I think Detroit is another noteworthy elimination. I like Detroit and am glad they have some momentum, but I think they've been strangely overestimated during this whole circus, probably thanks to Dan Gilbert doing a good job hyping it up. I reiterate that I don't think there's anything they have that any of the 3C's don't. OK, their airport is better, I guess, but we have things they don't as well.

While I think urban planners and city geeks (like the people on this forum) have a good perception of Detroit, I think most of the country still has a negative perception of it. I still hear people using "at least we're not Detroit" style stereotypes all the time, apparently not realizing how much growth and change the city is currently experiencing. For that reason alone, I think Amazon would have a hard time attracting the high level employees that they want to hire at HQ2 if they chose Detroit.

Assuming Columbus doesn't get it, hopefully a near miss can bolster support for rail transit among the local business/political community who has been waffling on the issue for years. Amazon's been clear about wanting good transit. Maybe even the state government might start to take a hint about it.

 

Oh yeah, it would be SOOOOO awesome if Amazon came out and said "The reason you didn't get it is because you are the weirdo without rail transit."

While I think urban planners and city geeks (like the people on this forum) have a good perception of Detroit, I think most of the country still has a negative perception of it. I still hear people using "at least we're not Detroit" style stereotypes all the time, apparently not realizing how much growth and change the city is currently experiencing. For that reason alone, I think Amazon would have a hard time attracting the high level employees that they want to hire at HQ2 if they chose Detroit.

 

See, I actually feel like Detroit's comeback has become such a meme in popular culture the past few years that now all of a sudden the press and everybody has been overhyping it. It has been a remarkable couple of years for them after their bankruptcy, with a tremendous mayor and lots of recent investment and development including a streetcar. But they are a long way from attracting something like HQ2, and it seemed every national article I read about it kept hyping Detroit as a contender anyways.

 

Actually as a city geek, I find the place was designed to be so incredibly car-oriented (for obvious reasons) from the start that it's just too spread out for my tastes, even though I enjoy visiting for the history, culture, and to see what their planners and developers are up to.

 

Cleveland and Detroit's comebacks over the past decade are really just the groundwork. Both places need to work to attract new, modern basic industries to replace old school manufacturing. Cleveland is ahead of Detroit in this area with the focus on health care and biotech, not sure Detroit has anything like it in the pipeline.

While I think urban planners and city geeks (like the people on this forum) have a good perception of Detroit, I think most of the country still has a negative perception of it. I still hear people using "at least we're not Detroit" style stereotypes all the time, apparently not realizing how much growth and change the city is currently experiencing. For that reason alone, I think Amazon would have a hard time attracting the high level employees that they want to hire at HQ2 if they chose Detroit.

 

See, I actually feel like Detroit's comeback has become such a meme in popular culture the past few years that now all of a sudden the press and everybody has been overhyping it. It has been a remarkable couple of years for them after their bankruptcy, with a tremendous mayor and lots of recent investment and development including a streetcar. But they are a long way from attracting something like HQ2, and it seemed every national article I read about it kept hyping Detroit as a contender anyways.

 

Actually as a city geek, I find the place was designed to be so incredibly car-oriented (for obvious reasons) from the start that it's just too spread out for my tastes, even though I enjoy visiting for the history, culture, and to see what their planners and developers are up to.

 

Cleveland and Detroit's comebacks over the past decade are really just the groundwork. Both places need to work to attract new, modern basic industries to replace old school manufacturing. Cleveland is ahead of Detroit in this area with the focus on health care and biotech, not sure Detroit has anything like it in the pipeline.

 

I spent a lot of time in Downtown Detroit around 2011-12 for work, and I always got the impression that Metro Detroiters had a strong "we're coming back, baby!" attitude, but the rest of the world was completely oblivious to it. I know that urban planning publications have been talking about it for a long time but I don't think it has permeated the mainstream news outlets, or more importantly, the mainstream entertainment media. It's like the opposite of Portland, for example, which everybody and their aunt now knows is the hipster capital of the world.

