I do think that the focus on its black community was a strategic masterstroke, and I've long advocated that there is a huge opportunity in the Midwest for a city to differentiate itself by really turning its black community into one of the pillars of growth for that town.

 

Agreed...Detroit is probably best positioned to do something like that.  If not them then maybe Cincinnati or possibly Cleveland.  There is also still the possibility for a Midwestern city to fully embrace the Hispanic community.

rail

There is also still the possibility for a Midwestern city to fully embrace the Hispanic community.

 

That would be Chicago

 

They should change the name to Chicano

 

I'd prefer it if our cities worked on promoting opportunities for everyone, instead of focusing on one or two special groups.

I'd prefer it if our cities worked on promoting opportunities for everyone, instead of focusing on one or two special groups.

 

No, I'm going to have to disagree ... working with the whites would be way more beneficial.

 

 

I'm with thomasbw and like I said upthread, we need to work on connecting our inner cities and larger cities together. A lot of the other issues will work themselves out.

The main thing is that cities have to identify groups that experience severe problems whether that's blacks, hispanics, islamic populations, or south asian communities for example and create goals to change those problems.  There's realy a gross disparity in access and accomplishment for a good portion of all of Ohio's key 6 - Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, and Akron.  So the thing I look at is for all of the cities that we've identified, how is all of this new development that's going on effecting (or will effect) the groups that suffering from bouts with instability.  If I'm a 15 year old kid from OTR who spent my entire life in OTR how will the Banks, the new OTR, and the UC developments effect me for example.  How much participation do I get in this change?  Well I digress just a little but anyway:

 

Do you guys think that the new development going up will attract a pretty diverse group that will promote some mixing? 

 

I mean this thread is titled "Ohio and its cities need to turn it around" and I think part of the issue is that Ohio is stuck with its demographics and unlike some of the newer cities in the western states its identity still has to confront its demographics so when we talk about turning around I think it has to start with this development related question.

^ Not a bad list, but to bring in the YP's® you have to put #3 in place of #2 or maybe even #1, imo.

 

Atlanta has also had a very entrepreneurial culture.  They aren't living purely off the legacy of companies like Coke and UPS founded long ago.  They actually have newer companies too.  Home Depot was founded in the 1970's.  The upstart ICE commodities exchange is based there.

 

 

UPS wasn't founded in Atlanta and didn't even more its HQ to Georgia until the 1990s.  I would love to see an Ohio city lure a major company like that. 

I would love to see the City, Downtown Cincinnati add a strong company.  Downtown should try to focus its attention on grabbing those small companies that feel more compelled to go to  the suburbs

As far as Cleveland goes, one thing I think needs to be done besides targeting crime, is to make the eastside more commercialized. It is very underdeveloped especially compared to the westside. There are some commercial districts but there are many more areas of nothingness. Examples: Quincy(55th-105th), Cedar (30th-79th), Woodland (79th-woodhill), Wade Park (79th-105th), Euclid (55th-79th), any part of Woodhill. Adding more commercial districts and maybe some entertainment areas besides downtown would give the city more of a big city feeling/atmosphere and make Cleveland look more like the major city it is, and attract suburban people back to the city, as well as people from other regions.

 

Hi free07, and welcome to the forum!  Have you seen the City's development strategy?  It's a large pdf file (120 or so pages,) but at the end, they talk about tailoring development efforts to specific neighborhoods.  I don't remember any details, since I read it so long ago, but I remember that there are definitely places in the report where the authors mention redeveloping retail corridors, streetscaping, etc.  It's an interesting read, so if you're interested check out the link (but I repeat, it's a large pdf.)

 

http://city.cleveland.oh.us/pdf/Development%20Strategy%20Full%20Document.pdf

 

Thanks confiteordeo. Interesting Read