Re-Imagining Greater Cleveland is a pragmatic, data driven strategy for the management and reuse of vacant properties in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. The initiative builds on the work began in the 2007 Re-Imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland study, which was led by nonprofit community development organization Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (NPI) and Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.

In 2010, the study is transitioning into the Re-Imagining 2.0 initiative. Work groups—comprised of experts in urban agriculture, stormwater managment, brownfields remediation and alternative energy, along with scientists and planners, including staff of Cleveland City Planning—are producing maps and detailed criteria for determining the most productive short- and long-term reuse strategies.

The fundamental purpose of this work is to transform the growing liability of vacant land into a regional asset. This will happen through a series of signature projects that incorporate multiple, interlinked ideas, and by applying the lessons of 56 small-scale pilot projects.

Bobbi Reichtell, Senior Planner with NPI, expects Re-Imagining 2.0 to find the best opportunities for green infrastructure projects, to identify how much and where land needs to be set aside for urban farming, and how to scale up the system so the city can handle vacant land in a comprehensive, lasting way. Greater Cleveland already has 225 community gardens, two dozen farmers markets, and a well-organized, community-supported agriculture program called City Fresh, 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; Re-Imagining 2.0 has the potential to bolster this already burgeoning urban agriculture community.

GCBL Blog coverage of ReImagining a Greater Cleveland

• "Filling in the local food gap" (August 10, 2010)
• "Re-Imagining: Getting beyond the visions and into the flesh" (August 6, 2010) 
• "Re-Imagining a Greater Cleveland plan begins to take shape" (May 3, 2010)
• "Re-Imagining becomes a priority at the city" (April 16, 2010)
• "Are vacant houses more than the abandonment they get defined by?" (April 1, 2010)

Media coverage of ReImagining a Greater Cleveland

"Cleveland's Comeback: Re-Imagining the city from the ground up" (Next American City)
"Cleveland's Comeback" (Utne Reader) 

Resources

[Greater] Cleveland Action Plan for Vacant Land Reclamation