Greater Ohio Policy Center: Year in Review

We don’t mean to brag, but 2010 has been an exciting year for Greater Ohio Policy Center.  Here's our "best of" list from the past 12 months.For good reason, 2010 has got us fired up and ready to accomplish even more in 2011, including a state-wide Policy Summit in the late spring, a Restoring Prosperity Forum in Akron on Tuesday, January 18, regular appearances on Columbus on the Record, and new original research on city and township trends.

To stay up-to-date and learn more about all of these events coming up in 2011, remember to follow us on our blog!

INFLUENCING STATE POLICY

Released our report, Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy. Co-authored with the Brookings Institution, the report makes 39 policy recommendations which are organized under three broad categories: 1) building on Ohio’s assets; 2) governance reform; and 3) better aligning of federal policy with Ohio state policy.

Successfully lobbied the passage of the Land Bank Bill (Substitute House Bill Number 313) which allows 42 counties the authority to implement county land banks.  Of the 900 bills brought before the 128^thGeneral Assembly between 2008 and 2010, this was one of only 58 bills passed and signed.

Shaped recommendations found in the Compact with Cities Task Force. At the request of Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish, we helped design policy and legislative strategies which focus on stimulating economic growth in Ohio’s urban cores.

Advocated for regional governance and collaboration (a key pillar of our Restoring Prosperity agenda) through attendance, expert testimony, and a prepared informational document to the 2010 Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration.

Influenced and contributed to the development of a state pilot project, in connection with the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund, that will provide $8 million for a new brownfield cleanup program utilizing sustainable practices for Urban Waterfronts, Sustainable Infrastructure, and wind and solar projects. This pilot follows on a recommendation from our Restoring Prosperity report.

Offered recommendations to the 2010 Budget Planning and Management Commission as this bipartisan, legislative commission explored long-term solutions for reducing state government spending and developing a plan for balancing Ohio’s next budget bill.

Influenced 2010 Ohio Farm Bureau policy by partnering with the Ohio Farm Bureau to distribute a paper which outlined how rural communities rely on strong metro and urban cores.  This paper reached over 600 Farm Bureau audiences.

Entered public discourse leading up to the November elections through candidate op-eds, in-depth analyses by newspapers on Greater Ohio policy concerns, and the incorporation of GO ideas in candidates’ platforms.

Published an op-ed in all eight major metro newspapers following the release of the Restoring Prosperity report.  The columns reiterated the report’s finding that Ohio is well positioned to compete in the next economy.

RESEARCHING FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

Released the white paper, Ohio’s Cities  At  A Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward. Co-written with Brookings Institution, the white paper provides 10 policy recommendations to guide leaders as Ohio’s eight largest cities undergo a physical transformation.

Extensively analyzed demographic trends in Ohio, its metros, and the nation from 2000 to 2008.  Issued the “Shaping the State” report that concludes that demographic changes in Ohio reveal a state that is falling behind other states in some areas, but demonstrates strong potential in several others.

Provided Ohio-specific information on the value of exports.  Our analysis found that the state’s goods exports as a share of total exports is above the national average, but our service exports lag behind other states.

Currently assessing the feasibility of creating a center city organization in Youngstown. We’ve met with local civic leaders, business representatives, and elected officials to develop a plan that will comprehensively coordinate development activities in downtown Youngstown.

PARTNERING IN OHIO...

Provided strategic advice to the Northeast Ohio Consortium for a HUD Sustainability Grant. In October 2010, HUD announced that this proposal would be awarded $4.25 million.  Greater Ohio will continue to work with Northeast Ohio officials on this grant and has joined the leadership team. Hosted a Peer-to-Peer Civic Capacity Workshop for Small and Mid-Sized Cities.  In conjunction with Sen. Sherrod Brown’s staff, this convening brought together, local elected officials, policy-makers, and civic leaders from representative cities to discuss local capacity challenges and capacity building strategies.

