Source: flickr.com

In a number of cities, there are certain derelict streets that are nearly denuded of dwellings or businesses. Desolate and forlorn, these streets resemble something out of a post war apocalypse. Detroit may be the poster child du jour of such stark and sad emptiness, but there are many other examples across the Rust Belt and elsewhere. What to do with neglected streets has long been a source of planning discussion and conjecture.  In some instances entire abandoned neighborhoods have or are being converted to urban agriculture or community gardens.  However, this avid bicycle commuter has another suggestion for a few of these lowly streets without names – repurpose them to active transportation byways.

Quite often bicycle routes consist of abandoned railroad corridors, canal towpaths, or shared lanes in a sea of motor vehicles. I, like many other cyclists, am not necessarily enamored with having to pedal cheek-to-cheek with four-wheeled motorized metal missiles. Seems no matter the efforts to stave off accidents and injury, the metal missiles will always win the contest. The other problem is that there are a finite number of old railroad or canal corridors to choose from, so many populations go un or underserved.

Hence, if a street is already underutilized and virtually desolate, then why not just finish the job?  Why not consider purchasing or re-accessing those land uses that have currently sole access to the particular street and then repurpose the entire street into an active transportation byway serving bicyclists, pedestrians, joggers, roller-bladers, Segway users, and others?

In certain instances, “streets with no name” could be converted to mass transit corridors akin to busways. Needless to say, not every desolate street or remnant neighborhood would be appropriate for such a transformation, but I would be willing to bet that in certain cities and in certain locations, there are some excellent opportunities just waiting for foresighted leaders to actively pursue this idea.

Source: flickr.com

Converting an existing street would also seem to be an easier/effective/efficient/economical way to expand a city’s active transportation infrastructure rather than wholly design, acquire, and build a completely new route. Given the extent of economic decline that would precipitate a “street with no name,” it would be hard to imagine any land acquisition costs being a significant impediment. Lastly, necessary public utilities along the byway along the could remain accessible for care, maintenance, and serve the revitalized areas.

The short-term goals of establishing active transportation byways are to:

·        enhance the city’s and region’s active transportation resources;

·        reduce the city’s and region’s carbon footprint;

·        improve overall community health and fitness;

·        reinvigorate the sense of place;

·        to rebuild community pride; and

·        infuse economic energy and cultural vibe.

Source: phillyrecord.com

In the longer-term, the goal of such a repurposing enterprise would be to effectively stymy and then to reverse the decline found along these desolated streets and their adjoining neighborhoods by utilizing active transportation corridors as the conduit.

Am I missing or overlooking something here? Any thoughts or feedback on these ideas would be appreciated.

- Rick Brown

This post originally appeared in The News Outlet.

It’s a Saturday morning and I’m picking up trash in downtown Youngstown.

Lo and behold, what blows down W. Federal Street, landing at my picker? A newspaper called ‘Shale Play‘ which covers Northeast Ohio shale activity exclusively.

Wondering where this came from – and assuming it was somewhere downtown – I walked to the post office where most of the local and regional newspapers bins are located.

Bingo.

And this paper is free.

So, I grab a copy and trot over to a local coffee shop for a read.

Truth be told, when I first approached the bin, I thought it was just industry propaganda because, well, it kind of presents itself that way.

However, the second page reveals that ‘Shale Play’ is ‘published as joint project by the Morning Journal, The Review, Salem News and the Tribune Chronicle‘.

I read it cover to cover.

While it’s obvious that there’s an overarching pro-industry slant (and nearly every single advertisement is industry-related), there were several articles that were exclusively dedicated to opposition coverage. So, there was at least some balance and journalist integrity.

Anyway, this got me to thinking: just how many different regional shale-exclusive media features are there now?

By my count, the list includes (not limited to):

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s ‘Pipeline‘

• Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Marcellus Shale Section

• Observer Reporter (Washington County, PA) Energy – Marcellus Section

• Akron Beacon-Journal’s Utica Shale Section

• Canton Repository, Times-Reporter & The Independent’s 72-page ‘Ohio’s Energy Rebirth‘

• The Vindicator’s ‘Shale Sheet‘

• The Business Journal’s ‘Drilling Down‘

• The News Outlet’s ‘Inside Shale‘

• New Castle News ‘Hot Topics – Marcellus Shale‘

And that’s just traditional media. Of course, there’s a mess of websites and blogs to boot.

