On Development: Whatever happened to homegrown economic development?

Maybe Columbus should put the training center for its National Women’s Soccer League franchise inside a suburban data center. Then we could address two economic development debacles at once.

In early baseball, owners of professional teams were known as “magnates” but preferred to call themselves “sportsmen.” They were rich enough to own a team and build a grandstand for the fans. But professional sports has morphed into an industry important enough that billionaire franchise owners can command major infusions of city, county, and state money – to the point at which tax dollars subsidize stadiums that taxpayers can’t afford to visit.

(Thank goodness for the Columbus Clippers and Huntington Park – owned by taxpayers of Franklin County – where we can afford a general admission ticket and get a beer for less than $13.)

Across the country, local governments have long fetishized sports franchises that allow them to say they lead a major league city! They want it so badly they’ll throw away $1.6 million dollars’ worth of revitalization planning for a badly needed park in an often-neglected area – as Columbus has done by allowing McCoy Park, on the Southwest Side, to become a training complex for the NWSL team.

It’s great that the world of professional sports is becoming less of a men-only place. But a city that wants to support women’s athletics should focus more on ensuring that parks in neglected neighborhoods have the facilities and programs for the girls and young women who live in the neighborhood.

What this gets down to is that economic development strategies in general are more focused on helping existing corporations get stronger than on actually developing something new. 

That’s been the hallmark of the secretive JobsOhio, which for the past 15 years has taken credit for almost any job “created” in Ohio – even if its corporate handouts of taxpayer dollars too often went to companies that already planned to come here. 

JobsOhio isn’t really an economic-development entity. It actually has very little to do with the development of economies. It mostly hands out dollars from the people of Ohio to existing, profitable companies in return for locating a branch of their business in Ohio and allowing JobsOhio to take credit for the number of people hired.

Ironically, JobsOhio’s handouts are funded by proceeds from state liquor sales – the same funding source that once enabled one of the greatest economic development programs Ohio has ever seen: the Clean Ohio Brownfield Revitalization Fund.

Brownfields were just one part of a multifaceted statewide environmental bond initiative in 2000 that was overwhelmingly supported by Ohio voters in all 88 counties. The other components were the Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Fund; Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Fund; and Clean Ohio Recreational Trails Fund. Pushed by then-Gov. Robert Taft, the four programs generated $400 million and were enthusiastically renewed by voters in 2008. The conservation, trails, and agricultural-easement programs received $200 million in bonds, backed by general state revenue. The $200 million brownfield program was backed by state liquor sales.

The brownfield program had an enormous impact throughout Ohio and in Columbus – cleaning up major contaminated industrial sites and turning them into thriving neighborhoods and parks. Among about 15 brownfield-cleanup sites redeveloped within a two-mile radius of Broad and High streets:

• Scioto Audubon Metro Park 
• The Grant Park area of Weinland Park
• The Jeffrey Park area of Italian Village
• The Harrison Park area west of Victorian Village
• Gowdy Field, along Olentangy River Road
• Grandview Yard

By comparison, JobsOhio is an insult to the state’s heritage.

Ohio is the birthplace of aviation, the birthplace of the man who invented electric lights, phonographs and so many other things. Ohio produced automotive innovations, and was a pioneer in rubber tires, steel, cash registers, heavy machinery, farm equipment, wind turbines, roller bearings, vacuum cleaners, electrical generators, bar codes, and much more.

But Ohio slashes public-education funds – instead of investing in the next generation of inventors – and then begs out-of-state businesses to start a branch here.

The data centers that strengthen the artificial-intelligence industry and replace workers with “data” are not “economic development.” The companies behind the hulking, water-sucking data centers are not invested in Ohio. They are harvesting from Ohio – using our land, water, and other natural resources. Ohioans need to build our own future. 

Data centers and professional sports teams are not the best use of Ohio land and resources. It’s time to plant the seeds for locally grown economic development.

Correction: The article initially stated McCoy Park is on the Southeast Side when it i located on the Southwest Side. Matter News regrets the error.

Brian Williams is a semi-retired planner and journalist