A friend of mine took me on a tour of the St. Clair-Superior Neighborhood on the near east side of Cleveland yesterday. This neighborhood is one of the hardest-hit by the housing crisis. Only about 10 percent of the housing is occupied. A local real estate investor has taken an interest in the neighborhood because of its low real estate prices and proximity to downtown and Lake Erie.
We began our tour at an east side park with a nice view of Lake Erie. A lot of people dock their boats …

I’ve decided we’re going to start featuring some of the better and more interesting blogs about the Rust Belt. There’s so many good ones.
This one’s a gem. It’s written by a Flint native who is currently a freelance journalist living in San Francisco. Click on the link to see vintage postcards of “Vehicle City” and read some amusing discourse about the auto bailouts.
http://www.flintexpats.com/
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson used his annual state of the city address yesterday to advance the idea of regionalism for Cleveland-area education providers.
“We cannot continue to go our separate ways and say everyone can fend for themselves,” Jackson told a crowd of several hundred at the downtown Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre hotel.
“Education is a regional concern and should be approached in the same way, with the same vigor as a regional economy. Each student in every district should learn at the same pace and perform at the same high …

By Kate Giammarise
Jeff Nelson may be one of Toledo’s most interesting residents. Nelson, 46, has called the Glass City home for the last five years. If you live in Toledo, you may know him from his involvement in Old West End activities, or by the large anti-war signs he has displayed on his lawn. Others know him as the drummer in Minor Threat, a hardcore punk band in the early 1980s that launched the Straight Edge movement. Nelson still co-owns Dischord Records. He grew up overseas and in Washington, D.C.
He …

Every once in a while, The New York Times does some really great (and heartbreaking) reporting out of the Detroit area.
Today they’re carrying an article about Pontiac, Michigan–which is facing takeover by the state government amid unmanageable budget deficits, high unemployment and otherwise general misery.
There’s not a whole lot of happy news in this article but it’s the truth. People are suffering. This recession is real and it’s taking a real toll. Every time we read about a closing, that’s people’s lives that are ruined.
Like 19-year-old Tristan Williams, a college …