Ups and downs

Downs to Mayor Jane Campbell for her stance on the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland. Redirecting funds to a proposed Convention Facilities Authority seems like a knee-jerk reaction to past problems at the CVB and undermines the organization’s core mission.

Downs to the current proposals to “streamline” Northeast Ohio entrepreneur organizations. NEOSA has already had its wings clipped and the tea leaves predict either CAMP Inc. or EDI will suffer the same fate. In a half-baked attempt to cut down on supposed confusion among support organizations, the region still can’t solve the real problem behind this mess — a lack of unified vision and direction.

Ups to Alcoa. The aluminum industry giant has made a long-term commitment to Northeast Ohio. Its new Automotive, Aerospace and Commercial Transportation group’s world headquarters brings together six business units and 59,000 employees — 1,300 of them at the headquarter’s Harvard Avenue location.