CircleTheUSA

In part I of this post, I discussed the tough economic situation the city of Flint, Michigan finds itself in, and the role the growing role of the Genesee County Land Bank.

But while in Flint, my focus was more on what the Land Bank's planning staff does, not on how the parcel acquisition process works. I spent part of the day with planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick, visiting two Flint neighborhoods.

Our first stop was the Thread Lake neighborhood.

Kelly and Burdick have been working closely with the local neighborhood association, headed up by Barbara Griffith-Wilson. Thread Lake is one of 28 "clean and green" neighborhoods, which qualifies it for attention -- and resources -- from the Land Bank.

I spoke to Griffith-Wilson about her neighborhood and asked her to briefly describe it:

Clean and green neighborhoods are required to maintain at least twenty Land Bank properties, and implement at least two gardening projects. In return, they have access to Land Bank financial and technical support. In fact, while I was visiting Thread Lake, Roxanne Adair, the Land Bank's Urban Food Gardening Coordinator, stopped by to find out what kind of vegetables the neighborhood was most interested in having planted.

 Several high school students are earning money helping with community gardens; they'll also be clearing a large vacant lot (above left) across the street from where they're planting. Lower left, Barbara Griffith-Wilson lists some of the garden needs to the Land Bank's Roxanne Adair.

As we walked through the neighborhood, Kelly and Burdick explained some of the Land Bank's programs. One involves "side lots." Homeowners with vacant Land Bank property adjacent to the side of their home have the opportunity to purchase that property as a side yard. The cost is typically under $75.

There are at least three benefits from the program. First, it brings properties back onto the tax roll. Second, it eliminates the public cost that would otherwise have gone into maintaining the vacant land. Third, it benefits the homeowners by allowing them to take control of what has often become an eyesore next to their home; unkempt vacant land can significantly reduce their own property's value. Note: the Land Bank also operates a related program allowing for residents and businesses to "adopt" a Land Bank owned lot, and then be given priority for purchasing it.

There's evidence that Thread Lake is stabilizing. One hopeful sign is that a local developer, Charles Young, has purchased and rehabbed an abandoned housing complex, Village Shores.

Not far from the Thread Lake neighborhood, and close to downtown, is the Grand Traverse neighborhood, another area Land Bank planners have been assisting. For the Land Bank it's one of their "strategic reinvestment areas."

Among the positive factors for the Land Bank: the neighborhood is close to downtown; it has a strong neighborhood association; Habitat for Humanity is active there; and the Land Bank already owns considerable property in the neighborhood.

One other more fortuitous factor: Genesee County transportation planner Heidi Phaneuf moved into the neighborhood in 2000, and has been active in the neighborhood association and is now its president.

Working with the Land Bank, the Grand Traverse neighborhood association (which has about sixty members) has put together a strategic plan. It set five goals, Phaneuf told me: increase home ownership; improve housing conditions; improve neighborhood recreational areas; build partnerships with nearby businesses; and build the neighborhood association's capacity as an organization.

 From top, clockwise: the neighborhood some blocks with considerable abandoned housing; vacant house owned by the Land Bank; former school also owned by the Land Bank; Habitat for Humanity's Margaret Kato (left) and neighborhood association president Heidi Phaneuf; one of several Habitat signs dotting the neighborhood; lot acquired by homeowner through the Land Bank; and Habitat house under construction.

This May, neighborhood residents helped install a playscape in the local park (see photo, provided by Heidi Phaneuf). Progress has also been made towards cleaning up Spring Grove a brownfield site, where the illegal dumping used to occur. The site has a natural spring and is part of a wetland restoration and nature park development project.

Habitat for Humanity has also taken a strong interest in the neighborhood. Margaret Kato, Habitat's county director told me that seven new Habitat homes will be completed by the end of the year. As Kato explained, "it was important to us that there was a plan for the neighborhood, and that the neighborhood association was welcoming and wanted to see infill housing." Moreover, Habitat has found there's "more impact to have a concentration of homes than scattered sites throughout the county."
 
