Post in Attracting New Businesses to Central Ohio

Jul 02 12:32 UTC

I agree withretaining the talent we're growing here through the universities
and I think it is important to attract business here.I believe there are
several different angles to this that all need to be pursued in order to
beeffective. The tact I'd like to focus on is makingColumbus a sustainable
communitythroughmaximizing the return on resource usage.
We are a city surrounded by agriculture but we don't take advantage of that in
the city. Why aren't we getting near city farmers to grow greater amounts of
food for Columbus?
If a farmer feels that is not the direction they want to head then perhaps we
could work with them to start wind farming. Due to the amount offlatland
available within 50 miles of the center city we could conceptuallysignificantly
cut power distribution costs by buildingwind/solar farms which would deliver
energy directly to Columbus. This should cut the buy-in cost of these "new"
technologies and makeColumbus a standout both for its committment to green
energy and its innovative solution for local energy production.
Having a beautiful water retreat in the heart of the city by protection of the
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers by maintaining a strong green (forestation) band on
both sides of the river, removing the low overhead dams, and working to
eliminateupstream agricultural run-off (promoting sustainable farming) and
elimination of sewage run-off is a big draw. Columbus doesn't have mountains or
oceans and we've been over that time and again. It is very close to the
foothills of the appalachians which is a sellingpoint but ourrivers and
reseviors could really be standout features if we didn't treat them like
crap(pers).
Columbus is still small enough thatbusiness visitors aren't stuck in some
sterile environment when they come to town. Our convention center is in the
heart of a neighborhood and we should push that fact as well as keep that
difference in mind when investing in other types of business
infrastructure.Business visitors to ourcity have an opportunity to really
experience our city and what it has tooffer upclose and we need tocontinue to
makesure that experience is a positive one.
Finally we need to deal with transportation.We have two strong airports (plus
Don Scott), great railopportunities and for better or worse we're a meeting
point for several major interstates. How can we move people and product in and
out ofColumbus in such a way that wemake sense as a major hub?On a very local
level if you can provide an environment where employees don't have to pay for a
car then that is effectively a huge pay increase for those people. The ability
to deliver individuals from the airports and other major population areas to
our downtown will certainly make our center city much more attractive to
business.
Anyhow, these are justa few ideas. Keep them coming!
Andrew Miller
http://andrew-miller.com
http://elephantsonbicycles.com