| News Release |
Economic Well-Being of
Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown Is Focus of Western Reserve
PBS Special
The Living Cities responds
to communities’ inclusion in Forbes.com article, “America’s
Fastest-Dying Cities”
KENT, Ohio — Friday, Oct. 10,
2008 — An Aug. 5, 2008 report by Forbes.com that named
four Ohio cities — Canton, Cleveland, Dayton and Youngstown — to
its list of top-10 fastest-dying cities has generated much
discussion, especially in northeast Ohio’s three communities
that made the unfavorable list.
Western Reserve PBS (formerly PBS 45
& 49) will give local and regional community leaders an opportunity
to respond
to the Forbes rankings
in a one-hour broadcast, The Living Cities,
to air on Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.
The program will present field segments
on each of northeast Ohio’s so-called “dying
cities,” featuring interviews with city officials and
business leaders; a review of the statistics used by Forbes
to make its assessments; and a broader view of what is happening
in the three cities. It also will discuss the cities’ economic
development plans and neighborhood revitalization projects,
plus the growing focus on regionalism.
These segments will be used as a springboard
for a live, studio-based conversation during which viewers
will be invited to participate through live call-in, e-mail,
Twitter and other instant response technology.
Community leaders interviewed for the
program, which is a joint production of Western Reserve Public
Media in cooperation with Municipal Leader magazine, include
the following:
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David Abbott, chairman, Fund for Our Economic Future
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Canton Mayor William Healy II
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
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Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien
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Robert Torres, director, City of Canton Department
of Development
-
Chris Warren, chief of regional development, City
of Cleveland
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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams
The live panel discussion will be
moderated by Eric Mansfield, host of Western Reserve PBS’s
NewsNight Akron and Akron/Canton reporter for WKYC-TV3.
Participating on the panel will be these civic leaders:
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Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, who also is an advisory
committee member of the Regional Economic Revenue Study
(RERS)
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Leah Anglin-Walsh, Akron regional economic development
director, Ohio Department of Development
-
Ann Womer Benjamin, executive director, Northeast
Ohio Council on Higher Education
-
Robert Torres, director, City of Canton Department
of Development
-
Thomas Waltermire, chief executive officer, Team NEO
-
T. Sharon Woodberry, director, City of Youngstown
Economic Development
-
Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone, Ward 17, who
is also president of the Northeast Ohio City Council
Association
“Western Reserve Public Media and Municipal Leader
magazine were very interested in digging under the surface
of this report from Forbes,” stated Tom Speaks, editor-in-chief
of Municipal Leader magazine. “We believe it is critical
that the leaders of Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown and
regional experts in the field of economic development address
this controversy in a meaningful and open forum.”
Production funding for The
Living Cities has been provided by Dominion
Foundation and the Raymond John Wean Foundation. For
more information about the production, call Western Reserve
Public Media at 1-800-554-4549.
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Funding for The Living Cities has
been provided by
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About Western Reserve Public Media
Western Reserve Public Media is owned and operated by Northeastern
Educational Television of Ohio, Inc., a private, nonprofit corporation
and consortium of Kent State University, The University of Akron
and Youngstown State University. A trusted community resource,
Western Reserve Public Media uses the power of commercial-free television
and related services to enrich the lives of people through high-quality
programming and educational services that teach, illuminate and
inspire.
Western Reserve PBS, a service of Western Reserve
Public Media, is the only broadcast
television service that reaches all of northeast Ohio. It is available to 1.8
million households and 4.4 million people in the Cleveland and Youngstown designated
market areas. In an average week, over 500,000 households tune in. Through
funding from eTech Ohio, Western Reserve Public Media provides
K-12 educational technology
training and instructional television programming to 21,500 educators and 256,700
students in eight Ohio counties. For more information, visit www.WesternReservePublicMedia.org or call 1-800-554-4549.
About
The Municipal Leader Magazine
The Municipal Leader magazine’s purpose is to provide
municipal, state and education professionals with timely
information about local municipal governments
so our readers may benefit from the successes and experiences of their peers.
For more information, visit www.municipalleader.com or
call 330-329-5680.
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