Article source for : My comment to a GCJ posting
I don't know if it's the anti-spam software used at Glass City Jungle or what, but posting on that blog is too cumbersome for me. My comments there disappear sometimes without reason. When typing a response, what appears in preview mode is not what appears on the blog after posting.
Here's my May 24, 2007 comment that initially appeared in the GCJ posting titled "Toledo is not an economically struggling city":http://glasscityjungle.com/wordpress/?p=1322 but later in the evening, my comment was gone.
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What's the definition of "better?"
Maybe Toledo heeded the advice in the Brookings Institute's 2006 52-page <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20061020_renewgreatlakes.pdf">report</a> [PDF file] titled "A Federal-State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region." TT <a href="http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/16/3187">discussion</a> and Blade <a href="http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/16/3187#43927">op-ed</a>.
From that Blade op-ed:
"Brookings is touting environmentally friendly new industries that produce alternative energy: wind, solar, and water. They are not futuristic, but are being developed now, and there's no better place for them than in this region. And with the lakes as the common denominator, this is a terrific tourist and recreational attraction and a perfect tool to draw water and other sports and health enthusiasts."
From the Brookings report:
"Certainly, the Great Lakes region faces several major challenges. Still heavily reliant on mature industries and products, its aging workforce lacks the education and skills needed to fill and create new economy jobs. Its entrepreneurial spirit is lagging, hampering its ability to spur new firms and jobs in high-wage industries."
"47 percent of "weak market" metros are located in 11 of 12 Great Lakes states."
Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, Mansfield, Springfield, Youngstown, and Toledo are listed as weak market metros, but not Akron nor Columbus.
That 2006 report even mentioned Toledo's November 2005 riot. It also said:
"Syracuse (36 percent), Buffalo (33.5 percent), Milwaukee (32.6 percent), Toledo (32 percent), Youngstown-Warren (31.4 percent), and Pittsburgh (30.6 percent) are in the top 10 of the 100 largest metros in terms of percentages of blacks living in poverty."
That 2006 report discussed population trends.
"Immigrant inflows have partially compensated for domestic outflows of population in Great Lakes metros."
Toledo's 1995-2000 change in "Immigration from Abroad" : +11.0%.
Toledo's 1995-2000 change in "Net Domestic Migration" : -22.4%.
Toledo's 1990 population: 332,943.
Toledo's 2000 population: 313,619.
Percent change: -5.8%
(From city-data.com, Toledo's <a href="http://www.city-data.com/city/Toledo-Ohio.html">estimated </a> population in July 2005: 301,285.)
One of the many ideas suggested by the 2006 Brookings report:
"To cultivate the region’s human capital, the Great Lakes states and the federal government should Forge a Great Lakes compact focused on producing highly skilled graduates of K-16+ school systems with rigorous curriculums in science, technology, engineering and design, and math (STEM) disciplines."
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