 interesting and i don't mean to be i don't mean to be very grand millennial by making simpsons references depressing how if you make a simpsons reference to like someone younger in the office they look at you with a blank stare I know It really depressing I just don do it anymore because it so depressing I know And here I am doing it on the podcast. But I actually. You know, we're the same generation, so we can do it. We can do it. This is a safe space. Our listeners might not get it. 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 like 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. That was a great intro. 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 know what that actually looks like in practice Right 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 some of the first mass-produced transistors, which are like the precursor to semiconductors of today. 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. Vietnam War, all these things happened. And finally, the thing that tipped him over the edge was the Cola. Anyway, sidetrack, but I just had to get that out. We should do a whole episode on Billy Joel songs at some point, including my favorite karaoke standard, which is Down Easter 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 Turk. So thank you so much for coming on All Thoughts. It's un gran placer. It's a huge pleasure to be here. That actually helps. [5:00] We are at the City Lab Conference in Madrid, right? And we just saw you have a medal from the marathon over the weekend. Tell us about that. 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 city lab and i've been non-stop since then 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 steel making was more in bethlehem rather than in allentown so should billy joel have been talking about semiconductors instead of steel I mean, there's he could have been talking about Mack trucks. He could have been talking about silk manufacturing. That like the local controversy is that like he talking about you know Bethlehem but he didn rhyme as well with shutting factories down But then there you know I was surprised I thought that everyone in the country felt like not great about the song allentown then i met the mayor of toledo and he was like that a great song it about the working man and blah blah blah blah and i was like what are you talking about that like this is the song that like everybody in our region and the lehigh valley just like dreads hearing because it's about this like different era that maybe was like felt right in the moment in 1982, like that maybe kind of captured the moment. But in 2026, it's like, it doesn't sound further from, it couldn't sound further from the truth. Give us like a little Ellentown history. Like what is the timeline when we talk about these sort of key industries that were once associated with the city of Ellentown? What was the sort of peak of it? And when was the sort of trough? Yeah, I mean, so I mean, the city was founded So back in 1762, it had its revolutionary moment. We hit the Liberty Bell there, but it really picked up and incorporated in 1867 for the kind of reconstruction. And that's when the industry really started to industrialize, like many American cities. Early industry was cigar manufacturing. So tobacco that was grown in Lancaster was shipped to Allentown for production into cigars Silk manufacturing became a pretty big deal in that area It was a place where silk could be brought in and then processed In the early kind of 1910s sort of around the First World War, Mack Truck moved to Allentown from Brooklyn. This was like 1915. And industrial production of those vehicles started. We manufactured Volte bombers, a particular type of a bomber for world war ii this is all coincident with bethlem's steel industry rising up the industrial work continued through to i think you guys mentioned the transistor and western electric that was kind of a big story but then like a lot of places uh manufacturing started to decline not as strongly in allentown as other parts of the country but you know the western electric plant eventually shut down the what year are we talking about with that western electric was in the 70s it actually and it it morphed into something else that what eventually became broadcom so there's still some manufacturing it didn't necessarily exist in the city it spread out into suburban parts of the region there still some chip manufacturing occurring or wafer polishing occurring in the area we still have the kind of muscle memory of semiconductor manufacturing But again the industry evolved and changed. The Voltaire aircraft shut down when there was no need to produce bombers anymore. Mack trucks continued operations in Allentown, but in the 80s shifted most of its production to a plant in Mukunji that still operates today. A lot of those old MAC plants were acquired by an organization that I used to work for, the Allentown Economic 12 Incorporation, and repurposed. Initially repurposed for, this is the 80s, the thought at the time was that it could be an incubator facility, a business incubator. It did become that, but it was more of a manufacturing incubator. These were old sawtooth roof buildings with 12 to 18 foot ceilings. So some big spaces, but not a lot of clearance. They weren't suited for modern manufacturing. That's what a lot of the building stock in Allentown looked like. But the production was still occurring in some capacity in the city, definitely in the region when the steel shut down in Bethlehem in 1998, I think, was when they did their last cast. That's when leading up [10:00] up to that. The region had already started to think about how to diversify, how to build on the Western Electric, the semiconductor manufacturer. Lehigh University was a source of engineering talent. They started to diversify out into life sciences. So there's some precursor drugs that are manufactured there, some medical supplies that are still manufactured there, Bebron. Another one that I didn't mention was Air Products. So it's an industrial gas manufacturer i know you guys were recently talking about helium yeah air products is like it's so fun talking to a listener that makes it so easy i have helium uh so helium is something that air products manufacturers it's one of those like head scratchers when you're talking about a region's industrial