Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Investing In The Middle: A New Approach To Deliver On The Promise Of Equitable Neighborhood Development, Molly Schnoke, Shannon Driscoll, Madeline Frantz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University, through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Policies for Action Grant, has been conducting research into middle neighborhoods. As part of its ongoing research, the Center organized the Investing in the Middle forum to present the work the team has done and gain insight into policy and best practices from members of the community. The workshop took place on November 20, 2022 at the Cleveland State University Levin College of Public Affairs and Education.

Strategies For Financing Efficiency In District Energy Systems, Andrew R. Thomas, Jack Kunath, Mark Henning

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Efforts to educate district energy users about energy efficiency have lagged those for electricity users. CSU surveyed district energy users in Cleveland, Ohio to ascertain their knowledge of and interest in energy efficiency programs. Most end users have a general knowledge about the sorts of technologies that are available, however do not understand their value, nor how to go about getting efficiency financed. The survey identified levels of interest that exist for adoption for various energy efficiency strategies as well as the preferred strategies for financing. It also identified where the most education is needed to create interest in adopting …

An Examination Of Incentive Programs To Attract Remote Workers, Molly Schnoke, Jack Yochum, Madeline Frantz, Georgina Figueroa

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the nature of work for many Americans, and the use of these attraction programs escalated quickly. Remote work attraction has quickly become a valuable strategy for municipalities aiming to bolster and target their economic development. The rise of this tool, with its focus on individual community investment rather than traditional models of employer attraction or workforce development, has the potential to reshape economic development policy at the local level. This brief explores the nature of these programs: where they are, what they offer, their conditions, and their early indicators of success.

In order to …

Innovation Policy Landscape: Federal And State Innovation Policies And Programs Across The United States, Iryna Lendel, Shannon Driscoll

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The study reviews state science and innovation policies across the United States. This research informs the state of Ohio innovation initiatives on the landscape of science and innovation federal and statewide policies in other states, highlights similarities and differences of the policies, and develops a typology of the policies. Special attention is given to the group of benchmark states for Ohio. The research was presented to JobsOhio and other attendees at the CIPPO conference on July 13, 2022.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Ohio's Supply Chain, Iryna Lendel, Iryna Demko, Georgina Figueroa, Matthew Saneda

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This study examines the changes in four of Ohio’s economic sectors from 2019 to 2020 in order to analyze the effect of COVID-19 Ohio supply chains. Through this analysis, our goal is to identify changes during the pandemic and determine future growth opportunities in Ohio’s supply chain. The four sectors chosen to be studied are High Tech and Innovation, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Health Care. Each of these four sectors includes several industries; High Tech and Innovation includes 6, Agriculture includes 19, Manufacturing includes 328, and Health Care includes 10.

To best understand the overall changes in the sectors from 2019 …

Aspirational Industries For Workforce Development In Youngstown, Iryna Lendel, Iryna Demko, Scott Corsi, Madeline Frantz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Youngstown faces a transforming economy, contributing to a growing workforce gap in the region as legacy industries invest in advanced technologies requiring new and increasingly specialized skills. This report identifies Youngstown industries that provide opportunities for workforce development through analysis of regional wage and productivity trends between 2019 and 2020, as well as an examination of regional competitive advantage using shift share analysis. We found that seven of the region’s forty-seven economic base and aspirational industries demonstrated strength in all three areas of analysis, with strong representation from within the manufacturing sector and related industries like construction suppliers and equipment …

The Economic Evolution Of Cuyahoga County, Richey Piiparinen, Joshua Valdez, Jim Russell

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Cleveland’s progress can be intimated through a variety of topics. Some topics—like “globalization,” “innovation,”, “deindustrialization”, and “pandemic”—seem big and distant, while others are less abstract and more local, such as “jobs,” “income,” “housing,” “policing”, “education,” and “health”. Then there are some topics that are viscerally personal, if only because the direct impact they have on the mind and body. These include “foreclosure,” “lead,” “infant mortality,” “opioids,” “police brutality”, and “pneumonia”.

