The federal government makes… progress?  Attendees of our 2010 Urban Labs Conference in Cleveland will be excited to know that the Livable Communities Act was passed by Senate committee last week. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Tim Ryan (OH-17) introduced the bill in 2009. The bill includes Regeneration Planning Grants, part of the CRSI bill that we discussed in Cleveland. The bill will establish within the Department of Housing and Urban Development a competitive grant program for cities that are dealing with large-scale population losses, like many in the Midwest. Among the suggestions by the bill’s sponsors were using the funds to “demolish abandoned properties, find innovative uses for old structures, and create green space.”

Brown’s goal is to “make our communities places where people want to live and work – places that can attract and retain our home-grown young people.” We at GLUE believe that CRSI is an important step towards realizing that goal. This legislation, though it does not implement CRSI in its entirety, is a good start. It will be especially helpful to revitalizing the cities we live in, and has the potential to make a huge difference in the physical spaces around us (and, by extension, the communities we are a part of).
[The Office of Sen. Sherrod Brown]

I Will Shout Youngstown has a great new post up with a potential advertising strategy for Youngstown (and many other Rust Belt cities). Youngstown: A Great Place to Fail articulates an old philosophy in a new way. Everybody in the Rust Belt talks about how these cities allow young people greater opportunities (e.g., lower start-up costs, greater access to space, established leaders and enthusiasm, if not capital) than strong-market cities. I Will Shout Youngstown, though, points out that it’s also easier to fail in these cities. In the Midwest right now, an individual can try out lots of ideas and fail at all of them, and still be fine; as I Will Shout Youngstown says, “you’ll be poorer, but not destitute.” If you succeed, though, the profits you collect will go farther than they would elsewhere.

[I Will Shout Youngstown]

RustWire recently put up a story about Raymond Pianka, a judge in Cleveland who has become widely known for taking bold stands against abandoned properties in his city. This time, he’s making those who own abandoned homes pay restitution to neighbors of the properties, to make up for their own properties’ loss of value. The goal is to discourage those who “flip” houses quickly, never living in the city and selling them right away.
According to the New York Times Magazine, Pianka has a history of aggressive action against people attempting to flip homes in Cleveland. In 2001, he ordered one to spend 30 days in a run-down house that the man owned and was attempting to flip. In 2007, he began trying house owners without them being present and fining them for violations on their properties. Pianka gained attention all over the country at the time, being featured on MSNBC.com. However, a higher court in Ohio eventually ruled that these trials could not continue. Pianka, at the time, told the magazine that those who are trying to protect Cleveland “just have to figure out some other ways.”
According to RustWire and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Pianka has figured out some other ways. The justification for the restitution payments is that property owners are “spread[ing] the damage from the foreclosure crisis” and their neighbors are facing “economic losses caused by their neglect.” Next American City has also taken an interest in the proceedings, and sought out reactions from several sources. Joe Schilling, of Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute, said that the ruling “exposes weaknesses not with the Housing Court, but with Cleveland’s code enforcement system.” Additionally, even after the Ohio Supreme Court shut down Pianka’s in absentia trials for good this year, one justice pushed for legislators to pass laws that would allow Pianka to continue (which they did).
[RustWire]
[Cleveland Plain-Dealer]
[New York Times Magazine]
[MSNBC]
[Next American City]

In another post from Burgh Diaspora, Jim Russell wonders about the relationship between living, working and geography. Russell analyzes why it’s important to have your skilled workers living where they work, and how different cities across the country are doing. Rust Belt cities, he shows, have a variety of results, with Pittsburgh and Milwaukee near the top in how many skilled jobs are located in the city (at least a third) and Detroit at the very bottom (about an eighth; the next-worst city, St. Louis, has a quarter). Keeping these workers living in the city is important, because skilled jobs provide higher salaries, so retaining those workers means more tax dollars going to the city to spend on services. Many cities, both in the Rust Belt and elsewhere, struggle to keep those skilled workers living in the cities. This problem is not unique to the Midwest, at least not at this point.
[Burgh Diaspora]

Via CEO’s for Cities, Citiwire has a post up about Syracuse’s redevelopment efforts.  The post details the relationship between many important leaders in Syracuse who have managed to get on the same page. There is the mayor, Stephanie Miner, described as “far-sighted,” who does her best to keep old buildings standing. “The easy route may be to tear down more,” says Miner, “but, then you have to ask, where is our soul, who are we?” The mayor favors refurbishing and redeveloping existing buildings. Empty homes are selling to those who are moving into the city, and it looks like Miner’s plan may be working.