So this, then, got me thinking: imagine if we had this type of exclusive coverage for things like: the economic impact of local food production…or technology…or smart regional planning and development…or downtown-to-downtown public transportation like high speed rail and regional riverfront and bike trail development…or even aspects of sustainable energy production that we can make happen regionally.

You know, all that idealist, ‘progressive’ stuff. Those things that are not multi-billion dollar, multinational industries nor do much by way of advertising dollars for local media…but could prove to be important, longer-term – and more sustainable – parts of an economic equation all the same…unlike natural & gas and oil which is sure to provide significant short-term economic benefit but is equally sure to fold up shop the minute the last cubic inch of resource is inevitably extracted.

Unfortunately, I doubt there will ever be a day where that paper finds itself at my feet.

And that’s ok. Obviously, natural gas & oil is something that certainly should command our attention right now.

It just can’t afford to be the only thing. And that’s something we can’t lose sight of no matter how much shale coverage is thrown our way.

But that’s for another post…

~ Phil Kidd

We are really excited to have received four excellent submissions from four people around North America. I said I would give $100 to the winner, and print out the image on some t-shirts to sell, give Dolan a taste of his own medicine.

Just as a refresher, here’s what we’re working with here:

Ok. Without further ado: the submissions. You can vote at the bottom.

This was submitted by A. Stematz:

This one comes to us from Tom G:

This one is from Victoria Hinchcliffe:

And finally, NYC artist Collen DeBose:

I am interested to hear your feedback because I was planning to print one of these out and try selling it.

online surveys

If you are not familiar with the “functionally obsolete” tax game that is being employed most often by big box retailers, the claim that is made is their building is “functionally obsolete”  because it was specifically designed and built for their purpose and no other entity could possible adapt it. Needless to say, the whole argument is rather sketchy, but unfortunately, state tax tribunals have been swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. This argument might be plausible or reasonable if the structure was 20+ years old, but it is also being made for newly/recently constructed buildings. The story in the May 8, 2013 edition of City Pulse is an example of the same scheme being used for an office building. Exactly how hard is it to move cubicles, desks, and partitions?

The professional planning community needs to address this issue and fast. If a building is to become so dysfunctional (or functionally obsolete) so quickly, should it be approving for construction in the first place? And if it means the local property taxes are going to soon take a backhanded hit in the process, even more reason to deny the project unless the applicant certifies the building will be erected In an manner that is not dysfunctional (a.k.a. functionally obsolete).

Most special use (or conditional use) permit approvals require a community to determine whether the use “will not be detrimental to the economic welfare of neighboring properties or the surrounding community.” If the proposed building is to become “functionally obsolete” within ten years, no realistic or reasonable decision maker should approve its construction. Otherwise, all they are doing is losing badly at a zero sum game.

- Rick Brown

Add them up: The Imperial Avenue atrocity of 11 women raped and murdered by Anthony Sowell; The gunning down of Timothy Russell and Melissa Williams by out-of-control Cleveland police; and now the revelation that three young women have been held captive for years in a home on the city’s near West Side right under our noses. And who knows how many other failures?

What does this tell us?

It tells us a version of what Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine reported about the recent  police chase and gunning down with 137 bullets of two unarmed suspects, Timothy Russell and Melissa Williams.

DeWine said that the police chase of some 62 police cars – 59 without permission – racing at very high speeds through the city streets of Cleveland to capture and kill two unarmed suspects was a “systemic failure” of command and communications. It was more than that.

It goes a lot farther, doesn’t it?

The revelation that these three women were held captive, no matter what the circumstances get revealed, shows that the SYSTEMIC FAILURE goes far beyond the police force.

Who is paying attention? What is happening on Cleveland streets?

Who are on the streets of Cleveland with open eyes? Apparently not the Cleveland police. They’re paid to do that job. Where are they – at Progressive Field?

