I read bout this in Urban Ohio, which remains the premier site for Ohio urban geeks. A bloggers conference for urban bloggers 40 and under, from the Great Lakes area. Part of a brand new networking thing called the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE).
Put together by two Ivy Leaguers who returned home to the region it apparently has some high powered foundation & think tank support.
I appreciate their mission statement
GLUE first principles:
Urbanism: Cities are our world’s economic drivers. Decision makers cannot afford to underestimate their value or overlook their needs.
Regionalism: Great Lakes urban centers need to overcome feelings of despair and isolation by forging a shared perspective and developing strength in numbers.
Storytelling: White papers alone cannot move an agenda forward, particularly when it comes to young people. No need is expressed more powerfully than via a human narrative.
Building Networks: Establishing linkages and conversations around issues and between cities is the “glue” of our mission: fostering urbanism, regionalism, and quality storytelling.
And one has to really really like their blogroll, which connects one to urbanist blogs for cities throughout the region (GLUE is far afield...as far south as Louisville and west as the Twin Cities & St Louis and as far east as Pittsburgh and Rochester)Unfortunatly Dayton is not part of this community or network.
Youngstown is, and boy is it.
GLUE links to I Will Shout Youngstown, which is a blog about "economic development and urban design" (sounds familiar?)
But whats great about it is that it links to a local blog community posting on various aspects of Youngstown (not the usual political stuff ). Yer humble host was surpised and pleased to see so much online from this famously shrinking city! Being a history buff I particularly liked this site: Youngstown Steel Heritage Preservation (the blog of a grassroots campaign to save some mill machinery)
...the blog also features industrial heritage sites outside of Youngstown.Urbanist blogs like the ones from Youngstown and especially the ones at GLUE were in part the inspiration for Daytonolgy, that I didn't see much of this online for Dayton and decided to try my hand at it as an experiment.
7 comments:
The Youngstown blog is classy looking and informative, but it has nothing on Daytonology. Dayton clearly should be a part of GLUE, and I'd vote Daytonology to be the connection (but then I unfortunately don't meet the under 40 criteria).
We need to get people excited about something.
Daytonology:
let's hang out soon.
Us in the Yo would like to give you a tour of our city, and vice versa, I have never been to downtown Dayton.
Time to get connected.
- shout
I moved to Dayton a few months ago and just found your blog this week. I am beyond impressed by the quality of your posts. More than anything else so far reading your blog has helped me get a sense of this place that is my new home. Things you've written about have made me a little inspired, a little sad, and a little motivated to get more involved with the city. Thanks for your exceptional work.
Welcome, Gina. Any town you live in will have their issues and hilights. But Dayton is just big enough that you can make differences in your community and neighborhood. There are people here that expect the same you do from your city. Participate, or don't complain, I say.
Jeff runs one of the best blogs I have seen. Prolific and profound. Don't forget to check out Dayton Most Metro, too.
"(but then I unfortunately don't meet the under 40 criteria)."
LOL, me neither as I'm pushing 50!
Jeff, I feel your pain. What's the magic of "under 40"? Does that mean we should get a site going for the boomers? GLUE sounds like something that all of us could relate to.
My take is that GLUE is emphasising the young professional angle as there's a brain drain from this demographic, so they are YPs talking to other YPs, peer-to-peer, about talking-up GL cities.
I'd say the Dayton folk who might be good GLUEists would be the Dayton Most Metro community, as they are more advocacy/project oriented.
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