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What Issue 3 tells us about our region
Sunday, December 03, 2006 Here's what Forest City's Issue 3 -- the gambling initiative -- tells us about Northeast Ohio. NEO as a whole voted against Issue 3 by 49%-51%. Close but no cigars. Downstate, including Hamilton County (the only county that voted for) voted against the issue with landslide proportions (60%-40% aganst). In NEO, Cuyahoga, Medina, and Lake counties (in Greater Cleveland) and Trumbull and Mahoning counties voted for the issue by a respectable 54%-46%. BUT, the rest of NEO voted like downstate, 58%-42% against. Interesting enough, three urbanized counties (with large working class populations) that one would expect to be in favor (Summit, Stark, and Lorain) voted against the issue by 55%-45% (Lorain), 56%-44% (Summit) and 60%-40% (Stark). Clearly, Cleveland's leadership in this issue extends out the working class/middle class commuting patterns into Medina and Lake counties but not west into Lorain, or south into Summit and Sark. These communities have their own identity and community structure and do not consider themselves to be extensions of Cleveland. Geauga County, which is on the wealth vector from Cuyahoga, acted more like a downstate community, voting 56%-44% against and not like an exension of Cuyahoga County. Mahoning and Trumbull counties, bordering Pennsylvania, and with large working class populations, bought the argument that gambling dollars are slipping across the border into Pennsylvania. Columbiana and Astabula, both more rural communities, on the other hand, did not, voting 58%-42% (Columbiana) and 53%-47% (Astabula) against the issue. The conclusion: NEO is a fragmented region that $20 million of intensive and slick advertising in the two dominent media markets (Cleveland/Akron and Youngstown/Warren) could not bring together. By pushing Issue 3, Forest City and the Greater Cleveland Partnership managed only to split our region even further apart. Nice work. posted by Ed |
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