Category Archives: Featured

The Cleveland Comeback: Version 5.0

Every decade or so in Cleveland the headlines reappear like locusts—a Renaissance, a Rebirth.  In fact the city has been remade in the visions of its leaders over and over.  But today, we are still poor, still municipally cash-strapped, more vacant, and shrunk.
Today is 2011, and the reality is not what was envisioned in the late 80′s and 90′s—or that Cleveland heyday of being high on the renaissance hog.  After all, the leaders had been building new stuff: the Galleria (’87), Key Tower (’91), the Rock and Roll Hall of …

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Posted on Monday, April 4th, 2011 by Richey
Categories: Economic Development Featured

Video Tour: Detroit Suburb, You Can Never Have too Many CVSs

Metro Detroit resident Chris Weagel sent us this video he made exploring the complete and utter vacuousness of his suburban home town St. Clair Shores.
Let’s take a look see.

Chris says: I’m 29 and have lived in Metro Detroit my whole life. I’ve about had it with the place and am saving money to flee.
The Older Generations still in control have no idea how incensed and disgusted the young people are at them for destroying Detroit and telling us to be thankful.
This video was produced by Human Dog Productions.
I’m editorializing a …

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Posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 by schmange
Categories: Featured Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency

Come to the opening of The Big Urban Photography Project’s first show

Rust Wire is proud to present The Big Urban Photography Project art show, featuring photographic interpretations of Rust Belt cities as seen through the eyes of their young residents. The show is the result of a multi-year collaborative media project that called on the region’s best documentary and fine arts photographers.
Over two years, we asked for open submissions of photography highlighting the unique blend of despair and hope in a number of cities. Dozens of amateur and professional photographers submitted images of Detroit, Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, Grand …

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Posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 by Special K
Categories: architecture Art Featured Photography Pittsburgh regionalism Rust Belt Blogs Rust Wire RustWire.com The Big Urban Photography Project The Brew House The Media Youngstown

Pro-Sprawl, Anti-Transit Policies Help Make Milwaukee the Most Segregated

Among the myriad insights from the new Census is another blow to Milwaukee. The metro region was once again rated the most segregated in the country, beating out notoriously divided metros like Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and LA.

We’ve written before about how metro Milwaukee’s development policies encourage sprawl, isolating people of color and the poor in the city (while degrading the environment in the suburbs). In its analysis, Salon takes another tack. Anti-transit policies, like the ones endorsed by former Milwaukee County executive and current governor Scott Walker, serve to further isolate the region’s disenfranchised populations. Salon elaborates on the local atmosphere:

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Posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 by schmange
Categories: Featured Race Relations sprawl

Cleveland ‘Highway Removal’ Looks Awfully Highway-Like

It is an oft-lamented fact, both locally and nationally, that the city of Cleveland hasn’t taken full advantage of its position on the shore of Lake Erie. The national media, in its seemingly boundless enthusiasm for stories about the declining fortunes of the city where I live, is quick to point out that we haven’t taken advantage of what may be our best asset.

Whether the publication is Forbes (Most Miserable City, Sixth Fastest Dying City) or Portfolio Magazine (Third Most Stressed City), the attention can start to feel like a cheap shot. Inevitably, they turn the blame for the city’s problems onto itself with observations like this one: Why hasn’t Cleveland developed its lakefront into an asset like the city of Baltimore or San Francisco?

Now NPR has run a story on the “teardown” of the West Shoreway freeway, highlighting plans to turn it into a tree-lined boulevard and break down a major barrier to the lake.

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Posted on Thursday, March 24th, 2011 by schmange
Categories: Featured Public Transportation

TV Show Will be Buffalo “Lovefest”

The Buffalo News reports The Travel Channel will feature Buffalo this summer in an hour-long show that has yet to be named.
The show’s host told the paper:
“It kind of awes me that much of the country, like myself, is in the dark as far as what Buffalo means in the evolution of the United States. Buffalo was such a profound part of this nation. If I can do a television show that has any part in teaching that, that’s terrific.”
The series features places that are off-limits …

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Posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2011 by Special K
Categories: architecture Art beauty Buffalo Featured Good Ideas grain elevators history New york preservation The Media The Travel Channel