The Cleveland Region
A Paper Prepared for The Metropolitan Initiative

1. OVERVIEW - A brief history of the metropolitan region over the last 25 years

Physical Description

Greater Cleveland, Ohio, was originally part of the Western Reserve territory granted to the colony of Connecticut by the British crown in the seventeenth century. In 1796, the Connecticut Land Company sent a team of surveyors led by General Moses Cleaveland to assess the area. At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, General Cleaveland founded a small frontier village which became Cleveland, Ohio.

The Cleveland metropolitan region was a forested pioneer community until the Ohio-Erie Canal and, later, the railroads made it a midwestern transportation and industry hub. This hub grew dramatically in the decades after the Civil War when the steel manufacturers and oil refining made it a great industrial center. There is no set definition of the region that everyone accepts. In northeast Ohio, "the region" could mean the traditional boundaries of the Western Reserve, the "bio-region" as defined by the Cuyahoga River watershed, the 5-county region defined by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), or the 8-county CMSA defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Historical Growth Patterns

The eight counties which compose the generally recognized region are home to almost three million residents. One of the issues faced by the region is the "outmigration" and "suburbanization" which have characterized the development of Greater Cleveland and most metropolitan areas in the United States since after World War II.

Locally, the 1990 U.S. Census documented the continuation of a 40-year decline in the City of Clevelands population, which dropped from nearly 1 million people in 1950 to about 500,000 in 1990. According to the 1990 U.S. Census, the City of Cleveland has lost 12% of its population since 1980. Every "inner ring" suburb (those adjacent to the City of Cleveland) also lost population during the 1980s. Fifteen "outer ring" suburbs (those bordering on other counties) lost population as well. In all, Cuyahoga County lost nearly 6% of its population during the 1980s. Most of the 87,00 people who moved away settled in one of the surrounding counties.

Metropolitan Governmental Structures

The U.S. OMB definition of Greater Cleveland includes the eight counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lorain, Lake, Medina, Portage and Summit, also known as the Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA).

The number of governments per 100,000 residents provides some understanding of government efficiency within any region and shows the need for coordination. Greater Cleveland has 15.7 governments per 100,000 residents, about the middle of the range when ranked against comparable U.S. cities. Cuyahoga County alone has 59 municipalities and townships, 31 school districts, nine library districts and at least two dozen special purpose governments.

The Economy

The eight county Cleveland market is one of the nations primary markets. It is the 14th largest consumer market, and contains more than a million households. The Cleveland market has an effective buying income (EBI) of $45 billion. In 1995, Clevelands median household EBI of $32,883 was higher than that of Ohio ($31,899), and the nations ($32,238), according to Sales and Marketing Management magazine.

The Cleveland market is the nations 9th largest industrial market with 245,381 workers in 5,905 manufacturing plants. Evidence of Clevelands strong manufacturing base can be seen in Market Statistics, which shows that Cleveland has the second highest percentage of manufacturing workers (22%) to total employment among the top 20 markets in the country. Cuyahoga County - the largest in Ohio and the central county of the Cleveland CMSA - is ranked 12th in manufacturing employment and in number of manufacturing plants among the counties in the U.S.

But, the areas economic diversity can be seen by its 880,000 workers who are employed in non-manufacturing industries, accounting for nearly 78% of the 1,125,870 total. Greater Cleveland today is a world corporate center where national and multinational corporations are developing from the regions strong, diversified economy. The Cleveland CMSA is headquarters for many of the nations major industrial corporations and leading service corporations in transportation, insurance, utilities, commercial banking, and finance. A total of 71 Cleveland headquartered companies had annual revenues of over $200,000,000 in 1995.

Ecology

The Cleveland region covers a total area of 3,613 square miles. Before the turn of the century, this area encountered by Moses Cleaveland was heavily forested by beech, maple, oak and other trees. Wildlife of many kinds and migrating birds made their homes here. Fortunately, the Metropolitan Park Districts and the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational Area preserve this national heritage.

