Letter From a Cleveland Czar

Michael DeAloia, the Cleveland, Ohio Tech Czar is leaving his post at Cleveland City Hall.
Not good for Cleveland, but I hope real good for Michael. I met Michael last year…

at a networking event. {Michael attended at least one networking event a month} Kidding.

Anyway, Michael’s impressed me right away with his energy and enthusiasm, concerning getting Cleveland moving towards it’s next phase as a city. Cleveland needs to transform itself from a tired, old manufacturing town to the new service and technology model, and Michael as well as others I have bonded with know. I am not sure that the "old schoolers" that we seem to currently have at Cleveland City Hall knew what they had in Michael. He did bring new businesses and new jobs here!

Anyway, Michael sent out a nice letter to all of us he has gotten to know during his tenure, and it was written so well, I wanted to share an excerpt from it:

"I wanted to send out a very
heartfelt thank-you for all your support these last few years. As many of you
may know, I will be leaving my post at the City of Cleveland to join
SchoolOne – a tech company located in Playhouse Square.. This was a difficult
decision. My tenure at the City was incredibly robust, challenging, invigorating
– never has one professional post meant so much to me. I was truly living the
dream. Who would have thought that over the last three years more than 30 tech
companies would have decided to call the City of Cleveland home or that we would have built out
nearly 450,000 square feet of the most provocative office space on the planet,
or that the City would welcome over 800 new employees to the City? And I am
happy to report that there are a handful of companies nearing a decision to join
us – in the best City in the world – to continue the tech renaissance that is
happening right in the center of Cleveland

The tech industry must make a
commitment to Cleveland and the City must make technology
development and on-going exercise. We could have our own mini-Silicon Valley along Euclid Ave.West Ninth, and Superior.(these are the streets were most of the new tech companies have decided to take
roost) – the seeds are there and the soil is tilled to make it so. I ask – will
you make this commitment? I have. Many of your compatriots have, and I hope you will join me in solidifying Cleveland as the next new tech hubve and I hope that
all of you will join me in solidifying Cleveland
as the next new tech hub. f. – the
foundations, the banks, the equity funds, the colleges and universities, the
various economic development institutions, our government). We, as the
collective creative and entrepreneurial class, must demand the championship
spirit that defines us from these institutions as well. We must demand attention
and loyalty from them, too. It is our manifest destiny to make Cleveland enjoy a new bounty."