Joe Molnar
Joe Molnar
Joe Molnar is a proud 4th generation son of South Bend and the author of More People, a series about how South Bend lost 50,000 people in 50 years, and what we can do about it. Follow Joe on Twitter.
Recent posts by Joe
One of Joe Molnar's neighbors recently asked: how can he be proud of South Bend amid a recent spat of depressing shootings, a higher-than-average poverty rate, poor school performance, and hollowed-out neighborhoods?
If South Bend’s population is growing, which neighborhoods are experiencing the growth? Today in More People, we explore what the 2020 Census means for each corner of the city. Surprises included.
The 2020 Census shows South Bend is experiencing its fastest population growth since the 1950s. Will we look back on the 2010s as the decade when the city began its recovery?
The 2020 Census shows South Bend experiencing its biggest population growth since the 1950s. We’re revisiting the More People series to celebrate and make sense of the news.
Life during a South Bend winter is life under the permacloud. As the city wakes up with signs of spring, we reflect on the tolls and strange blessings of this uniquely cold and lonely season.
South Bend lost 50,000 people in 50 years and lived to tell the story. Today, we’re a city of 100,000 people, including many who chose to stay and new immigrants who moved here. How?
Population decline is the root cause of many problems facing South Bend today. It’s about time we understand the real cost of this fabled decline.
Today, tens of thousands of people work in South Bend and enjoy her amenities, but deliberately live just outside the city limits. Why? In the early nineties, the city and her suburbs fought a war over this question.
Everyone has their own story about why South Bend’s population declined, the most common being a lack of jobs. But the problem is not that South Bend lacks good-paying jobs—the problem is that its residents do not hold them.
If you lived in South Bend during the 90s, it was easy to think that the city’s collapse had come and gone decades ago. But this was not true. In the year 2000, the worst was yet to come.