Expatriates in the News

Occasionally, I see a story about someone successful who used to reside in the Greater Youngstown region. In Scranton:

As a senior executive for the Boy Scouts, Mr. LaPolla raises money, organizes new troops and packs, recruits volunteers and scouts. He has worked for the local council for six years, and worked for five years before that for Boy Scout councils in Colorado and Ohio.

"This is my last stop. My wife told me she'd divorce me if we had to move," he joked. "This area to me is thriving ... I'm not leaving here, I love it here and I want to make a difference."

A native of the Youngstown, Ohio, area, he and his wife, Jacqueline, moved to Scranton six years ago and are expecting their first child in February.

"I want to get more involved in politics in the state, with what's going on," he said. "Now that I'm established here in this area, and I'm expecting my first child, I want to make sure our state is on stable financial ground for my child and everyone else's child and their future children as well. Right now, I don't think our state's on that right path. I want to get involved and try to do my best to correct that."

Mr. LaPolla would fit our migration model in terms of ending up in another Rust Belt city. He also has made at least two moves since leaving Youngstown, which makes tracking the Diaspora difficult. I'd bet his first move was to another city in Ohio.

I also wonder if his wife is from the Scranton area. Couples starting a family often boomerang back to the expectant mother's hometown to be near her family. In other words, the trailing spouse is usually male. The better policy approach is to network female talent.

Mahoning River Salmon

On Wednesday, I mentioned the recent NEOtropolis episode about regionalism in Northeast Ohio. I managed to carve out some time to watch the show that night. Towards the end, the panelists briefly discussed "salmon".

Salmon are the people who left the area only to return, among other reasons, for spawning. I gather that the policy wonks are familiar with the boomerang migration trend, going so far as to highlight this demographic as prospective entrepreneurial talent. However, I think the idea was to lure back expatriates who are established entrepreneurs.

The words of the panelists encouraged me. There would seem to be some interest in the boomerang migrant incubator project. I'll remind you of the singular motivation of salmon to travel back to the place of their birth. Channel that energy towards economic redevelopment.

Tim Ryan Hits Home Run

I've anguished over the location of the proposed green energy incubator. In my view, downtown Warren is the ideal place. This would mimic the economic geography of the Youngstown Business Incubator and serve as an anchor for the urban core. Another example is the Greensburg Business Incubator:

Gary Smith, who works in the Kansas office of the USDA, helped plan the Greensburg Business Incubator. Smith says the first step for planners is to ask, "What does the community have that they want to build upon?" In the case of Greensburg, it was the community's shared vision of rebuilding after its disastrous tornado. A traditional business incubator serving as a downtown anchor fit that vision. Additionally, the city was eligible for disaster funding to finance the incubator.

I like downtown Warren, but so much more could be done to revitalize it. A strong city center can do wonders for the entire region. Consider Wooster:

Invest in downtown. Town centers are the communal heart. Too many Midwestern towns let their main streets go to seed. More than anything, this reveals a community that just doesn't care anymore. Who wants to invest in a town with a slum at the center? Columbus, Pella and Wooster look like the good places they are. Wausau may have economic problems, but you'd never know it from its beautifully rehabbed downtown.

Warren is headed in that direction but a recent announcement by Congressman Tim Ryan suggests that this small city is ready to put economic development into overdrive:

The officials said they want to bring the kind of benefits downtown Youngstown has enjoyed from the Youngstown State University’s proximity to the central business district. Ryan said the campus would tie in with the “green” energy incubator being developed in downtown Warren.

“This is the catalyst,” he remarked. In the future, this will be the day that people point to when they ask when did Warren change, he said.

The campus would be located somewhere on Courthouse Square, Ryan said.

That kind of vision is a game-changer and positively plugs Warren into globalization. The ideal location of an institution of higher education is downtown. Innovation thrives in dense areas of face-to-face interaction. Pack it all in as tightly as you can. Let the proposed community college campus house the incubator, introducing students to green entrepreneurial opportunity.

Downtown Warren is now positioned for a jump start. Kudos to Ryan and Governor Ted Strickland for realizing downtown's potential.

Greater Youngstown Includes Cleveland and Pittsburgh

Via the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission blog, NEOtropolis tackles regionalism for Northeast Ohio. That issue finds an echo in the latest edition of PopCity (Pittsburgh):

We can still diss the Browns and cheer for the Steelers, but Pittsburgh and Cleveland simply must work together on economic development and that's what the Tech Belt Initiative is all about. Replicating the Research Triangle in North Carolina and Silicon Valley, Congressmen Jason Altmire (PA-04) and Tim Ryan (OH-17) established the Tech Belt Initiative and its 134 miles of economic opportunity between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Over the past several years, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, BioEnterprise in Cleveland and a host of other organizations have repeatedly joined forces to draw more venture capitalists to our area and to facilitate collaborations between research firms in both states.

