With our conference just around the corner, it’s time we take a look at Larimer, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where we’ll be convening. 

Larimer’s story is like that of many Rust Belt cities that have struggled with population loss; a bustling, self-sustaining neighborhood that once housed 14,000 residents shrunk to just about 1,700 residents over the last decades. The population changes littered the landscape with abandoned homes and empty lots. Businesses left and crime moved in. 

The Young Preservationist Association (YPA) released its annual list of the Top Ten Best Preservation Opportunities in the Pittsburgh area. Inspired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list, YPA created their Pittsburgh list to put a positive spin on preservation, highlighting historic buildings, main streets, and districts that have the potential to become unique destinations in the region. The scoring committee evaluates nominated sites by five criteria: a 50-year Threshold, Historic and Architectural Significance, Threats to the Site, Community Input, and Feasibility of the Solution.

While there is no monetary award for making the top of the list, the real prize is the publicity. Many property owners have used the list to attract attention to their sites and secure funding. Since YPA began compiling the annual list eight years ago, several buildings have become restoration success stories and several others have been stabilized for future reuse.

Have you seen Yves Marchand's and Romain Meffre's photos of The Ruins of Detroit? You might marvel at the scale of decay they depict, feel saddened by the loss of history, or simply wonder what led to the demise of so many once vibrant places. In a recent essay, Detroitism, John Patrick Leary critiques the value of these ruination photos and our cultural fascination with aesthetic urban decay. As symbols of decline, the photos not only fail to show us the potential for renewal, but they "present no way to understand our own relationship to the decline we are seeing."

The spotlight is on the Great Lakes region tonight as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers compete for the NFL's most coveted title. While there may be only one Super Bowl champ, we, at GLUE, believe the whole region is a winner. The Great Lakes Metro Chamber Coalition agrees, and they're using the match-up as an opportunity to draw attention to the region's assets and to advance a Great Lakes agenda on Capitol Hill. There is no denying the region is an economic champion. The Great Lakes Region, comprised of twelve U.S. States and Canada's two largest provinces, is the second largest economy in the world in GDP terms. "Our region is rich in...