Buttgieg hasn't created tech jobs. He's perpetuated misery while finding gimmicks to build his own brand. South Bend is poor, miserable and broken.
In his book, Buttigieg derides the “moribund Studebaker corridor”, promising to make South Bend into a “Silicon Prairie” with “data centers and start-ups”. But despite seven years in power, there are relatively few such jobs in the city. Only 1.5% of South Bend’s jobs are in the computer and mathematical sector, and the occupation is listed as one of South Bend’s “least specialized”, meaning that it has dramatically fewer workers in this sector than most places in America.
Instead, the city has increasingly become an appendage of Notre Dame, a wealthy Catholic private university. The people who once upon a time might have worked good union jobs at Studebaker now work increasingly in the “food and serving” sector, whipping up fancy coffees and craft booze for the rich kids.
Studebaker has been gone for over 60 years. I've heard stories about workers waiting for Packard to come back and open their factory.