Boeing Impacts Ohio Big Time

A November 2010 Bureau of Economic Analysis report pinned Ohio's Gross State Product at $471.26 billion in 2009.

Meanwhile, Boeing's report on "Boeing in the States" reports $4.78 billion in supplier/vendor purchases in Ohio in 2009.

Boeing in the States brochure

Easy translation.  That means one company, The Boeing Company, bought more than 1% of Ohio's GSP in 2009. 

One company.

Pretty impactful.

And I'm proud our Port Authority is the host for Boeing's largest presence in Ohio which is at the Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center.

Keep churning, Boeing.  Keep churning.

Two Pieces of Candy

I'm sure some parent advocate or child psychologist would say I'm wrong to do this, but I bribe my kids to behave in church.

If they behave all Mass, they get to pick up a piece of candy afterwards.  Conversely, if they misbehave, they get to watch their siblings get candy while they don't.

It works.

My kids, often, get complimented for their behavior during Mass.  It's not that they are perfect (they aren't), but people are surprised to see three young kids not behaving badly.

Of the three, Brooks has missed more than a few shots at candy during his mass-going days, but when he misses getting it, he feels the pain.

Today, though, he got two.

That's a rare thing.  I almost never reward with two pieces.  And Brooks rarely behaves well enough to even merit the thought.

Today, he did.

A Blog About My Blog

I missed the occasion.  January 26, 2011 was the one-year anniversary of my first blog post at RickPlatt.com.  I didn't write on January 26, 2011 either and I wrote better than one column a day in that first year.

My goal in a year was to write a column that generated a greater interest in economic development.  I'll self-declare that done.  Admittedly, its a bit of a boring topic.

Stats show my most popular post was one about the amuse-bouche, the returning trend of a chef's favorite appetizer in fine dining.  On average, someone read that post about five times a day. 

Next was a post advocating for Godfather IV.

Ok, so the economic development theme doesn't quite reel in the crowd that food and movies do, but I'm still thinking that economic development is the goal for 2011 and beyond.

Ohio Impacts the Super Bowl

For fear of bad winter weather, the Super Bowl will never be held in Ohio. For numerous reasons, Ohio-based teams aren't soon likely to play in a a Super Bowl.

Nonetheless, Ohio's role in the NFL dates to the leagues first days. Ohio's impact on the NFL and the Super Bowl is seen every year even if the game isn't played here and our NFL teams don't play in it.

Here's a few, quick observations:

The balls were made here.  Wilson Sporting Goods' football-manufacturing plant is in Ada, Ohio. The cowhides (no longer made from pigskin) used in the Super Bowl games are made in Ada.

Defense will have an Ohio flavor no matter which team has the ball. Steelers' defensive coordinator and Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau is a native of London, Ohio. Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers is from Cambridge, Ohio.

The Steelers have Ohio connections that stand out.  Though some of us cringe at mentioning it, Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger is from Findlay, Ohio (though he prefers to say he's from the non-existent town of Corey Rawson, Ohio).  James Harrison is a Kent State grad who's an Akron native.  Safety Will Allen came out of Ohio State.

The Packers have some Ohio connections too. Former Buckeye LB standout, A.J. Hawk, is a Kettering native.  His Wolverine counterpart, Charles Woodson, is from Fremont. TE Tom Crabtree is a Columbus native and a Miami University grad.  Lastly, Ryan Pickett is an Ohio State grad.

Want to help me grow the list? There are more.  I'm sure of that.

iPad Accepted

More later, but the Port Authority accepted the Apple iPad as the paperless meeting device we'll deploy. A few days test driving has my acceptance. Here we go.

Watching Employment in 2010

With 76,700 employed for December, Licking County closes the book on 2010 with another month showing employment gains.

All in all, I'd say Alan Beaulieu was right, watching employment was the way to track recovery in 2010. Thanks, Alan.

Here's what the employment stats read for 2010:

Employment has remained above 76,000 people for eight months.

For the year, data shows 2,800 more people are in the employment column than were in that column in January.

Nine of the past 11 months have seen rises in employment.

More Kotkin

Kotkin's writing more about suburbs and the decline of the urban bias experienced in Washington and Columbus, until recently.

Speaking of federal spending policies to expect in the near term:  "You can also forget the hundreds of millions ascribed for 'smart growth' plans, which, in essence, seek to direct development and housing towards high-density urban areas."

The message included this for urbanists:  "Cities need to break their reliance on outside help from a country that is, for the most part, not dense or urban. Future urban progress cannot rely on Washington’s largesse or diktats."

