Tremont: A Product Of Its Past, A Piece Of Its Future
Originally known as Brooklyn Heights, before it was incorporated into Ohio City between 1836 and 1854, the neighborhood of Tremont was finally annexed by Cleveland in 1867 ...
How Michigan’s Municipal Policies Led To Crises In Detroit and Flint
Michigan has the most decrepit cities in the United States...It’s not just a result of neglect. It’s a result of policy.
Brier Hill
Youngstown’s Brier Hill sits along the first ridge out of the Mahoning Valley to the east. We traveled there weekly for church, back to the brick streets and slate sidewalks of my mother’s childhood.
The Forgotten Legacy of Buford Gordon
Buford Franklin Gordon’s name is unlikely to ring any bells among most residents of South Bend, Indiana. Part of this is understandable — Gordon only lived in South Bend for a period of five years...
Happy, Sad, Gay, Or Just Interested: The Queer Legacy of WBFO
Our meeting was improbable, but lucky. I found Alex van Oss through a research project involving the University of Buffalo’s Leo Tolstoy College/College F.
The Coldest Darn Place In The World: The Great Lakes Bowl
Once upon a time, Municipal Stadium wasn’t the Mistake by the Lake. In the 1940s, an optimistic time in Cleveland’s history, the stadium was virtually the center of the sports universe.
One Block, Two Businesses, Three Families: A Detroit Story
The building at Mack near Chalmers resembles thousands of Detroit properties: abandoned, in tax foreclosure, burned-out, dangerous, overdue for demolition.
Kaufmann’s, Pittsburgh, and the End of an Era
Light Up Night, Pittsburgh's annual celebration, won’t be the same.
King Coal and the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum
Wilma Steele sits on her screened porch and watches the last of the apples fall from her tree. It’s a beautiful, crisp day in Mingo County, West Virginia.
Beyond Rust: Part 3, “Mills and Malls”
In light of their efforts to attract the stores, restaurants, and vibrant night-life essential for remaking the downtown riverfront, Wheeling officials would have gladly changed places with Betty Esper, Homestead’s mayor ...
Beyond Rust: Part 2, “Victorian Wheeling”
As with the Renaissance of the 1950s, community leaders in the region’s smaller cities sought to copy Pittsburgh’s relative success in reinventing itself as a high-tech, post-industrial hub ...
Keep Us In The Loop, Rust Belt
I was intrigued when my old friend Bill told me he had gotten a new job as an editor at a magazine based in Cleveland. I was more intrigued when he told me the title of the magazine and its subject matter -- the “Rust Belt.”