Just received this picture of the crowds at ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids.  Organizers tell us the crowds are even larger than expected.  

Northeast Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal ran this Sunday Editorial on what the region stands to gain by increasing its percentage of college graduates by just one percentage point: $2.8 billion per year, or "roughly the payroll of the Cleveland Clinic."

The piece points out that while many residents are… more

Time leads this week with a cover titled "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell -- and how it can rise again."  It is the beginning of a year-long series on Detroit from multiple angles by magazines in the Time stable.  The piece is generally fair, blaming the… more

New York magazine sees opportunity where most see a major problem.  Office vacancy rates are soaring in Manhattan (and in many other cities), so why not turn all those cubicles into places to live?  NY invited five design firms to "play along" and provide conversion plans.  SO-IL suggested removing the… more

We ran across this interesting piece out of Hendersonville, N.C., on the economic effects of buying from local, independent retailers.  This paragraph was particularly telling: "A recent study by the firm Civic Economics makes the issue crystal clear, for every $100 spent locally, $45 stays in the community.… more

In spite of the especially tough real estate market, this Chinatown condo building in Philadelphia sold out all of its units including ten commercial suites.  As the article explains "the target market was primarily first-generation Chinese, many of them business owners who had moved to the suburbs because… more

Nice video in support of Cincinnati's battle for transit at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3n8coGqe04.

(Hat tip to Aaron Renn at Urbanophile.)