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Kaid Benfield

Kaid Benfield - Kaid Benfield is the director of the Sustainable Communities and Smart Growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, co-founder of the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, and co-founder of Smart Growth America. More

Kaid Benfield is the director of the Sustainable Communities and Smart Growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, co-founder of the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, and co-founder of Smart Growth America. He is the author or co-author of Once There Were Greenfields (NRDC 1999), Solving Sprawl (Island Press 2001), Smart Growth In a Changing World (APA Planners Press 2007), and Green Community (APA Planners Press 2009). In 2009, Kaid was voted one of the "top urban thinkers" on Planetizen.com, and he was named one of "the most influential people in sustainable planning and development" in 2010 by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. He blogs at NRDC's Switchboard.

Cleveland's Disappearing Warehouse District, Then and Now

By Kaid Benfield
Sep 14 2011, 5:01 PM ET Comment

Two images, of the district as it appeared in the '60s and as it looks today, came in over Rust Wire, a site about post-industrial cities

Cleveland's warehouse district in the 1960s:

Cleveland, 1960s (from vintage postcard via Angie Schmitt & Kate Giammarise, rustwire.com)

The same district, from almost exactly the same perspective, today:

Cleveland, today (via Angie Schmitt & Kate Giammarise, rustwire.com)

The two images come via Angie Schmitt & Kate Giammarise of Rust Wire, a website "intended to consolidate thoughtful, constructive stories about post-industrial cities across the Rust Belt." According to the site, it was developed by two former newspaper reporters with ties to five Rust Belt cities and is maintained with help from others.

I like it, and not just because they first published the photos a year ago in a post in which they were kind enough to cite one of mine. The images resurfaced yesterday, including in a Rust Wire post authored by Richey Piiparinen, also featuring a YouTube video of The Pretenders' classic "My City Was gone." Keep up the good work.

Images: Rust Wire.

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