Caring For All Parts: Hadad Farm
On the east side of Detroit sits an old two-story house washed sky blue. The paint is chipped and the windows are barred with thick grey metal. It is my grandmother’s house of over fifty years.
Buildings and Food: Walnut Way is Transforming its Milwaukee Neighborhood Brick by Brick, Crop by Crop, and Porch by Porch
They sling a mean Reuben at Jake’s Deli on the corner of W. North Avenue and 17th Street on Milwaukee’s north side. That iconic sandwich, arguably the best in town, hasn’t changed much ...
Not Just Another Soup Kitchen: Inside the Flint Community Cookout
“Hey, man, he got a spot,” says Kenny Lucas, pointing his thumb toward Dallas Schiestel, as another man joins the growing party in Riverbank Park, waiting for the Flint Community Cookout to begin.
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.
Police Story
The record store was about two miles from our neighborhood and about one mile beyond the city limits. As teenagers a friend and I would go there whenever we had a little money ...
A Helping Hand, From One Refugee To Another
Dzemal Bijedic knows what it’s like to be a refugee. He was just a kid when the bombs started falling on the Dalmatian city of Dubrovnik, his mother’s hometown.
What’s In A Vowel? In Search Of The Disappearing Short-A Rising
Last Thanksgiving, I was in Houston, visiting my wife’s family. “How far is it from here to Dallas?” I asked my sister-in-law. “To where?” she asked. “To Dale’s house?”
The Chatpattey Room: Refugees Creating a Home — And A Business — In The Rust Belt
Nestled between a modern-day bistro and a jewelry shop, just inside of Akron’s North Hill neighborhood, sits a small inconspicuous building.
Indiana’s One Weird Trick For Municipal Expansion
It was a bright July day in 2013 and just like most other summer days in most other years, the tall stalks of corn, green and shining under the Indiana sun ...
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 ...
Beyond Rust: Part 1, “A 12-Mile Story of Who We Are”
Rather than emerging from a coherent set of policies, Pittsburgh’s neoliberal model for urban redevelopment and economic growth evolved ...