Recent Comments
- JS said “Would April be when Strategic Focuses are chosen? Proposed? Both? Do action plans have result ...” on Managing a regional strategy
- JS said “When a reporter writes "Those entities are collaborating to move high-tech research and development to ...” on Looking at the Third Frontier
- Ed Morrison said “JS. You've lost me.” on Looking at the Third Frontier
- JS said “"a firm" Yes, anyone can do a search and find one firm. It would be ...” on Looking at the Third Frontier
- Ed Morrison said “Well, JS, it took me about five minutes to find a firm that is using ...” on Looking at the Third Frontier
- About BDP Comments
Meta
Ed Morrison · Cleveland’s failed leadership
January 4th, 2009
It’s hard to imagine which is worse.
On the one hand, we have a county commission that is having the worst time putting together a 30-year-old idea that is 10 years late: building a convention center.
The commission has gone ahead to finance the project with public money with no business plan: a process no businessman or banker in their right mind would follow.
The result is one of the goofiest public investment projects to come down the pike in a long time. (Recall that since the Commission’s decision to finance this project last summer, the financial markets have melted and the economy is heading for a prolonged recession. Not a peep from the Commission that they have evaluated these dramatically changed circumstances.)
On the other hand, we have the self-serious Plain Dealer editorial writers who insist that a medical mart is vitally important for the future of city, even though we don’t even have a business plan that explains the concept. (Recall also that reporting by Jay Miller of Crain’s raised serious — and still unanswered — questions about the economic viability of the medical mart months ago.)
Both are examples of failed leadership.
It turns out, as the Cleveland Federal Reserve economists have pointed out on numerous occasions, educational attainment is a key driver of economic development.
Apparently, too few of of Cleveland’s leaders have read the basics as set forth in the Cleveland Fed’s 2005 annual report.
It appears none of our leaders have read the excellent work done by by Paul Gottlieb and Mike Fogarty at REI in 1999 on the role of educational attainment and metropolitan income growth. (Their nationally recognized work won the Milken Institute Award for Distinguished Economic Research.)
The County would be far better off investing its sales tax revenue to provide college tuitions to Cuyahoga County residents.
Take a look at the Kalamazoo Promise. Or, the Davenport Promise. Or, the Pittsburgh Promise. Or, the Texas Tuition Promise Fund.
Just as important, we could invest in early childhood education as an economic development strategy, since, as this morning’s paper outlines, we have one of the best programs in the country.
The Minneapolis Fed has outlined the economic case. The prestigious Committee for Economic Development in Washington has set the policy priority. Nobel laureate James Heckman underscores the opportunity to innovate in public education.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
It’s our tax money, but it’s not about us. It’s about them. Who gets the deal. Who controls the contracts. Who gets bailed-out.
It’s time to defend Cleveland against failed, burned-out, cynical leadership.
Last 5 posts by Ed Morrison
- Managing a regional strategy - February 9th, 2010
- Northeast Ohio and the color of dinosaurs - February 5th, 2010
- Moving regions toward open innovation - February 4th, 2010
- What's next for the Future Fund and the Cleveland Foundation? - February 4th, 2010
- Looking at the Third Frontier - January 31st, 2010
January 4th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
How?
January 4th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
First, let’s recognize that a transformation of Cleveland’s leadership will take time. It’s not an event, it’s a process. Organizing politically takes focused effort over time.
Second, we can leverage the connections of the emerging social networks in CLE. (This is happening now in Indiana with Smaller Indiana.)
Third, we have some leading practices to build networks across the city. We have been developing these practices at Purdue and elsewhere, and we can bring them to CLE in the form of workshops.
So, putting together an agenda to Defend Cleveland means working together and strengthening our existing networks, identifying opportunities, and then moving.
You can start by going over to Defend Cleveland and adding your thoughts.
http://www.defendcleveland.net/wiki
January 4th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Ed, excellent post and thanks for all of the links.
I agree that the county could invest its money more wisely than into the convention center (or mart or whatever it is called today), but I’m not sure that providing college tuition assistance to Cuyahoga County residents is even best option. Northeast Ohio is unique in the number and quality of universities that are already here. Some are historically well-respected; Cleveland State has been making positive strides in recent years. From my point of view, a huge part of the problem is that the students who attend these universities have no interest in living in Cleveland post graduation.
The first step would be to find out what recent graduates look for in cities (hint, convention centers are not the answer) and invest in whatever will retain those who we are already educating in our region. Tuition assistance for locals could only be truly helpful if these individuals don’t want to pack up their bags and skip town as soon as the program is over.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Ed, is there anything extant about free mass transit also being a key economic driver, along with educational attainment?
January 5th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Rob:
Thanks for your thoughts.
We are talking about two separate issues: 1) developing brainpower with investments in early child care (for which there is a good deal of economic data to support this strategy); 2) investments in college for recent high school graduates (where the economic evidence is not so detailed, but still strong, given the connection between education attainment an earnings) and 3) developing “stickier connections” for recent graduates through internships and making “cool” places attractive to young professional lifestyles.
These are not either/or strategies.
There’s a lot of research that’s been done on the questions you raise about what makes young people like one location over another, and I doubt it makes much sense to replicate more research.
My sense is that people want to move toward action, not more study. In Youngstown, Hunter is working with young people to design the city and the YSU campus. That’s one important dimension the engagement, I think, we need to be pointing toward.
That said, I will post some resources on Defend Cleveland that you can review.
One strategy that seems to work for getting graduates to stick in a region involves expanding internship programs.
I vaguely recall something being done here — perhaps through NOCHE — but I’m not sure how active this effort is. I’ll investigate and report over at Defend Cleveland: http://defendcleveland.net
Tim:
I have no sense of this, although there are some places (like Denver) that use this strategy. I’ll do a quick check to see if anybody at Purdue knows something.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Rob:
I posted some resources here: http://snurl.com/9hgsz
January 5th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Tim–Free MASS transit is BRILLIANT. I know where you are going with this…Medical Mart Tax?
