De-complexing the Compact

Our new friend Jim Rowen at The Political Environment has been blogging about the Great Lakes Compact in Wisconsin, and the politics surrounding its passage, since February 2007. For many of us, the Compact elicits an easy, “Sure, I think the Compact is important. Let’s pass it! I love the lakes!” [...]

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Biohabiwhats?

Our buddy Melissa in Chicago sent us a map from Biohabitats, a national ecological restoration firm. It shows a number of the projects they’ve completed in our dear watershed. As Melissa reminds us, “A crucial part of revitalizing the basin is restoring ecosystem services (aka, the things that nature does to provide us [...]

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An Infrequent Debate in Detroit

At the Detroit Sticky meeting, we had a hard time choosing which neighborhood to highlight for the “Our Favorite Neighborhood” feature. I don’t think I’ve ever before been a part of a debate about which is the BEST neighborhood in Detroit, so the experience was refreshing. We settled on Midtown, and the list [...]

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Belated Notes from Pittsburgh’s April Meeting

What’s Your Laundry List Notes from the Burgh:  Lost on an attendee’s laptop until just now!!!

Courtney = from Toledo, has passion for hometown, wants to see it break away from Rust Belt stereotypes, came to Pittsburgh 4 years ago for grad school, [...]

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Quick Notes From Cleveland May “Sticky” on Neighborhoods – Short and to the Point

I. My Favorite Neighborhood Story
a. Warehouse District: Full of life and energy throughout the seasons
b. Tremont: Sense of community, know the neighborhood
c. University Circle: Arts Center
d. Flats (West/East Connector)
e. Detroit Shoreway: Green neighborhood, neighborhood within the larger [...]

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Buffalo: Elmwood Village

From scribe and organizer Ann Mestrovich:
At first we threw around some ideas for neighborhoods in the city that “stood out” – the area around Canisius College (anchored by higher ed); the East Side (active community and church groups); and the Fruit Belt (adjacent to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus). We then decided to go [...]

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Columbus’ Favorite Neighborhood – Short North

Short North: My Favorite Columbus Neighborhood
An Inner-City Neighborhood that “Works”
“Columbus has become the Heartbeat of Ohio” Downtown Columbus resident, Dennis Sanders
Short North/Victorian Village
• New discovery
• Mixture of ethnicity and subcultures
• People come in from out of town for Gallery Hop
• Cruising your car [...]

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The Brady Street Neighborhood of Milwaukee

Our team in Milwaukee likes their Brady Street Neighborhood. You can see a great collection of photos here, and the GLUEsters thoughts about the neighborhood, below:
What is the mix of commercial and residential housing?
Steady balance of practical stores and boutique places, low-rent, high-rent, condos, and home owners

What is the racial breakdown of residents? [...]

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Broad Ripple Village

Our friends in Indy love the Broad Ripple Village. Why? Locally owned shops… a mix of housing… an atmosphere of creativity… They were apparently inspired by that creativity, and decided to show, rather than tell us why this is their favorite neighborhood, in this 1-minute video!

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From Duluth, a Metaphor

Duluth shares discussion notes regarding the topic: What’s your favorite neighborhood?
The first discussion item considered was “choose a neighborhood that works and try to determine why.”
We had a good discussion on how we define a neighborhood that works. What does that really mean? We thought it meant something different for Duluth than other communities – [...]

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Youngstown Business Incubator News

MEMORANDUM

From: Jim Cossler, Chief Evangelist, Youngstown Business Incubator
To: You
And we’re open for business!
With former Governor Bob Taft as our honored guest, the new $6 million Taft Technology Center was officially opened yesterday in Downtown Youngstown.  Located adjacent to the Youngstown Business Incubator, the Center will house accelerated companies from the YBI program.
But, we discovered a [...]

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Doomed?!!!!!!!!

Will Milwaukee, like Youngstown, wither? Forum would study how cities thrive
From our friend Dan Knauss in Milwaukee on this recent Journal-Sentinel piece (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=749831):
This is at least the second time I’ve seen a recent story on Longworth that picks up on a comparison he’s making between a category of cities-that-can-be-saved (Milwaukee is one) and [...]

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Senator Obama’s Urban Policy Agenda

On Valentine’s Day, we urged Presidential candidates to support the future of America’s cities and to develop a serious urban platform.
Earlier this week, our Milwaukee-dwelling friend Dan forwarded us Senator Obama’s belated Valentine. It is not clear from the Senator’s website when this platform was unveiled, or to what fanfare, but it is [...]

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St. Louis Ode to Imagination

Michael Allen has been a passionate advocate for neighborhoods on St. Louis’ North Side for years.  Sarah and I had the chance to spend an afternoon with him a few weeks ago when we were in town.  In addition to having encyclopedic knowledge of virtually every building on the North Side, he maintains an inspiring [...]

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Sticky City Videocast

Thanks to the feedback of April and May Sticky City meeting attendees, we are trying to infuse these 90 minute sessions with more “expert” insight and opportunities for meaningful exchange of ideas across the region. Your ideas about how to use new media to make this more effective in real time would be much [...]

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Rooftop Gardens in Chicago

On Tuesday, Sarah and I had been wandering through Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood for several minutes before I asked her where we were actually going.
“This guy Bruce emailed me and said he didn’t know how, but he was sure that what he was doing was related to what we are doing,” she answered. “He’s [...]

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Oil and the Suburbs

Creating a theme with today’s earlier post on transit: some predict that rising oil costs will also force a return to city living, no matter how hard suburbanites fight. The Detroit Evolution Lab is screening The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream on Tuesday night. It’s aptly [...]

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Cleveland GLUE Cohort Hits the Airwaves

Hey there Forest City – have I told you lately that I love you?
Sarah and I have visited fifteen GLUE cities since December and connected with over 24.
We love every single one, but I have to admit – the Cleveland team’s ability to build enthusiasm for Great Lakes mega-regionalism, idea sharing, and inter-city collaboration is [...]

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Transit Ridership Booming!

According to the New York Times, public transit ridership is up five to eight percent in metropolitan areas, due the cost of gas (of course, that’s in cities that HAVE extensive transit systems).  Nothing like economics to spark a culture change.
Are you taking the bus more?  Is your city considering expanding services?  Comment here.

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What do molten metals, public art, and the Buffalo Science Museum have in common?

3,2,1 – launch! After months in WordPress limbo (thank you WordPress) and thanks to the hard work of Brett and Alyssa at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, GLUEspace is ready for prime time. Well, it’s actually ready to schedule its prime time debut.
On Saturday June 21st from 7-10 PM, the Buffalo Museum of Science [...]

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