MANSFIELD: Expanding The Vision

By Mansfield Frazier

Cleveland’s Ward 2 councilman Zack Reed expanded on the vision set forth by three members of Congress — Marcia Fudge, Marcie Kaptur and Dave Joyce — who held a press conference last week to announce they are set to introduce a bill, H.R. 656, the “Restore Our Neighborhoods Act” in this session of Congress. The measure would allow land banks across the country to issue federally-backed bonds to pay for demolition of vacant and abandoned homes, as well as blighted properties, without an increase in taxes.

If passed, the bill would go a long way in terms of stabilizing damaged and struggling neighborhoods. According to the 2010 Census, “non-seasonal vacant properties have increased 51 percent nationally, from nearly 7 million in 2000 to 10 million in April, 2010.”

These vacant properties attract crime, destabilize communities and lower the value of other homes … those nearby and in the wider community. We all lose. Studies have shown that the remaining homes in some cities lose as much as $17,000 in value. Removing these eyesores would aid greatly in terms of helping urban communities financially rebound from the mortgage meltdown not of their own making.

We currently have 9000 homes in the demolition pipeline in Cleveland alone, and another 6000 waiting in line, according to Mayor Jackson, who also was at the press conference. At a cost of $8000 each to demolish a home — you do the math.

Councilman Reed said the welcomed measure could present cities like Cleveland with a grand opportunity to re-invent entire neighborhoods if foresight is exercised and out-of-the-box thinking is engaged in … but it takes smart urban planning. In Detroit, block after block of homes were demolished with little thought given to what would come afterwards.

The sustainability and urban farming movements sweeping parts of the country could prove to be a boon for us here in Cleveland, said Reed. Instead of simply winding up with a surfeit of vacant lots like Detroit, we could create wealth-building, job-creating urban homesteads by selectively tearing down some homes and rehabbing others.

Streets like E. 144th between Kinsman and Barlett in Reed’s ward offers an excellent example. Some of the worse homes have already been demolished, and others are waiting for the wrecking ball. But instead of simply tearing them all down, some could be turned into urban farmhouses, where the adjacent land is put under the plow and hoop houses and BioCellars (like the one we’re planning to build in Hough) could extend the growing season to year-round.

Will Allen, the urban farming guru of Growing Power in Minneapolis, is already mentoring a project in the “Forgotten Triangle” in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood called Rid-All Green Partnership, which is proving to be very successful at growing healthy, nutritious food for locovores. Allen, a McArthur Genius Award grant recipient, has developed urban farming techniques that, properly managed, can generate in excess of $100,000 per acre of vacant urban land.

At a seminar he put on in Cleveland last year, he stated it’s all about creating enriched soil by composting … something Ken Haddon (who was raised on a farm near Columbus and formerly owned a garden center on Cedar Road) has been advocating for years. I can personally attest to this method of growing since the grapevines I planted back in 2010 grew at an astounding rate using compost Haddon generously gave us.

When the vines were first planted I asked the viticulture expert hired by the Ohio State Extension Service how tall the foot-high plants might grow in the first year, and he stated that with a bit of luck they would grow four or five feet; however, most of them grew to over 10 feet the first year. When people ask me what I used on them, I cryptically answered, “that old black magic” as if I had some arcane knowledge known only to myself … when what I was really talking about was the rich black soil.

One of the stumbling blocks in the way of urban agriculture has to do with perceptions … some of them, I hate to admit, slightly racist. It’s hard for some folks to wrap their minds around the notion that excellent crops can indeed be grown in the inner-city. Sure, there are some elevated levels of lead (from years of using lead-based paint on the homes … it tends to flake off with time) in the soil but my partner, biologist Jean Loria, is aware of remediation techniques that do an excellent job of cleansing the soil so that when compost is mixed in, the crops literally shoot out of the ground.

To paraphrase the hamburger commercial from a few years ago: People gotta eat … and why should we continue to truck bell peppers across country from California, belching diesel exhaust fumes all the way when the technology now exists to grow our own food locally? If you’ve never tasted a freshly-picked bell pepper … you really don’t know what you’re missing.

Cleveland already is in the forefront of the urban farming movement; local projects abound. We simply need to take note of them, and then take note of what Councilman Reed is proposing … to request that a portion of the bond money be used to build up communities … as well as to tear vacant houses down. This can truly be win-win.

 

 

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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