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How Rust Belt City Youngstown Plans To Overcome Decades Of Decline [PBS NewsHour]
Since the 1950s, Youngstown’s population has declined by 60 percent, from about 168-thousand to 65-thousand and is still shrinking. Thousands of empty homes have been left behind, crippling the housing market, and eroding the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base.

A Traveler’s Guide To The Revival Of Buffalo, New York [Travel + Leisure]
New York’s second-largest city has sprung back to life, with retro-cool restaurants and watering holes downtown that recall its industrial glory days.

Employees Stealing Drugs From Ohio Pharmacies, Health Care Facilities [The Columbus Dispatch]
Professional licensing boards can — and do — take action against health care workers who are caught stealing drugs or who admit addictions. But another group with ready access to drugs remains largely unregulated: pharmacy technicians. They can exploit a loophole in Ohio’s oversight of health care workers because there is little to prevent techs who steal drugs from getting a job at another pharmacy and stealing again.

Ford’s Planned New Headquarters Borrow Some Silicon Valley Sheen [The New York Times]
The company, which is 112 years old, said it would begin transforming its headquarters and main development center in Dearborn, just outside Detroit, into two sprawling, high-tech campuses of energy-efficient buildings. There, it plans to showcase autonomous shuttles, electric bikes and other green modes of transportation.

Cleveland Hoped Convention Could Show Off Comeback [LimaOhio.com]
Downtown Cleveland, with streets torn up and utility trucks working around the Quicken Loans Arena, looks like it’s getting spruced up for a big date with 50,000 convention-goers. The 116-year-old Electric Building high-rise, which now houses the United Church of Christ, sports a large banner that reads, “We have faith in Cleveland.”

The Fight For Better Access To Jobs In Detroit And Milwaukee, Using Buses [Streetsblog USA]
Both Detroit and Milwaukee are considering similar measures to improve job access: high-quality bus service that will connect workers from the city to suburban job centers…Both efforts are still in their infancy. It remains to be seen whether these two regions can overcome political and cultural divisions and embrace a practical solution like fast, frequent-running bus service.

What We Know About Lead Poisoning Is Scary. What We Don’t Know Might Be Worse. [ThinkProgress]
“When I first found out what happened in Flint, I was emotionally disturbed. Because I imagined someone like me, thousands of me, thousands of my children, going through the same situation. That’s all I could think about. I just feel so sad for these women and these children.”

Banner photo by Bryan Debus

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