Everyone should read this book, because it challenges conventional wisdom within the urbanist community. He argues powerfully that many activists’ attempts keep out evil developers just push development elsewhere or make cities more expensive. He’s critical of revitalization programs like light rail and convention centers. He’s critical of historic preservation.

One of the most novel cases made is that northern California should allow vastly more sprawl, because Californians emit very little carbon into their perpetually temperate atmosphere.

On Jan. 25th, 2010, the issues of vacancy were made explicit in Cleveland. Around 3 PM a house exploded on W. 83rd St in Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, and it leveled nearby houses, displaced families, and broke windows for blocks and blocks. No one died but several people were hurt. It was later determined the explosion was gas-induced, and that it was arson. After long, a neighbor was put on trial, acquitted, but jailed anyway because he’d been going in and out of the said vacant house taking appliances. In sum, the explosion served as a literal flashpoint to the uncertainties Clevelanders had been living with for years. And so it is here, then, that urban planning for feeling people will be tried.

In some ways, the semiconductor that sits in a display case at a new showroom in Cleveland’s Galleria is a more fitting emblem for this region than the foreign-made clothing that occupied this space when it was a high-end shopping mall.

Despite all the ink spilled over manufacturing job loss, Ohio’s economy is still dominated by the production of products. The manufacturing process is more streamlined, more technological, but items like the ones in this case, not the foreign-made clothing that it replaced, are still the bedrock of Northeast Ohio’s economy.

Lindsey Frick, 25, and her collaborators in the new Manufacturing Mart at the Galleria recognize that. Their mission is to help Ohio manufacturers …

Pittsburgh’s population has shrunk over the last decade, falling by 24,000 persons between 2000 and 2008. In the 2009 Democratic primary race for mayor, Councilman Patrick Dowd even made reversing population decline a signature issue of his campaign, (as you can see in this video).

We can get by without steel mills, but new residents are sorely needed to support the legacy costs of public servants employed when Pittsburgh had double the public to serve.

While Pittsburgh’s population dips, the U.S. Hispanic demographic drives American population growth and is projected to triple by 2050. Immigration accounts for recent trends, but projections also depend on higher Hispanic birth rates.

Rust Wire correspondent Ivy Hughes recently visited Germany’s Ruhr District, a northwestern part of the country recovering from the loss of jobs in of the steel and coal industry. The district includes 53 cites and more than 5.3 million residents. The region is a 2010 European Capital of Culture, an annul EU designation awarded to a city or region for the purpose of showcasing its cultural development. As such, the municipalities within the Ruhr District worked within a €62.5 million budget to create 300 projects and 2,500 events highlighting its …

Rust Wire correspondent Ivy Hughes recently visited Germany’s Ruhr District, a northwestern part of the country recovering from the loss of jobs in of the steel and coal industry. The district includes 53 cites and more than 5.3 million residents. The region is a 2010 European Capital of Culture, an annul EU designation awarded to a city or region for the purpose of showcasing its cultural development. As such, the municipalities within the Ruhr District worked within a €62.5 million budget to create 300 projects and 2,500 events highlighting its …

Last week, the US EPA and Department of Justice announced a $3 billion settlement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) to help keep untreated raw sewage from flowing into Lake Erie.
A bit of background: the agency is considered in violation of the 1972 Clean Water Act because of the sewage overflows that sometimes happen during rainstorms. (You can read more about the mechanics and science of how and why this happens here.) Cleveland isn’t alone in this problem; a number of Great Lakes cities discharge billions of gallons …

Rust Wire correspondent Ivy Hughes recently visited Germany’s Ruhr District, a northwestern part of the country recovering from the loss of jobs in of the steel and coal industry. The district includes 53 cites and more than 5.3 million residents. The region is a 2010 European Capital of Culture, an annul EU designation awarded to a city or region for the purpose of showcasing its cultural development. As such, the municipalities within the Ruhr District worked within a €62.5 million budget to create 300 projects and 2,500 events highlighting its …

The Wall Street Journal highlights a city in Belgium where people take tours of sites that include abandoned steel works, slag heaps and unfinished metro stations.
The attraction? The fascination of ugly things, the tour leader tells the paper.
Many thanks to Rust Wire reader and contributor Lewis Lehe for bringing this story to our attention!
-KG
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This is a refreshingly cool thing happening in the fair city of Cleveland.
The Cleveland Indians have turned their ballpark into a wintertime playground, with ice slides coming down the bleachers and skating in the outfield.
Genius!
Snow Days opened this weekend. The cost is $5-20, depending on what you opt for.
This fits nicely with my personal philosophy about winter: get out an enjoy it! Kudos to everyone involved.
-A.S.
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