Lake Erie is its most defining physical feature, containing 132 trillion gallons of water and measuring about 241 miles wide. It is the 4th largest lake in the U.S. and the 12th largest in the world. Greater Cleveland is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, extending some 100 miles along the shore and more than 40 miles inland. Lake Eries size provides Greater Cleveland with abundant water for residential, recreational, and industrial purposes. The lakes relatively warm waters take longer to freeze, thereby extending the shipping, growing and recreational seasons.

As the shallowest Great Lake, Lake Erie warms more quickly than the others, with a 70° average water temperature in July.

Cleveland weather follows midwestern seasonal patterns, but with a modifying influence of Lake Erie. The lake helps offset the most severe effects of summer heat waves and reduces spring bud exposure to overnight frosts. Cleveland has fewer days with temperatures above 90° than most large northern cities. The shoreline between Cleveland and Toledo is farther south than northern California. Cleveland is about as far south as Rome. Average wind speeds are 12.2 miles per hour in January and 8.6 miles per hour in July. The annual percent of clear or partly cloudy days is 45%. Average relative humidity in July is 57% in the morning and 81% in the afternoon.

Societal Change

Greater Cleveland's social history can be traced by studying the waves of diverse ethnic groups who have come here in the past 200 years. For the most part these ethnic groups built the city together, honoring the variety in their diverse heritage.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, civil rights strife hit Cleveland in the form of urban riots in the Glenville and Hough neighborhoods. Court ordered bussing in response to a highly segregated school district exacerbated middle class flight from the central city. Conflict and confrontation ruled in the late 1970s. Dennis Kucinich, the young populist mayor battled the business community for two years, resulting in fiscal default. Clevelands CEOs recruited Ohios Republican Lieutenant Governor George V. Voinovich to take on Democratic Mayor Kucinich. Voinovich won decisively with a pro-cooperation theme of "Together We Can Do It." After ten successful years of revitalizing the city through the work of numerous public-private partnerships, Voinovich was elected Governor of Ohio in 1990.

Cleveland had learned its lesson confrontation doesnt work for a city in decline. The white, ethnic Republicans successor has been Michael R. White, an African-American Democrat, who has said; "This is a town of partnerships."

2. THE SCAN - Major elements of the metro regions economic, environmental, civic and social condition

Defining Trends

Greater Clevelands strategic economic strengths are impressive. The location is outstanding for national and international distribution, an excellent and diverse transportation network, a high number of Fortune 500 companies, and one of the nations most significant networks of community and civic organizations.

Despite these extraordinary assets, the regions enormous dependence on heavy manufacturing left it especially vulnerable to the changing world economy. The city began to lose jobs after World War II. Between 1947 and 1982, the city lost 59% of its manufacturing jobs. The city had 54% of the regions jobs in 1972, falling to 39% by 1987. The symbol of Clevelands despoiled environment came in 1969 when the Cuyahoga River burned and Lake Erie was too polluted for swimming.

Cleveland was an industrial powerhouse on top of the world in the years immediately following World War II. The slogan of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company said it all: "Cleveland, the best location in the nation." Just thirty years later, Cleveland had become a national joke, "The Mistake by the Lake."

Today, Cleveland bills itself as the "New American City," the "Comeback City" where people from declining regions across the nation come for ideas and inspiration.

Class, Race and Distribution Trends

The population of the City of Cleveland peaked at 914,000 in 1950. But fifty percent of the citys Caucasian population fled the city by the 1960s. By 1970, the citys population had dropped to 750,000. The population sprawled even further and further away from the center city, with every inner-ring suburban jurisdiction losing population during the 1980s.

Even with the rate of population decline having slowed in recent years, the Census Bureau estimate for the city in 1994 is under 500,000 people, evenly divided between Caucasians and non-Caucasians. Across the region a large number of neighborhoods have become integrated in the past decade. Despite this trend, the region still has some of the greatest income and race disparities between city and suburbs in the U.S.

