Brewed Fresh Daily

Last week, the Associated Press announced that Michigan�s governor was launching a �Cool Cities� initiative to attract young professionals. A while back, our governor wrote a check for $100 million attempting to save a dying steel mill. We�ve been confused in this town into thinking that bigger is better, that projects like Gateway and Browns Stadium will stimulate our local economy (they haven�t), or that big companies like BP Oil and TRW would lead us into a renaissance (they left town). Instead, we�re finally starting to realize that small and medium-sized businesses, and the entrepreneurs that start them, will be Cleveland�s future, if we can only learn how to attract them. We already have the cultural assets and lifestyle that entrepreneurs want. We just have to learn how to put them at the top of our efforts to sell Cleveland, not at the bottom. Everyone repeat: Information Age, not Industrial Age. Participatory recreation, not big-league sports. Arts festivals, not rib cook-offs. Culture, not cheap cost of living. Galleries and museums, not assembly lines.