My visit to Flint -- and earlier this Spring to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre -- also makes me wonder about the declining capacity of city planning departments. There's no city planner working for the City of Flint, a city of 117,000. Instead, the Land Bank has (at least in part) taken on the role of local planners. In Scranton & Wilkes-Barre it's the staff at the Chambers of Commerce who have, in various ways, done the work of city planners.

Photo above: downtown Flint is compact, and still largely "in business." Below right: the former Durant Hotel, which has sat vacant for many years, is now being converted into 93 apartments, thanks to work from the Land Bank, the Mott Foundation, and other area organizations.

Christina Kelly probably best summed up the situation: "planning in cities like Flint is always first to go." But at least in places like Flint and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, other organizations have stepped into the vacuum.

While Flint has received lots of negative attention in the media -- in some ways becoming the poster boy of urban disintegration -- what's also clear is that there are many who are not giving up on Flint. 

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Doug Wieland, Executive Director of the Genesee County Land Bank, pulled out a sheet of paper and pushed it across the table towards me. This is the hard reality of Flint, Michigan, today. Population falling from 195,000 in 1970 to 117,000 in 2006. Abandoned housing units since 1970: 31,200.

A staggering 32 percent of all residential parcels in Flint are abandoned.

Flint for decades had been a solid, middle-class city, home to many General Motors employees. According to the Flint Journal (June 1, 2009), "at its peak, GM employment in Flint reached more than 82,000." But that number has dropped "to about 8,500 by the end of 2007."

photo: from left to right: Doug Wieland, and planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick.

One of the central missions of the Land Bank is to purchase, hold, and then resell abandoned structures and vacant lots.

The Land Bank is an independent County authority (Dan Kildee, the County treasurer, serves as its President). It receives funding from the County, as well as from state and federal sources (such as brownfields and land revitalization funds; note that under Michigan law, land held by a land bank is considered a brownfields site). Revenue also comes from private foundation grants (including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation) and from the resale of the properties the Land Bank holds.

This past year, the Land Bank acquired 1,545 foreclosed properties; its total inventory currently stands at 4,823 such properties.

One of its major accomplishments, Wieland told me, is that "the Land Bank has largely taken speculators out of the market." But it's impossible for the Land Bank to physically care for all the lots it has acquired, and some in the community have complained about this, Wieland noted. (As you'll see in part II of this post, one way the Land Bank addresses this concern is by encouraging neighborhood groups to maintain Land Bank properties, in return for technical assistance from Land Bank staff).

One concept that I noted during my recent visit to Cleveland, Ohio, is the idea that older, industrial cities may need to plan to shrink, not grow. In Cleveland, the strategy calls for reusing vacant land for urban agriculture, stormwater management, or recreational purposes. This would, at least over time, save the city money by enabling it to focus its infrastructure dollars (as well as resources supporting housing and economic development) on fewer areas.

The same approach is taking place in Flint. As reported in the Flint Journal (June 19, 2009) "the idea of planned shrinkage became a viable concept in Michigan a few years ago, when the state changed its laws regarding properties foreclosed for delinquent taxes. Prior to that, abandoned buildings and homes tended to be tied up in the courts, adding to blight. Now they're being snatched-up by county land banks, which have a powerful tool to change the face of communities. 'The idea is to reshape the city so we have a small collection of sustainable neighborhoods with open green space,' said Kildee, a Flint native and chief executive of the local land bank."

But compared to Cleveland, Flint -- through use of the Land Bank -- has been much more aggressive in dealing with vacant, tax foreclosed properties. Note: a land bank is being formed in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland.

Take a look at a map of Flint. The red shows vacant lots currently owned by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority.

The Land Bank "bundles" many foreclosed properties coming up for auction by the County Treasurer's office. That is, Land Bank staff, based on personal inspections of the tax foreclosed parcels, determine which should be included in one huge single "bundle" of properties up for auction. This has helped ensure that these bundled parcels will end up in the hands of the Land Bank, not in the hands of speculators, as it's unlikely any one speculator will bid on a very large package of assorted properties. If property is not sold at auction, it goes to the Land Bank. 

