A Report from the Bridge Project

This past weekend, the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) introduced much of Cleveland to the dark underside of the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge–only it wasn’t so dark.  The streetcar level of the bridge was brought to life, with a design charrette, performance artists, and a mob of Clevelanders eager to explore Cleveland’s industrial past and re-imagine its future.  GLUEster Kevin Leeson hit the streets with an audio recorder to find out why people were there and what the Bridge Project said to them about Cleveland.  We’ve put together some of the audio into this “highlights reel” (apologies for the wind noise and my amateur editing skills, and thanks again to Kevin!).  Less then four minutes long, the audio showcases the diverse crowd, but overall hopeful outlook, that the Bridge Project engendered. Clevelanders should definitely enjoy it, but I think responses will resonate with every optimistic Rust Belter. Listen here.

Photo from the CUDC’s Flickr page.

We’re taking advantage of a month with five Wednesdays to forgo our usual Issue Focus for this special report from the Bridge Project.  Issue Focus begins again next week!