First of all, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) does not necessarily agree with Forbes.com's listing of Canton as being a dying American city.But.
But what? There is enough evidence that the assessment may be true that the suggestion has merit - to prompt local leaders to do some "soul searching."
(From The Rep): "... Canton native Carl Lavin is the managing editor of Forbes.com, and he said the numbers such as 0.7 percent annual growth in gross domestic product speak for themselves. "
Moreover, Lavin goes on to say the following:
We've gotten questions. For a lot of people, you hold up a mirror and they don't like what they see." ...The Report thinks Canton is the local mirror of Ohio. The supposedly pro-business party (the Republicans) have been the executives in charge during what has certainly been an economic tailspin of "Canton" (Creighton and Watkins) and "Ohio" (Taft and Voinovich).
The smart civic leader will use this to help galvanize resources that will reverse those trends.
Joined-at-the-hip with the Republican executives has been the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. These overrated economic planners haven't had many answers to stem the decline.
The chambers have been like a broken record as have been their Republican sponsors. Their rhetoric: "Cut taxes, cut costs, cut government (which Republicans have not done), birth low paying jobs" (which they have done by the score) and on and on go their words and phrases which have not been effective to actually turnaround Canton's and Ohio's economy.
Can Healy and his Democrat team reverse things in Canton? Can Democrats Bosley/Harmon team up to reverse things in Stark County? Can Strickland and his Democrat team reverse things in Ohio? Can they devise a "new" formula to bring their respective economies out of the the "nosedive" - "tailspin" economic nightmare?
Time will tell. Maybe yes. Maybe no. All Cantonians, Stark Countians and Ohio should be pulling for their success.
In the end it matters not what someone's politics is. For everyday people, it only matters that new thinking with positive results surface from our political leadership.
Final question: Do Healy, Bosley, Harmon and Strickland have what it takes to be "smart civic leader[s]?"
1 comment:
Martin,
I absolutely agree about the Chamber of commerce, which has proven again and again that it is utterly useless. But as far as "Healy and the democratic team" turning things around goes, forget about it.
THERE IS NO TEAM
Healy has no more than 3 luke warm supporter on city council (West, Smith and perhaps Barton) and at least 5 enemies of his own making (whom I will not name, but if you spend more than two minutes talking to council members off the record I'm sure you can guess who they are)More than one councilman has decribed the council/administration relationship as "The Cold War" to me and others have called it worse.
Any turn around for the city is going to have to wait for 2011, as Jamey has aready managed to loose support from his own party, labor, the African american community, the Greek community, council and other local elected officials (one of which told me that if "Healy was on fire, he wouldn't bother to piss on him to put him out")
Martin, I know you like this guy, but you have got to pay closer attention to what's happening inside the city. Healy is already a lame duck in first year in office.
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