output to say like we make like a an element like like an elemental element like the yeah it's hard to describe like how that happens but that was founded in allentown actually it's town in Tennessee and moved to Allentown in the 50s. But a lot of that production was still occurring. The kind of civic leaders of the time in the early 90s is they could foresee the end of Bethlehem Steel when it was acquired I think it was acquired by Arsor Middle but they could see the end in sight And so they made a conscious effort to diversify working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to stand up some tech economic development which had its success in a few places The biggest success in attracting investment or the biggest kind of economic development story for the region was in 2006 when the region convinced Olympus, which is the manufacturer of surgical devices, to relocate its North American headquarters to their out in suburban Bethlehem. But that's been the character, right? It's a very diversified economy. Today, it's still about 17% of the jobs are manufacturing jobs. So it's much higher than many other parts of the country. And it's held pretty steady. So that's amazing. Well, that was a fantastic summary. But on that note, I mean, I think a lot of cities and towns in America, whether they're in the Rust Belt or Pennsylvania or the South or wherever, who have gone through this deindustrialization phase, they all say they want to build back their manufacturing sector in some way. But it feels like Allentown has kind of gone about it in a slightly different way in that you had a sort of grand strategy or vision for how to do that rather than try to attract just like individual businesses in a piecemeal way Can you talk about how you actually formulated that plan? Yeah. So I started working for the Economic Development Corporation in 2008 and we had the manufacturing incubator. It's called the Bridgeworks, the manufacturing incubator that was in place at that time. It was trying to pivot away from manufacturing when I got there. We also had an industrial building that sort of funded our existence where we had a T-shirt manufacturer, an industrial valves manufacturer, and somebody who is building large scale tents as tenants. And they were kind of keeping the organization alive. There was this, you know, in 2008, it was right kind of in the early days of the global financial crisis. There was some concern about how we would recover economically, what we would do. But these early investments in manufacturing were, from what I could see, looking ahead, something we shouldn't turn our backs on. There was this healthy, seemingly healthy manufacturing economy in place in the Lehigh Valley. And it felt like there was an opportunity to build for the future I worked with our CEO our executive director at that time to start thinking about how we might position the area as a place where you could bring smaller footprint manufacturing. We knew we had this building stock of buildings that were smaller than 100,000 square feet, sometimes on multiple stories. There was a kind of gravity flow model of manufacturing where you would load in raw material at the top of the building. And as it gained weight, it would drop down the building for final finishing on the ground floor and then shipping. We felt like there was an opportunity to kind of leverage the existing industrial inventory to attract manufacturers that were more boutique. I remember reading an article in the Wall Street Journal in maybe 2009 or 2010 about a bag manufacturer in San Francisco who was like very proud of being in San Francisco. I was like, this is I think there's something here for us. I reached out to the manufacturer at the time. This was kind of around the same time as the rise of like makerspaces and 3D printing was kind of coming online. It looked like you could do some stuff in a smaller form factor. And we kept thinking like this is a chance for us with these strong roots in manufacturing [15:00] to bring some of it back. We got deep into it and really explored. We formed something called the Urban Manufacturing Alliance in collaboration with San Francisco and the Pratt Institute in New York and our friends in the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and in Detroit to just kind of bring cities who were interested in manufacturing together. We started talking about reshoring or onshoring at that time, but it felt distant. 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If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions. Buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like, if the VIX hits 25, buy a put option on the S&P 500. Or, if my cash balance goes above $20,000, move the excess into my direct index. You approve the workflow and your agent handles the rest. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the public API. Go to public slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less That public slash market Paid for by Public Investing Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing Inc member FINRA and SIPC Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC SEC Registered Advisor Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Let's talk about health care for a second. It doesn't always work the way people expect it to. If you've ever waited on a prescription refill or had a hard time getting the care you needed, you know the feeling. The system should just work better for everyone. That's exactly what the people at Optum are trying to do every day. They're a healthcare company linking patient care and pharmacy services and using data and technology to drive the whole system so care is connected, not complicated, for patients and providers. Things like making it easier to get care that looks at the whole person, from primary care doctors to mental health support and even in-home care, and then using technology to make sure they all work together. Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients. And those prescriptions, Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients money, and make it easier to get refills. Little by little Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone Head to business to see how I glad you brought up this sort of maker 3D printing phenomenon because That was such a thing around that time Yeah it was but it forgotten isn it Because when we talk generally about the tailwind or the growth of the 2010s, it's almost entirely, people talk about tech, right? Software, et cetera, the internet and all that. And then we talk about post-COVID, this new enthusiasm for reshoring. But it was like this forgotten chapter that within particularly the first half of the 2010s, the various maker spaces and the 3D printers and people were really excited about that kind of fizzled out like that, like that mini movement. You don't hear that. That is a lot for sure. But so we did a reindustrialization strategy in 2014. We worked with somebody to evaluate our total industrial stock. I had at that point moved on to work for the regional economic development corporation, but was still involved with this urban manufacturing alliance. at the region we could see that manufacturing was still important i had a better sense of what other types of manufacturing was occurring in the area we developed a a strategy kept thinking what i kept seeing at the region was that there is real demand to be in the lehigh valley and in these smaller footprint buildings so we saw inquiries all the time [20:00] for buildings between 40 and 80,000 square feet. But this is a time when the we have value is pivoting its economy toward transportation and warehousing, building million square foot buildings with 24 to 36 foot ceilings. Really, as this other technological trend of the e-com started to show up, this was the high demand for industrial space. So we had lots of interest from small manufacturers, particularly coming out of places like Brooklyn, where maybe it was like not quite the place to be, who wanted to spread their arms a little bit and maybe have access to talent. They were trying to be in the Lehigh Valley, but we didn't have a ton of building space to meet their needs. So when we built that re-industrialization strategy, a big part of it was how do we position the built environment for this demand? And some of that is you know, rehabbing existing industrial buildings as surprise, surprise, industrial buildings. So it's continued on from there. Yeah. So this is another thing I learned about Allentown. I'm full of Allentown facts at the moment but apparently Allentown is within a day drive of 40 percent of the population in the U Is that true Yeah it over 100 million many more than 100 million people And that what made it such a strong destination for some of the e But it's also like that, you go back to like why it is a vibrant economic region is that it's a great place for weight gaining industries, right? So the other big thing we worked on at the Regional Economic Development Corporation was we recruited ocean spray to make most of its great cranberry juice in the Lehigh Valley. Sam Adams was brewing most of its beer in the Lehigh Valley. Was it weight gaining industry? Yeah, anything you add water to basically, right? So you when you have the cranberries come into the plant, like to become cranberry juice, you add a ton of water. It doesn't make sense to produce that far away and then ship all that water. So because you're not just, you know, within a day's drive of 40% of this population. You're also close to New York. So a lot of like Keurig, Dr. Pepper has a big production plant. There's a lot of food manufacturing that occurs there as well. And then on the manufacturing side, you also, because of the e-com, because of the food manufacturing you saw a lot of packaging and bottling manufacturing show up So one of our most recent in Allentown successes was recruiting a company called Schlesz Bottle that manufactures bottles for beverages And they wanted to be close to the production point. So the manufacturing bottles in Allentown, filling it with beverages and shipping it back to New York. This is so core, like Ricardo Hausman coded stuff. Like, okay, you have this one industry and then you have innovation and an adjacent industry. Monkey swinging from trees. Yeah, I'm also just like learning all these terms. You know, gravity-based manufacturing or weight gaining. This is all fantastic stuff. Weight gain industry is, I think, what we're both doing in Madrid. That's what we're both doing in Madrid. That's really well done. That's hormone gaining. That's right. Yeah. We should have run a marathon and then we could have compensated for all that. What are like, you know, obviously, this is all against the backdrop of this vortex of manufacturing going to China largely, et cetera. When people think, you know, you're at a conference like this and probably a lot of mayors are interested in reindustrialization, et cetera. What types of industries are good candidates generally for thinking of like what should be built locally Like something like plastic bags or bags It like well I don know maybe that could be offshore What are like strong candidates for what is durable here It odd that you mentioned plastic bags because one of the things we recruited as I was kind of leaving the world of economic development and going to politics was a Turkish plastic bag manufacturer. So that was kind of interesting. So one of the things to distinguish the region and I think is good for onshoring. And I want to go back on the onshoring thing for a second. When we developed this strategy, when we're talking about onshoring and reshoring back in the early 2010s, there was no, like, we didn't know a global pandemic was going to come and disrupt supply chains. We were thinking about, like, the logistics of making things in close to the customer. And I was thinking a lot about the theft of IP in China and how it was kind of like, those components of globalism didn't make a ton of sense. You're like kind of giving away your most precious resource. So a lot of it was driven by like, how do you kind of capture the spirit of a manufacturer of American manufacturing now in COVID hit and all of a sudden that's what brought into stark relief. That's what made it make sense. So one of the things that I think makes a ton of sense and we still see a lot of in Allentown. [25:00] whether it's the transistors or it's the bag manufacturing or Westport axle manufacturers axles for Mack trucks in Allentown area, it's components, right? It's how do you, how do you de-risk the supply chain by diversifying your component manufacturing? That makes a lot of sense in cities because