A Steel Mill, A Wal-Mart, And A City In Need Of Jobs

22 November 2006 - 8:00am

The opening of new retail power center on the site of a former steel mill in Cleveland, including the city's first Wal-mart, is powerful juxtaposition of the area's former economic lifeblood and the new direction of economic development -- big-box retail.

"On a mile-long stretch of the Cuyahoga Valley, a place in the Flats with a hulking steel mill on one side and crisscrossing highways on the other, there's a Target going in.

And a Wal-Mart, and a Home Depot. Between the mill and the highway, they're laying the cinderblock and brick, and painting the asphalt with bright, yellow stripes.

This was once home to a two million square foot finishing mill for LTV, one of the largest steel makers in the world. When it opens early next year, the new retail development going in here, Steelyard Commons, will offer a million square feet of new shops. It's the first new shopping center to be built in the city of Cleveland since Tower City in the 80s, and the largest open air mall in the county."

Full Story: A Steelyard Paradox
Source: Cool Cleveland, November 8, 2006
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Beyond Brasilia is a Herculean compilation of historical and contemporary examples of the ways planning and politics have shaped major urban areas.