Brewed Fresh Daily

One of the best ways to learn about regional economic development is to visit other regions. So, it’s not surprising that many leading regions send leadership delegations to visit other regions to learn what works.

Lexington, KY is one of the best examples. The chamber — which organizes these trips — each year puts together delegations of 200-300 leaders to visit leading regions. A couple of years ago, I helped guide a delegation to learn how we transformed Oklahoma City.

This year, they are heading for Austin. Read more.

Visit their CommerceLexington site to learn more about theses leadership visits.

Cuyahoga County needs a workforce strategy, but it’s no secret Cleveland’s business, government and foundation leadership is having a tough time putting one together. (It’s not easy.) Here’s a good model to follow.

Racine County, WI released its workforce development strategy last week. The event is notable for a number of reasons.

• First, it shows how a workforce development organization is moving to orchestrate economic development strategy. The core issue for economic developers in the years ahead will be brainpower. Who has got it? Who knows how to develop it? Who can deliver it to the door step of growing businesses? Effective strategies require bridging the gaps among education, workforce development and economic development. 
• Second, the report is remarkably free of jargon. Too often workforce development strategies are technical documents that fail to move people to action. They focus on compiling statistics, not telling a story. The Racine report is different. It focuses on a story.
• Third, the Racine report does a good job of outlining a set of strategic outcomes. How will Racine County be different? We have a sense of a clearer direction than most strategies…which depend too much on vacuous visions or bumper sticker slogans. (For example: “We will match our talent with jobs”)
• Fourth, the report organizes a relatively small set of high level metrics. Metrics are important for two reasons. First, they can help us understand what’s working. In other words, they are a tool of learning. Equally important, metrics keep our conversations focused over a sustained period of time.
• Finally, the folks in Racine rolled out their plan with a video. In other words, they focused on telling their story not just in print, but also on the web.

You can read more about the Racine County strategy from this article.

You can download a copy of the report here.

Racine is not the only place where people are dramatically rethinking workforce strategy. Recently in Nashville, folks learned what was happening in Oklahoma, as the state moves from a job training system to a talent development system.

That’s what WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development), an important federal initiative is all about. Learn more.

Reading the newspaper reports this morning of the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee presents yet another sad display of political leadership run amok. The lack of civility is stunning.

This experience comes on the heels of a raucous city council meeting in Detroit, which prompted a thirteen year old to remind Detroit’s city council president (wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers) to act like an adult. “You’re an adult. You have that choice (not to call your opponent a name),” she admonished. The Wall Street Journal brought attention to the exchange in an article last week.

(The Detroit News has a video of both the initial council meeting meltdown and the subsequent panel in which the 13 year old gives the council president a lesson in civility.)

Now all this reminds me just a little of our County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora’s famous meltdown of recent weeks against the Plain Dealer.

(Dimora’s stout declaration “I am not a snitch” of course echoes Richard Nixon’s famous “I am not a crook”. But it reminded me of yet another politician’s gaffe. Some years ago, The Washingtonian magazine published an article on “The Ten Dumbest Congressmen”. The Virginia Senator selected as Number 1 promptly called a press conference to declare — you might have guessed it — that he was not one of the ten dumbest Congressmen. That’s about as smart as declaring you are not a snitch in front of a bunch of reporters.)

There’s an alternative future for Cuyahoga County.

P.M Forni, a professor at Johns Hopkins, has written an important little book, Choosing Civility. He points out that civility is a learned behavior. He guides the Civility Project at Johns Hopkins.

Two years ago, in Howard County, MD, civic leaders launched a civility project. Over the past two years, the project has grown into a public campaign. Read more.

About the same time, Cleveland Heights launched a civility project, but this effort seems to have faded. View the web site.

Civility is more than a “nice thing to do”. In a global economy, where prosperity is based on increasingly on networks and open innovation, relationships — the ability to both initiate and develop them — are critical to generating wealth. Civility and the trust it fosters become strategic assets for individuals, companies and regional economies. It’s not surprising to me that both Detroit and Cleveland (two of the poorest cities in the country) reveal deep patterns of incivility.

Economies are like bicycles. As they slow down, they are harder to keep balanced. In political terms,controversies become more of a zero sum game of winners and losers. (This is one reason, among others, that local politicians are fighting so hard to protect their patronage.) Personality politics rule. This dynamic leads to aa downward cycle of development.

