Cleaning up the Cuyahoga Saturday, May 13, 2006 Organizing a clean-up campaign is one of the first steps that community can take to develop a new sense of connection and place. Clean-up campaigns can begin creating the networks you need to transform a community. Clean-up campaigns can lead to promising new networks and new strategies. Here is a good example from my home town. Years ago, the Cuyahoga River was an industrial waste land. While the Cuyahoga will continue to be a center of industry within our region, it is also become a major recreational resource. For the past seventeen years, citizens have come together every year to clean up the banks of the river and draw attention to the importance of the Cuyahoga to our region. Read more. Following other regions like Chattanooga, civic entrepreneurs across Northeast Ohio are moving to design sustainability into our regional economic development DNA. (The actual process is akin to transfection: the introduction of a foreign gene into a host cell.) For a number of years, EcoCity Cleveland has been advancing a new agenda focused on sustainability. Visit the site. Recently, a new web site, the GreenCityBlueLake, launched to provide a new commmunity network for an emerging sustainability economy in Northeast Ohio. Visit the site. A dynamic network of entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, operates in the region. Visit their web site. Focusing on sustainability has led to other innovations. At Cleveland State University, a new initiative in High Performance Building is underway. Learn more. In the Cuyahoga Valley, a new vision has emerged of a Valley dedicated to sustainability. Visit the site. This strategy is very similar to new thinking going on in Massachusetts. Read more. The emerging sustainability networks in Northeast Ohio are catching the leading edge of a major shift in business. As this seminar at the University of Virginia Business School illustrates, sustainability is emerging as a growth opportunity. Read more. (Interestingly, all this is happening outside the sight lines of the traditional business community in Cleveland. The leadership of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, dominated by real estate interests, is instead focused on trying to get a gambling resolution on the November ballot. Read more.) posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 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. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. 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.

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