For more information related to the above chart (from the Land Bank web site); for background on the Genesee County Land Bank, see "Land Banks as Revitalization Tools: The example of Genesee County and the City of Flint, Michigan" (pdf file) by Teresa Gillotti and Dan Kildee.

As Christina Kelly, lead planner for the Land Bank told me, too many planners across the country are unfamiliar with the importance and mechanics of the foreclosure process. At the same, she added, local officials (often in the Treasurer's office) have little knowledge of the spatial and planning-related impacts foreclosures have. Tip to planners: it might be a good idea to sit down with those in your city or county who handle tax foreclosures.

in Part II to be posted on Wednesday: visiting two Flint neighborhoods

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Troy, Michigan, is a spread out (6 x 6 mile), auto-oriented suburb (population 81,000) about 19 miles northwest of downtown Detroit. You'll find many elements typical of the suburbs that boomed in the 1970s and '80s: corporate office parks, wide arterial roadways, pleasant single-family residential neighborhoods, ample parks, high quality schools, shopping and commercial strip malls, large auto dealerships, and many fast food outlets.

Above: Office buildings along Big Beaver Road; immediately below: corporate offices along Stephenson Parkway; second below: Troy's Auto Mall.

 

Over the last few decades Troy has thrived, becoming an economic hub in the Metro Detroit region. But, as Planning Director Mark Miller  pointed out to me, the growth curve has flattened. With the sharp decline of the automotive industry in Michigan, Troy has certainly felt the impact. Much of the city's economic prosperity has been based on automotive-related business, especially small-scale manufacturing and supply operations.

In driving through Troy with Miller and Principal Planner Brent Savidant, we passed building after building with "For Lease" or "For Sale" signs out. Some were large office buildings (including a major complex that served as a headquarters for K-Mart), but even more were modest industrial facilities, "Mom and Pop" type, as Miller noted. Here are some photos I took along one block in a light industrial district.

While its economic foundation has become a bit shaky, Troy is still a relatively prosperous suburban community, with a larger day-time workforce than resident population (daytime population of 136,000). Interestingly, nearly 20 percent of Troy's population is foreign-born, and of that, a surprising 62 percent are of Asian background. Miller attributed this to the high caliber of the K-12 schools, which has long served as a major draw for this group. Charts from the Troy Master Plan.

The evolving economy, with a reduced role for manufacturing, has provided Troy an opportunity to rethink its future. Indeed, the new City of Troy Master Plan 2008 sets out the framework for a major shift in Troy's direction. The very first paragraph of the Plan makes this clear: "Fueled by necessity and inspired by a changing population, economy and region, the City of Troy has determined that the development of a new Troy Master Plan is critical to help the community cope with the realities of the 21st century in Michigan."

As an aside, I found Troy's Master Plan very well-written and organized. I'd highly recommend browsing through it. To download a .pdf of the plan.

In reading through the Master Plan, there's a certain amount of disconnect between what's "on the ground" now and what's called for. Especially striking is the Plan's emphasis on increased transit and walkability, and on mixed-use development. As Miller told me, in Troy today "everything is designed for the car." Yet, he noted, one of the priorities residents expressed during input sessions on the Plan was  more places to ride bikes and walk.

The Plan does not call for developing a town center or downtown for Troy (in contrast to what I reported on in suburbs such as Creve Coeur, Missouri). Instead, the focus is on reconfiguring some 21 "nodes" -- each with an area of 40,000 square feet or more encompassing a key intersection and adjoining land (there are plenty of major intersections, given the regular rhythm of arterial roadways in Troy).

Part of the reason for favoring mixed-use is due to its tax advantages compared to purely residential development. The boxed material on the left is from the Troy Master Plan.

Implementation will involve developing a form-based optional overlay zone for each node, seeking to encourage mixed-use development. Euclidean, hierarchical zoning will fade as developers see the higher economic value from what they can do using the overlay zoning. In fact, Miller doesn't foresee any major controversy since the optional overlay "will be creating value for the properties."

