The Levin College of Urban Affairs has been doing a year long series on Our Place in the Urban Age. Tonight’s seminar on Cleveland’s Strategic Investment Initiative (CII) was good brain food, just like the others I have attended.
The first highlight was a little clicker thingy (see I’m not a total geek yet!) that looked like a slim remote. We got one as we entered. Then they asked a series of questions and we clicked on buttons and voila, they could measure how many people in attendance lived in Cleveland, worked in Cleveland, etc. It was fascinating and got the whole ‘anything is possible’ mind expansion thingy going from the start.
Here was the main concept: we have been working with CDC development of neighborhoods for decades. They have done a fabulous job, but because of our shrinking population and job situation, we need a new model that incorporates the old model. As Ben Hecht, CEO of Living Cities said, ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, just have a new model for the CDC to work with.’
Don’t roll your eyes, because as tempted as I was to do so at that point, good stuff followed. The CSII was then explained and with examples. First, CSII took applications from CDC’s and eventually six were picked (they originally were only going to use two but proposals were so good, they expanded to six). Ben Hecht said it had been 7 years or so since he had toured Cleveland neighborhoods and he was pretty darn impressed.
The concept is as follows. A holistic approach to reinventing cities. It’s all based on a concept that is discussed in a book I can’t wait to order: Only the Paranoid Survive, written by Andrew Grove of Intel. The idea is that eventually, every city reaches a critical point called the ‘strategic inflection point.’ Not surprisingly Cleveland is at this point. Thus, CSII.
Vickie Eaton Johnson, one of my favorite people doing good things in Cleveland, gave examples of how the holistic approach is working to help her Fairfax Neighborhoood reinvent itself. She said, the success of a neighborhood development corporation is only as good as the ‘least’ among us we serve. So she went to the ‘gorilla’ of the neighborhood, the Cleveland Clinic, to do just that – connecting neighborhoods to mainstream opportunities. Two examples: The Clinic is working on a Cardiovascular Innovation Center being designed and built in Fairfax. People will come from around the World to work there, and live in Cleveland for a while. This center is being master leased, not owned by the Clinic. The Fairfax CDC is the owner, and profits from the master lease goes back into the community. Second example, she called a ‘what if’ This comes from someone who went to the Fairfax CDC and said, what if we picked five Fairfax residents who would consider nursing as a career if they could ‘swing it’ (I am paraphrasing. There is a nursing shortage, why not go to the community? So the community was canvassed, five candidates selected, who get full tuition, day care provisions for children, the works.
This speaks to the idea that globalization has to not only go out of Cleveland but returns from globalization have to come back in to us.
As a matter of fact the Cleveland Clinic has an External Affairs Officer, Oliver Henkel. He said that the Clinic had a reputation for global dominance for itself but was not giving enough of that excellence back to the community in which they resided.
Jeff Ramsey from the Detroit Shoreway CDC also spoke with examples of CSII. The Gordon Square Arcade Project, which included three theatres, the Battery Park project which includes over 300 housing units, the resource of the Lake and the projected road that will allow residents to walk to the Lakefront from it, all examples of how different aspects work together to reinvent a neighborhood.
The six neighborhoods picked for the CSII project were: Famicos, Slavic Village, Fairfax, Buckeye, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway. What did they all have in common? Cultural, job, natural resource, transportation or housing connections that could all be ‘networked’ to do the neighborhood ‘reinventing.’ All six neighborhoods have anchor projects (like Battery Park or the Shoreway redevelopment.)
These figures will blow your mind, or maybe not. They did mine and gave me hope. This is not just an initiative that is ‘in the works.’ It’s already working, as Bobby Richtell of NPI said, they have been ‘flying under the radar’ but are now ready to come out lol. Private companies, foundations, neighborhood grants, public monies, all are pledged to these six neighborhoods in the amount of 915 million dollars:
Tremont – 41 mil; Slavic Village – 83 mil; Glenville/Wade – 44 mil; Fairfax – 215 mil; and Detroit Shoreway – 412 mil. Go to the links on all these neighborhoods and find out some of the projects already underway.
It makes sense to me, that we stop looking to government to provide all our answers, that we once again reach out to the private sector and ask them to (as I would put it) fulfill their social contract, become a part of the community in which they reside. It happens in a natural fashion at times of course, we all know this. But with good neighborhood planning, great ideas can be born.
Apparently Chicago (with a much different population and economic condition) and Cleveland are the two cities using this ‘Initiative’ approach right now. So I guess all eyes will be on us.
I strongly encourage you all to go to the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs website page that talks about the forums. There are podcasts for each, I am sure within a short time the podcast for tonight’s forum will be there too. Also check out the Forum planned for December 4th. Oh, and btw, another highlight for me was meeting Christine of Really Bad Cleveland Accent there! :-0 Peace Out 3C
Other good sites to browse:
One Economy Corp – cool interactive initiative site
The Cleveland Clinic Gives Back
0 responses so far ↓
1 Christine Borne // Nov 30, 2007 at 11:13 am
Carole- you took really good notes!
