cities growing smaller 71 (Terry Schwarz) - Cleveland Urban Design ...

(Terry Schwarz)
cities growing smaller 71

72 cities growing smaller
The Cleveland
Land Lab
Experiments for a City in Transition
Terry Schwarz
Terry Schwarz is a Senior Planner with Kent
State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
and director of the CUDC’s Shrinking Cities
Institute and related initiatives.
from Cities Growing Smaller
published by Kent State University’s
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
© 2008, Kent State University

The Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative has been engaged in issues of population
decline and large-scale urban vacancy since we launched the Shrinking Cities
Institute in 2004. Through the Institute, the CUDC has conducted charrettes, symposia,
exhibitions, and research initiatives to provoke discussion and debate about
Cleveland’s ongoing transformation.
The oft-quoted statistics paint a portrait of a city in decline: Cleveland’s population
peaked in 1950 at 914,808. By 2000, the city’s population had dropped to
478,403—below the 500,000 threshold that is the key to maintaining crucial levels
of federal community development block grant funding. The ambition at the time
was to grow the city back to 500,000 by 2010 through the construction of 1,500
new housing units each year. The city has had a remarkable housing boom in recent
years but even so, the city’s population has continued to decline. Most recent projections
have the city’s population dropping to 387,000 by 2016. (NODIS, 2008)
Although Cleveland’s ongoing population loss is undeniably difficult—politically,
economically and emotionally—it is still possible to approach this situation with a
measured blend of pragmatism and optimism. The city’s inventory of vacant land
is vast and growing. Vacant land and buildings pose a daunting challenge, but also
an unprecedented opportunity. The opportunity lies in the time we inhabit, this
moment of no longer and not yet, in which we can transform Cleveland into a more
dynamic, ecologically sound, and livable place.
Like other shrinking cities, Cleveland’s physical footprint is significantly larger
than what we need to support the current population. As a result, the city feels fragmented
and underutilized. The problem isn’t too few people, but too much space.
Surplus land undermines urban character and depresses property values. To address
this issue, two models have emerged in the literature about shrinking cities: a consolidation
model and a dispersion model. One of the earliest incarnations of the consolidation
model was the Green Urban Archipelago for West Berlin in 1977, envisioned
by architect Oswald Mathias Ungers. Ungers’ concept described micro-cities within
a city—areas of dense development concentrated in the most viable areas within the
existing urban footprint. All new development would be constrained to these urban
islands as a way of maintaining density and vitality within a context of depopulation.
Buildings outside of the activity nodes would be targeted for demolition, remaining
residents would be relocated, and surplus land would eventually revert to a natural
condition. 1 This model aims to create a new kind of city—a city of small, vibrant,
interconnected centers embedded in a high-functioning natural ecosystem. But it
would be very difficult to implement this vision because growth and decline in a
city are inevitably intertwined. In practical terms, determining which parts of a city
1. Jasper Cepl, “Oswald Mathias Ungers’s
Urban Archipelago for Shrinking
Berlin,” in Shrinking Cities Volume
2: Interventions, Ostfildern, Germany:
Hatje Cantz Verlag: 2006.
cities growing smaller 73

One of the student proposals from
the Oak Hill Charrette places a
meadow “clearing” at the heart of
the Youngstown neighborhood. (Rob
Dower)
74 cities growing smaller
to re-urbanize and which parts to naturalize would be nearly impossible to achieve,
given the underlying political, economic, and social factors that would have to be
addressed.
In contrast, the dispersion model suggests that, instead of concentrating development
in some areas and vacating others, vacancy can be used to reduce the overall
density of a city. In effect, suburban and (in some cases) rural densities could be
accommodated within the urban footprint. The CUDC explored this concept in
a 2005 design charrette in Youngstown’s Oak Hill neighborhood. As we traveled
to Youngstown for the charrette, it was the consolidation model we were envisioning
as a response to the neighborhood’s challenges. However, Oak Hill residents
quickly divested us of this notion. These residents were not especially interested in
restoring density to their neighborhood. Many liked the spaciousness that resulted
from depopulation and they told us that their hope was to take title to an adjacent
vacant lot, expanding their properties and permanently reducing the density of the
neighborhood. A similar dispersion model is described by Daniel D’Oca in his work
in Detroit (see Chapter 4 above). In both cases residents would be permitted and
encouraged to use surplus land in resourceful and innovative ways, through relaxed
zoning codes and progressive land use policies.
The inherent challenge of the dispersion model is to retain a sense of cohesion in
changing neighborhoods. As Cleveland’s population continues to decline, traditional
forms of urban development are beginning to disintegrate. The city is fortunate to
have retained many vibrant, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that look and feel
like the city of our collective memories. Expanding and reinforcing these neighbor-

