I participated in the Case Western Reserve Law Review symposium on “Corporations and Their Communities” this weekend. Specifically, I moderated a panel on “Community Efforts to Attract and Retain Corporations: Legal and Policy Implications of State and Local Tax Incentives and Eminent Domain” (the same panel Ilya mentioned here). For northeast Ohio, the panel was quite timely. Deindustrialization has hit this part of the state hard. Ohio policymakers have sought to use selective tax incentives and eminent domain to revitalize struggling communities, with mixed results. DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno, for example, arose from efforts to encourage Chrysler to expand an Ohio jeep facility.
The discussion of Ohio’s economic woes brought to mind “My City Was Gone” by The Pretenders. And that’s not just my opinion. Minnesota’s Morgan Holcomb incorporated the song into her presentation on how the dormant commerce clause limits the use of selective tax incentives for corporations. The song may be 25 years old, but it is still eerily appropriate. What Chrissie Hynde wrote about her native Akron is can still be said about many northeast Ohio communities. Here is how the song begins:
I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
aAll my favorite places
My city had pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, O, way to go Ohio
The full lyrics are here. Here is one live performance, and here is another from the Pretenders their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.