"Reinvent the Dream for Lucas County"

If I had to pick one quote to describe what Ben Konop talked about tonight at the University Young Democrat Meeting, it would be the above phrase. While he focused more on Toledo tonight and I'd like to hear more about his plans for the rest of the county tonight was an interesting discussion.

For those who have not read the book, Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, here is an article that gives you some of the basic stats and information. Ben talked about this book and some of the concepts of the Creative Economy. Also the "Cool Cities" plan that Michigan Governor Granholm has been involved in promoting was discussed as a way to take parts of both of these ideas and incorporate them into a plan that would work for Lucas County.

In talking about this Ben stated:

Basically it points out the fact that today's economy and even more so the economy of the future is a creative economy, information based technology driven, that's where the jobs are. That this new economy is being driven in a large part by young creative professionals in various fields for example, software design, the internet, biotech, alternative fuel research; these are the fields of tomorrow and the job producers of tomorrow. When push comes to shove the creative fields will yield the next Owens Illinois or Sheller Globe, that's where our economy is headed. That's why we need to attract the people and retain the people who will create these jobs and who will work with the emerging business sectors. This framework doesn't just apply to white collar creative jobs in office buildings, this framework also applies to the future of our manufacturing economy as well. There is plenty of light manufacturing that go along with these creative fields, these are potentially good union jobs that would come into Toledo that go hand in hand with the Creative Economy Business Model.

It was pointed out that those aged 25 to 44 are leaving Ohio faster than any state in the country and that Toledo appears to be leading that statistic.

The discussion then moved on to what is necessary to retain those very creative young professionals that are needed to make a Creative Based economy work for Lucas County. Statistics show some of the factors necessary to keep and attract this group is; Diversity, Night Life, Arts and Recreation.

How could the County be involved in making some of this come about? Through bonds, low interest loans, letters of credit, job training funds, appointments to the Lucas County Planning Commission, the Lucas County Port Authority and using the offices of the Commissioner as a type of a Bully Pulpit to continue/create discussion were just a few of beginning Economy 101 type efforts to start this.

Some of the projects in this area like the Marina Project, the Monroe Street Arts District, and the Student Village project that have either been discussed or are in the process of starting need to be completed. The sports arena was also mentioned as another important component. Ben also touched his plan to create a County sponsored loan program that would enable art galleries to provide low or no interest loans to those interested in purchasing works of art. This would help both those interested in art and those creating art as a part of the Creative Economy frame.

Ben pointed out a quote from President Bush's State of the Union last night that he agreed with.

And to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hardworking, ambitious people, and we are going to keep that edge.

Ben Krompack talked about his work with the University of Toledo in trying to improve the Dorr Corridor. The concept of a Student Village was discussed along with the idea of moving the Law School Downtown and finding a way to connect the two newly joined college campuses. Ideas such as a direct transportation system from both colleges was discussed but the realism of the cost involved seemed to make the general consensus lean towards electric/fuel efficient buses rather than any type of a rail system. This was also felt would be more flexible if there were any new areas or population shifts. The lack of bike and walking trails was discussed. It was generally agreed the metroparks system here was excellent but that bike or walking trails with direct access to some of these parks and/or the urban village type concept similar to towns such as Seattle or Portland has would be something that many of those present would love to see exist.

Ecology was discussed and Micro Climating, cities like Ann Arbor have done research into ways to use nature to assist with energy efficiency issues as well as adding nature to enhance a living area. Energy ideas such as ethanol, more research into the windfarm concept as is being done at UT were also discussed. Other ideas for the economy such as Aqua Farming which is possible to be done in a warehouse environment was also brought up. It was stated that management expert Peter Drucker predicted that one of the new century's most exciting industries was not the Internet, but fish farming. Some additional information on that is here as one example.

To sum up, this was a very good second meeting in which some of the key goals of what ideas are out there and the beginning stages of discussion as to what is important to those present were discussed. While as I stated initially, I'm interested in seeing how this applies outside of the Toledo area as a County wide plan, some of the ideas were very promising and possible. It appears this group of Young Democrats are very interested in continuing to see how they can help bring about some of these Creative Economy ideas to Lucas County.

As an update, the Toledo Blade also had a reporter at last night's meeting, Joshua Boak, who wrote a very good article .