Cars and Parts Springfield Swap Meet
Carroll Commencement
Fairborn commencement
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > March > 10
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Editorial: Ohio, Dayton tops in new job sites; really?
If Ohio wins any more of those sizable “Governor’s Cups” that Site Selection magazine gives to the state with the best economic development record, the government will have to find a place to store them. Good thing there are so many empty factories.
Every year at this time, Site Selection — a specialty magazine for people involved in decisions about business locations — names Ohio as the state that’s best at attracting new business developments and expansions. Well, not every year. But every year for the last three. And 2003. And 1993, 1994 and 1995. In between, the state came in usually second or third.
About the only state that has been remotely as impressive — with its own threepeat in the late 1990s — is that other miracle of economic vitality: Michigan.
This year is special for the region because this time the Dayton area ranked tops in the nation among urban areas in its size range (200,000 in population to 1 million). A total of 41 new sites or expansions are counted to its credit. Akron and Toledo are second and third.
And the Springfield area came in second in its range (under 200,000).
Take that, Forbes.com!
For those who haven’t kept up with all these rankings: Forbes.com has taken to publishing periodic obituaries for the Dayton area, announcing that it is one of the fastest dying places in the country or one of the emptiest or who-knows-what next.
So what is it with these rankings? How can one place be at the bottom and at the top? In 1994, this newspaper looked into how the Site Selection competition was run. It reported:
“Magazine editor Jack Lyne said he has seen other states move up or down in the ranking depending on the importance that state administrations attach to keeping tabs on business development.
“The (George) Voinovich administration honed its business tallying by more carefully scrutinizing press clippings to find expansion announcements, assigning staffers to keep closer tabs on new businesses, writing chambers of commerce more frequently and examining a new database to track building permits.”
When, in 2001, the state’s ranking suddenly fell to 14, it was like the New York Yankees not making postseason play.
But the Columbus Dispatch reported that the magazine had changed the rules of the game that year. Now it was measuring 10 factors, not one; and now it was adjusting the statistics to take a state’s size into account. If not for the changes, Ohio would have fallen only to fifth, the magazine editor said.
After that, the state apparently adjusted well.
In the magazine’s story about this year’s award (www.siteselection.com), much is made of all the things Ohio is doing to spur the economy. It’s certainly true that the Strickland administration has done a lot, from passing a stimulus to trying to upgrade higher education.
But if those actions explain the victory in 2008, what explains 2006 or 2007? If somebody, in looking at Ohio’s economy and Dayton’s economy, finds something to praise, some good news, that’s a good thing. It helps to balance what sometimes sounds like a deafening din of despair.
But the truth is that the Site Selection contest doesn’t measure plant closings or shrinkages. It also doesn’t rank the states as to start-ups and expansions of small businesses.
And as to measuring site selections: Best in the nation repeatedly? One of the best in the nation almost consistently over two decades? Really? Is anybody buying this?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Martin Gottlieb
Martin Gottlieb: Limbaugh playing badly; it doesn’t matter
I’m not sure anybody needs any more input from anybody about Rush Limbaugh and Obama and all that. But here’s the best you’re going to get:
1) Before Limbaugh ever said he hopes the president fails, and before Obama ever mentioned Limbaugh, I was thinking that the Limbaughs of the world were the biggest threat to the hopes for an era of bipartisanship. They make their money and their place in the world off polarization. If everybody’s just getting along — if fear and hatred subside — they are marginalized. They must exaggerate the conservative case against Obama to preposterous degrees. It’s what they do.
The result is more hatred than makes any sense. I was glad the president mentioned him to Republicans as a problem.
2) When Limbaugh said he hopes Obama fails, I thought this was just another flap for the political warriors to spit at each other about. I was wrong. This one grabs the interest of regular people. I’ve had it mentioned to me outside my political circles.
3) Rush is not playing well.
4) But I doubt that it matters much, politically speaking. That is, I don’t see this as a sign of the shrinkage of the Republicans down to a narrower, harder core. What matters now — for both parties — is whether the economy recovers next year. All the spitting and spinning might as well be put on hold, for all the difference it makes.
