Jeff

There is a Henry County in Ohio, too?

These renderings are pretty good. I've heard of this before, but didnt realize it was on an "L"- like structure...I thought it was a big grade-seperation embankment. But, yeah, very interesting concept....

Also, the concept is appealing...live in the lofts in Webster Station, work in Tech Town...

I see they are going to save that one big old Frigidaire building. Thats good! I wonder if Dayton will succeed, once again, in reinventing itself economically. Thats really what this is about...economic re-invention and repositioning.

The SIA did an article on the Hueletts a few years ago...that was my intro to that technology. Speaking of unloaders, has anyone here been to the Upper Penninsula or northern Wisconsin to see how the ore boats where loaded...those massive ore docks?

I recognize skyscrapers from Steubenville and Middletown.....heck this has got to be the definitive Urban Ohio thread!

SW Warren is a mess.

Excellent...good shots of the buisness district!

Er....um.....I do have a rifle....

The Mountain Parkway and Daniel Boone Parkway in Kentucky are as you say..in parts they are two, or three lanes, w. an alternating passing lane, but true limited access, with interchanges and no buisness frontage.

A lesson from Kentucky... Kentucky was unfortunatly somewhat bypassed by the Interestate System for east-west in-state connections, particulary the part of the state west of Louisville & Bowling Green. The response was for the state to construct its own limited access highway system, more or less engineered to interstate standards. Hence, the Western Kentucky & Bluegrass Parkways connecting the Frankfort/Lexington areas with Elizabethtown and points west to Paducah/Kentucky Lake. Additional parkways where built to supplement this main stem, and into Eastern Kentucky (Cumberland, Daniel Boone, and Mountain Parkways). All of these where toll roads, with the tolls coming off during the late 70s and early 80s. So perhaps Ohio should build a Toledo/Columbus/Portsmouth/Ironton highway as a tollroad. Actually it probably wouldnt be too difficult to upgrade the roads that are already there to true limited access w. interchanges, the way US 35 is between Chillicothe and Xenia.

Actually the initial BRAC list will be released in May. As for new construction, that doesn't gaurantee a thing. There was a sigifigant amount of new construction at McCellan AFB in California back during the 1980s (including a nuclear reactor/aircraft inspection/x-ray facility), and that installation was closed via one of the BRAC tranches during the 1990s. Rather than closure hopefully WPAFB will be a reciever base. NASIC, or its predecessor unit, was how WPAFB got connected to UFOs & aliens & "Rosewell"..how the "hangar 18" urban legend got started.

The mural sounds interesting.

good grief..i recall those freenets. There was one in Youngstown, too, and I think Cincy and Dayton...

^ wow, great before and after maps..1940 vs 1994. Confirms what I suspected.

^ The 9 brackets probably reflect attempts at progressivity. Yet you are correct about consumption & property tax as preferred revenue sources. Consumption taxes are pretty much whats used in many local govts as a major revenue source. And property taxes are a fairly reliable way to raise revenue, too, a they not affected by economic cycles as much.

Thats a real distortion for VA if you are talking all gov.t workers, as N. VA is the "Pentagon" related defense stuff, and maybe some DC commuters...plus the various defense establishments at Hampton Roads. And alot of those private sector jobs are in Northern VA are there due to contracting w. DoD for consulting, contracted-out functions, etc...so in a sense the VA economy is partially subsidized by the federal defense budget.

Heres an interesting summary from one of my links... Source of revenue for Ohio, as of 2003 32.7% Sales 16.1% Excise (gas, booze, etc) 38.3% Personal Income 3.8% Corporate Income 8.8% Other And, for the Ohio ranking for combined state and localincome taxes, using the top local rate of 2.85%...Ohio ranks #4 nationaly as of 2001 for high income taxes. Yet for State income taxes Ohio is actually equivilant in its highest tax bracket, 7.5%, to South Carolina, Utah, and Oklahoma, which are all at 7% for the high bracket. Oregon had the highest bracket..9% for the top. ..and there are only three tax brackets in Oregon.

