Issues:
Reconnecting Ohio to its Communities
We can rebuild and revitalize our neighborhoods by taking a
comprehensive approach to carefully targeted opportunities. How can
business be induced or want to participate in the lost and forgotten
neighborhoods of Ohio? A state program providing living-wage credits,
amenities- development credits and job training coordination can become
the catalyst for re-vitalizing our neighborhoods.
I propose a Transition to Tomorrow neighborhood program, under which
state resources would target entire blocks across Ohio and place
holistic, comprehensive programs in place to address the effects of lack
of jobs and economic opportunities. Instead of addressing items
piecemeal, cities would work using the Ohio Dept of Economic Development
as a coordinator and clearinghouse for addressing all of the problems at
once. Successful redevelopments, such as the Short North in Columbus,
occurred one block at a time. With the McCann Transition to Tomorrow
program, economic development would be targeted to the building level:
economic development - one building at a time.
Tools such as urban brownfield grants would help Ohio move from a
manufacturing economy to a 21st Century economy. Ohio has never used
federal air-quality dollars to make a case that clean air results from
inner-city brownfield industrial sites being converted into new growth
centers. Ohio should also undertake its own clean-air program and
leverage clean air credits into a freely transferable pool. State
technology should also fund R & D for ozone mitigation.
Ohio's economic future depends on a transportation network for the 21st
Century. Unfortunately, state policymakers are pushing a 20th Century
highway agenda that offers more of the same: more highway lanes to
accommodate more and more trucks. Without railroads and other
alternatives, Ohio's already white-knuckled drivers will be hemmed in by
an ever-increasing number of large trucks.
Public investment in rail and ports and waterways, however, will create
construction jobs and - with different ways to ship their goods - will
allow the state's manufacturing and distribution companies to grow.
Safer rail crossings and additional track on existing rights of way will
greatly increase the capacity for shipments by rail - slowing the growth
of truck traffic on highways and also making room on the rails for
passenger trains. High-speed (110 mph) trains will give Ohioans another
option for travel among Ohio cities and to neighboring states, relieving
airlines of the unprofitable short-hop flights.
