Tag: education

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Could Queensgate become an American hub for advanced manufacturing?

Could Queensgate become an American hub for advanced manufacturing?.

Cincinnati leaders have been looking for a way to transform the region’s industrial Mill Creek Valley. With a possible new program designed at training people in advanced manufacturing, might this be a new opportunity for Queensgate and the other neighborhoods in the valley? More from Next City:

The cutely named “Race to the Shop” is envisioned as a $150 million competition that would let cities and states vie for federal funding to support long-term strategic investment in workforce development for the advanced manufacturing sector…The policy recommendation is one of three focused on strengthening the American manufacturing sector — a sector that disproportionately affects cities (79.5 percent of manufacturing jobs are located in major metropolitan areas).

One of the proposals recommend congressional funding of at least 25 advanced industry innovation hubs themed around specific interests, some of which have an environmental silver lining such as carbon capture and storage. Modeled after the Department of Energy’s Energy Innovation Hubs program, which has its flagship site in Philadelphia, and the Department of Commerce’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), the hubs would be industry-led alliances of public, private and academic actors organized regionally.

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Residential zoning laws may be preventing natural economic evolution

Residential zoning laws may be preventing natural economic progression.

The “convergence” theory suggests that poorer states like Mississippi should have caught up to richer states like Connecticut over time. This economic projection held true in America’s history until about 1980, and some researchers blame overbearing residential zoning laws. More from the Boston Globe:

During the 100 years of high convergence, Americans moved in droves from poorer states to richer states in search of higher wages. As more people crowded into richer states, average wages there began to fall in response to the relative oversupply of workers; meanwhile wages in the poorer states began to rise for the relatively few workers who remained behind, creating a kind of economic balancing effect between American regions.

Theoretically this process should have continued until Mississippi and Connecticut were more or less equally desirable places to work and Shoag and Ganong propose a three-step explanation why it did not: Convergence stopped because labor migration stopped; labor migration stopped because housing prices in the richest states grew so out of whack that low-skilled workers could no longer afford to move in; and housing prices skyrocketed in response to zoning laws written in the 1970s that artificially restricted the amount and type of housing that could be built in richer locales.

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Business Development News

Ohio awards nearly $9M in historic tax credits to seven Cincinnati-area projects

Seven Cincinnati-area developments have been awarded nearly $9 million in tax credits from the Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA) through the state’s historic preservation program.

Six of the seven area projects are located within the City of Cincinnati, and one is located in downtown Hamilton. The Cincinnati-area projects took home nearly 25 percent of the total $35.9 million distributed in the program’s ninth round of funding, and will create more than 130 new housing units and tens of thousands of square feet of commercial space once completed.

“The Historic Preservation Tax Credit puts empty buildings back into the economic cycle, creating jobs through construction activities and reoccupation of the buildings,” Christiane Schmenk, director of the ODSA, stated in a prepared release. “This program saves some of the state’s most significant historic structures.”


Eden Park’s 118-year-old pump station may soon see new life as a micro-brewery thanks to a $1 million tax credit from the State of Ohio. Rendering provided.

According to state officials, projects receiving funding must complete the rehabilitation work in accordance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation before the credits are issued to the building owner or long-term tenant.

More than $3.3 million in funding will flow into Over-the-Rhine for Losantiville Apartments, Abington Flats, and Pendleton Apartments through the program, and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) was awarded $1.8 million for its $9 million redevelopment of three historic buildings at Third Street and Main Street in the central business district.

“Without it [Ohio Historic Tax Credit] we would be unable to preserve the historic character of as many buildings as we have,” Anastasia Mileham, 3CDC’s vice president of communications, told UrbanCincy. “The cost to restore and develop them costs more than the what you can sell the condos for and lease the commercial space for. Historic tax credits help fill that gap and make the math work.”

In Mt. Adams, the Cincinnati Beer Company was awarded $1 million for its $5.2 million project that will transform Eden Park’s 118-year-old pump station into a brewery and tap room. Nearby, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and The Model Group were awarded $1.8 million to renovate three historic structures into 30 market-rate housing units and approximately 7,000 square feet of street-level commercial space.

Elsewhere, the City of Hamilton will see more than $800,000 go towards the renovation of the 126-year-old Hamilton Journal-News Building, which will become the home of Butler Tech’s School for the Arts and Hamilton City Schools’ Adult Basic & Literacy Education (ABLE) program.

According to ODSA, this round of funding will assist in the rehabilitation of 45 historic buildings throughout the state, and leverage more than $252 million in private investments.

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In Ohio, Columbus and Cincinnati exceed national average for college graduates

In Ohio, Columbus and Cincinnati exceed national average for college graduates.

As the economy of the United States continues to become more knowledge-based, it is important to have a well-educated work force. The new data, released by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows that Columbus (32.9%) and Cincinnati (29.6%) come in above the national average (28.5%) when it comes to the percent of individuals who are 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree. More from The Business Journals:

The U.S. Census Bureau, which keeps track of everybody’s progress, has just issued its latest update on educational attainment. These are its estimates for the 206.5 million Americans who were 25 or older as of last year. 177.4 million (85.9 percent) hold high school diplomas, and 58.9 million (28.5 percent) also hold bachelor’s degrees…It’s common to find areas where at least 90 percent of all adults have high school diplomas.

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What issues facing cities are you hoping to hear discussed at tonight’s presidential debate?

What issues facing cities are you hoping to hear discussed at tonight’s presidential debate?.

The second of three planned presidential debates for the 2012 Election is scheduled for this evening. This debate will have a “town hall” format and will take place from 9pm to 10:30pm. One item that was not mentioned once by either Governor Romney (R) or President Obama (D) in the first debate was cities. Cities are where abstract issues debated at the national level, meet reality. Things like health care, education, gun control, infrastructure, immigration, budgets, and voting rights all must be faced at the local level, with no one else to pass the issue along to.

So with that said, which issue facing cities would you like to hear the presidential candidates address this evening in New York? More from Forbes:

Here’s hoping tonight’s debate format will shake things up a bit. The “town hall” style brings in actual real people who offer us the best chance yet of introducing some new topics into the conversation. And there are a lot of them. Immigration, the drug war, privacy, drone strikes, sanctioned assignation, to name just a few. To get a jump start, we reached out to Forbes’ million-plus followers and asked them what they want the candidates to debate tonight. We’ve already got some great responses at #Prezquestions – delivered with the kind of no-BS bluntness we hope those lucky enough to get to ask questions tonight deliver, too.