Miner has two strong partners in Nancy Cantor, the chancellor of Syracuse University, and Joanie Mahoney, the Onondaga County Executive. Mahoney is throwing her support behind the restoration of a historic hotel in the flourishing downtown of Syracuse. Cantor has done a great deal of work trying to connect her campus with the city it is located in, which is rare in the 21st century (and wasn’t exactly common in the 20th, either). More often, universities portray themselves as oases in urban environments, safe places where students can experience an urban environment without worrying about actually living there. Syracuse University is instead trying to work together with the community surrounding its university and engage the students with the area (perhaps following the lead of UPenn over the last six years). Cantor has said that the goal was to “pursue a long-term course that would benefit residents, faculty and students alike and not be a one-shot prescription.” The partnership is one to watch in the coming years.

Check it out at Citiwire.

UrbanSTL recently took a look at the removal of interstates from cities. St. Louis is dealing with the issue right now, as a new bridge across the Mississippi River has made it more feasible for highways to be taken out of the urban environment.

The post examines a report by Smart Mobility that investigated the possible removal of I-10 in New Orleans. The report found that removing the expressway and converting it to a boulevard would actually improve street connectivity, among other findings. While the post is about St. Louis and really centers around New Orleans, the post is definitely relevant to all residents of the rust belt. Cities being divided by interstates is certainly something that the Midwest is no stranger to, and as UrbanSTL points out, though all highways are unique, “there are common threads to a successful effort.” Rust belters can find plenty of good ideas in the research being done.

You can access the full report and other findings on UrbanSTL’s blog and on the website of the Congress for New Urbanism.

Michigan Future Inc. recently released their third annual report analyzing Michigan’s progress towards a knowledge-based economy. Michigan Future has been leading the charge for Michigan’s leaders to prioritize attracting talent to the region as the key element to revitalizing Michigan’s economy.  Obviously, Michigan isn’t alone in feeling the effects of the “brain drain,” and Michigan Future’s work has applicability around the Great Lakes region.

Michigan Future’s 2010 findings reinforce a number of the themes from previous reports: in particular, the importance of college graduates to revitalizing major cities. The report also emphasizes the transition of the middle class of the last century, built upon manufacturing and other jobs that did not require high levels of education, to the 21st century middle class made up of knowledge industry workers (job growth is happening in knowledge-based industries usually requiring a college degree). According to the 2010 report, big cities and their metropolitan regions are still the most prosperous areas in the country by almost every metric. Therefore, Michigan’s future is highly dependent on the fortunes of Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing.

This report is especially notable, though, for its analysis of the effects of the recession on Michigan Future’s main premise.  The starkest finding:

The low-education attainment industries nationally have had employment losses of more than 10 percent since the recession began compared to less than 1 percent in the high education attainment industries.

These cities, then, must cultivate knowledge-based economies. Michigan, despite attempts to diversify, still relies heavily on the auto industry. This will not build a prosperous Michigan in the knowledge-based economy.  According to the 2010 report, “retaining and attracting talent becomes the key to building a high-prosperity economy” (p. 26). Michigan’s future will be determined by our cities’ ability to do just that.

You can read the full report (including all the data for the conclusions we cite) here.

The Global Detroit Study was released recently, claiming that immigrants have a unique ability to revitalize neighborhoods and economies, and focusing on attracting and retaining immigrants in the Detroit metropolitan area.

The study, with backing from several Detroit funders, was written by former State Representative Steve Tobocman. In the study, Tobocman claims that the restorative capacity of immigrant populations has been underappreciated and underutilized across the board.  According to the study, 37% of immigrants in the Detroit metropolitan area have college degrees, compared to 23.7% of non-immigrants. The Detroit area also has the third-highest proportion of foreign-born residents in the Great Lakes region, at 8.3%.

