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In the Columbus Dispatch series on Ohio’s big cities Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. talked about what is referred to as the Ohio Brain Drain   in an audio comment.  

Katz  says young people are looking for “diverse, distinctive and dense” in a community. He says bright, educated Ohio young adults are attracted to Chicago, Madison and Minneapolis. 

This is the part where the real estate agent in me wants to do a quick plug for Columbus… but I will resist… but graduates from Ohio colleges would be closer to “Mom” for the holidays in Columbus than if they head off to Minneapolis, Madison or Chicago… back to your regularly scheduled blog… about big cities in Ohio.

Wednesday the  Columbus Dispatch series focused on Akron.  Definitely a more upbeat story than the one on Dayton Tuesday.   Since 1983 (why does the Columbus Dispatch use  1983?) Akron has not lost population should say jobs not population unlike the other big industrial cities of Ohio.  Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.   

The Columbus Dispatch article written by Mark Niquette does say of Akrons population historically:

“Akron, which once boasted of being the world’s fastest-growing city with a boom in the rubber industry boosting the population from 69,067 in 1910 to more than 208,000 a decade later, has lost nearly 30 percent of its population since 1960.”

But remember… no population loss since 1983.  The reason I question the 1983 is ‘The Pretenders’ song “My city was gone” was a hit in 1983….  Chrissie Hynde the lead singer of The Pretenders wrote the song about the city she had grown up in, Akron Ohio…

“I went back to Ohio

But my city was gone

There was no train station

There was no downtown. …

A, O, way to go Ohio”

The lyrics above  as quoted in the Columbus Dispatch article.  I lived in Akron from late 1983 to 1986…  I worked downtown at O’Neill’s (the O’Neill’s buying office was in the downtown store.)  The Columbus Dispatch article has a slide show of old photos of downtown Akron…  ooooooold.  Long before Chrissie Hynde came back from London (the London in England NOT the London in Central Ohio) and downtown Akron was all parking lots… and I moved there.

Working with a young couple from Akron  recently I got blank stares when I said “O’Neill’s” to them.  To them the department stores in Akron was May Company….

This fall Chrissie Hynde opened a vegetarian restaurant (or vegan?) in Akron.  VegiTerranean  is Italian / Vegetarian?  The Northside Lofts where the Chrissie Hynde’s restaurant VegiTerranean is located look exciting. 

 on an Akron Beacon Journal forum it says:

“When Chrissie Hynde’s opening number is the O’Neil’s department store jingle, you know it was a special night for Akron.”

Gee I don’t remember O’Neill’s jingle…

Monday Blame “Sex in the City”

Tuesday’s installment in the Columbus Dispatch series about Ohio’s big cities is about Dayton, Ohio. On the brink: Dayton, City of invention seeks to dream up a future  I moved to Columbus from Dayton… long ago. Or I say I moved from Dayton but I never lived in the city of Dayton. I lived in West Carrollton, a suburb of Dayton…. We bought a house in West Carrollton in the late 80’s for under 60K.

When my husband was transfered to Columbus in 1990 we bought a ten year old house that was in the City of Columbus, in the Dublin school district. It seemed like there were more choice in housing in Columbus. Bigger city or just plain different?

The moving van driver who moved us from West Carrollton Ohio to Columbus, Ohio 43235 was concerned that our house was not inside 270…. he said inside 270 was bad… outside 270 was good. Our house was inside 270, off Snouffer Rd. between Sawmill and Smokey Row. The moving van driver was relieved we were only a little bit inside 270, the north outer-belt.

In an audio comment(mp3) Ohio Suburbs in the Columbus Dispatch series Bruce Katz of the Brooking Institute commented our Ohio suburbs today are still 1950’s suburbs… we are still building 1950’s suburbs in 2007, in Ohio… Give it a listen to the experts  solutions for Ohio’s big cities and their suburbs in this and the other audio comments online.

Teri Lussier a woman I know in the Dayton area wrote about the Columbus Dispatch series about big Ohio cities on Dayton OS Monday (and gave me a link… Thanks Teri!) “Solving Dayton’s problems: Whiners and wimps need not apply” Teri lives in Huber Heights Ohio, a suburb northeast of Dayton. Teri wrote a rant today, “It’s education, Stoopid” on Dayton OS Tuesday. I guess she’s disappointed the Columbus Dispatch didn’t publish the formula to make Dayton all better… Teri wrote:

“Gawd I hate these news stories that are not news. They talk to Nan Whaley and Rhine McLin and paint their doom and gloom picture and ohbloodyhell! Where’s the beef? Do they offer solutions? No. Oh wait, let me guess. That’s going to be in Sunday’s Edition.”

Psst Teri… The Columbus Dispatch is written for Columbus people… it may be old news to you but to us in Columbus it’s news… Yes we know about the Wright Brothers but a lot of the rest of the history, politics, economy of Dayton is new to most Columbusites.I’ve heard of Rhine McLin  but could not have told you she was the  Mayor of Dayton.  Nan Whaley (City Commissioner) is a new character to me. 

Maybe the Columbus Dispatch will wrap it up nicely in next Sunday’s issue and publish the solution for Dayton. Maybe some of the answers were in the two articles… last Sunday. Maybe the solution is on the Columbus Dispatch website in the audio comments in the Dispatch Special Report.  Is Katz talking Dayton Ohio? No, he’s talking Ohio’s big cities including Dayton… and the whole ball of wax, the Ohio big cities and their suburbs.

The Columbus Dispatch wrote about Cleveland yesterday too… I’ll have to check to see if the Columbus newspaper reporters solved Clevelands problems for them… Nope, the Columbus Dispatch just told the Columbus readers about Cleveland…

I particularly enjoyed the part of the article where Nan Whaley described the Dayton “spirit” after reading the rant.

“Whaley quickly learned that Daytonians are no-nonsense folks, a mixture of Appalachians and minorities, sprinkled with a salt-of-the-earth pioneering spirit.

“There’s no sugarcoating anything in Dayton,” she said. “In this town, it’s ‘What have you done for me lately?’”