These tragedies are only a symptom of a systemic failure of a town and its leadership that has utterly avoided giving a damned about its ordinary citizens.

The failure is through and through the system with no hint that it is even going to be recognized.

The disinterest just keeps showing up. But no one seems to put it together. No one seems to be looking at the pattern we’ve adopted and set in stone.

The media can run as big headlines as it wishes and as many breaking stories as it likes to air but it doesn’t go beneath the surface.

It can’t or it won’t.

I watched city government for a long, long time and up very close at city hall.

The problems of carelessness go, of course, from before my time here – from the disastrous and uncaring days of urban renewal that destroyed communities and ways of life to the glorification of sports teams that overshadowed our problems.

We care more about how many new restaurants there are in downtown than in how the rest of the city lives. To hell with the people. Our leaders shout it in so many ways. But who hears?

How could Sowell the rapist and murderer and Ariel Castro – the apparent kidnapper of the three women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – quietly live on Cleveland streets for years without anyone knowing?

Why is there a police force?

Where were the mayors and other political leaders – from George Voinovich, George Forbes, Jay Westbrook, now Frank Jackson and Martin Sweeney – and what have they been doing? Our leaders.

They were more concerned about developers, building stadiums and arenas, attracting a gambling joint and doling out all kinds of subsidies but not paying attention obviously to where their citizens lived or how.

Crime stories and police have not been the focus at all of my attention through the years.

However, I have watched what the focus of this community’s political, business and civic leaders has been. It has been far, far too much on what the Sam Millers, the Dick Jacobses, the Carneys, the Gunds and the Ratners have wanted. What business, developers and foundation leaders have said we need.

No one asked the ordinary people.

They have paid much less attention to the average Clevelander. The tragedies at Imperial Avenue and Seymour Avenue and in the street attest to this.

So does the poverty. The bad housing. The ill and dying children.

I don’t know how Mayor Jackson, Safety Director Martin Flask and Police Chief Frank McGrath and the entire police force feel. They should feel deep, deep shame today.

They may have to swim in national attention now. I hope so. Because this town needs a drastic shaking up. And it won’t come locally.

We need a lot of questions answered. Hope someone asks the right questions.

May 7th, will be a day that lives on fondly in Cleveland for years to come. Families can breathe a united sigh of relief as a community trauma comes to a bittersweet end. Yesterday, three women; Amanda Berry (27), Gina DeJesus (23), and Michelle Knight (30) were found on Cleveland’s near west side after having been missing anywhere from nine to eleven years.

Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus 

The women were locked in a house owned by Ariel Castro, who along with his two brothers were arrested yesterday. We don’t know much, as details on the kidnapping are emerging as the investigation continues.

There are, however, a number of things that we do know. What we can take away speaks less to the central issues of child/ human trafficking, and more to the issue of a community and what it means to belong to one.

What yesterday revealed is that, despite being told repeatedly that we are a nation that lives in the glow of our portable computers, iPods, and our Facebook-warped-reality, there are still pockets of this world where people engage, and interface with, their community and one another. It is, admittedly, something that I often wonder about myself. What will communities look like as we increasingly identify more with non-physical communities (twitter followers/ facebook ‘friends’ / instragram ‘likes’) than with one another? People increasingly don’t know who their neighbors are and it goes without saying, but this is a very bad thing.

What this disturbing story tells us is that, despite the trends, there is hope. There is hope that in communities people can look out for one another, take care of one another, and become unified in the most unexpected moments. The man who answered the call for help, Charles Ramsey, is a hero, and we all could learn a thing or two from him. He heard a call for help and responded.  Without Charles Ramsey the fate of these young women would still be unknown.

