Job Creation in Over The Rhine
The other day I mentioned the UC Center of Innovation for Entrepreneurship in IT (COI) to Jody Detzel. We were brainstorming a bit in a conversation over coffee at the Rookwood Starbucks. Why? Because that’s where pretty much everybody has conversations in this city. Seriously. You ever walk in that place? You’d think every business deal in this city takes place at that Starbucks. But enough of that.
Jody started making connections between the work in the COI and perhaps connecting it with Over The Rhine (OTR). How? Well, all the connections are not clear yet, but something like on-shoring. We talked a bit about the dynamics in OTR. For instance, the new development and the re-development going on in OTR is simply fabulous. Some interesting, renovated architecture. Bold new businesses. Style and flare. New housing development that raises the bar on expectations for the neighborhood. But what if you’re, say, a lower-income long-time resident of OTR, and you see all this new development happening around you. Are you excited? When you can’t afford even a drink at Lavomatic? Or do you doubt your self-worth. Do you question why your way of life is going the way of the Dodo? Do you think about moving away?
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all for new development in OTR. We just need to look for ways to bring the current residents along in the renaissance. And Jody’s comments really struck a chord with me. I’ve been thinking about his comments for 5 days straight.
About 5 years ago I visited towns around Letcher County, KY. Towns like Whitesburg and Pikeville. The goal of these visits was to determine if developing a workforce that could deliver basic technology services at a price point competitive with offshore was feasible. By collaborating with the local economic development programs and the education systems perhaps it would be possible to bring a workforce up to snuff. Given the personal investment required at the time and the distance from Cincinnati, coupled with my first experience with a real entrepreneur-like initiative, it turned out to be neither the time or the place for me to make this successful.
Maybe the time is right. Right now. Maybe the model could work in OTR. And maybe the local residence could feel good about the development going on in their neighborhood because it would be development for them as well as the rest of us.
Now, I need to get the COI off the ground over the next 6 months. Hopefully, in the meantime, this will stay on my radar. I’d like to take a shot at it and see what we might accomplish.
What do you think?
- Andy
April 27th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
You raise an interesting point about near-shoring (on-shoring). I’ve never been to Whitesburg or Pikeville, but I have looked at rural places here in Texas and surrounding states. What I find, in addition to lapse in tech training (which I believe can easily be solved), is the lack of basic infrastructure.
You can have an entire community with the necessary skills. However, unless the community also has the infrastructure like reliable power, high speed connections, etc the effort to get them integrated might be lost. It would be interesting to study the amount of infrastructure investments companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart have to make when moving to a rural community.