TRANSCRIPT
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Kai Ryssdal: The recession is, officially, over. A lot of experts and some economic indicators agree on that. But the experts and the indicators don’t know what they’re talking about.

In California’s Inland Empire, that’s definitely true. The Inland Empire’s out in in the desert east of L.A. with 4.3 million people living there, nearly double the population of Nevada. In the decades before the recession, it was the place families went to to pursue the American Dream. There were cheap suburban houses with two-car garages and good jobs in construction and warehousing and trucking. There were so many jobs, in fact, that the unemployment rate fell below 5 percent. Now, it’s triple that in many towns, and the dream has turned into something of a nightmare.

Today, in the first of a two-part series, Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman takes a trip to to see what the future might hold.

Click Here to read the complete transcript by Mitchell Hartman on Marketplace published 11/21/2011.

Map: Track your state’s unemployment rate through the years

Map: Track your metro area’s unemployment rate through the years

http://www.hd.net/h2bmap.php

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By Linsey Davis

WASHINGTON — The number of American workers drawing state unemployment benefits hit another record high this month. If you’re one of them, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to track down a job.

Location, location, location – that mantra doesn’t just apply to real estate. Turns out the recession can discriminate based on where you live.

California, Florida, and Nevada — are all feeling the pinch of foreclosures. The financial sector is taking its toll on New York and Chicago. While the auto industry has positioned the Great Lakes states smack dab in between a rock and a hard place due to slumping manufacturing jobs.

“Sectors that are still hiring are again: government, education and health,” said Jeremy Nowak, CEO, Reinvestment Fund and Policy Map.com.

University towns top the rankings of best places to live during a downturn.

“State college PA, healthy town, right? Penn State University is the main employer there , it’s not going away anywhere, any time soon. Think about college towns that are also state capitals, right? Madison, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas,” said Nowak.

Government towns also tend to be relatively stable. Even when budgets are slashed, cities don’t tend to go out of business.

“I would say Washington, DC, obviously, federal government, but also suburbs, right outside of Washington, DC,” said Nowak.

While the rest of country is in significant decline, Texas is described as being flat.

“Good education and medical sector and also energy sector that still relatively healthy,” said Nowak.

But should you pack up the U-haul for a job?

“The household has to make a decision, based on their own self-interest, and what they think the best opportunity is, for them,” said Nowak.

In that case, Arlington, Virginia, Washington DC, and Durham, North Carolina may all be good places to call home at least in a recession.

This article by Lindsey Davis aired on 94 ABC News affiliates on friday March 19th, 2009.

(Philadelphia) March 19, 2009- Airing tonight on ABC News is an interview with Jeremy Nowak, CEO and President of The Reinvestment Fund regarding the geography of the recession. ABC News was drawn to the employment data from TRF’s demographic data and mapping tool www.policymap.com that BusinessWeek had used to write several articles in the past few months on the same topic.

Where is the recession hitting hardest? Where might there be best opportunities? Why?

BusinessWeek used PolicyMap’s data and geographic information system to consider cities across the country that had high concentrations of jobs in “safe” industries, such as: healthcare, education, law, energy and the government. Based on this indicator, it posited that cities such as Arlington, VA; Washington, D.C.; Durham, NC; Madison, WI; Boston, MA; Pittsburgh, PA; Baltimore, MD; Baton Rouge, LA; New Orleans, LA; and Philadelphia, PA may be more recession-proof.

“We developed PolicyMap to help policymakers and others – including reporters – to have the ability to quickly access important, sometimes hard-to-understand data,” said Nowak.

Jeremy Nowak’s interview is being distributed by ABC News tonight. The original BusinessWeek.com articles, including a sideshow of all 20 cities, can be found at PolicyMap’s blog (http://blog.policymap.com/?p=1586) or at businessweek.com.

About PolicyMap

PolicyMap is an online mapping tool that makes it quick and easy to gather and analyze geocentric information such as demographics, real estate, crime statistics and more. PolicyMap is a service of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a not-for-profit leader in the financing of neighborhood revitalization. TRF developed PolicyMap to empower decision makers with better access to credible market and demographic data. PolicyMap can be found online at www.policymap.com. To learn more abut TRF, visit www.trfund.com.

PolicyMap on ABC News Tonight!

Watch your local ABC News tonight for an interview with Jeremy Nowak, the CEO and President of The Reinvestment Fund regarding the geography of the recession. A few months ago, BusinessWeek.com used PolicyMap data to talk about cities that might best survive this recession and ABCNews wanted to explore the topic further.  They asked him questions about where the recession is hitting hardest or where the best opportunities might exist.

BusinessWeek used PolicyMap data to look at cities across the country that had high concentrations of jobs in “safe” industries, such as: healthcare, education, law, energy and the government and came up with the list of “top 20” recession proof cities below.

Jeremy Nowak’s interview is being distributed by ABC News tonight. The original BusinessWeek.com articles can be found in our News section (http://blog.policymap.com/?p=1586) or at businessweek.com.

The REST is Up to You: A Deeper GeoStack for Better Apps

The free mapping APIs have generated a tidal wave of interest, a flood of interesting mashups, and a trickle of genuinely new useful applications. While developers have pushed the limits of what is possible, progressively fewer meaningful new features have been introduced to the free APIs.

This presentation highlights the capabilities of the Pushpin REST API by showing a live demonstration of PolicyMap, a web application used by policymakers and Real Estate developers to support the real world decisions that they make on a daily basis.

From Launch Pad at O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, Burlingame, CA, May 12, 2008.