The city of Warren, Michigan is making a bid for bankruptcy-bound General Motors, The Free Press is reporting.

   The Detroit suburb is home to GM’s Tech Center.
   Multiple news organizations are reporting the embattled auto giant is considering leaving the Motor City.
   GM purchased its glass-towered headquarters building, Detroit’s Renaissance Center, for $625 million last year.
   Meanwhile in Youngstown today, workers at the Lordstown Plant were awaiting the results of negotiations over concessions. Retirees told The Vindicator, the deal could have been worse, but there’s no guarantee the contract will survive bankruptcy.
   …

The Buffalo News’ “The ‘Burbs” blog posed a question yesterday that has been asked by many a municipality: should public employees be required to live where they work?

(Sorry for this lame picture. I couldn’t think of any other way to illustrate this story.)
Their post dealt with the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, but it’s a question that has been asked throughout our region.
Typically, municipal leaders – and oftentimes voters as well – favor such rules, which are often opposed by police and firefighters unions.
This has been a hot topic in Ohio …

I didn’t catch this week’s episode of “The Office,” and now look what happened.
Apparently, Jim and Pam were planning to get married in Youngstown, which proves definitively, according to this blog, that the show’s writers have no knowledge of Rust Belt geography.
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When you live in a city with lots of problems, it’s easy to get discouraged. What can one person do?
For Youngstown resident Debra Weaver the answer is trees. The self-employed attorney launched a program with two friends to turn vacant lands into controlled urban forests while helping combat global warming.
She calls her volunteer group Treez Please.

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When you live in a city with lots of problems, it’s easy to get discouraged. What can one person do?
For Youngstown resident Debra Weaver the answer is trees. The self-employed attorney launched a program with two friends to turn vacant lands into controlled urban forests while helping combat global warming.
She calls her volunteer group Treez Please.

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Youngstown’s Tyler Clark has a blog post today about a deconstruction forum that took place in Youngstown yesterday.
This process was first piloted on a large scale in Cleveland, with the support of the Cleveland Foundation. The best synopsis I’ve read was in this New York Times article last year.
Rather than demolishing vacant homes at a considerable cost to the municipality, a former architect named Brad Guy had the idea of taking apart homes nail by nail and scrapping the parts. The process has been attractive to many Rust Belt cities …

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 …

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.

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Let’s have a discussion. First, I wanted to announce that Rust Wire has purchased a domain. We can now be accessed simply by visiting www.rustwire.com. Also, in the coming weeks we will be undertaking some improvements to our site. The content will remain the same or, hopefully, will improve as we reach larger audiences and expand our partnerships. Thanks to Youngstown’s Tyler Clark for the assistance.
Secondly, this got me thinking.

I’ve often heard people refer to Rust Belt cities as “dying.” This has always made me bristle.
I lived in Youngstown for …

Maybe you don’t consider industrial remnants and demolition scenes beautiful. But, at least for me, there’s something fascinating about the ruin.
A blighted, abandoned building can inspire all kinds of emotions in people, depending on their perspective. It’s sad and shocking to see failure on display. It’s interesting to glimpse into the past. It’s scary when a building is exposed to the elements of nature and the darker aspects of society.
I’ve come across two sideshows that offer an interesting perspective on the aftermath of industrial decline. In the first one a …