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All Resources associated with individual stories will be listed
at the end of the full transcript.
Ideas:
Mood of Consumers & Holidays A look at how the city of Lorain plans to survive yet another economic left-hook with the closing of the Ford Assembly Plant.      
Ideas:
Mood of Consumers & Holidays Two economy experts will analyze the mood of the consumer as we head into the big shopping season.
Ideas:
Voices & Choices Town Hall Meeting Description coming soon.
Ideas:
Re-making Downtowns This week, ideas about re-making downtowns in Cleveland and Akron. Guests included William Reidy, Chairman of the Cleveland Cuyahoga Convention Facilities Authority; developer Scott Wolstein, who discussed his new, grand plans for Cleveland Flats district; developer Robert Stark, discussing his vision of bringing a “Crocker Park” like mixed-use development project to downtown Cleveland; a look at four different housing developments either underway or on the planning boards in Akron and an overview of what all this development in our region really means from Ed Morrison, Executive Director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues at CWRU.
Ideas:
High-Tech Solutions to Economic Doldrums Northeast Ohio has high hopes for high-tech as a way to lift us out of the economic doldrums. Gov. Taft is spending more than $35 million in Third Frontier money in Northeast Ohio in the next year to help move some of our area’s best high-tech ideas from concept to commercial success. But how do we best do that? In this episode we focus on GLIDE – a Lorain-based organization that does just that – move high tech business ventures from just an idea to a full-blown business. For more information visit www.glideit.org.
Ideas:
Stemming Brain Drain in Akron Host Rick Jackson re-visits the efforts by Akron city leaders to stem brain drain. Rebecca Ryan is a 33-year-old economist with a national reputation for finding out how cities can better attract and keep young professionals. She was retained to examine Akron – then explain to its' leaders what Gen-Xers like, and don't like, about the city. (See show that aired March 3rd). Her report won’t be publicly released until late August, but in this episode Rebecca shared some of the more than 20 action steps she’s suggesting for Akron’s Chamber of Commerce. Among them will be items that would cost the city nothing - for instance - changing current legal requirements on al fresco dining for restaurants and things as costly as adding a full time city liaison, charged with directing efforts at assisting and retaining young professionals.
Ideas:
Higher Education - Higher Cost Funding to state schools was severely cut in 2002, and in 2003 state funding remained below 2001 levels. After one summer break, some Ohio students returned to school to find a 27% hike in their tuition. As many student loans are going up, state support is going down. Since 1996, state support to higher education has decreased by 14%. Ohio students have more debt than most college grads. Average tuition at Ohio public universities is $7,500, well above the national average. The average Ohio student borrows $3,400 a year, above the national average for student loans. This segment introduced us to two local students struggling to pay for their education and explored new alternatives to reduce tuition costs to kids and their families in Northeast Ohio.
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Council for Excellence in Government Town Hall Meeting A local poll commissioned by the Council for Excellence in Government found that more than 60% of Clevelanders said they felt the city’s economy was headed in the wrong direction. Just 15% said things were moving the right way. The Council, a non-partisan organization that works to improve the performance of government and to help us better understand how government works, organized a town hall meeting in Cleveland in April that brought leaders and citizens together for a frank, spirited discussion about how to reinvigorate our sluggish economy. On Ideas we played excerpts from this 90-minute town hall meeting and discussed the outcomes with Myron Robinson from the Urban League and Stephanie McHenry, President and COO of Shorebank.
Ideas:
Examining Northeast Ohio's Economic Future Ideas explored some of the early accomplishments and future plans of “The Fund For Our Economic Future” - a civic engagement and planning project designed to support ideas that will have significant impact on our regional economy. Guests included Robert Briggs, Executive Director of The GAR Foundation, David Abbott, Executive Director of the George Gund Foundation, Ronn Richard, President of The Cleveland Foundation, Deborah Vesy, Executive Director of Deaconess Community Foundation, and Carolyn Lukensmeyer, President of AmericaSpeaks. For more information visit www.futurefundneo.org. Brain drain is a big problem in our region – and it’s the primary reason why leaders in Akron hired economist Rebecca Ryan to develop a plan to not only keep young professionals in Akron – but to attract them from other cities. We talked to Rebecca early in her research to find out what she was finding. And we talked to Chris Carmody from the Cleveland Media Development Corporation about the film industry in Northeast Ohio. He talked about what needs to happen in our region in order to make film-making a greater contributor to our economic recovery.
Ideas:
University Spin-offs This week we delved into the world of “university spin-offs” – scholarly ideas that can blossom into successful, local businesses. Between 1980 and 1999, university spin-off companies generated $33.5 billion nationally - that’s about $10 million per company founded. Guests included Dr. Clemens Burda from CWRU, Donna Richardson, co-founder of Cleveland NanoCrystals, Dr. Luis Proenza, President of The University of Akron and Dr. Scott Shane from CWRU who just completed a new study about the critical role university spin-offs play in Northeast Ohio’s economic revitalization.
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