Interesting Op-ed piece from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette putting the NEO/ SW PA economy and interconnections in perspective.  Thanks to Defend Youngstown for posting this on his FB page.

 

Welcome to Cleveburgh!

Pittsburghers need to rethink their place in the world Regional economist CHRISTOPHER BRIEM tells us why

Sunday, January 02, 2011 

 

Cleveburgh. To anyone who has survived the many cold slugfests pitting the Steelers against the Browns, this word may grate like fingernails pulled across a chalkboard. But chalkboards have seen their day. It may be time to realize that what separates Pittsburgh and Cleveland is more artificial than real. It may be time to talk about the once-unthinkable: a combined Cleveland-Pittsburgh metro region.

 

more at:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11002/1114678-109.stm

why don't we just let PA annex NE Ohio while we're at it! :)

yes

Where's that separation thread, I know I put it somewhere??

 

Ohh, here it is: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,24993.0.html

 

sounds like we need to include a few more areas in our new "state" :D :D :D

 

Could be worse. They could call it Pittsland! So anyway... I also posted it here:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,12576.0.html

why don't we just let PA annex NE Ohio while we're at it! :)

 

Wow, I never thought I would hear a true Ohioan, let alone northeast Ohioan say they would rather be associated with Pittsburgh over Ohio, what has this world come to.

"Both regions have worked to streamline fragmented local governments."

 

I chortled just a bit when I read this.

 

 

Wow, I never thought I would hear a true Ohioan, let alone northeast Ohioan say they would rather be associated with Pittsburgh over Ohio, what has this world come to.

 

When your state is being taken over by fascists, Pittsburgh starts to sound pretty good.

Let alone the irony that our new governor is from Pittsburgh...

why don't we just let PA annex NE Ohio while we're at it! :)

 

Wow, I never thought I would hear a true Ohioan, let alone northeast Ohioan say they would rather be associated with Pittsburgh over Ohio, what has this world come to.

 

Give it a couple months.  Same tongue in cheek talk (that's all it is) followed the 2004 election when Ohio put Bush back in office for four more years.

Wow, I never thought I would hear a true Ohioan, let alone northeast Ohioan say they would rather be associated with Pittsburgh over Ohio, what has this world come to.

 

When your state is being taken over by fascists, Pittsburgh starts to sound pretty good.

 

Oh boy, I don't like Kasich at all, but he's no more a fascist than Obama is a communist.

I think the difference is that KJP was joking.... and knows what a fascist is in the first place.

Well.... half-joking.

"I'll denounce Calvin Coolidge as a Bohlshevik".  Auntie Mame...

 

years ago it was put forth that we live in a region called CHI-WAS for Chicago-Washington.  Basically the premise was that the corridor from Chicago to Washington and point in between constitute a sort of loose megalopolis.

I've never heard of Chi-Was.  I have heard of ChiPitts:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChiPitts

 

Which is also a ridiculous concept.  Though I can buy a ClevePitts or even a MichiPitts, to push it.

 

Of course, there was the old Mark Russell joke about megaregions. He said there's more than just Bosnywash (Boston-New York-Washington) and San-San (San Diego-San Francisco). He made up several others, the most memorable and my favorite being:

 

Declevealopittsinnati (Detroit - Cleveland - Buffalo - Pittsburgh - Cincinnati).

Wow, I never thought I would hear a true Ohioan, let alone northeast Ohioan say they would rather be associated with Pittsburgh over Ohio, what has this world come to.

 

When your state is being taken over by fascists, Pittsburgh starts to sound pretty good.

 

Political persuasions are just minor disagreements in the grand scheme of things, just like the dyanmic of a large family arguing at the dinner table. In the end we are all from Ohio, and it beats the hell out of Sh***sburgh

Keeping with the family theme: It does no good to insult and fight with our cousins next door if we have mutual interests.

