A Sign of Compromise?

I continue to be an advocate for sensible signage and a single highway number to identify the highway corridor that runs like a mostly four-lane ribbon from Columbus to Steubenville. A piece written a year ago was my attempt to keep the discussion alive.

At one time, ODOT's Central Office informally had approved a change to see the numbered State Route 161 adopted for the whole stretch that right now includes the six numbers of SR161, SR37, SR16, US36, US250, and US22.  It was an estimate claiming the cost to install the signs was $1 million that killed it.

For a few weeks now, though, I've seen signs of a compromise.  Literally.

I'm not sure where they start, where it ends, or for what purpose they've been erected, but the photo above has one of a series of signs labeling the roadway "ALT East I-70."

I can verify seeing my first version of the sign at I-270 and SR161.  I saw several along 161 even ones along the SR37 stretch and this one just before the highway becomes SR16.

It's a start.

John Weaver: Rotary's Iron Man

Cal Ripken is known for being baseball's iron man for achieving 17 years of consecutive games.

Cal Ripken has nothing on John Weaver. 

Newark Rotarian John Weaver gets recognized today for a perfect attendance string that began in 1953.  That's 60 years!

John's string started a full six years before Ripken was even born.  Weaver had already achieved 28 consecutive years of perfect attendance when Ripken started his streak.  Weaver has continued his streak 15 years after Ripken ended his.

Maybe Cal Ripken can boast to be the John Weaver of baseball.

Yes, Rust Belt is a Dirty Word

NewGeography.com's image, not mine

Joel Kotkin's NewGeography.com gave the Rust Belt chic guy another turn at the blog today.  His piece, "Is 'The Rust Belt' a Dirty Word?" is both worth reading and worth answering.

Richey Piiparinen's central point is made when he writes:

"There is indeed a growing movement of Rust Belt pride taking hold. Yet it is not a false pride, rather a pride that’s derived from an acceptance of having become rust. Such can be immeasurable for the psychogeography of the region."

I can totally agree that acceptance of our current status is healthy and, strategically, wise.  We don't need to, as a region, reinvent ourselves to the extent that we try to become cool and hip or imitate some place on the planet that isn't a fit with our culture, our economics, and our geography.

I can't agree, though, with just accepting the term Rust Belt as our collective, multi-state identity or what Piiparinen calls our "psychogeography." 

History is filled with changing the negative terminology associated with races and cultures.  This case is analogous. 

Those name changes--terms with such negative connotations I can't in good conscience even list one of them--didn't mean that those races and cultures had to give up anything of their collective self identity.  No way.  It just meant that they got a clean, fresh start that buried the negative connotations of the past.

We can have it both ways.  We can keep all the things that make us great and change only the pejorative term. That's fine by me.

Watching Employment: Licking County Hits Record Levels

Two charts tell the story pretty well.  There is reason for celebration in Licking County.

Record employment.  Source: Ohio LMI CLF Estimates Query

Record labor force size.  Source: Ohio LMI CLF Estimates Query

June 2013 is a record-setter in both the size of the labor force in Licking County and the number of people employed.  The 87,300 labor force size is a record high for Licking County.  The 81,100 employment level is also a record high.

These high points are pretty sure signals that Licking County is back from the Great Recession.

These are both according to today's Labor Force Estimates as published by the Ohio LMI state agency.

Though no one can take credit for this good news, I'm sure Grow Licking County will have something good to say about this--as they should.

Encountering My Daughter in the Working World

My oldest daughter got a job in marketing and starts in early August.  Besides the fact that I'm pleased to see her removed from the ranks of the stereotypical underemployed college student living in her parent's basement, I'm proud she found a job in her field and in her hometown.  She'll be working in Newark.

It also causes me to reflect on the possibility and look forward (I think) to the day her job puts her in the same place or same meeting as me.

It's bound to happen.  I know that from my own past experience.

I worked for the State of Ohio in 1991 and my father started in state government with a different agency a few months after me.  We encountered each other more than a few times in the span of five years we were both in Ohio.

I remember a meeting he led for ODOT on a railroad matter in 1992.  I represented the Lt. Governor in the same meeting.

A groundbreaking for an ODOT project in 1995 where my Dad and I both were on the agenda caused someone, jokingly, to remark, "Now I know why they call this a plat of land."

Stay tuned.  It will be a milestone when it happens.

My Ancestors Land Went So Highways Could Be Built

Yesterday, I took a pragmatic stance on eminent domain.  No one is "for" eminent domain, but pretty much all of us, if we are being pragmatic, know we need it.

