Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Legislative Action: 10th District and State - 033010


In this MegaVote for Ohio's 10th Congressional District:
Recent Congressional Votes
  • Senate: Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
  • Senate: FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
  • House: Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act
  • House: Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010
  • House: FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
  • House: Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

    Editor's Note: Congress is now in recess. The Senate is scheduled to return on Monday, April 12, and the House is scheduled to return on Tuesday, April 13.
    Recent Senate Votes
    Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 - Vote Passed (56-43, 1 Not Voting)

    The Senate approved this bill that would make changes to the 2010 health care overhaul law and revise student loan procedures. The Senate made minor changes to the bill, sending it back to the House.

    Sen. George Voinovich voted NO......send e-mail or see bio
    Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - Vote Passed (93-0, 7 Not Voting)

    The Senate passed this measure to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration through FY 2011 and expedite the transition to a new air traffic control system. The bill was sent to the House.

    Sen. George Voinovich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio
    Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Recent House Votes
    Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act - Vote Passed (246-178, 5 Not Voting)

    The House passed this legislation to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, extend the Build America Bonds program, and provide other infrastructure job creation tax incentives. It now goes to the Senate.

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010 - Vote Passed (239-175, 1 Present, 14 Not Voting)

    The House approved this measure that would provide funding for disaster relief, summer jobs and small business programs. The bill now goes to the Senate.

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - Vote Passed (276-145, 8 Not Voting)

    The House passed this bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration through FY 2011 and expedite the transition to a new air traffic control system. The bill now heads to the White House for the President’s signature.
    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 - Vote Passed (220-207, 3 Not Voting)

    On Thursday night, the House agreed to Senate amendments to this legislation that would make changes to the 2010 health care overhaul law and revise student loan procedures. It now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it on Tuesday.
    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Transportation Secretary Announces "Sea-Change" for American Transport: Bikes!



    My view from atop the table at the National Bike Summit

    BikePortlandSummitPic
    This picture © J. Maus of Bike Portland. View the Bike Portland Flickr stream here.
    By now you may have heard about my "tabletop speech" at the National Bike Summit last week.
    If you missed the summit or want to relive the excitement, here's some footage courtesy of Streetsblog SF; it's a bit jumpy, but that seems entirely consistent with the scene.
    Somewhere in the frenzy, I managed to thank summit-goers for being such effective advocates for livable, sustainable, bike-friendly communities.
    Well, that was fun, but the dust has settled and I have news. The crowd's enthusiasm was so contagious, the idea of introducing a major policy revision in that setting quickly evaporated.
    Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.
    We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
    To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:
    • Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
    • Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
    • Go beyond minimum design standards.
    • Collect data on walking and biking trips.
    • Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
    • Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
    • Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.
    Now, this is a start, but it's an important start. These initial steps forward will help us move forward even further.
    BikeSummitTabletop
    Photo by Jeffrey Martin courtesy of the League of American Bicyclists.
    And the Obama Administration hasn't been sitting idle on the bike front this past year either.
    Just last month through our TIGER program, we funded major bicycle projects in Indianapolis and in the Philadelphia-Camden-Trenton region.
    And our ongoing inter-agency DOT-EPA-HUD partnership on sustainable communities actively encourages planning for walkability and bikability. We think livability means giving folks the flexibility to choose their own mobility.
    Look, bike projects are relatively fast and inexpensive to build and are environmentally sustainable; they reduce travel costs, dramatically improve safety and public health, and reconnect citizens with their communities.
    So, thank you to the League of American Bicyclists and all those who gave me such a raucous welcome the other night.
    Last year's summit was something; this year was something else. I can't even imagine what next year's gathering will produce, but I know I want to be part of it.
    In closing, here's another angle from the League's YouTube channel: 

    Tuesday, March 23, 2010

    Legislative Action: 10th District and State - 032210


    In this MegaVote for Ohio's 10th Congressional District:




    Recent Congressional Votes
    • Senate: Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act
    • House: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
    • House: Reconciliation Act of 2010
    Upcoming Congressional Bills
    • Senate: FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
    • Senate: Reconciliation Act of 2010
    • House: Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010
    • House: Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010


    Recent Senate Votes
    Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act - Vote Agreed to (68-29, 3 Not Voting)

    On Wednesday the Senate passed this job creation bill, which would provide tax relief to businesses hiring unemployed workers. The President signed it into law the next day.

