From Rust Belt To Arts Mecca

Pittsburgh reaps the benefits of its 20-year investment in a downtown cultural district -- and in the vitality of its young people.

1 minute read

October 22, 2004, 9:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"Cultural districts are popular ways for cities to reinvent themselves, especially older cities past their heyday as centers of industry. Nowhere has this been truer than in Pittsburgh, home of Big Steel. Now, the city is seeing impressive results from its 20-year experiment in designing such a district.

...By adding a hip overlay, Pittsburgh hopes to put to rest forever the lingering negative image of Steeltown USA - a rusty, postindustrial city eviscerated by job losses. The city has cleaned up its notoriously sooty skies and rivers and now wants to rebrand itself as a happening place for culture."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: From Rust Belt to arts mecca

Thursday, October 21, 2004 in The Christian Science Monitor

Community / Economic Development Pennsylvania

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