January 5th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Ed,
I was just recommended to you via JessicaDCI on Twitter.
I recommend you look at http://www.soapboxmedia.com/. for a benchmark of spreading positive development news (but not fluff) in a community. It was developed in response to frustration with Cincinnati news media only running “bad news” stories.
Cleveland is a great American city! Good luck!
John
January 5th, 2009 at 11:09 am
A few suggestions: buy a home in Cleveland, fix it up, move into it and LIVE IN THE CITY. Find a job or start a company and PAY TAXES HERE. VOTE for a city councilperson.
Everyone one else can take one step back and talk about (the lack of) leadership in the cities where they live and work.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:12 am
George–all GREAT suggestions. How those taxes get spent? There’s the rub…
January 5th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
My taxes were spent on red light cameras. flying a plane over (then) Jacobs Field to support more taxes, and paying off sex harassment suits.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
How about all of the tax revenue that goes to Washington and comes back to us as HUD/CDBG funds used to float the useless CDCs in Cleveland?–CDCs=incubators for the next suburban spawn generation of failed leadership in Cleveland. Sorry–I am feeling especially bitter today. But I would like to see Jackson do something/anything to keep that money in the community. Start by requiring CDC employees to live in the City of Cleveland .
January 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
We should create a new “progressive movement” in Cleveland. The leadership is so out of touch and beyond repair. We need a new revolution.
Read the Medical Mart mess on my website: http://techczar.blog.com/2008/2/
Michael
January 5th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
How about requiring CDC employees to live in the CDC’s service area?
January 5th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
The progressive movement is in Cleveland. There are plenty of creative folk around that have the passion to see Clevo rise.
Any suggestions on how to get that enthusiasm to gel?
January 5th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Larry:
Creating the progressive movement in Cleveland has me thinking…a lot about how to stoke these embers and make progressive change for cleveland. You are right, and I have seen this and believed this for quite some time, there are just the right amount of the creative class, emerging professionals and grass-roots efforts to make significant change. But how to corral it? Still thinking on that measure. Thoughts?
Michael
January 5th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Larry, Mike: I can quickly set up a forum at Defend Cleveland. Let me know it like to carry the conversation on over there.
http://www.defendcleveland.net
January 5th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
To be an actual movement, @techczar, it must be liberated—not corralled.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
If people want to give their thoughts on what a small band of civic entrepreneurs might be able to accomplish, spend a few minutes penciling your thoughts:
http://is.gd/eEsb
January 5th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Living in Cleveland proper? No thanks. Gimme a good inner ring suburb any day. The quality of life is way better. And if you have kids, it’s barely an option anyway.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:35 am
More of the same…let’s just continue to allow the circus that is Cleveland City Council spend our money to satisfy “urban” developers, let’s pretend we have a mayor, while we transfer any real decision-making to the county, now shifting it’s power base to…Bay Village?
January 6th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Look, if good ole Sheriff McFaul can cut people, how about eliminating the CDCs? They’re sucking the life out of the City of Cleveland.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:01 am
This is too much:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/01/realty_company_tied_to_medical.html
And the folks who comment have some good points, but look at the monikers they attach to themselves…although, I do have to laugh.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:40 am
John, enjoy the bubble while you can. The first ring suburbs may be utopia now, but your sons won’t recognize the neighborhood they grew up in 10 years from now if something doesn’t change.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
George…the bubble metaphor…I am crying…I couldn’t have said it better
January 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
No, they’re hardly utopia, which is much of the point. They have most of the same blends of high and low points that pure urban living had some years ago, though with fewer of the most intractable problems (or at least on a more manageable scale) such as high crime, slow emergency response time, crumbling public schools and infrastructure, closed churches, etc.
When Cleveland Hts. had a drive-by gang-related shooting 20 years ago, just down the street from our then-starter home, it was a wake-up call. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been one since. But that didn’t happen without a tremendous mobilization of thought, effort and resources.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Worth a read:
http://portal.cleveland-oh.gov/clnd_images/PDF/UrbanAgenda.pdf
January 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Its interesting to read this “urban agenda paper” from the Mayor again-(or portions or it). I first read it when Mayor Jackson submitted the paper to Senator Clinton and then, Senator, now, President-Elect Obama. About a year ago, both campaigns in response to your paper, sent him written replies on their specific urban policy initatives.
As I read portions of the “agenda paper this afternoon, I couldn’t tell if his urban agenda paper were items that he thought were accomplished; things he was working on, items that were on his agenda this election year, or plans for new initiatives moving ahead. Or, maybe a combo of all four.
Remember, Mayor Jackson’s campaign motto in 2006, “I want to be judged by the success of my policies, and their impact on the “least of these”? So, are the least of these, or for that matter, all of us, better off?
January 10th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I am alarmed by the push to refund CDCs, especially, after our county treasurer has essentially usurped their housing and development services under the guise of a land bank, now they will be all the more useless and a drain on our resources. AND, their SALARIES don’t even contribute to the property tax base in Cleveland, because these folks don’t LIVE HERE! Oh, the irony. And, why the hell does Frank Jackson go along with the Opportunity Corridor?? There are some pressing repairs that need to be addressed.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I am stopping by the “Magic Wand Store.” The wand that I will purchase will have the power with one well placed Abra Freeking Cadabra,to run the Old Guard out of town, and bring some new leadership in.
I think we have to start with a clean slate, though it is probably a fantasy.
Joel Libava
{Writing from my new home office. And enjoying the 3rd highest county real estate taxes that I pay in University Heights. I love America. Really.}