4) Still, the effort of the Democrats to paint Limbaugh as the face of the Republican Party is fair enough for politics. Look at the Republicans that criticize L: One congressman said that it’s easier for Limbaugh to spout off than for Republican officials to handle their problems. That’s not even criticism. Yet the congressman had to take it back. Then the party chairman said Limbaugh is about entertainment and that, yes, his show sometimes gets ugly. That’s hardly criticism. Yet he, too, had to grovel. The Republicans can’t insist that L is a just sideshow and treat him as if he’s the boss.
5) When Limbaugh says he hopes Obama fails, he means it in exactly the way it sounds. He has never denied that. His apologists spin his statement it to make him look not so bad, but he doesn’t spin it.
6) All that being said, I no longer see the Limbaugh types as the great threat to a new era of bipartisanship. The real threat is now the economy and the fact that Obama has decided that he must respond as an activist, whether he gets Republicans on board or not. In this context, activism really comes down to liberalism. I think that when Obama started talking about bipartisanship in 2004 and continued in his campaign in 2007 and 2008, he was sincere. He didn’t see any reason that Rs and Ds couldn’t find more common ground on the issues of those years. But the times changed suddenly, killing the dream.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, National Politics
Edtorial: $20 million gift to Dayton is extraordinary
Virginia Toulmin’s gift to Dayton cannot be overstated.
The legacy gift of more than $20 million that the former Daytonian and businesswoman donated to the Dayton Foundation is four times the next biggest individual gift the foundation has ever received.
Plus, the majority of the 3,000 funds set up by donors to the foundation target specific groups. Of the $41 million in grants the foundation made last year, $40 million of them were earmarked for pre-selected causes.
Mrs. Toulmin’s gift, however, ultimately will become unrestricted, meaning the foundation will get to reward groups that are making an important difference in the community through a competitive grant-making selection process. Do-gooders will be encouraged to be imaginative about what the community needs.
Speaking of her husband and her decision to not attach strings to the donation, Mrs. Toulmin told the Dayton Foundation, “Harry always said one shouldn’t try to dictate from the grave.”
Mrs. Toulmin is herself a remarkable story. She grew up and went to college in St. Louis. After graduation, she found herself working as a stewardess nurse for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. That’s when a young patent attorney from Dayton named Harry A. Toulmin Jr. started timing his weekly train travel to coincide with her runs.
Harry Toulmin’s father and law partner, Harry Sr., is a key figure in Wright brothers lore. As the Wrights’ attorney, he wrote the patent application to protect their revolutionary invention — the airplane.
Mrs. Toulmin moved here in 1958, beginning 41 years in Dayton that she describes as wonderfully happy. Not long after the move, her husband, relying on her medical background, appointed her to the board of a small, bankrupt drugmaker he helped rescue.
After his death in 1965, Mrs. Toulmin became president, and over 30 years, she helped create a thriving enterprise.
At the time of her husband’s death, an attorney wanted her to sell the company for $1 million. She balked, and, three decades later, she sold it to a multinational firm for $178 million.
Mrs. Toulmin had many philanthropic interests in Dayton. But now that she has relocated full time to Florida, she wants a trusted community partner to help continue that endeavor, and she picked the Dayton Foundation. Its charge is to use her gift to continue to make a difference in the community long after Mrs. Toulmin is gone.
Michael Parks, the foundation’s executive director, said he believes Mrs. Toulmin’s gift could some day double the amount of “discretionary” grants the foundation makes each year to about $2 million.
What can that money do for Dayton? Consider some recent examples.
In the 1990s, the foundation used discretionary funds to help launch the Montgomery County Job Center, a training and service facility that today plays a crucial role connecting displaced workers with new jobs.
Earlier this decade, it funded the Out of School Youth task force to coax dropouts back to school. That led to the formation of the Fast Forward program at Sinclair Community College, which has created alternative school programs that have helped cut Montgomery County’s dropout rate in half in five years.
Today the foundation is working in partnership with the Dayton Business Committee on a three-year project to support minority-owned companies through the Minority Economic Development Council.
With Mrs. Toulmin’s gift, the foundation will have more latitude to address community needs. Through her generosity, the city’s reputation for ingenuity and problem-solving that she and her husband helped build can continue for new generations.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Scott Elliott, Social Services
