Northeast Ohio, like much of the "former" Rust Belt, isn't well understood by those outside the region. Building the region's image is one of the mission's of the Cleveland Plus marketing campaign. A group of young adults, calling the themselves, GLUE, are taking on a similar challenge for much of the Midwest.
The above comment ties in well with Janko's thoughts on defining a region of action. The Cleveburgh Corridor is a culturally distinct area that could be understood as a sub-region of the Rust Belt or the Brookings conception of Great Lakes (GLUE collective). Functionally, I figure Cleveland Plus is too small and that Midwest is too incoherent. Thinking about Rust Belt Bloggers, we might notice the organic formation of urban network chapters. The blogroll nodes are telling, but a proper social network analysis would be useful.
George Nemeth also chimes in, reminding me that these regional identities and related networks don't pop up overnight. However, I don't see any harm in extending a GLUE invitation to Ontario-based shrinking cities. Making the connection is easy. What we do with the links is the real head-scratcher.
1 comment:
I agree, there's no harm in it, and it's pretty easy to make a connection with another blogger. I also think you're right that after that inital stage, the going gets tough. Perhaps that's the time to either ask to be introduced to someone else, or introduce someone in your town that has a common interest. Perhaps just making connections is enough. Then others can figure out how to create the value.
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