Sunday, December 7, 2008

Cleveland Industry Journal

Lienne Sethna

When Cleveland was founded in 1796, it soon became a manufacturing center due to its location near to numerous railroad lines and canals. Cleveland's economy used to be dependent on the manufacturing industry, however, now it is starting to move away from the struggling business and is coming to rely on the dozens corporate headquarters that are located in the city. Cleveland is finding it harder to rebound because it has lost dozens of corporate heads such as Office Max, BP, and its longtime resident National City Bank.

Sherwin-Williams encouraged me because of it's dedication to the city and its workers. My biggest concern for the revitalization is the fact that Cleveland's population has decreased substantially since the 1960s and has a 32.4% poverty rate.

The Cuyahoga River is no longer used as a way of transportation but I think that it is a good feature to the area and can be used as a way to advertise the beauty that exists in the area as well as the opportunities for business. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park brings in some tourism adds to the image of Cleveland and Akron being a wonderful place to live for all kinds of people. What I believe Cleveland lacks the most in it's inability to compete with other metropolitan areas is that the city is mostly thought of bad neighborhoods and the fact that it is the poorest major city in America which turns people looking for a place to live away.

6 comments:

First Knight said...

Well done journal, with substantiating facts.

It seems perception means a lot for a city. Cleveland still gets the bad rap of riots, river fires, and "the mistake on the lake."

How do you change long-held perceptions? Does a person like Drew Carey, who is proud of his Cleveland heritage, but also uses the city as butt of jokes help or hurt this change?

Andreas Johansson said...

Yeah, I second Mr. Testa here. What can be done about the "ill" feelings about Cleveland. There are those who say otherwise, especially if they come from outside the region, that Cleveland is in fact up and coming, but locally, it's a "known" fact that the city is tanking. How do we change that? It's hard to attract the local workforce to come spend time in the city, work or play, so how to attract others?

What other cities, if any, can we use for a model. Look at Chicago. They have a fantastic downtown, very pedestrian friendly, with tours, museums, public spaces, and lots and lots of public transportation. Is that the answer? I'm not sure Cleveland would be worse off looking at some of those ideas. The goal here is to draw some people in to town for work. But with that comes other issues. Where to shop for groceries. If you look in Tremont for example, there's hardly a place to get milk. How then do you get people to move there in order to revitalize the city's workforce? This is another good topic for a project... hint, hint!

Sethna said...

While the CVNP system is certainly an asset to the area, I don't think that it's high on the list of attractions for prospective tourists.

Anna C said...

While Cleveland is thought of for its bad neighborhoods and poverty, there are other cities in the country that are not so great either and people still move there. There must be other factors involved that influence people to move to those cities but not to Cleveland.

little miss laura said...

Well, maybe neighborhoods aren't everything. I definitely agree with you, seeing as the poverty rate is apparently pretty high, but obviously people need jobs to survive. If they're doing things like closing down the steel mill (which I'm pretty sure they're planning on doing, according to the guy I know that works there) which seems like a pretty big source for jobs, a lot more people become unemployed. This could be a deterrent for newcomers because who wants to go to a city if they can't find a job?

Axel said...

that would be bad for alot of people in cleveland if the mill shuts down there is already alot of poverty there already..... when i go there there is always beggers. as if cleveland needs any more poverty