Jay Yoo

Cleveland will only change when we have enough people who are not from here move to the region.  Why?  More people who are not from Cleveland love it than people born and raised here.  Seems like pretty simple math to me.  What is one of the fastest ways to make this happen?  I would think Cleveland’s Convention and Visitors Bureau (Positively Cleveland) would want to play a part in this.  Unfortunately, they do not seem to be doing the job.  If they were, then why the hell does it sound like we are still talking about a Quiet Crisis?

So I posed this idea to my wife last night: Cleveland hotels should be near 100% capacity year round to show we are getting enough new people to the city and region.  She thinks I’m crazy.   I think not having a bold goal like this is crazy.  What’s it going to take?  We shall see.

I have been following the Changing Gears commentary on what it is going to take to bring about “transformation” in the rust belt (Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago). To me it sounds like a rebirth of the “Quiet Crisis” as the conclusions and conversations are nearly identical.

In all honesty, there are a lot more great things going on in Cleveland simply based on the the growing number of start-ups and efforts to support them. However, the painful truth is that Cleveland is not changing fast enough and more needs to be done; everything that was talked about 10 years ago! The magic bullet to really get things going would be a billionaire with vision, who could cut through all the crap and invest bukoo to make the right things happen. Until then, we can continued to make small incremental improvements and continue to “get things done.”

The Changing Gears commentary did remind me of a conversation I had with an Indian entrepreneur living in Indonesia on how he liked Indonesia compared to his motherland. His answer was simple: “I like Indonesia because when I bribe someone, something gets done.” In other words, when he bribed someone in India, nothing happened; they just took the money.

He gave me a funny example of a time when he was pulled over by a police officer for speeding on the way to the airport. He was late for a flight which he quickly explained to the police officer, then gave him $100. The officer took the money, got on his motorcycle and gave him a high speed police escort to the airport!

I am certainly not condoning bribery or corruption, but it was a topic on Changing Gears. Some people calling in from Chicago actually said corruption helped to get things done. In the next 10 years when someone asks why I live in Cleveland, I simply want to say because things get done (without the corruption).

Check out this great plug for Cleveland and the Browns in the WSJ.  What a stark contrast this is from Cleveland being ranked the #1 most miserable city in the US.  We can all be proud of how the Browns played yesterday.  They were creative, electric and damn strong.  Well done!  

Perhaps what is more encouraging is how people in Cleveland are feeling and some of the things that are happening off the radar screen.  One person I know, who last year was as low as one could be about the local economy, has done an about-face; now he is bullish on the scene downtown and expressed a completely different (optimistic) outlook on where Cleveland is going.  As a sign of things to come, he is opening a store in Tower City.  This is truly amazing considering he declared the location dead 12 months ago.

All the investments Cleveland is making from broadband Internet initiatives to the Euclid corridor project are paying off.  Importantly, there are a lot of new, budding start-ups and entrepreneurs breaking the old, corporate culture that stifled innovation and creativity just 5 years ago.

The way the Browns played yesterday is a sign of great things to come and a model for how to “be.”

It’s a good time to be in Cleveland.  Keep it up all!