Partnered with the Center for Community Progress (CCP) to lead a statewide Landbank Training Session.   In June, 11 counties participated in the daylong event with presentations by Greater Ohio, CCP and the Cuyahoga County Land Bank.

...AND BEYOND

Entered into a partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States to lead a new three year initiative on “cities in transition.” This partnership providing unique opportunities for Ohio’s local and state leaders to learn from European cities’ rebuilding practices.

Launched a multi-state Cities in Transition Initiative (CITI) network to solicit feedback, advice, and fresh ideas on issues facing these cities and provide a forum which collects practices and policies and creates the best possible federal, state, and local policy recommendations to meet these cities’ specific needs.

Participated in the Global Metro Summit. Sponsored by the Brookings Institution, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Alfred Herrhausen Society, and TIME, this two-day program explored the drivers of urban economic transformation, a key concern for Greater Ohio.

Met with key federal policymakers at HUD and the EPA to continue developing recommendations and policies for cities in transition.  These meetings discussed how federal policies might help shrinking cities and what kinds of new policies may be needed.

Participated in a news conference call with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (OH-17) to discuss the Livable Communities Act of 2010, a critical bill  that could direct federal assistance to and improve the livability of communities impacted major population and job loss.

SNAPSHOTS OF 2010

39 newspaper articles, 16 editorials, 19 blog posts, and 2 TV stories covering just the release of the Restoring Prosperity Report

An additional 97 newspaper articles and 15 blogs covering Greater Ohio work or citing Greater Ohio findings

5 TV appearances by Greater Ohio

50+ panels and presentations we’ve participated on or led

3,998 miles traveled, one-way, taking Greater Ohio on the road to Europe (Greater Ohio’s visit to Leipzig)

722 Twitter followers

183 Facebook “likes”

3,894 Greater Ohio Supporters who receive our regular updates including information on our initiatives, innovative best practices and newsclips from throughout the state

74 posts on our Greater Ohio Blog

13,335 visits to our new website which was completely redesigned in February to be more visually appealing and user friendly

4 different ways Greater Ohio staffers regularly commute to the office:  walking, biking, busing, and driving

1 new office which is now located in a refurbished mattress manufacturer building in an up-and-coming district near downtown Columbus

Columbus Metropolitan Club

By Gene Krebs. I attended yesterday's Columbus Metropolitan Club meeting that was supposed to feature Kathy Lawler, who was going to speak on the impact of the built environment on the aging population.  She was unable to attend due to the Snow-pocalypse of Atlanta.  Instead they had a panel moderated by Chester Jourdan of MORPC made up of area experts on aging.  The panelists included Marilyn Brown, Franklin County Commissioner; Linda Mauger, OSU gerontology; Linda Artis, Senior Independence and Cindy Farson, Central Ohio Aging.

They discussed that when seniors age, society needs to provide opportunities for mobility other than cars.  The demographics are against Ohio, especially in rural counties, as up to 20% of their population will be above 65 years-old very soon.

One of the panelists mentioned that Franklin County used to have a program for “group homes” for senior citizens, but it had to be cut due to budget constraints, and we needed to find funding for this again.  A nice young man was then brought to the microphone that actually has a business based on creating these group homes, proving that free enterprise will step in in many cases when the public sector bows out.

Kathy Lawler will be back on March 2^nd and it should be a good program.  Go to the CMC's website for more details; it is open to the public.

The Leadership Secrets of Bob The Builder

This blog is part of an occasional blog series on lessons learned from European "cities in transition." The guest author, Alan Mallach, non-resident senior fellow, Brookings Institution, participated in a recent trip to Europe along with Greater Ohio Executive Director Lavea Brachman. One thing that comes through loud and clear from both the Manchester and the Leipzig experience is that leadership matters. It’s pretty clear that without the leadership of Mayor Hinrich Lehmann-Grube in Leipzig after 1990, or the sustained leadership provided by operational/political partnership of Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Richard Leese in Manchester since the 1980s, these cities would have achieved far less than what they have. I’d like to focus on Manchester, and on what Bob the Builder has to do with that city’s narrative.

