Rustbelt Revives | ModeShift

LeBron James’ I Promise Development Strategy Is Doing Good By Doing Well For Akron Kids

by Keith SchneiderMarch 9, 2021March 11, 20210

AKRON, Ohio â€“ In 2014, when he strode into the University of Akronâ€™s InfoCision stadium accompanied by the cheers of 30,000 people, LeBron James had more on his mind than returning to his hometown to play basketball again in neighboring Cleveland. That August evening Mr. James really wanted to talk about his new mission in Akron. The LeBron James Family Foundation, he said, would focus on strengthening the academic performance of Akronâ€™s underprivileged public school …

Amazon Air Fills Skies and Airports With Packages

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 16, 2021June 23, 20210

HEBRON, Ky. â€“ Since the pandemic started nearly a year ago, 15,000 fewer people arrive and depart daily from CVG, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Yet the 60 percent drop in passenger traffic is not nearly so apparent on the four runways, miles of taxiways, and hundreds of acres of concrete apron handling record amounts of air cargo — nearly 4,000 tons a day. Ranked by the Federal Aviation Administration as the nationâ€™s sixth largest cargo …

In Louisville, Covid-19 Slows Portland Neighborhood Recovery

by Keith SchneiderApril 8, 2020June 23, 20211

LOUSVILLE, Ky. — Until the Covid-19 pandemic, Gill Holland spent six years and $35 million constructing new residences and renovating 19thand 20thcentury wood and brick warehouses in Portland, an historic Ohio riverfront neighborhood that is Louisvilleâ€™s oldest and one of its most impoverished. Mr. Hollandâ€™s Portland Investment Initiative has purchased over 60 properties and filled them with businesses and residents new to the racially diverse neighborhood, where roughly 10,000 people live. The project has renovated …

Confrontation of The Century – Gas vs. Renewables

by Keith SchneiderMarch 16, 2019March 16, 20190

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Last September California affirmed its commitment to supply all of the state’s annual demand for electricity with renewable sources of energy by 2045. New Mexico enacted similar 100 percent renewable legislation. This month Minnesota pledged to be the third U.S. state to achieve 100 percent renewable electrical generation, committing to do so by 2050. The three states are joined by nine other states considering the 100 percent commitment, and 100 American …

The Ohio River Again At Center of Seminal Industrial Transition

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 4, 2019June 23, 20210

SOMERSET, KY — Ever since I reported and completed a project to suggest a new development strategy for Owensboro, KY. — and met and married one of the city’s great and beautiful civic leaders –I’ve been fascinated by the evolution of the Ohio River Valley. See a ModeShift archive here. Every economic era in American history opened along the river’s banks. Most of those that closed also weakened and died on a river that stretches …

Along Ohio River, Big Data Lifts Cincinnati

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 24, 2015March 25, 20150

CINCINNATI â€“ This 226-year-old Ohio River city came unglued in early April 2001, when three nights of riots and a plunge in the number of residents and businesses followed the death of an unarmed black man shot by the police. Fourteen years later Cincinnati is climbing to the top of the heap of American midsize cities in real estate construction — a surge in investment and new buildings fostered not only by the hard work …

Gabrielle Gray Shifts Over to Weave A New Story in American Bluegrass Music

by Keith SchneiderDecember 15, 2014December 16, 20143

OWENSBORO, KY — There was a big change today in American bluegrass music here in this Ohio River city, which over the last decade has established itself as a global center of the quintessential American music born in western Kentucky. The board of trustees of the International Bluegrass Music Museum announced that Gabrielle M. Gray,Â the museumâ€™s chief executive, ends her exceptional 12-year tenure as the museum’s capable and creative leader and steps down as …

Dream Big — Why Ohio River Valley Resurgence is Nationally and Globally Significant

by Keith SchneiderDecember 5, 2014June 23, 20211

OWENSBORO, KY — More than three years ago, while writing a study that suggested several new 21st century development ideas for this old river city, I discovered the mysteries of the Ohio River Valley. The region’s natural beauty is immediately striking. The recovering economies of cities and counties, once described as the Rust Belt, impress me. The unexpected governing approaches — cities passing new taxes as a development tool, and seeking consolidation with their surrounding …

Surrounded By Water, Ohio River Valley Experiences Economic Resurgence

by Keith SchneiderNovember 5, 2014November 9, 20140

OWENSBORO, KY. — Randy Simes, an urban planner in Cincinnati with a keen sense of observation, founded UrbanCincy.com in 2007 to report on the transitional neighborhoods, evolving culture, and reviving post-industrial economy of his native Queen City of nearly 300,000 residents. But it wasnâ€™t until he posted before-and-after-pictures from Google Street View last May, comparing changes in well-known Cincinnati street corners from 2007 to 2013, that Simesâ€™ neighbors and colleagues embraced his boosterish view that …

Olmsted Locks and Dam, Despite $Billions in Overruns, Keeps Rolling Along

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 27, 2014September 29, 20140

OLMSTED, Ill. â€“- Engineers constructing the mammoth Olmsted Locks and Dam spent the summer of 2014 lowering colossal concrete blocks in place on the bottom of the Ohio River. Submerging each piece, which form the base of a half-mile long dam that is largely underwater, is an exacting convergence of digital measurements, floating cranes, groaning towboats, and divers working in murky waters that takes over two weeks to complete. Like everything else about the two …