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.

I’ve always had this aversion to boosterism. I can barely stand to follow the Cleveland chamber of commerce’s Twitter feed. When Forbes said Cleveland was the most miserable city, I was annoyed, but mostly because I felt like there was really no need to point out that Cleveland has some pretty pervasive problems.

Sometimes, living in Cleveland, and being part of a social network that is defiantly pro-urban, I feel like I am being inundated with the opposite message–that Cleveland is great. This perspective screams that Cleveland is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “foodie” restaurants and arts venues. Among this group, there seems to be an honest belief that those from outside the city who would question its greatness have some kind of agenda, or are …

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 …

Waukesha, Wisconsin is a city whose identity has always been tied to water. In the late 1800s, the town was known for its natural springs. So fresh-tasting was the water that people traveled from around the country to share in its purported medicinal properties. Among those who sought its healing powers was first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.

But there are no springs in Waukesha anymore. Over the years, as Waukesha evolved into a sprawling and affluent suburb of Milwaukee, its springs went dry or were paved over. More recently, the deep sandstone aquifer that is the town’s main source of water has been drained substantially and has become contaminated with radium.

All of which has led to the watershed moment in which Waukesha finds itself today. The suburb is seeking permission to be the first community since the Great Lakes Pact of 2008 to pipe water in from the lakes, the country’s largest source of fresh surface water.

Richard Florida and the Brookings Institution examined some demographic data and came to the conclusion that young people are losing favor with places like Las Vegas and Phoenix. Instead, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and St. Louis are attracting more young professionals, according to the report.

Just let that sink in for a minute.

So you’re probably thinking, what about all my high school friends who are scattered across the South and Southwest? At least that’s what I’m thinking.

But it’s true that I moved to Cleveland two years ago, willingly. And we’ve had a handful of people step up to write posts for us about moving from Florida to Pittsburgh, etc.

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.

While growing up, I spent much time in McKeesport, the Mon Valley town that my mother is from. I would hear her stories of what the broken valley towns were once like. My mother and her siblings passed on their memories of growing up there in prosperous and hopeful times. When I returned to Pennsylvania at the beginning of 2009, I sought a better understanding of the unique relationship between person and home.

Hope has a powerful impact on the building of home. The thought constructs an unfaltering dream that will …

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 …

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 …