By Hudson Mayor William A. Currin
(originally from Hudson Life Magazine, March 2007)

On January 2, the Cleveland Plain Dealer featured an editorial entitled: “A bold goal.” The editorial was written by editorial staff member Becky Gaylord. Ms. Gaylord attended the Northeast Ohio Mayor’s & City Managers Association Leadership Forum on December 15. The focus of the forum was “Regional Pursuit of Economic Development.” It was well attended with mayors, city managers, and/or representatives from the cities within the thirteen counties that make up Northeastern Ohio. The keynote speaker was Myron Orfield, a nationally-recognized expert and one of the original architects of the seven-county Minneapolis/St. Paul regional economic development program. Mr. Orfield’s presentation was enlightening, powerful, meaningful, and shed a ray of hope for the future economic vibrancy for all of Northeast Ohio…if we work together!

Work together…what does that mean? For the Minneapolis/St. Paul seven-county regional area it meant, 30 years ago, collaborating together to pass legislation that ended regional business poaching, excessive tax abatement, and enabled meaningful cooperation. They entered into a new approach of collaborative marketing, regional land use, water, and sewer planning, some tax sharing, and infrastructure development (to name just a few aspects of their ground breaking effort).

Thirty years ago the Minneapolis/St. Paul area was in the throws of severe economic decay. They were losing population, their main industries were closing down or moving away, their cities and towns were competing with one another, the cost of doing business had sky rocketed, and the weather was not improving. Sound familiar?

Today, the Minneapolis/St. Paul area is thriving! They have come from 14th to 4th nationally in per family income. The unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country, their job growth exceeds most other regions in the United States (especially any other region in the Midwest), and last year the annual tax sharing pool totaled $580 million. Those are monies that are spent toward building commercial infrastructure, providing business incubators, job training, joint economic development and regional marketing. There were 192 communities thirty years ago, there are 192 communities today. Together they have built on their region's strengths and reduced their weaknesses. Every city, town, and/or community has benefited from their collaborative effort they call the “Minneapolis/St. Paul Regional Economic Development Program.” They have saved an estimated $29 billion in unnecessary infrastructure costs due to sprawl.

Talk about reduced cost of government; this is an excellent example. In my opinion there is no reason, let me repeat that, “no reason” we can’t and shouldn’t pursue that same level of cooperative collaboration. The Northeast Ohio Mayors & City Managers Association has as one of its six goals: “Bringing better value to the membership with an improved understanding of the concept of regionalization through shared programs/services and shared benefits.” As the current chairman of the association it is incumbent upon me to help support and expand the consciences that our local municipal leaders have come to embrace, Regional Economic Development Cooperation. To that end, the association has set “A Bold Goal” of attempting to develop a plan and/or program for smart, sustainable, and appropriate regional economic development. The hope is to have a plan/program in place by the beginning of next year.

Hudson is not an island and never has been — everything that happens in Northeast Ohio, in some way, affects Hudson. We are already living a regional approach with the fact that the majority of Hudson residents work outside of Hudson. Hudson is blessed with outstanding, well educated, highly engaged citizens. They are well traveled and know, for the most part, what is going on around the country, and they know that Northeast Ohio is one of the greatest places to live, work, and play. Everyone has their own reasons for remaining in this wonderful area, one of the least of which is our reasonable cost of living and our fabulous local/regional amenities. We must reach out and do our part in the revitalization of Northeastern Ohio. Our future and the future of the region we love must depend on us “Sharing the Vision and Becoming Part of the Solution!”