Rust Wire has previously highlighted the writing of Lorain native Nick Kowalczyk.
Check out his latest essay, on what it means to “be a man” growing up in Lorain:
“The tough times of the 1980s and 1990s unraveled an old Lorain sensibility: you were ‘a man’ if you knew how to build things and repair cars and earned money by working with your hands. Many of those men now were laid-off or tenuously employed, made vulnerable, and economically and psychologically castrated. (If a man can’t provide for his family, than what kind of man is he?) For the …

It’s easy to forget sometimes, but the United States and Canada aren’t the only places that have suffered from factory shutdowns and a loss of manufacturing jobs.
This article details how the current recession is hurting the steel industry in Hungary. This more in-depth story from Reuters also explores the same issue.
Some of the quotes in this story are striking in that they sound like they could easily be about workers or regions here in the U.S.:
“In its heyday in the 1980s. the city of Miskolc had more than 200,000 residents, …

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a city built by steel. The belching smoke and fire from the great mills was an omnipresent reminder of the area’s dominant industry. Pittsburgh’s vast steel operations played a large role in building the nation’s infrastructure; at one point, half of the country’s steel came from the three rivers. The city’s mills were at the heart of a war machine that won two world wars and made America the manufacturing envy of the world.

However, a confluence of events in the 1950’s and 60’s exposed fatal chinks in the armor …

  Along with the Penguins being in the Stanley Cup finals, the city of Pittsburgh got some exciting news last week: it will host the G-20 summit this fall.

  Part of the reason the city was chosen is to highlight its recovery from the loss of the steel industry during the 1980s.
  I’m not sure everyone in Pittsburgh would agree that the city (and the surrounding Mon Valley) would really agree that the area has “recovered” - ever been to Braddock? But compared to the economic problems the rest of …

This article in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discusses the redevelopment of the Carrie Furnace site - “an expanse of blast furnaces that once produced as much as 1,200 tons of iron per day for the former Homestead Works of U.S. Steel.”
The 168-acre parcel is now owned by the county and is close to being ready for development, the article states, in the final stages of environmental cleanup.
What will replace the furnaces, which operated for 102 years?

Check out this view of the old, abandoned Fort Pitt Steel Casting plant in McKeesport, Pa. (outside Pittsburgh).

I recently spent an afternoon in and around my old stomping grounds of Lorain, Ohio. While I was there, I took a few hours to explore a Lorain County Metroparks Trail that runs through the slag fields of the city’s steel mill, as well as along the banks of the Black River. Walkers, runners, and bikers on the trail get to see a juxtaposition of industry (or what’s left of it, anyhow) and nature.
I wanted to share a few photos:

I recently spent an afternoon in and around my old stomping grounds of Lorain, Ohio. While I was there, I took a few hours to explore a Lorain County Metroparks Trail that runs through the slag fields of the city’s steel mill, as well as along the banks of the Black River. Walkers, runners, and bikers on the trail get to see a juxtaposition of industry (or what’s left of it, anyhow) and nature.
I wanted to share a few photos:

Let me start off by saying, Youngstown is one of my favorite cities. It is a weird place, with a set of rules all its own. Some of my best friends in the world live there. Also, they make some killer Italian food in this city. Killer. It’s cheap too. Very cheap.
Anyway, photographer Mark Stahl, an acquaintance of mine from my days at The Vindicator newspaper, has generously donated the use of some of his photos. This series is about decay taking place in the city.