 

A few recent anecdotes that have stuck out to me:

 

- There was a recent thread on the Flyertalk forum (mostly frequent business travelers) where a some members were talking about how bad Detroit was, mostly based on stereotypes/old news they've heard, and what they personally witnessed on the drive between the airport and Downtown Detroit

- After my girlfriend and I spent a few days in Detroit last year, she was telling her coworkers about it, and got a lot of "eww, gross" and "you always go to the weirdest places" type of responses

 

Again, these are anecdotes, and maybe I am totally wrong about the average person's perception of Detroit.

Yeah, I guess my anecdotes are just the opposite but still just anecdotes. I had a German friend I met while abroad really want to come visit the US and check out Detroit (it's getting international press, and the Europeans are fascinated by the whole rust belt ruin porn thing). My brother's fiance moved up there and is living downtown and they've been talking about how great it is. I've been the voice of reason, thinking "OK let's calm down they still have lots of problems up there" haha. I imagine among much of the Ohio "scared suburbanite" crowd the reputation hasn't changed much, lol.

I prefer for Columbus to get it or maybe Pittsburgh as much as I hate to say it.  I think that the whole state can benefit if it's in Columbus and maybe Cleveland could feel some spillover if it's in Pittsburgh or Columbus.

 

As a Clevelander, this short list today pretty much made me sick.. It wasn't Cleveland's exclusion, but our regional competitors, that concern me - especially Columbus. To me, as Ohio un-team-player-like as it sounds, Cleveland loses in 101 ways if the HQ2 ends up there - be that in loss of already weak state focus, loss of well-paying workers either living here or who now will never consider here, propping up of a city that doesn't need it as badly - or 98 other ways.

 

I am also more than disappointed in Amazon going with all the logical choices. Detroit, etc never stood a chance. .

propping up of a city that doesn't need it as badly

 

That's how it always works. Look at all the companies that have moved to Atlanta from Ohio. It's all about momentum.

I think Detroit is another noteworthy elimination. I like Detroit and am glad they have some momentum, but I think they've been strangely overestimated during this whole circus, probably thanks to Dan Gilbert doing a good job hyping it up. I reiterate that I don't think there's anything they have that any of the 3C's don't. OK, their airport is better, I guess, but we have things they don't as well.

 

Detroit is the most noteworthy absence, but I think you've overlooked some of their strengths.

 

The size of the Big 3 and their suppliers have created a concentration of high tech manufacturing and engineering firms that is unmatched in America. Basically any company involved in robotics, automation, or custom engineering has an office or headquarters in Michigan. Metro Detroit is still the capital of manufacturing and engineering in the US and maybe even the world. Unfortunately for the city of Detroit, most of this activity is now outside city limits and isn't too relevant for Amazon.

 

The Detroit metro area is also twice as large as any of the 3C's, has sports teams in every league, and is on the Canadian border which would allow Amazon to have a secondary office across the river for employees with visa issues.

I'm still thinking it's going to be Atlanta, followed by Boston, Philadelphia, or DC; wild card being Chicago but I have a feeling Amazon wants something in the Eastern Time Zone.  And yes, congrats to Columbus (and Pittsburgh and Indy) for pulling this out.

 

I still think they need a metro of a certain size that can fill the amenities needs and sheer workforce numbers.

 

I got flamed by Cincinnati, and particularly Cleveland posters on this forum for speculating that Amazon would never locate in either metro (or Cbus) simply because we are too small. Adding 50,000 employees in a quick amount of time would simply overwhelm a metro the size of any of the 3Cs. I was told how Cleveland had the big city bones to accommodate such an influx, and how their transit infrastructure made them uniquely suited in the state to handle the rapid addition of 50,000 employees and their families. I got similar reactions from Cincy forumers, who said that we have so much vacant housing and could easily handle Amazon, both in terms of office space and the residential needs of the employees. Maybe today's news will help some of us take the blinders off and bring us back down to reality.

