Interesting story about how Jersey City overcame population and job loss by going green. I think some of these ideas in this article would benefit Toledo as well...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-15-jersey-city_N.htm
Should Toledo Follow Jersey City?
By Kooz - Posted on April 16th, 2007
A quick search of the Internet finds more about Schundler:
1993 Article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_n4_v14/ai_14538794/pg_1
Some interesting parts of the article:
Similar to Toledo?
Until recently, Jersey City, New Jersey was a typical urban wasteland of 230,000 people with a long history of corrupt government by political machine. Today, it has a very atypical mayor: 34-year-old Republican investment banker Bret Schundler, whose agenda looks as if it were crafted by Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett. His election last November and re-election in May has conservative Republicans crowing, though he insists he is a "revolutionary," not a conservative.
Jersey City changed markedly in the three decades following the Hague regime, and not for the better. By 1980, its population had fallen to 1910 levels and its derelict factories and seedy tenements gave it the eerie presence of a ghost town looming across the Hudson River from the international nerve center of Manhat- tan. The 1980s brought a modest Renaissance of sorts, with the construction of huge condominium and office projects on the riverfront and the establishment of a strong gentrification movement inland The resulting influx of yuppies -- combined with a slightly earlier invasion by conservative Cuban refugees -- gave the dry its first significant base of Republican voters in three generations.
Too often communities are forced to choose among ambitious professional politicians who have carefully nurtured relationships within the power structures of their particular political party. They have done so because it is the accepted means of advancement in the public arena. These are people in pursuit of a profession, entrusted with the mantle of leadership; but they are not leaders. They have become players in a recreation masquerading as government; they have lost track of their original selfless motivations -- If they began with anyfor participation in the process has become their sole purpose, It shows.
Interesting:
Bret Schundler breaks these rules and molds, and has succeeded beyond expectation because he is of a new breed of office-seeker. He pays little heed to the gang mentality that fosters distinctions made by party label. He has no gnawing ambitions to climb the ladder of elective office simply for the sport or ego gratification of competitive challenge. He comes off as a guy who wants to help his community. When these kinds of candidates are imaginative problem-solvers and capable communicators, such people are now the most effective candidates on the electoral landscape.
Always a good way to turn around an area:
His major coup during this brief trial period was persuading the state government to allow the city to sell off $40 million of tax liens to a banking house that would employ professionals in their collection. Solidly backed by Hudson County's all-Democratic organization, Schundler got approval from the legislature, but was temporarily stalled by a conditional veto from Gov. Jim Florio (D). Florio demanded a clause that would guarantee continued residency for tenants of the affected properties, and got it. Suddenly in possession of a $20 million windfall and a promissory note for millions more, Schundler slashed the property tax rate.
That was just the beginning. Schundler cut his own salary in half. He began putting more policemen on the street. He drafted an ambitious economic development plan -- in effect, making the city a giant enterprise zone -- and recruited major Manhattan developers and financiers to put it in motion. He went back to the legislature to lobby for another enabling act, this time to provide school vouchers to city residents rather than guarantee funding to the city's languishing public schools.
Check out:
http://www.njfaq.com/bret2001/news/releases/063096.shtml
But Schundler has so far done more with less, and in less time. In late 1992, Schundler, a Harvard graduate who once considered becoming a Presbyterian minister, decided to take a Don Quixote challenge to the status quo. In Jersey City there was much to challenge: The registration was almost 10-1 Democatic, no, Republican had controlled city hall in almost eight decades, and even the city demoraphics seemed tilted against Republicans. Minus a 10 percent Asian population, the remaining 90 percent of Jersey City's population of 230,000 breaks almost into thirds: black, hispanic and white.
A special election was called in late 1992 to replace the mayor, as the previous occupant of the office had been convicted on federal coruption charges. In a close race, Schundler won with a simple plurality. The local party chiefs saw it as an aberration to be corrected in the next election. They were wrong. After promising voters that in six months he would lower their taxes or they could throw him out, he won a full four-year term with a landslide 68 percent of the vote.
