This is the title of a poignant PBS documentary by the Emmy Award winning producer, David Crouse, who grew up in Lima. The doc is also narrated by the great Hal Holbrook, who is not only from Ohio, but just recently visited our community, performing his long running one man show, Mark Twain.
Lost in Middle America follows Lima from its birth and boom through its bust and subsequent decline. Airing in 1999, Craig's documentary paints a pretty fair portrait of Lima up until that time, but it's interesting to see how Lima has changed in the more than 10 years since the PBS episode aired.
Our community has lost over 3% of its population since 2000, exceeding the rate of Ohio as a whole. In fact, Lima's current population is only slightly higher than its 1910 population of aprox. 35,000. Not only that but out of the 2000+ locally owned businesses in our community, the census bureau has classified the amount of minority owned business as fewer than 100 or has suppressed the data.
Here are parts 1 and 2 of the documentary. Stay tuned for the conclusion on Monday.
If you would like to volunteer your knowledge, abilities and time to helping resurrect our community, please contact CHHO at dkellermeyer@connectedhands.org.
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