Legacy Cities: A Book About Cleveland’s History & Future
Dr. Stephanie Ryberg-Webster and Dr. Rosie Tighe are both associate professors of urban studies within Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. Ryberg-Webster’s research explores the complex intersections of historic preservation and urban development, Tighe’s scholarship focuses on housing policy, race and ethnicity and neighborhood revitalization.
Below is an excerpt of an interview where the two scholars discuss their recently published book “Legacy Cities: Continuity and Change amid Decline and Revival”.
CSU: Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a writer and editor?
Ryberg-Webster: This is the first book that I have written/edited. I am working on a sole author book about historic preservation in Cleveland in the 1970s, so this was in some ways a learning experience for me in terms of editing a book. I think working with Rosie and the contributors to the book, many of who are colleagues here at Levin or former Ph.D. students, really made it an easy process. The staff at our publisher, University of Pittsburgh Press, were also terrific.
Tighe: I have edited a book before called The Affordable Housing Reader. That was a collection of already published work that we were pulling together, so it entailed seeking permission from journals rather than engaging directly with contributors, so this was something completely different. Like Stephanie said earlier - our colleagues and publisher were terrific and the whole process was fairly straightforward. I keep on telling Stephanie that we were very lucky because writing a book usually does not run this smoothly. I am also working on a sole author book right now. Mine is about suburbanization and racial segregation. I do feel better prepared for that project now that I have completed this book.
CSU: What is the main goal of the book?
Ryberg-Webster: The goal with the book was to bring attention to urban policy issues that are important to cities like Cleveland. In previous studies of legacy cities, there has been a heavy emphasis on Detroit and significantly less attention on cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo. We really wanted to harness the knowledge, energy and research that is going on around Cleveland and these other legacy cities.
Tighe: People in Cleveland are tired of being called “the Mistake on the Lake.” People have a lot of preconceptions about Cleveland, or Pittsburgh or Buffalo, and how they were “better before.” However these communities are still very important urban centers in this country. It almost seems like people forget that people still live in cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo. This is the reason we decided to use the term “legacy cities” instead of “shrinking cities” or “rustbelt cities,” because those terms have negative connotations. We chose “legacy” because it better fits the reality of how these cities work and operate.
CSU: Why did you decide to collaborate on the book?
Ryberg-Webster: This project came about a couple of years ago at the encouragement of then interim dean Robert Gleeson. He was trying to spur new collaborative projects and faculty partnerships and we were intrigued by the idea of combining our research. Rosie covers social, race and class issues in cities, while I am focused more on the built environment in communities and how these environments are planned and maintained. Together, we cover a significant amount of what makes cities “tick.” I think that is why we work so well together and why this has been a good pairing.
Tighe: One of my first visits to Cleveland, was to attend a conference on historic preservation in legacy cities that Stephanie had organized. That was really the start of our conversations about the national and local perception of Cleveland and how people talk and think about the city. This book, particularly the introduction and conclusion which we co-wrote, is really the culmination of those conversations and the joint research that followed. It is really amazing and exiting to see all of our ideas, as well as the work of so many other researchers, come together in this book.
CSU: What type of support did you receive for the project?
Tighe: We received funding over three years from the Levin College Women’s Fund, which made it possible for us to spend two summers really dedicated to working on this book which we are really grateful for and that helped us a lot.
CSU: Is Cleveland experiencing a population decline?
Ryberg-Webster: Technically yes, the city of Cleveland’s population has declined every decade since the 1950s. The population of Cuyahoga County has declined every decade from 1980, which means that we are in a region that is stagnating. However, there are multiple neighborhoods in Cleveland where population has begun to grow, including Downtown, Ohio City and University Circle. These are bright spots that we need to enhance, while continuing to support the areas where there are still challenges.
Tighe: Our book says legacy cities, but in a lot of ways what we are talking about are things that have to do with regional equity. Looking at the entire city and its relationship to its suburbs, to the county as a whole, how they operate, what the funding environment is, who makes decisions, who is left out of decisions. All of these issues that we look at in this book are about Cleveland, but they are also about Cuyahoga County, Shaker, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Parma, etc. The history of Cleveland and its suburbs are both fascinating and terrible, we are still struggling with these “legacies” of this today.
CSU: Do you think this will change anytime in the future?
Ryberg-Webster: The answer to that question is very uncertain. I think there are things happening in our world globally that will potentially cause disruptions. If we did a population forecast today for Cleveland, it would go down because it has been going down. However, if you would have done this for Cleveland in the 1940s it would have gone way up because of what had happened in the previous decade. So we really can’t predict. I think there are parts of Cleveland that will continue to improve and I hope that this will not be at the expense of people of color, or people of low socioeconomic means who have lived in Cleveland through the worst of times.
Tighe: The trend is that neighborhoods that are whiter and wealthier are going to continue to do well, and neighborhoods that are blacker and poorer will continue to do poorly unless there is a change in how we approach things like the tax abatement and public school funding. Still, even with those types of reforms, there is only so much a city can do, especially a city that is constrained in resources. We do not have the money to invest in the neighborhoods that need it the most and we are allowing the private sector to choose where they want to invest and not where we need them to invest.
Ryberg-Webster: Solutions in the future will take creative thinking and leaders who are willing to take some risks and be innovative. The city and county have limited resources to spur drastic change. Federal and State policies encourage white flight and urban decline and decades of declining federal funding have exacerbated the difficult position of legacy cities.
Tighe: We tried to make the book very accessible, though. During the process, we thought about how we might use the book in the classroom, as well how we might shape new undergraduate and graduate courses where we explore these themes.
CSU: Are you hosting any events tied to the book being published?
Ryberg-Webster: Yes! We are going to have a launch party in September to promote the book and sign copies and highlight individual contributors. We will be announcing a date and location very soon!
