1/12/2008

Sticking Together...

I've been interested in the intersection of certain emerging cultural and policy changes that are beginning to slowly shape the dialogue here in Buffalo, NY with regards to the City's long term economic development. I've been looped into a number of conversational threads, classroom presentations and panel discussions this past year about rust-belt revitalization. I see the Shrinking Cities exhibit that's been making its way across the country and the path breaking work of Buffalo LISC, especially their Blueprint Buffalo as central to the critique about the possibility of the city's future vitality and possible long term viability when we ask the question - What is to be done?
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GLUE Co-Founders Sarah Szurpicki (Harvard 03) and Abby Wilson (Columbia 02) are young urbanists who recently returned to their respective hometowns: Detroit and Pittsburgh. They developed the concept for the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) during the summer of 2007, as an outgrowth of comparative conversations about their experiences coming home to similarly challenged post-industrial cities.
After posting about this weekend's Smart City programming, I noticed some traffic pouring in from another rust-belt blog, Burgh Diaspora, right here - Rustbelt Network: Critical Mass. So rather than wait 'till Sunday afternoon I listened to the podcast - right here, a very cool conversation between host Carol Coletta and Sarah Szurpicki and Abby Wilson, GLUE founders. They discussed their take on the meaning and importance of the Partnership for Public Good here in Buffalo, NY.
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I checked out the entire GLUE site and especially the links to Brookings Institute. Scrolling through their site you'll find the Great Lakes Economic Initiative. Seriously, some good material and policy initiatives impacting our City and region.

While we're thinking about enlarging and shifting the dialog and finding emerging points that intersect beyond our neighborhood, rust-belt city and region we certainly should be looking across the river or lake to a few other places, too. I mean, this is cool!

Looking forward to a Rust-Belt bloggers meet-up, too.
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1 comment:

Abby Wilson said...

Greetings from GLUE Co-Founder Abby Wilson. I am absolutely thrilled that you are interested in this effort, and want to be in touch!

Please email me at abbywilson3098@gmail.com