Back To Full Strength

Licking County did this last year. It helped the Columbus Region do this too. The region, in fact, was just one of 14 metro areas in the country to do this since the last recession.

"This" is to regain employment levels back to pre-recession levels.

Good news from Columbus Business First.

In Response to An Urban Elite

“This is kind of in the sticks.” 

Those were the first words out of a recent VIP visitor’s mouth to our Port Authority's Aerospace Center in Heath, Ohio.  

I don’t have a poker face so I looked something like the photo above I’m sure, and he could immediately see my displeasure at his comment.  Thankfully, my impulse to turn him around instead of thump him kicked in.

We’ll let the name of the visitor who said that remain anonymous, but it doesn't stop me from labeling him.  I'd label him an urban elite. He fits the category of someone who assumes that one's capabilities and abilities are somehow tied to the population density of one's living space.

His crassness helped me make a point, though.  I sent a list of talking points out to some of the people who overheard the VIP's comment and a little wider audience too under this premise: What do you say to a misinformed skeptic who comes in with a perception of our location so completely different than reality?

TALKING POINTS TO TURN AROUND A SKEPTIC

Here are some of the things I recited and some I wish I had recited to turn around someone who came in overladen with misperceptions about Licking County:

·         Central Licking County is home to a presence for Boeing, United Technologies, Dow, Bayer, Owens Corning, and a host of Fortune 500 companies’ plants.  We have pretty good company “in the sticks” I guess.

·         The Aerospace Center has a 50-year track record of attracting a unique mix of engineers and technician-level talent.  There are few places that can say that.  Urbanized places may have more engineers, but can’t attract technicians.  Rural areas may have technicians, but can’t attract engineers.  Licking County has proven to bring both.

·         The combination of the Air Force Primary Standards Lab and the Type II metrology lab capabilities which are second-most within Boeing, makes this place home to the greatest concentration of aerospace metrology in the World.

·         With 249,000 sq. ft. of clean room space, the Aerospace Center stands out on a very short list of places that can boast such a capability in one site.

·         The list of one-of-a-kind equipment on this campus is amazing too. 

o   Kaiser Aluminum’s hot roll process for making hard alloy aluminum is the only one of its kind in the World.

o   The AWACS-ESM anechoic chamber at Boeing is the only one on the globe. 

o   Samuel’s heat treat line uses bismuth to anneal steel in a “green” process unique to North America. 

o   Bionetics houses the NIST standard for lasers.

·         With 11 million sq. ft. of build out industrial space, Central Licking County’s SR79/I-70 Corridor is home to the largest concentration of manufacturing in Central Ohio and, arguably, among the largest concentrations in Ohio.

·         Newark is Ohio’s 20^th largest city and one of only two in the top 20 that grew in the last Census.

If it’s density a person is all about, tell them this:  How dense do you have to be to think a place with all these capabilities is "in the sticks?"

Life In a Swing State: 100 Million Wrongs Don't Make a Right

7:30 p.m.

It's over when the polls close this evening.  No more negative ads in Ohio in 2012.  Done.  We can go back to Buddy's Carpet and McDonald's commercials.

Tens of millions of dollars (or is it over $100 million?) in negative advertising in Ohio has an impact and, I can assure you, it's not positive.

I'm reminded of the saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right."  That's a parent's cliche warning to two fighting kids to stop fighting.  It's what one says to try to persuade someone to refrain from retaliation.

What happens when there is $100 million worth of wrongs in the form of negative ads?  It's going to take a while to make it right again in Ohio. 

But today is the start, at 7:30 p.m.

The View From Across the Pond

Andy sent me a column out of the UK aimed at delivering a wakeup call to European policy makers. For us Americans, it doubles as an upbeat way of looking at a brighter U.S. future.

It's a shame one has to go to an outside the U.S. to get an upbeat perspective. Glad I did though.

The piece combines the trends of reshoring of manufacturing with the shale gas boom for a combined futuristic look at the U.S. economy.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's popular column recited a stat I hadn't seen: "Some fifty new projects have been unveiled in the US petrochemical industry. A $30bn investment blitz in underway in ethelyne and fetilizer plants alone."

He found this tidbit somewhere too and shared it: "America looks poised to become the world’s biggest [oil] producer in 2014. It will approach the Holy Grail of 'energy independence' before the end of the decade."

