Restoring Prosperity
The Greater Ohio Policy Center Blog
Greater Ohio has prepared, for your viewing pleasure, our graphic critique of the most pressing land use issues of the day. We are pleased to present "lol sprawl"©. Enjoy!
Happy April Fool's Day from Greater Ohio!
For the context of the genesis of these jokes, you can read more here.
Gene Krebs of Greater Ohio Policy Center will be a featured panelist tomorrow for Columbus on the Record, a public broadcasting show that features various commentators from the Ohio media and statehouse observers. This will be Gene’s fifth opportunity to sit for this show. Topics this week will undoubtedly include collective bargaining (Senate Bill 5), the new state budget, and governance reform. For those of you not in the Columbus media market, the show will be rebroadcast on your public television stations throughout the week so check your local listings. In addition, you can watch episodes online at Columbus on the Record's website .
NEXT SHOWS: Friday, 4/01, 8:30 pm WOSU TV Friday, 4/01, 10:30 pm WOSU PLUS Sunday, 4/03, 11:30 am WOSU TV
Check out these new interactive tools. Transportation for America has just released a map which shows which bridges in your area are structurally deficient. See what it shows about the bridges your neighborhood (if you're brave enough to know).
Forbes has produced an interactive feature which graphically represents inward and outward migration across the country, broken down to the county level. It shows from where and to where people (with exact numbers) are moving. Check it out!
By Lavea Brachman. The 2010 census data for Ohio showing many of Ohio's cities shrinking further over the last decade, leaving additional vacant properties in their wake, as well as declining revenues and increasing legacy costs, was disheartening, although not surprising. Juxtapose these trends with the Kasich Administration’s budget proposal, as local governments grapple with the impact of the proposed cuts on their day-to-day operations, and there is reason to be concerned about how these cities and their metropolitan areas – which are the state’s economic drivers -- will retain a toehold in the next economy.
Looking at European cities – resulting from Greater Ohio’s on-going partnership with the German Marshall Fund – to see what they have done to fortify their cities as economic engines, we are reminded of the need for policymakers to take a longer view. Ohio WILL emerge from this fiscal crisis, and when we do, we want to make sure we have preserved our assets and made critical long-term investments. Against tremendous odds, the cities of Manchester, England and Leipzig, Germany have begun to prosper, due to many innovative local practices and to strong leadership (to be discussed in a future blog). But one lesson stands out from both cities which is the importance of treating public money as investments and not as subsidies.
Taking this approach, these cities – in partnership with their state and federal government equivalents -- systematically identified areas (both geographic and business sectors) where increased investment could produce the greatest quantitative and qualitative returns over the long-term. For instance, Leipzig targeted select neighborhoods, using federal-state funding programs to support demolition and rehabilitation in distressed neighborhoods, coupled with other rebuilding programs. Manchester used innovative public-private partnership vehicles to target and invested in regeneration areas (such as an area called New East Manchester). Also Manchester aspires to be Britain’s center for digital and related created industries, so it is promoting cluster development with an incubator of entrepreneurial media firms. Certainly, there are promising stateside examples of making strategic investments for the long-term, even in the most dire of circumstances.
Here in Ohio, we have tremendous institutional assets that we must leverage with smart investments, at the same time that we undertake the necessary cost-cutting measures, such as shared services and consolidation. Even in this state of fiscal and economic crisis, we need to take a step back and encourage targeted, strategic investments -- in market-ready neighborhoods and leveraging our many and vaunted “anchor” institutions (e.g. universities, medical centers). Without these investments, our metropolitan regions will be less and less capable of creating the climate that leads to business growth, innovation or produce the exports needed to be part of the next economy.
On Monday March 21st Greater Ohio attended a Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Workshop hosted by Ohio Department of Development and Smart Growth America. The workshop brought together urban planners from Ohio and Michigan to discuss strategies for writing a successful application to a US EPA pilot program that supports the planning phase of brownfield and underground storage tank (i.e. former gas stations, etc.) remediation. Area-wide planning works at “area” scale—everything from one city block to a neighborhood to a multi-municipal corridor. Area-wide planning acknowledges that even just one contaminated, post-industrial lot can impact an entire neighborhood, and it also enables communities to comprehensively plan for neighborhoods where multiple, non-contiguous, brownfield sites exist. The US EPA pilot program was established to assist communities with the planning phase of brownfield redevelopment—the funds are being used to support brownfield inventories, build community buy-in through education and outreach, develop market analyses and other early-stage activities.
