Here is the article. It's a great read but it is very long, just as an FYI.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/where-the-tea-party-rules-20141014?page=7

 

Worth it to read it all though.

 

 

I think it does an excellent job describing

1.  Ohio's current economic situation, especially beyond the 3C's

2.  Why Tea Party leadership is a horrible idea and how specifically their economic politics are failing Ohioans

3.  Why minimum wage reform is important

4.  The struggle real people have to endure in Ohio everyday.

Here is the article. It's a great read but it is very long, just as an FYI.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/where-the-tea-party-rules-20141014?page=7

 

Worth it to read it all though.

 

 

I think it does an excellent job describing

1.  Ohio's current economic situation, especially beyond the 3C's

2.  Why Tea Party leadership is a horrible idea and how specifically their economic politics are failing Ohioans

3.  Why minimum wage reform is important

4.  The struggle real people have to endure in Ohio everyday.

 

Message from the article: If only all elected officials were Democrats, all of Lima's problems would be solved.

 

THE END.

I think the article was a bit simplistic, but surfohio's summary is even more simplistic. Lima's decline occurred under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and both parties have neglected cities like Lima. I also think the article was a bit of a hatchet job. Obviously, there's a lot of truth here about Lima's many challenges, and its arch-conservative heritage.

 

But in my work helping Lima and Allen County do a local-food plan, I am struck by the number of community-minded and progressive people engaged in the effort. I'm sure there are many of them I'd disagree with if we discussed politics. But in discussing food-related economic-development initiatives, we are arm-in-arm. There's a local hamburger chain, Kewpee, that has three locations, uses locally raised and processed beef, and is a significant local philanthropist. There is a county commissioner who is a farmer and a sincere voice strengthening the community. There are the beginnings of a local young-professionals group.

 

The article may accurately depict the plights of those quoted, but it does not accurately depict the city. And I have questions about the reporter's credibility since she wrote an article for a national magazine and has no idea what a township is.

 

But in many ways, the article is not about Lima, but about cities left behind in a new economy -- and in a new political reality, especially in Ohio, that is anti-urban. Lima will not be fixed by big tax incentives for a corporation from somewhere else to come to Lima. Instead, we need to create opportunities for people in the Limas of Ohio and other states to develop local businesses and markets.

Excellent article, and it's true Lima has been a recent breeding ground for the Tea Party, but it's important to remember that both Democrats and Republicans in Ohio have seized on its economic situation to push their agendas. In the words of Rahm Emanuel, "never let a serious crisis go to waste." Towns like this in "real America" are always targeted by politicians for votes, but when it comes to walking the talk, it's rare. Many states, Ohio included, have not done enough to help economic development. Republicans with power in Columbus and Democrats from Toledo and Cleveland with power in Washington are both guilty of this. Lima, and other long-suffering little Rust Belt burgs, are still very much flying under the radar. The redevelopment focus has almost been entirely on the big core Rust Belt cities with varying degrees of stopping the bleeding (Detroit, Toledo, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, etc are the focus cities). Lima seems like it's being overlooked. Though I'll concede its location does it few favors. I can see Sandusky and Lorain bottoming out soon. I can't say the same about Lima.

 

Lima has been in economic crisis for quite some time now and arguably has the state's worst brain drain. This was from a recent photo thread:

 

To really break it down in a brutal way:

Bachelor's degree or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2008-2012

 

Lima: 10.1%

Youngstown: 10.9%

Lorain: 11.4% 

Sandusky: 12.9% 

Cleveland: 14.0%

Dayton: 15.7%

Toledo: 17.1%

Akron: 20.0%

Ohio average: 24.7%

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/3943554.html

 

Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,29489.0.html#ixzz3GFsa6J3X

 

*It is a huge challenge in these remote Rust Belt towns to retain young people, and the geographic isolation can lead to more political challenges and political extremism. Lima feels "off the grid" so to speak.

^Actually, I think the situation is far worse than those numbers indicate.  The low educational attainment in the center cities of the larger rust belt metro areas reflects a fairly skewed geographic distribution within their regions, but that's much less true for Lima:

 

To wit: Bachelor's degree or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2013

 

U.S.: 29.6%

Cleveland-Elyria, OH Metro Area: 29.8%

Toledo, OH Metro Area: 24.8%

Lima, OH Metro Area: 17.1%

Key quote:

 

''The problem is that if you grow up in, say, a lower-income family, your options are extremely limited,'' says Carissa. It doesn't matter what kind of grades you get in high school, she notes, as college is now a luxury for most people. And even with a college degree, then what? ''It used to be you go to college, get married, have children – you did the right things, and then you'd be guaranteed some kind of future,'' she says. ''But the whole pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps American-dream thingy . . . that's kind of mythology at this point. To me, it's like a winning lottery ticket.''