you're not building the whole truck there, Right. And to build the whole truck, you need something like Lordtown or Lordstown. You need River Rouge. You need the enormous factories when you're building the components, whatever those components might look like. You can exist in a much smaller form factor, something as small as 40,000 square feet. But even like to get down to like what we were calling craft manufacturing at the time, you might be able to exist in a much smaller space and perhaps the ground floor of a mixed use building. And that's what the next step for us was and what more cities should be doing, I think, is making sure that your zoning allows for light industrial to take place in residential neighborhoods so that you not kind of you have to make sure that you allow this stuff to happen in your city And the new manufacturing we think about Pittsburgh in the early part of the 20th century as being so thick with smog that you couldn even see across the river We were, you know, you still see pictures of, I remember being in Tianjin in China in 2017, and like you couldn't see as you were going across the bridge. That's not what manufacturing really looks like anymore. So you can kind of do that in cities. So as cities are thinking about what type of manufacturing you might try to attract, I think high value component manufacturer, light touch, but high tech. Again, taking advantage of the resources that we have in American cities and taking advantage of the fact that people now are choosing where they're going to be first and then what they're going to do second. and the cities that have a locational advantage on cost or quality of life can attract those industries if they set themselves up to do it. Say more about the rezoning process, because if there's one thing I remember from playing SimCity for hours, you know, in the late 1990s, it was that if you zone industry next to residential, your population is not going to be happy So I very curious like how much that has actually changed and what the rezoning process like now versus say 10 years ago So a lot of cities because of the housing crisis are exploring more aggressive zoning policy that allows for denser housing, allows for different types of housing. We just passed in the beginning of 2026 a reform to our zoning code and a reform to our zoning map that is a form-based code. So it's really focused less on what's happening inside the building and more on what the buildings look like. Interesting. So that's the type of thing that can allow for, now in SimCity, when you zoned industrial, you were gonna get the tire manufacturing plant. Not a great idea for cities to have tire manufacturing plants in their downtowns, but great idea to have craft brewing or small garment assembly, something that is kind of like bespoke manufacturing. I think what cities can do as they're investigating the limitations of their zoning code to build toward the cities that they want to be is dig in and understand exactly what you might allow. I mean, in zoning, you have to allow for all uses somewhere in the jurisdiction So if you can allow for certain types of manufacturing uses you create flexibility that can add some vibrancy to the neighborhood I go back to one of my big points when I was in the Urban Manufacturing Alliance that I don't know what it looks like now, but we talked about the lack of interest in young people working in manufacturing, and that's always been one of the challenges. And one thing that occurred to me is that when So when Mack trucks moved to Allentown in 1923, they built a plant right next to, well, they built the plant and then they built the worker housing right next door to the plant. And people would walk to work all day. And what we knew then is that it sounds amazing. And people would like to do that, whatever they're doing for work. when young when children saw people walking to work with the lunchbox and knew that that person was going to work on the in the silk plant or in the the truck plant they saw a person working and a person who was like connected to manufacturing when we moved all of the production out to the suburbs and people were getting in a car to drive to work the like rando kid on the street who's just hula hooping or whatever, doesn't get a chance to see workers. And the [30:00] doesn't get a chance to see the dignity of work in manufacturing and loses interest in it. And so we're so far removed now. And we've tried to do things, whether it was through 3D printing or kind of get kids excited about manufacturing. But fundamentally, it's still the work is removed from everyday life. And so if you can get back to that point where you can add manufacturing back to everyday life, I think there's an opportunity to rekindle the interest in the careers. we need to do an episode how sim city right like people internalizing all these lessons from a video game right and then oh then suddenly all of the manufacturing goes out into the exurbs and then no one sees the workers that then suddenly how sim city ruined how sim city ruined i would love i would love to see that honestly like the i think the mayor like any mayor who has played sim city like the minute you sit down at the desk you're like oh my god this is total BS. That's amazing. Now I really actually want to do this episode. Post-COVID, you get this re-enthusiasm for manufacturing, just supply chain reasons, also national security reasons. We get the CHIPS Act We get the Inflation Reduction Act What did that look like from the perspective of these big programs these sort of the Biden era programs What did that look like from your perspective So for us one thing was it was like a return to an industrial policy right Like previously, the United States was like the industrial policy didn't make a lot of sense for an economic development professional. Now we saw like the federal government was pushing in a particular direction. Right. And it was like, well, let's start making stuff again. When I became mayor in 2022, when you are sworn in as mayor, you come in with a bunch of campaign promises. You sit in a seat and you realize like all of a sudden there's a completely new set of challenges that you have to unlock. Right. So all this stuff you wanted to do in the campaign, it's nice, but there's more pressing needs. Among the things that I could see in the