Charles Ramsey – Scott Shaw – Cleveland Plain Dealer 

In an interview with Cleveland’s Channel 5 News,  Ramsey stated that he had lived in the neighborhood for just a year. This seemingly moot point resonated with me. I cannot help but wonder and reflect on my own experience and role as a neighbor. In the past two years I have moved twice, living in two distinctly different communities throughout Cleveland. Last year, I lived in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood at E. 61st and St. Clair. This year, I live in Gordon Square at W. 61st and Detroit. The actions of Mr. Ramsey make me question the degree to which I really know my neighbors and the lengths I would go to protect them. In both communities that I lived in, leaders emerge, and familiar faces began to make themselves known – the Charles Ramseys of the neighborhood, if you will. Recognizable patterns develop and you can, slowly, begin to catch on to when things are off, it’s a gut feeling or spidey sense that we all carry with us. Some of us have this sense for feeling more finely tuned than others. Certain people can notice when the smallest thing is different and respond without thinking twice. That is what Mr. Ramsey possesses, and what Mr. Ramsey did. What he carries with him is an acknowledgement that we are each other’s support system; we are nothing without our neighbors, our community, our family.

Felix DeJesus, father of Gina DeJesus – Tony Dejak – AP Photo 

Each of our communities would benefit from a Charles Ramsey living in it, we all would be better off to take a note from him, and begin to act accordingly. Take this opportunity to hug a little tighter the women and  men in your life that you love and care for. Introduce yourself to that neighbor you have seen walk past your front door a couple of times, but have never acknowledged. Shoot the shit with people at your corner and make yourself vulnerable, because it is only in these situations that you can grow closer to becoming the Ramsey of your neighborhood.

Take this opportunity to realize that Charles Ramsey is a hero, not a meme. He is a man, not a viral sensation. He speaks to the aspirations of every community and while his interviews will be, and already are, remixed and autotuned let us not forget the heroics this man displayed yesterday and ask yourself what you would have done.

After hearing the news, I went to my neighborhood’s ‘commons’ the Convenient Food Mart, and spoke with the owners and long-time residents of the neighborhood. In our conversation something profound and reassuring took place. “I know if there is an extra cat in somebody’s house! That shit wouldn’t ever happen on our block – we look out for each other here!”  It was a statement that, while it might not be entirely true, has started a conversation between neighbors. It was out of this conversation that I realized I have a Charles Ramsey on my block – and it’s a great feeling that is at once empowering and comforting, but we could always use more! Who is your Charles Ramsey, is it you, an elder, or just a loquacious little guy constantly riding his scooter up and down the block keeping tabs on everybody?  Know your support system and actively contribute to its growth.

Scott Shaw – Cleveland Plain Dealer 

So look out for each other! It starts with a hand shake, a wave, a passing comment or any number of things! Learn your neighbors names, learn their hobbies their passions, their interests, and no this doesn’t make you a stalker or a creep, it makes you human! Make your neighborhood better, more resilient and better off just by having a conversation and having each other’s backs.

Below is the aforementioned interview. Listen to the way he speaks about his community, his neighbors, domestic violence, and how despite being a fully engaged resident of his community, some things can still slip through the cracks. In a three minute interview Charles Ramsey is able to articulate the diverse issues at hand from domestic violence, to activities that make a neighborhood a neighborhood. “We see this guy every day!”  Even in a community where you have barbecues,  music playing, and conversations taking place things like this can still happen, which only underscores the need to know, on a personal level, your neighbors. People can be pretty awful, but Charles Ramsey reminds us that they can be utterly amazing too.

I hate the Cleveland Indian’s logo. I have some close friends in Cleveland that are native American and they hate it also. It’s embarrassing for the region. It’s embarrassing for humanity. I could forgive Cleveland for this logo if it was 1929, but it’s 2013 for Christ’s sake — mocking victims of genocide just isn’t cool anymore. Somehow though, Cleveland’s mascot exists in this vacuum where racial sensitivities haven’t evolved since Gone with the Wind premiered.

Anyway, I have an idea. I need your help. I want to commission an artist to do a grotesque, mocking caricature of Larry Dolan that I can print on some t-shirts and sell to other people that are offended by his profiteering from humiliating and stereotyping an oppressed minority group. Now, I realize it won’t ever be as hurtful, since people like Dolan, a lawyer who attended St. Ignatius prep school, haven’t had to endure 100s of years of human rights abuses. But what can we do?

