I took off on a road trip across the Rust Belt this summer both because I saw it as a potential for some good stories (which you can find here) and because it seemed like a great opportunity to visit a part of the country that I knew solely through reading and conversation. I also veered a bit out of the Rust Belt’s traditional boundaries to do a story for NPR’s Latino USA (scroll down and then listen here) on immigrant urban farmers in Cincinnati.

And it turns out I wasn’t the only person with such ideas. One group of planning students from Department of Urban Planning at the University of Illinois made a similar trip, calling it “Rust Belt Road Trip.” Another group did the same thing as well. It has to be more than the catchy alliteration–there must be something in the air.

On Saturday, I participated in a “cycle through Pittsburgh’s industrial heritage tour” run by the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.

We met on the South Side at Station Square, where our knowledgeable guides gave us very detailed descriptions of the heavily industrialized landscape that used to occupy the ground we now stood on.
I won’t try to repeat the multitude of information they gave us, but I do want to give you a flavor of the great ride we took!
We cycled along the river…

to the South Side Works,

now a mixed use …

Sorry to have so many Pittsburgh-centric stories posted at once, but this one is pretty interesting.
Historians, labor folks, and activists in the Pittsburgh area will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Pressed Steel Car Strike on Saturday, where at least 12 people died in 1909.
There were several articles about the strike and its implications in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Read about the day’s activities, including a church service, march, marker unveiling, and concert with the Springsteen-esque Mike Stout and the Human Union here.
Read more about how the site is being preserved …