hoods must remain a high priority since these places are inextricably linked to the
Cleveland’s identity and its potential for economic expansion. At the same time, it
is increasingly apparent that we lack the population and the resources to bring every
neighborhood back to the density and character it had during Cleveland’s period of
peak population. As a result, we need to rethink traditional notions of urbanity and
become more open-minded about what city living could be. We also need to develop
realistic and economically productive strategies for reusing vacant land.
The Cleveland Land Lab is a collaborative effort between the CUDC, Neighborhood
Progress, Inc., and the City of Cleveland that seeks to unleash the potential of
vacant land. At the most fundamental level, we are developing holding strategies for
vacant sites that will help stabilize neighborhoods and reduce the stigma of unmanaged
land. Simple landscape strategies, such as planting low-maintenance turf grasses
and trees, can be used to establish a sense of stewardship and control for vacant sites
in high-visibility locations. When implemented in conjunction with an effective
on-going maintenance program, these techniques will create a perception of stability
and will increase the market value of vacant sites and surrounding properties.
This strategy has been successfully implemented in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green program is a landscape initiative intended
Low-mow in Cleveland’s Fairfax
neighborhood: a demonstration plot
opposite a major new county administrative
facility and a landscaped neighborhood
gateway using grasses and
hardy, native groundcovers (CUDC)
cities growing smaller 75

2. Susan Wachter, “The Determinants
of Neighborhood Transformation
in Philadelphia: Identification and
Analysis—the New Kensington Plot
Study,” Wharton School, University
of Pennsylvania, the William Penn
Foundation, Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society, 2005.
76 cities growing smaller
to address the challenge of 1,100 parcels of vacant land in the New Kensington
neighborhood. Through Philadelphia Green, lawns and perimeter fencing have
been installed on vacant land throughout the neighborhood. Susan Wachter at the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the impact of this greening
strategy. 2 Her analysis was based on more than 50 variables adjusted for factors
(other than greening) which affect residential real estate values. After examining the
sales records of thousands of homes, she determined that:
• The clean-up and landscaping of vacant lots can increase adjacent property values
by as much as 30%
• Planting a tree within 50 feet of a house can increase its value by about 9%
• Location of a house within ¼ mile from a park increases its value by 10%
• Neighborhood blocks with many unmanaged vacant lots result in lower residential
property values, a reduction of about 18%.
This research provided a basis for public funds to be spent on landscape beautification
strategies for vacant, privately-owned sites. The value of this public investment
extends beyond the intangible benefits of urban green space because it results in a
quantifiable economic return in the form of increased property tax revenues from
surrounding properties.
Deriving a quantifiable benefit from vacant properties is at the heart of the Cleveland
Land Lab. Vacant land and buildings drain value from city neighborhoods.
This is one of the most challenging aspects of the foreclosure crisis—that the surfeit
of foreclosed houses being sold at fire sale prices devalues all of the housing in the
city. And while substandard houses throughout Cleveland are being demolished at
a record pace, it is also important to realize that vacant lots can be as damaging to
neighborhoods as deteriorated houses, especially when the resulting land is not needed
or cared for. Currently, there are an estimated 15,000 vacant sites in the City of
Cleveland. The Cleveland Land Lab is seeking productive new uses for this expanding
inventory of vacant sites within the city in order to derive a tangible economic
return, a public health benefit, or an improvement to residents’ quality of life.
Agriculture is one such use. Community gardens have emerged in cities across the
country and are especially useful in cities with declining and impoverished populations.
Gardens provide a source of fresh produce to city residents who often lack
access to affordable, healthful, locally grown food. The abundance of vacant land in
Cleveland enables agricultural uses to permeate deeply into urban neighborhoods,
returning surplus and derelict land to productive use. Through the efforts of the
Ohio State Extension, Cleveland currently has over 150 community gardens. The