While these issues are of topical concern in their own right, their vastness in scope can be disorienting to those charged with guiding progress. No doubt, a multitude of efforts …

Moving Cleveland Above The Trend: Polarization, Iryna Lendel, Molly Schnoke, Frantz Madeline

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

The Potential Impacts Of Working From Home On Post Covid-19 Municipal Wage Tax Revenues In Ohio, Bob Gleeson, Joseph Andre

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Every nation evolves its own complex system to collect taxes to finance government operations. No two systems are exactly alike. Each is embedded in a unique blend of historical, cultural, economic, and political factors at the national, sub-national, and local levels. All adjust themselves continuously to changes that occur in their internal and external environments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major disruptive external shock to the status quo of every tax system throughout the world. Most systems responded to the crisis with short-term measures designed to reduce uncertainty and to maintain as much flow of tax revenues as possible. …

Resource Gaps For Minority Entrepreneurs: Toledo Business Survey And Interviews Findings, Iryna Lendel, Jack Yochum, Madeline Frantz, Georgina Figueroa

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This publication details the state of Toledo’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (EE) through the lenses of service providers and clients. The Center conducted a total of 12 interviews with service providers across the Toledo EE to uncover the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in the services the Business Growth Collaborative (BGC) provided. We combined this with survey responses from entrepreneurs in the region to identify how their perceptions of the EE were consistent with and differentiated from those of the service providers. This report closes by providing actionable items for the BGC to pursue that directly address the gaps in support.

The Nasa John H. Glenn Research Center: An Economic Impact Study Fiscal Year 2021, Iryna Lendel, Georgina Guadalupe Figueroa

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center, located in Cleveland and Sandusky, Ohio, continues to create vast economic benefits within the regional economies of Northeast Ohio and Ohio by employing local labor, paying high wages to their employees who spend most of their income locally, engaging local contractors, and collaborating with local higher education institutions, providing them with research grants and contracts. This study uses a multi-regional input-output (I-O) model to estimate the effect of NASA Glenn Research Center's spending on the economies of Northeast Ohio and Ohio. For the total economic impact in the state of Ohio in 2021, …

Measuring The Economic Impact Of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (Esops) On Ohio, Michael Palmieri, Iryna Demko

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This study focuses on Ohio companies with an Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) - the most common form of employee ownership in the U.S. Literature on the positive impacts of employee ownership at the individual and company level has grown in recent decades finding that individual employee-owners have longer tenure, more household wealth, higher wages, larger retirement accounts, and opportunities to participate in company decisions. At the company level research finds that employee-owned companies perform better than conventional companies on several performance metrics including overall survival rates, productivity, employment growth, and sales. Findings from both individual and company level studies …

Cleveland’S Talent Landscape, Richey Piiparinen

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The term “brain drain” implies a region’s talent pool fading out, with the “best and brightest” leaving for greener pastures. Plugging the brain drain has become a cottage industry for consultants and non-profits alike. It is arguably the modus operandi of the new Cleveland Talent Alliance, a consortium of economic development agencies whose goal is to grow the region’s talent pool. “It’s important we measure progress and not just activity,” explains one of its leaders .

Measuring progress entails getting a baseline. This Levin Policy Brief—the third in a running series—investigates. The first brief examined Cleveland’s potential to be a …

Shale Investment Dashboard In Ohio Q1 And Q2 2021, Andrew R. Thomas, Mark Henning, Samuel Owusu-Agyemang, Khadija Shabbiri

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents findings from an investigation into shale-related investment in Ohio, looking at up, mid and downstream activities. The investment estimates are from January through June of 2021. The report also includes an estimate of cumulative investment in shale in Ohio from 2012 through June 2021. Prior biannual investments are included in previously posted reports that are available from Cleveland State University.

