Looking Ahead!

Hello!

We're currently looking ahead to the new school year, and we're excited about all the new trips, new possibilities, and new members of the class. If you're reading this, and you're taking the class in the fall, be sure to fill out the online survey if you haven't done so already. You can find the form on the website, www.valleyvoyages.net, under forms.

Also, be sure to check out the new calendar feature, since all the trips have been added it to it. You may subscribe to the calendar if you have a google account (highly recommended!), to make sure you get all the updates. For now, plan on attending the ODOT trip to get to meet us in person. Be sure to browse later dates as well so you can start planning.

That's it for now. Check the blog and the website for more updates over the summer.

Final Presentations

We're finally here! The presentations are held in the High School IMC, April 30th, at 6:30 PM. Make sure to be there early, as we'll need to setup ahead of time, run through the PowerPoints, etc.

Schedule changes, etc.

Monday's trip has been canceled due to even our plan C not working, and now too little time to arrange another alternative. As such, we have another event before us, and one that we will count as mandatory. Please join us for one session (or come to both) of preliminary research / setup for your project on the following dates:

• Session # 1 - Wednesday 18 February, in the IMC during Cyber Cafe Hours (7PM?).
• Session # 2 - Saturday morning, the 21st, in the IMC, from 9-11 AM.

Remember, you only have to pick one, but you must attend... I will be at the Wednesday session, and Mr. Testa & Mr. Loman at the Saturday session. Email us with questions. Also, read the newsletter you'll get tomorrow at school.

Mr. Johansson

Stepping into a Time Machine

Out of all the museums, I choose the Western Reserve Historical Society.

I enjoyed our tour of the library; it was very interesting seeing how the counties grew. Our tour guide didn’t seem to leave anything out, and showed us how to use the different resources the library had to offer. She also gave us some fun facts to take home with us. After the tour I was very excited to find my grandpa on their computers.

If I were curator I don’t think I would change anything about the museum. All the displays were informational and fun to explore. However, if you wanted any additional information or had any questions, a guide was nearby. The only thing I would try to fix would be the leaky ceiling.

Since Akron and Cleveland depend much on their ecotourism for my final project I want to find a better way to attract more people to our lovely parks down in the Valley for my final project. It would also be fun to attack people on the paths and interview them.

University Circle Museums

I visited the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum and the Crawford Auto Museum. I found the Crawford Auto Museum most engaging, even though cars aren't exactly my favorite thing. It was really fascinating to see how much cars have evolved over the years, from very simple, frustrating to use, slow, impractical vehicles to the complicated, easy to use, and vital machines that they are today. If I were curator of the museum, the first thing I would do to make the museum better would be to organize the cars in a more chronological order. It would be interesting to see a physical timeline of how cars have evolved over the years, but instead, they were kind of strewn about the museum randomly. Many of the vehicles in the museum were probably made utilizing some kind of major Cleveland industry, whether it be steel manufacturing, or coal mining, or perhaps Sherwin Williams has a line of auto body paints.

The materials that were available for use in the Western Reserve Historical Society Archives were really a great resource. I was able to use the computerized census data to find information on my great grandfather and his family, when my grandparents on that side of my family had been dead for 30 years. The archival data available for use was very helpful in my understanding of the valley, and the surrounding region of northeastern Ohio. I learned the language that my great grandfather and his neighbors spoke in the home, what type of job was most popular, how long each had been a citizen, and many other enlightening pieces of information.

Voyages of University Circle

I thoroughly enjoyed our field trip to University Circle, I felt that this trip enriched us with a lot of information not just about the Cuyahoga Valley but instead the town that we actually live in. I must say I think it was very nice of the librarian to plan ahead of time with the pictures and information about Northfield Center.

After going to the Library I decided to go to the Crawford Auto Museum. I can say that I have been there before but it was such a long time ago. I definitely see the museum from a different perspective now as a driver (thank you power steering!) It is interesting to see all of the old cars and how we went from super huge cars to compact and efficient. Now automakers are just trying to go right back as many of them see how many passengers they can fit in their new gas saving SUV crossover. Another side note many of these old cars are made of materials that crushed very easily, while the amount of traffic was nothing near our time, if you were in a car crash chances for you were not good.