Global Detroit goes on to encourage us to re-think our efforts to welcome immigrants to Detroit.  It promotes eleven strategies to build connections to the global economy and to better connect with immigrants considering a move to Detroit. These initiatives range from promoting retention of foreign students at Michigan colleges and universities, to an effort to “connect immigrant and ethnic communities with regional leadership,” to creating an office of Global Affairs affiliated with the Detroit Mayor’s office, which would show that the area welcomes immigrants. Additionally, the study recommends a “welcome mat” of immigration services, interconnected, so as to make life for recent immigrants easier.

The study spends a good portion of the report debunking myths about immigrant populations. Among these are myths that state that immigrants lower wages for all, that they take jobs from minority workers, and that they cause crime.  The report convincingly demonstrates that immigrant communities often have the opposite effect they are assumed to have, from improving unemployment for minorities to decreasing crime in their neighborhoods. In fact, immigrants are six times more likely than native-born Michiganders to start a high-tech business.

The Global Detroit Study concludes by reminding residents of the entire state that Michigan can no longer be thought of as disconnected from the world economy. Connecting to that economy is essential for future prosperity for the state. Promoting our area to immigrants can only help this effort. The report notes that “our region’s foreign born residents and their families stand out as a significant asset exactly because of the talent, innovation, and culture change they provide.” That asset can help improve Detroit in the coming years, and reform the city into a prosperous economy for the 21st century.

Click here to read the executive summary of the report.

Click here to read a Model D summary by the study’s author, Steve Tobocman.  You can also hear GLUE Director Sarah Szurpicki talking about the importance of being welcoming to immigrants in this radio interview.

Last night I was lucky enough to meet Emily Lin and her brother Andy Lin, the artists and now small business owners operating under the name City Bird, at their new shop (also called City Bird).  I’ve long been a fan of their work–their Detroit soaps are perfect stocking-stuffers–and I wanted to talk with them about making the recent transition from online sellers to retail store owners.

The new City Bird shop features many Detroit artists and crafters, but Andy and Emily are almost equally committed to their Rust Belt sister cities, highlighting the work of crafters from Cleveland, Milwaukee, and elsewhere.

City Bird credit Open City and other small business owners with really inspiring them to make the leap to open their store, and helping them make the practical connections to make it a possibility.  Not surprisingly, they really seem to envision the store as a way to give back to the city they love.  It was great to the city loving them back–I saw shoppers constantly in and out of City Bird and its neighbor, the Bureau of Urban Living, during the hour I spent there.

Emily, Andy and I talked about how easy it was to open their business, why they feel connected to other Rust Belt cities, and what lessons our cities can take from the crafting and small business community and apply to economic development as a whole (hint: it’s about collaboration and supporting your neighbors!).  You can listen to my interview with Emily and Andy HERE.

Last week, we introduced some questions about whether the Rust Belt is particularly “crafty,” particularly situated to be good at DIY’ing (doing it ourselves).  This week, we’re sharing an interview with Carrie Nardini, the founder of I Made It!, a nomadic indie craft market headquartered in Pittsburgh.  I Made It! has a unique mission to use its craft markets and the crowds they draw to support not only their vendors, but community non-profits or arts organizations as well.  By bringing their markets to different locations, I Made It! can showcase a great space, raise money, or otherwise attract attention for its host organization.

In our interview, Carrie shares the nuts and bolts of the organizations mission and operation, demonstrates the variety of causes and vendors wo are involved, and reflects a little bit on why doing this work in Pittsburgh is perhaps extra-special (I’ll give you a hint: it’s because we’re so friendly).

You can listen to my interview with Carrie HERE.

This post is part of our December Issue Focus (new posts weekly, usually on Wednesdays) on crafting and DIY culture and opportunity in Rust Belt cities.

Photo of Carrie Nardini, Camille Anna Shanahan, and Quelcy Kogel at the December 2008 I Made It! market at the Union Project, courtesy of Carrie.