Rust Belt Bloggers Mission Statement

[Jim Russell]

One suggestion emerging from our gathering at PGHPC3 is to craft a mission statement so others might easily understand what we are trying to do. I'm open to ideas about our primary task and I'll take a stab at my vision for RBB:

Rust Belt Bloggers is a marketplace for community projects that build a regional or mega-regional sense of identity while galvanizing resources for the purpose of economic development.

[Mark Rauterkus]

Nice first draft, Jim.

I sorta need a few understandings on some of the concepts before I go into critique / counter-point discussions. We talked in person this weekend and I said, "I don't know what a region is. Can you explain what YOU mean by 'region.'? That's a key concept. The aim is to build to a regional or mega-regional sense of identity. What is this 'rust belt region?'

Next, what is economic development? Is that just 'prosperity?' Or, is that putting a downtown mall with upscale retail and a cinema downtown? In recent years, we've seen a lot of economic development weenies try to wiggle their way into 'government money' and mega projects with marginal (at best) results. I've worked hard to fight against some economic development deals. The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) in the city of Pittsburgh is all about economic development -- and they suck. Even the recent $850 Billion bailout from the FEDs to Wall Street is a form of economic development. So, with that concept -- count me out.

But, I don't think you want to get all corporate on this mission. So, other terms -- or better yet -- fully detailed definitions are in order.

RBB can be an online-marketplace of ideas that forges a community of content creators to better coordinate projects in a wide range of venues throughout an area that spans from .... Buffalo to DC through Appalacia (sp?) to Chicago. ??

[Jim Russell]

Mark,

You ask a number of important questions. Concerning "region", I have an academic understanding culled through geographic training. A region is an abstraction (i.e. a reduction of all the noise of infinite information and variety) of a group of places that share a characteristic or multiple characteristics. The area of someone's region will depend on which characteristics are used. Regions are a useful shorthand for knowing enough about a place to do something functional. When you go to a new city or town, your regional understanding provides you with a map that helps you to navigate that community. Created with skill, a region is a very powerful tool for unlocking the foreign and the faraway.

Defining a functional and coherent region is crucial. You might ask, "Crucial for what?" The "what" is economic development. Economic development is a goal. Why URA may suck is how they go about achieving that goal, but economic development in and of itself doesn't "suck". And how we measure economic development is controversial, to say the least. But I'm not interested in developing a marketplace for how best to promote economic development or measure the effectiveness of a project. What I hope will happen is that a bunch of people from all around the region (whatever we settle upon as a definition) will help a community or neighborhood within that region. We have to trust that the people here at Rust Belt Bloggers know their neighborhood best and we'll let those locals decide what they want to do. Then, we'll take all our collective expertise and resources and give that initiative a leg up.

If "economic development" is too much of a hot potato, then I'd be fine with framing our efforts as "community improvement".I have my own ideas of what a neighborhood should do and how it should do it, but I discuss such things at my blog and not here. Here at RBB, I want to help all the neighborhoods in this region do what they think is best.

I suggest that the next step, after sharpening the mission statement, is to define our region. I'm partial to the Cleveburgh corridor, but we could easily be more expansive. I'll recommend Cleveburgh as the smallest area the region should be.

[Mark Rauterkus]

Community improvement works wonders for me. Economic development is a 'hot potato.'

Seems that the region is handy to designate a few hours of travel. We can get to there -- that specific part in the shared region, in a few hours time. What are the key multiple characteristics at work here, besides travel?

By all means, the Cleveburgh makes good sense and it is important to know and grow from a base. The base of Pgh, Youngstown, Cleveland is plenty and could be the next (or this) phase.

What about Columbus, Ohio? What about Toledo? Detroit? Michigan?
What about Indy? Ft. Wayne?
What about Buffalo? Upstate New York?
What about State College, PA? Allentown, PA? What about Johnstown? What about Somerset?
What about Morgantown? What about Charlestown, WV? What about the rest of WV? Parkersburg, Marrietta?

Perhaps the core is developed in the months to come and then expansion points would be pulled into the fold in a year or so -- or after certain benchmarks are reached.

My $.02 about name. A decade or more ago, Atlanta called itself the capital of the "New South." A political friend wanted to make Pittsburgh the capital of the "New North."

I agree that NYC, Philly, Balt., DC and Chicago are different regions. Toronto and ONT are different. Perhaps too KY. Cinci and Dayton, I'm not sure. They are more like Pgh than not, to me.

[Jim Russell]

I share your perspective concerning the functionality of driving distance and I also appreciate the approach of starting small and expanding as we build capacity. Cleveburgh strikes me as plenty ambitious.

I'm wary of making this too Pittsburgh-centric (as in "Pittsburgh the capital of the 'New North'). Since most people don't care for "Rust Belt" we could either embrace some of the new conceptions already out there (e.g. Great Lakes and G.L.U.E.) or we can come up with something new if we feel that we are breaking ground with our idea of region (e.g. Postindustrial Heartland).

[Mark Rauterkus]

Postindustrial Heartland = wow. That's a keeper.

[Jim Russell]

I'm inspired by this video about Networking and Blogging for Change. Our network should be dealing with solving one problem or, more simply, answering a question. Keeping in mind mission statements already out there (e.g. GLUE), a question we could answer:

How can bloggers best communicate the opportunities available in our Rust Belt cities?

Another way of framing the problem:

How could you sell Pittsburgh or Youngstown or Jamestown to someone who has never been there?

I'm hoping to discover an effective means of broadcasting regional value propositions, which I gather is difficult to do.

[Mark Rauterkus]

My $.02.

The expression I embrace is, "Come live over here."

If you do a google search, as I just did, on that four word slogan, I'm in the top 4 positions.

Come live over here, in the South Side. Or, where ever...

Come live over here because ...
(guess that is where you insier your regional value propositions.)