Yep.

See JoelKotkin.com for the latest.

More Steelers

Steelers fans are coming out of the woodwork everywhere.
I was in Cleveland for 2+ days and nights.  I was totally amazed, though I shouldn't have been, how many people were wearing Steelers gear. 

The Steelers fans in Ohio are, at least for now, more dominant than for any other team.

Go Steelers!

C-TEC Launch is Timely

C-TEC in Licking County is launching its latest workforce initiative, the 79|Seventy Manufacturing Certification Program on Monday. It's timely.

It's timely for our existing manufacturers to prepare for next year when the Class of '65 turns 65.

It's timely to convince expanding companies looking to invest in the recovery that Licking County has a pool of skilled workers ready.

Details, including the nationally-impressive list of companies involved, are on the C-TEC Flyer.

Thinking Steelers

I can get to Heinz Field from my house in Central Ohio in under three hours. Columbus has no NFL team. Its no surprise that black and gold are everywhere in Ohio these days.

Go Steelers!

Aerospace Center By The Numbers

Every other year, we gather info from our tenant customers and report out the impact of the base campus of the Aerospace Center.

For 2010, the numbers are in.  The economic impact comes from 860 people employed with an annual payroll of $50+ million.

When you add in the South Campus employers located in our park but not on Port Authority-owned land, the employment jumps to 1,200.

The numbers are down about 5% from our 2008 reports.  With some downsizing during the Recession, in part from attrition from retirements, that's to be expected.

Understanding Commuters

Before the recession hit, one company was starting to express concerns about finding enough people to fill their workforce needs.  At the same time, a company 30 miles west with similar workforce skills was going through a downsizing.  Many of those people facing layoffs lived in Licking County and commuted out of the county for work.

Seems we just had to marry them up.

Get the pool of job seekers among commuters married up with the employers seeking people.  Problem solved.

The Recession made this less necessary (would have preferred no Recession though) but the pending Baby Boomer retirements are likely to return this issue to the forefront.

Workenomics, at today's meeting, has a chance to take the first step in profiling and better understanding commuters.  If we knew more about what jobs they commute to and why and knew more about what it would take to get them to reverse their commute and take a job closer to home, then we are on our way in Licking County to solving some of our employer's workforce needs.  We also improve the quality of life of our residents.  Both good.

A College Visit

The kids and I visited their sister in college today. We're at Bagel Street Deli in Athens.

When Will Roman Numerals for Superbowls Cease?

If my team, the Steelers, make it to Super Bowl XLV, it will be their VIIIth appearance.  It could be, then, their VIIth victory.

Next year's Super Bowl is XLVI, followed by XLVII, and XLVIII. Then it's Super Bowl XLIX and Super Bowl L.

If it isn't already, the use of Roman numerals for Super Bowls is getting out of hand.  Those out years with XLIX and L are ridiculous.

Isn't it time to just call this next one Super Bowl 45 and start using numeric digits to number the games from here on out?

I say yes.  It's at least XXX or XL years over due.

I'm Not Alone

There are, reportedly, 57 people named Richard Platt (or some variation) on LinkedIn.

Twitter has 14 named "rick" and 34 overall.

There's a runner who gets a lot of play in Williamsburg named Rick Platt.  A sales guy.  A guy with a bouncing play place business.  I've exchanged Facebook messages with TV producer Rick Platt.

Whitepages.com says there are 233 people in the United States with the name Richard Platt, 13 in Ohio.

Yes, I am not alone.

One Government's Use of Twitter

Here's three uses for Twitter that our Port Authority has used.  I won't say these are revolutionary, but I think it fuels the idea that we like to fuel that we are a government innovator.

Use #1.  Advised to install a text message alert system by our insurance broker during a risk review, we explored such program options and were staring a pretty decent cost in the face.  We set up our Alert System on Twitter for free.  It's been in place for over a year now.  That's $3,000 saved and counting. 

It also works.  We've had a hazmat crew and several tornado warnings issued across the system since we installed it.

Use #2.  For two Holiday Open House events in a row, we've had our staff send Twitter messages with #hnlcpa in the message and display it on our SmartBoard for all to see.  It's a great, easy way to get more impact from our already-popular event.  In 2009, it was novel.  In 2010, it was popular.  We'll see what 2011 brings. 

Use #3.  When one arrives in our lobby, one will see a 60" LED-LCD television on the main wall.  It's our new Lobby Message Center.  And, as of this week, it shows the latest Twitter message from our Ohio Port account.  We also can show the last three tweets from our Ohio Port list of our customers' tweets that we can follow.  With it in our Lobby, our customers see we are following them and my staff stays up to date on the latest news of our customers.  All good.