The consequences of a poisoned political atmosphere are severe. But here’s the rub: The price of incivility is rarely paid by those incapable of acting with civility.

But as 13 year old Keiara Bell points out, we do have a choice not to act like second graders.

Is it time for Cuyahoga County to launch its own civility initiative, as Howard County, MD has done? One modification: Make this civility initiative a core part of a city and county economic development strategy.

Here is some interesting new research on what drives our sense of fairness.

This study, which appears in the May 8 early online edition of the journal Science, is the first to examine “neuroethics”–the neural underpinnings of moral decision making–with real-world consequences. It may also help guide how to make policy decisions about distributing resources. And, adds Jonathan Katz, chair of Caltech’s Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, “It’s one of the first studies to bridge humanities research with social science and biology,” a central effort at Caltech.

How Fairness Is Wired In The Brain

Representatives from both Cleveland and Akron are in Israel this week connecting with technology companies.

The Jerusalem Post carries a story this morning about how the Cleveland Clinic is developing ties to Israeli companies.

“Israel has become a remarkable innovative place. This is a hotbed,” Tom Sudow, director of business development at the Cleveland Clinic’s Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, said at a press briefing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. “What Israel lacks is a market to expand. We are here to attract and help Israeli companies to set up partnerships or operations in the State of Ohio as a base for expanding their markets to North America.”

During the Ohio delegation’s visit at the Israel Biomed 2008 Conference this week, Sudow has scheduled 35 meetings with Israeli companies.

“We are very excited about cardiovascular research companies in Israel,” he said. “As a result of these meetings, we are now in the final stages to partner up with five local biomedical companies who will be able to expand their reach in the US.”

Cleveland Clinic to partner with local companies

Akron is also busy developing connections:

City officials visit nation, hoping to attract others to ‘biomedical corridor’

Here’s an update on what’s been happening with the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE).

Hi All – Abby and I are back from a week on the road, during which we got to see many of your smiling faces. Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cleveland – all continue to be, unsurprisingly, amazing.

A few notes of interest:

1. PRESS – We had the privilege of meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel while we were in town, and they wrote something nice about us! Check it here.

2. About that urban agenda… we’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen, in our most nascent form of advocacy: “None of the candidates for president has an urban agenda, and we need one!” WELL, Barack Obama (perhaps a future Great Lakes president?) apparently has been listening. I guess we can pack it up. Anyway, your reflections on his extremely thorough urban policy platform would be welcome on GLUEspace: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/urbanpolicy/

3. GLUE LAUNCHES in BUFFALO! The date has been set: Saturday, June 21, at 7 pm, on the steps of the Museum of Science. Food, idea-swapping, the new site, potentially local celebs/officials, and an IRON POUR that will result in SIDEWALK SQUARES WITH THE GLUE LOGO – combined with a GLUE reunion of sorts is going to make this an incredibly exciting event. We hope to see many of you there.

ACTION ITEM #1: MARK YOUR CALENDARS for June 21 in Buffalo! If you are planning to attend from another city, please let your nearest GLUE neighbors know, for potential car-pooling or coordinated mass-transit riding.

4. Congrats, Seth, on pulling off an amazing conference. From Rust Belt to Artist Belt was a resounding success, and truly epitomized the strength of ideas that can arise by cross-pollinating: arts with community development, for instance. We heard a ton of good ideas (and I actually talked about the conference and some of those ideas in a presentation on Thursday!). Cleveland really is becoming a “thought leader” in this work, and the word is spreading. It’s exciting to watch.

5. Local meetings. You all saw the video Antonio put together for our last local meetings (thank you Antonio!), which was a great way to give people a real take-away – some good ideas, a bit of expertise. I think we are getting a little closer to what these meetings should be as we move forward, but your continued input is encouraged. More on the next meeting next week, and some new strategies for improvement, but for now:

ACTION ITEM #2: Please email Sarah/Abby with the date/location of your next GLUE local meeting, and whether you will be facilitating or have found a new member to the facilitation team.

6. In Wisconsin and Michigan we’ve just announced passage of the Great Lakes Compact – but the story is more complex than that. Some of the compromises built into the legislation so far threaten to do lasting damage to the ability of the Compact to actually manage our water. We’d love to become a go-to news source on this issue, and hope you will help. Could anyone sum up the situation in their state? Can everyone please keep your eyes peeled for stories? Who can help us break down the complexities in a way that makes it easy to understand?

