business-journal highlights recent Interstate Region Summit

good story from the b-j on Thursday's summit here.

some cut-n-paste highlights of what the 200 in attendance were a part of (read full article here):

"The initiative is intended to help Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania work together to compete as a region. Helping to organize the effort are Roy Vanderford of Indiana-based Thomas P. Miller and Associates, and Linda Fowler, a senior advisor with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Vanderford and Fowler were keynote speakers at the summit, where they discussed the early draft of the action plan and how to put it into effect.

... said the action plan is still being molded, said it should be ready within the next three weeks.

- - -

“What we are suggesting at this point is that the building blocks are mostly in place,” Vanderford said. “What we need is the tissue that holds it together.”

That tissue starts with the Oh-Penn Competitiveness Council, which will be made up of community leaders whose responsibility it will be to set goals, measure progress and maintain accountability. Members will also be responsible for creating the region’s brand and marketing it.

“It’s not about building a new bureaucracy,” Vanderford said. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”

The region must also develop networks for its education systems, businesses and career centers to share information and strategies about how to get workers the skills they need, and how to get employers the workers they want, Vanderford said.

- - -

Govs. Ted Strickland of Ohio and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania established the regional designation, which was awarded a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor in February 2008. The regional administrator for the department’s Employment and Training Administration in Region 2, Philadelphia, Lenita Jacobs-Simmons, commended the counties for using the money to get the project moving.

“The community engagements and vision this region has done already is more exciting than anything we’ve dealt with,” Jacobs-Simmons said. “And you did it with $250,000.”

- - -

Mahoning and Columbiana One-Stop is setting up a civic networking Web site to keep people involved in the program, said Jessica Borza, chief operating officer. Although the leadership committee is charged with keeping things going, “you don’t need to wait for us,” Borza said.

more reports on workforce here.

from a recent report:

"The Five-County area has 35 postsecondary education and training providers offering about 480 different programs: 7 public adult schools with occupational programs; 10 two-year, technical and community colleges; 7 four-year colleges and universities; 9 private business and technical schools; and 2 hospital-based programs."

Also, it's interesting to note from Mahoning County, about double the number who commute to Mercer County just on the other side of the border commute to Cuyahoga County. (appendix B)

and a much commented and thought-provoking blog on regionalism in Ohio here at The Urbanophile.

we've got to get these numbers up

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collects information across America on the number of employees for over 800 occupations. These values can be sorted by metropolitan area, allowing regions to be compared to each other.

It's possible to group all of the scientists and engineers in a metro region together, and compute how much of an area's employees they represent. Here are some examples from May 2006, the most recent data available:

5.2 percent - Dayton, OH
4.6 percent - Columbus, OH
4.2 percent - Pittsburgh, PA
4.1 percent - U.S. total
4.0 percent - Akron, OH
4.0 percent - Cincinnati, OH
3.6 percent - Cleveland, OH
2.5 percent - Toledo, OH
2.9 percent - Johnstown, PA
2.9 percent - Buffalo, NY
2.8 percent - Erie, PA
2.5 percent - Flint, MI
2.2 percent - Canton, OH
1.6 percent - Lima, OH
1.6 percent - Mansfield, OH
1.4 percent - Youngstown/Warren

In this case, the Youngstown/Warren region is Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer county in Pennsylvania.

Comparatively, this region's percentage of the workforce that are scientists and engineers are abysmal as compared to others. In fact, out of the 100 largest metros in the U.S. (Youngstown/Warren is still in this grouping), our region has the lowest percentage when compared to all others.

I think some people tend to think with all the manufacturing around here, there are many engineers as well. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

So while it should be said that the mere existence of scientists and engineers do not translate into economic success, many of the country's top performing regions have much higher percentages of S&E workers.

As a region, we've got to get these numbers up.

did they leave or did they die?

Today's morbid post develops from an article in today's Plain Dealer about how Cleveland's population is sliding below 400,000 for the first time in a hundred years.

