Just interested in what you all think Cleveland to be like in ten years, in terms of regional economy, projects currently being built, and those being proposed. Population of both city and region. National image, city schools and national attractions.

 

 

In ten years I would like Cleveland to have a population of between 550,000 and 650,000 and bring in at least one new major fortune 500 company.

It's hard enough to predict the weather in this town more than a few days in advance, let alone it's economy 10 years down the road. No one can answer that. But if you want to know what we'd like to see happen, that's something that anyone can answer.

 

I'm not sure why a surprisingly large number of Clevelanders feel we have to attract a large company to the area. I think a more plausible outcome is that some homegrown companies hit the big time and, just as important, that we can keep them. But if we want our small local companies to grow as much as their owners want them to, then we need to assist them in whatever way. Ditto for entrepenuers, who seem to have difficulty getting their start in NEO, and sometimes have to go beyond Cleveland to collaborate with other entrepenuers, find legal or financial resources, and attract clients. If we can correct that, we'll be able to help the Charles Brush's, Frederick Crawford's, Garrett Morgan's and Peter Lewis' of the future.

I just hope that everything that has been proposed in the past year gets built. Imagine what Cleveland will be like when ECP, Flats East Bank, Avenue District, Battery Park, Stonebridge, Cuyahoga County Offices get built. In 10 years I hope that University Circle is totally different. I hope that there are numerous well thought of residential/retail developments that make it Cleveland's premiere neighborhood. As KJP noted above, it is going to be very important to keep our home grown companies within city limits. Hopefully some of the spin-offs from Case, UH and the Clinic can hit the big time. I hope that our schools continue on their up-ward swing, and that residents continue to move back to the city. I hope that in 10 years that our population has stopped declining, even if we don't make big gains in population, it would just be heart warming to see that we did not lose any residents.

i hope you realize how crazy growth to 650k for cleveland, let alone any city is quite rediculous. I'm too lazy to do the math, but thats like what 20% growth in 10 year? what are we, las vegas?

I think Cleveland will be quite a different -- and much better -- place in 10 years, though I don't think it will be manifested in traditional terms like massive population growth or new Fortune 500 companies. I think what you'll see in 10 years is a city that has rediscovered its sense of "urban-ness," with lots of new residents and retail downtown and an impressive slate of revitalized city neighborhoods. Several major development projects will be complete by then, and young people who do not hold their parents' negative attitudes toward the city will begin to populate both new and old urban neighborhoods.

I see evidence that Cleveland is finally starting to embrace the things (density, historic structures, transit) that distinguish it from the suburbs, rather than absurdly and unsuccessfully mimicking them.

I heard there was a math problem

 

If you started with a population of 480,000 and you had a continuous 4% increase in population each year for ten years, the end population would be 683,189.67

 

yes, Cleveland would have two thirds of a person along with the 683,189 people.

3% would give 626,291.1282

 

^ Gee, that's actually plausible. How about a marketing campaign that says "Come Home to Cleveland" rather than "Believe in Cleveland"? Believing in Cleveland doesn't necessarily expand the tax base. Coming home to Cleveland (from the suburbs or other cities) does.

We can start by having babies..lol

Gee, I thought you were a guy?!  :oops:

I know 3-4% growth does not sound like a lot but when you start with 468,000 we would have to add 14,000-18,000 people a year for 10 years. I am all for believing in Cleveland, but that is asking a little too much.

There are many who believe that Cleveland's population was greatly under-estimated by the 2000 census.  The Social Compact estimates that Cleveland actually has a population of 588,000. 

 

http://www.nhlink.net/socialcompact/pdf/cleveland_drill_down/overallreport/cleveland_overview_executive_summary.pdf

 

There are many commercial real estate bigwigs who put more faith in this report than the US Census.

It's too bad that we haven't pushed the census to consider these results.  Maybe we could get them to up our official population, thus increasing our apportionment of money, a la Saint Louis.

 

I'll be happy if we have no net loss of population within the next 10 years.  Even with all of the housing going up in some neighborhoods, we are losing alot in others to demo and abandonment, and we are facing a continuing decline in household size.

if Im not mistake the lawsuit or inquiry with the census, by cleveland and the county (since the county was undercounted) is still in effect.

 

IIRC, any city over 500k population get more federal funding.  So I think the city/county are fighting for retroactive payment(s) since the census was not accurate.

 

Two instances I know personal, I for one complained about not being counted and I live in Shaker Square.  The two buildings accross the street complained because they were listed as "shaker hts." instead of "cleveland".

 

Its a mess...and costing the region money.  As well as it feeds into the "...we're losing population" BS

undercounted urban populations by the census? take a freakin number........

seriously, but is the Fed actually going to change their system?  I know they can't just give jurisdiction over to the local municipalities to do their own counts, but they could probably do better to learn from them about how best to do the count as accurately as possible.

As for this 10-year vision, I agree in large part with what I'm hearing here.  I don't think we'll be luring any big companies away from somewhere else and I have "ethical" issues with doing so anyway.  It's like getting a football franchise from another city.  Chances are, the city you're getting the company (or team) from is struggling already and I wouldn't want to be on the ass end of the deal (ala Office Max, BP, etc.), so I can't say I'm in favor of this sort of competitive growth.  Now, in cases where there's a merger or an acquisition and we're in danger of losing what we've got... well, that's different. 

 

I think it's much more important, credible, and sustainable for us to find ways to keep our homegrown talent and investment here...at home.  We've seen and heard about too many of these people, businesses and ideas slipping away already.  And we can't necessarily fault people for leaving if they have sincerely tried to stay and couldn't find a way to make it work.  We, as a region (not just Cleveland), need to work to keep these people and dollars in town.  That's the only way we're going to see any kind of growth.  Sure, the exurbs have been growing over the years, but they're really just absorbing the exodus from the City and Inner Ring.  If we want to grow, we're going to have to have jobs for people to stay for...in Cleveland and region-wide.  Families will grow and if we can retain them and so will our city and region.  Oh, and people with choices will come here because they think it's a fantastic place to live, work and raise a family,  not just because their job transferred them.

 

And then there's the draw of home...  When I decided to "Come Home to Cleveland" (KJP, you've outdone the PD again!) earlier this year, it wasn't because I had a job lined up or because I thought my employment opportunities were better here than in NYC.  I chose to move back home because of the potential I saw here and because of the compassion I have for this city and because I felt like this was a place and a time that offered me opportunities to make a difference in a city that needs more difference makers. 

 

What I found very quickly was that I'm one of many people who share this passion and vision for Cleveland.  This is reason #1 why I feel that, 10 years from now, Cleveland is going to be a better place to live because we will have captured the excitement of (as B12 said) a new generation of urbanites, and restored faith in Cleveland in many of those people who had stopped looking for reasons to stay in or return to Cleveland over the past several decades. 

Very well put, MGD. As you know -- I came back for the exact same reasons, and we continue to meet others who are doing so too!

As for this 10-year vision, I agree in large part with what I'm hearing here.  I don't think we'll be luring any big companies away from somewhere else ...... 

 

We need to cultivate our own home grown companies so that they WILL BE the next big companies.  example...Walmart.  Our homegrown company's need to be more community involved so that they also pay homage to being located in Cleveland.  example...for quite a long time CNN always included Atlanta in its advertisements.  Another example...we all know Los Angeles (Hollywood) is the motion picture capital of the world.  We should be known as the Medical Capital of the world.  And those companies should help ancillary companies, insurance, medial billing, medical construction/builders, ect...