The following article was published as a “Personal View” in Crain’s Cleveland Business on December 14, 2020 and was penned by The Center for Cleveland’s Board Chair, Mark Zannoni.
Please stop saying “Northeast Ohio”
Mark Zannoni, December 14, 2020
The "Northeast Ohio" moniker is destroying Cleveland's brand and identity outside the region and, as such, severely impacting our ability to achieve economic development and population growth. Please stop saying "Northeast Ohio" unless referring to the geography that encompasses Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown.
"Cleveland" or "Greater Cleveland" is the region, which includes Cuyahoga and the six outer counties of Lorain, Medina Summit, Portage, Geauga and Lake. Imagine if people in Chicago started using "Northeast Illinois" when referring to their city and region. That would sound quite silly, but that is exactly what we are doing here.
The "Northeast Ohio" craze can be traced to various origins:
The desire for "regionalism," and the pursuit of this vision by name only without any substance;
The intention to eliminate the word "Cleveland" and avoid its allusions to bankruptcy, the flames on the Cuyahoga or in Mayor Ralph Perk's hair, the mooning of someone by the president of the Board of Education out a car window on I-271, and other embarrassing, but serious, events like losing 57% of the population between 1950 and 2010;
The feelings of people within the seven counties who no longer see themselves as part of "Cleveland," but since most of their capital, customers, members or employees are from Greater Cleveland instead say "Northeast Ohio"; and,
The good intentions of people who think saying "Northeast Ohio" will actually help Cleveland without realizing it is doing the opposite.
There is an urgent need to use "Cleveland" instead of "Northeast Ohio." As a market and global center, Cleveland — and the region — has been steadily weakening. And the weaker the city, the more difficult it will be to prosper and grow as our competitors are gaining in strength — particularly as we just regained our title of "poorest city in America" with a 31% poverty rate. The population of the seven-county Cleveland region has actually decreased by 8% since its 1970 peak, when we had surpassed 3 million people, while the U.S. as whole has grown 62%. This means the city's relative importance in the U.S. has been steadily diminishing, and with it, our global influence; our ability to land new jobs and companies in the region; the necessary appeal to attract new talent; the allure for greater investment in new educational, retail and entertainment options; and even our ability to land at least one daily flight to mainland Europe by a major non-low-cost airline, which is essential for the city to compete.
As social media and the internet in general quickly allow users worldwide to gather information about a place, the more people use "Northeast Ohio," then the greater name recognition will be for "Ohio" and at Cleveland's expense. When it comes time to invest in a place, the well-oiled Columbus marketing machine that propagates that Columbus is the largest city in Ohio may benefit instead, even though markets and economies are not restricted to municipal boundaries unless you're a city-state like Singapore. The seven-county Cleveland region is the largest metropolitan economy in the state and has 30% more residents than metro Columbus. But Cleveland's growth potential is giving way to our little sister Columbus — and by our own doing.
Cities, not abstract regions, are what capture the imagination and drive culture, creativity, innovation and economies. Sure, "Northeast Ohio" is not obscure to those in Cleveland, but it is to those outside of it. And in terms of real geographic place names, we are trading "Cleveland" for "Ohio." But the terms bring to mind opposing concepts. Cleveland is an innovative and progressive place. Ohio is far less so. Cleveland had America’s first big city black mayor and 34 years later had the city’s first woman mayor. In the 53 years since Carl Stokes assumed office, Ohio has elected only white men as governors. Cleveland voted for Kennedy and Biden, while Ohio went for Nixon and Trump. (And in the most recent election, Ohio was redder than Texas.) Ohio is often associated by people outside the state as a place of farms; Cleveland is a major American city. So dropping "Cleveland" for an inappropriate term centered on "Ohio" is not only geographically inaccurate, but undermines the very essence and soul of the city.
Imagine (once again) if someone said, "You want to open a plant in Germany? Come to Southwest Hessen!" Meanwhile another person says, "Come to Berlin!" Berlin may win out here as it is an established and well-known city while "Southwest Hessen" may be instantly dismissed or forgotten as the listener wants to be in a familiar city with an established workforce. But "Southwest Hessen" is where Frankfurt is located. Why wouldn't Frankfurt say Frankfurt? They do. And likewise, we too should use the name of our city, as that is the place that is globally known, not a state name preceded by a modifier. Moreover, it is significantly more common outside the U.S. for individuals to refer to U.S. places as cities, not states.
Some businesses with locations that are only in Cuyahoga County say "Northeast Ohio" as they try to capture customers from neighboring counties and think they must say "NEO" to do so. The solution is simple: use "Greater Cleveland" if afraid to say "Cleveland." Rather than chase market share in a shrinking pool, growing the full region by not killing the brand will result in a larger market for all and greater revenues at the end of the day.
"Northeast Ohio" is not a synonym for "Cleveland" or "Greater Cleveland." If you do not mean the geography spanning Cleveland to Akron/Canton to Youngstown, please stop saying "Northeast Ohio," as its usage is weakening one of the greatest cities in the world, adversely affecting economic development and job growth, fueling the growth of Columbus and other competitor cities, and severely hurting our national and global standing and identity.
Zannoni is board president of The Center for Cleveland, a nonprofit focused on economic and population growth of the city of Cleveland and the region.