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Milwaukee’s Move From Rust Belt To “Coastal City” [Next City]
… thanks to a network of public-private partnerships, the city is globally recognized as a leader in freshwater technology and research. Businesses, universities and government agencies are coming together in the Water Technology District, an innovation hub that is transforming Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, in more ways than one.

Detroit’s White Population Up After Decades Of Decline [The Detroit News]
Many local leaders contend halting Detroit’s population loss is crucial, and the new census data shows that policies to lure people back to the city may be helping stem the city’s decline.

Right To Work Buffs Up The Rust Belt [The Wall Street Journal] (opinion)
After the last UAW contract was signed, in 2011, legislators in the three Rust Belt states were determined to level the playing field in the interstate competition for jobs. The result is that laws passed in all three say that no one can be fired for refusing to pay union dues.

Meet The 6’8” Rust Belt Mayor Who Wants To Become A Senator [The Washington Post]
John Fetterman‘s announcement adds some more drama to a race that, up to now, has been defined by Democrats convincing former state environment secretary Katie McGinty to run and save them from repeat nominee (and former Rep.) Joe Sestak. It also adds — for want of a better word — character.

Smart Cities Think Big With $160 Million White House Program [Fortune]
Buttigieg has also led a charge for leveraging remnants of the industrial past into a data-driven future — a challenge facing many cities across the Rust Belt. When the fiber-optic backbone of the Internet was first being laid, many of the major trunk lines followed existing right of ways — including the railroads that ran directly through South Bend. That means it has some of the fastest Internet infrastructure in the country …

Kalitha Williams: Job Gains Haven’t Reduced Poverty In Ohio [Policy Matters Ohio]
… despite increases in employment and increases in educational attainment; poverty and the median wage in Ohio were statistically unchanged from 2013.

Review: ‘Once in a Great City’ Chronicles Detroit’s Glory Days [The New York Times]
a wistful look back at an era when those cracks were only just beginning to show, and the city still seemed a place of “uncommon possibility” and was creating “wondrous and lasting things.”

Banner photo: Studebaker Factory, South Bend, Indiana in September 1967 [credit: David Wilson –  http://flickr.com/people/davidwilson1949]

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