In the past decade, the fields of Urban Planning and Epidemiology have gloriously been crossing paths both in academia and amongst practitioners. Innovations such as health impact statements (HIS) in land use and rezoning requests is one benefit of this cross-discipline pollination. After a decade-long comparison of vacant lots and improved lots, a University of Pennsylvania study
-> Continue reading Science meet Vacant Lots – Urban Health Watch
Detroit seems to be a place where sunflowers sprout through cracked pavement and forests reclaim long deserted city blocks, or at least that’s what Mayor Bing’s Detroit Works has planned for its neighborhoods. Vocabulary like “green residential” and strategies of using reforestation and experimental green fields to detoxify contaminated industrial land are being tossed around
-> Continue reading Sunflowers and Reforestation with Detroit Works
Funders play an essential role in repurposing vacant properties for productive reuse. The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities recently released a report that provides a comprehensive definition of urban agriculture and outlines several ways in which funders can support this innovative reuse strategy. For the full report, click: Investing in Healthy, Sustainable Places
-> Continue reading Investing in Healthy, Sustainable Places through Urban Agriculture
In January 2011, Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and Neighborhood Progress Inc. collaborated to develop a new resource for the productive reuse of vacant property. Re-Imagining Cleveland: Ideas to Action Resource Book describes 11 reuse strategies, provides recommendations on how to plan a community reuse project, and gives an overiview of cost estimates for each
-> Continue reading Re-Imagining Cleveland: Ideas to Action Resource Book
Community residents throughout the country have seen properties abandoned and subjected to negligence. Hundreds of these deteriorated properties are owned by banks – Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among others. And although, these banks claim they strive to comply with property codes and act upon foreclosure policies “that aim to protect properties and communities,”
-> Continue reading The Public Protests Deterioration of Bank-Owned Vacant Property