This is an issue where we will actually have to care about what’s happening in other states – the rest of us are going to have to put pressure on WI, for instance, to change some of their amendments before this goes to Congress. Help us think of ways to keep pressing for positive action on the passage of the Compact in its 8-state region.

7. ACTION ITEM #3: Have you talked to your issue committee yet? Have you decided who’s going to write the first piece, and when?

I think that about wraps it up – hope you are all doing well and hope to see many of you in Buffalo, where this, in some ways, all began, in about a month. Thanks for your continued support and willingness to be involved in this very big work, even in its very small daily ways.

from the Detroit HQ,
yours in GLUE,
Sarah & Abby

–
Sarah L. Szurpicki
Co-Founder, Great Lakes Urban Exchange
Project Manager, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin
www.gluespace.org

Eaton opens a new LEED certified building near Pittsburgh:

Eaton Corp. is promoting its $24 million green-certified addition in Moon as being a conservation-minded triple play.

First, officials said, the 120,000-square-foot facility should use 50 percent less electricity than the two buildings it’s replacing in Findlay; second, much of the savings utilized Eaton’s own power-management products; and third, many of those product innovators will be moved into new, first-floor labs here.

 
‘Green’ adds up for Eaton

The economic development opportunity may start with building design, but it extends out from there.

Last week, in Milwaukee, I learned of a new initiative to develop skills in green building evaluation (including energy audits) among inner city residents. A new business that is forming will train inner city residents in conducting energy audits with new hand-held technologies.

Tying green building to inner city employment opportunities opens the door to “green collar jobs”. Here’s an example of what is happening in Philadelphia.

One Stone? Green-collar job programs aim to address two urban ills at once

(The article indicates that there is a Cleveland green jobs initiative underway. Anybody know what’s happening?)

If you would like to learn more, download this report.

The Plain Dealer explores an important issue: teacher skills.

A growing body of research argues that education schools — despite some exemplary exceptions — produce inadequately prepared teachers.

The issue is crucial because educators agree that having a quality teacher in the classroom is the single most important factor in a child’s education.

In fact, research shows that students who have three ineffective teachers in a row will score as much as 50 percentage points lower on standardized tests than students who have three effective teachers in a row, said Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond.

Also: Read the insightful commentary to the article.

Research questions quality of teacher education

Additional resources:

Alternative Paths to Teacher Certification (This article explores different appraoches to teacher certification.)

Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action (2004) (This report proposes a strategy to upgrade, fundamentally, the U.S. teaching profession. It includes recommendations for improving methods of recruitment, training, assessment, support and compensation.)

According to some folks who attended the public session last night on the convention center, the meeting got pretty hot.

The common sense location for the convention center could be overridden by political concerns and the pressure to bail out Tower City. Public voices last night put their finger on the tight relationship between Forest City and the GCP.

The problem with the Tower City scenario: the location does not work logistically very well. Conventions are a business of flow — moving people and equipment in and out quickly. To be competitive (and gain market share in a very soft market), Cleveland must excel at logistics.

The Tower City location is too tight to make logistics competitive. The biggest risk of the Tower City/Forest City option, then, is that the public will end up with an expensive, empty box.

Public assesses proposed sites for convention center, medical mart

One conclusion is clear. After ten years of trying, Cleveland’s leadership does not have a clue about how to design and manage a civic process to get a convention center built.

Perhaps someone should consult the Portland (OR) Planning Commission Public Participation Manual and the Commission’s Public Participation Policy.

In case you missed them earlier this week, Ohio’s Third Frontier Commission announced some significant investments in the NEO region and the state. Here are some articles to get you up to speed:

• State initiative seeks top researchers to rebuild Ohio’s economy
• State awards $143 million for tech research 
• Kent State awarded more than $14M to study liquid crystals and soft matter
• Area to get state aid for bone and joint research
• Three Ohio universities win $28M aerospace award
• Third Frontier leaders hope fund will stick around longer than expected

Syncro Medical Innovations, a portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator, has been awarded a highly competitive $350,000 technology commercialization grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier program.  

The funding will be used to help bring to market the company’s proprietary medical feeding tube technology which utilizes external magnets for tube guidance and placement.

Read more from The Vindicator.