Presenters from the US EPA program and three successful applicants, including one from Cleveland, shared strategies for writing successful proposals. All pointed to the need for a strong, comprehensive plan for the entire ”area”—essentially the brownfields planning program is just one of many strategies that will assist municipalities and nonprofits in the comprehensive revitalization of an neighborhood or corridor. To this point, all three applicants had received additional monies from Department of Transportation or HUD for the same larger project, and many of the other successful applicants were using the area-wide planning monies for a full scale, long term, redevelopment program.
As a legacy of our manufacturing past, so many cities in Ohio now struggle with the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields. Luckily Ohio has a strong brownfields program through the Department of Development, which Greater Ohio has long supported. Greater Ohio is heartened to see programs like the area-wide planning pilot coming from the federal level and supported by state programs because these kinds of programs incentivize and reward long term and comprehensive planning. As Ohio continues to grow its metros, redeveloping brownfields and making them available for infill development will be a key activity in leveraging the competitive assets already located in Ohio’s cities.
In 39 years, will you love to live in Columbus? The Columbus chapter of the Urban Land Institute along with many central Ohio partners has launched a visioning and long-term planning initiative called Columbus 2050. Throughout the process, ULI will ask central Ohio residents what they would like to see happen in the community over the next 39 years. Several events with local experts are also scheduled for the coming year to inform the broader conversation. In the end, this long-term effort will create plans for Columbus that reflect the needs and desires of the community and are sensitive to global and regional economic and demographic trends. We applaud the effort to proactively plan for the Columbus region's future. See the video below where local stakeholders, including Greater Ohio's Executive Director, Lavea Brachman, discuss the initiative.
Last week, an editorial on the local news radio station caught the ear of several Greater Ohio staffers. The commentator, Gail Martineau, highlighted several programs which are aimed at retaining college graduates in Ohio. In particular, Martineau attributed internships programs as being one of the most important tools in the state’s arsenal. Research by Collegia, a higher education economic development consulting firm, confirms Martineau’s hunch: out-of-region students who interned in Philadelphia were twice as likely to stay in the city after graduation and undoubtedly, the number is higher for in-region students. Although there are differences between Ohio’s shrinking cities and Philadelphia, similar retention rates likely occur.
Many of the internships listed on clearinghouses like EasyColumbus, NEOIntern in Cleveland, and SOCHE in southwest Ohio are located in cities. This isn’t surprising actually because the state’s cities turn Ohio’s economic motor; the seven largest metros concentrate talent and innovation and contribute to 80% of the state’s GDP.
Cities like Akron and Springfield have recognized that to increase the number of local jobs and the city’s prosperity, education and workforce development will carry the metro into the next economy. Internships will be one critical strategy as Akron and other Ohio cities continue to leverage their assets and prosperity drivers. The state can play an important role in this process by supporting internships programs, as it does now with the Third Frontier Internship Program and the proposed funding for the Ohio Co-op and Internship Program.
Ohio has one of the largest collections of colleges and universities in the country— using internships to capitalize on the presence of so many young, eager, educated people not only brings fresh talent to businesses and gives students real-life work experience, but internships can also help retain the creative, highly-trained workers needed for the state’s long term competitive success.
By Gene Krebs. Like many Buckeyes, I am waiting for the budget to be released later today. In the meantime, many have been poring over the recent State of the State speech by Governor Kasich and looking for clues. I was pleased to see that the speech touched on many smart growth principles.
Some of the themes from the speech aligned with what we have been hammering on for seven long years. The main one is that our metropolitan regions are central to restoring Ohio. Governor Kasich emphasized this by drawing attention to the dramatic population loss of many of Ohio’s major cities. “Cleveland and Youngstown have lost 50 percent of their population since 1950. Fifty percent of the population of Cleveland and Youngstown gone. And I will take your breath away by telling you that the city where the north meets the south, Cincinnati, has lost 40 percent of its population since 1950.” This acknowledgment of our shrinkage is an important first step to being able to diagnose and treat the problems we are facing. This focus on cities also affirms Greater Ohio’s agenda. I am glad to hear that cities and metros are getting the attention they deserve.
