Mansfield: Is sex offender reputation bad for business?

2-14-2010 Ohio:

MANSFIELD -- Ashland has attracted a string of big-name investments lately, including shaving cream maker Barbasol. That town up the highway has done this even as a legacy business in Mansfield -- General Motors -- hits the road.

As it happens, Ashland County also has fewer felony sex offenders -- about a third the number, proportionately, that live in Richland County.

Public policy experts say there is at least some relationship between economic depression and high populations of sex offenders, but local economic development leaders say they haven't heard anything about it.

When asked about Mansfield leading the state in most sexual offenders per capita and whether that distinction influences business investments made -- or not made -- in the area, local Mansfield-Richland Area Chamber of Commerce president Kevin Nestor said, "I can't say that I've had somebody bring it up as a business concern, but I have heard people bring it up more just as a general concern."

He said Mansfield's reputation as a haven for sex offenders probably wasn't hurting local business much, but said some industry people he has talked to are aware of that stigma.

At a public forum Feb. 4 about Adultmart, the new adult shop south of town on Hanley Road, Nestor said given perceptions regarding the high number of sex offenders here, Mansfield's newest business wasn't helping things.

"It will bother a certain percentage of people," he said.

Cynthia Mercado, a psychology professor and public policy expert at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said having a high number of sex offenders and economic turmoil may just be a catch-22.

"Offenders' housing choices are typically motivated by social ties and economic factors," Mercado said.

Dave Baldwin, head of the recently formed Richland Community Development Group, said he couldn't say for sure what effect the sex offender population here has on potential investors' thinking about whether to settle here. In an interview Wednesday, Baldwin mostly tried to stay upbeat about the area's future, but conceded the sex offender statistics were less than ideal.

"I've heard it raised as an issue, but there hasn't been a lot of direct dialogue (among business leaders)," the Lexington business consultant said. "But I don't want to get mired in that and lose focus of the big picture."

Evan Scurti, director of the Ashland Area Council for Economic Development, said he couldn't explain the difference between Mansfield and the town he represents. He didn't know, he said, whether the sex offender population issue made much of a difference in attracting investment.

The recent Barbasol move to Ashland was mainly about transportation issues, he said.

Ashland, like Mansfield, lies just west of Interstate 71 and its officials boast about the town's felicitous position between Cleveland and Columbus. Mansfield would seem to have an advantage with its proximity to U.S. 30, while Ashland's other roads aren't as well traveled. Also, Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport far outstrips Ashland County Airport in terms of capacity and use.

"(The sex offender population) hasn't come up -- I hope it doesn't," Scurti said. "But I don't start off presentations with why Mansfield's terrible." ..Source.. ERIK SHILLING • News Journal