Could Cleveland become a hub in the American urban agriculture movement? It could happen.
Shrinking cities concepts and the reimagining of urban areas are occurring all across the country. Civic leaders like Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams are leading their cities through rightsizings that many Midwestern cities – locations where steel and industry once held enormous sway – desperately need.
One of the big movements happening within these metropolitan retrofits is urban farming. While not a new idea, globally speaking (both Cuba and China have nearly perfected it) the concept is gaining traction in the United States, far beyond the Rustbelt, in places like Newark, Atlanta and Oakland.
In the Ohio City neighborhood, a collective of visionaries has transformed land vacant for more than a decade into an abundant fresh food resource. Before they’re through, this team of colleagues might transform the whole city and its thinking in the process.
A Tear-down Teeming with Life
The Ohio City Farm straddles nearly six acres, making it the largest contiguous urban farm in the country.
While most cities are still in the planning stages for “urban ag,” Cleveland is already pushing the needle. The Ohio City Farm exists now as a true civic collaboration, one geared to create economic development, environmental responsibility and educational opportunities – its synthesis of city and farm is awe-inspiring. As for the Farm’s mission statement, it’s a bold one.
The farm sits in the shadow of the vaunted-and-historic West Side Market, nestled behind the Riverview Tower on Bridge Avenue and West 24th Street, and was once a sister location for public housing dwellings known as Riverview Terrace homes, sites operated by the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA).
In 1996, CMHA received Hope VI grant funding in the hopes of expanding and demolishing the 135 housing units in favor of a larger, high-density apartment complex. The new building would sit on the western edge of the Flats, looking across to downtown and upon on the winding Cuyahoga River. However, in the months post-demolition, a cornucopia of engineers decided the land was simply “too unstable” for such construction.
“The Army Corps of Engineers came in with questions about the integrity of the land there,” says Graham Ford Veysey, Project Coordinator of the Ohio City Fresh Food Collaborative, an initiative of the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation (OCNW).
“All of the sudden, what was going to be public housing was suddenly just a vacant lot.”
