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Weekly Links Roundup
A roundup of links to important Rust Belt-related pieces from this past week.
A Tale of Two Cities: Why Chuy Garcia Won’t Turn Chicago Into Detroit
In 1983, shortly after Harold Washington was elected mayor of Chicago, Richard Mell, a white alderman, approached the African-American mayor with this plea: “Don’t make this city suffer for 300 years of injustice against your people.
God, Baseball, and the Mystery of the Disappearing Novel: Nancy Willard’s “Things Invisible to See”
In the 1989 film Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer who plows down a section of his cornfield to build a baseball field that’s soon populated by the ghosts of players past.
Cleveland: City of Tomorrow
At Tech Central in the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library, you can experiment with three-dimensional printing. These days it is mostly a curiosity for kids to experiment with.
Requiem For A Slaw Dog
A few days ago, I watched as Steve’s Lunch smoldered and crumbled while firemen hosed out a blaze that had completely destroyed the place.
The Legacy of Redlining in Rust Belt Cities
In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) set out to evaluate mortgage lending risk in American cities. The resulting maps codified and legitimized the racism of the day ...
Put a Smokestack On It: Lansing’s 517 Shirts
Ty Forquer got the idea for 517 Shirts in the men’s room of a Lansing, Mich., bar. Forquer had just moved to Lansing from Portland, Ore., to pursue a doctorate in music at Michigan State University.
Being Ernie Krivda
“Play me something” says the tenor master during our first lesson together. I squirm uncomfortably in my socks, having left my shoes at the door of the immaculate if modest music studio.
Rust Belt Refugees – March 2015
Many from the Midwest have relocated for one reason or another, but many have never fully acclimated to their new home away from home. These March 2015 profiles tell the story of Rust Belt Refugees.
Steel Grit
The year was 1976. I was a college student going down to US Steel to apply for a summer job. I had never been there before, but it was one of those places that lined the Mahoning River, over which I had driven a million times.
Cincinnatus
When we set about assembling The Cincinnati Anthology, we were looking for all different impressions of the city: the loving, the brutal, and the honest.

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