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I’ve been fairly reserved in my judgment of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.  Effective for his constituents as a councilman, calculating as the council president and underwhelming in his campaign for his current job, Jackson’s term as mayor reflects his personality.  He’s a man of few words and quiet passions.  Mayor Jackson has done little to disappoint or surprise me as the leader of the city, and his recent plan to revitalize Cleveland only further reinforces this view.

Jackson’s plan entitled “Connecting Cleveland 2020 Citywide Plan” reads like a council president’s outline for how to make the city better.  In many ways it looks like a rehash of Jackson’s 2004 proposal in which Jackson (President of City Council at the time) presented then Mayor Jane Campbell with a list of 21 economic development projects that he claimed would move the city forward.  This new plan is like old Coke repackaged for a new generation.  He relies on old standards like a new convention center and redeveloping Burke Lakefront Airport as big ideas and then microfocuses down to the city’s 36 neighborhoods as locales for economic development rationale.

The plan does have some redeeming qualities.  Its recognition that improving the quality of life for city residents is as much an economic development engine as working (and failing) to lure large companies/employers says that our city’s leader may be getting wiser.   The idea that inspiring local residents to take entreprenurial steps and stay here to build their businesses is a 21st century idea - let’s hope he runs with it.

On the downside though is the continual propping up of a new convention center as a silver bullet (even though Jackson has said it’s not a silver bullet, it always seems to be “a part of our economic development strategy”).  I just don’t understand how spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a dying industry (especially without the necessary convention/tourist industry supports - ie. hotels, attractions, entertainment, transportation, city connectivity) is a prescription for success.  Ideas like these are why Flint, Michigan with the help of “Roger and Me” became Michael Moore’s ticket to mockumentary fame.

Added to the convention center myopia is the complete lack of fortitude when it comes to the future use for Burke.  Only in Cleveland would someone suggest taking the most contiguously developable piece of waterfront land in the United States and using it for an industrial park - I can see the ads in Crains right now: “beautiful lakefront views from every truck dock”. 

Come on people.  If you want a successful convention center, couple it with an hotel-oriented entertainment district.  Find a way to bring gambling (meaning craft an approach that goes beyond lining the pockets of a select few in perpetuity so that people will actually vote for it) to Ohio’s north shore, and give the Burke land to a couple of casino developers in exchange for their construction of a connected convention center and boardwalk with marina.

Jackson’s convention center and Burke plans are a cop-out.  Thinly spreading the seeds of development to every corner of the city ignores the need to lead with big ideas.  Let council president Martin Sweeney worry about the trees, it’s the mayor’s job to tend to the forest.

UPDATE

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to join Meet The Bloggers for a conversation with Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis - I’ll touch on the conversation in another post, but Jim relayed some information about a program in the aforementioned Flint, Michigan that indicates the leaders in Genesee County where Flint is located are doing some really interesting work with abandoned and forfeited properties.  Maybe we should take Flint’s lead…