A couple of weeks ago city leaders were standing behind charts showing how Toledo compares to others regarding tax burden as justification for raising taxes. One chart you will not see show up in Government Center is how Toledo ranks regarding the best place for a business and career.
Overall, Toledo ranks worst out of Ohio major urban areas at 189 on Forbes list of Best Places for Business and Career; next is Youngstown at 176. While Toledo was not the last in some of the other categories it was only ahead of Dayton and Cleveland in job growth; mid range with cost of doing business; 2nd to last in educational attainment.
Ohio city rankings (Out of 200):
City - Overall - Job growth2 - Cost of Doing Business1 - Ed Attainment3
Cincinnati - 101 - 104 - 131 - 101
Columbus - 88 - 137 - 120- 55
Youngstown - 176 - 171 - 72 - 183
Toledo - 189 - 181 - 99 - 141
Cleveland - 157 - 188 - 144 - 112
Dayton - 150 - 191 - 90 - 120
Akron - 129 - 97 - 125 - 100
1Index based on cost of labor, energy, taxes and office space.
25-year annualized figures.
3Share of Population over age 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher.
Sources: Economy.com; Sperling's BestPlaces.
What are we doing wrong? How can we fix this?
We have one of the most unfriendly business environments in the country.
If you were moving into the area to start a business, what would entice you to open a small business within the corp limits vs in the burbs, or over in Mich?
The more I think about this, the more ironic it seems - Carty and Council, every time they want to charge us a new tax, or a new fee, or some other bullshit, always tell us about every other city who's charging their public with said fees.
How 'bout they quote stuff like this once in a while? How 'bout they look at cities who are BETTER OFF than we are and start doing what theyre doing for a change??
Great questions. Too bad you don't work at One Government Center Chris.
The very first thing to do is to start a community dialogue. The community has to vote change in.
You can tell people that our city is a business. It is a corporation. We have had the same group of executives making decisions that have had consistently poor results. The above is a great example. If the Federal Government made a law - let's call it the 'No Tax Payer Left Behind' law - our proficiency rating would be equivalent to academic emergency, as rated for public schools.
Until people understand that you cannot continue to employ a CEO, board and administration that continuously fail to serve the interests of the city - they will keep voting these people into office.
The process to fix this starts now. With our willingness to make phone calls, talk to other people in our daily lives and bring up the topic of a failing local government. The process starts far ahead of election Tuesday when the decision of WHO will be ON the ballot is still being made.
You can call the Democratic office in Toledo, since most elected politicians are and have been Democrats and tell them you've had enough. This gravy train has to stop and someone needs to spend some time making good business decisions.
Canton, which has a 192 out of 200 job growth rate and a crappy educational in the 170s, is ranked as a better place for careers. It's saving grace in this ranking is probably its low energy costs, which according to the PUCO are the lowest in the state. However, if that low number is what makes Canton a great place for professionals, then why does it rank lower than Toledo in job growth? Far be it from me to question the methods of the great people at Money Magazine, but isn't high job growth the most important factor in determining which metro area is best for starting a career? An area with job growth is more important to me than what I'm paying in electric bills or taxes. They really should have split this into two rankings, one for best business environment and another for best career environment.
Another problem I have with studies that rank metro areas based on demographics is that they don't include anyone in Monroe or Lenawee counties. Even if you live less than a mile away from Toledo in Bedford Township, you're not counted as part of Toledo's MSA. Throw in Toledo's northern suburbs and you add ~60,000 more people to Metroledo's population. Not only that, but suburban residents tend to have a higher college graduation rate and a higher job growth than central cities.
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"When I say your dumb name, please stand up briefly, but then quickly drop to your knees and forsake all others before me." -Ignignokt
but that is so often the case :-)
What would be the purpose in including suburbanites and county/townships statistics in a metro study?
Are just a made up line. And that's why the Metropolitan Statistical Area is useful. The MSA is the government designation of a metropolitan area and without it, you can't accurately measure a region's demographics. Many suburban residents are economically dependent on Toledo, but since they live outside the city limits, they don't count towards Toledo's population in the census. When the MSA is compiled, they're counted as being in the Toledo Metropolitan Area. Look at Ottawa Hills: it has an average household income of $100k, but there's few jobs paying that much in Ottawa Hills proper. Most of it's residents commute to jobs in Toledo or other surrounding suburbs and if asked on vacation where they're from, they'd probably say "Toledo" because explaining where Ottawa Hills is to everyone who asks becomes a PITA. But it's not just limited to the "bedroom communities". Arrowhead Park in Maumee is filled with companies that work with Toledo-based firms. Hence the reason why Bedford Twp. and Temperance should be counted in Toledo's MSA. Even though Monroe may have stronger ties to Detroit, the fastest growing and most populous areas in Monroe County are along the Ohio border. And because the government is lazy, they group MSAs by county, not city, which artificially deflates the demographics in Metroledo.
The other statistical area used by the government is the Combined Statistical Area, or CSA. The best way I've heard the CSA described is with this question: What paper do you get? If your town primarily gets the Blade, you're in Toledo's sphere of influence. If your town predominantly gets the Detroit Free Press, then you're in Detroit's sphere of influence. For example, in Findlay or Tiffin, the Blade is the regional newspaper. In Marion, it's the Columbus Sun-Times-Picayune-Gazette (I forget what their paper is named). While all the communities in a CSA aren't economically dependent on a large city, they fall under that large city's influence. If someone from Tiffin or Defiance wants to go shopping at a mall with more than six stores in it, they go to Toledo. If someone from Marion wants to do the same, they would probably drive to Columbus.
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"When I say your dumb name, please stand up briefly, but then quickly drop to your knees and forsake all others before me." -Ignignokt