In the News

Bridgestone Firestone expressed no small commitment to Akron when the company in 2006 became the lead sponsor of the World Golf Championships at Firestone Country Club. This year's version of the tournament starts today, the very best golfers in the world (with one conspicuous absence) delighted with the shorter rough yet facing again the fair test of length, accuracy and slick greens. On Tuesday, Bridgestone Firestone brought an even more festive mood to the week (at least for Northeast Ohioans), announcing that the company intends to build a state-of-the-art technical center in the neighborhood it occupies in South Akron.

There will be no departure to the Bridgestone Firestone headquarters in Nashville!

Excuse our glee. Those of us in the northern realms of industry aren't often on the winning side in these competitions. Credit for the decision rests, to say the least, with Bridgestone executives. They seized on the framework of a promising deal. Mayor Don Plusquellic, Russ Pry, the Summit County executive, and other state and local officials pulled together (as they did in the headquarters project for Goodyear). This task proved more challenging without the likes of a Stuart Lichter, a private developer pressing to strike an agreement.

Bridgestone Firestone added the touch of unveiling its decision as the company marked the 20 years since Bridgestone purchased Firestone. That wasn't a pleasant day for Akron, the event following in the footsteps of other discouraging news about the dismantling of so much big manufacturing. Yet the ending has been far happier than many expected.

The Bridgestone Firestone presence in the region involves more than the 1,000 jobs, or the splendid golf tournament, generating impressive sums for charities. The technical center points to Akron seeking to remake itself in a changing economy, one in which the American advantage must reside in knowledge and innovation. The same can be said about the Goodyear presence, or FirstEnergy or Infocision or the leading hospitals and their satellites.

To lose Bridgestone Firestone would have been a different setback than two decades ago, more troubling because it wouldn't have seemed so inevitable.

Now the city can build further on the momentum. The Goodyear project promises to transform part of East Akron. Bridgestone Firestone will bring something similar to South Akron. Both companies, understandably, want surroundings that will help to attract and retain talent in a most competitive global marketplace. Those grimacing about a likely $68 million public investment in the Bridgestone project should be alert to the multiplier effect, from the makeover for parts of the city to an evolving partnership with local universities, the benefits resonating for the region (it is worth reinforcing).

The measure of the triumph might well translate to the South Course. Imagine an eagle at the exhausting 16th hole. That smile wouldn't soon fade.