Between 2000 and 2008, large metropolitan areas saw their suburban poverty rates grow at twice the rate of inner cities, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution.
For example, in 2008, 23 percent more people were living in poverty outside the city of Cleveland’s borders than inside it. That’s a 44 percent jump since 2000, for a total of 9 percent of the suburban population. Meanwhile the number of poor in the city of Cleveland decreased, WCPN Ideastream reports.
Similar trends were reported in Akron and Youngstown.
Also of note:
-Social service …

Are African American males our greatest untapped resource?

The answer is yes, according to a study by Policy Bridge, Cleveland-based, minority-focused think tank.

“No single resource in Northeast Ohio is as underutilized as African-American males,” reports the agency in its study, Untapped Potential, African-American Males in Northeast Ohio.

• In Cleveland, roughly 65 percent of all males living in poverty are
African-American.

• Roughly a third of African-American men in

Los Angeles-based photographer David Zaitz took a six day road trip through the Rust Belt in July 2009.  Zaitz drove over 1,900 miles in seven days, visiting legendary Rust Belt cities such as Gary, South Bend, Elkhardt, Youngstown, Wheeling, Canton, Akron, Detroit and Flint.

Zaitz will be posting additional images and commentary from his trip in the coming weeks.
A selection of his photographic essay can be seen here.

    Akron’s long-time mayor Don Plusquellic, a pioneer in regional economic development who has been credited with helping double the size of the downtown workforce, is facing a recall.
    Former Akron City Councilman Warner Mendenhall, a political rival of the mayor, has gathered the 3,179 signatures needed to hold a special election this summer to recall Plusquellic, The Plain Dealer reports.
    The special election will cost Akron taxpayers $175,000. Worse, The Plain Dealer reports that the special election favors Plusquellic opponents and few people in Akron are even aware of …

This site is intended to consolidate and develop news and information about post-industrial Great Lakes cities. It was developed by two former newspaper reporters with ties to Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio and Erie and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We’ve noted that there is a lot of good information about Rust Belt issues coming from blogs and the mainstream media. We hope to sort out the good stuff and summarize it for problem solvers and concerned citizens from Buffalo to St. Louis.
We also intend to develop some original stories and photography. Any …