While at the museum I had the opportunity along with my brother of talking with one of the museum's workers. He was very knowledgable on the topics and different cars of the auto industry in Cleveland. One of the questions that we asked him was which one of the cars wast the most expensive in the museum. I cannot remember the model but it was worth approximately 1.2 Million Dollars. The Car was made right here in Cleveland. The reason it is worth so much is that it was built by hand of aluminum. It was only driven once by the designer to California and back and then placed in a garage. While in storage the designer decided to carry out his career in another business field with no further use or need for the car. Years late it was then donated to the Crawford Auto Museum which is where it still remains.

If I were Museum Curator for the Crawford Auto Museum I would not change much. One thing that I would change though is to incorporate more newer cars into the museum. Part of the exhibit that I enjoyed were the three Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep concept cars that were located in the downstairs. I think that having these models showed a more diverse collection rather than just all old cars. It also showed how far along that the cars have come since they were first created.

Another thing while touring the Auto museum that I noticed is how many of the cars were made right here in Cleveland. Most of these companies are not around anymore, but it mad me woonder how many extra jobs that was in our economy when those companies were open for business. They also all used American mad supplies in their automobiles. The steel came from cleveland etc. This is what America has lost in my opinion in today's cars and other products.
After visiting both the Auto Museum and the Library I bleieve I may do my project and relate it to the original CLeveland Auto Industry compared with the current one and the recession (yes Mr. Testa I said recession) that they are all facing.

Crawford Auto Museum

I liked looking around at all the different cars because I remembered seeing them as a kid, but now I can actually remember what they were. It was also neat to look at the history of the beginning of when car were first made, to now with size, motors, and everything else.

If I was curator of the Auto Branch of the Museum I would probably make the space between where the people can stand bigger. Doing this would make the preservation of the car to a more original state. I would also disable the car horn so that people (not mentioning any names) or group would not be a disturbance to others in the museum.

While trying to raise funds with donations and such, the museum has to balance their spending on the different exhibits. People that come to museums like this are cutting out certain things on their budget. This would be something simple but easy to not spend on. So in a future look, the income of the museum will slowly start to go down. The exhibits will become the same for so many years, especially since some of the cars are on a lease.

When we were in the library I probably should have been looking for things to do a project. Instead Jeremy and I looked through some files to see if we could find who used to live in our house. We ended up not being able to find anything, but it was neat to look at the materials that we had access to.

Since I really wasn't looking for anything on my project at the library. I think I've found what I am going to do while at the Crawford Auto Mueseum.

Western Reserve Historical Society

I ended up not being able to stay the full time for this field trip. So I just ended up staying at the Western Reserve Historical Society.

I really enjoyed the tour we got. Everything I will need for my final project is at the Western Reserve Historical Society. They have a ton of old pictures of industrial structures and they have books on how those structures were created.

For my project I wanted to create new bridges in place of old falling down bridges but I want the brand new bridges to look how they would of in the 1930's or other later dates. The lady that gave us our tour really helped me with finding information. She showed me how to us their database to look up pictures, books or other materials that can be very useful for my project.

If I was made curator I would not change much. I would just make it more eye appealing.

I do plan on going back to work on my project a lot. The Western Reserve Historical Society has just about every resource I could need for my project.

Lienne's University Cirle Trip

I visited the Western Reserve Historical Society on our Friday, January 23 field trip.

The tour of the library was a good way to learn how to use one of the many resources available for our final projects. It seems to have all the information on the Valley and the surrounding areas since the 1800s.

The other part of the museum was the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. It had many exhibits and historical information. It has something for every age group. If I was made curator, I would make the exhibits a little more eye catching because the informational parts were boring to look at weren't fun to read.

The censuses from the different years painted a picture of what the neighborhoods of our community looked like in that time. This helped me understand how different businesses that came either helped or weakened the economy or how they grew our community.

