The American Planning Association’s (APA) Small Town and Rural (STaR) Planning Division has recognized Ohio’s Reinvention Cities Network (RCN) for excellence in planning. In summer 2020, RCN received the Merit Award for a Planning Initiative. An Awards Committee judged nominated projects based on their innovation, quality, implementation, transferability, collaboration, and long-term sustainability. RCN excelled in all categories. It is working to share best practices throughout Ohio and across the country for states who wish to create a similar network.
RCN is the face of Ohio’s 16 small legacy cities—those with an industrial past who have lost population since their 20th-century peaks. These communities have long been vital in building Ohio’s middle-class prosperity due to their rich histories of industry, innovation, and civic leadership. However, global economic changes have been a challenge, and an absence of supportive state policy has weakened their ability to transition and thrive under the nation’s realities.
In response, key leaders representing the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors from Ohio’s small legacy cities formed RCN. The Network works to advocate for shared policy goals and to promote learning among cities statewide. Stewarded by the Greater Ohio Policy Center, RCN actively works to identify, develop, and advocate for policies that support small legacy city revitalization and help communities transition to be fully competitive in the 21st Century economy.
Additionally, RCN developed a vision document, “A Vision for Ohio’s Reinvention Cities,” in 2018. The report proposed workable solutions for small legacy city revitalization that could be adopted by candidates and policymakers from both sides of the aisle. RCN intends for the document’s strategies to strengthen the communities that have been and are still essential to ensuring a prosperous Ohio.