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Not only does "something big" need to happen on a larger scale, but it has to be effective. The city of Cincinnati is working on a couple of pieces of the puzzle as evidenced by the streetcar and ongoing revitalization of OTR. These are big bold projects which will enhance QoL of Cincinnatians city-wide and which the city needs more of. In Columbus however, there were technically a couple of big projects: $5 million for the rebuilding of American Addition, an isolated industrial neighborhood with no business district, and $300,000 for 10 bike shelters (parking for 120 bikes in a few gentrified neighborhoods) instead of 100-300 bike corrals (parking for 1200-3600 bikes city-wide) but both offer insular effects within a few select, disconnected areas of the urban core instead of benefiting all of it: lots of money for little effect. Unless you own a house in American Addition, you'll have no reason to go there and if you're looking for a bike shelter outside of the immediate Downtown/Short North/OSU area you'll be left similarly wanting. So yes, Ohioans can and must weigh the cost to effects ratio of such big city projects and predict how much or how little of an impact they will make and criticize them where necessary, especially those wishing to see greatness for their city's future. Misspending like that is detrimental: that $5 million could be renovating a dead urban business district right now and would be beneficial to residents city-wide, as would hundreds of bike corrals in lieu of ten bike shelters. Look at which 2012 Columbus citizens got and what they could've had (like getting a streetcar-less Columbus instead of one with streetcars which were originally planned to debut this year). In Ohio, urban residents, especially those with businesses, really need to be involved and vocal if they want to see significant progress in their respective city, otherwise that money will just disappear into projects more on the frivolous side of things.
Not to get involved in this grudge match you apparently seem to have going on here, but I took it that Keith was talking about city projects as opposed to private development (his examples in Cincinnati being the Streetcar and OTR revitalization, which is primarily pushed by a non-profit but has had significant city involvement/investment/assets involved, such as Washington Park). I haven't clicked on all those links you just noted, but if they are primarily private projects, I'm not sure that is responding to his post.
I travel full time for a living. It is amazing how many people have heard of the Flats in Cleveland, but not the islands. They generally shake their heads in disbelief when I tell them the Flats no longer exist. That was Cleveland's big chance to become a tourist destination. The casino and hotels should of went up in about 1992, along with a huge police presence. Woulda coulda shoulda....time marches on.
Quote from: Cleburger on July 02, 2012, 09:14:51 AMI travel full time for a living. It is amazing how many people have heard of the Flats in Cleveland, but not the islands. They generally shake their heads in disbelief when I tell them the Flats no longer exist. That was Cleveland's big chance to become a tourist destination. The casino and hotels should of went up in about 1992, along with a huge police presence. Woulda coulda shoulda....time marches on. Biggest local scandal of our lifetimes... bigger than Jimmy Dimora IMO.
Quote from: jking222222 on June 26, 2012, 10:12:02 AMKeep kidding yourselves - Of course jobs are necessary, but they are not what's bringing people to Ohio and making them want to stay and tell others to come too. </rant>Virtually every person I know from out of state has moved here either because of their job, or because they had familial support here. I know very few, if met anyone really, who moved here out of the blue. I will try, but I cannot recall anyone ever telling me they moved here because of public transit, the music scene, the four seasons, beaches, etc. As far as I know the state is not luring people based solely on the adventure of living here (as in NYC). \On a bright note, everyone I know from out of state likes it here.
Keep kidding yourselves - Of course jobs are necessary, but they are not what's bringing people to Ohio and making them want to stay and tell others to come too. </rant>
Did I say we should be attracting people here with amusement parks? Answer: No. I said ADVERTISE what we have. There's no reason why no one has heard of a major park like Cedar Point other than bad marketing. If they haven't heard of a major attraction like that think about what else they haven't heard of that's here in Ohio.The State should work to make the place more attractive to the people who live here and pay its taxes! If you have residents that love where they're from I think it only makes sense to think they'll "Spread the love" and tell all their friends to come!
Quote from: surfohio on June 27, 2012, 05:22:09 AMQuote from: jking222222 on June 26, 2012, 10:12:02 AMKeep kidding yourselves - Of course jobs are necessary, but they are not what's bringing people to Ohio and making them want to stay and tell others to come too. </rant>Virtually every person I know from out of state has moved here either because of their job, or because they had familial support here. I know very few, if met anyone really, who moved here out of the blue. I will try, but I cannot recall anyone ever telling me they moved here because of public transit, the music scene, the four seasons, beaches, etc. As far as I know the state is not luring people based solely on the adventure of living here (as in NYC). \On a bright note, everyone I know from out of state likes it here. Of course that's why they moved here. Don't you get it?!?! If we're not growing that fast, and the only reason some people are moving is because their job brought them, then don't you think we need to do a little something different to get people to WANT to move here regardless of the job?? Then if you get an educated base, you will get those jobs following. When companies are looking to move or expand somewhere, they're not looking to bring all their employees with them - they need a pool of people they can choose from. -edit maybe I should revise this. If the only people we're trying to attract are people looking for a low cost of living, then I guess we can just let the area rot and we can attract a bunch of low cost of living people! Or if we're looking for absolute high growth, then we can be like texas and arizona and let a lot of immigrants move in, documented or not (which I'm actually completely for). Or we can get a bunch of low wage jobs by giving super tax breaks to big boxes and build a bunch of low income housing sprawled out everywhere and have unskilled jobs and workers beaucoup. Or we can make our cities gems of medium growth, medium sized, interconnected hubs of education, arts, research and wellness. That only comes with doing things differently than we have thus far and making people actually want to come here. And it would snowball. Get the people coming, get the jobs following and reap the rewards. That might be a bit simplistic, but all this other stuff I've seen on here is just short sighted. I'm going to stop talking now - I'm not really trying to argue, and apologies if I offended. I'm not educated in this, so I could well be talking out of other places of my body... But it seems logical, and I'm going to stick with what makes sense.
