Posted March 16, 200520 yr Interesting read: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0885702.html Our state grew pretty fast until about 1960. Since then we have been losing electoral college votes. :cry: In the first half of this decade our state grew .7% comparaed to 3.3% for the U.S. as a whole. Our neighbors aren't doing as badly, BTW. It's painful to see Ohio lose stature and respect. Someone posted on another thread about how they went to California, and when they said they werre from Cleveland, people responded as if they were from Iowa. Well, that's what happens when you go from being a big state to a little state. 50 years ago, everyone knew and respected Cleveland as a world class metropolis. Now folks think it's a cowtown. It's a reflection on the state as a whole. Damnit, we need some more people living here.
March 16, 200520 yr In 1800's, Cincinnati was uttered in the same breath as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. For 100 years, it was the Midwest's largest city and metropolitan area. Now people utter it in the same breath as Kansas City and Charlotte (no offense to those towns). Times change. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 17, 200520 yr Hell, LOB, I told people in CHICAGO that I was from Ohio, and half of them kept saying I was from Iowa. And Iowa is on their freaking interstate signs.
March 17, 200520 yr Could they mix up Ohio and Iowa because both states have four letter names with lots of vowels?
March 17, 200520 yr Could they mix up Ohio and Iowa because both states have four letter names with lots of vowels? That's my point: if our state was better known nobody out there would confuse them for fear of looking stupid. No one confuses New Mexico and New York, or even New York and New Jersey. People think our state is filled with desperate rednecks. :( It's like our whole state's reputation now rides on Columbus, the only growing city, and the only place attracting young people and "new economy" jobs. Make us proud Columbus! :clap: I'm sure if Jerry Springer was running the state people would know where Ohio was on the map. :drunk: God help us all. :evil:
March 17, 200520 yr ^Of course, Columbus still has a ways to go. You still have to say "Columbus, Ohio" for people to know what you're talking about. I think part of Ohio's problem is that it gained such a reputation for being boring, dirty, or whatever, that it is now accepted as a given that Ohio is crappy and not worth paying attention to. Hence to many people this is just another state somewhere in the middle of the country, and they are simply ignorant of the fact that this is one of the "large" states. But enough talk. I say we start slapping people who confuse Ohio and Iowa (along with people who misspell Cincinnati, of course).
March 17, 200520 yr When I was in England I had to give a lady working at the tour bus company my home address so when I told her "Columbus, Ohio" she said can you spell that please, so I started saying "C-O-L-U...." and she said "no, could you please spell Ohio" :-D But she was British so I guess that doesn't count.
March 17, 200520 yr We need some young people in this state with some balls to get something started- start a new company in a new industry, anything. I think Columbus can help Ohio in this area. We have two large research institutes here (OSU and Battelle), now all we need to do is work on the development side of things to spin off that research into new industries and jobs. For examble, MSN's homepage had an article that said new flexible screens (TVs, Monitors, etc) being the next big thing, and I remember seing something on the local news about a Columbus company which is a big player in flexible screen technology.
March 17, 200520 yr Grasscat, my guess would be the people in Chicago were messing with you. Sadly, they weren't. Then again, I may have made an overstatement when I said "half of the people in Chicago". It was really only a couple of folks--but that story wouldn't have been as interesting.
