It’s important to read Kotkin’s “Tale of Two States”.
This is not for lack of trying. Ohio and its cities have worked to lure jobs through tax abatements and downtown development projects. Cleveland, in particular, has tried to sell itself as a “comeback city” and has developed a gentrified Potemkin village, but in 2004 it actually surpassed Detroit and other disaster spots in its percentage of poor people.
Public backing for stadiums, convention centers and other ephemera is popular in the Buckeye State but has done little to stem long-term economic stagnation, population loss and the emigration of young professionals.
Texas presents, in many ways, Ohio’s mirror image. This free-market haven is among the few large states that enjoy both strong net internal migration of domestic residents and growth in immigration. Despite its less than stellar reputation among northeastern intellectuals and journalists, Texas also has become a major draw for college-educated workers in their late 20s and beyond. This is not merely an Austin phenomenon, but it is also true for Houston and Dallas.
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