    Sen. George Voinovich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio
    Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 


    Recent House Votes
    Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Vote Passed (219-212)
    On Sunday the House passed this bill that would overhaul the nation's health insurance system and require most individuals to buy health insurance by 2014. The President is expected to sign the legislation into law on Tuesday.



    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio


    Reconciliation Act of 2010 - Vote Passed (220-211)
    The House also passed this bill that would make changes to the health care overhaul measure they just passed and revise student loan procedures. The bill now goes to the Senate.



    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

    Upcoming Votes
    FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - H.R.1586
    The Senate is expected to vote on this measure to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration through FY 2011 and expedite transition to a new air traffic control system.




    Reconciliation Act of 2010 - H.R.4872
    Later in the week, the Senate is likely to begin work on this bill to make changes to the health care overhaul legislation Congress just passed and to revise student loan procedures.




    Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010 - H.R.4849
    The House is scheduled to vote on this bill to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, extend the Build America Bonds program, and provide other infrastructure job creation tax incentives.




    Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010 - H.R.4899
    The House is also scheduled to work on this legislation that would provide funding for disaster relief, summer jobs and small business programs.


    Friday, March 19, 2010

    At Cleveland Mall Green Market, Sustainability Is the New Hot Topic

    Repost from Fast Company:


    At Cleveland Mall Green Market, Sustainability Is the New Hot Topic

    BY ARIEL SCHWARTZTue Mar 9, 2010

    Cleveland Galleria Mall
    Yesterday, we reported on the Cleveland Galleria mall's plan to build a massive urban greenhouse where retail shops once stood. The real story, it turns out, is what the two people behind the Gardens Under Glass project have planned for tomorrow. An urban wasteland is being transformed into a green paradise.
    The idea came about as a way to put some of the mall's empty space to good use, the Galleria's marketing and events director Vicky Poole tells FastCompany.com. At its peak, the Galleria had approximately 200 shops. Then the economy tanked. Stores shuttered. A regional bank took over a quarter of the building, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association took over another chunk of space, and much of the rest of the mall was left abandoned.
    Cleveland Galleria Mall
    Poole's first venture into making some extra cash for the mall came 5 years ago when she transformed the food court into an event space for weddings. And then she read an article in Urban Land magazine about vertical farming in cities. "As we run out of land, where can we grow our food? We can utilize empty buildings and empty areas," she explained.
    Luckily for Poole, the Galleria has a cool environment with minimal humidity that is perfect for growing lettuces and other greens. So Poole teamed up with Jack Hamilton, the operations manager for Artist Review Today magazine and gallery (located in the Galleria), to get a $30,000 start-up grant for the Gardens Under Glass project from the Civic Innovation Lab. The mall's management came on board immediately.
    greenhouse
    This past February, the pair set up a 12-foot food cart filled with lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and even a few strawberries. The cart uses Filtrexx's Gardensoxx--a compost-based mesh containment system that can be set up anywhere. Compost comes from Sweet Pea, a local company that manufactures compost and topsoil mixes. "We set up one cart initially to see how vegetables would do. The produce was pulled out of a greenhouse and we put up LEDs for natural light," Poole said. So far so good--the spinach, lettuce, and tomatoes are all growing well, while the strawberries are coming along a bit slower.
    greenhouse
    In the next few weeks, the Galleria hopes to install some hydroponic units as well. An order with one hydroponics vendor fell through, so now Poole and Hamilton are searching for another. Eventually, the pair hope to experiment with aquaponics growing methods as well. "Even hydroponically, there are different systems available. So what we plan to do is demonstrate all these systems of growing and at the same time we can see how plants do in different circumstances," Poole said. Once the food really starts rolling in, Gardens Under Glass plans to start selling produce to vendors inside the Galleria. "We've already had talks with Asia Town (a grocery store) and Cafe Sausalito," Hamilton said.
    After that, Hamilton and Poole have an even bigger ambition: turning the Galleria into an urban ecovillage. They hope to attract solar panel companies, health food stores, garden supply companies, vegetarian restaurants and more into the former retail center. It's a big project, but one that has the potential to educate Cleveland residents about how they can grow their own organic fruits and vegetables. "It's a feel good message," Poole said.