 

Economically, we all have benefited in our nation for three generations from having highways upon which to drive.  Our economic system has benefited from having them.  We, frankly, take them for granted.

 

Everyone who drives or has ever driven on a highway or eaten food that is delivered via a highway, has benefited from having such a mode of transportation. 

 

I'm not sure, even, the Amish could claim they don't benefit, at least indirectly, from this form of transportation.

 

My family has seen land it once owned given up for such a public good.  I have proof of that.  Here's just two of several such examples.

 

My great grandfather's former home in Cleveland, circa 1899, is now right of way for Interstate 90 in that city.

The Dayton neighborhood where the first two generations of one side of my family lived after coming here from Germany in the mid 19th Century is now under U.S. Route 35.

Now, I don't know whether eminent domain took their homes while they were still residents, but there's no doubt the property that once held their homes was taken for highway projects.

I'm sure this is probably the case, pragmatically, in many families.

Pragmatism Winning Out

The Newark Advocate ran a story Sunday that continues, two days now, to be the top website story.  It's a story about a guy who had his family home taken by eminent domain for the construction of a four-lane highway.

He has protested that action with a sign "ODOT SUCKS" posted on his house ever since.  People drive by it, in droves, every day.

Eminent domain is one of those hot button issues that stirs a lot of people up.  Thus, one would have predicted the online comments to be more leaning toward this guy than toward the highway and the state agency, ODOT, which took his property.

That's not the case, though.  Pragmatism is winning out instead.  Believe it or not.

The comment with the most "likes" as I type this is the one that remarked, "Ok, if we didn't build roads because they went through private property, then we would still be driving on small little roads that were started by horse and wagon."

The second most "likes" on a comment was for the person who coached, "It is time to get over it an move on."

The highway has been good for Licking County and, in time, will pay economic dividends much greater than the cost of the project.  Those people who lost land (and homes) are to be commended for their personal sacrifice. Sometimes government has to do what is necessary for the common good, though.  This was clearly one of those times.

I'm glad to see pragmatism won.

America's Biggest Small Town

Columbus, circa 1930

 

The Columbus Dispatch came to the defense of the person who came to the defense of Columbus.  And they might have stumbled on something really good here.

Today's editorial labels Columbus "America's biggest small town" with a moniker that might just stick.

Embracing the small town feel of Columbus is akin to embracing its suburbs.  That goes a long way toward making Columbus a true region too.

Instead of trying to convert the City to be some "hip, cool urban place," Columbus as "America's Biggest Small Town" is more in line with how the Columbus region really is. 

Changing State, Regional, and Local Roles in Economic Development

Janet Ady wrote about a topic that is playing out in Ohio and nationally in economic development.  Her piece, "As I See It:  The Changing Role of Regions and States in Economic Development" is worth a read.

Her central point:  Site selectors, the folks that represent about 40% of big deals in economic development, are gravitating to working first with regional organizations instead of the state.

The first five months of 2013 saw Ohio's state agency, JobsOhio, produce just two leads for regional and local organizations.  Though that pace has greatly improved since then, it was a real question-driver in economic development circles.

The answer one seasoned development professional gave was to point out the trend on which Ady is writing now.

The advice from Ady is worth heeding:

"If you are a local or municipal [economic development organization], work very hard to create a strong relationship with your region.  Treat them as a customer who brings you leads."

Proof of Fording the Creek

I don't think people believed me, even some engineers I told about it. 

I told the story of a roadway that ran through a creek in Massillon, Ohio.  Not over, but through.

Here it is.  I took this photo in late June 2013.

This is old State Road that was the primary way to travel east of Massillon to Canton at one time.  I remember "fording" the creek on the road multiple times in a car.  

It always was covered in water and, sometimes, was impassable as it was icy or the water was higher.  You had to gun it to make sure you made it all the way, even when the water level was low.

The point in showing it, though, is that one can build something that lasts even under water for years.  Notice that the road portion under water is in better shape than the asphalt roadway east of the creek.

Engineers take notice.  I talked about it as the reason not to worry about a bike path that gets close to a creek.  If it's done right, it can survive multiple baths from the waterway.

Getting on the Field with the Cleveland Indians

At 46 and not having played a single game of baseball for over a decade, I know that my chances of getting on the field for this view with the Indians are nil.  I have a much better chance of going for the job of that guy in the photo (nothing personal, sir).

I'm grateful to have gotten to accompany my kids, though, on the field for Kids Day activities at Progressive Field last Sunday.  I was rebuffed in my lame excuse for why I needed to accompany my 10-year-old triplets as they ran the bases, though.

Maybe some day.