Look past today’s numbers toward a brighter future

Look past today’s numbers toward a brighter future

There’s something to be remembered about listings such as that compiled by MarketWatch and released last week showing the Youngstown-Warren area as the “worst” city for business in the nation.

The list represents little more than a snapshot of various areas of the country as seen through a filter designed by MarketWatch to fill space. Presumably people studying an isolated set of statistics are in a position to divine the potential of an area without ever actually spending any time in the area.

It’s hardly an original idea. In June, Forbes magazine did something similar when it put out a list of the “top 10 fastest-dying cities in the U.S. based on U.S. Census data.

Which is not to say that our area should take any perverse pride in being low man on the MarketWatch totem pole. These kind of lists do get read by people, and they become part of the national consciousness, They add to or subtract from the image that people use to define an area.

Response needed

So for that reason, if no other, it is important to respond to the MarketWatch survey and its ilk.

First, let’s understand what the MarketWatch rating wasn’t; it wasn’t a predictor of any area’s potential to attract new business. In some ways, it could be argued, it may be the opposite.

There was a day, when the Mahoning Valley was one of the largest steel producers in the nation — and home, not only to basic steel firms, but to manufacturers of steel mills for the world, to fabricators, office furniture makers, the Packard Electric world headquarters — that the Valley would have done very well on MarketWatch’s lists. It would have been among the Top 10, not the Worst 10.

No area knows better than the Mahoning Valley how things can change. Change can be quick, as in the collapse of steel making in the area, or gradual, as manufacturing shifts from the United States to foreign countries. Building or rebuilding, however, is more about dedication and patience than drama.

New Orleans can be devastated by a hurricane or a Worchester, Mass., can see its mill business decay, and both find themselves among the worst. But Des Moines, Iowa, got to the top of the “best” list by slowly and surely building on its strengths. Two of its strengths it had when it began its build-up are shared by the Mahoning Valley.

One, location. Des Moines is located on Interstate 80 at the intersection of Interstate 35. The Mahoning Valley is at the crossing point of Interstates 80 and 76, and within 35 or 40 miles from Interstates 79 and 71. It sits midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, as well as between New York and Chicago.

Two: space. Des Moines had wide open spaces in which to expand. The Mahoning Valley has a combination of brownfield and green sites, and it has an infrastructure, some of it admittedly aging, that can support far more industry and far more housing than we have.

Saturation points

Several of the “best” areas cited by MarketWatch meet the criteria of having a strong business presence, but their markets are arguably at or near saturation. Homes that cost $500,000 there would cost $150,000 here. Commutes that take an hour there take 10 or 15 minutes here. It takes no longer to go to a football game from here to Pittsburgh or Cleveland than it does for someone in Boston (one of the top 10) to get to a Patriots game (and a lot less time to get out of the stadium and home).

There is no question that based on the criteria used by MarketWatch for this particular list, the Mahoning Valley is hurting. But there is every reason to believe that the Valley has the potential of slowly climbing from the ranks of the bottom toward the top. And the optimists among us — those who see what the business incubators have down in downtown Youngstown, who anticipate what the coming incubator could do in Warren, who see growing collaboration between businesses and a strong university system in Northeast Ohio and who believe that the entire Great Lakes area has enormous potential for regrowth — believe the upward climb has begun.