There are a lot of interesting things about the Manchester leadership narrative, including the transformation of a band of fairly radical Socialists into entrepreneurs, the importance of continuity of leadership – Sirs Leese and Bernstein have been in their jobs since the mid 1990s, and stepped into their present day roles from key secondary leadership roles since the early or mid 1980s – or the (to me at least) inspiring rags-to-riches story of a 16 year old junior clerk (or tea-boy) working his way up to become the city’s Chief Executive.

Manchester 3

I think it was one of the folks at the University who commented about Bernstein “he’s a regular Bob the Builder.” I didn’t think about it a lot. I’d vaguely heard of Bob the Builder as a popular UK children’s TV and video character, and yes, Bernstein and company have built a lot of stuff. But actually the Bob the Builder comment wasn’t really about buildings. The show is about Bob and his team, and yes, he’s a builder, but the show is really about how to have a relentlessly positive attitude. The theme song of the program is a kind of challenge-response number, which goes like this:

Bob: Can we fix it???

Kids: Yes we can!!!!

As Bob the Builder’s web site helpfully points out, “Bob and the Can-Do Crew demonstrate the power of positive-thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and follow-through.”

One of the more impressive aspects of the Manchester story is precisely this can do attitude. The Olympic bid could be seen as a preposterously quixotic effort, but it clearly facilitated a lot of planning and investment, and led directly to the city’s holding the Commonwealth Games in 2002, which has been pretty universally acclaimed as a success, and an important turning point. The city’s response to the IRA bombing in 1996 was another.  Within less than six months after the bombing, a firm was at work on developing a master plan and rebuilding scheme for the area, after having been selected through a highly competitive design competition. A year later, reconstruction was well under way.  Manchester’s experience offers a telling counterpoint to the years of largely pointless and often unseemly wrangling that took place after the 9/11 World Trade Center bombing.

Manchester 4

While the attitude may be relentlessly can-do, it is grounded in realism. Bob the Builder doesn’t do fantasies; he gets the job done, and is devoted to teamwork (it helps that most of Bob’s ‘team’ are machines, rather than people). A British academic writer, by no means uncritical of Manchester or Bernstein, has written that “the role for Manchester City Council (MCC) that Bernstein has developed is simultaneously assertive about the capacity of local government’s ability to ‘make it happen’ and realistic about the way this capacity is strongly prescribed by MCC’s relation to other partners.”[1]

There are some legitimate issues with the Bob the Builder leadership style. It is not participatory.  In a conversation with folks from the University of Manchester, someone noted that Bernstein “knows what he wants and expects people to follow.” That issue is not unique to Bernstein or to Manchester. There is an inherent tension between leadership and participatory values, which needs to be acknowledged. Certainly, nobody ever accused Mayor Daley of being participatory. Leadership leads.

The other danger with that relentless can-do approach is that things come up that one can do, but one’s drive to make things happen and one’s ability to make them happen, can blind one to whether they are things one should do. Or that one tends to focus on the quickest path to the most visible end, and fail to consider alternatives that might take longer and be more complicated to put together, but yield results that create more long-term, sustainable outcomes in the end. Still, from what we saw, I’d give the city on balance pretty good marks.

Realistic, relentlessly can-do leadership is likely to be an important part of the transformation picture. And now, I’m going to turn on my TV to watch Bob the Builder.

[1] Adam Holden, “Bomb Sites: The Politics of Opportunity,” in Jamie Peck and Kevin Ward, eds. City of Revolution: Restructuring Manchester, Manchester University Press (2002).

2011 Land Bank Conference

One of our partners, the Center for Community Progress, is hosting the 2011 Land Bank Conference, which will take place June 5-7, 2011 at the Motor City Casino Hotel in Detroit, Michigan.  They are currently accepting ideas for session topics and presentations through January 15, 2011. For more information please visit the Center for Community Progress website or click here for to submit your session proposal idea.

