{"id":907,"date":"2023-03-13T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T14:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconheartland.com\/?p=907"},"modified":"2023-03-22T14:05:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T18:05:56","slug":"preparing-to-prosper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconheartland.com\/preparing-to-prosper\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing to Prosper"},"content":{"rendered":"
Event speakers on the coming change in northwest Licking County<\/span><\/p>\n SiliconHeartland.com staff<\/span><\/p>\n A recent event featured nine speakers offering different perspectives on the impact of Intel and other high-tech developments in New Albany. Prepare to Prosper, sponsored by SiliconHeartland.com and staged by R.S. Rock Media, was held March 2 at the Estate at New Albany. <\/span><\/p>\n Here is a summary of the remarks by the mayor of Galena, at top official at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, the president of Otterbein University and the co-founder of SiliconHeartland.com. (See other Preparing to Prosper post for the other speakers.)<\/span><\/p>\n Jill Love<\/b>: Mayor of Galena and RE\/MAX Realtor<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Love said Galena, a village in Delaware County, knows its identity and what it wants to be. \u201cThat has been our guide to planning, funding and culture,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t striving to be someone else and that\u2019s something people love about Galena. We do know we\u2019re going to change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She said the village leaders want to grow responsibly and keep a pulse on the community. This is accomplished through open dialogue and encouraging everyone to be a part of the solution, which allows \u201cpeople to feel more engaged and in control.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Galena collaborates with surrounding communities and regional planning groups. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a heck of a traffic issue,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking to everyone. We\u2019ve got to get out of the bubble, be humble and recognize what we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She acknowledged that many of the communities have the same needs; they\u2019re just different size needs.<\/span><\/p>\n Galena is in the process of updating its master plan and inviting developers to join the conversation. The village is expected to annex 1,000 acres in the next two to five years. \u201cWe\u2019re creating a public-private partnership with the landowner that could help us fund our economic development strategy,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Kerstin Carr<\/b>: Chief Regional Strategy Officer for Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Carr noted that the Columbus Region is one of the fastest growing metros in the country and the fastest growing metro in the state. She said over the next 25 years, the area will see 272,000 additional households and 357,000 more workers, with Central Ohio expected to reach a population of 3.15 million people by 2050.<\/span><\/p>\n With such explosive growth, MORPC anticipates more than 100,000 new houses will be needed to be built \u201cin just the next decade alone,\u201d she said. Dr. Carr added that the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio has said that would be a two-fold increase over recent trends.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2020, MORPC was asked to lead a study of housing statistics for Central Ohio. The core issues the study found were:<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Carr said barriers to development include uncertainty, higher costs, lack of political support and limited gap financing. \u201cA lot of communities are doing great work reinventing their downtowns and building more housing stock,\u201d she said. In addition to those efforts, she would encourage communities to think more creatively by incorporating sidewalks, street trees and more density into projects to make neighborhoods more walkable and appealing.<\/span><\/p>\n MORPC also has teamed with COTA, Franklin County and the City of Columbus to create LinkUS to consider the transportation impact from explosive growth in the region. Pro-active solutions include Central Ohio Greenways, a trail network of more than 230 miles; Rapid 5, which connects waterways and trails into one interconnected, greenspace system; and rail opportunities, including expansion of Amtrak to Columbus, which was recently endorsed by Governor Mike DeWine.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. John Comerford: <\/b>President of Otterbein University<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Comerford talked about the state of higher education and the challenges it is facing \u2013 most notably when rankings determine its reputation. \u201cRankings ignore the strength of the system, which is its diversity,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The result is what he called \u201cstrange incentives.\u201d Colleges and universities are ranked higher the more selective they are or for \u201chow many children we say \u2018no\u2019 to,\u201d Dr. Comerford said. They also are rewarded for being more expensive and rank highly for amenities such as \u201clazy rivers and climbing walls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Comerford said that test scores correlate to family income and said the \u201cdeep, dark secret\u201d is that most financial aid to American colleges and universities go to students who don\u2019t have financial need.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe American Dream is closed to many deserving students,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Most colleges and universities should be classified as charities, according to Dr. Comerford, adding that many are supported by taxpayers. <\/span><\/p>\n Three areas of focus at Otterbein and how the institution is addressing them are:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur mission as a charity is to make the world a better place,\u201d Dr. Comerford said. \u201cWe do that through our graduates.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Jake Bame<\/b>: Owner of The Noble Baron Gentleman Barbers in New Albany and Co-founder of SiliconHeartland.com<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n As a barber in New Albany, Bame first began hearing about high-tech businesses coming to the area in 2017. He explored possible names to market the new businesses in the area and landed on \u201cSilicon Heartland.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n As companies, including Facebook and Google, began to move into New Albany, Bame would hashtag \u201cSilicon Heartland\u201d when sharing the news on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n As a few years ticked off, he admits questioning the branding choice and at one point released rights to the domain name, SiliconHeartland.com. Two months later, he had another change of heart and once again secured the rights. It was a prescient decision that would be rewarded when Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger spoke at the groundbreaking for the $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in September 2022. \u201cUltimately, that\u2019s the phrase Pat used at the Intel announcement,\u201d Bame said.<\/span><\/p>\n He acknowledged how the City of New Albany has changed since he first opened the Noble Baron 12 years ago. As an entrepreneur, he didn\u2019t know then how to get a \u201cseat at the table.\u201d He hopes to change that for other small business owners by providing resources through SiliconHeartland.com that will help them to develop and prosper.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Event speakers on the coming change in northwest Licking County SiliconHeartland.com staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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