city was that we were well, we didn't know what we didn't know. So we had a lot to learn. We had to dig in and understand the city a little better and understand what was going on. We also didn't like we had to let some relationships fail. And so we needed to get back and make sure that our partners were on the same page as us. And we kind of lost the capacity to like innovate to get creative and do new things So I was grateful that I entered into the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative at just the right moment when when I was feeling desperate and they kind of invested in that capacity through doing that. I was able to attack one of the things that was clearly, clearly an issue, which was road safety. We had, there was a federal grant, the safe streets for all program that was helping cities plan for safer streets. I'm going to get to the point i promise so we uh i was a i'm a bicycling and running guy so i wanted to like and i i felt like we could do better for our city if we had safer streets uh boomer stood up with some partners the local infrastructure hub it helped me teach my team how to use data to apply for federal funds it helped us think about how we could work with partners to accomplish you know good outcomes for residents and try some new things. We were lucky. I also got right in Secretary Buttigieg's face and said, I need help. And we're we're lucky to get a planning grant through that program. That experience helped us understand how to as a city return to federal grants at the about right after we were awarded that Safe Streets grant the Economic Development Administration announced its recompete pilot project And it was focused on areas that were I think this is June, June of 2023 is focused on areas that had a high prime age employment gap. And so prime age employment gap is people between the ages of 25 to 54 prime age employment gap is people who are either unemployed at higher than average. rates or out of the labor force. We looked and saw that Allentown, in fact, had a high prime age employment gap. Ours was like at 6%. We dialed into a particular neighborhood and saw that in that area is about 12%. The region of about, or a neighborhood of about 23,000 people that were just disproportionately out of the labor force or unemployed. And we started to dig in on that group of people and how could we at the same time prepare as we're thinking about like the these changes and the changes to the demands of the workforce how can we make sure that our people could work right and that was where these two things came together is we knew that through working with our partners at the lehigh valley economic development corporation there's still a high demand for manufacturing labor as well as health care we knew that the barriers to [35:00] People to good jobs sometimes were a lack of available resources, things like flexible and affordable childcare. We knew that people were sometimes challenged by transportation, that if those jobs are out in the suburbs and they didn't have a car, it's hard to get to them. And we also knew that if we wanted to make sure that people without cars could get to work, we wanted to build industrial sites in the city. So we put together an application and submitted it to EDA. And again, because of the work that we had done in the past, we're successful and we're able to. So we landed a strategic development grant in December of 23. And then we got a 20 million dollar investment for implementation. So our team right now is working to make sure that as we work to bring these manufacturing jobs to not just the city, but to the entire region, that Alantonians are well positioned to get to those jobs. And that is a big piece where cities have to be able to play a role, is making sure that people have the tools they need to access the good things that are happening in their economy. Have you got all the grant money the Biden grant money We did All of it So okay so there nothing sure or like as soon as the the november 5th 2024 like we went into overdrive to just make sure that we weren at risk of of losing anything yeah and that came through the chips and science act and it was a relatively small program so and and you know practically speaking our region is intensely political um so it would not make sense to roll back some of that i had to fight for some other stuff to make sure that we got it including usd i wrote a letter to secretary rollins and the usda about how important trees were to cities across america we've worked to make sure that we didn't lose the the street funding but you know we're for some of the funding for things that you do in cities it's like very practical it's it's good for residents it's it should be non-partisan as long as you like are not exclusively focused on the various different things the administration is focused on. Whether you planning a big tech event launching a new campaign or just stocking up on team gear finding the right promotional products makes all the difference 4imprint offers thousands of options, from on-trend apparel and premium drinkware to tech, totes, and giveaways, so you can find the right fit for any audience, purpose, or budget. You can customize it all, your logo, your message, your look, and many items come with no setup charge to help you save. And if you're really watching the bottom line, you'll find standout choices at every price point so you can make a real impact while staying on budget. Plus, you'll get expert help, fast turnaround times, and their 360-degree guarantee. So you can be 4imprint certain your order will arrive on time and look exactly right. Whatever your goal, 4imprint makes it easy to find your perfect promo match. Explore the possibilities today at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. Support for the show comes from public.com. If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions. Buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like if the VIX hits 25 buy a put option on the S 500 Or if my cash balance goes above move the excess into my direct index You approve of the workflow and your agent handles the rest. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the Public API. Go to public.com slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less. That's public.com slash market. