Boeing goes south. So will others.

The Brookings Institution has a feature called the MetroMonitor, which ranks the economic performance of the nation’s 100 largest cities. Just glance at the map and it is not difficult to discern trends. Employment, real estate, economic growth or decline, and a host of other factors go into the rankings. As a region we are not in such great shape.

Seattle is the best performing city on the West Coast, at 53rd out of 100. Every other city west of the Rockies hit the bottom 40 — San Diego, 68; San Francisco, 71; Phoenix, 73; Los Angeles, 76; Portland, 81; Boise, 84; Las Vegas, 86.

Many of the top 20 best performing cities were concentrated in Texas — San Antonio, 1; Austin, 2; Dallas-Fort Worth, 5; Houston, 9; El Paso, 10. Other cities in the top 10 include places like Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; Little Rock, Ark.; Baton Rouge, La.

You can’t use this short-term analysis to predict our inevitable regional decline, but the news that Boeing would build its new 787 line in South Carolina should sober up a lot of people. Reading some of the reaction and analysis is depressing if you have hopes for the future of Washington state’s industries and manufacturing. It sounds like Boeing just couldn’t stand it here anymore.

The Washington Post’s story by Dana Hedgpeth said “Boeing’s S.C. jobs a setback for unions.” Boeing is going where it need not deal with organized labor, it said. “This is the escape from collective bargaining,” said Gary Chaison of Clark University. “Boeing is creating its own trend in heavy manufacturing and more and more manufacturing is going to move south.” Said Jefferson Cowie of Cornell University: “Puget Sound is going to be in direct competition with South Carolina. You have this competitive geography of labor relations that Boeing will be able to whip-saw one location off another. It is very difficult to rise above that for the union. Boeing will have a non-union work force in a right-to-work state with a favorable business climate. It is emblematic of contemporary labor relations.”

In Everett, The Herald’s Jerry Cornfield wrote of the months of behind-the-scenes work by Sen. Patty Murray to bring the machinists union and Boeing together, and the futility of it all. Minds were made up long ago, after a long series of frustrations. “Boeing executives only half-heartedly penciled in Everett for the coveted production line, discouraged Murray from rallying on the city’s behalf, held bad memories of the strike and Gov. Chris Gregoire walking the line, smarted from battle with state legislators and purchased a South Carolina aerospace company.” In the end the union offered Boeing a long-term no-strike contract. Boeing ignored it. The deal was done.

Trade unions will not suddenly disappear and Seattle will not become South Carolina, but someone should start to listen to those pleading with the region to take this situation seriously, to think long-term and consider our faults and shortcomings, because there are many.

“Boeing’s decision to assemble 787s in South Carolina was the mother of all wake-up calls,” wrote columnist Joel Connelly in SeattlePI.com. We aren’t waking up yet. We argue over petty issues while larger trends determine our future, he said. Sen. Murray described this situation in an interview. Seattle and its port is the gateway to the Pacific and its trade, and one in four jobs here depends on it. But ports of British Columbia, the Gulf Coast and even the East are investing heavily to take away that business.

Washington state will falter and fade if its leaders are complacent, self-satisified and shortsighted. This is a problem. Right now we can only see to the next election.

Tracy Warner’s column appears Tuesday through Friday. He can be reached at warner@wenworld.com or 665-1163.