Environment
What Post-Industrial Cities Can Learn From Each Other
A new alliance has representatives from Pittsburgh, Essen, Beijing, and other metros swapping strategies for transforming from a factory town to a sustainable city.
In many ways, Essen is the envy of cities trying to move past their industrial days. Once the steel and coal center of Germany, Essen’s economic success in the early 20th century was evident in the dust blanketing the city and sulfur filling the air with the constant stench of rotten eggs. By one resident’s account, coal miners permanently wore black smudges across their faces, earning them the nickname waschbar, or “raccoons.”
By the 1980s, globalization halted much of Essen’s production, and nearly all of the coal mines had closed. The city had to reinvent itself—starting with its environment.