.:thinking beyond your immediate vicinity:.
in the previous post, i talked about my trip back to cincinnati and my general feelings about what i observed while i was there. some comments were made, one of them being an assertion that, while cincinnati doesn’t suck…it could just be better. the same friend that said this also said, ‘…i don’t agree…that the solution is to be more liberal or forward thinking (whatever that means)…’
and so the stage is set for this paticular post. what exactly is forward thinking?
my very general and very strictly opinioned definition of forward thinking is: “being able to think and plan for the future given a particular trend observed today.” in other words, because one is able to observe and absorb events and actions happening now, one can more readily create a (hopefully) unique plan of action for the future.
with that said, let’s further contextualize this conversation by applying this definition to a city. and because i don’t have any other frame of reference, i have to use austin and cincinnati to provide examples of forward/non-forward thinking.
a couple of friends of mine stated things like, ‘i don’t care about the downtown area. the bars can close as far as i’m concerned,’ or, ‘living in a happening city is not a priority.’ and that’s fine. but looking at the big picture, this is a prime example of NOT thinking forward. i’m going to quote myself from a previous post:
“according to the enquirer, more than 7,200 people born between 1966 and 1975 left hamilton county in the 1990s - a nearly 6 percent loss. Only nine of the nation’s 75 largest metro counties lost young people at higher rates. that number continues to increase in the 2000s.”
one of a city’s most important assets is its young. cincinnati wants to be considered a major city, yet it does nothing to help gain population. as a matter of fact, cincinnati is shrinking. again, another quote from a previous post a i made:
“between 2000 and 2005, cincinnati lost almost 23K people. why? there seem to be a lot of general economical factors. there’s a negative job growth (-4%), home/property owners, on average, have lost almost an entire 1% on their investment over the past year, conservative government policies that leads to no action…etc.”
i’m not saying that it’s not a nice place for families. i’m not saying that it’s not ideal for those with less-than-average incomes. i’m not saying that it doesn’t have great parts of town or even decent jobs on the whole. what i AM saying is that in order to remain a major metro area, cincinnati has to make a change. otherwise, there is a whole chain reaction of things that will happen, perhaps not in my lifetime, but it will eventually happen. to summarize, without being able to get young talent into the city, you cannot hope to grow it. without growth and young talent, businesses will eventually start to erode. without businesses, more people lose jobs and leave. without businesses and jobs, tax dollars begin to erode. without tax dollars, a city cannot survive. and while that is definitely an overly-dramatic scenario, it is certainly much more of a possibility in a place like cincinnati than in, say, chicago or indianapolis.
so…i say that you may not care right this moment, that you can live a content life without bars and entertainment and places for ‘ow-boys and woo-girls’ to hang and such…but when planning for the future integrity of a place you consider home, i say that is mistaken thinking.
beyond that, i challenge anybody to tell me how it was a good idea to build giant stadiums on a riverfront with nothing in between them. tell me how it was a good idea to let one of the country’s only five-star dining experiences to simply die out, yet provide a shitty company like convergys millions of dollars in tax breaks. can someone tell me why it was a great idea to put a jumbotron TV down on the square…but not find it wiser to use that money to perhaps help pay an extra police officer’s salary to come and help patrol? how about letting the main street district die after years of progress in building it up?
there are a lot of things that are done right in austin; hence the reason why it continues to be one of the, if not THE, fastest growing cities/city in the US. ironic that it’s in the middle of texas, eh? forward thinking feels like a way of life here. and i readily admit that it’s easier for a place like austin to pull these things off because it is home to a major college (UT), therefore its young population is going to be larger by default.
here are some examples of forward thinking that will attract educated young and old people alike:
1. public transportation: i’ll start off by saying it’s not all that great here. but what is great is the fact that there is a carpool program where the city will actually give you a car if you meet some reasonable criteria, such as you have to have four people. each person pays $30.00 a month for general maintenance and such. there are a few others, but the fact of the matter is that it’s pretty easy to meet the criteria and get on the list. and there is also very serious talk of light rail development.
2. domestic partner laws: you can be legally ‘bound’ and enjoy all of the benefits of being married without being married. this is basically an open invitation to the gay and lesbian population to come in and enjoy the same benefits that ‘regular’ married couples enjoy. a larger gay population is a good thing for a thriving city…
3. beautification laws: there are laws here that do not allow you to cut down, pick, or otherwise harm in anyway wildflowers in certain areas. you can’t cut down certain trees without a permit. even if the tree is on your property, if it meets certain criteria, you are not allowed to cut it down. large businesses in the area that i live in are required to build xxxx # of yards away from the road so that you can still enjoy a frontage of nice looking greenery rather than generic stupid looking storefronts. and i don’t even live IN the city; i live about 20 minutes away.