city also has a commercial-scale farm, the Blue Pike Farm in the St. Clair-Superior
neighborhood. Research in urban agriculture and what has been deemed “The New
Ruralism” identifies the mechanisms for connecting farmers to urban neighborhoods
with ample amounts of reasonably-priced land because agriculture within the urban
core can foster a local, sustainable food system. 3 To advance the potential for agriculture
in Cleveland, the Land Lab is looking at soil types, environmental pollutants,
micro-climates, and market conditions across the city to identify the most feasible
and productive locations for growing food in Cleveland.
A farmers market in the Tremont
Neighborhood (Gauri Torgalkar)
3. David Moffat, “New Ruralism:
Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge,”
Places 18.2, 2007.
cities growing smaller 77

Concept for a farm to grow street
trees in a high vacancy area of Cleveland’s
“Forgotten Triangle” (CUDC)
78 cities growing smaller
Planning for agricultural uses in the city begins with a problem statement. The
problems in this case are a lack of access to affordable, healthy foods for city residents
and an over-reliance on foods that must be shipped a great distance to reach dinner
tables in Cleveland. We could, for example, set a goal of growing 20% of apples consumed
by Clevelanders on vacant land within city limits. To accomplish this goal, we
would need to know how many pounds of apples a typical person eats in a year and
how many pounds of apples that would add up to for the population of Cleveland.
Average per capita apple consumption is estimated to be 18 pounds per year (per the
US Department of Agriculture), so Clevelanders consume approximately 8 million
pounds; 20% of this figure is 1.6 million pounds. In order to grow this many apples
within city limits, we would need about 70 acres of apple orchards. The analysis
can be taken further, to determine how many jobs would be created by a Clevelandbased
orchard industry and what percentage of apples consumed by Cleveland
residents are currently being grown in the region, versus elsewhere in the country.
This would enable us to determine whether apple orchards are a productive strategy
for the reuse of vacant land in the city.
Another problem we might be able to address with vacant land pertains to the deicing
of city streets in the winter. What if we could reduce road salt usage in Cleveland
by 25% through the use of beet juice, produced from beets grown on vacant
lots. We know that a de-sugared beet juice solution, when blended with sodium
chloride (rock salt), is an effective road de-icer. The combination of beet juice and
rock salt has a lower freezing point than salt alone and stays on the road longer,
reducing the number of applications. Blending beet juice with rock salt also reduces

