Legacy Cities
Blog post
In the Rust Belt, neighborhood decline is much more significant than gentrification.
Jason Segedy's review of a must-read for all planners interested in the subject of "Legacy Cities."
Notes from the Underground
A new report uses terms like epidemic and hyper-vacancy to drive home the point about the effects of vacancies on communities like Cleveland, Gary, Toledo, and Detroit.
Curbed
In some cities and neighborhoods, the number of vacant properties is the only thing growing.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Not every Legacy City has the size and cultural cache of a Pittsburgh or a New Orleans to aid in its recovery, but there are resources available for smaller cities examining pragmatic revitalization strategies.
Greater Ohio Policy Center
The Detroit Future City Implementation Office has completed a new strategic plan that will redirect the organizations revitalization efforts, four years after the city adopted the largely successful Detroit Future City framework.
Detroit Free Press
Seattle appears to be following the Vancouver, B.C. model by increasing population and residential density while investing in transit. If it works, traffic congestion will not deteriorate, and vehicle trips should drop.
Governing
For every Pittsburgh or Cleveland success story, there's a story waiting to be told in smaller cities like Gary and Lowell.
At Lincoln House
Public Radio International (PRI) surveys the keys to an ambitious plan to restore the industrial "temples" of South Bend, Indiana.
Public Radio International
The city of Akron has lost 93,000 residents since 1960, so it has room to grow. Now it has a draft housing plan that uses a tax abatement program modeled on examples in Cleveland and Cuyahoga Falls.
Akron Beacon Journal
Cleveland is a thought leader in bulldozing houses, according to a recent op-ed on Cleveland.com, but it's time to imagine a new paradigm.
Cleveland.com
In May, the documentary film "Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City" was made available in full on YouTube.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Erie, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio have faced the challenges of shrinking populations and fewer job prospects, but new comprehensive plans in each city may provide a pathway to resurgence
The Canton Repository
Feature
Chloe E. Taft explores the transition of Bethlehem, Pa., from Rust Belt company town to gambling mecca.
A new book by Washington Post associate editor David Maraniss examines the glory years of Detroit.
Detroit Free Press
Author Catherine Tumbler writes on how this Rust Belt city on Lake Erie is attempting to capitalize on its past, reverse its mistakes, and build a greener economy.
The Baffler
Journalist's Resource provides a one-stop shop for research on the subject of policies to regenerate urban areas once in decline.
Journalist's Resource
Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert has an urbanist streak. And only people with his kind of money can singlehandedly buy out big chunks of downtown Detroit. But will his approach to neighborhood-making actually benefit the city as a whole?
Grist
Belt Magazine is publishing the second edition of its "Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology" next month. The edition's new introduction sums up will the complicated issue of Cleveland's renaissance.
Belt Magazine
Ben Schulman and Xiaoran Li lead an interesting thought experiment about the populations of cities around the country. That is, what would happen to the population of American cities if all their sizes were standardized?
Belt Magazine