The
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review features an article that highlights the parallels between post-industrial cities Pittsburgh and Essen, Germany.
Essen was selected by the European Union as its cultural capital for 2010, which "drew the same bemused confusion as the White House's selection of Pittsburgh to host the Group of 20 Summit." The Essen region, like Pittsburgh, is being hailed by leaders for its transformation from a "steel-making and coal-mining heyday into an incubator for artists and entrepreneurs."
Essen's $90 million, yearlong Capital of Culture celebration began Saturday night. Planning of the celebration began in January 2007, shortly after European Union commissioners selected the former industrial juggernaut.
"Most people were totally surprised," said Andreas Rickenbrock, who served as spokesman of the 10-year regional redevelopment initiative that concluded in 1999. Despite the multibillion-dollar transformation of industrial sites and slag heaps into public parks and mountain-sized works of art, most Europeans' perceptions of the Ruhr region remained colored with the coal dust and smog of its past, the article states.
"This is our chance to change that," Rickenbrock said.
Click here to read the complete Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article.
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