Here's a portion of the philosophy behind nodal development set out in the Master Plan (p. 93):

"Neighborhood Nodes are the concentrated, commercial and mixed-use centers situated at major intersections of Troy thoroughfares that serve as the center of the City's Economic Neighborhoods. The nodes are specifically identified on pages 95 and 96. Economic Neighborhoods are destinations created as "go to" places that take on a social role, serving both as a place to meet basic needs of the community and as 21st century village centers. ... The nodes will typically permit a mix of commercial, office, and high-density residential, although the predominant uses in any Neighborhood Node development must be in keeping with the node characteristics described on pages 95 and 96. ... Each of these nodes serves four quadrants of the overlapping social neighborhoods and has the ability to bring residents of four neighborhoods together. ..."

Take a look at the map of the nodes at key intersections; they're designated by the letters A-U. Tthe numbers indicate the city's mile square sections.

I stopped with Miller and Savidant at one of these nodes (I highlighted the intersection in yellow on the map). The photos below will give you a feel for what it looks like now -- click on the panorama to view it at a larger size.

 

Here are the characteristics for this node set out in the Master Plan:

"G. Rochester Road and Wattles Road. A careful blend of commercial uses and office uses, effectively transitioned into the adjoining residential neighborhoods, should be the main uses at this intersection. Recent residential development in the area has taken pedestrian access to the intersection into consideration with effective pathways and sidewalks, and any new development at the intersection must continue this positive trend."

Obviously, it's going to be a tall order to change the existing land use pattern. As Miller put it, "it's going to be a real long-term endeavor." But over time, he believes that changes will start becoming more evident.

Just as the nodal approach will depend on incremental change, so does improved design and an increased pedestrian orientation. One example that Miller is proud of is a new Starbucks along Big Beaver Road, Troy's "Main Street" thoroughfare.

It's located where a gas station had stood. For the first time, people are actually sitting outside and eating along Big Beaver. The City insisted on the parking being pushed towards the rear, and did not allow for a drive-thru.

Troy is also investing in a new multi-modal center, to be located along an existing rail line (used by Amtrak) on ground near a major "power center" and housing development. it will also encompass the Oakland/Troy airport.

Rendering of the center, which will serve Amtrak, regional bus transit, taxi & car rentals, and connect with the airport. 

photo below of Planning Director Mark Miller (right) and Principal Planner Brent Savidant (left) taken at site of planned multi-modal center. 

The center is being jointly planned with the neighboring city of Birmingham, and straddles the two communities. One key reason Troy wants better transit is that the city relies on workers coming from Detroit and other places; the idea is that this will make working in Troy a more realistic option for many. The aim is also for the center to stimulate housing & other development.

Troy is a suburb that is proactively planning for a changing future. It will be fascinating to see how the city evolves, and how the policies called for in its new Master Plan play out.

-------------------------
I also had the privilege of attending an evening meeting of the Troy Planning Commission while in town. It was well-run by Chairman Robert Schultz, with active participation by all members of the Commission.

Interestingly, the most controversial item on the agenda was a special permit application for a Sonic drive-thru restaurant -- probably one of the few chains not already in Troy! Among the concerns: the potential safety impacts on pedestrians and traffic flow. 

Audacious. definition: showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.
Realistic. definition: having or showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected.

-- Cleveland, Ohio, as home to farms supplying a quarter of local food needs?
-- Cleveland, Ohio, as a green oasis, with interconnected trails and parkland accessible to all?
-- Cleveland, Ohio, as a city managing its stormwater while reducing environmental contaminants?
-- Cleveland, Ohio, as a healthy city with thriving commercial & residential centers?

Those are some of the goals of Cleveland's planners, as they seek to steer the city's land use pattern towards what they term a more sustainable direction. Audacious ... or realistic?

Trends in past decades have been grim. The city's population has been steadily dropping from 915,000 in 1950 to 478,000 in 2000, to 438,000 (2007 estimate), to a projected 387,000 in 2016. Blighted areas can be found in many parts of the city, with some 15,000 vacant buildings and 3,300 acres of vacant land.