Challenges and Opportunities

Greater Cleveland is blessed with one of the strongest network of community, civic, religious and non-profit organizations anywhere in the country. This historic network of community groups has been strengthened by the public-private partnerships established in the last two decades. In Cleveland, strong citizen based organizations have been focused on reforming public policy for more than 100 years. Citizen involvement dates back to the founding of The Citizens League of Greater Cleveland in 1896. The City Club was founded in 1912, providing a forum for the discussion of critical local, regional, national, and global issues. The Urban League of Greater Cleveland was founded in 1917 to enable minorities to develop their full potential. The Federation for Community Planning has been an advocate for social services for almost the entire century.

Cleveland consistently rates at or near the top in studies of charitable giving. The Cleveland Community Fund, founded in 1919, was the first United Way agency in the country. The Cleveland Foundation established in 1914 was the countrys first community foundation and is today the second largest.

Greater Cleveland has a low overall crime rate. This is not only a measure of the communitys safety, but also of its regions quality of life. Among the 23 study areas of comparable U.S. cities, Cleveland was rated second lowest known crimes, with 4,330 crimes reported per 100,000 residents.

Goals

Greater Cleveland's numerous civic organizations and sophisticated civic infrastructure does not lend itself to region-wide goal-setting. Objectives to achieve progress and solve identified problems are more likely to arise on a sector-by-sector basis with civic leadership in each sector establishing program goals and objectives to which they commit themselves and their resources. Examples of this are Cleveland Tomorrow's and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association's programs designed to "grow" the economy and develop our work force through strategies discussed below.

Strategies

Greater Cleveland's "transactional" style lends itself to a rich array of programs and strategies designed to address regional problems. Some local examples are listed here; others are mentioned where appropriate in Section 3.

• Build Up Greater Cleveland (BUGC): Housed at the local chamber of commerce, this coalition of business leaders and government representatives are assessing existing regional infrastructure and planning for future system needs. By working with business and political leaders throughout the region in support of a coordinated infrastructure strategy, BUGC has facilitated over $3 billion of infrastructure investment since being formed in 1983.
• Northeast Ohio Regional Alliance (NORA): Prompted by research conducted by Cleveland State University and the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission documenting the level of urban sprawl, this group is exploring methods for nonprofit and governments to identify solutions to regional issues.
• In Cleveland, the abandonment of the poor at the urban core and its moral dimension are being addressed by the Catholic Diocese through the efforts of Bishop Anthony Pilla. In The Church and the City, Pilla writes, "Like city and suburb, the urban and suburban Church are linked by a single economy, and problems of the urban Church soon become problems for the suburban Church as well."
• Rating the Region: Increasing Greater Clevelands economic competitiveness and quality of life are major objectives of the Citizens League and the Citizens League Research Institute. CLRIs Rating the Region project was designed to accomplish this objective through an open, community-wide effort to identify actions that citizens and government leaders can take to improve our regions future.

Achievements to date--Three examples among many:

Compared with 1980, the downtown looks much better, and employment and the economy are thriving. This is partly due to structural changes in the economy, and the increased importance of finance and business services in the last decade. Cleveland's downtown could not have come back without a substantial civic determination and Federal funding. While some still debate the priority given to downtown investments relative to the neighborhoods, downtown's projects helped retain private investment in the city and the region. More than $3 billion have been invested in changing the public face of Cleveland by rebuilding its downtown. Playhouse Square has been restored, and on the lakefront is the new Science Center and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Municipal Stadium is being replaced for football, and new baseball park and arena have been a huge boost to civic pride.