Anyway if you are an artist or know an artist who is up to the task, we’re looking for a cartoon image of Dolan in the style of Chief Wahoo, the more insulting the better. I can pay $100, which isn’t much. But also, if any sympathetic readers want to donate to this campaign, using the Paypal link on the right hand side of the website, I’ll add that to the pot and give it to the designer.

Cleveland should have dropped Chief Wahoo decades ago. I really think that the dreadful track record of this city’s sports team might have something to do with the bad karma this tasteless mascot earns us. I haven’t been to any of the opening day protests, but if you ask me they should move them to the lawn of Progressive Insurance — who owns the naming rights to the Indians stadium — on the day of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. It’s unbelievable to me that respectable businesses and businessmen would attach their names to something so insensitive. Or that the region would for that matter, especially as it tries to attract immigrants and repair its national image.

Anyway, email us at rustbeltnews [at] gmail [dot] com to submit entries or ask questions.

UPDATE: We already got this pretty slick drawing from New York City artist Collen DeBose. Check it out:

A.S.

The growth of car-share has helped people forgo the expense of car ownership in major cities like Washington and Seattle, where it’s been widely adopted. But not every city has the market to sustain car-share services from companies like Zipcar or Hertz. In his book Walkable City, Jeff Speck writes that your city might not be “ready” for car-share if, when you stick out your hand downtown, a cab doesn’t stop.

Now an organization in Buffalo, New York, is working to open up car-share to new markets and new demographics. The non-profit Buffalo CarShare has grown to serve 500 members since it launched four years ago in one of the poorest cities in the country.

Making car-share work in a city like Buffalo took some adaptation. Co-founder and executive director Creighton Randall says Buffalo CarShare has had to adjust its business model to appeal to a much more diverse clientele than, say, Zipcar. Nearly half of Buffalo CarShare’s members live in households with an annual income of less than $25,000. About a quarter don’t have an email account. By contrast, less than 13 percent of Zipcar users report household incomes lower than $30,000. In Buffalo, Zipcar markets its cars almost exclusively to University of Buffalo students and staff.

Buffalo CarShare is able to reach people with low incomes primarily because — in contrast to Zipcar — it is willing to serve customers face-to-face or through the mail, if need be, Randall says. The business operates out of a transit-accessible storefront near the city center — and many of its customers are walk-ins. The organization is also willing to send out bills by mail, or accept money orders. Its 14 cars are sited at 12 different locations across the city.

“If we appealed to the same membership base in other cities where this works, it just wouldn’t work,” said Randall. “For car-sharing to work in a smaller city like Buffalo, that doesn’t have an enormous college as an anchor institution, it needs to work for everybody.”

Buffalo CarShare was started in 2008 by a group of six friends after they landed a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and NYSDOT. It operates as a non-profit and continues to accept grant funding to support mainly capital acquisition. About 90 percent of the organization’s operating costs are covered by fees to customers, Randall reports.

Buffalo CarShare is taking the lead on GO Bikes, a new bike-share system for the city that does not involve docking stations. Image: ##http://www.buffalorising.com/2013/02/sharing-is-caring-in-buffalo.html##Buffalo Rising##

The founders drew inspiration from a Minneapolis-based non-profit called Hourcar, which was launched in 2005 with grants from the McKnight Foundation and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative (backers of the city’s new light rail line). Hourcar is growing from 39 to 70 cars this year and currently serves 1,900 members.

Randall says Buffalo CarShare does not seek collateral from members before letting them take out cars. “We have a lot of face-to-face interaction with our members,” said Randall. “That solves a lot of problems for us.” Buffalo CarShare does a thorough driving record examination before it accepts new customers, he said.

This year, Buffalo CarShare is entering an expansion phase. The organization is in the “beta” stages of a bike-share launch. They have purchased 75 bikes in partnership with the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Seneca Gaming Corporation, and University at Buffalo. Instead of docking stations, the system — Buffalo BikeShare — will use bikes with internal GPS and locking mechanisms, supplied by the company Social Bikes. Buffalo CarShare plans to eventually take the lead on a city-wide program that would include hundreds of bikes. They hope the lower initial costs of this system can help make bike-share more accessible to people with a variety of income levels as well.