March 17, 200520 yr Interesting read: It's painful to see Ohio lose stature and respect. Someone posted on another thread about how they went to California, and when they said they werre from Cleveland, people responded as if they were from Iowa. Well, that's what happens when you go from being a big state to a little state. 50 years ago, everyone knew and respected Cleveland as a world class metropolis. Now folks think it's a cowtown. It's a reflection on the state as a whole. Damnit, we need some more people living here. Thats funny, my staff has been working on a poll - long story - about Ohio in General. People knew Cleveland's History and were aware its a great place to visit..all the downtown and near downtown stuff. blah..blah.. blah When they were asked about columbus. They didnt know where it was and thought C-BUS was in Iowa. All question knew Cleveland was in Ohio. Most comments made about c-bus were like, "oh, that's where ohio st is?" or "it the state capital???". Most knew that Ohio State was in Columbus. (85% of those respondents were male) From an business stand point Cleveland has much better positioning and reputation and world class offerings. respondants noted: Playhouse Sq., Univer. Circle, Cleve. Clinic, Rock Hall, Football Hall of Fame, Good Year, Western Reserve, the Zoo, the Metro Parks, Cedar Point, the Gay community, Tower City (CUT), SOHIO (although no longer HQ'd in Cleveland), Parma (in conjunction with drew carey) and The Flats and Amish Country (who knew???) are well known not just locally/regionally but better well known domestically than we imagined. Keep in mind, Cleveland does little marketing. (but dont get me started on that) Respondants couldn't say anything about C-bus, without equating it to Ohio State. Some stats: People polled were in Albuquerque, Charlotte, Houston, San Diego, Portland, Miami & DC. 81% had been to cleveland where as only 13% had been to c-bus. 75% said they had visited cleveland more than once and would visit again or recommend a visit compared to 32% for columbus. 96% of the people polled identified Lebron and knew he played for the Cavs. NO notable C-bus atheletes/celebs known 55% perceive Cleveland as old world city. 74% thought c-bus as a college "town" 100% knew of Ohio State, 27% knew Cleveland State & surprisingly 25% knew about Case Bottom line is. Ohio has many great attributes, but our govenor doesn't know how to properly market our state to retain the young talent currently here or have a strategy to bring in new business/jobs which handcuffs the leaders our three major areas. I have faith we've turned a corner and great things are ahead for all areas.
March 17, 200520 yr 100% knew of Ohio State, 27% knew Cleveland State & surprisingly 25% knew about Case case always does horrible in those tests, typically outside of ohio and academia, the phrase case western reserve university usually conjures up images of a military school..... Side note, US News and reports has a reasonably weighted category based on name recognition, and Case usually will say their ranking is always a handful of spots lower because of name recognition......
March 17, 200520 yr That's my point: if our state was better known nobody out there would confuse them for fear of looking stupid. No one confuses New Mexico and New York, or even New York and New Jersey. People think our state is filled with desperate rednecks. :( It's like our whole state's reputation now rides on Columbus, the only growing city, and the only place attracting young people and "new economy" jobs. Make us proud Columbus! :clap: I'm sure if Jerry Springer was running the state people would know where Ohio was on the map. :drunk: God help us all. :evil: Spoken like a true suburbanite. If you heard Jerry Springer speak you wouldn't make comments like that. He would be a far greater mayor than horse face Taft ever was. As for the C-bus hype - PLEASE! Growing? Ahh, that is because Columbus absorbed Franklin co. The 1950 boundaries are actually losing population. I like Columbus but it is definately NOT Ohio's only hope. If it was, I would have moved to Columbus and not Cincinnati 1.5 years ago. I had a choice to live anywhere I wanted. I picked up and moved to Cincinnati. No family, no job, no friends, no connections - JUST LIKED IT. I see lots of potential here and love it. If people are misinformed and ignorant then correct them and move on. Why is Ohio not known on a larger scale? Why is Columbus confused with other Columbus' in the US? Just ask that to the companies HQ'ed there. Other than say Wendy's, most keep a low profile in representing Columbus. Maybe if Abercrumbie (based in C-bus) would rep Ohio on some of its t-shirts in a possitive way like they do with California then it would help. While I don't like their clothes, many apparently do. Oh and I am not a fan of "rednecks", people on this board know that. I wouldn't have moved to Ohio if I thought that and this is coming from a New Yorker. Be proud! Grass isn't greener on the other side. I have been there, it is overrated. Not to mention, Ohio has the coolest damn flag in the Union.
March 17, 200520 yr Any stats on Cincinnati in that poll? we didn't use cinci domestically. I wont be using it internationally either. Sorry
March 17, 200520 yr ^ Well, now, that's hardly "Ohio in general" then, is it? :wink: But seriously... interesting poll numbers. Can't say I'm surprised at the non-recognition of Columbus. This reminds me of one measure of how well a city's name is recognized. I haven't found this online anywhere, but if you look at the Associated Press style book, in the section on datelines, there is a list of cities for which it is not necessary to give the state in the dateline of newspaper articles. For Ohio, I'm pretty sure it's just Cleveland and Cincinnati. I can't really remember a lot of the list, but I don't think there's anything surprising on it, though I recall being a bit suprised by a few cities that were not on the list. There's also a list for international cities that don't need the country name following them.