4. mueller project: they built a new airport here…but what to do with the old one? the city is creating an urban development out of it. big box shops will be as far out away from it as possible while still having to pay into the tax bucket from that general area so that the homes are cheaper to live in. 25% of the homes are being set aside for ‘low income’ families. small businesses are being encouraged to open there as well as have their owners live there. there is a waiting list to live there. craziness!
5. las manitas: a small restaurant in the heart of the downtown area. it has been here since the early 80s. the marriott came in and said they wanted to build in the block where the restaurant was, thereby knocking it down. they fought…and city council fought with them. the restaurant has to move, but more on their terms. the get all kinds of special funding to open the new restaurant and such.
6. alternate transportation: a good deal of people here ride scooters and drive electric cars. not hybrid…electric.
7. consistent city-wide events for all ages to participate in: there are 5ks and 10ks on an almost semi-weekly basis. there’s an event called first thursdays that basically looks like a massive street festival for small businesses and artists.
8. insurance for musicians: it’s available for people who do music full time here. there is a fund raiser for it every year.
9. outdoor friendly: austin got voted 2nd place in the country for ‘most walk friendly’. people are constantly kayaking on town lake. people ride their bikes everywhere.
10. support of small business: there are several major areas of town where small businesses thrive like i’ve never seen before. people enjoy supporting these businesses because they are proud to have them and know that these are the places that make their city cool and unique.
shutting down the street in one of the main entertainment districts: every weekend. if you were to go down to sixth street, you’d see 7-8 blocks worth of various places to hang out and drink/socialize/eat/whatever. it’s packed all the time. every weekend they shut down the street so people can go out and enjoy themselves without having to worry about being plowed over by some asshole who thinks that because he/she is driving, it gives them the right to do whatever they want.
those are just 11 things off the top of my head. i’m sure if i looked i could find much more.
that’s what forward thinking is about.
how do any of these things fix anything? just like the non-forward thinking stuff, it will take time to realize the impact they have. these are all foundational pieces that set the stage for future generations to act upon and truly appreciate.
Nice, Informative. I’m interested in who and how all that stuff is paid for? How’s your property taxes and sales taxes?That’s where we can get to the meat of the issue I think.
AHAH!!! From Wikipedia.
“Austin is one of the largest cities in the country without a franchise in any of the four major sports leagues. “
I generally blame major league sports for everything anyway.
Great Post Andrew.
A quick example of non-forward thinking is cincy’s inability to get behind is surprisingly good music scene. 3 things that come to mind are midpoint, jammin on (main), and desdemona. If memory serves, midpoint is still going on, jammin on faded out, and desdemona was a once and done (i could have the order of the first two backwards, i don’t remember). All of these festivals have(had) the potential to become destination concerts, thereby reviving the city. With a little help and nurturing, it could possibly be another SXSW which would definitely help. But for a trying-to-be-white-collar-city like cincy, they seem to not want that kind of crowd in the area. I went to desdemona which was a great show, too bad i could probably name everyone else that went as well…
How did you not mention the fact that Austin was the site of a season of MTV’s Real World? The tourism revenue to visit the house, puke stains and hangouts from that alone has to be in the billions.
yeah corporations in this town are very clueless about how to “get behind” the music scene. For example. The people I have worked with for the blog i-see-sound were contacted by a fairly significant corporation here (I can’t say specifically cuz I’m still under non-disclosure agreement I think) but the ideas they had on what they wanted to do, told me they were fucking clueless and it was really hard to remain respectful in that big board room. Basically they wanted to sponsor a battle of the bands or some shit as an attempt to reach out to the youth market. That’s all they had as far as ideas. And the bigger kicker was they were asking us for help and guidance. We just do/did a blog cuz we were bored and have zero interest in growing the music scene outside of the bands we like. I have no interest in putting on a music festival or aiding some corporation in getting their banner on the stage. And other ideas I’ve seen for reaching out to the music scene are equally stupid. Like the Gold Star Chili commercials for example.