In a different "arena", the Greater Cleveland Roundtable was organized in 1981 to address the human relations problems facing the city. The Roundtable is an organization where corporate, political, and minority leaders come together to tackle tough issues and promote minority economic development. The Roundtables mission statement reflects the growing diversity of the region: "to achieve the vision of a community recognized for outstanding multicultural, multiracial and human relations."

Cleveland is fortunate to be home to the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program (CAMP), a nationally-recognized leader in technical assistance for manufacturers. CAMP runs one of seven technology centers around the country that have been chartered by the National Institute for Standards and Technology to assist manufacturers through a program of technical assistance, quality control, worker training, marketing, and adherence to international standards.

Constraints and Barriers

Greater Cleveland has the highest disparity between the per capita income of its central city and that of its outlying suburbs and counties of all 25 U.S. regions compared by CLRI's Rating the Region index. City of Cleveland residents generate just over half as much income per person as do people living in the remainder of Greater Clevelands eight-county region. The sprawl-not-growth measure illustrates government resource availability and allocation, segregation of economic resources, and the concentration of poverty within the region. Some experts believe that metro areas with smaller per capita income disparities tend to be more prosperous.

3. THE POSSIBILITIES - The federal government as a supportive, flexible and collaborative partner

Regional transportation and infrastructure upgrades

The federal government plays a strong role in Greater Cleveland transportation systems as it does elsewhere, especially through its planning requirements and funding allocation.

Transportation to, from and around Cleveland is remarkably easy, due to the citys central location and the extensive network of highways and freeways. Three interstate highways intersect downtown Cleveland. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the second fastest growing airport in the nation and the largest airport in Ohio, is supplemented by Burke Lakefront Airport, which provides regional commuter service and maintains facilities for business jets, all within minutes of downtown Cleveland. The mass transit system covers all of Cuyahoga County, as well as several surrounding counties, and includes a rail rapid system that stretches from Cleveland Hopkins to downtown Cleveland and into the eastern suburbs.

Education and Workforce Development

Northeast Ohio is making a transition from traditional blue-collar, unionized manufacturing to an economy that demands flexibility and literacy from all of its workers. Workers are trained by public schools, by companies, and by a collection of public and nonprofit agencies. Of special note are the training programs of CAMP and the Work In Northeast Ohio Council (WINOC), which try to match closely the needs of their corporate clients. CAMP runs a "teaching facility" where union members, vocational students, and even engineers can learn about modern production techniques in a simulated factory setting. WINOC holds workshops designed to help manufacturing and service companies improve quality and productivity through employee involvement. WINOC was established in 1981 to improve the region's adversarial labor-management climate.

The second identified goal of job training programs, supported by civic leaders, is to mainstream disadvantaged residents so they can compete for entry-level jobs that have a future. The Greater Cleveland Growth Association has recently assembled a coalition of organizations into a "Jobs and Workforce Initiative". Its over-arching goal will be to eliminate the mismatches in skills, job locations, and job information that prevent unemployed residents from finding meaningful work, especially with manufacturers having trouble finding entry-level workers.

Functional Capital Access

Neighborhood Progress, Inc. was founded several years ago to help fund Cleveland's neighborhood organizations. One centerpiece of NPI's work has been the recruitment of promising ideas from elsewhere in the country. Shorebank of Chicago, one of the nation's most successful community banks, has opened a branch in Cleveland. NPI has also received financial commitments from the Enterprise Foundation of Columbia, Maryland and the Local Initiatives Support Corp. of New York.

Research and Technology Strategies

Technology programs in Northeast Ohio are a joint enterprise of public, private and university efforts. The State of Ohio recognized the need about ten years ago, establishing "Edison Technology Centers," which provide a clearinghouse and institutional focus for manufacturers who use a particular technology. Northeast Ohio has three Edison Centers that are suited to its technological strengths. The Edison Biotechnology Center and Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center are headquartered in Cleveland; the Edison Polymer Innovation Corporation in Brecksville. About five years ago, the state also created a Science and technology Commission to make sure that Ohio remains competitive in basic and applied science.

