Friday, July 02, 2004
Cleveland is an old industrial city...From 1880 to 1930, Northeast Ohio was the Silicon Valley of the Industrial Era. Innnovation drove the economy. Cleveland's patenting rate was the highest in the nation. And this innovation attracted talent, entrepreneurs and capital from across the country.
Northeast Ohio's relative manufacturing productivity peaked during World War II, and the region's leadership missed the next wave of innovation in electronics. By the mid-1950's, the Northeast Ohio's technology base had matured and started to decline. By the late 1970's, when the first wave of globalization hit, the collapse of major industrial sectors drove the city into bankruptcy.
In the early 1980's Cleveland began its recovery. The path started with large scale investments in downtown: a publicly-led, privately supported strategy. This work (led in part by my brother, Hunter, who was city planner) led to a new face for downtown. Read more.
Now Cleveland's leadership faces another challenge...defining a regional strategy that is privately-led and publicly supported. This will be far trickier to pull off.
posted by Ed Morrison |
links
Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Reinventing Cleveland