The Budget Gap

Over the last month, it has been hard to miss the multitude of media stories about Ohio's historic budgetary gap, which has been estimated to be as high as $10 billion. In the first six months of this year, the incoming Governor and General Assembly will work to address the shortfall and because of the large size of the budget hole it will be hard to find a state agency or resource that will not be affected in some way. To better illustrate what the Governor and General Assembly are up against, two newspapers this weekend offered readers an opportunity to attempt to resolve the budget gap, and we wanted to share with all of you.  We encourage you to check out these sites and feel free to let us know if you were able to balance the budget and how you did it.

The Akron Beacon Journal article.

Budgetary Spreadsheet.

The Columbus Dispatch article.

Another Defense for Farmland Preservation

By Gene Krebs. When I first started in the smart growth arena back in 1997, few seemed to realize the value of farmland.  It was often considered a blank pallet for development.  I tried to explain that farmland holds value beyond simply land preservation in and of itself.

A lobbyist actually once told me that she had been in the grocery store, and there was plenty of food.  Therefore there was no need to preserve farmland, and in fact, that land would be better used for housing.  I tried to explain that, when looking in the long term, not only would there be the possibility of global food shortages, but also the housing market was vastly overbuilt to the point where it would become a false economy.  Ever pour water on a rock?  It looks wet but nothing has soaked in?  That was my impact with her.

In addition to all these reasons to preserve farmland, a recent article from the Wall Street Journal entitled "Resource-Rich States Surge" makes the financial case for the value of farmland and the need to preserve it.  Not only does this article explain the obvious, detrimental effects of overbuilt housing, but more importantly it shows that commodity-rich states, including primarily those with farm earnings, are faring the best.

The most relevant quote from the article states, “In the third quarter, commodity-rich states continued to gain ground compared with other states. Overall farm earnings, for instance, grew 12% on average in the period, which made South Dakota, Kansas and Minnesota among the nation's fastest gainers in overall income during the quarter.”

Therefore, farmland adds tremendous value to the states prudent enough to preserve it.  It even gives a competitive edge.  Hopefully Ohio can learn from this and acknowledge the importance of farmland preservation.

Walk Score and Bike Score

By Gene Krebs. Increasingly, realtors are having people ask them about the walkability of neighborhoods when showing houses.  There are new walkscores now out for the cities in Ohio, and you can go here to find out where your Ohio city ranks.  Also, you can enter your address in the box at the top and it will tell you your score for your home.  My farm back near Morning Sun Ohio has a score of Zero!  By comparison, German Village in Columbus has a walkscore of 83!  Let us know what your walkscore is for your home!

Additionally, there are now plans to develop a BikeScore.com website.  In the process, WalkScore.com has opened up a forum asking the question “What are the most important factors to include in a Bike Score calculation?” Contribute your own ideas and vote for suggested ones.  Currently,  the top vote-getters are “Bike lanes and paths, hills and elevation, and traffic density and speed limits.”  Go to BikeScore.com to participate.

State Budgets: Day of Reckoning

By Gene Krebs. On Sunday night my wife and I watched a very thought provoking piece on 60 Minutes entitled "State Budgets: Day of Reckoning".  I strongly recommend you watch this clip if you want insight on the pending fiscal collapse of our state and local governments.  We have been spending way too much on certain aspects of government in a manner that is duplicative and unnecessary.

The reason governance reform is so difficult is because we must meet certain basic needs while also keeping our core costs down in order to compete with other countries.  But the trouble is that we waste vast amounts, and to make matters worse, our states and localities are data deserts, which prevents us from making informed decisions about what can and cannot be cut.

In the video, CBS interviewed Meredith Whitney, a fiscal analyst from Wall Street who correctly forecast the housing disaster several years ago.  She now claims we are heading for another collapse for state and local governments, but she can’t get enough good data to tell exactly how bad it will be.  This lack of good, hard data is something Greater Ohio has been echoing for several years, along with warnings of the pending fiscal collapse.