In fact, Cleveland Planning Director Bob Brown told me that the City will be demolishing some 2,000 houses this year, a staggering number for a city this size.

Yet at the same time, there are a number of strong neighborhoods. In fact, as Terry Schwarz, AICP, of the KSU Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, noted, many times these neighborhoods are close by distressed areas. That was vividly demonstrated to me as Schwarz drove us from our lunch spot in the vibrant Ohio City commercial district (home to the West Side Farmers Market) to the nearby "Slavic Village" (hard hit by foreclosures) and then on to what's known locally as "the Forgotten Triangle" neighborhood (see photos above; for more on the Forgotten Triangle see "Cleveland's streets are emptying" on the Cleveland Plain Dealer blog, August 19, 2007).

Take a look at a typical scene in Slavic Village today (below) and then compare it to a rendering of what part of Slavic Village might look like one day. The drawing is from a fascinating report called Re-Imagining A More Sustainable Cleveland: Citywide Strategies for Reuse of Vacant Land  (link to large .pdf), a report initiated by the Cleveland City Planning Commission and Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (a non-profit that works with the city's community development corporations) as part of a broader planning process. 

 

Schwarz, who worked on Re-Imagining Cleveland, pointed out that in the past "new housing had always been the goal for vacant land." But the new approach outlined in the report focuses on implementing a variety of "green" initiatives instead.

As Schwarz explains it, there are many advantages in developing hundreds of community gardens, along with larger scale urban farms; planting vacant lots with native turf grasses; establishing green areas for use in retaining and filtering stormwater; and putting in place an interconnected network of recreational paths and trails.

One is the simple fact that the current situation, with thousands of vacant houses and empty lots is corrosive not just to particular neighborhoods, but to the city as a whole. Not only does it foster drug-dealing and other crime, but it's daily evidence of failure and abandonment that only inspires a feeling of hopelessness.

There are also serious health impacts. As the Re-Imagining Cleveland report notes, "vacant sites with exposed soil contribute to airborne lead levels in the city's neighborhoods ... in many neighborhoods, over 30% of children test positive for lead poisoning each year ... this is a public health crisis and a major social and economic challenge." There is even research being conducted, Schwarz told me, on using spinach and other plants to extract lead from contaminated soil, something that would mesh with expanded urban farming.

The key point, Schwarz says, is that "green space needs to be viewed as more than just vacant land." In addition, she offers several practical, financial advantages to the strategy being advocated:

For one, it will allow the city to concentrate its long-term commercial revitalization and housing efforts in fewer areas, rather than spreading them out through a city's whose population is shrinking. (Planning Director Bob Brown also told me this should lead to infilling at higher densities).

Second, by using already vacant land to serve as an extensive "green" network for treating stormwater (and the City is under EPA requirements to address stormwater-related pollution) the City will avoid having to spend enormous sums on laying down new infrastructure and building new treatment facilities. 

Third, less infrastructure in the form of water and sewer lines, and even streets, will need to be maintained and might even be removed. Schwarz acknowledges, however, that this is not on the immediate horizon, and would only be done if it could be shown to actually result in cost savings.

Above slide is from a presentation on Re-Imagining A More Sustainable Cleveland.

The big challenge lies in implementing this huge change in direction. Schwarz sees using a series of environmental, soil, and other overlay maps to identify areas most suitable for agricultural use, those which might work best for managing stormwater, and those where development makes most sense. This follows the ecological approach Ian McHarg first laid out in 1969 in his ground breaking book Design With Nature  -- a book most professional planners and quite a few citizen planners will be familiar with.

According to Bob Brown, the City Planning Commission supports the vacant land strategy set out in Re-Imagining Cleveland -- in fact, it officially adopted the report. Moreover, zoning amendments are being considered to allow overlay zones in certain areas that would permit the kind of agricultural uses needed for larger-scale farms.