 

That said, Columbus did make the cut. I assume their bid was most appealing due to Ohio State being in the city, as that is really the only advantage I could see Cbus having over either Cincinnati or Cleveland. I don't expect them to advance much further, as they are also constrained by capacity, being a mid sized metro. I think Detroit metro has the size to be able to accommodate something like Amazon HQ2, they have the access to plenty of students/potential employees at UM and MSU, and their airport is the biggest and best in the Midwest, outside of O'Hare. Its downfall, I think, is probably the state of the city itself. The Metro is pretty healthy, and there is a ton of money in the Detroit burbs, with Oakland County being one of the wealthiest and largest counties around (Midwest version of Orange County), but the city itself is still pretty much in freefall, other than Downtown and isolated corridors. The momentum is definitely picking up in Detroit's core, but it's probably just a case of too little too late when it comes to luring a company like Amazon.

I have felt from the beginning that Columbus would have the best chance of any city in Ohio. I wonder if Cleveland's secrecy hurt their bid too.

Amazon might really dig Rickenbacker.

I'm still thinking it's going to be Atlanta, followed by Boston, Philadelphia, or DC; wild card being Chicago but I have a feeling Amazon wants something in the Eastern Time Zone.  And yes, congrats to Columbus (and Pittsburgh and Indy) for pulling this out.

I still think they need a metro of a certain size that can fill the amenities needs and sheer workforce numbers.

 

I got flamed by Cincinnati, and particularly Cleveland posters on this forum for speculating that Amazon would never locate in either metro (or Cbus) simply because we are too small. Adding 50,000 employees in a quick amount of time would simply overwhelm a metro the size of any of the 3Cs. I was told how Cleveland had the big city bones to accommodate such an influx, and how their transit infrastructure made them uniquely suited in the state to handle the rapid addition of 50,000 employees and their families. I got similar reactions from Cincy forumers, who said that we have so much vacant housing and could easily handle Amazon, both in terms of office space and the residential needs of the employees. Maybe today's news will help some of us take the blinders off and bring us back down to reality.

 

That said, Columbus did make the cut. I assume their bid was most appealing due to Ohio State being in the city, as that is really the only advantage I could see Cbus having over either Cincinnati or Cleveland. I don't expect them to advance much further, as they are also constrained by capacity, being a mid sized metro. I think Detroit metro has the size to be able to accommodate something like Amazon HQ2, they have the access to plenty of students/potential employees at UM and MSU, and their airport is the biggest and best in the Midwest, outside of O'Hare. Its downfall, I think, is probably the state of the city itself. The Metro is pretty healthy, and there is a ton of money in the Detroit burbs, with Oakland County being one of the wealthiest and largest counties around (Midwest version of Orange County), but the city itself is still pretty much in freefall, other than Downtown and isolated corridors. The momentum is definitely picking up in Detroit's core, but it's probably just a case of too little too late when it comes to luring a company like Amazon.

 

Cincinnati added 50,000 the past 2 and a half years.

 

The 50K numbers from Amazon are over the course of 10 years. And a lot can happen in 10 years.

Businesses seeking new sites for new facilities don't go where the cities "really need it." They chase proven success. It gets to be a chicken and egg thing, but a stagnant, needy city doesn't beat a growing, successful city for new relocations/expansions from other cities. The only way out of stagnation is home-grown expansion.

^Exactly. Amazon isn't a charity folks. Always follow the population growth, as momentum breeds more momentum.

That said, Columbus did make the cut.

 

Personally, I think one of the DC area jurisdictions will get it, most likely Northern Virginia.  A *LOT* of the 20 cities on the short list are there only to avoid insulting politically important states.

Businesses seeking new sites for new facilities don't go where the cities "really need it." They chase proven success. It gets to be a chicken and egg thing, but a stagnant, needy city doesn't beat a growing, successful city for new relocations/expansions from other cities. The only way out of stagnation is home-grown expansion.

 

Amazon loves PR games, having a needy city get their HQ is great PR for them, particularly since they feel threatened by results of the last election...

That said, Columbus did make the cut.

 

Personally, I think one of the DC area jurisdictions will get it, most likely Northern Virginia.  A *LOT* of the 20 cities on the short list are there only to avoid insulting politically important states.

 

The Northern Virginia campus will either be in Tysons Corner or near Dulles, both on the new silver line metro line.  It actually makes a lot of sense because it will be very easy for people to fly in and out for meetings, including international flights.  If it happens it could be the impetus for DC to separate the blue/orange/silver tunnel in DC. 