March 17, 200520 yr I just found that here: http://www.dwu.edu/info/ap_style.htm I assume it's the same list: Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Dallas Denver Detroit Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh St. Louis Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco Seattle Washington (note: D.C. is not used)
March 17, 200520 yr Here's another source: http://www.westmont.edu/_news/pages/style_guides/westmont_style_guide.html Slightly different list, along with a list of international cities: Anchorage Atlanta Baltimore Boise Boston Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Denver Detroit Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Seattle International: Beijing Berlin Geneva Gibraltar Guatemala City Havana Hong Kong Jerusalem Kuwait London Luxembourg Macao Mexico City Monaco Montreal Moscow Ottawa Paris Quebec Rome San Marino Singapore Tokyo Toronto Vatican City
March 17, 200520 yr Ohios flag is, technically, a burgee..it's a boat flag! Speaking of population numbers I was doing a little study into regional population growth in the Ohio Valley from 1790 to 1950...the numbers are interesting. Cincinnati really pulls away from the pack in the years prior to the Civil War. I'll post a graph later
March 17, 200520 yr Yeah, I was reading the history of Cincinnati's sewer system, and was shocked to see a figure in the 200K's right after the Civil War...I was curious about historic population data, so I eagerly await your post!
March 17, 200520 yr Of interest for historical population numbers: the "larget cities" list for census years from 1790 to 1990. http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html 1840 is quite interesting. Cleveland, Dayton, and Columbus all had nearly equal populations- just about 6,000 each.
March 17, 200520 yr I was using counties as I wasnt to comfortable with just city numbers...but, yeah, this is pretty good.... actually better. I didnt know someone had done this...thank you for this link!
March 17, 200520 yr Our state has economic problems. We have the 4th highest tax burden in the country. That's just untenable. Our governor raised taxes during a recession in which he should have been cutting spending. Of course that led to 200,000 job losses. It's amazing that our overall population hasn't declined. Bob Taft seems to have gotten religion though. It's probably because the state GOP lost seats in the last election, one in which the GOP in the rest of the country gained seats pretty much everywhere. :drunk: He's talking about tax cuts, and spending restraints. :clap: I'm skeptical if he will actually be strong enough to carry it out, or if he will cave into the unions. But it's a step in the right direction. Beyond that though, Ohio's image sucks. People think of Ohio as being a boring agrarian place. They think it is populated with corn growing, cow tipping dullards. Nobody wants to live in such a state. You know, Ohio is not much different demographically, politically, and economically from Michigan, but Michigan projects a much better image to young people and business leaders because of its association with automobiles. Wisconsin has an association with dairy cows, but its done in a way that's sort of campy and oddly hip at the same time (e.g. Cheeseheads). I don't know what kind of image our state should project, but it should preferably be something non-agricultural. It might be worthwhile to hire an ad agency or two to figure out ways market Ohio. And then we should market Ohio, nationally, internationally, to young people and to business leaders, in a way that is cool and confident. Sure tax cuts are important, but you also have to spend money to make money. And to think big. :mrgreen: Consider this: 10 years ago, the word "Utah" summoned up images of deranged, gun toting Mormon mountain men with multiple wives. But now people think of sexy snowboarders and lots of tech companies. Did the state of Utah actually change so much? You still can't buy beer in Salt Lake City after 6 from what I've heard. But the leaders of Utah skilllfully crafted a new image. And now the world's top CEOs are tripping overthemselves to setup new operations in Salt Lake City. If Utah can reinvent themselves in such a short span, so can Ohio.
March 17, 200520 yr Of course, Ohio still markets itself as agrarian. It seems like in alot of promotional materials related to Ohio, rural and natural areas figure much more prominently than urban areas. Or at least, its disproportionate considering the amount of "urban" this state has. I think alot of it is Ohio's generally old fashioned attitude (I'm talking older generations mostly-but they still hold sway) where the city was considered a dirty place to produce things, and the country was the place to go have fun.