I’ve come to the conclusion that if the “scene” is to improve at all it won’t be with the aid of the businesses in this town or city council. It will improve through real people that actually give a shit about the “scene”. Those music festivals should also succeed or fail based on the quality of the perspective festivals. I didn’t go to desdemona. Only went to Jammin on main when the acts that were playing were good enough for me to actually put up with the drunk rednecks and the port-a-lets. Midpoint eh…. it was my dream to play that until I actually did. Now I consider it a pain in the ass that is likely necessary to those bands who feel they need exposure.
Cincypunkfest on the other hand has been fantastic and always getting bigger every year. I like it cuz that’s the kind of music I like. It’s not on the scale of MPMF at all, but for one dude organizing it. He does a fantastic job. And there’s where all your youth are going. Adam get’s no help from the city to put that on and he always exceeds his goals for what he contributes to charity every year because attendance keeps going up.
To me that’s the free market of ideas at work.
I think the point is that Cincinnati needs more ways to keep people coming back to the city on a regular basis. Events like Desdemona/Cincypunkfest bring in a relatively small niche of people who then when it’s all said and done, go back to their homes miles out of the city not to be seen again until next year. That’s not going to be Cincinnati’s saving grace.
Anyway, I think that the majority of people who live in greater cincy feel the same about going into the city as they do about getting an anal probe… which IMO totally sucks. That shouldn’t be the norm for any major city. It should be a place that offers people education, arts, entertainment, and a rich cultural experience (and not the kind you get by driving down Vine st). Where else can you get this? The suburbs? Not really… the burbs are so segregated and conservative - it’s no wonder i’ve heard stories about young white kids in greater cincy never seeing a black person in real life until they’re in high school/college… i’m not kidding. Granted, this could happen in any city, but with the incidents/tension that have happened because of race in the past several years in cincy - it’s definitely an example of NOT being forward-thinking. IMO, Cincinnati has a rather backwards way of thinking that just doesn’t agree with me - which is why i moved.
One more thing(for now).. there has been a lot of talk about doing things in Cincy that would improve it, but no action is ever taken. The unfinished light rail, the banks project, the revitalized main st entertainment district… It seems like the city keeps grasping for straws but something always interferes. Why is that? Is it because it’s such a corporate/conservative town that people are afraid of change? It is because there is so much heat coming from minorities (read african americans) that city council is being too careful and trying to not piss anyone off? Is it because the general population could give a shit less? I don’t have an answer… but it’s something to think about…
tom sez “I’m interested in who and how all that stuff is paid for? How’s your property taxes and sales taxes?That’s where we can get to the meat of the issue I think.”
1. property tax, on average in austin, is between 2-3%. and sales tax…
“Austin has 8.25% sales tax. It consists of 6.25% state sales tax plus an additional 1% levied by the city and 1% for Cap Metro. Cities and towns around Austin has the same or lower sales taxes including 8% up the road in Georgetown.”
that might seem high…but it’s offset by a couple of things. first of all, there is no state income tax. nor is there any tax on ‘unprepared food’ (same in cincy, though, i believe). so i think that answers your question for public trans.
2 and 3 don’t really apply to your question. that’s the way it is.
4. read more here about mueller: http://www.muelleraustin.com/livewire/oct06lw.html .. it’s an idea that essentially pays for itself.
5. los manitas: it’s being paid for through something called ‘the business retention program’, and i’m assuming that is being funded by tax dollars.
6. doesn’t apply.
7. 5-10ks: sponsored by corporate sponsors. i’m assuming any police presence is either paid for as extra or is just part of a fund for ’special events’. same with first thursdays.
8. musicians insurance is not paid for by the city. offered through an individual group. read more here: http://www.healthallianceforaustinmusicians.org/news_view.php?newsid=12
9. applies…but that’s a good thing. i don’t think i mind my tax dollars going to making the city better for me to hang out in.
10. tax breaks are provided to small businesses too: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2004/11/08/story8.html
11. don’t know about this one. i’m assuming that its paid for through taxes. again, don’t mind. it’s nice to be able to walk around freely and not worry about cars.
so…what do you think, tom?
Thanks Andrew, I’ll look at stuff a little more in depth later. Reading up on Wiki, I came to the conclusion that the university is pretty active in the city. I’m sure you’ve seen the land rape in Clifton by UC, I would assume they are trying to go in the general direction.
Taxes don’t seem too out of line which is good. But just imagine how much higher your taxes would be if you had to subsidize 2 major league sports teams.
If I had my way honestly The Reds and the Bengals can go somewhere else, and I’d pull all funding for those shitbags and redirect the funds elsewhere.