How To Save Cleveland

[TURobY]

Although I am not in agreement with "Reason" on many topics (even some in this article), I still found the article to be quite interesting:

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/24/how-to-save-cleveland

Though I must that holding up Oakland as a good example of a city was a little bit odd...

[TheArtist]

Good article.  I think it would be worthwhile to try more of its "remedies" in our city. 

From the article..... http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/24/how-to-save-cleveland/1

Cities resurrect themselves by creating a better value proposition for the people who live and work there: improving services, especially schools; improving the climate for businesses and jobs by offering more flexibility and less regulation; worrying less about big-ticket sinkholes like sports franchises and publicly owned venues and instead making sure that streetlights work, potholes are filled, and crime is contained. There are proven ways to do all this, procedures and processes that have worked in all sorts of cities.

These are the lessons of Reason Saves Cleveland. If Oakland, the place about which Gertrude Stein quipped "there's no there there," can improve its education system by granting parents the right to pick their children's schools, any city can. If Indianapolis can provide better service for lower cost through competitive contracting, if Chicago can sell off money-losing toll roads, if Washington, D.C., can take on its teachers unions, then anyplace can do those things and much more.

[dsjeffries]

Although I am not in agreement with "Reason" on many topics (even some in this article), I still found the article to be quite interesting:

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/24/how-to-save-cleveland

Though I must that holding up Oakland as a good example of a city was a little bit odd...

Interesting read. There are some things I agree with, and others that just left me scratching my head.

And I don't think they were holding up Oakland on a pedestal. They mentioned one successful thing they had accomplished--making a change in how their schools function. Also, it was just part of a larger list of cities who have done what Gillespie believes are the correct way to rejuvenate a city (second quote below).

Quote
If Oakland, the place about which Gertrude Stein quipped "there's no there there," can improve its education system by granting parents the right to pick their children's schools, any city can. If Indianapolis can provide better service for lower cost through competitive contracting, if Chicago can sell off money-losing toll roads, if Washington, D.C., can take on its teachers unions, then anyplace can do those things and much more.

Quote
Cities resurrect themselves by creating a better value proposition for the people who live and work there: improving services, especially schools; improving the climate for businesses and jobs by offering more flexibility and less regulation; worrying less about big-ticket sinkholes like sports franchises and publicly owned venues and instead making sure that streetlights work, potholes are filled, and crime is contained. There are proven ways to do all this, procedures and processes that have worked in all sorts of cities.