    [Gardens Under Glass]

    Wednesday, March 17, 2010

    Cleveland's Galleria Mall Turns Lost Retail Space Into Greenhouse

    Repost from Fast Company:


    Cleveland's Galleria Mall Turns Lost Retail Space Into Greenhouse Farm Stand

    BY ARIEL SCHWARTZMon Mar 8, 2010

    greenhouse
    Shopping malls, those bastions of American consumerism, have not been immune to the recent economic downturn. In a recent piece by our own Greg Lindsay, we looked at the impending decline of the mall, which is part of the "single-use environment" category of real estate development that will slowly disappear over the next thirty years, according to one developer. But what will replace these environments, and more importantly, what will happen to the massive malls of today?
    One possible solution can be seen in Cleveland's Galleria mall. The mall lost many of its retail shops over the past few years, leaving gaping holes in the greenhouse-like space. So employees of the Galleria came up with the idea for the Gardens Under Glass project, a so-called urban ecovillage inside the mall that features carts of fruits and vegetables grown on-site. The project was recently given a $30,000 start-up grant from Cleveland's Civic Innovation Lab.
    The Cleveland Plain Dealer explains:
    Poole and Hamilton put in the first green stuff this week--a 12-foot cart of lettuce and other greens near the Galleria's first-floor escalators. Their aim is to start an education center and store in a former candy shop, invite sustainable-product makers to display and sell their items, and sell produce to restaurants and individuals. They dream of hosting school groups and teams of volunteer urban gardeners eager to work beds of herbs and greens and vine systems raised hydroponically, aquaponically and in organic soils.
    We can see it now: the malls of today turned into the suburban (and urban) farming powerhouses of tomorrow. And while we're at it, why not turn entire economically depressed cities into agricultural centers as well? It's already happening in Detroit, where entrepreneurs are turning vacant lots into factory-side farms. And if Cleveland's mall farm works out, maybe New Jersey can become the next big agricultural innovator--the state has the most malls per square mile in the country.

    Legislative Action: 10th District and State - 031619


    March 15, 2010
    In this MegaVote for Ohio's 10th Congressional District:
    Recent Congressional Votes
    • Senate: Tax Extenders Act of 2009
    • House: Impeaching Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. for high crimes and misdemeanors
    • House: Afghanistan War Powers Resolution
    Upcoming Congressional Bills
    • Senate: Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act
    • Senate: FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
    • House: FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
    • House: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

    Recent Senate Votes
    Tax Extenders Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (62-36, 2 Not Voting)

    The Senate passed this bill that would extend unemployment insurance and COBRA health care subsidies through December 31 and would prevent a cut in physicians’ Medicare reimbursement rates. The bill now goes to the House.

    Sen. George Voinovich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio
    Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Recent House Votes
    Impeaching Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. for high crimes and misdemeanors - Vote Passed (423-0, 7 Not Voting)

    The House impeached Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. of Louisiana with four charges: that he accepted gifts in exchange for official actions, falsified and withheld information during a bankruptcy proceeding, made false statements as part of his Senate confirmation and received money from lawyers involved in a case that he oversaw. Unless the judge resigns, the Senate will hold a trial. A conviction on any of the four counts would remove Judge Porteous from office.

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Afghanistan War Powers Resolution - Vote Failed (65-356, 9 Not Voting)

    The House rejected this resolution that aimed to set a withdrawal timeline for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio 

    Upcoming Votes
    Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act - H.R.2847

    The Senate is scheduled to work on this job creation bill, which would provide tax relief to businesses hiring unemployed workers.

    FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - H.R.1586

    The Senate is likely to vote on this measure to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration through FY 2011 and expedite transition to a new air traffic control system.

    FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - H.R.1586

    The House is expected to vote on this aviation bill if the Senate sends it to the House this week.

    Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - H.R.3590

    The House may take up the Senate-passed health care overhaul bill. Work on the bill could continue into the weekend.

    Tuesday, March 16, 2010

    DOT and the National League of Cities, Natural partners for a livable future

    Repost from USDOT:


    DOT and the National League of Cities,
    Natural partners for a livable future

    I had so many different things to talk about with members of the National League of Cities yesterday, it was difficult to not keep them in the room all afternoon.
    Speaking 
    It would have been easy to simply thank NLC members for their support of DOT's Recovery Act efforts.
    It would have been easy to explain how our high-speed rail program offers many cities, big and small, a great opportunity to connect to regional transportation networks.
    And it would have been easy to tout the Obama Administration's DOT-EPA-HUD Partnership for Sustainable Communities and our efforts to create livable communities that offer a range of transportation and housing options.
    I could have just stopped with what we'd accomplished in the last year, but these folks came to talk about the route ahead. And I wanted to share the promise of what we can achieve through new tools DOT has made available to municipal planners.
    It all begins with our TIGER program. Because, with TIGER we're not just talking about awarding winners a pile of money; we're talking about changing the rules of the game.
    Speaking2For the first time, the application process for these discretionary grants allowed cities to apply directly to DOT for funding. And these grants were open to the kind of multi-modal projects we simply aren't allowed to fund through our traditional, segmented programs.
    On the heels of TIGER's success, Congress approved another $600 million for us to award this year, guaranteeing more new opportunities for cities.
    As we pursue surface transportation reauthorization, we want to build on TIGER's success by empowering cities to have more input and control over how Federal transportation dollars are spent to support local goals. It just makes sense that local planners know the kinds of outcomes their communities want and need.
    The innovative nature of the TIGER projects tells us that the days of one narrow criterion for evaluating a project are over. Different projects serve different goals. So we want communities to compete for project funds based on a wide range of measures including sustainability, livability, and potential for economic development.
    Those are three changes that ought to give us all hope for a new era of transportation projects, in cities and suburbs and rural areas alike.
    But, as strong a partner as this USDOT wants to be, economic realities limit the contribution we are able to make. So I encourage municipal leaders and planners to collaborate with regional organizations and private companies to design projects that are strong from the get-go.
    Look, I know solving transportation and development challenges is not easy, but creative partnerships offer an important leg-up.
    America's cities were the incubators of many transportation innovations this past year. From bike boxes at intersections to transit-oriented affordable housing development, our cities have been pioneers. I, for one, am looking forward to what they'll show us in the year ahead.

    Monday, March 15, 2010

    Reimagining the City from the Ground Up By Marc Lefkowitz

    Repost from Americancity.org:


    Cleveland’s Comeback

    Reimagining the City from the Ground Up
    Sharon Glaspie and her Garden Boyz are at the center of a new movement to repurpose vacant land in Cleveland, a city racing to reinvent itself. Three years ago Glaspie leased a quarter-acre from the Cleveland Land Bank, which manages 3,300 acres of vacant land, or 7 percent of the city’s total acreage. She found six neighborhood teenagers to share what she had recently learned about growing and selling food. Now the Garden Boyz arrive promptly at 7 a.m. every morning to work the soil and to tend and harvest collard greens, carrots, onions and other popular sellers at the weekend farmers markets in Central, a neighborhood where more than half of families live below the poverty line and often pay with food stamps. If they weren’t learning how to garden and run a business, Glaspie says, the Garden Boyz would most likely be indoctrinated in drug gangs.
    “They’d tell you, ‘If I wasn’t a Garden Boyz, I don’t know what I would be doing,’” Glaspie says. “Jobs for 13- to 17-year-olds are nonexistent. They earn about $50 a week, which isn’t a lot. But they use it to buy their own clothes and school uniforms. They’ll help their mother out bringing food home and cooking for the family. I had one boy who bought his brother winter boots with his money. They are looked up to by most of their peers.”
    Word of the Garden Boyz’s success has spread, and Glaspie plans to bring on four more boys this year with a $15,600 grant from Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds that Cleveland received from the federal government. While the vast majority of the city’s $54 million in NSP money will be used to demolish blighted and foreclosed homes, the city is also investing in 58 pilot projects that move vacant land strategies beyond temporary fences and lawns. The city, along with nonprofit community development groups, plans to bring the pilot projects to scale by building on investments from prominent local and national philanthropic organizations, including the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, the Surdna Foundation and Living Cities — all funders with a strong interest in land use.
    Indeed, vacant land reuse is currently the hottest topic in urban planning. It may be hard for a visitor to find evidence of this, especially if they drive through Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods such as Central, Hough and Fairfax, where whole shopping districts are abandoned and some streets consist of two houses surrounded by a dozen vacant, weed-choked lots. City streets that 50 years ago were teeming with more than a million people are completely wiped out today. Some are reverting back to a natural state, with grass and trees covering over the asphalt.
    Certainly, there are Rust Belt cities struggling with more vacant land than Cleveland: Ten percent of Pittsburgh’s total land and 30 percent of Detroit is vacant. But the foreclosure crisis hit Cleveland, which already ranked among the five poorest large cities in the nation in 2008, harder than any city in the Midwest. The city registered 10,000 home foreclosures from 2007 to 2008, meaning that the equivalent of a city neighborhood went bust every month, The Columbus Dispatch calculated. The city has responded by pouring tens of millions of dollars into demolitions — 2,000 of the most blighted homes are slated to come down in 2010. The glut of vacant land is expected to continue before the city can stabilize it.
    Still, there are signs that Cleveland is finally prepared to deal effectively with this crisis. When author Alex Kotlowitz visited Cleveland last May, he recounted in a speech what drove him to write in The New York Times Magazine about the foreclosure tsunami in Cleveland. He couldn’t turn away, he said, from the narrative of injustice and unanswered questions about why banks and mortgage companies — and state elected officials who nullified Cleveland’s antipredatory-lending law — were allowed to tear apart the fabric of the city. But for Kotlowitz, who spent years with two young boys in Chicago’s projects in the 1980s to tell their story in the classic book There Are No Children Here, Cleveland’s situation goes beyond telling the story of foreclosure crisis victims. “It was the one place I could find,” he said, “the only place I could find in the country, where people are pushing back.”