In some ways, the renewed interest in local agricultural harkens back to the earliest roots of city planning in America. I'm referring to colonial Governor James Oglethorpe's 1733 plan for Savannah. As planning historian Laurence Gerckens observed in a short article on the origins of regional planning (available on our PlannersWeb site), "The plan ... provided for Savannah's urban center to be bounded by small allotment gardens for growing food for family consumption. These gardens were, in turn, rimmed by a network of larger farm plots. Each grouping of ten farms shared a wood lot, providing fuel and game."

Interestingly, Bob Brown also pointed out that the Cleveland Clinic, the city's largest employer, has committed to buying a greater proportion of locally grown food.

Bobbi Reichtell, NPI's Senior Vice President for Programs, told me there's strong interest in local, and even national, foundations in helping support Cleveland's approach (the Surdna Foundation, for example, provided funding for the Re-Imagining Cleveland report). One early goal of NPI is to help coordinate efforts to raise $1 million to support up to 100 vacant land projects in various Cleveland neighborhoods.

Reichtell stressed that implementation of the Re-Imagining Cleveland report is much more than "pie in the sky." As she wrote to me after my visit:

"We have a commitment of $600K towards our goal of $1million for vacant land demonstration projects. $500K of it is coming from the City of Cleveland’s Dept. of Community Development ... NPI, in partnership with the City of Cleveland, a number of environmental non-profits, and Cleveland State University, has also applied for a $300K U.S. EPA CARE grant to pilot phyto-remediation projects around the city to test plant-based strategies to remove toxins like lead and arsenic in soil to enable land reuse.

We have also received a commitment from the U.S. EPA Region 5 for $100-200K of environmental assessment work of vacant brownfields that might be appropriate for phyto- or bio-remediation. And finally, we are partnering with the Trust for Public Land’s Ohio office to make their Ohio Greenprint online data base and GIS mapping tool relevant for urban land reuse."

Also about to be released is a Re-Imagining Cleveland pattern book (link is to pdf of final draft). As Reichtell notes, it will include "plans, budgets and resources for vacant land reuse strategies." [Planning Commissioners Journal readers may recall our recent article on the growing use, and impact, that pattern books are having]. According to Reichtell, "2,000 copies will be printed and distributed to CDCs, block clubs, urban farming advocates and other non-profits to stimulate imaginative thinking about what vacant land can become."  

Yet in driving through just a small part of Cleveland's distressed neighborhoods, the scale of vacant lands and boarded up housing is vast. Is what Schwarz, Brown, Reichtell, and others have in mind audacious ... or realistic ... or perhaps a mix of the two? But the bottom line may be this: is there any better choice?

p.s., Carol Coletta, one of the best interviewers covering city planning issues, recorded a terrific conversation with Terry Schwarz that can be downloaded from her Smart City web site. It's definitely worth listening to. I also reported last year on efforts in Philadelphia to deal with vacant lands, see Greening Up Vacant Lots. Other cities, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, are looking at vacant land strategies similar to what Cleveland is embarking on.

"Flexibility ... that's the most important part of my job," Shaker Heights Planning Director Joyce Braverman told me. She even carries a small reminder of this in her purse, the world famous -- and very flexible -- Gumby.

As Braverman peered out over stacks of maps and reports, I asked her what her job in this inner-ring Cleveland suburb involved. She ticked off a long list of "to do's": working on the Shaker Town Center redevelopment project; seeking funding for a major transit-oriented development plan at a key intersection; attending numerous public meetings; staffing an active planning commission and architectural review board; coordinating with the City's separate housing and economic development departments; dealing with a growing number of foreclosed homes; and "doing a lot of grant writing." You need to be flexible to handle such a diverse assortment of tasks.

Flexibility also is a good way of thinking about Shaker Heights. I say that because Shaker provides its residents a considerable amount of flexibility in their housing choices. You'll find a very wide range of housing types and housing prices in this suburb of 27,245. About 40% of the housing stock consists of two-family homes and apartments. At the other end of the spectrum, you'll find no shortage of million dollar homes.

Historically, Shaker Heights as a community has pro-actively sought to maintain a mix of housing and, as a result, a mix of incomes and ethnic backgrounds. "Diversity helps make a place," Braverman noted.

