Michael Schoop was observing the progress of the focus groups at Mayor Frank Jackson’s 2009 Sustainability Conference when one was discussing role of educational institutions in creating sustainable communities.
Someone was drawing a diagram of the ideal elements in a neighborhood: a library, a college, a hospital and some houses. As the president of Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro Campus, Schoop recognized the elements right away.
Cleveland already had an area with all of those assets, he told the group. It stretches from East 18th to East 30th streets and from the lake to Orange Avenue, encompassing the Brooklyn Library,
Cleveland State University, Tri-C, St. Vincent Charity Hospital and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority.
And thus, the
Collaborative Campus Planning Project — a seven-week initiative to engage and re-imagine the neighborhood — took root. Among its goals was to examine the assets of the area (previously referred to as The Quandrangle but now known as the Campus District), engage the stakeholders and design a sustainable neighborhood plan that took advantage of the area’s positives.
“You can have wonderful assets in a neighborhood,” says Rockette Richardson, Campus District executive director, “but if there’s never a connection between those assets, there’s really not the opportunity to transform a neighborhood in a way in which I think the Campus District is headed.”
With at least $500 million being invested in the district over the next decade via the Innerbelt overhaul and expansion by achor institutions, the moment of change was upon them. “The project focused on identifying resources that will bring people together in the midst of all the building taking place,” she says.
With that in mind, the 30-member team, including professional planners, six college students, 10 high school students and one eighth-grader, strolled to breakfast each morning, mapping the district’s assets and barriers to walkability, including construction and crime.
One of the first steps in the resulting plan was to better connect the spaces between institutions. So they are creating a cultural walk showcasing live/work spaces for artists, a garden walk boasting entrepreneur Hugh Kidd’s produce stand, and a trade walk that would transform the former juvenile detention facility into a small-business incubator.
“I want people to feel that they belong, not that ... they can’t move anywhere else,” says Renee Evans, a 57-year-old Collaborative Campus Planning Project participant who moved to the area after being downsized from Continental.