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The Rust Belt Future
Rust Belt cities have an opportunity to remake themselves for a better future.
The wind on Lake Erie is rumbling and raging just half a block north from where I sit, howling like a freight train. A cold snap came in last night, temperatures plunging into the teens.
This is January in Cleveland: the beginning of a new year and all of the attendant hopes that come along with it, but a reminder that one must first endure a brutal, desolate period before reaching the promise of spring.
In many ways, the present state of Cleveland and the rest of the Rust Belt is similar. There are memories of warm summers when growth and development led to dreams of infinite possibility; recollections of golden autumn, when the region was at the peak of its powers and beauty; all before slipping towards the cold, the decay, the near-death that soon overtook it.
The Rust Belt has had a rough go of things over the course of the past half century. And with a host of forces working against it, the foreseeable future will be a major challenge as well.
Cities must lead
Now, more than ever, we need cities to lead the charge into the future. If they don’t, there won’t be much of a future to charge into.