 

This is some truth to this and it's depressing to read that perspective, but that cynicism is all too common in the Rust Belt. I remember that attitude well. It took a lot of luck to get out of Ohio and out of poverty, but there are a few places that Ohio has some potential for growth in that are real private sector industries (tourism and transportation come to mind). Kids in Ohio have the doubly brutal problem of limited private sector growth in older, mature companies coupled with what seems like an over-staturation of universities leading to oversupply of graduates every year (peak education is likely to peak in Ohio first). And that's to say nothing of the reliance on healthcare and education when it comes to jobs for these graduates or to replace what was lost when Ohio was one of the world's dominant manufacturing centers. These are national problems, but they seem amplified in Ohio since it could be ahead of the curve having been gutted during so many recent recessions. All the advice I heard as a kid boiled down to "become a nurse or schoolteacher. That's the only safe bet in northern Ohio." I guess they still are safe bets for now, but nobody knows the future...

 

I don't think success has gotten to the point of "winning the lottery," but no doubt family, social networks, and location are playing huge roles in this economy. Lima is a really tough location to grow up in, arguably tougher than bigger Rust Belt cities like Toledo, Detroit, or Cleveland. I empathize with young people in that town and similar locations.

 

Kasich, who once described Rothenberg as a ''nihilist'' for objecting to his agenda, has shut down all state audits of private contractors until the end of his second term. ''So now, prisoners have maggots in food served by private vendors, and home-health-care aides making minimum wage have to wait months for their pay because the state privatized the Medicaid--Medicare billing system,'' Rothenberg continues. ''But then again, when you elect a Lehman Brothers executive as governor, you just bring in the same intricate Wall Street shell games that bog down our economy nationally.''

 

When I lived in Ohio, I did not vote for Kasich and was against most of his policies, but I think people are blaming him too much for long-standing problems in Ohio that existed long before he became governor. No single governor can fix what ails Ohio, but some meaningful reforms to clean up Lake Erie and build transit infrastructure around the state would be wise uses of public monies. From what I'm reading about the current Ohio government, that's where Kasich and Republican leadership in Columbus has failed. They are not urban-minded and seem to be very weak on the environment. Ohio has assets that are not properly utilized or maintained due to stuck in the past leadership. From what I read, it sounds like Kasich is from a different era. But I bet it's all just a ploy to run for president again...

 

From the start, it sounded like he wanted to use Ohio as a libertarian testing ground. Wasn't there a big push to abolish the teacher unions or something? Privatizing the turnpike too?

 

*I should clarify I'm talking Kasich being libertarian in regards to economy. I don't think Kasich ever cared much about social issues. But overall, it sounds like he is a libertarian dream in regards to regulations, unions, privatization, etc. I think his governorship is to build up for a presidential run. He needs to prove he's the real deal if he wants a shot at the Republican ticket in 2016 or later. And it sounds like the Ohio Democratic Party has pretty much imploded since I lived there. They were doing alright in 2006 and 2008, but after 2010, it has been all downhill for them in the Statehouse, and the Republicans even managed to force Kaptur and Kucinich into an election against each other. Regardless of the moral or ethical implications, having two hardcore liberal Democrat cities like Toledo and Cleveland combined together was political genius. The Ohio 9th has one of the most bizarre geographies I've ever seen, and that new gerrymandering in Ohio could solidify Republican power at the state level for a generation. I knew when Kasich was elected it would be a major political turning point in Ohio. I remember progressive Democrat friends in Toledo and Cleveland preaching, "That's it, I'm leaving Ohio!"

 

A lot of them did...

Fiscally libertarian yes, socially no.

Lima is not a unique place in that it is a rust belt city with a disappearing manufacturing base (Ford, Westinghouse, General Dynamics to name a few big employers that are now a fraction of what they were).  What is interesting is that Lima resembles an urban area and has a lot of poor minorities, but it's surrounded by rich farmland with white conservatives who look down on the crime & poverty with as much disgust as you can imagine.  Not sure what any elected leaders or policies might have done to change any of these trends.