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Let's talk about health care for a second. It doesn't always work the way people expect it to. If you've ever waited on a prescription refill or had a hard time getting the care you needed, you know the feeling. The system should just work better for everyone. That's exactly what the people at Optum are trying to do every day. They're a health care company linking patient care and pharmacy services and using data and technology to drive the whole system. So care is connected, not complicated for patients and providers. Things like making it easier to get caretakers. [40:00] that looks at the whole person, from primary care doctors to mental health support and even in-home care, and then using technology to make sure they all work together. Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients. And those prescriptions? Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients money, and make it easier to get refills. Little by little, Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Head to business.optum.com to see how. So speaking of practicality, I sometimes get the sense that there's like a bit of a disconnect between how people in D.C. are thinking about industrial policy, whether it's Trump or the Biden administration versus like mayors such as yourself who actually have to implement the stuff and figure out exactly how to spend the money. Like what's the biggest area of, I guess, like tension that you see or what could D.C. actually do to make using those federal funds easier for you? Oh wow So there is tension for sure Right And I think that the recognition like the biggest thing that DC could do is make sure that people are not worried about their health care or not worried about putting food on the table or not worried about a thousand other things and can worry about just like being part of this American dream and like and building towards something and that they could be part of the dignity of work. And so there's some things that they could just focus less on or like trying to cut less of. I think that cities probably don't think as much about immigration from that perspective as an economic driver. But I think that we have to continue to bring new people in, bring new ideas in, make American cities places that can receive investment. And knowing that somewhat that investment is like it's intellectual capital. Right. So we want people to come in and feel comfortable making stuff and making new technology in our cities. I want to say I think it's not uncommon for mayors to be pretty bipartisan in Allentown, where one of my senators is Senator Dave McCormick, who is on the, he's a Republican, I'm a Democrat, but I appreciate Senator McCormick's interest in competitiveness and trying to attract industry and particular manufacturing to Pennsylvania. And I think my conversations with Senator McCormick he is somewhat agnostic about where that happens I think he be happy if the manufacturing investments happen in the suburbs or in the cities. It doesn't matter to him as much as Pennsylvania remaining competitive. I know he was involved with one of the big kind of future thinking or future looking manufacturing investments that occurred in our area is Eli Lilly announced a three and a half billion dollar investment that is just outside of the city limits, but their three and a half billion dollar investment will create like 850 jobs. I want to make sure that all of the residents of the city of Allentown are capable of accessing those jobs. I also want to make sure that any of the supply chain that goes into that Lilly GLP-1 manufacturing can be produced in the city if it can be. We want to make sure that we're capable of connecting to that. So that's one thing, I think, continuing to make sure that the country is competitive. The other thing is, and this is one that we kind of going back and forth with Governor Shapiro has launched a very aggressive economic development strategy that wants to attract more investment and lots of different types of investment I think there and I spoken with Bruce Katz formerly at Brookings, about this, is that Pennsylvania seems like it's well-situated to be a center of defense manufacturing in this new world. Clearly, based on what's happening in Iran, there's still need for munitions right and how we can play a role in that is i think part of our future that was what we proudly tell the story of how bethlem steel helped win the war in world war ii by building the the the ships that that helped us win the war i talked about volte bomber is helping us win the war i think that there is we have we're home to mac defense in allentown mac defense makes giant like heavy duty trucks for the US military. We can compete in that area as well, and that is manufacturing. So I think there's, if the federal government focuses on creating opportunities in cities and in states to host manufacturing and makes it easy for that to happen and makes it easy to hire people and train people to be ready for that work, I think that's, [45:00] where we need them to play. You already sort of alluded to this, but does it feel good to be in a state where it's like every national election is just geared towards making the citizens of Pennsylvania happy? You're talking to some mayor from Florida. It's like, try being a swing state. Try being the most important state for the electoral college. It must be nice. it can be uh it also turns you into like like i have given tours of my city to foreign press every country in the world reporters that they go to the diner in pennsylvania right that's the classic exactly yeah then so i mean it's it's nice to be the center of attention yeah that way but in the the like and the politicians kind of want to make you happy but practically speaking you know there's like as a mayor your job is to just meet the needs of your residents right like that's what you dial in on and so whatever they're doing nationally like you're just worried about residents one reason that people are very excited or that people are have an affinity towards manufacturing is the jobs right and you mentioned the jobs and people saying people go to work another reason particularly over the last several years or the last post is for national security reasons not wanting to rely on China or other countries for really critical things. However, some of these most advanced