OK, here is a question. What does "lost" mean? I know that Kentukcy had more land in farms back in the 1940s than it does now, but the land ended up going out of production and reverting to forest. The land wasn't all subdivided. I wouldnt be suprised if that wasnt happening in Ohio. The figures cited are statewide. I would not be suprised one bit so see alot of land going out of production in appalachian Ohio, and this contirbution being a large part of the overall state figure.

Taxation. Corporate Income Tax Viriginia --->6% (flat) Unemployment rate around 3.6% Mississippi--->3%-5%, Unemployment rate around 6.7% South Carolina ---> 5% (flat) Unemployment rate 7% North Carolina- ---> 6.9% (flat) Unemployment rate 5.4% Ohio----> 5.1% to 8.5% (two brackets). Unemployment rate 6.1% Yet, the question is correlation. SC & MS had a lower corporate tax rate but some of the highest unemployment, while VA has a slightly higher rate, but very low unemployment. Ohio has a very high tax rate, but is closer to SC in unemployment. I still think employment/job creation is dependent on other things besides taxation and it remains a question for me as to what percentage of buisness cost is made up by taxation. MonteCarlos is probably right about this when he talks about unions being an issue. I believe the reason for job-shedding in Ohio is the high cost of labor...that this is still a manufacturing state and that that the pay structure is high due to a history of unionization, tho unions are probably a small player here nowadays. This is probably driving manufacturing to either automate more or to go offshore. That was the story behind the big emigration to Ohio from the southern Appalachians. The mines sucessfully unionized during the 1930s, but in the 1940s labor-saving machinery was introduced..in short, the mines automated to reduce their labor costs. The recently unionized and now unemployed miners migrated north for work.

...or does most of it go....70% of it....to Medicaid and K-12/higher ed.

Locutus will of course link you to a conservative site that has an ideological axe to grind. For a more of a "just the facts, make up your own mind" site try this one with links to all sorts of tax comparisons between states. This is put out by the Federation of Tax Administrators. These are the experts. Taxes are their job. No matter what kind or how much or little. Or you can check out the Tax Facts page from the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution.

You are correct in that education costs are excessive. I think there is room to cut in higher education, too. For example....Ohio has four architecture programs. Why? Save money by closing Miami & Cincys programs & keep the ones in Kent and OSU...or just the one at OSU. This is just one example but I am sure one can find duplication across the board. And maybe closing some schools makes sense. Shawnee State University? Why? And why should the state be funding K-12? That should be a local responsiblity. Not only is the state subsidizing higher teacher pay, its also subsidizing inefficient small-scale school districts. 74% of Medicaid expenditures go to the disabled, blind, and low income elderly. In terms of which providers get the money the expenditures sort out thusly in rough percentages: Nursing homes: 30% Hospitals: 21% Drugs: 18% Total : 69% of the Medicaid budget goes to the these three provider classes, with nursing homes taking a third. This should be of concern given the large chunk of state budget money going to Medicaid.

You are implying some sort of connection between taxation and employment. Here is the unemployment rate for the recent past: ..if there is a correlation tax rates will correlate with unemployment...higher taxes--->drives out buisness--->higher unemployment. As for the high cost of the budget and "government jobs" the largest general expenditures in % of the budget was for Medicaid (the state contribution) and education Medicaid 2000 = 33% 2003 = 35% 2004 (est) = 36.7% 2005 (est) = 37.1% Education (K-12 through college) 2002 = 39% 2003 = 38.8% 2004= 37.9% 2005 = 38% ...so the money is going to high-paid medical practitioners (nurses, doctors, med-techs, testing labs) plus teachers and college proffessors. If you want to make a big hit these are the budget lines you need to cut as thats where the money is.

I think your cause and effect relationship is flawed.