The organization is also planning to expand its car-share fleet “considerably,” thanks to an infusion from a major grant. The organization is also assisting some partners in Albany with the launch of Capital CarShare.

This model, Randall says, has the potential to open up the whole Rust Belt to car sharing.

On the T tonight, I came across this section: “In a capitalist economy, accumulated surplus value is in large part put to work to create even greater quantities of surplus value. This process does not occur with similar intensity in all sectors or territories of the capitalist economy. Its intensity depends, among other things, on the degree of market penetration in the sector or territory in question.” As the chapter is largely on the relationship between cities and surplus value, an idea popped into my head, and I’m hoping/guessing that it is not original, but I’m curious to know what’s out there on the topic, so here goes.

“Eds and meds” have been touted as the saviors of rust belt cities. Major hospitals and universities have led turnarounds in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, among others, and are looked to in any number of cities as the sectors that will at least stabilize, if not reverse the end-of-manufacturing decline. My idea/question is: Does the use of eds and meds as urban growth engines actually signal the penetration of health care and academia by the market, meaning that, potentially, much of the rising cost of healthcare and education is due to the institutions being put in place to ensure health care providers and universities are operated as a business/extract additional surplus value, rather than as a doctor’s office and a school? In healthcare, examples I can think of would be the biopharmaceutical industry, the patenting (or commodification) of genes and procedures, and the proliferation of shiny new hospital wings and research centers for things. In academia, in addition to the insanity that is textbooks, which economists keep trying to explain away as a incentives problem (the assigners of the books don’t pay for them, but that doesn’t explain why young economists need new editions every 2 years), there’s the idea that schools need to sell themselves with buildings, and study abroad, and all manner of bits of education that you consume rather than, I don’t know, grapple with in a good conversation with other smart people.

Second, if that is the case (and I think it is), how does thinking about it that way lead to better solutions? I think that among its key usefulness is that it shifts focus from the bits of the institutions that are still trying to operate like doctor’s offices and schools to the bits that are operating like businesses. In other words, if you’re looking to cut costs in healthcare, cut profits in biopharm and hospitals by making them less market-based rather than more. This means stop patenting plants and genes and allow the government, not “the market” to set prices for procedures, rather than blaming doctors or patients or emergency rooms. Stop the ballooning administrative positions, building construction, and degrees created to make money university tactics in favor of supporting faculty and student research, and stop trying to create performance measures and standard methods of evaluating the productivity of faculties and departments. None of those ideas are particularly novel, but I don’t know that I recognized their importance relative to other strategies that don’t specifically target the market penetration problem until I started thinking about surplus value.

That brings me to the last part of the thought, though. I like cities. I prefer cities that don’t have multiple sections that could be zombie movie sets (no offense meant, Cincinnati). If I’m against the collection of surplus value from the eds and meds sectors because it puts people I know and love into serious debt and makes others fear that they have outlived their funds and are a burden to their family, am I also then, without knowing it, calling for Pittsburgh and Cleveland and even Cambridge to be less vibrant and enticing places to live?

My current answer is I don’t think so. My two favorite quotes from Marx so far in this book are “All history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature” and “The productiveness of labor that serves as its [capital's, I think] foundation and starting point, is a gift, not of Nature, but of a history embracing thousands of centuries.” We know more than we have ever known about the way the world works (and can/should work), and we can get to a point where the idea that people work to feel fulfilled and there is enough to meet everyone’s needs does not make the reader of this blog shake their head at my naivete. We have learned that we like cities, and that people think great big thoughts best in cities, and that while cities may have arisen because they were located at necessary transhipment points and were a place where capitalists could capture value as goods were transported (among other reasons), they are also awesome places to try to cure cancer and teach yoga and have science museums and aquariums and Japanese burritos and kosher gluten-free dim sum and stores devoted entirely to lox. Therefore, even in a world where workers were not as alienated from the surplus they produced, surplus would likely still be used by many to support the cities we have come to love.

I think.

What do you think?

This post was written by Rosalie and originally appeared at the blog It Depends.