Brewed Fresh Daily

Now, this is where Wavy Gravy would have a field day…

All these Baby Boomers raiding the County cookie jar, trying to figure out who’s on first (apologies to the Abbott and Costello), and throwing around ole’ tomatoes (more apologies to Amos ‘n’ Andy), looking like the Three Stooges, driving around drunk at 2 in the morning…while the rest of us watch.

As the Firesign Theatre famously proclaimed, “I think we’re all bozos on this bus“.

County computer consultant set up re-election Web site for Bill Mason

Cuyahoga County commissioners will rehire two accountants, breaking buyout rules

Cuyahoga County’s pick to replace J. Kevin Kelley draws scrutiny from some officials

My colleague at EMSI, an economic modeling firm, passed along a link to work they are doing with the Alliance for Excellent Education. They have estimated the economic impact of reducing high school drop-out rates.

Consider that in Cleveland:

Converting 1,000 drop-outs in one class to 1,000 new graduates would likely lead these 1,000 graduates to:

• Earn $13 million in additional earnings each year;
• Spend an additional $1.1 million each year purchasing vehicles and, by the time they reach the midpoint of their careers, would buy homes worth $30 million more than what they would likely have spent without a diploma; and
• Support 110 new jobs in the region, increase the gross regional product by $16 million, and pour an additional $1.9 million annually into state and local coffers, all through their increased spending and investments

You can download the Cleveland summary here.

Lorain County Community College is a hot spot of innovation, and Roy Church is recognized nationally for his leadership. If you haven’t visited the campus, take a trip and see the future of community colleges.

LCCC is linking up in Youngstown with an innovative solution to Youngstown’s lack of a community college. This is the type of innovation that rarely gets acknowledged locally.

College happy to showcase its programs to president

One of the major challenges we face in strengthening a region’s competitive performance comes in defining new career pathways. Competitive regions in the future will have tighter connections between what education systems produce and what employers need.

Tightening these connection is a complex challenge.

It requires developing the new language of skills and career pathways. The language will be more precise and measurable. In addition, the new language will be much more visual. Because of the complexity, we will turn to visual representations to define these pathways.

Last week, we launched a new initiative in Will County, IL to build these pathways. Here’s an example of the types of ideas we are working to develop. We see multiple applications in assessing career options for dislocated workers, charting career options for high school students, evaluating composite curricula for clusters, and strengthening communication links between business managers and educators.

We’ve worked hard in Kokomo to adjust to the downturn of the auto economy. Kokomo is ground zero for the Chrysler meltdown.

Here’s one of the initiatives we launched, and we’ve been having good success. We linked engineering talent at Delphi Electronics with the Kauffman Foundation’s Fast Trak training and resources through Inventrek, our incubator.

The video below tells the story.

The good, if modest, news: Cleveland’s design district is still twitching forward.

Amish furniture makers and Cleveland planners explore benefits of Euclid Ave. design district

The challenge for Cleveland, though, is speed. Very little gets done quickly in Cleveland’s economic development. There is no real sense of urgency to transforming the city’s economy.

And that, in itself, is a major competitive disadvantage. Until Cleveland’s civic leadership can figure out an approach to translating ideas into action quickly, there’s not much chance that Cleveland will pull out of its downward spiral.

Designing and implementing an economic development strategy — one that translates ideas into action quickly — is not a trivial matter. As McAlister Clabaugh of the National Academy has noted, effective strategy may be the ultimate local innovation.

Thanks to Aaron Renn:

Rust Belt Cities: Pursuing Casinos Like Captain Ahab?

Take a look at this column from the Gary Post-Tribune.

This Indiana city has had casinos since the 1990s, and yet they haven’t really brought the economic development that was promised, this writer believes.

“The Gary casinos haven’t been a complete flop. They have provided jobs and tax revenue of up to $25 million a year to the city,” he writes. “But, the economic development hasn’t followed.”

And keep in mind…Gary is just a short drive from the metropolis of Chicago. And one of those casinos had the Trump name on it, according to the story.

Yet the city continues to think a casino could be its salvation, like Captain Ahab pursuing the whale, as the author puts it.

Leaders in the Ohio cities that just landed casino agreements would do well to take note of what has – and hasn’t worked – in Gary.

The Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force, part of the Cuyahoga County government, aims to have regulatory issues resolved by the end of 2010 and a project built by 2013, according to Steven Dever, executive director of the task force. The wind farm is designed to be a pilot project with a capacity of 5-20 megawatts. It is planned for the waters of Cuyahoga County, near Cleveland.

Ohio Project Will Seek Environmental Study Contractor

Water Innovations Alliance announces new water conference to be held at University of Dayton

“The Dayton Region is pleased to host the Water Innovations Alliance’s Dayton Water Conference in 2010,” said Jim Leftwich, President & CEO, Dayton Development Coalition. “This national, high profile conference gives our region the opportunity to promote our valuable, abundant, and sustainable water resource. We welcome the global business leaders and innovators who will be involved in the conference and look forward to their messages as we advance our precious asset.”

“The University of Dayton is pleased to be one of the sponsors of the Dayton Water Conference,” commented Dan Curran, President, University of Dayton. “The Dayton region is fortunate to have clean and bountiful groundwater. Prudent use of our unique water resources for economic development, education, and recreation will be a key to the region’s future vitality. We look forward to welcoming key stakeholders from across the country to Dayton, Ohio to learn about new developments in fresh and waste water technologies.”

Is NEO forming a food policy council?

Councils are springing up across North America to “connect the dots” between the growing number of neighborhood food initiatives and communities forging policies for just, healthy food systems.

Breaking Through the Asphalt: Food Policy Councils

You can download the report on food policy councils here.

Here’s an example of a regional food system emerging in SW Iowa: Southwest Iowa Food and Farm Initiative