Local civic and business leaders recognize the need to capitalize on research going on in Northeast Ohio. Under the leadership of Cleveland Tomorrow (a group of about 50 top CEOs), the region created a Technology Leadership Council composed of representatives of the public, private and educational sectors, which seeks to maintain a strong local research base, to commercialize local university research and encourage technological entreprenuership in the region.

Community and Economic Development/Revitalization

Neighborhood development programs in Cleveland are regarded as among the most innovative in the country, a fact confirmed by the designation of part of the city as a Supplemental Empowerment Zone under the Federal Empowerment Zone Act of 1993. The Cleveland Community-Building Initiative was created in 1992 after extensive research and planning by the Cleveland Foundation Commission on Poverty supported by the Cleveland and Rockefeller Foundations. The Initiative is designed to address persistent poverty by actively involving local communities in shaping strategies and choices. The Initiative became a core project of Cleveland's empowerment zone and is nurturing the development of four village councils. The goal is to engage people and give them some sense of control.

Environmental Preservation and Restoration

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) was formed by court order in the 1960s to treat storm and sanitary wastewater throughout Cuyahoga County through its three water treatment plants. NEORSD is dedicated to bringing together communities who share watershed areas in a positive and cooperative manner.

EcoCity Cleveland is a non-profit organization dedicated to grassroots involvement in programs designed to enhance the quality of life in the region. Through its planning activities and its outstanding publications, Greater Clevelanders will be more prepared to address ecological challenges of the future.

Cuyahoga County government has been a national leader in the brownfield restoration movement. These efforts, along with incentives for redevelopment are beginning to work.

Trade Promotion Activities

In 1991, the Port Authority, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association (the chamber of commerce) formed the Greater Cleveland International Trade Alliance, which seeks to highlight the importance of trade to the regional economy. The group's mission is implemented by the Cleveland World Trade Association, a major source of export assistance to local businesses. In the summer of 1994, Cleveland was one of 280 cities worldwide to be awarded a World Trade Center franchise. Through a number of on-line resources and databases, the World Trade Center of Cleveland connects local businesses with opportunities around the world.

Industrial retention activities are among the oldest economic development tools and include tax abatements, public financing, and regulatory relief. Every jurisdiction in the region has a program of this type working in partnership with the Ohio Department of Development. Real estate and site selection services are also a major activity of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association.

The Cleveland Industrial Retention Initiative (CIRI), is designed to keep open the lines of communication between governments, neighborhoods, and businesses as an important aspect of industrial retention. A project of the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation, CAMP, the Growth Association and others, CIRI has divided the city into five industrial planning regions. CIRI hopes that by focusing retention, development and training activities on manufacturing clusters, it can better coordinate public policies, and in this effort include neighborhood business associations.

Quality of Life Enhancements

The theaters, museums, and Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland are recognized as some of the finest in the world. Professional sports, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Great Lakes Science and Technology Museum are all new additions to the entertainment choices of the city. The City of Akron has developed an Inventors' Hall of Fame science museum. These amenities will help northeast Ohio become a regional tourist destination and improve the quality of life for residents of the region.

Which civic leaders have invested in these projects with the explicit intention of reviving both the city's image and the central business district, the Citizens League's annual public opinion poll, reports for the past ten years "downtown development" is considered by community residents as the best thing happening in Greater Cleveland. Amenities are part of a plan, called "Civic Vision," which sees entertainment, restaurant and business districts connected as part of an attractive, livable whole.

The Regional Transit Authority, for example, has completed a waterfront light rail line that will connect its Tower City transit hub to the Rock Hall and Cleveland Stadium by way of the Cuyahoga River Flats entertainment district. The new line was opened in time for Cleveland's bicentennial celebration in the summer of 1996

The bicentennial celebration was a huge success and proved Cleveland had shed its past negative images and become worthy of the slogan, "The New American City".