    A RESOURCE TO TAP
    Policymakers, officials and academics have been talking about the vacant land problem for years. So what’s different now? A decade’s worth of programs, such as Ohio State University Extension’s Community Garden Program, which has trained hundreds of urban farmers, are ratcheting up simultaneously with the need for a response to the foreclosure and poverty crises. Many powerful tools, collaborations and projects under the umbrella of how to make a shrinking city more sustainable are emerging. For example, Cleveland is one of the only cities in the country to have approved an urban garden zoning overlay, a response to local food advocates who wanted to protect community gardens from being destroyed by developers. And last year advocates won a hard-fought battle for an ordinance allowing city residents to raise chickens, bees and even cows and goats in their backyards. Last August, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson embraced sustainability at a summit where 700 participants, from CEOs to high school students, created an agenda for rethinking land, transportation and food as “an economic engine to empower a green city on a blue lake.” The city is recognizing that its vacant land is not a source of shame, but a resource to tap.
    The great organizing force is a study called “ReImagine a More Sustainable Cleveland.” Funded by Surdna, ReImagine kicked off in 2008 with discussions among city officials, soil and water technicians, and environmental organizations, convened by nonprofit community developer Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (NPI). The study aimed to identify a strategic approach to intractable issues such as health disparities. “In Cleveland that quickly pointed to vacancy and vacant land,” says Bobbi Reichtell, senior vice president for programs at Neighborhood Progress and steward of the ReImagine study.
    First the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative mappedwhere “food deserts” (areas where residents have no access to fresh fruits and vegetables) and vacant land align with watersheds,  green space and parks. They then produced a “Pattern Book,” which shows, for example, where one might restore a culverted stream to support a network of community gardens and provide functional stormwater services; how to use plants to draw toxins from soil; and where low-tech renewable energy systems might extend a growing season. ReImagine, as it’s known, also produced a “decision matrix” that the city now uses to categorize long-term vs. short-term vacant land strategies. So a vacant property with the right size and characteristics, such as proximity to green space, might make the first cut toward preservation. Once it makes that cut, the city might consider a menu of green development approaches, such as a tree nursery, community garden or maybe even an urban wind farm. Proximity to defined “Core Development Areas” will also help determine its development potential as “strong” or “weak.” Either way, the city has a path for that land.
    The Pattern Book and the ReImagine study are about to become more than a well-reasoned argument: Last November, the Cleveland Foundation awarded the nonprofits Parkworks, Neighborhood Progress and the Urban Design Collaborative $250,000 for ReImagine 2.0, tasking them with finding specific sites, designing large-scale interventions, and writing a local food business plan. This spring, Neighborhood Progress’ Reichtell expects ReImagine 2.0 to identify the best opportunities for green infrastructure projects, to figure out how much and where land needs to be set aside for farming, and how to scale up the system so the city can handle vacant land in a comprehensive, lasting way. For example, the city land bank currently offers only a one-year lease. Reichtell argues that this policy needs to be updated, since it usually takes a year before an urban farmer can remove debris and repair the land.
    City officials are on board with the nonprofits and foundations: They have agreed to identify policies that make land use central to their green economic agenda. Living Cities, the country’s largest city-focused foundation and corporate collaborative, has focused intensely on Cleveland over the past two years and has been instrumental in uniting city, state and philanthropic leaders. Moreover, it provided funding for the city to hire design and policy personnel to identify programs that will translate the ReImagine study into reality. Living Cities has also committed two staffers to lead highlevel strategy sessions with the likes of Chris Warren, Mayor Jackson’s chief of regional development, and Marvin Hayes, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s chief of urban policy, to shape policy and support projects such as ReImagine. “We’re looking at 3,000 acres of vacant land, to rethink of it as serious economic development,” says Neil Kleiman, director of policy and research for Living Cities. “But all of this demands moving beyond the silos that the state and city governments have inherited.”
    “It starts with a management strategy,” suggests Terry Schwarz, interim director of the Urban Design Collaborative. “We’re stabilizing the city, so when longer-term shifts happen, we’re ready.”
    We’re coming up with a way of managing the landscape enough so it looks like an intentional wildlife corridor. It makes the spot where development occurs obvious.”
    MORE THAN JUST FARMS
    An implicit challenge in the work of ReImagine is debunking the notion that development always means “growth.” “We’re talking about pushing people together into dense urban nodes,” Schwarz says. “We’re coming up with a way of managing the landscape enough so it looks like an intentional wildlife corridor. It makes the spot where development occurs obvious.”
    “We’re going to look at where in the city some of those strategies make sense,” Neighborhood Progress’ Reichtell adds, “and what are catalytic projects — urban agriculture districts or green infrastructure or a greenway network.” Reichtell is perhaps most excited by ReImagine 2.0 as a way to bolster the burgeoning urban agriculture community. Greater Cleveland already has 225 community gardens, two dozen farmers markets, and a well-organized, communitysupported agriculture program called CityFresh, where members at the higher end of a sliding scale help subsidize members who might be using WIC or food stamps to buy fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. “We have identified several recommendations, including tax structures, for urban agriculture, so that it’s taxed differently than residential,” Reichtell says. “There’s also an issue of water access, and streamlining the land bank to get properties out or in.”
    Some worry that urban agriculture and greening alone are not enough to combat the foreclosure crisis. “How do you deal with a city that has changed overnight, where now you have blots on whole areas?” says Chris Warren, Cleveland’s regional development chief. “Not just foreclosed, but hard-to-get-title-to and facing a whole second round of exploitations?”
    Warren thinks the answer lies partly with ReImagine, and partly with a cadre of his peers who cut their teeth as community activists in the 1960s and who now hold key positions in city and county governments and at the big nonprofit developers, such as NPI. Warren, Cuyahoga County treasurer Jim Rokakis and Neighborhood Progress’ Frank Ford organized and lobbied a General Assembly — one with a staunch majority in favor of private property rights — to pass legislation in December 2008 establishing Ohio’s first countywide land bank, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, which formally launched in June of last year. “It’s more than an entity to hold land,” Warren says. “It’s a revenue stream of $9 million a year in local money. The important tactic is we didn’t sit back. We didn’t wait for a sugar daddy to come. We found local resources and tools and imaginative approaches to get control out of the hands of exploitative owners.” Warren hopes to use the County Land Bank’s revenue stream to seed green enterprises that will build on or otherwise reuse the vacant land for higher functions such as agriculture.
    There are more stakeholders in vacant land reuse than ever before, and more partnerships: The city plans to forge an alliance with the Evergreen Cooperative, an employee stock owner plan launched by the Cleveland Foundation and Shorebank, to build a commercial greenhouse in an area of the city known as the Forgotten Triangle, a large swath of abandoned land, mostly industrial, on the east side. Warren thinks there’s a way to link into Evergreen’s Ohio Solar Cooperative, which, if all goes according to plan, will ink deals with Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, who will lease their rooftops and buy back solar energy. “We’re talking with them about solar panels not only on the rooftops of major institutions, but also on fallow land,” Warren says. “Can it be tied to the grid as a source of energy for our municipal-owned utility?”
    Gus Frangos, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank’s president, says the bank, imbued with property disposition powers and a permanent revenue stream, plans to acquire 120 properties and demolish 15 structures in 2010. But land use planning isn’t the bank’s strong suit. “We don’t want to be a superplanning agency,” Frangos says. “If it’s catalytic, supports the tax base, if it removes blight and ties into other community investments, we can take these properties efficiently and not be saddled with sheriff’s sales and the disposition side. If you are an investor, I can donate the land and I can be an equity partner. We could do what a private developer can do.”