 

 

A *LOT* of the 20 cities on the short list are there only to avoid insulting politically important states.

 

There's nothing important about Indiana----is it to suck up to Pence?

I find it very intriguing that six out of the seven mid-sized cities* on this list (Austin/Columbus/Denver/Indianapolis/Nashville/Raleigh/Pittsburgh) are state capitals...  ($$$$?)  ;)

 

* excluding Newark, which is merely a NYC exburb

I find it very intriguing that six out of the seven mid-sized cities* on this list (Austin/Columbus/Denver/Indianapolis/Nashville/Raleigh/Pittsburgh) are state capitals...  ($$$$?)  ;)

 

* excluding Newark, which is merely a NYC exburb

 

Pittsburgh is not a state capital...

^I was going to say the same thing, but realized that subocincy listed all 7 mid-sized cities. Pittsburgh is the 1 of 7 that's not a state capital.

I think he is saying that those are the 7 mid sized cities and all of them but Pittsburgh is a state capital.

^ Excluding Newark from the list of mid-sized cities, I stated that six of the seven were capitals.  Pittsburgh was the exception.

I;m surprised the Twin Cities didn't make the cut.

^ Excluding Newark from the list of mid-sized cities, I stated that six of the seven were capitals.  Pittsburgh was the exception.

 

Newark makes a lot of sense except for the fact that the airport has limited international flights.  It is quite a haul to travel by any mode from Newark to JFK or LaGuardia.

 

^ Excluding Newark from the list of mid-sized cities, I stated that six of the seven were capitals.  Pittsburgh was the exception.

 

Newark makes a lot of sense except for the fact that the airport has limited international flights.  It is quite a haul to travel by any mode from Newark to JFK or LaGuardia.

 

 

It's quite a haul to travel from any of NYC's airports to anywhere. Transit connections to the airports is comically bad.

Newark makes a lot of sense except for the fact that the airport has limited international flights.  It is quite a haul to travel by any mode from Newark to JFK or LaGuardia.

 

 

Newark is one of the best airports in the country in terms of destinations served, particularly on United. Certainly more options than Washington Dulles. LaGuardia is mostly domestic--doesn't really have int'l except Canada and some Caribbean. Fairly short runways at LGA.

^ Excluding Newark from the list of mid-sized cities, I stated that six of the seven were capitals.  Pittsburgh was the exception.

 

My b. I read your post incorrectly.

 

Amazon loves PR games, having a needy city get their HQ is great PR for them, particularly since they feel threatened by results of the last election...

 

Then why didn't Amazon put more than one needy city (Newark) on its top 20 list?

I wouldn't say that Pittsburgh isn't needy

Pittsburgh is an oasis compared to the surrounding river towns that lost all their steel jobs.

Amazon told Detroit reps that it would be hard to recruit 25-30 year olds to live there. I suspect they told Cleveland reps the same thing...

 

"Amazon reached out to Detroit leaders Thursday to say that an insufficient talent pool in the region was the main reason why Detroit didn't make Amazon's short list of finalists for its second headquarters" https://t.co/jBptQ70yj3

That said, Columbus did make the cut.

 

Personally, I think one of the DC area jurisdictions will get it, most likely Northern Virginia.  A *LOT* of the 20 cities on the short list are there only to avoid insulting politically important states.

 

The Northern Virginia campus will either be in Tysons Corner or near Dulles, both on the new silver line metro line.  It actually makes a lot of sense because it will be very easy for people to fly in and out for meetings, including international flights.  If it happens it could be the impetus for DC to separate the blue/orange/silver tunnel in DC. 

 

 

 

Another reason why I also think the DC Metro will get it is that the IT industry is very strong in the region. ALL internet traffic passes through the region. Two Russians e-mail each other cat memes? It still goes through DC.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/amazons-new-headquarters/3654026?snl=1

While I think urban planners and city geeks (like the people on this forum) have a good perception of Detroit, I think most of the country still has a negative perception of it. I still hear people using "at least we're not Detroit" style stereotypes all the time, apparently not realizing how much growth and change the city is currently experiencing. For that reason alone, I think Amazon would have a hard time attracting the high level employees that they want to hire at HQ2 if they chose Detroit.