The Tech Belt covers 7.2 million people, making it the 4th largest industrial/technology region nationally, with a potential economic impact of more than $1 billion in annual academic R&D. Currently, 700+ companies employ over 25,000+ in bioscience enterprises alone.

Who were the key drivers? Top of the list is John Mancini, President of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse along with various foundations and organizations include the McCune Foundation, the Raymond John Wean Foundation, Allegheny Conference and the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

I recently heard a rumble that the TechBelt Initiative is soon to take wing. To what end? That's a good question that Aaron Renn has tackled:

I’m willing to be convinced. I clearly see the benefits of regional cooperation on a metro or economic area basis. Even there, however, we’ve seen significant challenges operationalizing even that idea. To really justify significant time and effort being spent on mega-regionalism beyond the quick and easy idea exchange variety, I think a specific program of recommended actions and the type of results we should expect to see from them needs to be put forward. Otherwise I’m inclined to view mega-regionalism in the Midwest as dinosaurs mating. Rolling up a bunch of weak players won’t make a strong one.

As you might note, Aaron is looking at mega-regionalism. I think his critique applies equally well at a smaller scale such as the TechBelt. I don't agree with the "dinosaurs mating" simile. The issue is competing for a slice of a shrinking economic pie. When Cleveland sees Pittsburgh as a competitor, both cities lose:

To distinguish its red-carpet tours, Team NEO crafts attention-grabbing invitations. For the tour during the Rock Hall's induction weekend, invitees received small guitar cases with invitations tucked inside.

"We are competing for these jobs against Indianapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh," said Team NEO's Carin Rockind, vice president of marketing and communications. "We have to break through."

The parochial barriers to cooperations are significant. The biggest loser in this pride tug-of-war is Youngstown. If Cleveland is fighting with Pittsburgh for "these jobs", then those positions are more likely to end up outside of the TechBelt. Whether they end up in Cleveland or Pittsburgh is of little consequence to Youngstown. That's why it makes sense that the TechBelt is Tim Ryan's baby.

Even the Mahoning Valley has a long way to go concerning regional thinking. Need I remind you of Girard v. Youngstown? The turf war didn't benefit either city. That is what is at stake with the TechBelt Initiative.

Geographic Arbitrage Revisted

The Business Journal Daily relates a story about Youngstown being a good place to get the best bang for your buck. Unfortunately, cost of living advantages have had little influence on talent migration. On the contrary, people continue to cram into global cities with little regard for price. (Via TechBurgher) That trend may be changing:

A lot of our uncertainty revolves around money, and our realization that we can't afford to buy a home here. That fact, rightly or wrongly, has become a touchstone for other uncertainties -- about finding a neighborhood we can stay in for the long term; about having good school options for our two-year-old daughter; about making enough money to afford the high cost of living without giving all of our waking hours over to work.

As in many distressed relationships, there's a third-party involved. In this case it's the seductive call of some smaller, more livable city.

I'd note that the article looks at a particular adult life stage demographic, when career opportunities begin to play second fiddle to other concerns (e.g. quality of school district). The typical migration is to the wealthy suburbs of Big City. But the place swap described is a downgrade in the global urban hierarchy. I think this aptly describes the ideal boomerang migrant that would return to Youngstown.

Regarding the coveted young and educated adult demographic, I wrote a post recently about it. The quote of note is from a Christian Science Monitor article:

Demographics will drive change, too. Cities that have expensive housing may find themselves at a disadvantage in attracting young people. “We’re going to be facing what I call the third civil war – it’s going to be a war between cities and metro areas over where young people will settle, because we’re going to have to fill a lot of jobs,” says Barry Bluestone, an economist at Northeastern University in Boston.

Many of these young workers will be going to places where they sense a think-outside-the-box culture. “It’s hard to be a dynamic economy if you’re a culture that does not tolerate risk,” says Susannah Malarkey, who heads a trade group, the Technology Alliance, in Seattle.

Everyone knows that Youngstown is an inexpensive place to live. What few people realize is the risk-taking culture that has taken root downtown. I don't think this would appeal to graduates fresh out of college, but it could attract young talent looking to accelerate a career after cutting their teeth in Big City.