corrosion to plows and equipment, is less damaging to green spaces, and less polluting
to ground and surface water. To evaluate this idea, we would need to know how
many miles of roads there are in the city and how much beet juice it would take to
de-ice 25% of these roads in a typical winter. A rough calculation is that we would
need about 12,000 gallons of beet juice, produced from the equivalent of 768,000
beets. It would take approximately 9 acres of land to grow this many beets. To
continue the analysis, we would need to know which vacant sites in the city are most
conducive to growing beets, and whether it would make sense to create numerous
beet gardens on residential-size lots or a handful of larger beet farms. We would have
to determine how many processing facilities would be needed to turn the beets to
juice and to store the juice and whether it would be more cost-effective to purchase
a commercial beet juice produce rather than to produce it ourselves from Clevelandgrown
beets. Aside from beets and apples, there are many other possible agricultural
opportunities that we could explore for privately held or public-sector inventories
of vacant land. Burten Bell Carr is currently conducting a similar analysis to determine
the feasibility of a city tree nursery in the Forgotten Triangle neighborhood in
Central.
Vacant properties may also offer opportunities for the generation of alternative
energy. Solar, wind, and biofuel technologies can all be incorporated into urban settings
where there is ample vacant land and reduced population density. For example,
could we reduce Cleveland’s gasoline consumption by 5% through the use of vacant
sites to generate biofuels? Once again, we would need to do some simple calculations
to consider this question. We know that per capita gasoline use in Ohio is about
451.1 gallons per year. (Energy Information Administration, statistics for 2004)
Based on the current population of Cleveland, this equates to about 200 million
gallons of gasoline per year used by city residents. To meet 5% of this demand, we
would need approximately 10 million gallons of biofuel. If we look at the specifics of
biofuel production using plant materials grown on city sites, we can make some estimates
of the acreage needed. Switchgrass, for example, reaches its full yield potential
after the third year planted, producing approximately 6 to 8 tons of material per
acre; that is 500 gallons of ethanol per acre. So it would take roughly 20,000 acres of
switchgrass to meet 5% of Clevelander’s annual fuel consumption. Many other issues
would need to be addressed in order to develop an alternative fuel strategy for vacant
sites such as whether biofuel produced from plant material grown in urban conditions
would result in a usable fuel that meets industry standards and whether the energy
it would take to grow these crops would offset any net gains in fuel production.
Another compelling possibility for reusing vacant land would be as a way to
restore urban ecosystems and address the growing challenges of stormwater management
in the city and the region. Stormwater runoff is a leading cause of pollution
cities growing smaller 79

On-site stormwater management
and needed parking are combined in
this plan for a site on the East Side.
(CUDC)
80 cities growing smaller
in the rivers and streams that feed into Lake Erie. Addressing water quality issues
is critically important to the future of our region. Sewers, detention basins, and
other engineered solutions are being developed to address flooding, erosion, and
other stormwater-related problems. But vacant land in strategic locations within the
watershed can be used to reintroduce a more sustainable hydrological pattern while
expanding the region’s green space network, increasing wildlife habitat, and promoting
biodiversity. Restructuring fragments of vacant land into a comprehensive green
infrastructure network will simultaneously improve the integrity of Cleveland’s ecosystem
and create amenities that enhance the quality of life for city residents. As with
other vacant land strategies, potential stormwater benefits can be assessed using a
problem statement. If reduced runoff and cleaner water is the goal, we need to begin
with an understanding of the volume of runoff produced by an acre of paved surface
over the course of a year or during a typical rain event. Then we need to determine if
there is sufficient vacant land available to deploy alternative stormwater management
strategies in the most strategically significant locations.

Soil-based lead and other environmental toxins are prevalent in Cleveland. Abatement
and remediation efforts are typically tied to redevelopment projects. This kind
of strategic, targeted remediation is essential because the city lacks the resources to
remove environmental pollutants on a comprehensive, city-wide basis. However,
there are many parts of the city with no major development plans on the horizon.
In these neighborhoods, long-term, lower cost remediation strategies are needed
for vacant land and buildings to reduce the exposure of Cleveland residents to toxic
substances. For example, phytoremediation techniques use plants to extract heavy
metals and other pollutants from the soil. Over time, these techniques could gradually
reduce environmental hazards in city neighborhoods, especially on properties
that lack short-term development demand and the resulting resources for environmental
clean-up.
Vacant sites with exposed soil contribute to airborne lead levels in Cleveland
neighborhoods, especially in the summer months when more children are outdoors,
windows are open for ventilation, and dry soils get picked up and blown around in
the wind. In many Cleveland neighborhoods, over 30% of children test positively
for lead poisoning each year. This is a public health crisis and a major social and
economic challenge. Planting low-maintenance native turf grasses on vacant sites is
one technique that would reduce the amount of lead particles that become airborne
and lessen the extent to which Cleveland residents are exposed to lead. Lead is not
the only environmental pollutant that is prevalent in Cleveland. We face challenges
from ozone and fine particulate matter in the air and other contaminants in our soil
and water. Because of the variety and volume of environmental issues that need to be
addressed, Cleveland has the potential to become a major center for remediation research
and development. Experimental soil and water remediation techniques could
be created and tested here on vacant sites throughout the city. The most effective
techniques could then be commercialized for use in other cities.
Residential demolitions have led to significantly reduced population density in
some Cleveland neighborhoods. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Planners and
urban designers tend to oppose de-densification out of a fear that this will lead to
the “suburbanization” of the city. While suburban-style development patterns can in
some cases undermine the character of the city, the statistical reality of Cleveland’s
on-going population decline obligates us to be more flexible and open-minded about
what good urban form means for our city in this period of transition. This year
alone, the city plans to demolish 1,000 houses, creating approximately 110 acres of
additional vacant land. As vacant land continues to grow more prevalent within the
city, we have opportunities to accommodate and integrate urban, suburban, and
even rural development patterns and a wide range of lifestyle choices within the city’s
existing footprint—the dispersion model is taking shape right before our eyes.
cities growing smaller 81

