Bringing Greater Ohio's Mission Close to Home

Forty years ago, on July 21, 1969, as reported in The Columbus Dispatch yesterday, a white dry cleaner shot and killed a black father on the Near East Side of Columbus, sparking several days of riots in the area of East Main Street and South 18th Street – the corner at which Greater Ohio’s offices exist today in Columbus.  In fact, the scene of the crime was a dry-cleaning store at 832 E. Main Street, which today is a vacant, grassy lot directly adjacent to our office building.  This area has never fully recovered from these riots,  and the surrounding neighborhood continues to be burdened with vacant lots and abandoned properties to this day.

This was a poignant piece of history that drives home the significance of Greater Ohio’s mission.  Greater Ohio is pursuing policies to better manage the problem of vacant and abandoned properties across the state and in our local communities, such as this East Side Columbus neighborhood.  Currently, we are working to advance Ohio’s land bank legislation to allow counties, cities, and neighborhoods an additional resource to help minimize the negative effects that vacancies cause as well as pursuing foreclosure prevention and vacant property redevelopment actions.  These types of proactive policies are crucial, because it is clear that reactive policies often result in a situation where past burdens continue to linger into the future. We are curious about the histories of similar neighborhoods in our urban areas around the state.

To read more about the riots, see yesterday’s article in the Columbus Dispatch

Urban Gardening

As I read the Re-imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland, a report that includes strategies for the reuse of vacant land in Cleveland, I was struck by one recommendation in particular: turning vacant and abandoned lots into urban food gardens.  Urban gardening has numerous benefits including increasing residents’ access to fresh produce, providing exercise opportunities while promoting social interaction, and teaching life skills for residents to become more self sufficient.  Lastly and perhaps most importantly, urban gardens can instill a sense of pride in a community by providing residents an opportunity to work towards a common goal that will be beneficial for all.  For more information on starting an urban gardening project in your community, please check out The Ohio State University Extension program website in Cuyahoga County. 

 

As I continued to research this idea, I have been impressed by the number of Ohio communities that have started their own projects.  Below is information on several community urban gardens in Ohio, and we encourage you to add others.  If you have any suggestions on how we at Greater Ohio can promote more of this type of activity at the state level please share that too.

 

Akron: http://www.akron.com/pages.asp?aID=5168

Columbus: http://www.fpconservatory.org/growing2green.htm

Toledo:  http://www.toledogarden.org/content/toledogrows/default.aspx

Youngstown: www.growyoungstown.org

Vibrant Neighborhoods and Districts

Ever since Richard Florida popularized the theory that attracting the, so called, “creative class” can act as a means of economic development, there has been much interests in hip and up-and-coming neighborhoods and districts. The basic premise behind this idea is that cool districts and neighborhoods attract young, creative, educated and highly mobile individuals and that these individuals are a primary source of innovative efforts that lead to economic development. As this idea spread, cities across the county, both large and small, created local initiatives aimed at attracting the creative class through the development of unique and funky urban areas that catered to their tastes.

Ohio is no exception. Columbus commonly touts its alternative arts scene and the vibrancy of the Short North arts district; Cleveland has taken steps to create corridors of technology and innovation that center around world renowned institutions, such as the Cleveland Clinic. However, while we often hear about examples of hip and cool areas and events in Ohio’s larger cities, there is less publicity of the efforts of smaller cities. In light of this, we would like to hear more about various efforts across the state that are aimed at creating districts and neighborhoods of choice. Please share your exciting programs and initiatives with us and the rest of our network.

Energizing Clinton County

Energize Clinton County (ECC) is a grassroots movement and a community center for sustainable economic development founded by Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert based in Wilmington, Ohio. They are 2003 alumni of Wilmington High School who both chose to defer plans for the Peace Corps in order to change the fate of Clinton County, especially in light of DHL’s departure and the loss of 8,000 jobs in the area.

ECC has recently had a huge success with their Green Enterprise Zone ordinance. ECC has been working with the city of Wilmington to adopt policies that will help to facilitate green economic development. The Wilmington City Council will be conducting the final reading of the Wilmington Green Enterprise Zone ordinance on Thursday, July 16th.  If adopted, it would mark a monumental step in Wilmington's response to the economic crisis because it will provide an innovative framework that can serve as model for other communities that are seeking an approach to building local capacity to facilitate green development and investment.

