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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Take a look at the pieces created by Buffalo artist Dennis Maher using materials salvaged from demolished buildings.

The Baltimore native came to Buffalo eight years ago and finds the city to be a very inspiring place, he said in an interview with Rust Wire.

“There are very few places where I could do the kind of work I’m doing here,” working with debris, Maher said.

When he first came to Buffalo, he worked on a demolition crew to earn extra income.

His interest in demolition has different aspects, he said: the physicality of it, the political aspect of it as a development strategy, and as a process of erasure.

Music is Art is a not for profit (federal 501c3) organization founded in 2004 by The Goo Goo Dolls bassist and Buffalo native Robby Takac. Now, the Music is Art Festival is Buffalo’s most extensive exhibition of local music, dance and art. Every year the Festival features live music performances of many genres on multiple stages, plus:

Visual artists displaying their work

A stage dedicated to dance troupes

A Kids’ Village featuring live music and hands on art creation

Live art being created right in the middle of the action

Other not …

Take a look at these two quirky videos about congestion pricing by Lewis Lehe

If you are in Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon, check out Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City, screening at The Carnegie Museum of Art at 3 p.m.
Burnham was “one of America’s most important architects and urban planners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
-KG
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