Future Use.  By May, we expect to be administering two more lobby message centers in our new building.  We will offer our tenant customers in the building a chance to tweet a message that will, in seconds or as soon as the screen refreshes, show their message on the screen.  It's a quick and impressive way to greet visitors and do it on short notice.

Who said they couldn't see the use for Twitter?

He Gives Good Speech

Like him or not, President Obama's speech at the Tucson Memorial ceremony was remarkable. Right tone. Right message. Timely. Amazingly well-delivered.

Giving Birth to New Pessimism?

Media Network of Central Ohio, the Gannett chain in Central Ohio, has begun a series on future jobs being called "Jobs 101."

For several months now, I've been talking to the reporters on this series and sharing my thoughts.  I'm nervous that the series, meant to spark interest in future jobs in the region, could, instead, give birth to a new round of pessimism.

After all, it's difficult to compare the past and manufacturing employment of the 1950's and 1960's to today.

Nonetheless, I responded to reporter Kent Mallett with an e-mail before his most recent Sunday story ran.

Kent got it right, but, here's what I said, in my own words, just for the record:

We can't get Superman to go around the planet and turn back time. The past is the past.


We must look to the future and the things that will help places like Licking County thrive in the future.

Manufacturing employment in our nation has been harmed for decades by competition from foreign manufacturers.

Despite this, the U.S. manufacturing sector has remained the world's largest and many of our surviving industries are more productive. If the U.S. manufacturing sector could be taken out to stand on its own, it would be the third largest economy in the world.

Many exporting firms and highly-skilled manufacturing companies have grown through this time.


Regrettably, high productivity doesn't always translate into more jobs. Productivity, though, is critical to economic survival.

Foreign competition is not expected to be as strong in the future as it has been in the decades past.

Joel Kotkin, and others, predict that the largest countries that compete with the U.S. production capacity--namely China, Germany, Japan, European Union, etc.--will be suffering from loss of population in the production-age population. The U.S., with (before the recession) higher birth rates and immigration, is able to serve an increasingly larger portion of the world's production needs.

As a nation, we need to recognize manufacturing's still-critical importance and stop the catch-phrase 'manufacturing is dead.' This is even more important and true in Ohio and in Licking County.

I believe the basic formula is embrace manufacturing, invest in skills training, and keep building new infrastructure. It's more than this, but this basic formula is critical to our future.


There are already real examples of these things in Licking County.

Licking County embraces manufacturing. The Works STEM initiative is a chance for local manufacturers to reach the public with a sense of what they do every day and the high tech aspects of modern manufacturing. The Works hosted thousands of families in its STEM initiative in 2009-2010.

Licking County is ready to invest in skills training again. C-TEC's national model pre-employment training program is an example of a focus on skills training that matches manufacturer's needs.

Licking County keeps investing in infrastructure. Lastly, though there is urban resistance to it, Licking County continues to advocate for improved highway infrastructure. The Columbus-Pittsburgh Corridor is critical to preparing for a revived manufacturing and growing population.

Since I can't stop the presses, here's hoping I'm just being pessimistic about the potential for pessimism.

Change

"Change isn't necessary.  Survival is not mandatory."

I'm not sure to whom to attribute this quote, but I think it's got a great point to make.

Today is bringing great change to Ohio as a new Governor as well as a new attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, and state treasurer took office at midnight.  They follow a Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who also recently took office.

Change.

Mike DeWine Swearing-In Today

Today, after midnight, Mike DeWine, my old boss, becomes Attorney General of Ohio.

I'm attending the ceremonial swearing-in event at 2 p.m. and wearing cufflinks, a souvenir of his 1991 swearing-in as Lt. Governor.

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.

"Yes, We Do Need to Build More Roads"

Right on.

Aaron Renn's column on newgeography.com is right on.

As this chart from his column points out, the population growth of the past decade would not have fit in the nation's 12-largest cities even if every existing resident moved out.

A nation with 90-150 million more people in the next 40 years, a point made by Joel Kotkin and emphasized by Renn, makes the point about urban density maxing out even stronger.

Suburban growth remains not only likely, but absolutely necessary.

We DO need to keep building more roads.

More of Blyleven in Baseball Hall of Fame

"I never would have believed that one of my balls would be in the Hall of Fame."

