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To show you what’s possible and economic development, let me take you back to 1993. For a decade, Oklahoma City had been caught in a backwater. The collapse of oil prices in the early 1980s sent the economy into a slow walk.

By the mid-1990s, a new mayor, Ron Norrick, began to shift the attention of the leadership in the city toward a new future based on investment of both public and private dollars.

He came up with a bold plan called MAPS. A dynamic publicly led economic developer strategy, MAPS created some key infrastructure investments and established new anchors to guide development in downtown.

At the same time, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce hired me to design a companion economic strategy, one that was privately-led and publicly-supported. Our privately-led strategy focused on diversifying the economy, as well as stimulating the type of private investment needed to build a vibrant downtown. My friend Charles Van Rysselberge headed the chamber and helped me design a strategy for the Chamber that could work. (Charles is now head of the chamber in Charleston, SC and doing remarkable things there.)

I remember the day the Chamber selection committee interviewed me and later told me that they had decided to hire me. Staring out on a sterile cement courtyard next to the downtown parking garage where the chamber was located, I remember distinctly thinking to myself, “What have I gotten myself into?”

Slowly, a small group of us went to work to build a new strategy for Oklahoma City. We worked to get MAPS passed by the voters, and to raise the $15 million we needed for the Chamber’s strategy. It was a difficult time. I was aware that some of the board members of the chamber actually wanted our small group to fail. (In economic development, especially in shrinking economies, there is a rather odd leadership pathology that follows the dictum: “If it ain’t mine, kill it.”)

Here’s how bleak it was. A couple of years ago, civic leaders in Lexington, Kentucky asked me to accompany them to Oklahoma City to learn about how a city transforms. I got a chance to have lunch with former Mayor Norrick. I recall telling him that in the depths of the 1990s, when we were just starting out, there were days when I was staying at the downtown hotel, and I was convinced that I was the only person in the hotel. Ron looked at me and said, “You probably were.”

A few weeks before we were to launch our strategy, disaster struck with the Oklahoma City bombing. Nobody predicted what would happen, but the tragedy actually strengthened the city and the resolve of its leaders.

Fast forward 10 years, and you can see how the combined strategy of the City in the Chamber transformed Oklahoma City.

Now if you go to downtown Okalhoma City you will see a vibrant city. All of this is possible with sensible strategies that focus on leverage points and opportunities that emerge from connecting assets.

Memories of staring out at blank cement came to mind when I saw a new article in Fast Company magazine on the transformation taking place in Oklahoma City. The economic transformation has been remarkable.

Here’s a graph the shows how per capita incomes rose started to accelerate about 2002.

Cleveland — in many ways — has far more assets than Oklahoma City, circa 1993. What Cleveland lacks is a leadership that understands the dynamics of how cities transform. Visiting Oklahoma City might help.

(Cross posted to edmorrison.com)

Last 5 posts by Ed Morrison

• Facing the Foreclosure Crisis in Greater Cleveland - July 26th, 2010
• Regenerating urban economies with incubators - July 25th, 2010
• Export NEO - July 25th, 2010
• The Youngstown China Connection - July 24th, 2010
• Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center - July 24th, 2010

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