Cleveland is globally important in a way that few cities may be: we are a huge, decaying industrial city. In the post-industrial age, what we now view as blight, like abandoned warehouses and factories, will make Cleveland an international attraction. Already, Cleveland is attracting the world's experts in planning of cities - especially "Shrinking Cities" - into town.

As part of the internationally important Shrinking Cities exhibitions, in Cleveland this month, five bleeding-edge architect/planners and conceptual artists presented a symposium, on Friday, May 11, 2007, at Convivium33 Gallery, offering a range of insights that may be applied here in NEO today, moreso than is obvious from the agenda, and whether we shrink or grow.

The first to speak was Architect Kyong Park the founder/director of the International Center for Urban Ecology, a nomadic laboratory for future cities, and co-curator of 'Project Shrinking Cities. Kyong describes himself as nomadic, living and traveling around the world, and that is reflected in his conceptual architecture - like a home that must keep moving from city to city - and in his planning understanding that cities are moving - .5 miles per year.

the subject of many films, documentaries and studies on declining economies and cities,