In the last decades of the 20th century, many of the rustbelt cities of the industrial Midwest and Northeast endured severe economic hardships as plants closed and legions of middle-class workers lost their jobs, their homes and their futures. More recently, bearing the brunt of recurring recessions, including the Great Recession of 2009, whose impact is still being felt, the region has seemed to be suffering a death spiral. In the midst of this desperate landscape, while the indications of past decline are undeniable, signs of incipient recovery have become unmistakable.
Since mid-2010, employment in the Cleveland area has come roaring back from devastating losses, driven by what the New York Times has called “the new urban market trends of the 21st century—health care, higher education, entertainment, good food, new housing and expanded mass transportation.” Many of the effects of these trends have been most visible in and around historic early-20th-century inner-ring suburban neighborhoods. For those of us who work and live in these neighborhoods in cities like Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland—and thus have an existential stake in the outcome—it is a cautiously exhilarating moment: Are we, at long last, on the cusp of a sustained recovery?
”Progressive Architecture, Friendly Relations: Making It Work In Cleveland Heights”
