Where the Streets are Paved with Rust

In the first installment of the two-volume collection of Where the Streets are Paved with Rust, journalist and former Obama and Clinton campaign advisor Bruce Fisher explores wealth, poverty, hopes, and illusions in America's struggling north. In these essays about Rust Belt communities, Fisher carefully but vigorously challenges. He tackles real-estate developers; knocks liberals who won't embrace metro government; excoriates conservatives for their racist code-words; nudges us to revisit the debate between Heidegger and Cassirer; and explains the brilliance of streetcars and urban wildlife, the persistence of black male workforce exclusion, the centrality of water quality, and many other issues that shape cities. Fisher takes deep dives into data, scholarship, and history--as he does nearly weekly for The Public, Western New York's leading independent weekly newspaper. Fisher's scope is broad, he wears his erudition lightly, and his work is ever about crossing boundaries--in celebration of what's to be found across the line.