Greater Ohio is screening the two-part documentary “The New Metropolis,” which highlights the efforts of some of America’s first suburbs to reverse their long decline. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion about these suburban centers, their decline, and their reinvigoration. The screening will take place on Tuesday, November 24 at 7:30 pm at the Drexel Theater, located at 2254 E. Main Street, in Bexley, Ohio.

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Winter is coming fast. Representative Rashida Tlaib will host a Detroit town hall meeting on weatherization on Monday, Nov. 30, at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria of Southwestern High School, 6921 W. Fort St. in Detroit.

At the meeting, experts will share tips on how to save money on heating bills this winter, where to go for help if you need assistance paying your utility bills and ways you can make your home more energy efficient.Guests will include representatives from the city of Detroit Department of Human Services, DTE Energy and the WARM Training Center.

If you have any questions, call Rep. Tliab’s office at (877) TLAIB-12 or send an e-mail to her office.

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Our weekly update from the Rust Wire bloggers: Check out these great pictures of one of Pittsburgh’s most unique and wonderful features — its steps — by RW contributor Andy Moore…

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Detroit has its share of historic architecture–and more than its share of vacancy and blight. Consequently, the debates over historic preservation efforts in Detroit’s recent history have been contentious, to say the least. And the stories about preservation here often say less about the value of a particular piece of architecture than they do about the transparency with which our city government makes decisions, the urgency of the other challenges facing the city, the possibility of re-imagining our physical landscape, and the passion of Detroit’s advocates. Today I’m sharing an interview with Francis Grunow…

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Even though it was 60 Degrees last Saturday in Detroit, this week is definitely reminding me that winter is coming. Niagara Falls, though, is still just as beautiful in the Fall as in the Summer; Satsun74’s photo shows the falls in cool contrast with the surrounding vegetation. We might see snow in Niagara Falls pretty soon, but Satsun74’s photo captures the falls right before the change. Thanks, Satsun74, for the very cool photo, and thanks to everyone to continue to contribute to the Flickr pool!

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The Brookings Institution is sponsoring a conference called “Fiscal Challenges Facing Cities: Implications for Economic Recovery” on Thursday, November 19th at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and the National League of Cities will co-host a forum on city fiscal conditions, the responses being undertaken by creative mayors, and the implications for national economic recovery.

From the Brookings Institution:

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The Cleveland Startup Weekend will be next weekend, November 20th-22nd. The Startup Weekend is a type of hands-on conference that allows its participants to come up with interesting solutions to problems they set out themselves. This is definitely a unique opportunity to collaborate with a creative group of Great Lakes advocates in an intense, exciting way.

Here’s some information from Cleveland Startup:

“Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking (oh no, the buzzwords are attacking!), unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in Boulder, Toronto, New York, Hamburg, Houston, West Lafayette, Cleveland, DC and more….

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On a recent trip to St. Louis, my tour guides included Michael Allen, the detective, advocate, and blogger behind Ecology of Absence, a board member of Preservation Action, and the Director of the newly-formed Preservation Research Office. Michael’s knowledge of the built environment of St. Louis is nothing less of encyclopedic–though unlike an encyclopedia, he takes immense and obvious pleasure in the small and large human dramas whose histories are told in buildings…

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Fickr pool contributor “ReallyBoring” from Chicago recently took this photo of Jackson Boulevard, part of a historic district of the city that is over a century old. ReallyBoring writes that, “the parkway on this historic stretch of Jackson Boulevard was restored at the insistence of residents in the 1970s, while many of them were just beginning to fix up the fine houses lining the street.”

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The 2009 Ohio Civic Health Symposium will be held in downtown Columbus at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium on Tuesday, November 10th. The conference will center around discussion and planning based on the 2009 Ohio Civic Health Report. Learn about key findings from National and State reports, discuss the findings of the report with elected officials and other citizens, and create a plan of action for how to increase community and political engagement across Ohio. The focus of this meeting centers on dialogue, deliberation and action plans regarding civic health in the state of Ohio.

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