YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO — Even the most poetic storytellers candidly acknowledge that a community cannot survive on stories of what once was and what we remember.
Here in the Mahoning Valley, memories of days gone by have been the only fuel that kept people waiting for something better for almost 40 years.
And while Rep. Tim Ryan loves to dwell on his life growing up here in the shadow of a once-great industrial boomtown, he knows that nostalgia doesn’t attract job creators. The ideals, a population known for its work ethic and affordable investment opportunities, do.
All the Democratic congressman from Niles, Ohio, had to do was bring together the opulent and the impoverished to make it happen.
“I think my job and the job of other civic leaders is to try to break down those barriers and try to bring people together, and that’s what this is all about,” Ryan said.
And that’s exactly what he did last Wednesday. He gathered venture capitalists, most of them from Silicon Valley, in Youngstown for meetings with various civic, educational and business leaders, then loaded them all onto a bus that made stops in Akron, Ohio, Detroit and Flint, Michigan, en route to its final stop in South Bend, Indiana, on Friday.
“There’s an incredible amount of wealth and investment that’s largely going to three states: California, New York and Massachusetts,” Ryan said as he boarded a bus full of West Coast investors, some of whom had never been to the Rust Belt.
To understand the split between venture capital investment in the country, Ohio gets less than 2 percent of that funding, and the entire Midwest gets less than 4 percent, Ryan said, “while Massachusetts, New York and California get 80 percent.”
“A lot of these investors had no idea what kind of growth opportunities were out there,” he said. “They also had no idea the technological sophistication and small business growth that came out of Youngstown State University.” Ryan was talking about YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
In a brand novel addition to the university’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, you’ll find a series of impressive 3D-printing robots working on critical and groundbreaking tasks such as fulfilling orders and manufacturing parts for the Department of Defense.
“So many people come to Silicon Valley with their ideas, but now there’s a realization that they could cut their costs by 30 to 35 percent just by coming to an area like ours,” Ryan explained. “You know, what they would have to pay a computer scientist or an engineer is probably half of what they would pay here, and then think about the cost of starting a company here, it’s about eight bucks a foot in Youngstown versus $75 in San Francisco. I mean, that alone can save you a significant amount of money, especially for some of these jobs that you can do anywhere.”
Ryan’s joy on the road is contagious—where others see a devastated region, he sees potential. His optimism is not unfounded; it’s happened before, just 59 miles east of here. Pittsburgh was able to rebuild its economy thanks to civic, business and academic leaders; they invested in the arts, trails and higher education, leading to a city renaissance in high-tech and health care.
It’s sporadic these days for people on opposite sides of the aisle to agree on anything, yet that’s exactly what Ryan did on his trip to his beloved Rust Belt.
“Someone has to be the leader, someone has to be the salesman for the state,” said Bruce Haynes, a Republican strategist in Washington. “Normally, you expect it to be the governor. But I want to give credit to Mr. Ryan for stepping up and helping.”
What Haynes liked about the three-day bus ride was the lack of partisan politics. “Creating jobs is the ultimate nonpartisan politics of success,” he said.
Democratic strategist Dane Strother agrees. He said, “I think Congressman Ryan does a great job of that. Often in congressional races, candidates will say they’re going to create jobs, and the truth is it’s very difficult for a member of Congress to create jobs. Well, this is an example of a congressman who not only keeps his word, but uses his access to corporate CEOs to benefit his constituents.”
There are huge swaths of this country not only in the Rust Belt, where steel once reigned supreme, but also in the elderly textile mills of the South and the paper mills of New England—all booming industries that have been displaced by automation, digitalization, foreign competition, and consolidation.
Ryan says all that’s left are visuals that remind people of their own decline and stories of what once was. “We have to move forward, take risks and, above all, work together,” he said. “One bus ride at a time.”
