Rust Wire

As local officials claim that all is ready for work to begin on Cleveland's $330 million "Opportunity Corridor" road construction project, one writer critiques the plan's remaining shortcomings.

March 5, 2015 - Rust Wire

Writing for Rust Wire, Angie Schmitt wonders about the odd-person out in a proposal to redesign Public Square in downtown Cleveland: bus riders.

July 17, 2014 - Rust Wire

David Steel explains how Buffalo's zoning code not only makes it impossible to build the type of neighborhoods people love, but also guarantees that low density development pays less taxes.

June 29, 2012 - Rust Wire

As public-private partnerships to invest in aged urban infrastructure gain in popularity in Chicago, and across the country, Christopher Weber asks who will fund the improvements unaligned with corporate interests.

May 9, 2012 - Rust Wire

Richey Piiparinen examines the two, often antagonistic, worlds that he straddles as a mid-30′s native Rust Belt romantic, and finds fellowship with those in other legacy cities.

March 12, 2012 - Rust Wire

In a guest editorial for Rust Wire, Nick Gurich examines the ways in which LEED discounts the environmental benefits of historic preservation and adaptive reuse

February 26, 2012 - Rust Wire

As Cleveland takes on yet another effort in "rebranding", Richey Piiparinen looks at past schemes and finds it's better to keep it real.

February 16, 2012 - Rust Wire

Richey Piiparinen weighs the good and bad aspects of a proposed casino which the developer says will be "integrated within the fabric" of Cleveland's downtown.

November 3, 2011 - Rust Wire

Artists are using the vacant buildings of the Rust Belt to create their art, and to comment on possibilities and visions for the future.

September 12, 2011 - Rust Wire

Vacancy has left parts of the Midwest shattered, resulting in an insecurity which invokes a diluted "fight or flight" response. Restoring the psychological landscape of cities is a difficult, but essential, first step, says Richey Piiparinen.

August 10, 2011 - Rust Wire

The head of a patent law firm that employs 40 in suburban Detroit explains that his growing business may need to leave the state because it can't recruit talent to the region. Andrew Basile Jr. writes that the problem is "poor quality of place."

April 5, 2011 - Rust Wire

Urban-boosters in Cleveland and other Rust Belt locales are fierce defenders of their much-maligned cities. But does civic boosterism gloss over the region's very real problems? Worse, does it serve to protect the dysfunctional status quo?

February 15, 2011 - Rust Wire