We at Rust Wire have certainly done our share of beating up on Forbes Magazine on this blog.
But here’s an interesting editorial by Aaron Renn on the “mayor as CEO” idea, and the importance of a city’s strategy and “brand.”
And before you tell me, “We’ve heard a million times already how cities should be run more efficiently and business-like,” just read the piece. This isn’t the usual “lessons cities can learn from the private sector” story.
-KG
Tweet

Reading the Digging Pitt blog recently, I want to second their call to have Pittsburgh (or any other Rust Belt city, for that matter) host a Jane’s Walk – a neighborhood walk in the spirit of urban thinker Jane Jacobs.
A number of other cities have done this and Pittsburgh – or Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, etc. – should all jump on the bandwagon.
Volunteer guides lead tours of various neighborhoods. From Digging Pitt, “Some tours focus on heritage sites, while others explore the nooks and crannies of the city. From great hangouts …

This week I attended a conference called “Finding Common Ground” at the Gleaners building in East Detroit. I met some people at this event who seem very willing and excited to change Detroit in meaningful ways. There were two Dans: Pitera and Carmody of University Detroit Mercy’s Architecture program and Eastern Market respectively. Their presentations on the possibilities that exist in Detroit’s future spoke to me in ways I had not imagined. I also met several young people working with Southwest Solutions who were enthusiastic about their organization’s community development mission.

On Saturday I found myself in Detroit again. The Detroit Urban Craft Fair was a fine example of entrepreneurship in action.

It’s always terrible to hear about people losing their jobs — but it seems even worse in a bad recession and in a place like McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
Earlier this week, a call center that employed 600 – and had received considerable tax abatements from local governments – announced it would be shutting down.
You can read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s coverage, or the excellent post by McKeesport blogger Jason Togyer.
I think some (like Togyer) would say this situation shows the folly of expecting low-wage, easily outsourceable service jobs to replace the manufacturing jobs …

Reading this Wall Street Journal piece about “pranksters” causing “mischief” in Detroit’s abandonded buildings totally pissed me off.
It sounded more like wanton destruction for the sake of destruction to me.
The article details how this group used sledgehammers to break down this wall and push a truck out of a fourth story window in the old Packard plant (a site we’ve previously highlighted on this blog). They even videotaped their caper.
I don’t fault people for wanting to go inside and explore these old structures – I’ve done it myself. But wrecking …

I enjoyed reading this op-ed in the Youngstown Vindicator, written by a newcomer to the community.
She points out that negative attitudes by Youngstowners toward their city have been surprising to her.
“[F]orgive me if this suggestion to the natives is way off base, but when somebody tells you they just moved to Youngstown it probably isn’t helping the town’s image to blurt out, ‘Why?’”
How much do negative attitudes impact your city?
Do they prevent positive change from taking place or are people just being realistic and pragmatic after years of problems?
-KG
Tweet

I spent a great Sunday afternoon exploring what is surely one of Pittsburgh’s coolest neighborhoods – the South Side Slopes.
I was there as part of the StepTrek, an annual event that celebrates the neighborhood and raises funds for improvements and projects.
For those unfamiliar with the topography, Pittsburgh is a hilly city with numerous sets of steps (which are actual legal streets) -documented in this book.
The annual StepTrek gives participants maps and suggests they walk along one of several courses- seeing Realtor open houses, neighborhood churches, memorials, parks, an art studio, …

After spending a few days in Chicago and Milwaukee recently, I noticed how great a job both these cities do of utilizing their lakefront.
In both Chi-town and Milwaukee (pictured above) people have tons of direct access to Lake Michigan: miles of beautiful lakefront parks and trails for biking, walking, or just general enjoyment of the water.
It especially made me notice how poor a job Cleveland does at utilizing a similar space.
What’s on Cleveland’s lakefront? There is the beautiful Edgewater Park, but there’s also a power plant, highway, the shipping port, …

The Tax Bias Against Cities
Not that long ago, I couldn’t imagine a more boring topic than taxes. Then I saw this documentary about how regressive state taxes in Alabama were enriching the wealthy at the expense of the state’s poorest residents. The documentary featured people that literally did not have indoor plumbing but were carrying the state government on their backs while many wealthy residents of the state were entirely exempt from paying state taxes. This is because Alabama has a regressive state income tax policy that lets residents write …

A Detroit News story today about an effort to reform a Detroit Public School caught my eye.  The story was about Osborn High School, where only 4 percent of students passed the math and writing portions of the Michigan merit exam last year.

Did you know what the graduation rate in Detroit Public Schools is? 37.5 percent! The lowest in the country.
Tweet