    EVERYBODY’S GROWING
    The test ahead is whether ReImagine 2.0 can produce change at the scale of the whole, to borrow a phrase from Case University’s Fowler Center for Sustainable Value faculty director David Cooperrider.
    In the short term, hope rests with the pilot projects, which, if not immediately economically sustainable, are already having other positive effects: As Reichtell puts it, they help “build a sense of community stewardship over vacant land, and give people ideas of what they can do on their street.” She would like to leverage vacant land as a “community organizing tool,” something residents can use to “take control of their neighborhood.”
    Ultimately, what separates the ReImagine plan from the hundreds of examples of urban agriculture taking root in America is that it is a multilevel solution with support from everyone from the mayor down to the guy who wants to garden on the vacant property next door. This spectrum, of course, includes the usual suspects of urban agriculture: white twentysomethings with college degrees and a green mindset. Todd Alexander, Matt Pietro and Sarah Sampsell will soon start clearing debris and building raised beds on three properties on Thackeray Avenue in Central, on a block where half of the homes have been demolished. Brimming with hope and living again with their parents — Alexander and Pietro clutching recently earned bachelor’s degrees in sustainability — the three plan to operate their own agriculture business. Over the next five years they plan to build a natural cob toolshed and connect rain barrels to supply irrigation, and experiment with everything from integrative pest management to phytoremediation to a homemade solar panel, made by daisy-chaining soda cans.
    But more important, they want to provide a service for the community they’re operating in. “I remember reading about food deserts and realized there’s a need not being met,” Alexander says. “From an entrepreneurial point of view, there’s a huge recognition that this land is an opportunity.” This means forging close partnerships with community members: The three want to reach out to a local school and be part of Central’s growing network of urban farmers, which includes the Garden Boyz and the Hitchcock Center for Women, which just built a hoop house and raised bed gardens just down the road.
    “This process is going to be a lot of trial and error, but I see that as a good thing,” Pietro says. “There needs to be movement on this, because if something is not done, it will dwindle away. A year from now I hope we have community involvement and people following this, not just in Cleveland, but from a national perspective.”
    This article appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Next American City magazine. SUBSCRIBE NOW!