From the Fund's press release:

A recent survey of Northeast Ohioans shows that residents are in support of regional collaboration on economic development efforts. In the survey, titled the NEO Barometer, participants overwhelmingly identified their county as being part of Northeast Ohio (98 percent) and expressed strong support for a regional approach to job creation (87 percent favor counties working together on this issue), creating a plan for economic growth (86 percent), supporting businesses (82 percent) and attracting international businesses (82 percent).

The poll also found that Northeast Ohioans are less optimistic about the economy today than they were in a similar survey conducted one year ago.

In the most recent survey, 38 percent of respondents from Cuyahoga, Summit, Stark, Lorain, Medina, Geauga, Lake and Portage counties rated the region’s economic conditions as negative, compared to 30 percent last year. Additionally, only 17 percent rated economic conditions as positive; a four percent drop from the previous survey. When asked about the performance of the economy in five years, respondents saying they thought it would be better fell from 47 percent last year to 36 percent in 2005.

Expanding the survey to also include Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Mahoning, Trumbull and Wayne counties, 44 percent of respondents from all 15 counties rated economic conditions in Northeast Ohio negatively.

Respondents number one concern was jobs, with participants stating that creating new jobs and attracting new businesses to move to the region should be the highest priorities for economic development activities in Northeast Ohio. When asked to rate how Northeast Ohio is doing at keeping jobs from leaving the area and creating new jobs, on a scale from very good to very bad, 58 percent gave a negative rating for keeping jobs from leaving and 46 percent reported a negative rating for creating new jobs. However, among individuals who report knowing “a great deal” about economic development activities, the more positive are their feelings about how the region is doing at keeping jobs from leaving (33 percent doing a good job versus 10 percent), creating new jobs (31 percent versus 14 percent), helping businesses grow (40 percent versus 20 percent) and attracting new businesses (33 percent versus 16 percent).

While respondents reported negative feelings about the region’s economy, they did recognize the area’s assets, including the quality of the colleges and universities (77 percent positive rating), a place to live for sports fans (74 percent positive rating), access to airports (73 percent positive rating) and availability of cultural opportunities (69 percent positive rating).

Respondents also expressed support for a regional approach to government. With the exception of the City of Akron, more than 50 percent of respondents from 15 counties believe that regional government would be beneficial to the cities of Akron and Cleveland. Residents of the City of Cleveland think that regional government would help cities like Akron and Cleveland (63 percent) as do non-Cleveland, Cuyahoga County residents (60 percent). Though still supportive, City of Akron and non-Akron, Summit County residents are less optimistic about regional government’s ability to help cities. Forty two percent of City of Akron residents thought regional government would be helpful, 31 percent thought it would hurt and 28 percent were unsure. In non-Akron, Summit County, 51 percent thought it would be helpful while 23 percent thought it would hurt and 26 percent did not know.

Other key survey findings include:

• Residents of different races are equally likely to believe that regional government would help our cities – Caucasians (52 percent), African Americans (54 percent).
• Residents of Portage (27 percent positive) and Geauga (26 percent positive) counties are the most positive about the economy.
• City of Cleveland residents were least positive about Northeast Ohio’s economy (55 percent rated it negatively).

The Gallup Organization conducted the Northeast Ohio Barometer of Economic Attitudes in partnership with The Fund for Our Economic Future. The Cleveland Foundation, as part of its ongoing commitment to the Fund, made a grant to Cleveland State University to conduct the NEO Barometer.

Survey questions covered general attitudes about the future as well as thoughts on a variety of important issues. While questions on several specific initiatives were city-specific, the survey also explored more broadly the attitudes regarding economic challenges faced by our region.

The Gallup Organization’s Cleveland office collected the data from January 20, 2005 to February 12, 2005, interviewing 2,205 adults by telephone. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent. The data were weighted to reflect Census estimates for the region, based on county, gender, age and race.

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