industries, they're not particularly going to be job heavy, right? There's a lot of robotics and increasing automation. Is there a disconnect between the sort of, again, maybe emotional, maybe like the sort of romantic notions that people have about manufacturing versus the reality of the actual labor intensivity of some of these industries? I think that from the mayor's perspective, I probably am more in that kind of romantic world, right? Like where we're just kind of like, yeah, we envision a world in which people will always be putting their hands on stuff, right? One way or another. And when you get into a higher technology where like we already have robots doing like precision surgery, presumably some of the precision manufacturing is going to be better done with a robotic hand than the steady hand or strong back of of uh somebody on the line i do think that as you like the there's still and this is a vibe that i'm starting to get mayors tend to pick up like because we're on the ground yeah we start to hear the vibes before they become national vibes but i think that there there a very strong at least in my city and some other cities that have visited there like a strong like handmade or like a rejection of the robots and AI, whether it's art, or like the, the produced goods. I don't know if anybody, I don't know what the logical end to that is. But I think there's on on the consumer side, there's there's still a desire i think people romanticize some of the product right and they'd rather have something that that people have made on the jobs side of it uh i think that there's there's still this belief that we need to preserve the dignity of work that there's always going to be that we're going to have to find some way to allow people to continue to work that like maybe you don't need the robots running the whole warehouse right that maybe you need you know somebody to to be involved and we've seen that like this is i my first job at a grad school was working in the billboard industry and in panama and i remember vividly talking to somebody who is you know i've introduced myself this is in my economic development days and i was like oh you know i i first i started in billboards and the guy was in private equity and he was like that great man billboards are awesome The only thing better than billboards is coin laundromats I was like dude you in the wrong business now Because maybe in private equity, that was a great idea. The fewer jobs down to self-storage, which I think is the worst in the cities. But we're job creators. We have to find ways to create jobs, to create opportunities for people to be dignified by their work. So while there may be some value to squeezing out every single nickel of cost from some operation, there's a lot to benefit cities and to benefit society of having people actually putting their hands on things. Can you talk specifically about how you're thinking about data centers? Because this is like the example of what we're getting at. And in theory, you know, Allentown, you got a bunch of big warehouses and things like that. that presumably access to that needed energy at one point right yeah i have lots of sophisticated and unsophisticated thoughts about data centers we as a city and as a mayor i'm thinking about them in a couple ways one like they're very clearly a political issue now and they're a political issue for i hate saying both sides but for both sides right like we they really are yeah it's kind of crazy there's legislation so i think [50:00] So we amended our zoning, right after we amended our zoning ordinance, we then we made an amendment to the ordinance with reference to data centers. The reality for a city like Allentown in most cities in the country is that we don't really have any space for data centers. It's unlikely that a hyperscaler, well, it's not just unlikely, a hyperscaler cannot locate in the city of Allentown unless they acquire a bunch of homes and demolish them. There's just new space or something like that. But it is reality in places like Phoenix, right? So we amended our zoning code to just set up certain requirements around the establishment of a data center just to make sure that our backs are covered. The worst thing that happens in any municipality is like something shows up that people don't want and your hands are tied because your zoning allows for it. So we made sure that we are covered in that respect. Sorry, just to be clear, covered. Like you've data center proofed your zoning? Is that what that means? We in the process of review right now to make sure that any proposed data center has to demonstrate not just the highway use or the water use but also like energy sources So we making sure that data centers that are proposed for the city can demonstrate their compliance basically So it's political. As I understand the technology, and this is probably the less sophisticated side of the thought, it's getting smaller and smaller, right? The data centers do not have to exist to take up lots and lots of land. They can exist perhaps in downtowns. I don't know what their energy needs are going to be. I know that most mayors are concerned about data centers, not because they're worried about land use or a lack of jobs, but because utility bills are significantly rising. At the same time that food bills are rising, gas bills are rising, housing is getting more expensive. Now people are also seeing their utility bills rise. So that's what's driving a lot of the concern for mayors, I think. You know, I know someone, I heard about, There's a startup in New York City that is doing something with like, I don't know exactly what it is. I was hearing about it from a friend, but they're like training some NVIDIA chips or doing something. And it's just with like a normal, like sort of like residential connection to the electricity. It's fairly small scale. It not mega but like yeah to your point like it does feel like the footprint there at least in some potentially niche applications the footprints you hear about the giant things but the footprints are also potentially coming down That was what I was hearing. You know, I'm an AI skeptic as a mayor. I've been talked back. I keep going back and forth on this. Yeah. But I was talking to somebody at Hopkins at Johns Hopkins who is like, hey, you shouldn't be so skeptical because it's going to