March 18, 200520 yr most people are morons when it comes to geography and knowledge about cities. and in agreement with monte's post, the future is not just calumbus. it is no better than claveland or cincinaati ( :D ). not to mention it's real population is more comparable to dayten or akren. the annexes have good aspects in tax dollars, but half a million people live in columburb, not the city of columbus.
March 18, 200520 yr ... I was reading the history of Cincinnati's sewer system, and was shocked to see a figure in the 200K's right after the Civil War...I was curious about historic population data, so I eagerly await your post! OK, as some of you have figured out I'm a history buff w. an interest in the history of industrial & economic developement, so I was fooling around a bit with some old census data, comparing county populations (using the county as a proxy for the city..yes, I know, not particularly accurate), and seeing what the points of "takeoff" where, and what countys/cities lagged/grew and if comparsions can be made. I was looking first at the antebellum period at the Miami Valley, but then decided to look at the whole middle Ohio Valley, which meant including Columbus, Lexington, Indianapolis, and Louisville. So here is the antebellum population growth graph, with some key points in transportation developement marked. ...as you can see Cincinnati/Hamilton County reaches takeoff pretty quick right out the gate, (and look at the the decade between 1840/1850!)...easily besting Louisville/Jefferson County, the other river city in the region. Then I decided to see the trends all the way to 1950, the first postwar census. Some interesting patterns here...particularly the growth of Columbus/Franklin County and Indianapolis/Marion County, and the continued lag of Louisville. Cincinnati/Hamilton County continued to maintain a hefty regional population lead throughout this time period, tho the rate of climb never exceeded the 1840-1850 jump (except for the "Roaring 20s") ...not sure what this tells us for modern times, just some "gee whiz" historical stuff.
March 22, 200520 yr If someone didn know where Cleveland was that would just make them a bumbling fucking idiot im sorry.
March 22, 200520 yr Maybe it's because I grew up elsewhere, and to natives it might seem like the grass is always greener, but I think Ohio has a lot going for it. First and foremost, it doesn't have one or two dominating cities. It has several, each with different strengths, weaknesses and character that seem to complement each other. The wealth is spread out, and I think that makes the state healthier overall. As some of you know, I grew up in downstate IL where the exact opposite is true. All the wealth and opportunity is concentrated in Chicagoland, and you can just drive down I-57 and see the depair increase the farther south you go. (and the animosity too!) I think this situation exists, although perhaps to a lesser degree, in Indiana and Iowa as well. Missouri has it's squabbling siblings in KC and StL. When I look at all of these photo threads of the smaller Ohio towns, I'm continually amazed by how well preserved so many of them are. Throughout downstate IL, towns look like they haven't seen a can of paint since 1957, and they've built nothing except pole barns since then. Towns have nothing to peg their future to except strip malls and fast food joints - or maybe they'll hit the jackpot and get a prison built outside of town! I love the variety of scenery. You can go north to the "coast", you can go SE into the mountains, there's rolling countryside a-plenty. There's great urbanity! There's great beer! There's Buckeye Chuck! We don't suck near as bad as a lot of other places! So kwitcherbitchin!! (new state motto?) I guess it's all just your perspective.
March 22, 200520 yr Yes, I can see it now- "Ohio- Because We Don't Suck As Much As Those Crappy Dakotas!"
March 23, 200520 yr Buckeye Chuck? Is that Punxatawney Phil's hillbilly cousin? :lol: :evil: Only if you consider the Republican stronghold of Marion to be full of hillbillies
April 5, 200520 yr I'm bringing this back up because of an article I saw in the latest Ohio Magazine talking about the lack of recognition of Columbus, as has been discussed here and there within this thread. It was comparing the growth of Columbus to other cities, namely Cleveland, and explaining why it has a white bread reputation. But the main reason I wanted to mention it is because of a couple phrases used: 1) The city wants to be the "Columbus without a comma" (i.e., not "Columbus, Ohio") 2) As Columbus grew larger earlier in the 20th century, the big boys Cleveland and Cincinnati saw Columbus not as an up-and-coming large city, but as a sort of "Dayton with a pituitary problem." Just thought those lines were cool.
January 25, 200619 yr Could they mix up Ohio and Iowa because both states have four letter names with lots of vowels? OHIOWA :-D
Create an account or sign in to comment