I nearly killed myself to get these photos (wiped out on my bike). But it was worth it because I think they turned out pretty cool (even if I did shoot them on my iPhone).

I have lived in Cleveland for two and a half years and I’ve never been through the industrial valley at night until this weekend. It was surprisingly busy.

For more than two years, Rust Wire has been inviting photographers to share their perspective on Rust Belt cities. Now, we have collected some of the best shots into a traveling exhibition.
In case you missed it in Pittsburgh in April, Rust Wire is hosting another showing of our Big Urban Photography Project in Clevelandtown! The show opens 5:30 on Thursday, July 7 at Cleveland Public Art, 1951 W. 26th Street.

The show will feature the work of nearly one dozen photographers hailing from Buffalo, Erie, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown and other cities.
We …

Akron is a smart city. I just want to get that out of the way.
I was just browsing Green City Blue Lake Today and I stumbled across this: Akron Maps Out Sustainable Land Use and Transportation. Writes GCBL’s Mark Lefkowitz:
Connecting Communities: A Guide to Integrating Land Use and Transportation is a good read on the Akron/Summit region’s development patterns with an eye toward “increasing transportation choices, improving connectivity and reducing environmental impact.”
Wowza.
The article continues that Akron will be inventorying parking, sidewalks, transit stops, bikeways and landuse to explore …

Look out, Silicon Valley.
Read the report from Brookings here, which notes the success Rust Belt cities have had in attracting skilled immigrants.
The report notes:
“Perhaps most notable is the very high concentration of high-skilled immigrants in older industrial metro areas in the Midwest and Northeast such as Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Syracuse. Detroit, for instance, has 144 high-skilled immigrants for every 100 low-skilled immigrants. Immigrants in these metropolitan areas tilt toward high-skill because they blend earlier arriving cohorts who have had time to complete higher education with newcomers …

Despite a horror show of a presentation. Despite the casino construction being stopped. Despite horrible design. Despite half of the Landmark’s Commission not voting (six abstaining?) on the demolition of a architectural landmark for a parking spot, despite it all: the destruction of the historic Columbia Building was approved in Cleveland today.

My city made me sick today. It voted to cut off its nose to pretty it’s face.

After the vote, the packed meeting spilled out into the history of City Hall’s halls so as to provide an exclamation to a historical rerun — one of politics, power, and an old guard holding on to their means of affecting the city’s flesh like a picker obsessed with reopening the scabs.

This rebirth was to be a referendum on all the past deaths. Because this time our leaders got it, as the latest Cleveland renaissance was less about a convention center and a casino than it was about the urban fabric. Stand alone splashes were out, then. Building from within was in—with the importance on place, space, and connectivity a sort of confession to wash our past planning sins clean.

But then casino developer Rock Ventures wanted a parking garage/valet staging area to grease entry and exit. And to get it they wanted to demolish the landmarked Columbia Building, with the subsequent car port to be attached to the architectural chest of the city via an elevated glass walkway. And the leaders quickly said yes: the Planning Commission, the mayor’s office. And so it came to this: the Landmark’s Commission meeting, with a substantial public turnout ready and pissed. Or a public sick of hearing how Cleveland is but one last transgression away.

Rust Wire is proud to present The Big Urban Photography Project art show, featuring photographic interpretations of Rust Belt cities as seen through the eyes of their young residents. The show is the result of a multi-year collaborative media project that called on the region’s best documentary and fine arts photographers.
Over two years, we asked for open submissions of photography highlighting the unique blend of despair and hope in a number of cities. Dozens of amateur and professional photographers submitted images of Detroit, Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, Grand …

Last week, the US EPA and Department of Justice announced a $3 billion settlement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) to help keep untreated raw sewage from flowing into Lake Erie.
A bit of background: the agency is considered in violation of the 1972 Clean Water Act because of the sewage overflows that sometimes happen during rainstorms. (You can read more about the mechanics and science of how and why this happens here.) Cleveland isn’t alone in this problem; a number of Great Lakes cities discharge billions of gallons …

From The Nature Conservancy via the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“Americans are collectively moving from the places that are best equipped to deal with climate change to those that are least equipped,” (a Nature conservancy blogger) writes.
The five cities at the bottom in water sustainability (Las Vegas, Phoenix and Mesa,  Tucson, and Los Angeles) grew by an average of 37 percent from 1990-2000.
But among the five most water-sustainable cities, only Chicago grew. The other four cloudy and water-rich towns – Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit and New Orleans — all lost …

We’ve previously written about Cleveland’s lawsuit against 21 big banks over the mess that was created by the foreclosure crisis.
This article in Cleveland Scene summarizes the case nicely:
“The case against the banks isn’t a class action about individual homeowner losses, or whether they were tricked into signing commitments they couldn’t keep. (Attorney Joshua) Cohen knows that’s a common misunderstanding. Instead, it’s about the big picture from the city’s point of view — an attempt to recover money Cleveland has been forced to spend cleaning up …