For my final project, I wanted to do a "now and then" of the Valley. I also wanted to tie in the new park coming in by Mustill Store and how this could affect the future of the area. I wasn't able to spend too much time working on my final project because we ran out of time, but I am planning on using the pass to come back and use the abundant sources available there.

University Circle Museums: Friday, January 23

-- Cyrus Sethna --

I chose to visit the museum portion of the Western Reserve Historical Society after our tour of the library.

I found the tour of the library to be very complete and through. The lady who gave us our tour certainly knew about what the library had to offer in terms of content and equipment available for visitors to utilize. I was strongly reminded of the time I spent last summer as a volunteer at the National Archives except the WRHS library is obviously smaller and contains different sorts of materials.

The museum portion of the facility contains the Crawford Auto and Aviation Museum as well as something that resembles a house with old furniture, clothing, and items from days past with some sort of local connection.

I found the materials as presented to be very interesting and they illuminated some historical details that I would not have been able to otherwise infer. I feel that if I was a visitor with little or no knowledge of American or local history, then I would certainly be learning a lot. It was most exciting to see things that we had all ready learned about through previous readings or trips.

If I was made curator of the facility, I do not believe that I would make substantial changes except perhaps to properly drive home the point that small children should not climb on the cars.

I did not conduct significant "archival work" in the library, I merely glanced at the facility and looked over the holdings. I do not have any family roots in the area as I am a first-generation American, my parents both immigrated from abroad.

I am interested in looking at the decline of Cleveland/ Akron and their failure to rebound like their rust-belt sister cities. So I believe that articles written about the steps that places like Pittsburgh have taken compared to what Cleveland/ Akron have done would be helpful. All though, I'd love to be able to heap most of the blame upon the decrepit leadership on Jackson and Plusquellic.

University Circle Museums

Visiting the Historical Society and the Botanical gardens was a very fun experience for me. The Botanical gardens I always enjoy, more so in the summer because of the outdoor plants though. The Historical Society, on the other hand, I have never been to. I was very surprised by what the lady that worked there had to say and show us. I thought it was neat how they have records from people living in the area all of those years ago and how we are still recording at all today. It amazes me that someday people will look back and see how we were living and what was important to us in our time.

The lady at the Historical Society mentioned that they work with Hale Farm and I thought it would be useful to look up information about the lives of people there and apply that to my project. Also it would help me to contact Hale Farm again and talk to them about interpreters teaching students how to role play as the people who lived at Hale Farm. I think this will expand the education of students on the history of the valley as well as teach them better public speaking skills. Being an interpreter could be a great experience for students.

In regards to the Botanical Gardens, if I were curator, I would make use of more of the empty space in the lobby and around the gift shop for plants. The desert area was nice and the rain forest area was very pretty. I like how they raise butterflies and release them in the rain forest setting. I liked seeing the birds there too. If I a curator there I would probably expand and create a larder indoor plant exhibit so people will stay longer in the winter. If there were more rooms with different environments, people might walk around more and go back and forth between the rooms instead of just meandering through one way only without going back to previous rooms.

Botanical Gardens

I went to the Botanical Gardens for lunch and to explore around a bit (and I got to talk to the head of horticulture or something to that effect and I got the contact info for two people to work on my project!) and I greatly enjoyed the experience.

I liked that you had to go through the first main exhibit (the desert environment) to get to the second (the rain forest environment). The rain forest exhibit had a stairway (or an elevator, but I decided to get my exercise and take the stairs) that led up to a second level where one can look out and see the top of the plants and a few more butterflies that were fluttering around. I personally liked the way the museum was laid out and wouldn't change much, though there was one room (and Anna can attest to this) that was rather dark and it was right after a very light room, so I couldn't really see where I was going. I managed though...the room wasn't too big and there was only one way out and nothing really to walk into or trip over. So perhaps, if I were curator of the museum, I might put a small light in that room. :]

In talking briefly to the women involved in the environmental education (I think that's what their business cards said), I got some great ideas for a project. I might do something on the carbon footprint of Cleveland or Botanical Gardens specifically, since they said that the glasshouse would be getting a "green roof" and they also suggested I could write about the environmental impact the plants themselves are making on local environment and such. I'll be looking into this topic a lot more and I'll definitely be doing an interview or two in the next two months!