 

See, I actually feel like Detroit's comeback has become such a meme in popular culture the past few years that now all of a sudden the press and everybody has been overhyping it. It has been a remarkable couple of years for them after their bankruptcy, with a tremendous mayor and lots of recent investment and development including a streetcar. But they are a long way from attracting something like HQ2, and it seemed every national article I read about it kept hyping Detroit as a contender anyways.

 

Actually as a city geek, I find the place was designed to be so incredibly car-oriented (for obvious reasons) from the start that it's just too spread out for my tastes, even though I enjoy visiting for the history, culture, and to see what their planners and developers are up to.

 

Cleveland and Detroit's comebacks over the past decade are really just the groundwork. Both places need to work to attract new, modern basic industries to replace old school manufacturing. Cleveland is ahead of Detroit in this area with the focus on health care and biotech, not sure Detroit has anything like it in the pipeline.

 

I spent a lot of time in Downtown Detroit around 2011-12 for work, and I always got the impression that Metro Detroiters had a strong "we're coming back, baby!" attitude, but the rest of the world was completely oblivious to it. I know that urban planning publications have been talking about it for a long time but I don't think it has permeated the mainstream news outlets, or more importantly, the mainstream entertainment media. It's like the opposite of Portland, for example, which everybody and their aunt now knows is the hipster capital of the world.

 

A few recent anecdotes that have stuck out to me:

 

- There was a recent thread on the Flyertalk forum (mostly frequent business travelers) where a some members were talking about how bad Detroit was, mostly based on stereotypes/old news they've heard, and what they personally witnessed on the drive between the airport and Downtown Detroit

- After my girlfriend and I spent a few days in Detroit last year, she was telling her coworkers about it, and got a lot of "eww, gross" and "you always go to the weirdest places" type of responses

 

Again, these are anecdotes, and maybe I am totally wrong about the average person's perception of Detroit.

 

Dan Gilbert agrees that lingering negative perceptions of Detroit are what caused it be be eliminated in Amazon's first round:

 

This lingering, negative perception has unfortunately survived our impressive progress over the last several years. It is clear that we don’t do ourselves any favors by feeding the pessimistic narrative about Detroit and our region, when this view is not anywhere near the balanced, full story. I believe this is the single largest obstacle that we face.

 

Outstanding state-of-the-art videos, well-packaged and eye-catching proposals, complex and generous tax incentives and highly compelling and improving metrics cannot nor will not overcome the strong negative connotations that the Detroit brand still needs to conquer.

 

Old, negative reputations do not die easily.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/amazons-new-headquarters/3654026?snl=1

 

I thought Newark had the best pitch lol.

While I think urban planners and city geeks (like the people on this forum) have a good perception of Detroit, I think most of the country still has a negative perception of it. I still hear people using "at least we're not Detroit" style stereotypes all the time, apparently not realizing how much growth and change the city is currently experiencing. For that reason alone, I think Amazon would have a hard time attracting the high level employees that they want to hire at HQ2 if they chose Detroit.

 

See, I actually feel like Detroit's comeback has become such a meme in popular culture the past few years that now all of a sudden the press and everybody has been overhyping it. It has been a remarkable couple of years for them after their bankruptcy, with a tremendous mayor and lots of recent investment and development including a streetcar. But they are a long way from attracting something like HQ2, and it seemed every national article I read about it kept hyping Detroit as a contender anyways.

 

Actually as a city geek, I find the place was designed to be so incredibly car-oriented (for obvious reasons) from the start that it's just too spread out for my tastes, even though I enjoy visiting for the history, culture, and to see what their planners and developers are up to.

 

Cleveland and Detroit's comebacks over the past decade are really just the groundwork. Both places need to work to attract new, modern basic industries to replace old school manufacturing. Cleveland is ahead of Detroit in this area with the focus on health care and biotech, not sure Detroit has anything like it in the pipeline.

 

I spent a lot of time in Downtown Detroit around 2011-12 for work, and I always got the impression that Metro Detroiters had a strong "we're coming back, baby!" attitude, but the rest of the world was completely oblivious to it. I know that urban planning publications have been talking about it for a long time but I don't think it has permeated the mainstream news outlets, or more importantly, the mainstream entertainment media. It's like the opposite of Portland, for example, which everybody and their aunt now knows is the hipster capital of the world.

