Wichita, KS Economic Outlook is picking up even with all the aerospace layoffs there. In Wichita there is a 79.4% white, 9.1% Black and 22% of the jobs are in manufacturing which the average salary is over $18.45 per hour or at the average of 39.5 hours per week is over 45K per year annual income - High paying manufacturing jobs. Most of which are aviation related 56% are totally aviation only.

Even with the lay offs and more to come things look better than most manufacturing cities. 46% of employers thought they might lay off more people next year but the indication is that 54% will not. That is better than most manufacturing related towns we traveled to such as Stanton PA, Allentown PA, Manchester NH, Tulsa OK, etc. With similar MSA characteristics with regards to manufacturing. Last year 64% of the employers laid off. Retail is up a bit mostly due to newer stores such as Wal-mart, Grocery and Pet Retail Companies. Over all without that we saw a 3% decline in retail last year, probably again lay offs in aviation manufacturing sectors.

Downtown area are receiving another upgrade, one area is similar to the OKC Brick Town, often travelers simply calling it Brick City, even AAA in there magazine called that.

The Brick City http://www.bricktownokc.com/

theme and has attracted residents and tourists especially on weekends to shop around, hangout and spend. Bars similar to Nashville open for kids and places to eat outside as well. Also slated is a River Walk project, a scaled down version of the one in San Antonio

http://thesanantonioriverwalk.com/riverwal...ry/History4.asp

Those projects will hopefully keep downtown from any further decay. The Wichita Ambassadors are sponsoring a project to alert their commercial and retail businesses that they must keep downtown clean from debris to attract more commerce. They have published a little booklet