Reporting from the third annual Great Lakes Urban Exchange Conference in Cleveland …

Fran DiDonato was tired of hearing people complain about Cleveland–idly complain without trying to influence. Out of that process, the Cleveland Coalition was born.

DiDonato and fellow Cleveland resident Gauri Torgalkar became part of a team of about 11 that started thinking about how engaged citizens could affect public decision-making for the future of the city.

The group that formed is known as the Cleveland Coalition. Their strategy is to educate, collaborate and then act.

Today, the Great Lakes Cities: Urban Laboratories conference kicks off in Cleveland. The program promises a mix of policy discussions, neighborhood tours of Cleveland and lots more.
Read what Bruce Fisher has to say about it in his column in Buffalo’s ArtVoice. He’s very enthused about “the hopeful, the engaged and the talented” who will convene in Cleveland. And he gives Rust Wire a shout out!
-KG

Cleveland residents,
The Great Lakes Urban Exchange is hosing its third annual conference in Cleveland this year.
The group, which aims to share ideas and best practices for revitalizing Great Lakes cities, has a survey about how how the conference can best be used for “ACTION, rather than agendas.”
The group is “issuing this preemptive survey to help us plan conference activities that will be immediately actionable, useful, and effective in answering the needs of the ‘do-ers’ who are making Cleveland a healthier, more sustainable, more equitable and successful city.”
Find out more and …

Our friends at Great Lakes Urban Echange (GLUE) alerted me to this event: a film screening Tuesday, (Nov. 24) at 7:30 pm at the Drexel Theater, located at 2254 E. Main Street, in Bexley, Ohio.
The film is The New Metropolis, about America’s first suburbs and the problems they face. For a more detailed explaination of the film, click the link to the movie’s web site (above), or read a more detailed explanation from Cincinnati CityBeat.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion. The screening is being hosted by Greater …

Great Lakes Urban Exchange is bringing its “I Will Stay If” campaign to Cleveland tomorrow.
If you’re in the Cleveland metro area, stop by Speakeasy Bar, 1948 West 25th Street, between 5:30 and 8 p.m. Hear from speakers Lillian Kuri, Randell McShepard, and Matt Zone. Connect with like-minded urban advocates.
Also, tell local leaders what you want from your city.
Here’s mine: “I will stay in Cleveland if the city finally coordinates its traffic signals and takes down the 300 that are completely unnecessary.”
-AS

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Global Midwest Initiative have launched an new blog to talk about the future of our region.
These folks should be familiar to you if you heard Richard Longworth speak at the Great Lakes Urban Exchange conference earlier this year or have read his book Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism.
Welcome to the conversation!
-KG

Our friends at the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (aka GLUE) are bringing their “I Will Stay If…” party idea to Pittsburgh.
“Every party results in photographs of participants holding signs that tell what it is about their city that would make them stick with it. The photos will be data for GLUE to play a part in reviving and setting urban policy,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explained in today’s paper.
This idea may sound familiar - we wrote about the party in Detroit a few months ago (see photo above).
For more information about …

The good people at Great Lakes Urban Exchange convened more than 200 people in Buffalo last month to form a consensus about the best way to direct stimulus money in Great Lakes cities.
The result is summarizied in a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan on the GLUE web site.
Here’s a snippet:
“A specific concern of conferees is that the Obama Administration understand both the scale and the urgency of Great Lakes metros’ challenges.
Brownfields in our older, mainly small- and mid-sized metros are probably never going to become …

Our friends at Great Lakes Urban Exchange (aka GLUE) are featured this story in Artvoice, Buffalo’s alternative weekly paper.
GLUE-sters will be in Buffalo this week for their summit, “Great Lakes Metros and the New Opportunity: Remaking Policy and Practice in a Time of Transformation,” on Thursday, June 18 and Friday, June 19 at Buffalo State College.
“The goal of the conference is threefold: to identify ways to filter federal stimulus money into Great Lakes cities; to develop policy that nurtures the region and helps urban areas grow into sustainable units; and …

Our friends at Great Lakes Urban Exchange (aka GLUE) always have interesting and innovative ideas bouncing around their web site. (It must be all those cool young people they have involved in their organization…)
Last week, they explored one of my favorite topics, deconstruction - that’s when instead of just tearing down an old building, the building is taken apart and much of the material is salvaged.
Thanks, Sarah, for this interview with Buffalo ReUse!
-KG