Blog Release: Sticky City Round-Ups

From GLUE:

IN FIRST-EVER STICKY CITY ROUND-UPS, GREAT LAKES CITIES MEGA-REGIONAL NETWORK MEETS SIMULTANEOUSLY TODAY, THURSDAY IN THIRTEEN CITIES FROM NEW YORK TO MINNESOTA

Tonight and Thursday, GLUE will convene the first of monthly mega-regional meetings, or "Sticky City Round-Ups," to build shared identity and relationships across the Great Lakes Region. The Round-Ups, open to the public and occurring in at least six locations on each night, will ask attendees to discuss their city within the context of the mega-region, and to swap targeted, scribed brainstorms with a partner city in another state.

"The response to this concept has been encouraging, and it's exciting to have reached the 'exchange' part of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange," Detroit-based Co-Founder Sarah Szurpicki said. "We believe that opening this exchange up to the public is the best way to really find out what's happening in these cities, and what they share."

This week's meeting, What's Your Laundry List?, will elicit from participants the city-focused 'big problems' and 'wild ideas' that may be shared by similarly challenged GLUE cities. The stories, challenges, and ideas that emerge from this first meeting will determine the topics for GLUE's activities moving forward. Feedback and, where possible, footage will be made available on www.gluespace.org. Future Round-Ups will each focus on a particular issue, and will continue to take place on the second Tuesday or Thursday of each month.

THIS WEEK'S STICKY CITIES MEETINGS

Also available at http://gluespace.wordpress.com/going-local/

Buffalo: Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm EST, Spot Coffee

Chicago: Tuesday, April 8, 6 pm CST, Mercury Cafe

Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown: Thursday, April 10, 7 pm EST, WKYC-TV Studios, 1333 Lakeside Avenue

Columbus: Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm EST, Los Camperos - 3610 S High St.

Detroit: Thursday, April 10, 7 pm EST, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)

Duluth: Thursday, April 10, 6 pm EST Minnesota Power

Flint: Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm EST, the office of the Flint Club

Indianapolis: Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm EST, The Coffee Shop at Moe and Johnny's

Milwaukee: Tuesday, April 8, 6 pm CST, Bucketworks

Pittsburgh: Thursday, April 10, 7 pm EST, The Union Project, 801 N. Negley Ave.

Rochester: Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm EST, Boulder Coffee Company, 100 Alexander St.

St. Louis: Thursday, April 10, 6 pm CST, the Commonspace at the Soulard Fine Arts Building, 1007 Russell Blvd.

Toledo: Thursday, April 10, 7 pm EST, Manhattan's Restaurant

TO CONTACT A LOCAL CONTINGENT, PLEASE CONTACT ABBY@GLUESPACE.ORG OR CALL 412 551 4609

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ABOUT GLUE:

GLUE, a coalition comprised of post-boomer urbanists located in the "rustbelt," was founded to promote the power, aide in the positive transformation, and address the shared challenges of similarly-storied older industrial cities situated in the Great Lakes watershed. Among the ranks of GLUE coalition members are community organizers, urban planners, artists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and students living and working in over twenty cities in ten states. GLUE operates on four guiding principles:

Urbanism: Cities are our world's economic drivers. Decision makers cannot afford to underestimate their value nor overlook their needs.

Regionalism: Great Lakes urban centers need to overcome outlooks of despair and isolation by forging a shared perspective and developing strength in numbers.

Storytelling: White papers alone cannot propel an agenda, particularly for the emerging generation of leadership. No need is expressed more powerfully than via human narrative.

Building Networks: Connecting people and institutions who share challenges and objectives will foster regional collaboration and transfer examples of success throughout the basin.

GLUE was developed in the fall of 2007 as a forum for people to exchange stories, ideas, and best practices between otherwise isolated cities from Buffalo to St. Louis to Minneapolis. GLUE's permanent online home, www.gluespace.org, is in development at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Visit GLUE's temporary blog (http://gluespace.wordpress.com) for a complete list of involved cities and the latest on their activities.