Read about the efforts of young St. Louisans (St. Louis-ites? STLers?) to bring more brain and creative power to their city.
Rust Wire readers will see at least two familiar names in this story– that of Jeff and Randy Vines, frequent contributors to this site! Keep up the good work guys!
-KG
Tweet

How do you view your city? How do you want others to view it?

A new interactive arts program in St. Louis poses those questions, and calls on citizens to create the portrait through media and personal expression.

Later this month, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts will launch Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark, named for and continuing the legacy of a local urban activist who inspired community engagement through art.

Matta-Clark is best known for his “building cuts,” a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.

Christopher Steiner’s new book $20 Per Gallon is an interesting read. The book’s thesis is that oil and gasoline prices will appreciate over time. Not just to $4 per gallon like we saw last summer, but significantly higher as supply dwindles and demand continues to pick up steam. It’s not all bad news, though. One potential revival that Steiner points to is the resurgence of Rust Belt cities; some of the same cities that have been badly struggling over the past few years.

Admittedly, it’s a plausible theory. Rust Belt cities …

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) is bringing its ‘Save the Dream’ foreclosure prevention event to St. Louis July 31 through August 1.
The organization says it will have 250 housing counselors and 500 volunteers on hand to handle crowds in St. Louis. A spokesman says NACA has already helped 25,000 homeowners receive loan modifications that helped them remain in their homes.
NACA recently stopped in Cleveland, where media sources claimed 80 percent of attendees were able to negotiate loan modifications that saved their homes.
Rust Wire disclaimer: From what I read, attending …

This article from St. Louis’ alt-weekly paper takes a look at some of the clean-up underway in the city for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, which is Tuesday.
“Nearly 2,000 journalists have been issued credentials for the game and its peripheral events,” the article states, adding the game is set to be broadcast to 226 countries in twelve languages and more than 100 million households.
“City leaders are banking that the game will have a lasting impact on the local economy. If all goes well, they say, the thousands of tourists and …

On April 30th, 2009, one hundred St. Louisians stepped up to the line and threw their dart at the giant map of St. Louis City. They then had a month to visit the block where their dart landed and take a photograph.
The results are beautifully chronicled at dartstlouis.com.
A sampling:

Tweet

Welcome to the Gateway City, St. Louis, Missouri, home to Nelly, William S. Bowdern and some fabulous architecture. Above is the city’s modest city hall. The city built this building in 1890, when it outgrew “the municipal barn,” according to the city’s urban design and planning agency.
Tweet

When I was a little girl my mom used to sing me an old cheer called “We’re Strong for Toledo.” My grandma used to sing me John Denver’s “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio.” The songs portrayed two very different cities: one a proud metropolis, the other a laughing stock.
I thought it might be interesting to look at the most famous songs devoted to Rust Belt as a way to examine how these cities are portrayed in pop culture, and also how that image has changed over the years.
For example, the …

We brought you this story over one month ago, but it’s nice to see the trend of artists recolonizing foresaken Rust Belt neighborhoods is garnering some national attention.
The Wall Street journal reports today on a New York couple who purchased a home in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood, converting it into a home/studio/band space.
Tweet

A photograph of an interracial couple kissing that ran in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is causing some controversy.
The photo, which ran in an insert with an article “The 7 Best Places to Smooch,” apparently spurred some unfortunate commenting on the Post Dispatch’s Web site and the paper responded with a blog entry. A few commenters said they were offended by the pictures, in not-so-polite terms. One mentioned that race relations are tense in the city.
Tweet