University Circle Museums

I liked the gardens i always like seeing all the cool plant life they have there and the butterflys and birds are cool even tho there setup is better in the summer it was still cool. ( even though some people dont enjoy plants cough *cyrus* cough) =P


The Exhibits there are the spiny desert which is filled with cactus and a lot of other desert plants, and the rain forest exhibit which is my favorite because of all the animals and insects. the layout of the building made it easy for you to be your own tour guide it was one thing after another it was a fun experience to go there if i could change it any way i would make more exhibits on the inside so that in winter people can get to see the greatness of the gardens and not freeze outside trying to observe the huge outside setup but otherwise i wouldn't change a thing i loved the gardens and the way it is set up my favorite was the rain forest exhibit



to be honest i dont know gow to really relate the gardens to any thing that i have gone to to other then the parks that we went to and i really dont know i am going to base my project on yet maybe some of you guys could give me some tips on what my project can be based on so comment me and help me out

Friday the 23rd

I don't know about everyone else - but I had a fun day - I was rather surprised by this I must admit...I have of course been to all these sites already, and was thinking it would be more of the same, but I really enjoyed making use of all the documents at our disposal at the library...I looked up my grandmother and grandfather's lineage which was very enlightening, found out that my grandfather is from Yugoslavia...all this time - up until Friday - I thought he was from Czechoslovakian - my family has had it wrong all this time...that was my ahh haa moment of the day.

Word cloud

In the spirit of art, here's a word cloud generated by the most frequently occurring words on this blog... wow! How's that for one of your teachers?

Stan Hywet Collage

So I finally got around to getting these pictures home and online, and now I'm sharing them with you all. This is from the Stan Hywet trip (hence the title) and I ended up taking the huge house as an opportunity to do my weekend picture-taking for Photography (the project was to make a collage out of something, as you can see). Enjoy!


Stan Hywet: Snapshots by ~ob0eplayer4life on deviantART

For another version of this (where all the pictures are black and white but I've tinted a few of them like pink and blue), go here:
http://ob0eplayer4life.deviantart.com/art/Stan-Hywet-B-W-Tinted-106427455

Cleveland Industry

Cleveland began as a strong manufacturing city that was able to use its proximity to Lake Erie to become very prosperous in its time. However, in more recent years, Cleveland's industry has slowed drastically due to the outsourcing of jobs, and extremely significantly since the current financial crisis began, arcelor/mittal just laid off something like 1000 workers.

Cleveland has had a very difficult time bouncing back from the loss of manufacturing jobs, much more so than other cities. This may be because many companies want to leave Cleveland, and most already have, thanks to its dismal state at the moment. Thankfully a few loyal ones such as Sherwin-Williams have remained in the city, to help boost it back up. University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic have been instrumental in the recent semi-comeback of Cleveland, and will hopefully help more in the future.

I would hope that the Cuyahoga Valley stay as it is now, maybe with a little bit more development, to keep it mostly park land, instead of mowing over the natural beauty we have for some other city that could fail just as badly as Cleveland and Akron did. However, it certainly would not be a bad thing to see Cleveland and Akron be boosted up a bit more, although I can't really see this happening to Akron much. The future of Cleveland looks somewhat promising though, thanks to the medical institutions that are setting up their large, expensive, and job-creating shop there.

Cleveland; Will the Phoenix Rise Fom the Ashes?

---Ashley Costello---

At one time, Cleveland was one of the major steel producing centers in the United States. It was a major port on the Great Lakes feeding the steel industry by bringing in iron ore, and also by shipping out things such as crops. As the railroad became more and more popular, it helped stimulate Cleveland as a major port even more so because as the ships brought in the goods we could send them to the Midwest. Cleveland was also home to the wealthiest industrialists whose philanthropic support of the arts made the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Museums of Art and History and Playhouse Square destinations for not only it’s residents but tourists as well. Being an industrial leader was a double edged sword in that the abundance of natural recourses encouraged abuse that led to pollution and destruction which can be graphically illustrated by the burning of the Cuyahoga River.



The loss of Republic Steel, Oglebay Norton, Hanna Mining and BP, to name a few companies, contributed to Cleveland’s decline. The loss of jobs led to the draining of population and monies from the city and the region as a whole. Cleveland schools also suffered during forced busing further leading to a loss of quality education and population.

The revitalization of Cleveland lags behind, its rust belt sister cities for numerous reasons. These reasons, according to some readers of the Plain Dealer, can be delineated into local and or regional problems and possible solutions. On a local level Cleveland must provide a more diversified pool of employment by expanding its focus from just the health care industry to other industries as well. It must encourage new business by providing a clean and safe environment as well as a quality school system for the employees of these new businesses. Tax incentives, better infrastructure and safe and quality housing within the city is a must. The politics of the city must also change and the parade of one party leadership (or the lack thereof) that has been lackluster at best and colored by cronyism and corruption must be changed. As Harry Truman once said, “A leader has to lead; otherwise he has no business in politics.” In order to move forward the city of Cleveland needs bold, energetic, and dynamic leadership.

On a regional level the city of Cleveland and the state of Ohio must work together to attract new industry and businesses by making college education affordable and offering incentives to graduates who accept employment and live in North East Ohio. The city and state must join together to market our region as our sister rust belt cities do with a comprehensive public relations plan that seeks business and tourism on a global scale. Tax incentives for industries, the development of a public rail transportation system throughout the state as well as the reclamation and preservation of our lakefront and other natural resources must me fostered.

I don’t see a thriving metropolitan corridor existing in the Cuyahoga Valley between Akron and Cleveland in the future. The best use of the resource is protecting it within the park system within which it lies and promoting tourism by expanding the activities currently existing there. Certainly small private farms and related businesses as well as bed and breakfasts, skiing facilities, hiking and biking businesses should be encouraged and supported. The preservation of this important part of the history between Cleveland and Akron can be insured by its rebirth as a tourist destination and wildlife sanctuary.


These are devastating times for the city of Cleveland, but it can survive these seismic setbacks because the city has must to recommend it; world class universities, museum and medical facilities, Lake Erie and land ripe for development.

Cleveland Industry tour

Cleveland is a pretty diverse city, with items of interest ranging from the arts (music, art, history, etc.) to the steel mill and other manufacturing places. In more prosperous times, I'd say that Cleveland does very well (as any city would in prosperous times, I guess), but today with the craziness of the economy, the setback of money problems was particularly evident in the steel mill. When we visited, nothing was running, and while our tour guide knew what he was talking about, it was hard to imagine what the mill would've looked like in more financially stable years.

Perhaps Cleveland is a bit slower to recover than other cities because it has placed a lot of its dependency on the steel mill and other factories that are suffering due to the economy. It was good to see, however, that the steel mill was trying to save money by not running at full tilt (as it were) every day. I think that if Cleveland just makes less of things but still stays in the business swing of things, it will be okay in the end. I could be totally wrong, though...I'm going to be honest and say that of any subject I've taken in school, economics is one of the few that so much of it went way over my head that I don't think, as one of my friends would say, that I could've looked and seen it with a telescope. I guess I'm just not money-minded, as it were.

But anyway...

I would hope that the Cuyahoga River is used in the next few decades, be it for transportation of goods and the like or even just one of the few natural features Cleveland has left. Rivers are a good way of connecting cities for trade and transportation, but sometimes it's nice to just be able to enjoy something in nature.

This really wasn't my best blog entry and for that I apologize...I'll try to make up for it with leaving excellent comments on others' blog entries!

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.

Cleveland Industry

-- Cyrus Sethna --

Cleveland was once one of the greatest American cities. Cleveland began to grow significantly during the mid-nineteenth century. The city was ideally located to receive iron ore mined from Minnesota and shipped across the Great Lakes. Coal was brought to the city by rail from the southern United States. As a result Cleveland became a major American center for manufacturing and was home to numerous producers of steel who were able to utilize the raw materials brought to the city. By 1920, John D. Rockefeller had build his fortune and his legacy on Standard Oil, turning Cleveland into the fifth-largest American city.

In the late 1970's, there were numerous economic factors that led to the decline of the steel industry in Cleveland. The oil embargo and the economic recession contributed significantly to the decline of Cleveland's and other cities' manufacturing industries. As costs rose and demand dwindled, many steel companies, Cleveland's major economic assets, began the exodus from what is now termed the “rust belt” to the south, where workers were not yet unionized.

However, several other cities were effected by this great economic setback, namely Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The City of Pittsburgh had similar industries to that of Cleveland and was effected just as severely as Cleveland by the negative economic factors of the time. When the steel and heavy manufacturing withdrew from the city, Pittsburgh lost 200,000 jobs in three years. Pittsburgh was once the poster-city for rust belt atrophy, but in recent years, has made a significant recovery.

The next question that must be asked is “why has Pittsburgh, Cleveland's sister city, been able to make such a substantial comeback?” Some analysts claim that this is because “Pittsburgh already had its bust”. Well, the same is also true of Cleveland. In fact, both the health and education fields emerged in both Cleveland and Pittsburgh as the promising new industries. The kicker is economic diversity. Pittsburgh for example has been able to attract a motley assortment of industries, laying a strong and diverse economic foundation. Pittsburgh hasn't put all of its proverbial eggs into one proverbial basket. The City of Cleveland has been unable to fill the void left in its demographics, caused by the departure of jobs from the city. A host of baby boomers left the city, devoid of jobs when the heavy manufacturing dried up. Other rust belt cities have been able to fill this gap with younger people who are more likely to develop ties to their respective areas. While Cleveland is making an attempt to diversify itself economically, it certainly has a lot of distance to cover to catch up with some of its rust belt companions.

On the tour of Cleveland, I was encouraged by the fact that Cleveland does appear to be attempting to foster economic diversity. However, in recent years, the City of Cleveland has lost almost twelve corporate headquarters, TRW, OfficeMax, BP, Oglebay, and Norton to name a few.

In future years, I would like to see Cleveland using the Cuyahoga River to promote its own revitalization. The river holds the most promise as a natural feature that adds ambiance to potential real estate. The river is no longer needed to move materials or foster trade, so it should be used and maintained as a pristine natural feature that contributes significantly to property values.

This “thriving metropolitan corridor” is silly. Akron and Cleveland are two discreet cities, with two separate economies and two sets of problems. City government and residents must do their part to make their respective city as excellent as possible. After all, this is the twenty-first century and we no longer use the Ohio and Erie Canal for anything but recreation.

Cleveland Tour

The city of Cleveland, when it is not as prosperous and economically efficient, is slow moving. The steel mill is a good example of that. Nothing was running because of the poor economy. Cleveland might be slower to rebound as well because of the industries that move out and start up in other cities and states, like the Sherwin-Williams speaker mentioned.

What encouraged me though, was the steel mill and how Cleveland is able to produce it's own steel, which can be used for a number of things like construction equipment and appliances. I think a city that is able to produce it's own steel is a lot better off than other cities.

What worries me is how the Port Authority speaker mentioned that there are few exports leaving the city by ship, at least. There are many imports from foreign countries, but we aren't shipping out our own goods as much as we are receiving, which seems to me like an economic problem. Also, I think more people need to move into the city. Buildings could be better used as apartments, in my opinion.

The river links the cities of Akron and Cleveland but more so in the past than in the present. I would hope the river would increase connections between Akron and Cleveland in the future because I think if they were better connected, they could grow more prosperously. They could combine resources more effectively to provide what the other city lacks and both cities could thrive. The area seems to be lacking trade which could be brought in by a new convention center that would attract more business that other metropolitan areas have.

All together, I liked the steel mill most because I like learning about the metal and what goes into it to make it. I liked the machinery and the general appearance of the mill. I didn't like hats because they gave me a headache, but I thought it was kind of neat hearing the speaker talk through the headsets.

