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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 > September > 11 > Entry
Editorial: Dayton gets hub, now show us the money
Dayton’s effort to be known for its high-tech talent took some steps forward this week.
Gov. Ted Strickland came to town to name Dayton as the state’s first innovation hub, specifically for aerospace. The state is designating different areas as hubs for this or that, with the goal of trying to get different parts of Ohio branded and labeled as being especially good in certain industries.
Think bio-medicine in Cleveland, green energy in Toledo, and polymers in Akron, for example.
The hoped-for payoff is that businesses and researchers will go where there are other businesses and researchers who can complement their work.
In the old days, when Charles Kettering and the Wright brothers were doing their thing in barns and at workbenches, inventions were semi-solitary pursuits. Today technology is so sophisticated and expensive that researchers and businesses can’t build much of anything without collaboration involving teams of people playing off of each other.
Some of their communication can happen across the miles or via computer, but synergy through proximity matters.
By naming Dayton the state’s hub for aerospace, the state department of development is promising that if it gets a lead about an aerospace business, it will direct the firm here. In fact, though, that’s probably the least important advantage because that’s not how most businesses are recruited.
The bigger impact could be that when the University of Dayton or Wright State University competes for the state’s Third Frontier research money, they’re supposed to get bonus points if they’re furthering the goal of making Dayton an aerospace center.
That’s also supposed to be true when it comes to winning business tax credits or environmental cleanup funds.
It would have been great if the governor had brought money with him now. That he didn’t puts the burden on local institutions — including local governments, universities, the Dayton Development Coalition, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and companies that already are here — to make requests for state help that are so compelling that their asks can’t be deep-sixed.
Other communities also are asking to be named hubs. That Dayton got the first designation is evidence that people in the Strickland administration liked Dayton’s pitch. In fact, it should have been a good one.
This focus on leveraging Wright-Patterson’s talent, its combined $2 billion science and technology budgets and its relationships with myriad contractors, has been going on for some years now. If the community had to work hard to make a convincing case that aerospace can be a growth industry here, that would be an indictment.
At the same time the governor was here for the hub announcement, he also was recognizing a new partnership between Dayton and Montgomery County, and Israel.
Last year a local delegation went to Israel on a trade mission, hoping to connect to that country’s aerospace industry. This year the Israelis came here.
Over several days this week, Israeli business leaders were invited to meet with Dayton area businesses that wanted to collaborate with them or to sell to them. The Engineers Club in downtown was teeming.
From last year’s trip, two deals have been sealed with Israeli businesses, one involving STAN Solutions, and another involving IDCAST and Woolpert. The outreach looks so promising that $350,000 in private money has been raised to open a trade mission in Haifa.
The thing the governor needs to see — indeed that Dayton needs to see — is that people aren’t sitting on their hands when it comes to bringing jobs to the region. There are lots of efforts going on to use unsung and unrecognized talent to attract more of it.
To see a video on Dayton’s links with Israel, click here.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Local Business, Ohio government, Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Comments
By Joe
September 12, 2009 12:19 AM | Link to this
If the governor thinks HIS part in this play is only a speaking part…that of “The Announcer of Hubs”…he’s headed for the understudy’s role. He and the legislature need to back up what the locals are doing. Write the checks, Mr. Strickland. The name of this play is “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.” Additionally, let’s be careful about getting all googly-eyed about this hub thing. Seems we were a hub in the auto and cash register businesses at one time. You see where that got us. Not saying aerospace is bad for us to zero in on, but throw in more than a bit of diversity in business to help through the rough times.By Joe
September 12, 2009 5:34 PM | Link to this
Wow. What an new innovative way to go about reviving the economy. Assigning certain industries to certain cities is surely the way of the future. Detroit or Dayton shouldn’t have anything to say about having a city rely solely upon one industry. In all seriousness, when the government cuts funding to Wright-Patt and our local development bubble pops I hope you all won’t spend too much time scratching your heads wondering what went wrong.