Ed Morrison’s Garage

Over the last couple of years, civic leaders in the Mahoning Valley have developed a framework for collaboration.
Communities need to establish new routines where difficult challenges can be openly discussed. Cities like Youngstown, Akron, Kalamazoo and (more recently Kokomo) have established places where leaders can come together regularly to discuss the highly controversial issues surrounding managing the complex economic transformation of a shrinking city.

At the same time other places, (Detroit and Cleveland come to mind), do not have established routines for dealing with the challenges and opportunities of shrinking cities.
So, for example, in Cleveland, we see the regional transit system cutting services, the Bishop boarding up churches, the school system closing schools...and no one is talking to anyone else.
So, this contraction is taking place without any significant strategic insight. Which neighborhoods are most likely to regenerate? How do we strengthen the hubs of mixed use development? What transportation linkages are needed to support and link these hubs? What areas should be turned over to open space? How can we connect these open spaces?

Instead, we see political leaders putting their finger in the dike trying to hold back the tide. In Cleveland, the city council is now focused on the racial politics of holding on to a high school that produces more drop-outs than graduates.
How sad.

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