Schundler won over Democratic converts by beginning to reform city government, and the people liked it. As Schundler tells it, Jersey City was a "kleptocracy" in which "the machine worked not for citizens, but for members of the club. Everything in government was geared to help members of the club."
One of the chief backers of this club was the local teachers union, part of the National Education Association. According to the Wall Street Journal, Schundler's willingness to challenge the teachers union earned him the title "The NEA's Public Enemy #1". His original sin, from the union's standpoint, was proposing a private school voucher. Failing to clear that with the state Legislature, he initiated a program funded by private donations to encourage students to go to private schools. His calls for reform have earned him the respect of lower-income voters, traditional stalwarts of the Democratic Party.
With his Wall Street skills, he was able to get a grip on city finances and expose the machine's finagling. To continue spending even when finances did not allow, the machine had thought up a nifty idea: double commercial tax assessments to artificially increase the power to issue bonds. From 1989 to 1992, as real estate values plummeted and business avoided the city because of the high assessments, the city shouldered an additional $100 million in bond debt.
Schundler says that had he not had to pay back this debt, taxpayers in Jersey City would have had whopping tax cuts. Instead, Schundler held the line on taxes as he pared down the budget. Thirty percent of the city's non-uniformed job positions were cut -- not through layoffs, but rather through incentives and attrition. He instituted the first public employees' Medical Savings Account program -- one that became so popular it is now preferred by city workers even as it saves the city money.
Schundler likes to tell the story of when he first became mayor, he discovered that two police officers were assigned full time to deliver interoffice mail among the precincts -- at a cost of $175,000 a year. Those cops are now assigned to the streets, and clerks do the mail job at a fraction of the cost.
Much of what Schundler has done follows the footsteps of the mayor of Indianapolis, Steve Goldsmith, ho took office in 1992. Like Schundler, Goldmith is a Republican who was faced with a falling economy, heavy tax rates, a fleeing middle class, and entrenched unions. Like Schundler, Goldsmith turned to innovative strategies. His efforts cut spending by $100 million a year.
Goldsmith, 48, is trying to turn his success into higher office, and is running for governor. At packed luncheon hosted by the Manhattan Institute -- a think tank dedicated to free-market solutions -- Goldsmith last month laid out the sweeping innovations he has accomplished, some of which mirror Jersey City's strides:
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Contracting Out:
Almost every city service has been scrutinized to see if it would be better and more cheaply done by private firms. So far, more than 50 services have been contracted out, from repairing potholes to managing swimming pools and public golf courses. ("What business does government have running a golf course?" Goldsmith asks.) In Jersey City, Schundler has pared the city's non-union work force by contracting out. Work such as fixing broken traffic signals is now handled by a private firm, which does the job cheaper and more efficiently.
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Privatization:
As Goldsmith says, privatization the selling of city-owned assets to private companies "is not an end in itself, but a means to improving quality of life." Goldsmith successfully privatized the city's airport. At the time he was criticized, because the airport was considered one of the country's best run, most efficient public airports. Statistics show that with a private firm, the airport is even better run -- and now it saves taxpayers money. In Jersey City, Schundler has had greater difficulty in getting unions to agree to private changeovers, but his office did do the largest privatization of a water system in the country. The deal calls for the city to make a windfall of $38.5 million from the sale, which will result in lower costs for the city's taxpayers and the water system's customers.
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Crime and Infrastructure:
Both mayors have emphasized the need to spend money to reduce quality of life concerns, notably crime. Despite budget problems in both cities, putting police on the streets was a high priority. In Indianapolis, the economy has been booming lately. Goldsmith has held the line on taxes and used increased revenues from other sources to fund infrastructure improvements including roads, parks and other public facilities.
