Does Ohio Lack Identity???

[ram2]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

Here is another take on Ohio's identity.

I consider Ohio to be (for better or worse) sort of the New Jersey of the Midwest. We're where the Midwest meets the industrial Northeast. We're rural, but the entire economy here is almost completely manufacturing and industrial based. The people here reflect that. Almost no one in Ohio has terribly deep ties to farming or rural life. The state is essentially one big suburb masquerading as Indiana.

I realize this every time we take a vacation trip someplace else and then drive back here. For example, we just returned from a trip to West Virginia. Crossing the state line at Parkersburg and then getting back into Ohio it was striking how the traffic picks up pace substantially and the drivers just start being real d**ks with constant lane changes and aggressive maneuvering.

Frankly, coming back into Ohio was really just plain irritating. Even a "small" town like Chillicothe is annoying with tons of traffic and congestion.

This leads to another point. I think part of Ohio's core identity is that we have not worked out whether we are a rural, farm and open space based state or a highly industrial state. I think that makes people here extremely irritable (like me.) They want their feel of open space but they want close conveniences and close neighbors too. Which are mutually incompatible.

Residents here want to believe that they really value "country values" and "honesty" but due to the economy here and the short distances between big cities almost everyone here is a suburban rat who couldn't possible make it in a deep rural region. "Oh noes, where's my wi-fi? Where's the Wal-Mart?"

I said "suburban rat". As in blase', jaded individuals who demand services and convenience and desires the structure and affluence of closeness to cities.

IOW, Ohio's like New Jersey culturally.

For "real country people", people who own and work on farms and who make things with their hands and who rely on tourism, the arts, small scale entrepreneurship on a large scale, etc, you really need to go outside this state.

The northeast is no longer industrial.

[Townes Van Zandt]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

I consider Ohio to be (for better or worse) sort of the New Jersey of the Midwest. We're where the Midwest meets the industrial Northeast. We're rural, but the entire economy here is almost completely manufacturing and industrial based. The people here reflect that. Almost no one in Ohio has terribly deep ties to farming or rural life. The state is essentially one big suburb masquerading as Indiana.

Sadly, that sounds about right.

Northeast Ohio especially fits this description. It's filled with old industrial cities(Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Canton, Ashtabula) and everything in between is just a bunch of suburban sprawl.

Matter of fact, I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that outsiders make when they judge cities like Cleveland. Many simply assume that the city is in such disarray because people have left for different parts of the nation/world. While that may be true to an extent, a huge portion of the job/population losses have been to the suburbs.

I always joke that if you want to know where the jobs went when they left Cleveland, check out some of the "picture perfect" suburban industrial/corporate parks that you can find in every direction. Tyler Blvd in Mentor, Rockside Rd in Independence, etc.

[Townes Van Zandt]

Originally Posted by ram2

The northeast is no longer industrial.

Neither is Cleveland, but it's still considered part of the old industrial rust belt. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and all the way to New England.

[Ohioan58]

Originally Posted by ksu sucks

Neither is Cleveland, but it's still considered part of the old industrial rust belt. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and all the way to New England.

I'll amend and clarify the meaning of this sentence:

We're rural, but the entire economy here is almost completely manufacturing and industrial based.

I meant more precisely the following: The economy of the entire state is almost completely based upon urban, centralized employment centers. That used to mean "industrial" but today the equivalent is somewhat different.

Everything else in my post stays the same. The objection that we (or the northeast) is post industrial is well taken. A "small town Ohio" person driving 45+ miles to work at a Wal-Mart (my usual example) is about as "rural" as the employment base gets, with few exceptions already noted.

Or substitute for Wal-Mart: an office park, or light industry, etc.