Urban Pioneering, anyone? (New York, York, Ohio: buying, suburbs, properties)

[Daytonnatian]

Like to hear about the good, bad, and ugly of urban pioneering in rust belt towns (Ghettos in the Bronx work as well). I will also be running parallel threads in Michigan and Ohio, which I think have a lot in common with rust-belt upstate New York, not the city proper. Therefore, that is what this thread is focused on, but if your idea of being an urban crusader is buying a penthouse on Park Avenue, you may post your experience as well.

[Daytonnatian]

By the way, when I say "urban pioneering", I am talking about where yuppies and other urban-ly concerned individuals moved into older, historic properties in the "ghetto" and re-hab them, therefore turning it into a "cool" historic urban oasis instead of another part of a blighted rust-belt city. However, the Michiganders out there thought this meant hobo farming. Is this what it really means or have I been in the suburbs too long?

[ckhthankgod]

I was thinking of something like this in regards to urban pioneering:

Flint Looks to the Future | Project for Public Spaces (PPS) (http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/march2008/flint_looks_to_the_future - broken link)