 

A few recent anecdotes that have stuck out to me:

 

- There was a recent thread on the Flyertalk forum (mostly frequent business travelers) where a some members were talking about how bad Detroit was, mostly based on stereotypes/old news they've heard, and what they personally witnessed on the drive between the airport and Downtown Detroit

- After my girlfriend and I spent a few days in Detroit last year, she was telling her coworkers about it, and got a lot of "eww, gross" and "you always go to the weirdest places" type of responses

 

Again, these are anecdotes, and maybe I am totally wrong about the average person's perception of Detroit.

 

Dan Gilbert agrees that lingering negative perceptions of Detroit are what caused it be be eliminated in Amazon's first round:

 

This lingering, negative perception has unfortunately survived our impressive progress over the last several years. It is clear that we don’t do ourselves any favors by feeding the pessimistic narrative about Detroit and our region, when this view is not anywhere near the balanced, full story. I believe this is the single largest obstacle that we face.

 

Outstanding state-of-the-art videos, well-packaged and eye-catching proposals, complex and generous tax incentives and highly compelling and improving metrics cannot nor will not overcome the strong negative connotations that the Detroit brand still needs to conquer.

 

Old, negative reputations do not die easily.

 

The city of Detroit still has a looooooong way to go. Downtown, about 10 blocks wide centering on Woodward between the river and I-75/stadium area, and a thin strip of Woodward up to Midtown, and a few other areas (Mexicantown, Livernois) are doing well and improving. the rest of the city has new streetlights and traffic lights, but will take some time.

Columbus/Ohio should promise them just about anything.

-A huge chunk of land on the Scioto Peninsula/East Franklinton/"Penwest" and promises of interconnecting the areas.

-Infrastructure improvements including light rail from a downtown site to the airport, increased coverage of CBUS circulator including the Amazon site and further north into OSU.

-moving forward the new John Glenn International terminal construction.

-Promises from OSU to work with Amazon in any ways possible.

 

Basically all of these and what they have already proposed and more.

 

If the city does not get it...oh well. Nice try. Next!

 

If the city gets it, then it would all be worth the investment by all involved. Those spin off jobs alone would be worth it. If voters respond to anything, it will be promises of JOBS!JOBS!JOBS!!!-that trumps(sorry for that word)anything else in Ohio when it comes down to it.

 

If you are going to go for it, really go for it or just get out of the race for it IMO.  Columbus needs to compete not only with these other far large cities, it needs to compete with them as if it is already at the levels they are, or it needs to back out all together.

Amazon HQ2 is shaking up site selection for good – here's why that's good for Columbus:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/02/19/amazon-hq2-is-shaking-up-site-selection-for-good.html

 

Ineresting data, Cincinnati even got the cover photo!

 

REPORT

Metro Monitor 2018

Chad Shearer, Isha Shah, Alec Friedhoff, and Alan BerubeFebruary, 2018

 

Today’s economy appears to be booming, as judged by continued job growth, household income gains, and historically high stock prices. Yet underneath the headline numbers America’s progress remains uneven: economic divides are growing between the coasts and the heartland, technology and other sectors, and the rich and the poor. This uneven progress reflects the accelerating pace of economic change that people and places across the nation now confront. Leaders in our major cities and metropolitan areas, centers of economic disruption and opportunity, are looking for insights and strategies to adapt.

 

https://www.brookings.edu/research/metro-monitor-2018/

^ The reason Cincy got the cover photo:

 

Ultimately, out of the 100 largest metro areas, Cincinnati and Greenville emerge as the only two that not only made consistent progress in overall growth, prosperity, and inclusion, but also reduced disparities in racial inclusion by improving employment, wages, and poverty among both whites and people of color.

 

They put a lot of effort into analyzing 2015-2016 change. I guess it's interesting, but too short-term to draw many conclusions. You can toy with the interactive graphs toward the bottom to see longer-term (5- and 10-year) changes (and rankings) by MSA. To me, these graphs help show an overall unpredictability regarding trends currently. The Great Recession has thrown a curveball into this data, and perhaps the most concrete conclusions that can be drawn are just how well each metro has recovered, and in what amount of time, from the recession.