Bert Blyleven, Cleveland Indians' pitcher, uttered this statement when handed the microphone during an 1985 Opening Day ceremony on the field in Cleveland Stadium with 70,000+ fans on hand.  It was a ceremony honoring an achievement of his having a baseball used in one of his 1984 games added to the Hall of Fame archives.  I was among the Indians fans in the stands that day who listened, laughed, and remembered.

Now, with his election yesterday to the Baseball Hall of Fame, more than just one of his baseballs will be there.

I Had to Ask

Just sharing a funny story.

Invited to a "final administration briefing" at ODOT's HQ on Monday, I was too intrigued to not attend.  Turns out the meeting was to focus on maritime port authorities.  I, and representatives of other land-locked port authorities, didn't learn that until we were already seated. Though we have a small creek behind my Port Authority offices, no one should confuse us with a port that owns harbor frontage.

Needless to say, I felt a little out of place.  A joke about major flooding to convert us to a maritime port didn't help break the ice much either.

So, even though I should have kept my mouth shut and just listened, I couldn't help myself.  I talked about what could be done by ODOT's Director. . .

. . .in the remaining one week of her term in office.

I had to ask.  Could she fix the numbering issue on the highway known as 161/37/16/36/250/22?

Having worked for state government myself and being mildly acquainted with the powers of cabinet members, I knew she "could."  The real question, would she, remains to be answered.

Extending the name 161 across this entire stretch takes merely an act of the ODOT Director.  Stroke of the pen.  Her successor, Licking County's Jerry Wray, could figure out how to get the signs and maps updated over time.

I and others have, politely, asked for this before and just can't seem to get anywhere.  One number would help marketing.  One number would help safety forces.  One number just makes plain common sense.

ODOT's own p.r. piece uses just 161

Seems that numbering request, fulfilled, would make the "Foundation for Transformation" piece handed out as a surviving documentation of the Strickland Administration years at ODOT more right too.

Maybe that will be persuasive.

See Page 9.  It reads:  "During the past four years, ODOT completed construction of. . .major sections of State Route 161 from Franklin County into Licking County.

What?  Seems the ODOT p.r. machine decided to drop all those silly other numbers too.

To be fair, the construction pieces were just merely three numbers--161, 37, and 16.  Still, if the Strickland Administration major achievements piece uses one number, why can't the ODOT director get out her pen and make it so?

I had another request too written on the back of my business card when I realized that I had an audience for change but with just one week for action.

That's for another blog though.

I'm a Retired Facebook Pizza Page Maker

I'm retired.  I'm making no Facebook pizza pages anymore.

Yesterday, I successfully convinced the daughter of the owners of Kraus' Pizza to take over the Facebook page. 

I started the page as a fan after my mom brought me a pizza in February 2009.  I started with a photo of a box and a handful of my friends.  I transferred it to the Kraus family with 7,117 fans.

It was fun to watch and, equally, fun to marvel at the power of Facebook to connect people with what they like around the World.

Now, I watch from the fan side, where I belong.

Horton Building Update

I took an impromptu hard-hat tour of the Horton Building construction site today with Port Authority SVP Bruce Boylan.

A crane has been loading roofing materials.  There's hope of some unseasonably warm temperatures allowing roof work to get underway.  That may be overly hopeful though, but at least the materials are there.

The outside is taking shape with the last of the partitions and sheathing going up.  Hidden from view is the very significant and impressive-looking stonework going up under the plastic cover on the exterior of the first floor.

Inside is where the real action is.  Walls are going up, ductwork is going in, and electrical lines are being extended.  Sprinkler work is expected too.

The building interior could see some light and heat soon.  Then, when the roof is on, it can really start taking shape.

Stay tuned.

Steelers Tops, In Ohio

About time I write about the Steelers without mentioning their QB.

Again this time of year, the number of pro football fans in Ohio favors the Steelers. It's true.

Fewer claim to be Browns fans and fewer still claim the Bengals. Meanwhile, more say they are Steelers fans than at season's start.

Need proof? Watch CBS today at 1 pm and be amazed by the huge number of Terrible Towels at Cleveland's Browns Stadium. They aren't all travelers from The Burgh. Many are fans from Ohio.

105 Less People in Columbus in 2010

The Columbus Dispatch reported 105 murders in Columbus in all of 2010. My third blog on this topic finds me continually alarmed by this huge number.

I don't know what to make of this quote from the article:
"If you look back, the 20-year average is actually 100 murders," said Deanna Wilkinson, an Ohio State University associate professor of human development and family science who studies youth violence.

Is she saying an average murder volume year somehow is ok?

It's not.

Those of us who frequently visit the City are begging. Will someone do something about it? Please!