Years ago, Shaker Heights even had a city department titled "the Department of Pro-Integration" -- sending out a message that Shaker wanted to be an racially integrated community.

This viewpoint is still reflected in city policy and programs, and in community attitudes. For example, since 1986 the non-profit "Fund for the Future of Shaker Heights" has provided home loans for owner-occupied housing "in areas in which the purchasers will enhance the racial diversity of the neighborhood." The Fund matches up to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum of $18,000.

Census data for 2000 shows that Shaker Heights has remained integrated, with 61.7% white population, and 34.5% African-American. There has also been a growing proportion of Asian and Hispanic residents, though the total is still relatively small (for example, the Asian population grew from 1.9% to 3.8% between 1990 and 2000).

Interestingly, Shaker Heights' diversity is part of what attracts quite a few people to the community, including those who work at the nearby Cleveland Clinic and Case-Western Reserve University. In fact, my sister-in-law, Cheri Shapero (a Shaker Heights resident) handed me a copy of the April/May issue of Shaker Life Magazine* which featured articles on "Shaker's International Flair," highlighting why families from Lebanon, India, the Netherlands, and Serbia chose Shaker Heights as their new hometown.

In reading through the articles, it also struck me how diversity, when paired with high quality public schools and an attractive, walkable environment, seemed to especially resonate with those from abroad.

* yes, Shaker Heights even has its own magazine, published by the City's Communications & Outreach Department and distributed free every other month to all Shaker Heights residents.

Note from PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

I returned to the small town of Richford, Vermont, as the starting point of my plan to circle the U.S. over the next two to three years. I had visited Richford last Summer to first learn about the Main Street Mill redevelopment (see photo below). It offers a fascinating look at how one small town created, and capitalized on, an opportunity to begin rebuilding its downtown.

 

Al Perry grew up in Richford, next to the Town Hall. Perhaps that explains why after many years away -- including service as a U.S. Navy submarine commander -- he returned to Richford to a life of community involvement. Besides serving as the area's representative in the Vermont Legislature, Perry has helped shepherd through a complex redevelopment project in the heart of town.

Richford is a mill town (pop. 2,321) along Vermont's northern border with Quebec. More accurately, it is a former mill town that has been struggling economically over the past twenty years. And that's where the redevelopment project comes in. It has involved "recycling" a former mill building along the Missisquoi River, right in the middle of Richford's small, struggling downtown.

  

What makes the Main Street Mill project especially interesting is both the mix of uses that now occupy the mill, and the creative way in which the redevelopment came together -- involving the combined efforts of the town, a statewide housing non-profit organization, and a private developer.

For many years, what is now the Main Street Mill (built in 1929 and containing some 47,000 square feet of space) had been part of a complex of buildings owned by the Sweat-Comings Company. For much of the twentieth century the company -- which manufactured hardwood furniture -- had been the town's largest employer, paying the wages of hundreds of local mill workers. But the picture started to change in the 1960s as area mills began to close. When Sweat-Comings finally ceased all operations in 1996, a major gap was left in the local economy.

 

As Perry describes it, the town badly wanted to replace those lost jobs. The initial focus was on trying to re-establish the local wood products industry -- not surprising given the heavily forested part of Vermont that Richford is located in. But after business recruitment efforts went nowhere, efforts shifted to a strategy to boost local tourism (primarily to draw in Canadian visitors) and provide needed local services. The mill building would become a core element of both efforts.

One of the initial challenges, as Perry explains, was the existing condition of the mill buildings, making redevelopment a daunting prospect. With $1 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, the Richford Main Street Mill Development Corporation spent the good part of four years (2000-2004) working through building stabilization, demolition of unsafe structures on the site, and substantial environmental clean-up, including the removal of asbestos.

But it was essential that tenants be found for the $7.4 million dollar project to move forward. What emerged was part good planning and part serendipity. The results: three very different, but equally important, uses for the building. As Kenn Sassarossi of Housing Vermont (one of the partners in the redevelopment) put it, Richford "hit the perfect trifecta."