 

For Ohio, Toledo is the real oddball. It appears to be performing quite well in the one-year snaphsot, aside from the Inclusion measures. On the longer-term measures, Toledo doesn't look as hot; Columbus (as would be predicted) is the state's highest performer, but only a modestly high-performer countrywide. Cincinnati is middling a bit behind Columbus (especially in Growth -- surprise!), Dayton is performing poorly except on Inclusion, and Cleveland is lagging across the board. Akron stands out for Productivity and, especially, Standard of Living.

Airstream to construct $40M Ohio facility, create 280 new jobs

By John Bush  – Staff Reporter, Dayton Business Journal

Feb 26, 2018, 1:10pm EST Updated 2 hours ago

 

Airstream Inc. is set to break ground on the most significant plant expansion in the company's 87-year history following news that its parent company has acquired a Cincinnati startup with plans to create a new headquarters in the Queen City.

 

The recreational vehicle manufacturer — part of Elkhart, Ind.-based Thor Industries, which recently acquired Cincinnati startup Roadtrippers — is investing $40 million in a new, 750,000 square-foot facility in Jackson Center, which is located north of Dayton in Shelby County. Construction on the new building will begin in late spring and the project is expected to be completed in 2019.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/02/26/airstream-to-construct-40m-ohio-facility-create.html

Since Ohio's cities are technically not out of the running, I suppose this post can still go here.  It may be time to start an Amazon HQ2 thread if it goes elsewhere.

 

These are the top 2 contenders for Amazon's HQ2, according to economists and housing experts

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-amazon-hq2-cities-according-to-zillow-2018-3

Tonight @JohnKasich delivers his final #OhioSOTS. Let's remember the tax cuts he pushed haven't spurred job growth. Ohio added 38,500 in 2017, 11,200 fewer jobs than in 2016. Our job growth rate is 0.7% v. 1.4% nationally.

https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/fair-economy/work-wages/jobwatch-ohio-2017-job-growth-slow-and-sluggish

^Or, taking a different look, you could say that during Kasich's time in office, Ohio has added 475,300 jobs, 9.4% growth in seven years.  Lots of ways to play with numbers.

Or, from Congressman John Boccieri...

‏

@RepJohnBoccieri

16h16 hours ago

Despite what you’ll hear tonight -Republicans governed 14 of last 18 yrs—8 of 10 cities economically distressed—Ohio’s trailed Nat’l average in job growth 61 consecutive mo’s—42nd in Economic Health—38th Median household income—7 of 10 jobs are low wage—#1 in heroin overdoses

Haters of "big government" blame tighter pollution controls and other regulations. But it was corporate hubris/elitism and an unwillingness to spend money and innovate (and not just in steel!)....

 

How the U.S. Squandered Its Steel Superiority

Spoiler alert: Unfair trade practices of foreign nations had nothing to do with it.

By Stephen Mihm

March 5, 2018

 

.....Unfortunately, Big Steel was too proud to notice Europe gaining ground. In a typical advertisement from the era, U.S. Steel claimed it was a company “where the big idea is innovation.” But this claim -- much like so many of the braggadocios claims of today -- could not hide a more disturbing reality.

 

 

Indeed, throughout the 1950s, as Europe’s steelmakers built new factories around the basic-oxygen process and simultaneously demolished its remaining open-hearth furnaces, Big Steel made endless excuses.  Representatives of the Big Three -- Bethlehem, U.S. Steel, and Republic -- repeatedly claimed that the jury was out on the new method, all evidence to the contrary.

 

By 1957, even Congress realized that something was amiss, and it summoned steel industry executives to testify. In one particularly cringe-worthy performance, a U.S. Steel representative told a committee: “The distinguishing characteristic of the American steel industry is its tremendous productiveness, a quality which other countries have been unable to emulate so far,” later adding that the company had examined the methods popular in Europe but found them wanting.

 

MORE:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-05/steel-history-shows-how-america-lost-ground-to-europe

Sounds a lot like what happened with the Big 3 automakers when Honda and Toyota arrived.