2kW
Size of the solar array that powers the vegetable chiller and greenhouse ventilation system at the Iron Roots urban Farm in Youngstown, Ohio
Joplin’s Monarch Eco-Home (below) will showcase products, systems, and ideas for sustainable homebuilding.
Youngstown, OH
A community-run program converts vacant lots to green space
➤ Youngstown, Ohio, was a Rust Belt metropolis of the 20th century, but when the industry died, so did much of the city. In 1950, the city had more than 168,330 residents, but by 2010 the population had shrunk to 66,982. The city built for 170,000 people now has a mere 38 percent of those inhabitants—and, like Detroit, a glut of abandoned buildings and vacant lots to boot. Youngstown was faced with creating a new, smaller city that would fit its population size. Enter the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). YNDC is helping strategic neighborhoods become places where people actually spend their time, money, and energy. Part of this development includes creating parks and community gardens to take up the vacant lots in those neighborhoods. The YNDC started a specific program, Lots of Green, to do just that. It has already converted six vacant properties around town into community gardens, including its 1.5-acre Iron Roots Urban Farm that has gardening training classes and produces local, sustainable food for the community. These programs are turning Youngstown neighborhoods, though a smaller portion, into more sustainable communities for the city’s future. —Melanie Loth gb&d
Joplin, MO
Disaster brings an opportunity to rebuild a sustainable city
and other buildings sustainably. One of GreenTown’s major projects is the Monarch Eco-Home. The project is still in its planning phase with the nearby Drury University architecture students, but it will serve as an educational and community space for Joplin residents. Greensburg already has an Eco-Home, and it showcases products, systems, and ideas for sustainable homebuilding. Catherine Hart, general manager for GreenTown Joplin and a founder of Greensburg GreenTown, says people have come from all over to see the Greensburg Eco-Home, and she expects even more to come to Joplin. But the home would be
➤ On May 22, 2011, the small city of Joplin, Missouri, was destroyed by a catastrophic tornado. Joplin had to rebuild, and it looked 300 miles west to Greensburg, Kansas, for help. After a series of tornadoes in 2007, Greensburg also had been leveled, and the City “If the people can’t do it of Greensburg announced that the tragedy was a fresh start, an themselves, then it’s really opportunity to create a greener kind of pointless.” urban environment. Greensburg GreenTown, a nonprofit organizaCatherine Hart, GreenTown Joplin tion, was created to help the city rebuild sustainably. When the Joplin tornado created a similar opportunothing if it wasn’t actually a useful tool nity not far away, the folks from Greensfor residents. “Replicability and affordburg went to Joplin to form GreenTown ability are two of the biggest concepts Joplin just months after the disaster. we have for the Eco-Home,” Hart says, Both organizations function as a “because if the people can’t do it themresource for people who want to rebuild selves, then it’s really kind of pointless.” homes, offices, commercial venues, —Melanie Loth
september–october 2013
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