I do a lot of work with folks in Pittsburgh, and I like many things about Pittsburgh. I find many sections of it more urbane, youthful and dynamic than any parts of any major city in Ohio. Perhaps the University Circle area of Cleveland is comparable, but that's about it right now.

 

Furthermore, in talking to staff and board members of their metropolitan planning organization, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, they are seeing that their economic destiny lies not with Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Washington DC, but with Cleveland and Youngstown.

 

They have almost nothing in common economically with cities on the other side of the Alleghenies.

 

 

Pittsburgh has a lot going for it in my opinion. They appear to have more foot traffic, more street retail, and there smaller roads make the downtown appear larger then it actually is. Hell im actually a little jealous.

 

Edit: They also have some great architecture. Not saying we dont just saying I wouldn't put them down.

Pittsburgh has made different policy choices than Cleveland.  They have not allowed their inner city to be torn down or replaced with suburban develpment.  They have also taken concrete steps to encourage inner city retail.  These approaches could work in Cleveland too.

 

100% agreed that Cleveland and Pittsburgh are best served by strengthening mutual ties.  They both have more in common than either does with the rest of its respective state.  In many ways the Youngstown area already feels like a shared exurb.

Pittsburgh has made different policy choices than Cleveland. They have not allowed their inner city to be torn down or replaced with suburban develpment. They have also taken concrete steps to encourage inner city retail. These approaches could work in Cleveland too.

 

All true. Pittsburgh has a big advantage when it comes to inner city neighborhoods. It would be nice if Cleveland could strengthen its inner city neighborhoods to Pittsburgh's level. It would take the addition of a good deal of structural density to do so. Although I think Cleveland has a better downtown (not aesthetically speaking), and Pittsburgh does have more suburban blight due to the ways these cities grew and declined.

ColDayMan brought up MichiPitts. That's actually something I've argued with friends and colleagues for years about on the topic that Northeast Ohio needs to regionalize. I don't disagree with a unified NEO, but regionalization shouldn't stop at county or MSA borders. In areas like SW Michigan, NW Ohio, NE Ohio and SW Pa., which are already pretty interconntected, officials need to enter into Economic Development agreements with each other to bring companies to those areas, even if it means finding creative ways of sharing the taxes.

 

Compared to the rest of the country, land is cheap in all those areas. The infastructure is already in place. And there is an exisiting population that is eager to do the labor. They just need to pull their resources together to make it worthwhile for companies to bring back jobs that are going out of the country or to the Sun Belt.

 

From a Cleveland-centric standpoint, something like a Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland-Akron/Canton-Youngtown-Pittsburgh unified region may actually benefit the city most because it's essentially in the middle and could become the capital of this psuedo state. As it stands, Cleveland is already a split between Pittsburgh (steel) and Detroit (automotive). Keep that base here and expand the medical (already strong in Cleveland and Pittsburgh), new technologies (Pittsburgh) and alternative energy fields (something that the Toledo area has embraced.)

An effort exists to market Cleveland, Pittsburgh and points in between

Published: Sun, January 16, 2011 @ 12:00 a.m.

 

We welcomed Christopher Briem’s Jan. 9 op-ed. “An artificial separation” in which he presented a long list of good reasons why the Pittsburgh-Youngstown-Cleveland region should work more closely together for economic gain. Together, we have excellent universities, 30 Fortune 1000 companies, many emerging industries, unparalleled hospitals and research centers, and many residents. All of these strengths and more make us a formidable global competitor.

 

In fact, a formal collaboration is now in its fourth year, created as a result of leadership provided by U.S. Reps. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and Tim Ryan, D-Niles. The goal of the TechBelt Initiative is to establish the region as a global center for public and private investment, research and manufacturing. The stakeholders that began to engage in this effort recognized that we can build on a strong base of life sciences and energy sector related companies to leverage the region’s unique and high-value assets.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/jan/16/an-effort-exists-to-market-cleveland-pit/?newswatch