I liked this one too: "The implications are momentous. America will no longer need a single drop of oil from the Islamic world."

Thanks for sharing, Andy. Thanks for writing, Ambrose.

Life in a Swing State: Rust Belt is a Pejorative

Ohio gets a ton of national mention when its turns to Presidential politics.  If Ohio had a dollar for every time one of those national mentions included the term "Rust Belt," we'd be able to reduce our state's income tax rates even more than it has been reduced in recent years.

Do you think most journalists know, or care to know, that the term "Rust Belt" is a pejorative?   Pejorative is defined by Dictionary.com as an adjective "having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect."

Frankly, the term is a put down on every man, woman, and child who lives in Ohio and the Midwest.  Mere mention of it, takes our state's marketing brand down a notch. It's downright insulting.

One way Ohio could gain from the national spotlight from being a "Swing State" a bit better than past years is if the Presidential campaigns helped cajole the national press into removing the negative "R" term from their collective vocabulary.

I wrote about other terms to use other than Rust Belt and I sure hope a few more writers find their way to a piece like this before they publish their next piece about Ohio. 

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This is one in a series on Life In A Swing State aimed at pushing Ohio's Swing State status in the state's favor just a little bit.

Just Read It!

Jeff Thredgold's "Tea Leaf" is always a must read.  However, the "Happy Talk" edition he puts out every six months is a must, must-read.

See "Happy Talk."

Better to Have Had and Lost, Than to Have Never Had At All

The Saturn Plant that was first announced in 1985 for location in Spring Hill, Tennessee closed in 2009.

Is Spring Hill worse off for having had the Saturn plant for 24 years in their community or would they have been better off than if it had never come there at all?

When people look backward at what an industry or what a company used to employ and compare that to what it does today, aren't they asking the same question in their community?

Newark, Ohio used to make more lawnmowers than any other place in the World.  Today, we make none.

Should we all walk around and mope that lawnmower-manufacturing left?  Or should we be glad for the economic benefits that lawnmower-making once brought and celebrate the impact its one-time presence still has today? 

The remaining buildings in the community have, albeit less, an impact on the tax base and employment still today.  The manufacturing base of today remains a key part of the Licking County economy and owes a lot to our area's manufacturing history.  The skills, work ethic, and capabilities of today's workforce have roots in our past too.  These are all good.

It's a tough question to answer, but to me, having once had something, even if it is lost, is better than to have never had it at all.

Be a Positive Force

I gave a speech to the Newark-Heath Rotary Club this morning under the theme "Be a Positive Force."

I filled the speech with a mix of positive happenings in the community.  The message: Licking County and every community in our country needs to get ourselves out of the doldroms of this down economy and community leaders have the power to improve our economy by being a positive force.

Two quotes I used that I believe were fitting:

Power was defined by Professor Al Gini as, "To do, to be able, to change, to influence or effect."

And  Elizabeth Dole, former cabinet secretary to two presidents and former U.S. Senator, said, "We have learned power is a positive force if it is used for positive purposes."

Arming the Positive Side of the Debate

It's human nature. Most people, though some more than others, like to debate.

All too often, though, the negative side wins out.

When I worked in economic development in Steubenville, Ohio, that fact was never more true than when it came to the topic of the downtown.

The coffee shops were full of debates about how things used to be and the good old days. Today, the blogs are the e-version of coffee shops.

Different venues. Same issues.

In the photo [Noted: since deleted], the building fourth from left used to be a McCrory's store. At its peak, the store employed a couple dozen people but only the manager made a real living and the tax impact was near nil. In the mid 1990's, I helped to bring a call center there that, at its peak, employed over 300 people with many of those having health insurance and 401(k)'s. How, I argued, could anyone favor the McCrory's days to the Reese Brothers' days?

That's one example of the positive side.

In Steubenville, I wrote newspaper op-eds, went on the radio talk shows, and sparked local television stories to push out some positive story. I was a self-appointed community cheerleader, trying to be a positive force.

My only purpose was to arm the positive side of the debate happening in the cofffee shops. I made it my job to give a little more ammuntion to the people inclined to debate the naysayers and the life-was-better-when'ers.

Today, the same thing can be done with blogs and newspaper forums.

Let's keep arming the positive side of the debate.