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Latest update: 05/08/2008
- credit crisis - USA
Crisis along Route 66
Tucumcari, a small border town between Texas and New Mexico on the historic Route 66 is slowly dying after years of prosperity. Almost no one comes here anymore. The country’s economic crisis hit hard out here where businesses were already ailing.
Time and the recent recession in the US economy have taken a serious toll on the legendary Route 66 which crosses the country from West to East. Tucumcari, a small border town between Texas and New Mexico is slowly dying after years of prosperity. Almost no one comes here anymore. The country’s economic crisis hit hard out here, where businesses were already ailing.
Carole Keith, the director of the Chamber of Commerce, tells the story of Tucumcari’s decline : "The last nail in the coffin was when the railroad pulled out. We lost 120 good paying jobs and all the families that go with them."
Tucumcari used to be one of the main stops on Route 66, but the new highway which bypasses the town contributed to putting an end to that tradition. Justin Galvan, Del’s Restaurant Manager adds that the current rise in the price of gas has done nothing to help Dels’, and the other businesses which are struggling to bring customers back into town : "the high price of gas makes the prices on everything go up. And people have their own ways of dealing with. For example, they don’t eat out anymore. "
Bill Kinder, the owner of the Blue Swallow Motel, blames the credit system for the country’s economic turmoil : "The whole US economy has to get booming. When I grew up, you never bought anything without a 25% down-payment. A credit card was something you earned. Now, with the younger generation, everybody has to have everything right away without having to earn it."
Others, like Deborah Lopez, the manager of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bar feel like they’re not the only ones suffering and that it’s time for the next president to focus on his own country : "I think he needs to pay attention to here. The United States, the people in it, their children, their health, their education, the elderly...they need pay attention to here and not elsewhere. This is going on everywhere, not just in Tucumcari, everybody’s feeling it. "
Caught in between the problems of the general economy and its own, Tucumcari is desperately trying to find a way out. Its inhabitants, just like those of many of the small towns along Route 66, miss a past that shines in comparison to the meager promises that the future seems to hold for them.
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Crisis along Route 66
Americans do not seem to appreciate negative stories about their country. In that sense, they are probably identical to the French people and folks from all other nations. For me, it was a interesting read. I am not so sensitive so that folks who complain do not fall into the category of 'whiners.' As long as there is a mix of stories is all one could expect.
A CITY OF CONTRASTS
I have visited Tucumcari sporadically since 1986, when vehicle breakdown gave me an unplanned vacation there. There is new housing, and abandoned houses; there are businesses that appear to be doing well, and there are abandoned stores and shops. There is now a McDonalds, new 15 years ago. Prosperity appears VERY uneven, the contrasts startling. The Guest House Motel where I stayed in '86 is long closed, as is Bud's Service, where owner Bud got me on the road again with used parts from "out back." A town dependent on tourism is really hard-hit when people can't afford to take the vehicle trips they used to. A shame!
Old News
I went drove through Tucumcari a few times in the late 90s and it was half ghost town then. This is nothing new. I'd hate to imagine that it has gotten worse. I'd say their Chamber of Commerce needs to quit whining and do something. We've turned what's left of US 66 in Oklahoma into quite a tourist attraction. Tumcumcari should do the same.
GREAT REPORT
Somehow I am not surprised that people from the Bay area are not aware of what is going on in small town America, and of how much people are suffering.
Thank you to your reporter for letting the world know about the forgotten faces and voices of America.
Bottom story of the day?
This story reads like the writer was in search of suffering and found a small town with residents willing to give agreeable quotes.
'Grumble, grumble, people have too many credit cards.'
'The president killed Tucumcari.'
I wouldn't even have read it, but it caught my eye because I have spent a little time in Tucumcari.
Please. I always feel sorry for people displaced by change but we need to be adults about it and realize that life contains change and while sometimes painful in the short run it is usually for the better for the country, the populace, and even the individual in the long run.
CAPTCHA
As a rather loyal "France 24" fan, there have been a few times in the past year that I have been puzzled by a few of your reports on the United States. The News Spot on Tucumcari was so ridiculous that I have to respond. I have been traveling through New Mexico for over 25 years and can never recall any shining economic vitality present in the rather dismal town of Tucumcari. Route 66 was dead decades ago along with the towns that the Route passed through. Interstate 40 has moved business away from Tucumcari's city center to the exits a mile or so outside of town. Any contemporary credit or economic downturn - 1.9% GDP growth and 5.7% unemployment trounces anything in Europe! has nothing to do with a historically depressed town in one of the most historically poverty ridden states in the Union.
Your editors must be hard pressed for news or have some wierd political agenda. I don't know, however, I shall watch your news with a skeptical eye. Stick to Europe and the Middle East; areas in which you all do a spendid job!