Again, the migration trends overwhelmingly favor attraction strategies. Trying to keep graduates in town or in state is foolish. The research continues to support this critique. The game is to understand how relocation strategies are changing and then position your region to take advantage of them. Building a wall around Ohio is not the answer.

Promoting Rust Belt Chic

Phil Kidd and Defend Youngstown receive a nice plug in a recent post over at Rust Wire. The personality and hospitality of the Mahoning Valley vanguard is one of the area's greatest draws. Daniel Denvir makes a reference to another regional asset:

The news format of these articles did not allow me space to describe a lot of what I liked so much about these cities. My time in Cleveland was too short, so I can’t say I really got to know it. But my visits to Detroit and Youngstown sparked some real affection for these struggling locales–along with their bars and delis. In Youngstown, this was all due to the unparalleled hospitality offered by Defend Youngstown impresario and Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative organizer Phil Kidd–really enough reason in and of itself for my sure to be soon return visit. And the next time I do this trip, I’ll have to do a series on Rust Belt bars. Because on a personal note, they were amazing. And microbrews like Youngstown’s Rust Belt Brewing Company certainly qualify as a creative and delicious alternative.

The emphasis added is my doing. There is an curious tension within the group that seeks to revitalize America's industrial heartland. Some see the term "Rust Belt" as a pejorative and reinforcing negative stereotypes holding back so many shrinking cities. On the other side are those who celebrate the same world Anthony Bourdain explored in Baltimore, Detroit, and Buffalo for his show "No Reservations":

I think that troubled cities often tragically misinterpret what's coolest about themselves. They scramble for cure-alls, something that will "attract business", always one convention center, one pedestrian mall or restaurant district away from revival. They miss their biggest, best and probably most marketable asset: their unique and slightly off-center character. Few people go to New Orleans because it's a "normal" city -- or a "perfect" or "safe" one. They go because it's crazy, borderline dysfunctional, permissive, shabby, alcoholic and bat shit crazy -- and because it looks like nowhere else. Cleveland is one of my favorite cities. I don't arrive there with a smile on my face every time because of the Cleveland Philarmonic.

Bourdain's post is the best description of Rust Belt Chic I've encountered and aptly characterizes Denvir's fascination with Rust Belt bars. It's about an authenticity of place taken out of context by a younger generation with little to no connection to the world that produced the social environment.

In Youngstown, Rust Belt Chic exists in the relics of the steel industry. It is in the ethnic food from countries that no longer send immigrants to the area. It's captured in ruin porn or on display during a local high school or college football game. Most importantly, Rust Belt Chic is a brand that can attract Generation Y talent.

Like Bourdain, I'm perplexed as to why no place has cashed in on this marketing opportunity. Instead, we obsess the negative publicity misrepresenting our city or chase the title of the next Silicon Valley. Where else can you buy a Daniel Burnham designed building for under $150,000? Is there a better place to headquarter an initiative to revitalize America's great industrial cities?This is a tremendous opportunity, not an indicator of how far Youngstown has fallen. Of course, that depends on how you feel about the term "Rust Belt".

Brain Drain Policies

Given the high rates of unemployment across the nation, now would seem to be a strange time to worry about brain drain. But that's exactly what California is doing. The alarm isn't about what most would expect. The issue is a looming talent shortage. There won't be enough qualified people to fill all the expected job openings and businesses are willing to move wherever they can to find an ample labor pool.

I don't think Ohio's leadership is making the problem clear enough for residents. I'm sure the latest proposed policy to plug this state's brain drain won't work:

Ohio college graduates who stay in the state would be eligible for 10 years of income-tax breaks under legislation introduced in the Ohio Senate.

Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, offered Senate Bill 198 with hopes of keeping more science, technology, engineering and math degree holders in Ohio, to whom the incentive would be directed.

“We all know that brain drain is a major problem facing our state today,” Schiavoni told members of the Senate’s ways and means committee. “I’ve seen it firsthand as many of my friends, neighbors and former classmates decided to pursue careers in other states. Some of our best and brightest leave Ohio and never come back.”

I won't bore you with my usual sermon about the folly of trying to keep graduates from leaving. The idea is to provide incentive to stay. Look at the legislation from a cost-benefit angle. All the qualifying students who would have stayed regardless of the tax break will cash in on the opportunity. The numbers of those who stick around often surprise the casual observer. Typically, more stay than go and state is proposing to pay all those people in hopes of getting more to seek employment in Ohio.

The proposed policy amounts to nothing more than a tax cut for a fiscally strapped Ohio. It won't generate or attract new business and jobs. And graduates will continue to leave the state at roughly the same rate. In fact, the exodus might get worse before it improves.