Mark Knows It All

I truly believe that the Mahoning Valley will be the growth center for Ohio for the next ten years. The reason is clear. The rest of the state, for that matter the nation, is going through what we went through 30 years ago when the steel industry collapsed. More people lost their jobs in the Mahoning Valley in the years following 1977 than are currently employed by General Motors nationwide…and there was nobody there to help us. Over the past 30 years, although the area has continued to lose established large company manufacturing jobs, the area has done an outstanding job at establishing a highly diverse small business base which has held its own during the current recession. There are approximately 3500 new call center jobs in the area. It has become a warehouse/distribution center. A local specialty pipe manufacture is expanding. Several technology companies have moved into the area or have been “homegrown” in the business incubator/tech center downtown. While cities like Toledo and...