AmrapinVA

I don't think Columbus is clean, I just know it has never sunk to the level of someone like Dow. Pure anti-business practices in his Ward during his tenure. Didn't know Dow was defeated. That's a positive for C-land for sure.

I know people *love* to make these claims, but I've never once seen anyone post any factual data to back this up. We do know from the BLS data that Government jobs in all 3-Cs exceed 100K, and the actual % of government to total jobs in any of them are just a few % points different top to bottom. I've never seen any data whatsoever that OSU is subsidized mostly from money outside of Columbus. Where is your "80-85%" number coming from? I think the benefit of having a flagship state university are hugely important. This is no a knock on Columbus at all. Having a large student body and research capabilities of a large university are beneficial to economic development for the region. Columbus seems to do a good job of leveraging this anchor. It would be hard for Cleveland to replicate that success given the size of that anchor institution. Although, Cleveland is starting to do a good job of leveraging Cleveland Clinic, CWRU, UH and to a lesser degree CSU. Sure, Cleveland has a great asset in the Clinic. It also has a Councilman neighbor who tries to shakedown every business that tries to locate in the area. I don't see that in C-bus.

Columbus has more than OSU and the State Capital. As stated up thread, Columbus is the most welcoming area for immigrants in the state, at least over the last 30 years. And immigrants are still the primary driver of population growth. Four-termer Mayor Jackson in Cleveland has openly stated the city needs to take care of "it's own" first. Great attitude in the 21st century. Also, Columbus doesn't have tons of city council members each trying to make a buck in their territory and not looking at the big picture of what's better for the city and region. Same with how the suburbs operate in Cleveland and Cincinnati. Regionalism be damned. It's easy to say the SW/NE Ohio will never have the resources of Central Ohio. It's harder to admit the Columbus area is also doing things right vs. the rest of the state. Again, I think it's great Columbus is becoming the primary MSA in the state. It's the economically solid. As it grows and expands the state will too.

^ I agree. We shouldn't close the southern border.

Way off topic, so my feelings won't be hurt if this is removed: In fairness, merit based immigration policies are used throughout the Western World. That's why it makes no sense to bash the US on immigration then pump up a place like Canada as "open minded". Canada has been doing it Trump style for decades. I don't like the merit system. I think our current immigration policy is better and is why we are still the main port of entry for people looking for a better life. I don't want to be like Canada and Europe on this one whose policies are more insular and take us backward.

Cincy is keeping up with Columbus too. Cincy is a bit slower growth but it is a bigger market too still. There is less in-migration there because of the lack of state government and Ohio State, but otherwise, it is very comparable to Columbus. Cleveland and Toledo and Dayton have struggled as well as Youngstown. There economies were all a lot less diverse than Cincy and Columbus (albeit Cleveland has a lot of diversity) which hurt those smaller Markets. Cleveland was hurt by the manufacturing changes that occurred in the last 30 years but has finally straightened things out and growing again, albeit slowly. Point being, no city in Ohio can really toot its own horn because unlike the Sun Belt, growth is essentially flat. Heck New York is growing too yet they have the largest outmigration of anywhere in the country. It is just there are a flood of immigrants that enter through there to take the place of those who leave. The Sun Belt is growing because of favorable tax policies in Florida and Texas take the snow birds from the North, and there is a lot of migration from Latin America, etc, larger families in the Bible Belt, manufacturing jobs relocating to Sun Belt for numerous reasons (namely that is where a lot of people desire to live) The Columbus area has been the fastest growing metro over the last half century. It's also been the least affected by recession. True, Cincinnati's growth is around Columbus's pace over the last few years but it's mostly been behind C-bus since Ohio's growth slowed down. Columbus's fairly steady economic expansion is impressive to me. As Columbus gets larger and larger, it should increasingly offset ebb-and-flow problems in Cincy and Cleveland economies and allow the entire state to grow more consistently again. Not a bad thing. As for Cleveland, it saw higher growth in the 1990s only to be offset by two recessions. It's growing again but still had many more jobs 1999 than it has today. At what point does the area actually expand? If the Cleveland area could grow at even half the rate of Columbus there's no doubt Ohio would be growing decently again.

So you're saying the Cincinnati and Cleveland have no hope for faster/rebounding growth because Johnstown or Wheeling can't get it's act together? And that there are no examples to take from Columbus/Franklin Co.? I don't believe either of those things. Nobody knocked Columbus's growth at all. At least I didn't take it as a knock at all. Perhaps I missed something. That's a fair point. Looking back I was being a bit harsh and probably read too much into it. It's just that when Columbus is used as an example on many threads here there's always someone from a different part of the state trying to knock it down. I think it's part of the reason why people from Columbus don't frequent this site as much or at least don't post as much in the forums.

Instead of finding excuses to knock down the Columbus growth rate why not discuss ways to emulate the Central Ohio business environment throughout the entire state? Imagine if Cleveland and Cincy were growing as fast as C-bus. The state growth rate would be closer to the Sun Belt average than the Eastern Midwest. People from Columbus should be proud.

Tower City will never be Union Station. Not a good comparison, IMHO.

I 100% agree about HY obscuring Empire and Chrysler from the west. Particularly Chrysler. I do like the project but NY's skyline does feel a little less iconic than it did 15 years ago. I don't think the tall thin condos just north of the commercial center of Midtown/Times Square are helping either. You can throw in the new WTC buildings as well. I know the old one's were just giant boxes but they looked impressive. The new WTC buidlings are tall but their volume seems smaller when you see it from a distance compared to the old WTC.

The problem with North America is it's a complete "us versus them" mentality on both sides. Drivers vs. Bikers vs. Pedestrians/Pedestrian vs. Bikers vs. Drivers. Most other countries have a constructive attitude towards this and all parties respect traffic laws for the most part. I also wouldn't lump bikers and walkers together. Here in the DC area bikers are extremely aggressive towards pedestrians, particularly the lycra wearing types that don't want any child or elderly person on a paved path. It's Tour de France 24/7 on any paved surface. Much like it's the Indy 500 on city streets with most Ohio drivers.

I was just in Manhattan for the parade and you can see it clearly from the Weehawken side of the Lincoln Tunnel. I don't like it. It feels fine for Dubai, looks out of place in Manhattan. The triangular building not HY.