Cleveland Industry

Not sure if there was a writing prompt for this trip but I just wanted to sound off about the day we all had...I think I liked the time we spent at Sherwin Williams the best...I have been to the steel plant before, so that was not new to me...I found the breadth and depth of SW to be very interesting. Not sure I realized how long they have been around and surely did not know they own so many brands. I liked the way they seemed to value their employees by offering training, and doing things to ensure retention. They worked to validate their staff. I think this is sorely missed in most companies. People want to feel they are worth something to those around them...so on that note...thanks to all for their contributions throughout the day, and special thanks go out to Mr. Testa for his time, energy, and enthusiasm for these trips. Mr. Jo thanks for your time as well...

Just my 2 cents on the day.

Cleveland Industry

While on the trip you could see that in one area of Cleveland it looks like no one even could live there or even care about it, then another area has shiny huge buildings that show there is some life in the city. While at the Cleveland Port we were told several times about how the port hasn't had as much business this year due to the economy. Cleveland way back when was the place to be because of all the steel factories and other industries that existed there. Unfortunately most have moved away. Entire Industries have either moved to different sates or have died off completely.

One of my ideas as to why Cleveland has been slower to rebound then other industrial cities is that when a city like Cleveland has its downfall, most of the people don't stay there. They move to other places, other major Cities. Well those other large cities now have people that are living there and those cities are doing well. Cleveland I feel just has a lack of people and a lack of people that trust that their city to do well and make a rebound.

What encouraged me as we toured Cleveland today (haha...was like a week ago now) was even though we passed some buildings that looked run down and probably vacant, there were some buildings that had been restored and looked to be new and full of people. My biggest concern with Cleveland's revitalization is that with many businesses struggling to keep afloat that there will be less momentum to revitalize Cleveland. In the next 30 some years I don't know if I can visualize anything other then different historic landmarks and places of interest along the Cuyahoga river.

The Cuyahoga valley helps to connect both Akron and Cleveland by being a medium between the two. Yes Akron and Cleveland are completely different cities but have similar histories and started in similar ways. But on a side note, thinking back I don't recall any mention of Akron during the Cleveland trip. Yes I know the focus was on Cleveland but if they were connected in a huge way wouldn't there be more talk of it? What we lack to be able to compete with other metropolitan centers is people hear the city Cleveland and think of how it is one of the poorest cities in the US and don't really look into the city and what its doing to attempt to rebound.

All in all I really enjoyed this trip, got to see things like a guided tour of a steel mill and the port which most people will never get to see. And even though Cleveland may have alot of troubles, it shows hope to rebuild and come back as a great city, just takes time.

--
Fosch!

Akron Industry

Akron was a great industrial spot along the canal because of its location. It had many resources which helped it to thrive, one being the canal; for the time the canal was one of the most modern and fastest way to transport goods from A to B. One canal boat could hold almost as much as a 18 wheeler does today, so as for what you could transport there were many possibilities. One of the major factors for Akron's industry was the rubber and polymer manufactures. I think that the tire industry probably could have only thrived in another place given it had such a great transportation method for the time.

Akron is working to rebuild the city to show everyone that even though alot of industry has moved out more jobs can and will take its place. Akron took a part of the city which was ran down and no one wanted to live there and transformed it into a great place to live. They are building houses and making it feel like a suburban setting while still having the advantages of being in a city. Places like the old Quaker square is appealing to people to come in and visit the city, to show that there is a great history behind the city.

I feel that akron is a great city mainly because of everything that I listed above, not only is it rebuilding but it has many great things to offer to everyone and not just from the history standpoint. I feel that what Akron lacks to be able to compete with other metropolitan centers is the attitude that people have towards the city. Some people think that Akron is some run down city that nothing goes on there, some don't even bother to go and take a look for themselves.

Akron is a great place to visit, also a great place to live. I am glad that I was able to spend the day touring the city. And yes, I know my blog is late...better late then never I suppose.

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Fosch