The article goes on to say that "White residents left [Cleveland] in greater numbers, but black residents also moved out" and that Cleveland's population is growing older and poorer in addition to getting smaller.

But are people moving out or dying out?

I calculated a few additional stats for cities around Ohio from the American Community Survey Data. These values are presented in the following manner:

city name:
% of population over 55 - % over 65 - % over 75 - % over 85

Columbus:
16.8% - 8.7% - 4.1% - 1.0%
Cleveland:
20.2% - 11.1% - 5.5% - 1.5%
Cincinnati:
20.3% - 11.3% - 6.3% - 1.3%
Akron:
22.0% - 12.1% - 6.3% - 1.3%
Parma:
26.9% - 16.5% - 9.2% - 1.8%
Youngstown:
27.6% - 17.7% - 10.3% - 2.5%
Mahoning County:
28.4% - 16.6% - 9.1% - 2.2%

Most of these communities are indeed getting older and the truth is, in 25 years many of their citizens in the age brackets above will be dead.

And unless the population will be replaced, these cities and regions will have an excess of housing, infrastructure, and government that will need to be adressed.

Aging populations may also be tied into the sustainability of the local workforce. A story in today's Youngstown Vindicator describes the effort to downsize the number of hourly workers at the Delphi plant in Trumbull County. The original plan was to shrink the workforce from 3,800 workers to a bit over 1,000. But 3,400 hourly works took the buyout, and now union leaders are concerned if they can run the facility with only 400 workers. Is the acceptability of the buyout related to the age of the workforce?

I'm not sure of the answer . . .

But is now the time to discuss regional or state-wide land use planning and housing policies to address population loss and unsustainable sprawl?

drisana-nari was, like absinthe, the toast of pittsburgh

The other day I was doing a quick search for the number of SBIR grants which were attained by businessesin Youngstown over the past decade. These Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants are offered by various entities within the U.S. Government, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, and are often used as a metric of innovation for a geographical area. I was searching though databases for this information, and then a question occurred to me: do some organizations in NEO track all of these types of countable innovation metrics for both the Northeast Ohio region and the individual metropolitan statistical areas within NEO?

I few weeks ago, I read the impressive “State of the Industry Report” published by the Pittsburgh Technology Council. This document is produced annually and tracks a number of metrics of the technology and information-intensive industry in the Pittsburgh region. Not only is it informative, but the layout is great also. It is colorful, well-organized, and the electronic pdf version contains numerous clickable pathways so you can navigate easily to employment data, small vignettes about local businesses, and other specific components of the report. I liked the ability to jump from point to point within the report, and the ease of returning to the body as I read through to their recommendations. The report can be downloaded here.

Look to page 27 of a clickable summary of its contents. Five primary clusters of technology industries are identified: information technology, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, and environmental technology. The report continues to track employment size, number of companies, and the payroll for specific sectors within these five clusters. They do this for both the seven-county Pittsburgh MSA and the thirteen-county Pittsburgh region.

What I really found interesting was the change over time in the amount of university R&D expenditures, science and engineering graduate students, patents filed and issued, start-up companies, SBIR awards, venture capital, and initial public offerings (IPO) that were presented. Again, it would be great to see all of these metrics for NEO. Any suggestions on where to find this?

And one other interesting thought:

Adjacent Lawrence County (just a few miles from downtown Youngstown on the other side of the OH-PA line) is part of the thirteen-county area that is encompassed by the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s geographical boundaries. Nearby Butler County is included in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. As the suburbs of Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas blend with the suburbs of the Youngstown area, their economies are becoming more entwined as well. Maybe there are strategies Youngstown can leverage as a member of NEO and additional strategies that can be developed from the path that the Pittsburgh region is taking.