Watch the video, and let us know what you think.  How far should reforms go?

The S.C.O.R.E. Report

By Gene Krebs. Ohio is a data desert.  Recently an important tool to correct that was introduced.

Secretary of State Brunner has been working for some time on a data compilation for citizens available on a single web site, called S.C.O.R.E..

The right and the left of the political spectrum agree on the need for better transparency and accountability.  To prove the right is also involved, look at HB 420 of the 127^th GA by Brinkman.  We testified in support of the bill and had an amendment incorporated requiring the Administration to be more transparent with data.  They ignored this aspect of the law, and refused to prepare the required reports.

Better data is needed for better transparency.  The SCORE report takes data from domain of the ruling elite and places it at the disposal of Bobby and Betty Buckeye.  Previously only members of the General Assembly or the Administration had regular access to this type of data; starting now all citizens can access it.

This is also good for business, as business responds to certainty, and this data gives businesses looking at Ohio fewer blind spots.

This is a good thing for Ohio.

Greater Ohio visits Manchester, England

By Lavea Brachman. Learning from Manchester's strategies.

As part of a series on continuing observations from Greater Ohio's visit to two European cities, Greater Ohio is blogging about a visit to Manchester, England as part of leading a study tour to learn about European urban/regional revitalization strategies.

A symbol found etched into the tiles of the Manchester Town Hall and on other buildings sprinkled throughout the city is that of the “worker bee,” which in its elegant simplicity tells the story of Manchester.  As the true cradle of the industrial age, Manchester’s reputation was as a working class city where hard work and activity were and still are valued.  Building on this historic work ethic, we observed that Manchester has “re-founded” itself, pulling itself up by its bootstraps with an entrepreneurial spirit; a “can do” attitude that features pragmatic strategies linking the city core’s fate with its suburbs; as well as extremely engaged and capable public leadership that values and actively spawns partnerships with the private sector.

While the national government in England plays a significantly different and primarily central role than in the United States, Manchester can be viewed as a model for our cities’ recoveries in several ways. First, like Leipzig, it has linked neighborhood revitalization with an economic development strategy that is starting to bear fruit.  This linkage includes a version of cluster development or a sector strategy, such as targeting the media sector.  Second, also like Leipzig, it has actively pursued massive demolition of low quality housing stock (called “terraced housing”) built in the early 1900’s for workers in the mines, the mills and other old industries.  And Manchester has taken these proactive revitalization efforts a step further with its “if you build it, they will come” attitude that includes positioning itself as England’s “second city” after London.  It burnished its image as a sports center by going after the 2000 Olympics (which they did not actually hope to win but merely leveraged to put itself on the map with its hubris of trying) and then actually hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games and building a sports center where massive amounts of vacant buildings once stood in the heart of one of the poorest and devastated neighborhoods in the city.  And I thought that Americans had the corner of the market on image-making!  This is a city that is proud of its industrial past and chooses to feature it as an asset rather than cast it aside.

As with Leipzig, we observed some contextual differences and distinctions in governance structure from ours in the states. Additionally, some redeveloped areas in Manchester that are touted as successes appeared to be lacking in key qualities, such as open and green space, mixed uses, and/or walkable retail.  However, the leadership, overall vision-driven and opportunistic approach to revitalization was extremely impressive.

Future blogs will cover “drill downs” on such topics as the central role of Manchester’s private sector in the region’s redevelopment; more details on the “leadership factor” that played such a crucial part in both Manchester and Leipzig’s efforts; fleshing out strategies used commonly in both places to link the cities and their respective regions in physical restructuring and economic development planning; “integrated planning” strategies that are also common to both cities; identifying strategies and projects that were less than successful or produced undesirable results; detailing apparent distinctions between Europe and the States; and observations about the role of state and federal policy in framing these redevelopment efforts, among others.