Was Ben Hecht quoting Frank Jackson when he said the baby-bathwater thing? (They haven’t put the video online yet; I was going to check.) I remember he said, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – embrace the baby and draw a new bath.” (That sounded like the kind of thing Frank Jackson says….) Anyway, I thought that sentiment summed up the atmosphere in Cleveland pretty well.
2 Carole Cohen // Nov 30, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Ben was pretty inspiring and you could be right about the Jackson quote….you rounded it out well! It was very cool to meet you in person yesterday, Christine
3 Debra Weaver // Nov 30, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I can’t wait to read “Only the Paranoid Survive”, also wanted to say that the ” thingy” that looked like a remote sounds like it is the very cool device created by Turning Technologies in the Youngstown Business Incubator.
I do agree, the cities of Youngtown and Cleveland are at a Stategic Inflection Point, and the fundamental way city governments, organizations and citizens have interacted must change! Opportunities are here, we only have to act on them. Time for a paradigm shift.
4 Carole Cohen // Nov 30, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Hi Debra, Turning Technologies…yes! That is what was written on the outside of the device! I just ordered my copy of the book today. We can compare notes. I am just hoping this paradigm shifting is going to occur in enough areas so we can see some economic difference without waiting for yrs and years. Thanks for your insights!
5 Susan Miller // Dec 1, 2007 at 12:37 am
After the CDC lovefest last night, I googled “strategic inflection point”. Here’s a good chunk and something to think about when it comes to living the fear, listening to the “little guy” or the Cassandra, seeing the point coming (not missing it) and strategy actions not strategy statements. Yesiree!
“There are a variety of tools to use to identify a Strategic Inflection Point. These are empirical observations. One of the empirical observations with companies that are dealing with Strategic Inflection Points, or are in the middle of them, is that there is a growing divergence, a dissonance if you will, between the strategy statements of those companies and the strategy actions. Which of those two adapts to the new realities first? It is strategic actions. Because strategic actions are driven by the competition, driven by the sales force, driven by the sheer necessity of winning business in the marketplace day in and day out. It is a long way before the collection of those strategy actions ends up into the reformulation of what the corporation says it is about.
We have a phrase inside Intel. We are supposed to be a data driven company and the phrase is, “Don’t argue with the emotions, argue with the data.” And I’m going to say you have to argue with the data at times like this because the data that deal with your business are pertinent to your past, and don’t say anything about your future. And the Strategic Inflection Point is a minor activity at present growing in the future and you will never find it in data.
So people who believe that you are dealing with Strategic Inflection Points collide with people who count on winning their argument in these debates based on actual data, and it is like arguing that the change that you are dealing with that is going to transform our future — the future of the company — is not real because it wasn’t in the past. This is when you see divergence. Our very key phenomenon that has to take place in resolving the Strategic Inflection Point debate between members of management, technologists, and members of the sales force is that very often, because these are not data driven observations, they tend to become emotional arguments. It is extremely important to be able to listen to the people who bring you bad news and who are typically divided.
In the system that I described to you, these people tend to be lower level people. They have to bring you bad news and be Cassandras against the senior management, against the fear of management of repercussions. Unless you deal with this fear, unless you live this fear you will never hear from those helpful Cassandras and you are going to be late in responding to the Strategic Inflection Points.
In dealing with strategic dissonance in dealing with the growing divergent strategies and coping with the phenomenon that every corporation has to deal with, you really go through the stages of grieving. Going from denial, which is the most prominent of all the stages, to various behaviors, to finally acceptance. And once you reach acceptance, action, whether it’s sufficient or effective or not, is about to follow.
And it is the very key in all of this to strive toward making these changes as fast as possible because time is your ally. And in turn, your enemy in the world adjusts to the new conditions, and you’re going to become a late mover by, for instance, being stuck in the denial stage too long.”
Academy of Management, Annual Meeting
Andrew S. Grove
Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation
San Diego, Calif.
August 9, 1998
6 Carole Cohen // Dec 1, 2007 at 1:08 am
Susan I really appreciate that excerpt. It makes me think of the word stagnation, resistance to change, all the old movies about ‘yes men’ and how they drove companies…..how easy it is to transfer all of this to a governmental scenario too, no? Fascinating.
You know I have to say, Vickie Eaton is the one person in the City who impresses me the most. She obviously is comfortable enough with herself to surround herself and seemingly demand creative thinking – not stagnation. I hope we get more of that. Thank you again!
7 John Ettorre // Dec 1, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Darn, Carole, I almost made it down to this. I knew it would be interesting, and judging by your report, it certainly was. Thanks for the overview.
8 Carole Cohen // Dec 1, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Hey John, it would be great to meet you at one of these affairs, and I bet it will happen! For you, and everyone else, I’m going to add a link here that takes you directly to the page where the video will be (it’s still not there now).
http://urban.csuohio.edu/forum/events.shtml
9 John Ettorre // Dec 2, 2007 at 8:43 am
Thanks. That’s the next best thing to being there.
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