Fading U.S. cities look to Old World Europe for inspiration (subway, Detroit)
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Detroit and other Rust Belt cities hoping to reverse decades of decline are finding new inspiration in unexpected places: the older industrial cities of Europe.
In recent weeks, leaders from Detroit, Cleveland and other Midwest cities have traveled to Europe as part of a "Cities in Transition" exchange sponsored by the German Marshall Fund and the Kresge Foundation.
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Well those going do get a vaction freee out of it. Reminds me of all thsoe politican takig trips as always to study a problem .Hope it doen't cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands.I would think they should already have had a plan really which is why they were elected.
Well those going do get a vaction freee out of it. Reminds me of all thsoe politican takig trips as always to study a problem .Hope it doen't cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands.I would think they should already have had a plan really which is why they were elected.
Have you read the article? I don't know anything about Leipzig Germany, but I'd hardly call Manchester or Turin vacation destinations. I mean, how many Europeans come to the US to vacation in Akron or Pittsburgh?
[sarcasm]Obviously America has nothing whatsoever it can learn from Europe, because America is so different and exceptional. Obviously places like Pittsburgh and Detroit don't need to learn anything from anyone about how to make use of vacant industrial facilities. So obviously, if American city staff visit Europe and state they are doing so to find out how Europeans solve their cities' problems, they must of course be lying and are just taking fabulous vacations to exotic places like Manchester at taxpayer expense. Once there, they sip fruity European coffee and gasp in wonder at the beautiful architecture of East German textile mills and mining pits. [/sarcasm]
Have you read the article? I don't know anything about Leipzig Germany, but I'd hardly call Manchester or Turin vacation destinations. I mean, how many Europeans come to the US to vacation in Akron or Pittsburgh?
Hey, I'd like to take a (short) vacation to Pittsburgh some day. I agree not too many Europeans would, if they even thought of it.
The automobile killed American cities. The resurrection will take time.
It can't get here fast enough, for me. But there were other things that killed places like Pittsburgh and Detroit. Our corporate managements thought the USA would be on top forever, so they caved in to excessive union demands (in both industries) and ignored newer/better ways to make steel. The rest is now history. Too many industries failed to adopt tight quality control, as preached by W. Edwards Deming but the Japanese sure applied his principles to their products and eventually cleaned our clocks.
The list of culprits to blame for the decline of our cities is long and the truth is sordid, like using tax revenues to build roads while ignoring our rail options, a complete FUBAR situation going back over 80 years now. DC started building a subway system back in the 1960's and it totally changed the city, for the better, but it took 30 years and the transformation is still working in neighborhoods along the lines. Now, at our low rates of taxation, we're hosed, unless some truly courageous leaders in industry and government step up and insist we raise taxes to invest our way out of the trick bag that we're in. Fat chance.
These problems are structural issues in how our government and politics all work, and all conspire against us.
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SO you have a city, full of working-class fabric mill workers who lose their jobs and are replaced by a boat-load of artsyfartsy types.
Explain to me how this benefits the mill workers? Are the mill-workers suddenly transformed into artists? If not, how do they benefit from their town turning their mill into an "artists community"? Who, exactly is buying the art? Not the millworkers, since they are out of work.
It seems like these European cities are interested in turning their towns into "upscale", "high-end" destinations with no thought as to what the displaced, unemployed population that LIVES THERE is going to do to survive. Granted, some of them, I suppose will provide services to these artsyfartsy people like cleaning their floors and babysitting their children and doing their laundry, but in practicality, is that really going to help and make a difference? I think not.
The quote at the bottom of the article.... "Unemployment remains high in Leipzig and Manchester, and poverty remains ingrained across generations of families." would indicate to me that making communities attractive to upscale artsyfartsy types isn't really addressing or solving the problem.
20yrsinBranson
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