Issue 2

Writing Team

We kept hitting the same wall across this issue. Rome, Georgia just committed $3.5M to run water to an industrial park. The sewer waits for a named prospect. That tells Rome which manufacturers it can pitch to now and which it can't, and it's a sharper position than most cities hold, because most haven't asked the question underneath. The utility, the treatment plant, the community college, the landowner: each controls a piece of what a site selector needs, and none of them report to you. Getting their answers on paper before the RFI arrives is the whole game.

Ruth Anne Bridwell

Ruth Anne Bridwell has covered U.S. manufacturing site economics for over two decades, from Rust Belt plant closings to the current reshoring wave. Her career spans municipal reporting, national trade press, and practitioner-facing intelligence products for economic development agencies. She writes compressed, attribute-specific analysis that translates sector dynamics into the infrastructure and workforce requirements tier-3 cities need to evaluate.

Issue 2