BOARDMAN Speaker praises region's strengths

This region is a desirable place to live and work, an urban planner says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Northeast Ohio must proclaim its many strengths as a region to attract new business development, a prominent city planner told an audience of about 250 business and community leaders.
"We, as a whole, have strengths in manufacturing. We make things, and we apply technology to making things," said Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University. The 19-county region must position itself as "a globally competitive place, within which the Mahoning Valley plays a very important role," he said.
Morrison was the keynote speaker Wednesday night for the 56th annual meeting of the Industrial Information Institute for Education at Mr. Anthony's.
The institute, which functions as a partnership between business and education, is "a real platform on which to build responses to a very dynamic and changing global economy," he said.
More than 6,000 pupils and educators from 63 local school districts participated in the institute's economic and science education and career development programs this past year. The institute is housed within YSU's Center for Urban and Regional Studies.
Transport system, education
"We have a very unique and robust logistics system. We can transport things," he said, noting the region's highway, rail and air transport network. "We also have a very robust health-care structure,'' he said.
The area also has "a very strong, though somewhat underappreciated" higher education system, with four state universities and a network of community colleges and private universities, he added. Together, they can sell Northeast Ohio as a desirable place to study and "to stay and innovate and create wealth," he said.
The area also features "a very unique natural landscape," with some 800 miles of rivers, including the Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Grand and Black rivers, and the Lake Erie shoreline, which have water supply and recreational value. It also features many notable cultural assets, such as art museums, symphonies and theaters.
"These are things that we ought to be looking to build a future on," Morrison observed. "There are a lot of good fundamentals. We need to promote those. We need to tell that story, and we need to build on those."
Contributions to Cleveland
As director of the Cleveland City Planning Commission, Morrison was responsible for Civic Vision 2000, a $3 million initiative that updated that city's downtown plan, citywide plan and zoning code. The department also was responsible for drawing up development plans for the North Coast Harbor District, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the new Cleveland Browns Stadium.
During the program, Michael T. Heher, institute president, eulogized Eileen Bodendorfer, the institute's director since 1993, who died Jan. 22.
"We have lost a friend and colleague who worked tirelessly to make sure these educational programs were successful and benefited the students and teachers of the Mahoning and Shenango valleys," Heher said.
Morrison described her as "very quiet, but very remarkably able to mobilize people."
"She will be fondly remembered. She worked for children, for educators, for the community," said Dr. Marie A. Pavlicko, supervisor for career development at the Mahonng County Career and Technical Center.
Dr. David Sweet, YSU president, called Bodendorfer a hard-working, dedicated person who'd be remembered by local teachers for coordinating "outstanding programs that increased their knowledge of economics and science and enhanced the kind of teaching that goes on in our classrooms throughout the region."