J Magazine June 2017

CLEVELAND
Owner of Cavaliers
pushes revitalization
OKLAHOMA CITY
Oklahoma City rises
from economic slide
BY ROGER BROWN // J MAGAZINE
Once, downtown Cleveland was an uninspiring patchwork of
abandoned retail buildings and poorly utilized space.
Now, it’s an eye-catching area that includes a popular casino,
entertainment districts that stretch for several downtown blocks, a
glittering new convention center,
CLEVELAND
MSA population:
2,060,810 (Rank: 31st)
Median age:
35.9 years
Median household income
in 2015: $26,150
Median house or condo
value in 2015: $69,600
Median rent in 2015: $654
a health innovation complex and
restaurants operated by celebrity
chiefs like Michael Symon.
Once, companies and organizations
scoffed at the mere
thought of considering downtown
Cleveland as a site for its
major gatherings, conferences
and events.
Now Cleveland sits among
America’s first-tier cities as an
attractive site for large-scale
events — so much so that it won
raves for how it hosted the 2016 Republican National Convention
and even attracted the producers of “The Fate of the Furious” to film
huge chunks of the blockbuster movie in the city.
Clearly, many have played a role in Cleveland’s transformation —
including its local government.
But one person has undeniably been the major inspiration, the
lead visionary behind Cleveland’s phoenix-like rise to its current
glory.
He is Cleveland Cavaliers team owner Dan Gilbert, who has used
BY FRANK DENTON // J MAGAZINE
The revitalization of Oklahoma City’s downtown was inspired
by economic failure and wounded civic pride, but sustained over
time by leadership — political and civic.
In the late 1980s, a swoon in the oil and gas industry delivered
a body blow to the city, so to
OKLAHOMA CITY
MSA population:
1,358,452 (Rank: 41st)
Median age:
32.5 years
Median household income
in 2015: $47,779
Median house or condo
value in 2015: $138,600
Median rent in 2015: $778
create more jobs and boost the
economy, Mayor Ron Norick in
1991 decided to compete with
other cities to attract a United
Airlines maintenance center.
He even got voters to approve a
1-cent sales tax to support a rich
incentive package. But United
picked Indianapolis.
“The mayor asked them
why,” said Cathy O’Connor,
president of The Alliance for
Economic Development of
Oklahoma City. “They told him a group of United executives and
their spouses came to Oklahoma City, and there wasn’t anything
to do, nothing going on. A dead community.”
Norick quietly visited Indianapolis to see for himself: “I drove
around downtown, and I said, shoot, I know why they got that
United plant. It was obvious to me ... I mean, this is a live city. I
mean, there’s people on the streets, and there were restaurants
and hotels and a convention facility and all this stuff. It got to
be a quality of life issue if you were the CEO of United Airlines
CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
THINKSTOCK (4); GRAPHIC DATA: AMERICAN FACTFINDER – U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
30 J MAGAZINE | JUNE 2017