Does Cleveland lack economic vision and direction? (Euclid, Maumee: city hall, townhomes)

[Cleverfield]

I just saw this article, and I have to say parts of it ring incredibly true. Do we as a region lack a cohesive vision of economic development and how to get there?

https://www.cleveland.com/business/i...incart_m-rpt-1

[WRnative]

As I've repeatedly written, Cleveland is populated by leaders, especially at Cleveland.com and in Cleveland City Hall, who are IMO economic morons.

There is no understanding of the economic anchor imposed on the region by the ever escalating tolls on the region's interstates -- what I call the "Republican Toll Road." How can Cleveland.com endorse any of the perpetrators of this outrage???

Our leadership is much too tolerant of the Maumee River watershed's corporate livestock industry's ongoing pollution of Lake Erie, our most vital natural resource.

There is no apparent grasp of how the U.S. failure to participate in the global value added tax regime massively disadvantages our manufacturing base.

Despite considerable leadership from the Cleveland Clinic, our political leadership is too tolerant of our nation's high medical costs which puts U.S. and Cleveland manufacturing at a massive disadvantage.

That's just for starters.

[Urban Peasant]

If I had a concern for Cleveland, it would be that the leadership is too fixated on tourism, especially business travel. The RNC came and went and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) is scheduled to visit Cleveland soon but scores from good looks and hospitality will not sustain the region.

For starters, reread the leaked info regarding Cleveland's bid for Amazon.

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and...off-rta-passes.

No wonder Cleveland lost the bid. IMO it was awful, awful, AWFUL!!! I'm sorry to say but your mayor and his advisers were convinced they worded the bid in such a way that sounded sweet and sugary when it sounded very lame and Amazon could easily see through it. Offering the venerable Tower City and Post Office Square as the headquarters site? Were they out of their minds!? Cuyahoga County has so many other spots to build a wonderful new headquarters and that was all they offered? Then the part about the massive transit expansion, well that sounded like the City expected Amazon to pay for it in the end or spend a lot of taxpayer money which means Amazon would still end up paying for it in the end. That was a very myopic, shortsighted vision on the part of the City.

Cleveland has a lot going for it. As I said before in previous posts, it has ample natural resources, friendly residents, low cost of living, an underrated transit system, and a great deal of both commercial and residential affordability. West and East Coast cities lack many of these but that's not stopping companies like Amazon from relocating their world headquarters to such ultra-expensive cities. It's that many people don't know about Cleveland and it has to pitch the right way for more businesses and residents to relocate there. Unfortunately, economic development is a harsh business and often involves one shot deals. Like a job interview, say the wrong thing and you just blew your chance.

[mbowes80]

I think I agree with this guy ... don't we already have plenty of banal talk about leadership and vision and strategic initiatives? I can't imagine that's what our city really needs ...

Edward "Ned" Hill, who teaches economic-development policy at Ohio State University, used two words to describe calls for a unified, regional economic-development strategy: "It's nonsense."

The 18-county region isn't an integrated labor market, Hill said. It's big, unwieldy and fragmented, and a new mission statement or leadership coup won't change that.

Northeast Ohio is home to a diverse array of businesses and industries, he said, but most of them are at a slow-growth stage of their life cycle. "The issue is how do you reload. And, frankly, if I knew, I get the freakin' Nobel Prize."

[october2007]

I still think Cleveland needs more positive press, marketing. If more people saw the positives (low housing costs, not too crowded, lots of parks and green spaces, traffic bearable, great medical, first rate art/music scene, well situated for travel to other parts of country, "north coast" - maybe more people would move here and create more small businesses which might get things rolling. There's so much potential here and room for growth. I just don't think the city does a good job of promoting itself. However the city has a rather regressive feel to me due to smoking everywhere and I wish it would be a little more modern and health oriented.

I read that Seattle has lost some convention business due to the extreme homeless situation that has made the downtown feel unsafe/dirty etc. Cleveland downtown by contrast is spotless and I would think would be a great spot for convention business (maybe it already has lots of convention business). Anyway...just my 2 cents.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by october2007

However the city has a rather regressive feel to me due to smoking everywhere and I wish it would be a little more modern and health oriented.

Agreed. It feels culturally backward to me as well. I blame it on the disproportionate number of residents who are lower working class and lack much education.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Agreed. It feels culturally backward to me as well. I blame it on the disproportionate number of residents who are lower working class and lack much education.

Definitely don't go to Europe or Asia then. Or even Quebec.

[TheProf]

One of Cleveland's biggest stumbling blocks is its lack of regional cooperation. It is now, and has been all my life, a battle of city vs. suburbs. The suburbs (some anyway) seem to act as if they have no skin in the game of Cleveland's economic health, so they continue to poach companies out of downtown Cleveland.

There needs to be a regional board of cooperation. NOACA somewhat fills that bill for transportation, but we need something more comprehensive for businesses and jobs. There also needs to be more vision in terms of a plan for training, and retraining of workers for the jobs in the new Cleveland that people want it to be. It continues to be a source of urban mental decay when workers continue to believe there's nothing for them here, employment-wise, or even entertainment wise. It's great Cleveland is on the rise for young, college-trained professionals. But what about the large demographic which doesn't fit this profile? They need to have a sense of inclusion, too.

Everybody loves Cleveland Clinic, and for good reason. It's a huge, internationally prestigious health and economic driver for the region. A true feather in Cleveland's cap. But is CC truly integrated into the economic fabric of Cleveland? Sometimes I wonder. It seems like this big, huge cold fortress shoehorned between University Circle, Hough and Fairfax. It would be nice if it could integrate some mixed use development on its campus along with the adjacent nice, but kind of out-of-place in Beacon Place townhomes along Euclid near E. 79th. Hopefully the new Opportunity Corridor roadway can spawn such development in/around the E. 105-Quincy Rapid station, which is currently being restored to its full platform length with another ADA-compliant elevator, this one on the expanded OC/E. 105. -- there is a rough blueprint for an area along E. 105th north of the rapid station called New Economic Village -- or something like that... I know hospital-research centers on the gigantic level of CC are, in themselves, not necessarily generators of neighborhood commerce, retail or even entertainment... But they could be, and maybe CC can be softened and more integrated into Cleveland than the cold fortress that it currently is....

... btw, University Hospitals/CWRU down the road in the core of University Circle (esp Uptown and Little Italy, both of which are exploding with new apts adjacent/near UH) seems a bit more integrated into the neighborhood -- at least nowadays, since its voracious property-gobbling ways have been curbed to a degree. Uptown and Little Italy are growing around it nicely.

But it does take vision. It does take cooperation. These have been in short supply from our local economic and political leaders. The whole area got a major boost, in 2016 when leaders and locals came together and hosted the highly successful RNC convention (successful from the City's great preparedness and execution standpoint; clearly not from the RNC, itself, and their nomination of the current dangerous knucklehead in the WH currently)... and the Cavs obliged by winning the championship, and the whole region was in a glow.

Such planning and success needs to be permanent not ad hoc.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Definitely don't go to Europe or Asia then. Or even Quebec.

Not sure what you're getting at there... this was about being progressive or regressive vis-a-vis American urban culture. Of course foreign countries will be culturally quite different.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Not sure what you're getting at there... this was about being progressive or regressive vis-a-vis American urban culture. Of course foreign countries will be culturally quite different.

If you think smoking is backward, you just will want to avoid most of the world is all. Even the very cultured parts of the world. I mean, have you been to Paris??