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and at risk of displacement. The Public Interest Law Center Garden Justice Legal Initiative (GJLI) works to ensure that residents have the resources and tools they need to create and preserve farms and gardens. Over the past four years, GJLI has used law and organizing in collaboration with a multitude of partners to build a political voice for Philadelphia’s gardeners and farmers. Together, we are changing policy, creating new opportunities, and preserving deeply rooted community spaces, while bolstering leadership and incubating Soil Generation, our gardener and farmer coalition. Despite our successes, we are not yet where we need to be. We continue efforts to give life to the concept that healthy and sustainable communities are built through a range of beneficial land uses, that residents should have tools to legally access land as effectively as any corporate or nonprofit purchaser, and that there is value to something called the commons.
The Land Trust Solution: How Baltimore Green Space Uses Land Ownership to Help Neighborhoods Baltimore Green Space is a land trust that protects community-managed open spaces, such as community gardens, through fee simple land
ownership. The case of the Upper Fells Point Community Garden illustrates how protection by Baltimore Green Space makes it easier for gardeners to improve their sites and have a say in decisions about the land they care for.
Transformation of Urban Vacant Lots for the Common Good: an Introduction to the Special Issue Vacant land is a common condition in urban areas across the globe. Individuals, organizations, government agencies and scholars across the world are advocating, transforming, and governing urban vacant land in many different ways. This special issue builds on the Vacant Acres Symposium that was hosted by 596 Acres and The Tishman Environment and Design Center in New York, NY in April 2014, to understand the multiple ways in which these activities are taking place and share the lessons they offer by tapping into the knowledge and experiences of practitioners and scholarship focused on the work of transformation.
participation along the Opportunity Corridor project in Cleveland, Ohio. The Corridor is a $331 million roadway project that will span 3.3 miles through some of Cleveland’s most blighted neighborhoods. Issues of distributional justice including under-performing public education, poor public health indicators, high rates of vacancy, and aging infrastructure contribute to neighborhood blight throughout the area. Stormwater management, access to multi-modal transportation, brownfield mitigation, and economic development are also prevalent issues throughout the project area. Advocacy work by the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) seeks to integrate planning efforts between multiple jurisdictions, civic actors, and community desires surrounding the project. This paper describes the community planning process in Cleveland surrounding the Corridor project, emphasizing the CUDC’s role in advocacy for an integrated planning approach to meet community needs.
Coupling Benefits: Strategies for Vacant Land Reuse along Cleveland’s Opportunity Corridor This paper discusses large scale planning efforts pertaining to vacant land reuse, economic development, and public
Gould Evans Design Research Studio