Rust Wire was thrilled to be able to interview Alex Kotlowitz, one of our nation’s best journalists about urban issues and problems. Kotlowitz will be speaking Monday at Cleveland State’s Levin College Forum. Kotlowitz penned the New York Times story “All Boarded Up,’ about foreclosure in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood. He also authored “There are no Children Here,” the story of two boys growing up in one of Chicago’s toughest housing projects. Here’s the first part of our conversation:
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Saturday is National Train Day – celebrating May 10, 1869, the day when the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie to link 1,776 miles of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways, “creating the nation′s first transcontinental railroad.”
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Cleveland resident Trevor Clatterbuck has a new model for the food industry: one that connects a local mother and her a grocery list with a farmer located a few miles away, all via home computer.
Clatterbuck, the 23-year-old founder of Fresh Fork Market, is using the power of the internet and social networking to revolutionize the way people buy produce in the Cleveland area.
 
 
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A favorite Erie-focused blog of mine, Global Erie, had a post last week about the importance of encouraging innovation.
Blogger Peter Panepento isn’t the first person to make this observation about our region. Several years ago, The (Toledo) Blade wrote a three-part series, Business As Usual, that built on the work of two Cleveland-based Federal Reserve economists that linked a state’s economy to patents per-capita. In other words- the more creativity and innovation, the better off a state will be.

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It looks like Braddock, Pa. Mayor John Fetterman is shaping up to be a national spokesman for the Rust Belt region.
Or, as this story puts it, “the pissed-off avenging angel of the Rust Belt.”
He recently spoke at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, so this article focuses on his message for cities in Michigan.

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It looks like Braddock, Pa. Mayor John Fetterman is shaping up to be a national spokesman for the Rust Belt region.
Or, as this story puts it, “the pissed-off avenging angel of the Rust Belt.”
He recently spoke at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, so this article focuses on his message for cities in Michigan.

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I’m kind of surprised we haven’t heard more about this, though I guess it could have been overwhelmed by the swine flu madness and all the other news this week.
Last week, President Obama basically said he has “no present plans” to reopen NAFTA, something he “vowed to do during his campaign,” as The New York Times reported.
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I’m kind of surprised we haven’t heard more about this, though I guess it could have been overwhelmed by the swine flu madness and all the other news this week.
Last week, President Obama basically said he has “no present plans” to reopen NAFTA, something he “vowed to do during his campaign,” as The New York Times reported.
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How do you overcome the perception – and reality- of a central city neighborhood in a Rust Belt city that is losing population? That’s Terry Glazer and United North’s challenge.
Glazer leads the Lagrange Development Corporation, a community development group that works to improve housing, jobs, economic opportunities, and the neighborhood in general in North Toledo.
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Rust Wire was able to sit down last week with the very busy Rhoda Matthews, executive director of Flint Club, a Flint, Michigan-based group working to improve the city and reaching out to the large group of Flint natives who no longer call the Vehicle City home.
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