How have these Republicans succeeded in cities normally considered bastions of the Democratic Party? Simple, they say, because they focus on people and services rather than Draconian spending cuts and layoffs. Jersey City, for example, has been able to cut the number of citizens receiving public assistance in half since Schundler took over, largely due to increased job opportunities. By emphasizing the better delivery of public services through private means, the mayors have been able to reduce spending, cut taxes, revitalize business activity and improve the quality of life in their cities.
Having Manhattan on the other side of the river helps a lot.
In Manhattan, and apparently Jersey City, they build up. Here in the flat farmlands, we build out.
When I read the headline and story I thought, that Jersey City?
Good for them. The Jersey City I last visited in the late 70's was one of crime and grime.
The city was rough and tumble.
And as has been pointed out the neighboring cities and communities are large and diverse.
Our largest city close to us is Detroit and it is going through a turn around as has been reported.
The other big difference between there and here is the progressive thinkers in office that have sought out new ideas and have a new view.
Our current Mayor wanted to have Westgate look like a 1950's strip mall and the proposed developer of the marina has mentioned in articles that the area could be built to make it look like Toledo did in the early 20th. century.
Look forward not backwards.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
Just goes to show you that elections mean something. Get rid of the old club city officials and school board, looks like electing young Republicans seems to work. Privatize some elements like refuse and possibly pools. Get some federal money and private support to tear down drug dens, eyesores by schools, eyesores downtown. Get police out from their desks and into the neighborhoods. Duplicate medical insurance program as Jersey City to Toledo employees. Contract headhunter team to find global companies willing to locate to Toledo that are interested in skilled labor, transportation logistics, R&D, and Healthcare. Lower Taxes!!
Again, GREAT articles.
I can think of Detroit, Cleveland and Windsor.
Chicago is 3 +/- hours away as is Columbus and Dayton.
The difference to me and Jersey City is that Jersey City did not rely heavily on a small number of industries and used it proximity to a very large population base to allow for growth and development and then there was the leadership.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
Manhattan certainly helped out a lot in this case, and I doubt Toledo could undergo quite the revitalization that Jersey City apparently has. Jersey City is in the fortunate position of being able to grow its population without creating a single job. While on a smaller scale this is much like Sylvania and Perrysburg can do with nearby Toledo.
However, I can't overlook the fact that property taxes were apparently slashed pretty drammatically making Jersey City a less expensive place to live. That's the lesson that Toledo leaders need to take from this. We can't keep making Toledo a more expensive place to live and then expect people to move here when there are cheaper alternatives around. Just in the last year we've had numerous levies passed, a new garbage tax imposed, and fees put in place that charge for fire services. These all serve as motivating factors for those moving to the area to live outside the city and for those already living in the city to make the move elsewhere. These taxes and fees also take millions of dollars a year out of the local economy hurting local small business, the lifeblood of the modern American economy.
We also must rethink the role of local government. Local government isn't in existence to be served by the people, it's in existence to serve the people. Clearly Jersey City officials had lost sight of that. Unfortunately I think many in Toledo have lost sight of that as well.
But Toledo also is in the nicely centered in between some major metro areas all within a reasonable drive. Toledo geographically is well positioned to grow if we desire.
It takes you over three hours to get to Columbus and Dayton? How fast do you drive? 35 MPH? C-bus takes about 2.5 hours, Dayton takes 2. I usually get to Kentucky in about 3.
1) http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Northeast/Jersey-City-Economy.html
2) http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Midwest/Toledo-Economy.html
Taxes are certainly a concern but a vibrant business base is also needed and Toledo pales in comparison
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
Great comment HeyHey.
Keeping the information relative, Jersey City is not a drive for some to live and work in a close by metro area.
Many now live in Toledo and work in the metro Detroit area. And interesting enough the state of Michigan is and has taken steps to rejuvenate the business landscape to attract new businesses and not just auto related, so it would seem if Detroit would lift itself up Toledo could also see an up tick.
That's the only close by metro area I can see.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog