4 ms·
Well, I am a white guy from the Cleveland area. I do have a good sense of what northeast Ohio is like. I haven't lived there in 15 years, but I do visit several
by pwthornton 4y ago
Well, I am a white guy from the Cleveland area. I do have a good sense of what northeast Ohio is like. I haven't lived there in 15 years, but I do visit several times a year. The amount of negative change in Ohio in that time is staggering. Columbus and a few other parts of the state may be doing well, but much of the state is in decay.
I don't think Ohio is unwelcoming from a people perspective, although around where I grew up is MAGA central, so I am not sure that it is super welcoming to immigrants or people who aren't white and straight. The people are generally friendly when they know you.
The politicians, however, are fairly insane, and since I left the state, they have allowed guns in preschools, outlawed abortion, blocked intracity rail to connect to their major cities (and don't invest in infrastructure beyond sprawl), have continued to hollow out their cities for almost exclusively sprawl building, etc. There is very little emphasis from Ohio policymakers on creating policy and infrastructure to attract people.
One big area that Ohio has cut in recent decades is higher education funding. What is a great way to attract immigrants and startups? Higher education spending. Research universities, in particular, foster and help create startups. This is one of California's secrets. An elite state research university in or near Cleveland would probably be a much better way to invest in the state than what policymakers have been doing.
In short, the people of Ohio are generally friendly if they know you, but the state isn't doing anything to attract immigrants or people from other parts of the country.