We are smack in the middle of Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Jumping yard to yard in Youngstown, you see Browns flags and Steelers flags. The radios in our neighborhoods are tuned to both Indians baseball and Penguins hockey. If there is such a tie to both regions, then maybe we can leverage their economic development strengths of both areas to our advantage. Or bigger yet, should both Northeast Ohio and Southwestern Pennsylvania be developing strategies together?

let's start an International Neighbors Group in youngstown

A few weeks ago, I became a member of a little organization in town named the International Neighbors Group. It’s mainly composed of locals who are interested in meeting newcomers to town from other cultures. Some of the members meet every week for coffee and conversation; another bunch meets every week for crafts and cultural exchange. I’ve mainly stuck to monthly bigger events like road trips, and Dutch classes in volunteer’s homes. An individual is pretty much free to attend whatever one wants.

I’ve been especially happy with my Dutch classes recently, organized by a professor’s wife in the middle of the old town. Her house has stunning views of the four oldest churches and the main canal through town. Each week, five other students and myself sit around the table in her home as she prepares snacks and we talk in Dutch. Here is a picture of a recent snack, beschuit mit aardbei:


It’s basically a toasted piece of bread spread with butter, with sliced strawberries and grain sugar sprinkled on top. It’s a simple gesture to have snacks and tea in the afternoon, but one that has made a big impact to me, a virtual stranger in a new country. I think we should start this type of organization in Youngstown.

Who’s with me?

We tend to think of Youngstown State as a place attracting people only from the region, but that’s just not true. Many students from a variety of countries get their degrees here. This week when YSU has their spring commencement, they will present an honorary degree to the Undersecretary of Energy from Kuwait. His son will be graduating with a degree in chemical engineering.

It would be great to have an organization to welcome and assist new international students and immigrants in our community. Here are a few positive benefits this type of organization may provide:

- It’s helpful for arrivals from other countries to become oriented to our city and region. Small things such showing the location of ethnic markets, demonstrating how to use public transportation, and assisting newcomers with the paperwork that often comes with relocation may ease their transition to Youngstown.

- Organizing monthly events around the community, as well as around Northeastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, may present newcomers with a sense of the cultural things we Youngstowners find important, plus provide economic support for local attractions. Students especially may enjoy this if they don’t own a car.

- Teaching English to newcomers, their spouses, and their children may supplement their already existing language skills.

- If strong connections are made with students, they may be more interested in becoming future employees or entrepreneurs in the region, adding to the knowledge-based economy and diversity.

- If engaged students instead decide to return home, they might have a greater understanding of our nation’s and region’s traditions and values, making them good ambassadors to others never to visit this country.

- Treating our international friends well now may encourage future investment in local businesses, future support of local tourism, and future lifelong friendships.

what gets lost in the current discussion about delphi

Sure it is a terrible prospect that thousands of production and union employees in the Mahoning Valley are facing employment woes. I think another component that is not being talked about, at least in the media, is the loss of high-wage engineering jobs and management positions if Delphi goes under.

By some measures, Delphi is the largest individual contributor to the knowledge-based economy of the Youngstown-Warren region by a long shot. Consider the following list of the largest patent-producing companies that created intellectual property in the Mahoning Valley so far this decade:

82 patents - Delphi Corp.
19 patents - General Motors Corp.
12 patents - Keystone Ridge Design

source: http://patents.cos.com, patents affiliated with the Mahoning Valley from 2000 to 2004

Is it true that Delphi is the region's largest employer of engineers as well? Regardless, white-collar employees working in the Mahoning Valley are leaving Delphi in droves, either by early retirement, relocation to other Delphi facilities, quitting, or simply being released. This week's business journal reported a story of salaried workers being escorted to the door at the local General Motors plant after their dismissal.

Some of the engineers that will be released will move to other areas which is extremely unfortunate, and a loss to this region. Others may choose to retire and stay here. But is there a way to harness these peoples' knowledge before they consider leaving or quit working? They know the industry, and they may have ideas for new companies and new entreprenurial ventures.

It would be a great exercise for this community to pool the recently unemployed and the soon-to-be unemployed workers together, from BOTH the salaried AND hourly Delphi and GM employees to see if they have any ideas for future business opportunites that can be located here in the Valley.