Energy Storage Roadmap For Northern Appalachia 2022, Mark Henning, Andrew R. Thomas, Rob Moore

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Northern Appalachian counties (Western PA, Eastern OH and West Virginia) have legacy energy industry engineering, workforce and research advantages that have made the region a prime location for the development of energy storage manufacturing and deployment. Already over 200 private companies are engaged in the energy storage business regionally. Further assets include the many research universities and laboratories in the region, together with a low cost of living compared to other energy storage clusters. The study identifies the energy storage industry assets and explores strategies for cluster development in Northern Appalachia.

How A County Utility Can Catalyze The 21st Century Economy: Cuyahoga County’S Vision To Develop Clean And Resilient Energy Districts To Attract And Retain Commercial Activity, Andrew R. Thomas, Mike Foley, Mark Henning

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability and the Cleveland State University Energy Policy Center have for the past several years been researching strategies for development of clean, highly resilient commercial districts in Cuyahoga County. In the fall of 2021, the County created a new utility division for the purpose of developing such districts, with the goal of attracting and retaining commercial activity. This paper summarizes the vision of the County as it moves forward with this innovative strategy to develop microgrids and other 21^st century infrastructure that will attract business to the County.

Where Deaths Are Increasing The Fastest In The U.S., Richey Piiparinen

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The findings show that Ohio and Cuyahoga County perform poorly when it comes to mortality rate. Ohio had the 9^th highest mortality rate in the nation in 2021. Ohio also had the 8^th highest increase in mortality rate from 2019 to 2021. For large counties, Cuyahoga County had the 3^rd highest mortality rate in 2021. A few avenues are explored as to why.

Federal Assistance To Youngstown: Evidence From The Paycheck Protection Program, Iryna Demko, Georgina Guadalupe Figueroa,

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This presentation examines trends in federal assistance to Youngstown businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in 2020 and 2021. During this time, the Youngstown region received 13,061 PPP loans totaling $1 billion, reaching at least one small business in every Youngstown’s zip code. Most approved loans covered employees’ wages, helping to keep 130,170 workers on payroll during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, PPP loans reached smaller businesses, with an average of 5 employees per business, compared to 17 employees in 2020.

An Empirical Review Of The Paycheck Protection Program - Congressional Testimony, Iryna Demko

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Dr. Iryna Demko, Research Associate at the Center for Economic Development, testified at the hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business on the Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been one of the largest economic stimulus programs in U.S. history. In 2020 and 2021, the SBA disbursed over $800 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to help small businesses keep their employees on payroll during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Developing A Hydrogen Economy In Ohio: Challenges And Opportunities, Mark Henning, Andrew R. Thomas, Peter Psarras, Michael Triozzi

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Ohio is positioned to be a leader in the developing hydrogen economy in the coming years. Ohio is already a national leader in industrial and transportation hydrogen markets, and power generation markets for hydrogen are developing. Ohio projects to need between 2-3 million metric tons of hydrogen per year by 2050. To meet this demand, low cost natural gas from nearby Appalachian shale fields will likely be the principal source of hydrogen generation for the next 30 years. This would be true even if Ohio were to repurpose half of its carbon-free power generation to making hydrogen -- which it …

Covid-19 Impact On The Economic Vitality Index Of Ohio’S 88 Counties, Iryna Lendel, Georgina Guadalupe Figueroa, Iryna Demko, Jack Yochum

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This brief illustrates the results of the updated 2020 Economic Vitality Index (EVI) to understand the overall economic impact of the pandemic, including the role of the economic stimuli and related policy responses. This update of the 2019 EVI shows how Ohio’s 88 counties have been affected by COVID-19.

Can Cleveland Be A Hub Of Healthcare Worker Training?, Richey Piiparinen

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

It’s well established that Cleveland’s healthcare industry has transformed its regional economy. This Levin Policy Brief goes beyond looking at how Cleveland’s healthcare industry brings outside money into the region through the export of healthcare services and begins to sketch a picture of how Cleveland’s higher education system can not only play a supportive role in supplying the local labor market pipeline to area hospital systems, it also examines how Cleveland’s higher ed system itself can scale its exportability by investing in care worker training infrastructure so as to serve labor markets outside the region. This analysis proves that the …