Broken Windows in Cleveburgh

Another sunny day in Colorado and the blog about the Burgh Diaspora is posting about broken windows in Youngstown, OH. My crusade to better Pittsburgh is rich with irony. Along this journey, I've picked up the baggage of Youngstown and other Rust Belt cities. When it rains in a shrinking city, the sky doesn't look so blue here:

It's 8:47pm on Sunday and the rain has started downtown.

The wet drops are coming down harder now, even sideways when gusts of wind kick up.

And most of the windows in one of the architectural gems of downtown youngstown are now missing.

The Stambaugh Building, a wonderful example of early 20th century skyscrapers, is currently exposed to the elements. Some birds have flown inside of the structure - as the rain is coming down all around me.

St. Louis and Buffalo can echo this tragedy. This story is a dime a dozen in the Postindustrial Heartland. What I am asking is that the like-minded come together to save one building in the center of Youngstown. There are many other architectural wonders we can reclaim throughout our mega-region, but let's make the Stambaugh Building the first collaborative effort. Then, let us make the Stambaugh Building the center of the economic revitalization of the Rust Belt.