MOBILE, Ala. -- Years before many Seattleites would consider Mobile a jet-city rival, officials here set sights on the Pacific Northwest and its lucrative aerospace industry.
"We've been to Seattle several times, but I don't recall Seattle coming here," Mobile Mayor Sam Jones said in a recent interview. "While it appears that some people in Seattle don't know a lot about Mobile, Alabama, Boeing knows a whole lot about us. They've been here twice."
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Indeed. Some in this Gulf Coast city speculate that The Boeing Co.'s consideration of putting 787 jetliner production in Mobile is what ultimately led the parent company of Airbus to land here.
Now Mobile has emerged as a mini-challenger to Seattle, hosting Boeing's biggest competitor in America's backyard. With a $35 billion contract endorsement from the Air Force (which Boeing is protesting), Airbus' parent company, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., has pledged to build commercial airplanes along with military tankers in Alabama.
How did this happen? Mobile officials cite an embrace of globalization, an outpouring of Southern hospitality toward big business and an ability to put aside political differences at all levels of government.
The city's leaders share a common dialogue and a distaste for those who would prevent progress. Port of Mobile Director Jimmy Lyons, for example, calls people who grouse all the time, "cave people," for "citizens against virtually everything."
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