Quote from: Mov2Ohio on June 27, 2012, 03:21:43 PMDid I say we should be attracting people here with amusement parks? Answer: No. I said ADVERTISE what we have. There's no reason why no one has heard of a major park like Cedar Point other than bad marketing. If they haven't heard of a major attraction like that think about what else they haven't heard of that's here in Ohio.The State should work to make the place more attractive to the people who live here and pay its taxes! If you have residents that love where they're from I think it only makes sense to think they'll "Spread the love" and tell all their friends to come!Yes, you are implying if people knew more about Cedar Point then more people would move to Ohio. Or I guess Michigan or Indiana since you have to drive a bit from any population center in Ohio to get to Cedar Point. I think it's a bit laughable. Sure it's fun, but it's an amusement park (albeit a great one) and there are amusement parks all over the place. So a revised statement is advertise what we have - Like what? What differentiates us from all the other places people can go? Not much when it comes down to it. I love Ohio as much or more than most people, but it's absolutely true that if you weren't born and raised in Ohio, you don't view it with the fondness we do. We tend to see what we love, not what everyone else sees - which is just run of the mill places. Sure, a lot of work has been done in the cities and there's great revitalization, but don't kid yourself thinking that if people just knew more then they would want to be here. Maybe you don't know what all these other places have to offer if you think that. And if replies to this come in and point out things you like, think about if that can be found in a number of other places as well... more than likely it can.
So a revised statement is advertise what we have - Like what? What differentiates us from all the other places people can go? Not much when it comes down to it. I love Ohio as much or more than most people, but it's absolutely true that if you weren't born and raised in Ohio, you don't view it with the fondness we do. We tend to see what we love, not what everyone else sees - which is just run of the mill places. Sure, a lot of work has been done in the cities and there's great revitalization, but don't kid yourself thinking that if people just knew more then they would want to be here. Maybe you don't know what all these other places have to offer if you think that. And if replies to this come in and point out things you like, think about if that can be found in a number of other places as well... more than likely it can.
I love Cincinnati's unique neighborhoods, stellar architecture, park system, topography, hillside steps, chili parlors. I love its European-American vibe with its narrow downtown streets, alleys and buildings, German heritage, corner pub culture, pace of life and work/life balance, alongside the river frontier town feel and history, brewing heritage, and beacon of freedom for slaves escaping the south. Other places might have some of these things. Nowhere has them all, or pulls them off in the same way, as Cincinnati does.I will leave other cities to others to highlight their unique strengths. I focus on a city because no one really moves "to a state". They move to a city or metro.
You guys realize that, in terms of tourism dollars made, Ohio destroys Michigan and a majority of other states. Ohio makes close to $40 billion a year on tourism... Michigan maybe half that.
I know I really need to get caught up in this thread (excellent response btw gramarye, I appreciate when people disagree with me intelligibly) - but did I really just wade through 2 pages of "Pure Michigan." Sounds like pure bullsh!t to me.Stop kicking yourselves. How could people from such a nice state (imo) have such an inferiority complex? To the point that they're wishing to become Pure Michigan?
Quote from: eurokie on July 11, 2012, 02:36:38 AMI know I really need to get caught up in this thread (excellent response btw gramarye, I appreciate when people disagree with me intelligibly) - but did I really just wade through 2 pages of "Pure Michigan." Sounds like pure bullsh!t to me.Stop kicking yourselves. How could people from such a nice state (imo) have such an inferiority complex? To the point that they're wishing to become Pure Michigan?The strength of the Pure Michigan campaign is that it has successfully addressed an otherwise little known fact: Michigan has some of the most scenic beaches and rivers in America. It's a coastal state that happens to be inland. It plays up a wonderful asset, the Great Lakes. It's a good template for playing on your strengths. No we don't have world class beaches in Ohio. But we have other amazing qualities that are worth advertising.
I agree that to the extent a state as a whole feels the need to advertise, it's much better to focus on highlighting one's strengths than in trying to somehow cover one's weaknesses (which can end up just inviting people to take a look at them). However, again, I don't see a strong connection between that and serious growth. A little bit of growth, maybe, but not the difference between a high-growth and low-growth state.
Quote from: jbcmh81 on July 02, 2012, 04:06:34 AMYou guys realize that, in terms of tourism dollars made, Ohio destroys Michigan and a majority of other states. Ohio makes close to $40 billion a year on tourism... Michigan maybe half that.This. I know I really need to get caught up in this thread (excellent response btw gramarye, I appreciate when people disagree with me intelligibly) - but did I really just wade through 2 pages of "Pure Michigan." Sounds like pure bullsh!t to me.Stop kicking yourselves. How could people from such a nice state (imo) have such an inferiority complex? To the point that they're wishing to become Pure Michigan?I would bring that $40 billion a year figure back down to earth though. Ohio destroys a majority of other states on a lot of things because it destroys a majority of other states in terms of size. Ohio needs to find comparable states to compare itself to, I myself would use Texas and Virginia as model states because they're doing very well and are large states with comparable cities, politics, and demographics.
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Topic: Ways Ohio can become a high growth state. (Read 7762 times)
