I know this blog is about Pittsburgh, but I think it's important to build more regional awareness and draw on some of the positive things happening not far away.
The mayor of Youngstown was on c-span talking about how his city is doing and hinted at a big announcement which was followed a few hours later by the news that a large LA based firm would be opening a call center in Downtown Youngstown that may soon employ 500 or more people.
It's only a call center an area known to be easy come and easy go, but still the size of the move is impressive and when put in context even more so. Youngstown will soon have, I think three full buildings downtown full of small start up stage companies in areas like business software development and information outsourcing.
"To hear Mayor Jay tell it, the fact that Youngstown was just named this month by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the top 10 cities in the U.S. to start a business verified the decision to expand their operations to Youngstown.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday restated the fact Youngstown was named one of the top 10 cities in the U.S. to start a business."
Also, not too far to the east is the Cranberry home of Westinghouse, a firm looking to hire at least 700 people to fill it's large Nuclear Reactor backlog.
Can Youngstown build on this and will some of these people choose to live nearby in Youngstown itself? Stiil many challenges ahead.
Showing posts with label Entrepreneur Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entrepreneur Magazine. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Youngstown Ohio Ranked By Entrepreneur Magazine As A Top City For Entrepreneurs
This post falls in to the "chaos" section of topics and is not directly about art.
Pittsburgh has been getting a lot of buzz from clueless national media who have "discovered" the city because of the G20 summit.
Hello-- Pittsburgh has had-- major leading universities
Leading medical institutions
Nationally known cultural institutions
A large number Of major corporate headquarters (once number three in the nation)
Lot's Of major charitable foundations
Many wonderful parks
A very historic and beautiful housing stock
A major airport
So, It's hardly news that Pittsburgh is now finally doing sort of OK--- the real question is what the hell took it so long. Few small cities have combined assets like these with poor economic growth.
Now, if you want to talk about a place left with a bag of lemons, it's Youngstown Ohio.
No national airport
Little known
Never home to many major corporate headquarters (and almost all of them are long dead)
Horrific industrial brownfield issues
No major foundation money
No major research universities
In state with poor political and economic climate
NO Pittsburgh Steelers!
So it's news that-- little Youngstown is on the map for it's small but thriving mix of business start ups.
"But in the last decade, something special has happened in this northeast Ohio city. Jim Cossler and his innovative Youngstown Business Incubator, which offers fledgling B2B software companies mentors, networking and services like office space and bandwidth for free or at a deferred cost, are taking Youngstown’s business future into their own hands. The incubator concept was revolutionary enough to help ignite a renaissance in this small city. “Youngstown fell so far, traditional community leaders threw up their hands and told the younger generation, ‘You guys try,’” Cossler says. “The new generation is envisioning things we wouldn’t have talked about 10 years ago.”
Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/august/202666-9.html#ixzz0M7qNTJPw
By the way-- one could have guessed that something special was going on there by the proliferation of local blogs eager to Shout About Youngstown.
Pittsburgh has been getting a lot of buzz from clueless national media who have "discovered" the city because of the G20 summit.
Hello-- Pittsburgh has had-- major leading universities
Leading medical institutions
Nationally known cultural institutions
A large number Of major corporate headquarters (once number three in the nation)
Lot's Of major charitable foundations
Many wonderful parks
A very historic and beautiful housing stock
A major airport
So, It's hardly news that Pittsburgh is now finally doing sort of OK--- the real question is what the hell took it so long. Few small cities have combined assets like these with poor economic growth.
Now, if you want to talk about a place left with a bag of lemons, it's Youngstown Ohio.
No national airport
Little known
Never home to many major corporate headquarters (and almost all of them are long dead)
Horrific industrial brownfield issues
No major foundation money
No major research universities
In state with poor political and economic climate
NO Pittsburgh Steelers!
So it's news that-- little Youngstown is on the map for it's small but thriving mix of business start ups.
"But in the last decade, something special has happened in this northeast Ohio city. Jim Cossler and his innovative Youngstown Business Incubator, which offers fledgling B2B software companies mentors, networking and services like office space and bandwidth for free or at a deferred cost, are taking Youngstown’s business future into their own hands. The incubator concept was revolutionary enough to help ignite a renaissance in this small city. “Youngstown fell so far, traditional community leaders threw up their hands and told the younger generation, ‘You guys try,’” Cossler says. “The new generation is envisioning things we wouldn’t have talked about 10 years ago.”
Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/august/202666-9.html#ixzz0M7qNTJPw
By the way-- one could have guessed that something special was going on there by the proliferation of local blogs eager to Shout About Youngstown.
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