It's a tale of two cities for South Bend. For the first time in more than four decades, South Bend was named an All-America city on Friday. Now less than a week later, another national publication is highlighting the city as a dying one, and it's being printed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Just released after midnight, early Tuesday morning, the article is an opinion piece, and points much of the blame for South Bend's current economic status on the local political landscape, along with choices made over past decades. The article views South Bend as a case study and example for the national political landscape heading into the 2012 elections.

"It’s really disappointing to see that story. There are lots of positive things going on in our community these opinion pieces unfortunately never get to that,” South Bend mayor Steve Luecke said.

The article, written by Main Street columnist William McGurn, also blasts the city for not cashing in on it's proximity to Chicago, for failing to utilize its riverfront downtown and for neglecting local businesses.

The column got to more than just the mayor; the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce read the piece and says it should serve as a call to act.

"We just have to continue to reinvent ourselves and I’m hoping that's what's happening right now. Hopefully it’s happening on the government side, on the business side and I’m hoping that's happening on the community side,” Chamber president Jeff Rea said.

After learning McGurn used to be a staff writer for George W. Bush, many people saw the column as a personal attack on a predominantly liberal city. City leaders took it one step further, citing the column as merely an opinion piece, not real un-biased journalism.

"Well there's a lot of hyperbole here. I guess that's what opinion writers do. He [McGurn] mentions that the All-American city judges didn't come to South Bend; well of course neither did Newsweek and to be honest, I don't know if he [McGurn] has come to South Bend,” Luecke added.

Mayor Luecke told NewsCenter 16 that he most disagrees with McGurn’s implication that South Bend Democrats are anti-business. Luecke says his tireless work to add jobs at McCormick Products, Schafer Gear Works and Innovation Park should prove McGurn’s logic wrong.

Throughout the entire piece, McGurn only gave two compliments. The first was directed at Governor Mitch Daniels for his rigid economic reform. The second was donned upon South Bend Democratic mayoral candidate Pete Buttigieg for defeating an alleged Democratic machine.

Buttigieg's camp says it's aware of the article and continues to stand beside its 29-year-old Rhodes Scholar.

Earlier this year, South Bend was listed as a dying city in Newsweek's top ten dying American cities. The Wall Street Journal article didn't fully agree with Newsweek's assessment, but it didn't disagree with it either.

We have a link to the Wall Street Journal article located on the big red bar. Because of subscription policies, only the first few paragraphs are viewable if you do not already receive the Wall Street Journal.