Rightsize transect (David Jurca and
Gauri Torgalkar)
82 cities growing smaller
In the transect theory espoused by Andres Duany and the Congress for the New
Urbanism, well-designed cities demonstrate a gradual and measured transition from
a very dense and compact urban core to lower density urban, suburban, and eventually
rural development patterns. But in Cleveland, the transect is wonderfully (and
perhaps irreparably) unpredictable as vibrant neighborhoods and depopulated areas
co-exist side-by-side while lush, natural vegetation is emerging in the gaps between
renewal and abandonment. Cleveland’s transect embodies the idea of land use in motion,
derived from changing patterns in human settlements and the eternal cycle of
natural succession. This gives us an unprecedented opportunity to create a new kind
of city. The Cleveland of the future may have nodes of traditional urban development,
expansive prairies, and productive farms…thriving industries, suburban-style
developments, and high-functioning wetlands. As Cleveland continues to change,
surprising land use juxtapositions will occur. Throughout this process, we must
never abdicate our responsibility for good urban form, even as we begin to challenge
the meaning of the term. The key to maintaining a sense of cohesion in a complex
and ambiguous city will be to focus on the edges where disparate uses and varying
densities meet. Well-designed edges can weave together remnants of the old city and
emerging aspects of the new.
Many familiar things have disappeared from Cleveland and will not be coming
back. Now is the time to determine what will take their place. Vacant properties are
a luxury and a resource that we must learn to use more effectively. Today, vacancy
undermines the character and viability of Cleveland. Tomorrow, it can be the glue
that holds us together.

Bibliography
Jasper Cepl, “Oswald Mathias Ungers’s Urban Archipelago for Shrinking Berlin,” in Shrinking Cities
Volume 2: Interventions. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag: 2006.
Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Office of Epidemiology, “Surveillance, and Informatics; the Ohio
Department of Health Childhood Lead Poisoning Program,” State Plane Ohio North, August 24, 2007.
Susan Miller, REAL NEO, email correspondence, 2008.
David Moffat, “New Ruralism: Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge,” Places 18.2, 2007.
Elaine Price, Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, Cleveland Land Lab Charrette, 2008.
Victoria Schlesinger, “Beet it: road ice needs to be defeated - A common root vegetable is an eco de-icer,”
Plenty Magazine, www.plentymag.com/features/2008/02/beets_as_icemelt.php.
USDA, “The US Apple Industry: Situation, Trends and Outlook,” April 9, 2002, http://www.fas.usda.gov/
htp/horticulture/Fresh%20Fruit/4-9-02%20US%20Apples.pdf.
Susan Wachter, “The Determinants of Neighborhood Transformation in Philadelphia: Identification and
Analysis—The New Kensington Pilot Study,” Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, the William
Penn Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 2005.
cities growing smaller 83

84 cities growing smaller