Vacant to Vibrant

Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization. As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience. Vacant to Vibrant explains how inexpensive green infrastructure projects can reduce stormwater runoff and pollution, and provide neighborhood amenities, especially in areas with little or no access to existing green space.

Sandra Albro offers practical insights through her experience leading the five-year Vacant to Vibrant project, which piloted the creation of green infrastructure networks in Gary, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. Vacant to Vibrant provides a point of comparison among the three cities as they adapt old systems to new, green technology. An overview of the larger economic and social dynamics in play throughout the Rust Belt region establishes context for the promise of green infrastructure. Albro then offers lessons learned from the Vacant to Vibrant project, including planning, design, community engagement, implementation, and maintenance successes and challenges. An appendix shows designs and plans that can be adapted to small vacant lots.

Landscape architects and other professionals whose work involves urban greening will learn new approaches for creating infrastructure networks and facilitating more equitable access to green space.

Sandra L. Albro is director of research at the Cleveland Botanic Garden. Much of her work focuses on understanding how improvements to existing soils and addition of plants improve the ecological and social value of vacant urban land. Her topics of interest include stormwater management, low-maintenance plants, and human use of urban green space. In addition to being project manager for Vacant to Vibrant, she is also Project Manager for a US EPA Urban Waters project examining the use of soil remediation and green stormwater infrastructure in an intensively treated Cleveland neighborhood. Albro serves as co-chair for the Cleveland Tree Coalition, a diverse group of organizations implementing the Cleveland Tree Plan, and serves as a board member on the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership and the Clean Ohio Fund Natural Resources Assistance Council.