Time is ripe to re-energize factory cities, report says
BYLINE: Paul Wilson, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Cleveland lost 12 percent of its jobs, Dayton 14 percent and Warren 24 percent -- all in the span of a decade.
Few Ohioans can quote the numbers, but most are familiar with the trend: The state's industrial cities have been hobbled in recent years as manufacturing has declined.
But changing economic, demographic and political winds are blowing. And now is the time to amend state policies and struggling cities' assets to usher in revival, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research group.
Encouraging "knowledge-based" companies to set up shop is one recommendation. Luring baby boomers to urban areas where they can walk wherever they need to go is another.
"What we're trying to do here is basically change the conversation about these older industrial cities in Ohio and in other parts of the Midwest and Northeast," said Bruce Katz, a vice president of the Brookings Institution and director of its Metropolitan Policy Program.
Brookings said Ohio is one of seven states with a concentration of struggling industrial towns, making it especially important for state leaders to act. Other Ohio cities on Brookings' list are Canton, Cincinnati, Lima, Mansfield, Springfield and Youngstown.
Columbus doesn't have the manufacturing history of the other cities and did not make the list. But central Ohio residents still should care about revival efforts, said Kimberly Gibson, special assistant to Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the Ohio Department of Development.
"If we don't care about these places, we're all doomed to repeat their lessons," said Gibson, who specializes in energy, transportation and regional collaboration. "Did Youngstown, with all its prosperity -- and it had a lot of prosperity -- did it ever think that it would be where it is today?"
Some of Brookings' suggestions, such as encouraging regional collaborations and work-force training, mirror those in Turnaround Ohio, the economic plan Gov. Ted Strickland put forth during his campaign last year, Gibson said. But Brookings also "gives us the data to prove what we thought was true," she said.
"The whole concept here is, do you manage decline or do you focus on economic recovery?" she said. "I think the policies of the past were just about managing decline."
Brookings used numbers from 1990 to 2000, because complete figures from the current decade weren't available. But the group said more recent data show that trends have remained consistent.
Ned Hill, an economist and vice president of economic development at Cleveland State University, was one of many researchers who provided data for the study. Hill agreed with Brookings' broad themes, but he wondered whether some policy recommendations would fly in Ohio.
"The report doesn't really address the reality of the legislature, especially in the state of Ohio that also has economic-development problems in rural areas," he said.
The report also doesn't make specific state-by-state suggestions. Most of Brookings' recommendations probably won't be enacted as they are suggested in the report, Hill said, but government leaders can use the findings as a "Betty Crocker formula" and tailor them for Ohio.
"Anyone in the public-policy business is trying to identify problems, provide prototypes or models of solutions, and then the local politicians will take it from there," he said.
Hill and the report's authors agree that because interest in redeveloping cities is high, now is a good time to act.
Brookings said the U.S. population continues to grow, fueled in large part by immigration. Urban areas have "always been, and continue to be, major gateways for foreign newcomers," the report said.
Meanwhile, aging baby boomers could flock to areas within walking distance of shopping, services and hospitals. And the shrinking size of households means that cities could attract younger workers more inclined than previous generations to live in urban areas.
Shifting from manufacturing to "knowledge-economy" enterprises, which require less space, could help older cities, the report said. Companies engaged in "design, marketing and delivery of goods, services and ideas" might actually work better when workers are clustered together.
The report encourages cities to make the most of their assets, and in the case of many on Brookings' list, water and waterfront land could be developed. Another asset to be tapped is public transportation, even if it's only bus service, the report said.
The town's urban cores are still home to higher-education and medical facilities, and most are still where many people in metro areas work. The cities are also home to cultural institutions such as sports teams, museums, symphony orchestras and vibrant public street life.
The report encourages state government to play an active role in cities' redevelopment. Brookings suggests dozens of ways. They include offering bonuses to attract teachers to inner-city schools, funding state-of-the-art data systems for police so streets are safer, backing loans for real-estate projects that will spur development, and providing incentives for businesses to open in struggling neighborhoods.
Not all of the suggestions carry a hefty price tag. States can change building codes to make it cheaper to rehabilitate older structures or make it easier for cities to foreclose on abandoned buildings so the property can be redeveloped.
The report also said states should help prevent financially strapped homeowners from abandoning their houses through homeownership-counseling programs and by providing tools to prevent mortgage foreclosure.
Brookings mentioned Strickland's new Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, which is designing foreclosure-prevention strategies, as a step in the right direction.