I did a search but found no topic on this item. The support for this effort seems to be growing, hopefully it will lead to real policy changes in the future.

 

Greater Ohio and the Brookings Institute has released the new Restoring Prosperity report and plan for the State of Ohio. Yesterday, the Govern, and over 1,000 state leaders gathered in Columbus to learn more about this report and discuss issues that the state cities are facing. It was a very good meeting with a lot of reality based discussion. We shall see were politics takes this in the future. Below is an article on the meeting and a link to the draft Brookings report.

 

Ohio must rethink growth, study says

Proposals hand 7 core cities the lead

 

"Ohio has too many governmental entities that compete with each other and for too long has fostered state policies that wastefully favor the growth of new communities rather than the redevelopment of older ones, according to a report released yesterday.

 

"Ohio cannot advance a 21st-century economy with a system of local government rooted in the 19th," said Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

 

In collaboration with Greater Ohio, a Columbus nonprofit organization devoted to smart-growth policies, Brookings released a 41-page report on policy reforms to revitalize Ohio's 32 core communities that serve as regional centers of economic, educational, medical and cultural activity.

 

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Link to the report: http://www.greaterohio.org/restoring_prosperity/rp_08.htm

We have a military policy instead of an energy policy.

^And this has to do with consolidating/downsizing local government how?

I hope someone in columbus reads this report - we need a more urban friendly focus at the state level - with all these townships granting tax incentives, etc. to lure businesses from center cities to greenfield sites - it seems almost impossible for cities to complete.

^And this has to do with consolidating/downsizing local government how?

 

Ooops, It doesn't!  I had two windows open and posted in the wrong one!  Thank god tomorrow is Fri.

 

Ohio has needed to tackle this problem for years.  It's good see them at least acknowledging it, but talk is cheap!!

^And this has to do with consolidating/downsizing local government how?

 

Ooops, It doesn't!   I had two windows open and posted in the wrong one! Thank god tomorrow is Fri.

Lumborg's going to want you to work this weekend.

From the Ohio State Profile by Brookings:

 

"Eight of Ohio’s nine older industrial cities—all but Cincinnati—are located in “weak” metropolitan areas. Add the over 4.4 million people living in these metros in 2000 to the over 331,000 people living in Cincinnati and you have a total of nearly 4.8 million people—42 percent of the state’s total population—living in economically anemic communities, a fact that should surely alarm state leaders concerned about Ohio’s long-term competitiveness."

 

That's some pretty grim stuff.

Great idea!!!!!

 

Unfortunately, the economic reward system of people and communities is not aligned with this thinking.  Attempts to change the reward systems will be met with resistance from the local powers-that-be, so I don't expect any changes.  :-(

 

This was a big confab in Columbus.

 

Brookings has it all online...the agenda, sponsors, speakers, and downloads .

 

Restoring Prosperity...

 

 

 

delete

 

 

What might work with this is that this a push for a state-level agenda, not another call for regional cooperation (which doenst work that well beyond highway construction).  ...though they do talk to regionalism and consolidated government I think whats politically do-able is what comes from Columbus, assuming the lege and the governors office can come to a compromise policy that can be enacted.

 

^And this has to do with consolidating/downsizing local government how?

 

Ooops, It doesn't! I had two windows open and posted in the wrong one! Thank god tomorrow is Fri.

Lumborg's going to want you to work this weekend.

 

Mmmmmm, yeah. I'm going to have to... ask you to go ahead and... come in... this Saturday. We ah, lost a few people this week and need to... catch up. Oh... by the way... I'm going to have to ask you to come in Sunday as well.

Yeah, Office Space is one of my favorite movies. In fact Ive loaned out my DVD a few times already to co-workers.  Flair and a "Bad Case of the Mondays" have become catch phrases at work

 

Anyhooo.....

 

Back on topic...Greater Ohio is "fighting for feedback"....they have a comments page on their website for comments:

 

Feedback on the Restoring Prosperity Initiative

 

Ohio must strengthen its cities

By putting state resources in fewer places to greater effect, Ohio can help put urban areas back on track to prosperity

Sunday, September 14, 2008

 

On the very day when Gov. Ted Strickland announced that the state's resources were thin and likely to get thinner, he also assured business, civic and academic leaders gathered elsewhere in Columbus that he is committed to renewing Ohio's urban centers.

 

Obviously, that won't be easy. Cleveland and other major cities have endured decades of job losses, population flight and disinvestment. And yet research -- much of it by the Brookings Institution, a co-sponsor of last Wednesday's summit -- shows that metropolitan regions wield disproportionate economic clout in the global marketplace. If the core cities of those metros are weak, they pull down entire regions.

 

Bottom line: Ohio's economy won't be healthy until its cities do better. The task facing Strickland is to use the state's limited resources to help those cities. Yes, a better national economy would help; so would a more sympathetic administration in Washington. But Ohio and its cities can't control those things. So they had better use their own tools wisely.

 

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