The Mahoing Valley Matters

In case you didn’t notice, this past week the Mahoning Valley was privileged to host two distinguished visitors. Both the newly sworn in Governor John Kasich and the newly sworn in Attorney General Mike DeWine made highly visible stops in our area. Kasich visited Lordstown, the home of the highly successful GM Chevy Cruze. DeWine visited St. Dominic’s Church, the scene of two vicious murders this past year. I don’t know about Governor Kasich, but this was Attorney General DeWine’s first official visit to anywhere in Ohio, and he chose here. What a testament to our community. The Mahoning Valley matters, and in a big way!

Notwithstanding our 11% unemployment rate, Youngstown was listed as one of the top ten places in America to find a job. It is listed as one of the top ten places in America to start a business. It is one of two cities in Ohio that have shown job growth and a decline in the unemployment rate. The British view of Youngstown can be viewed by clicking here. If you haven’t seen this 2010 BBC story, it’s worth a look. The unemployment in the area is structural, based in deep sociological problems, and for the most part appears to be not fixable. But business is alive and well here, and for the most part, folks have good jobs here.

Lordstown is the heart of the automobile industry in Ohio. It is the one of the lead plants in the GM family. Kasich came here to warn us not to be complacent. His conversations with Detroit automakers shows there is a strained relationship between the Big Three and Ohio. Those of us who follow those things know that already with massive plant closing in Mansfield, Dayton and Toledo. We have to do better. Most of the problems are based in the state’s tax structure and overall cooperation level with incoming businesses. Lordstown is an example of how cooperation between business, labor, and government can make a difference, and shine as an example for the rest of the state.

DeWine came to look at crime at a very personal level. Hopefully it will help keep the AG Youngstown branch open as DeWine’s staff looks for way to save money in these lean times. Better law enforcement, better and faster BCI operations, better urban planning and development are three ways to keep the bad guys away from our doors. I’m not sure exactly what the Attorney General can do, but it is nice to know that he is there when you need him, and not afraid to come out and talk to the folks. He didn’t have to come, but he did.

The Republican sweep in Ohio was breathtaking. All of us here in the Mahoning Valley, even us Republicans, are concerned about how Republican officials will react to the one area of the state that produced the highest percentage Democratic vote in the last election. But we all live here together, and political affiliation notwithstanding, the entire state stands to benefit as we accelerate our financial and manufacturing base in this area. Those of us in the Republican party will be more than willing to join hands with our Democratic officials to continually pound the table about economic development for Youngstown and all of northeast Ohio.

I concluded at the beginning of the economic crisis that Youngstown would fare better than most. We have been fighting adversity for over 35 years, and we have emerged as smart, sophisticated, technologically relevant, lean, diversified, and with cooperative governmental bodies which are working hard to make our early 20th Century political structure work in a 21st Century world. While the rest of the of the country was falling down, we were standing tall with 3 shifts at Lordstown, the V&M pipe mill project, numerous call centers…and a world noticing technological business incubator in downtown Youngstown putting us on the world technological map.

I am so proud of this area I could bust. I was 28 when the mills went belly up. I am now 61. It has been a joy to see Youngstown emerge as a modern economic force in Ohio. There is much more work to be done. Keep it up. The Mahoning Valley matters.