Reversing Population Decline

Posted Monday, July 6, 2009

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The U.S. census bureau's new population estimates seem to confirm the conventional wisdom about Greater Cleveland: the population decline is continuing. But other struggling industrial metro regions have managed to turn their declines around. After years of urban flight, Chicago, Philadelphia--even Kalamazoo, Michigan--are seeing a resurgence. Join us Monday morning at 9 to hear the secrets of their successes and the scope of the challenges facing Ohio's cities.

Guests

Mark Salling Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Dick Simpson University of Illinois, Chicago
State Representative Mike Foley (D-14) Chairman of the Ohio House Housing Urban Revitalization Committee
John Talmage President and CEO, Social Compact

Additional Information

Curious about the trends in other U.S. cities? Check out the Plain Dealer's database.
Check out a related conversation thread happening at Facebook.
Did the car companies kill mass transit?

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Matthew Brightman 9:20 AM 7/6/09

The Cleveland region has many positives, but most of them belong to the suburbs. Has far as improving the city and its downtown, look to other Great Lakes cities like Chicago and Milwaukee to draw people here not only to visit, but to find reasons to want to move here.

Mike McDonald 9:22 AM 7/6/09

Thanks for the show. Do you have any proof/stats that the migration out of Cleveland more than just the exceptionally poor public schools? Among my friends, I don’t know of anyone who wants to move to a static and homogenized feeling suburb...however, once kids are in the picture there is a sense of moral obligation to move to a better school district. That is how I got to Berea in 2001.

james 9:40 AM 7/6/09

As someone originally from Kalamazoo, I remember that the wealthy there were the Upjohns, Strykers, Gilmores, Fetzers, etc. While the people who funded Kalamazoo Promise have not been publicly identified, it’s reasonable to assume that these names were involved. It would be nice to see Cleveland’s wealthy, like the Lerners, Ratners, Dolans, Lewises and others leave legacies (as did Rockefeller, Wade, Hanna et. al.) and do something like a Cleveland Promise. I wonder if this has even been suggested to them as an idea?