From Buffalo Rising: Read Urbanophile Aaron Renn’s pep talk to Buffalo.
(Though many people in Buffalo already know how cool it is!)
-KG

It seems everyone who’s interested in cities has an opinion about Richard Florida.

I’ve always had it in for him, since he wrote, “Who’s Your City?,” a book which instructed readers which city they should live in based on personal characteristics, as if that was a rational way to choose a place to live.

When I was working at a newspaper in Toledo a coworker of mine began researching “Who’s Your City” for an article because Toledo was listed as the 12th (13th, 14th?) best mid-sized city to be a committed gay couple. The story had to be killed midway through, however, because the margin of error on the statistic was approximately 50 percent.

Well, Florida is gearing to go to the presses again in April with, “The Great Reset,” in which he argues that the recession has fundamentally reshaped the economic landscape. This tome may be more controversial because of its premise that the new economy will divide the country into geographic winners and losers.

It also happens that many of these “losers” paid Florida a hefty fee to explain how their cities could be made Meccas for the hip, highly-educated population that is so essential to prosperity, according to Florida’s teachings.

That’s Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and our friend Stacy Jurich reminding everyone to shop local this holiday season to help stimulate their local economy.
It’s a good message for any of our cities and a way everyone can contribute to economic recovery. Toledo is lucky to have a group like this!
-AS

Ohio voters recently passed a constitutional amendment that will allow for the construction of four casinos in the state for the first time.

One will be located in each Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
Ohio voters have turned down ballot initiatives like this one before. But it seems this time the need for jobs and the pervasiveness of casino gambling in neighbor states helped sway the electorate.
Anyway, there’s been a lot of debate over whether this will ultimately be good or bad. I thought it would be interesting to hear from other …

Angie and Kate have posted about the Great Lakes Urban Exchange’s “I Will Stay If …” campaign a few times here; and as I was leafing through some of their photos recently, I noticed a number of references to bicycle unfriendliness of some of the Rust Belt cities.

With the Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey data now available, I took a look at what the numbers look like throughout the Rust Belt. I should note that I used only core-city geography data, so the comparisons are not completely fair, given the arbitrary nature of political boundaries, but I think they are reasonable enough for this sake of this comparison.

The Toledo Blade reports the number of community gardens in Lucas and Wood counties is increasing significantly - from 30 to 81 in the last eight years.
A number of the gardens were showcased on a recent public tour. The Blade reported some gardens even raise chickens and turkeys, and feature art to add vibrancy to the neighborhood.
The article goes on to add,”Raising thousands of pounds of food, these gardens are located at churches, schools, and in empty lots. Typically grown in improved soils without pesticides or chemicals, the vegetables feed …

Last month, 66-year-old Robert Brundage was riding his bicycle home from a Jobs with Justice meeting at the library in Toledo’s Old West End neighborhood.
Around 6:30 p.m., he was knocked off his bike by a 15-year-old who lives nearby; the teen stole Brundage’s bicycle. Brundage died.
Brundage was well-known to many in the city - he was often seen riding his bike, or attending board or other meetings for the Collingwood Arts Center, the Toledo Poetry Foundation, the Urban Coalition, the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio, Toledo Area Jobs With Justice …

The Great Migration of African Americans from the rural, sharecropping South to big city factory work in the North was a huge transformation in our country’s history.
It is something people often forget about or aren’t very familiar with now, but its effects are still felt today in how we live and in how people view cities.
This story from Sunday’s Toledo Blade tells one 96-year-old woman’s story: from Greenville, Mississippi to Toledo, Ohio.
-KG

I spent last Saturday and Sunday in a happy fog of house parties, porch sitting, chatting with old and new friends, garage sales, home tours, an art fair, a parade, and yummy food vendors - otherwise known as the annual Old West End festival.
For all you non-Toledoans, this neighborhood is a spectular display of architecture - left over from when it was home to numerous Captains of Industry in Toledo’s more prosperous years. Neighborhood boosters will tell you it is the largest neighborhood of restored late Victorian, Edwardian, and Arts …

Regular Rust Wire readers know that we enjoy highlighting our favorite blogs.
This is a real gem and one I check regularly: EnjoyingToledo.com.

I love the font, photos, brief yet informative posts, and just the idea of it - as the blog’s author writes,
“The more I learn about the history of this city, the more I think Toledo is really a very special place. It’s sad to see that some people don’t see it this way… so this is my blog about all of the great things in Toledo (and surrounding areas)—people, …