ECC hopes that the adoption of the Green Enterprise Zone (GEZ) will provide a unique opportunity to promote the positive steps being taken by Wilmington in response to the DHL crisis. Hopefully this model could be useful to other communities across Ohio as well.

If you know of any other examples of this type of local innovations, please feel free to share with us and others by commenting on our blog.

For more information on ECC and their GEZ, you can visit their website: http://energizecc.com/

Land Banks

Greater Ohio is interested in promoting land banks as a way to address vacant and abandoned properties and revitalize communities. While we were pleased with the passage of House Bill 353 in the 127th General Assembly that allows Cuyahoga County to form a county land bank with new powers, we recognize that changes are needed to the existing statute to ensure that counties of all sizes can use land banks to their fullest potential.

Over the past year, we have met with numerous stakeholders throughout the state to get a better understanding of those possible changes.  Some of the ideas we have heard include allowing multi-county participation, ensuring that there is sufficient authority for our rural counties to participate and adding provisions to address a situation in which the county treasurer is not interested in pursuing a land bank.

If you have other suggestions for us to consider or would like to share your success with your existing local land bank we would welcome your input.

Alternative Energy still the alternative

Alternative energy seems to be a topic that is especially shaped by fluctuations in oil prices and by the ebb and flow of the mainstream media’s coverage. While many have claimed that alternative energy will be the innovation that sets the course for our future, it remains a subject that is urgent only when our wallets or pocketbooks are disproportionately thinned by energy costs. Indeed, alternative energy is, as its name implies, still but an alternative to fossil fuels.

However, since fossil fuels are a finite resource and a major source of pollution many argue that the privileged position of oil as the world’s source of energy will inevitably come to an end. Given this line of reasoning, alternative energy may represent an emerging market ripe for investment. In the context of Ohio, this last point brings up an important question: does alternative energy constitute an industrial sector that has the potential to transform Ohio’s economic woes? If so, to what extent should the state encourage and incentivize the development of an alternative energy sector? What are your thoughts on alternative energy as a long-term sustainable investment for the State of Ohio?

How do we define “quality” in relation to place?

Since the new millennium, numerous urban and social theorists have increasingly noted the important role that place assumes in our daily lives and our society as a whole. As a result, issues of “place identity” and “quality of place” have recently become frequent topics in the media, and this has led to a greater overall awareness the fact that place matters. This theme is continually echoed and reinforced by the regular conducting and reporting of “most” and “best” city lists (i.e. “most livable city” or “best city for young professionals”).

These lists are representative of our increased interest in the conditions and attributes of the places where we choose to live, work and play. However, in reality, the quality of a city, or some other place, is not expressed to its users as a quantifiable equation or ranking, as these lists may suggest. Yet, we are all able to easily distinguish places of high quality from more mundane places. Why is this? In other words, how would you describe the conditions (physical, social, economic, etc.) that define a place of high quality? At Greater Ohio, we are interested in promoting state policies that encourage both the maintenance and creation of places of the highest quality and would like to know what you think constitutes places of high quality.

Targeting Resources

With the severity of the fiscal challenges being felt at the state and local level, Greater Ohio sees this as an opportune time for the State to better target scarce resources and strategically invest in our communities.  We want your feedback. Where have you seen that done well at the state or local level in your community?  This is an opportunity to share your best practice examples and allow you to learn from your peers in other areas of the state.

Restoring Prosperity Partnership Network

Greater Ohio is unveiling its new Restoring Prosperity Partnership Network.

Greater Ohio has heard the need for better and increased forms of communications. Our intention is to use the Restoring Prosperity Partnership Network in new, innovative ways to keep a more constant flow of communication going. We are currently investigating which methods of communication will work best. If you have any ideas or suggestions on this topic, please email Katherine or leave a comment here on the blog.

To join the Restoring Prosperity Partnership Network, please email our Outreach Coordinator, Katherine Buckingham, at kbuckingham[AT]greaterohio[DOT]org

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