CityLab Daily: A Rust Belt City Wrestles With Fear and Immigration

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What We’re Following

Irony of steel: One year ago, Amer Othman Adi, a resident and business owner in Youngstown, Ohio, boarded a flight to Jordan after ICE detained him at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. Adi entered the United States in 1979, at age 19, and later opened a convenience store that sparked a business renaissance in this famously blighted city. But his contributions to his Rust Belt community didn’t stop his deportation.

Adi’s businesses employed about 60 people when he was deported, and many of the city’s residents are the children and grandchildren of immigrants who came to work in the steel industry. His highly visible contributions have led to a public outcry about his deportation, but the federal detention center where he was held plays its own part in the Youngstown area: It’s hailed as a much-needed source of jobs and tax revenue. This presents the city with a question: Can Youngstown welcome immigrants and support the federal detention center that incarcerates them?

Today on CityLab: A Rust Belt City Wrestles with Fear, Immigration, and Its Future

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More on CityLab

Heart of the Problem

The number of pedestrians killed by cars has grown a startling 35 percent since 2008. That’s according to the latest edition of Dangerous by Design, a recurring report by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition. One factor stands out in particular: The high-speed, multi-lane arterial roads that underpin sprawl give too much space to cars and too little to humans.

The map above shows the most dangerous states for pedestrians, and lends weight to this conclusion. Sun Belt states with some of the most spread-out metro areas—Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and others—are also among the states with the highest “pedestrian death index,” which controls for population and how many people walk to work. CityLab’s Laura Bliss reports on America’s Most Dangerous Roads for Pedestrians.

What We’re Reading

The shutdown cost the U.S. economy $3 billion it won’t get back (The Hill)

Google’s Sidewalk Labs plans to package and sell location data on millions of cellphones (The Intercept)

The new language of climate change focuses on the costs to communities (Politico)

Two years ago, this immigration lawyer marched on an airport. Today, he’s running for state house. (Mother Jones)

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