Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in “The Best Location in the Nation

Title

Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in “The Best Location in the Nation"

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Description

Detractors have called it "The Mistake on the Lake." It was once America’s "Comeback City." According to author J. Mark Souther, Cleveland has long sought to defeat its perceived civic malaise. Believing in Cleveland chronicles how city leaders used imagery and rhetoric to combat and, at times, accommodate urban and economic decline.

Souther explores Cleveland's downtown revitalization efforts, its neighborhood renewal and restoration projects, and its fight against deindustrialization. He shows how the city reshaped its image when it was bolstered by sports team victories. But Cleveland was not always on the upswing. Souther places the city's history in the postwar context when the city and metropolitan area were divided by uneven growth. In the 1970s, the city-suburb division was wider than ever.

Believing in Cleveland recounts the long, difficult history of a city that entered the postwar period as America's sixth largest, then lost ground during a period of robust national growth. But rather than tell a tale of decline, Souther provides a fascinating story of resilience for what some folks called "The Best Location in the Nation."

ISBN

978-1439913727

Publication Date

11-2017

Publisher

Temple University Press

Keywords

Cleveland, urban renewal, urban studies, revitalization, rust belt, city development, renewal, resiliance

Disciplines

History | Public History | Urban Studies | Urban Studies and Planning

Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in “The Best Location in the Nation

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