May 9, 2012 – This morning on WYPR’s Maryland Morning, host Sheilah Kast spoke with RMI president Mike Galiazzo on the state of manufacturing in Maryland. Also a guest on the show was Howard Wial, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and one of the authors of the institution’s recent study, “Locating American Manufacturing: Trends in the Geography of Production.”

Galiazzo touched on some key points during the discussion, pointing out that Maryland already has the creativity and the resources to succeed in manufacturing, but that the overall public impression of the manufacturing industry is what has kept the state from moving forward.

“There’s a general feeling that manufacturing is a dying industry, [and] a lot of folks [have] stopped looking at manufacturing as an industry to be gainfully employed,” Galiazzo said. “What we shouldn’t lose sight of is that manufacturing will continue to be a great bridge to middle-class America.”

Fortunately, as he explains, political leadership has become increasingly supportive of building a future for manufacturing in Maryland.

Baltimore’s a city of great imagination,” Galiazzo said. “What we see downtown is the result of people who envision things and make it happen… We have the assets, now we need the action to go along with it.”

You can listen to the full discussion on the Maryland Morning website.