open. It might result in some somewhat fewer human human react interactions, but it's going to open the door for humans and city government specifically to participate more and more in helping people out. And she was the one who mentioned like and it's also like all of the like the furor about data center might be misplaced. Like there is we are I'm not necessarily a great believer in technology figuring out a way to get us to like save our bacon for forever. But it does seem like this is one that there's short term concern about. And I don't know what what it really stems from. But whenever politicians are involved, you have to raise an eyebrow. I have one more question and it a very important one What the deal with the Yakos If I Google allentown controversy yakos comes up yeah i think there probably a couple of yakos controversies the the very local one is like you got to pick a choice you got to choose between yakos or pots apparently they eat pots hot dogs in bethlehem i guess we should say yakos is a hot dog okay yeah the folks in bethlehem like they love my neighbor but i would never eat a pot's dog um yakko is there's the one of the deals is like you have to know how to order it right so the order is like you just get two dogs i order two dogs with everything in a chocolate milk um some people get pierogies with it too the one of the there was a few years ago like a guy named gary iacocca whose family owned yakko's talked about how his Yaka is on 7th Street, which is in Center City, Allentown, couldn't exist anymore because of the demographic changes that we've seen in Allentown. So Yaka's, I think, is he and I went back and forth a little bit. We're very good friends now, but we struggled a little bit because I'm the first Latino mayor of Allentown. So the other thing that makes the Billy Joel song so wrong in 2026 is that in 1982, [55:00] It was like it was a very homogenous. Basically, everybody in Allentown was white, European. Today, we're 55 percent Latino. Like we are a very different city. And his his case was like, well, you know, it isn't it ain't like it was. And, you know, it was kind of felt to me like kind of a rejection of our new city that I just love. so we went back and forth a little bit on that there's probably other Yakos controversies out there he has like a big hot dog statue that's moved around a little bit but it's a good hot dog if you come to Allentown I will treat you to a Yakos hot dog you'll teach us how to order it this is like one of those things like the politicians get a huge scandal they order it the wrong way you know it's like John Kerry ordered it when he get like Swiss cheese instead of something else. Yeah, it's our version, I guess, of the cheesesteak. And there's a special Lehigh Valley version of the cheesesteak as well that the Philadelphians would want nothing to do with. This is what makes America great. These niche loyalties towards certain orders and certain hot dogs Yeah All right Mayor Turk thank you so much for coming on all thoughts that was great thank you i really had a good time so that was super interesting there are a lot of things to pick out from there but But one thing that stood out was that sort of 2010s era of like made in America craft manufacturing. I remember that really. Yeah, no, totally. It's actually apparently kind of depressing because those MakerBot festival or the MakerBot, I think is different than the Maker Festivals. But there was that culture of people doing tinkering and 3D printing. Also the boom in 3D printing stocks, remember that? Yeah, yeah. There was like a thing and it's like all sort of fizzled out. but there was it's like a forgotten part of like post gfc artisanal manufacturing manufacturing and people just building weird stuff things aren't weird enough anymore but yeah i'm glad get weird with ai no they're gonna get weird but i'm glad he brought that up because i i it doesn't get discussed enough yeah just generally though like i thought it was great and like first of all just learning a bunch of new things you know i hadn heard of weight gaining manufacturing but that makes a lot of sense right Like if there is some process that adds a lot of weight such as water to a product you want that to be at the last mile of the supply chain rather than early on. Also fascinating to think about like, okay, what a strategic advantage it is to be within a day's drive of a hundred million people. And so therefore it makes a lot of sense to put various, you know, e-commerce warehouses in so much interesting stuff there. Also the mixed zoning I found really interesting, because it is true. If you think about industry, even 10 or 20 years ago, it was much more polluting and noisy and disturbing than it is now. And so you can have, in an era of high-tech manufacturing, you absolutely could have mixed-use neighborhoods and buildings. Why not? Right. So you just have to update the zoning to reflect the reality that it's not going to be automatically repellent to the neighbors. And then everyone can walk to work with their lunch boxes. Yeah. All right. Shall we leave it there? Or the bike to work. Or bike to work. Yeah. Okay. This has been another episode of the All Thoughts podcast. I'm Tracy Allaway. You can follow me at Tracy Allaway. And I'm Joe Weisenthal. You can follow me at The Stalwart. Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at Carmen Armand Dashiell Bennett at Dashpot Kale Brooks at Kale Brooks and Kevin Lozano at Kevin Lloyd Lozano And for more All content go to Bloomberg slash OddLots We have a daily newsletter on all of our episodes And you can chat about all these topics 24-7 in our Discord, discord.gg slash OddLots. And if you enjoy OddLots, if you like it when we talk about weight gaining industry, then please leave us a positive review on your favorite podcast platform. And remember, if you are a Bloomberg subscriber, you can listen to all of our episodes absolutely ad free. All you need to do is find the Bloomberg channel on Apple Podcasts and follow the instructions there. Thanks for listening. Thank you. [60:00] And with their 360-degree guarantee, you can be 4imprint certain your order will show up just right, right on time. Explore more at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. Healthcare doesn't always work great. 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