Hey, guys! Your loudmouth Rust Wire editor recently appeared on a podcast produced by some very smart urbanists in the city of Cincinnati. Angie Schmitt and the folks behind the awesome blog Urban Cincy got to discuss how transportation projects have been politicized in the state of Ohio, in particular sustainable urban projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar and Cleveland’s West Shoreway project. If this is the type of thing that floats your boat, and I happen to know there are at least four people in this region for whom it …

People often accuse me of being angry or negative. It’s a pretty highly charged accusation and I have to admit that sometimes it stings; but more and more I’m used to it.
I’ve thought it over a little bit, you see, and I don’t really have an anger problem in my personal life. Not in my family. Not in my relationship with my boyfriend. Not at my job. But, oh my gosh, a land use issue in Cleveland can really set me off. It raises my blood pressure. I had to …

This commercial aired during the last Super Bowl. It seems to borrow from the “Imported from Detroit” ads by Chrysler in highlighting the strength and endurance of hard-luck Rust Belt cities. Its focused us Buffalo and it’s an ad for a local television station, I believe.
Chrysler wasn’t the first company to seize on the blend of nostalgia and sympathy for Rust Belt cities in an attempt to move products. As we’ve reported, Levi’s famously used Braddock, Pennsylvania to sell jeans, and Pallidium boots used Detroit’s industrial ruins to sell boots.
As …

Tom Bier, a professor at Cleveland State University, is my hero. He’s the region’s leading expert on sprawl.
He gave a speech recently at the Northeast Ohio City Council Association. This is a long video, (I recommend starting at 5 minutes or later) but I took the time to summarize some of the more important points below.

-80 percent of people who sell homes in Cuyahoga County move outward. 50 percent move to an outlying county.
-”Schools are not the issue. Only about 30 percent of all the households in NE Ohio have …

For a second, there was a it looked like cycling in Cleveland had arrived. A little corner of downtown has been turned into Portland, with a green, two-way cycle track — the first space ever downtown just for those on two wheels.
And then, just like cheap campaign buzz, it was over. But that’s the way it was planned — Cleveland’s one-week, pop-up cycle track. So what did we learn from the experience? Here is the video evidence:

Pop Up Rockwell from KSU CUDC on Vimeo.
I have word from some authorities on …