The State of the State speech also reflected a shift in attitude towards how we grow. What does it all mean? This could be an indicator of massive changes in how we govern, how we are organized, and how we spend. These changes are likely coming as the state attempts to deal with our unprecedented budget shortfall.
It was also positive to hear that Governor Kasich supports governance reform and shared services. As he said in his speech, “We are going to reform government, okay? It's going to happen. And I'm -- I'm asking you all to keep an open mind about the possibilities of reform because you can't keep doing the same thing in this state and avoiding the decisions that need to be made that have been put off for political reasons, frankly.” Change certainly is needed for many reasons. Ohio’s antiquated form of government was designed for the horse and buggy economy, not the global economy. We need to reform in order to compete.
However, we hope that the change represents not just cuts in our spending, but also the right types of investments in our cities and metros as well. Ohio needs to face the fact that cutting taxes and spending alone will not be the silver bullet. And we have to acknowledge that our population loss is not due solely to high taxes. We need to invest in order to build the kinds of quality places that attract businesses and skilled workers. For further proof of this, see this letter from a Michigan CEO who wants to relocate out of Michigan not due to taxes or regulations, but because the sprawl endemic to his area creates undesirable places where talented, educated workers prefer not to live.
All in all, there were many positive signs, but there is a lot of work ahead of us, and the devil is in the details. We look forward to seeing the budget later today in order to figure out the Governor’s proposed path of action. Stay tuned for more of Greater Ohio’s analysis.
Last Friday, March 11, 2011, Ohio Department of Transportation released a long-awaited report, "Financial and Policy Implications on Assuming Primary Responsibility for All State Routes Throughout Ohio Regardless of Local Government Jurisdiction" (at this time, the study is not yet up on the ODOT website). This report originates from a 2009 request from legislators of the 128th Assembly. In 2009 it came to the attention of state senators and representatives that cities and towns in Ohio are financially responsible for the repair of all roads—including state routes—within their boundaries. Unincorporated areas, like the rural townships in Morrow County and urban townships, like West Chester, do not have to pay for the maintenance of state routes; instead ODOT covers the repairs and fees. This arrangement has had the unintended effect of producing roads that are full of potholes in a city but are smooth and well-repaired immediately beyond a city’s boundaries.
The same intersection on the edge of Youngstown. Heading North on Market Street, State Route 7, into Youngstown, the street is potholed and patched over.
Headed South, through the same intersection into Boardman Township, Market Street is smoothly paved.
Having learned of this discrepancy, in 2009, legislators mandated ODOT to study the cost of maintaining all state routes in Ohio. In effect, legislators wanted to know how much more it would cost if ODOT took responsibility for state routes in cities and towns, not just townships and unincorporated areas, as it does currently.
What ODOT concluded in its study is that current funding models would inadequately fund service to new areas. Greater Ohio has also analyzed ODOT’s budget and does not disagree that ODOT has limited resources to fund new construction and repair obligations.
However, Greater Ohio believes ODOT, as it stands, barely has any resources to fund new or existing maintenance, period. ODOT is currently funded with “state gas tax” dollars which takes 28 cents for each gallon of gas purchased. As we trade in Hummers for Hondas and more and more alternative fuel cars come on line, state gas tax revenues are decreasing. ODOT itself anticipates a $1.5 billion deficit by 2017 if current income trends and project levels continue.
Moving forward, ODOT will have to find alternative revenue streams if it is to repair any roads—in cities and villages, or outside of them. As Greater Ohio has suggested in recent House and Senate hearings on ODOT’s budget, a thorough audit of ODOT may very well turn up millions of dollars, as similar audits have done in Virginia ($600 million in immediate savings) and Idaho ($30 million in one-time savings over five years, and $6 million annually thereafter). Prioritizing maintenance of existing assets before the construction of new capacity will save money, as will funding new projects based on their return investment potential and should not favor one mode over others.
Greater Ohio will continue to closely monitor the transportation budget bills as they move through the General Assembly and offer, as appropriate, alternative funding models which will lead to sustainable, economically-competitive, transit development.