BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The signs of Northern Kentucky's success, growth and achievements are all around us.
Employers are clamoring for workers. Fortune 500 firms are moving in. Old perceptions of gamblers, mobsters and hillbillies are dying. New reputations grounded in progress, innovation, hard work and commercial success are being born.
On the Newport and Covington riverfronts, it is in the cranes, the partially finished buildings and attractions and the new garages, skyscrapers and hotels.
In the air it is in the hundreds of jets flying in and out of the growing Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport. On suburban streets and -- to the dismay of some -- in what once were farm fields, new, spacious and expensive homes are being built or being occupied by those relocating or moving up.
Schools and roads are also crowded, political struggles are constantly waged, turf wars are still common and there are plenty of areas left out of the boom. (Hey, nothing's perfect, and with growth comes growing pains.)
That said, Northern Kentucky is hardly the place it was just a generation ago.
"It's changed dramatically since I was growing up," said Campbell County native Wally Pagan, the 50-something head of Southbank Partners, a group helping chart development along Northern Kentucky's river cities.
"But the people who are really shocked are the ones who left here 20 or 15 or even 10 years ago. They come back now and can't believe it."
But for real recognition of how far Northern Kentucky has come, for validation that the region's leadership has been making some pretty good decisions and moves over the last several years, just look at who the stodgy, stuffy, secretive Cincinnati Business Committee tapped as its new executive director:
Laura Long, the head of economic development in Newport, one of the true success stories in the success story that is Northern Kentucky.
It speaks volumes that the CBC, as it is known, would look across the river for its new leader. There was a day when the committee didn't even have any members from Kentucky. At least now there's one, David Mueller, head of Comair.
And you can't understate the fact that Mrs. Long is a woman, considering that just like the CBC was slow to bring a Kentuckian on board, the first female member of the committee -- Karen Hendricks of Baldwin Piano -- was invited aboard just a few years ago.
But the real story here is that some of Cincinnati's most respected business leaders are openly, publicly and, who knows, maybe a little sheepishly, admitting Northern Kentucky, Newport and Ms. Long are doing something right.
Ms. Long won't, and doesn't, take all the credit for turning around the place once known as Sin City. But she sure had a lot to do with it.
It's hard to miss the new aquarium and entertainment district being built right on the river, particularly from the corporate offices atop those big buildings in downtown Cincinnati, where many of the CBC members make their living.
And those were both developments Cincinnati wanted but lost to Newport.
Companies have moved from Cincinnati to Northern Kentucky in recent years, months and even weeks, including Jacor Communications, Omnicare and Gibson Greetings. And plenty of others bypassed Cincinnati when moving into the area, setting up shop in Kentucky.
This is not to suggest Cincinnati is dead or dying, only that Northern Kentucky is on the rise. And Ms. Long had a hand in the ascension. Ms. Long took a tired, beaten-down city and used hustle, innovation, helpful government and elected officials, opportunity, timing, luck, tenacity and moxie to help give it a new life.
That's what the CBC needs. Once the most powerful group in the region, its star has faded in recent years after a couple of well-publicized losses in the political arena.
Their act of keeping the lid on its proceedings while dictating how others should operate, including city hall and the Cincinnati Public Schools, has worn thin. It needs some new blood and new leadership, somebody who can put it on a course where its members are seen as progressive leaders, not kingmakers or autocrats.
Time will tell if Ms. Long is successful in Cincinnati. History will show she was in Newport. And Northern Kentucky is getting some respect from across the river.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or 502-875-7526 in Frankfort.
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