Code,700001
Subject,      Lilah Zautner
Date,8/15/2010
Interview,James Dubelko
Abstract,"Interviewee Lilah Zautner talks about her ties to Cleveland and education in the first part of the interview. In July 2009, she was hired to manage the grant side of ReImagining Cleveland, a shared staff position. She talks about the study ReImagining Cleveland and more Sustainable Cleveland.  Another point of discussion is how Neighborhood Progress Inc. approached the City of Cleveland to allocate funds. In much of the interview, she details out the application and funding process, problems encountered and how projects were selected. She talks about the different types of projects and how they were divided into thirty-one agricultural projects and twenty-seven greening projects. She gives examples of specific projects and a future study focused outside of Cleveland in the suburbs. There is discussion of the five-year plan, data collected about the project and evaluation. She also talks about the use of the decision tree for demolition efforts of structures.  Using larger areas of vacant land as an economic driver. There is also emphasis on the community and people and organizations involved in this project along with how diverse they are."
Tags,"ReImagining Cleveland, Neigborhood Progress Inc. Detroit Shoreway Community Organization, Ohio State University Extension, Park Works Inc. Neighborhood Stablization Projects, Urban Greening, Urban agriculture, urban gardening,  community garden, market garden, grants, City Council, planning, grant making, land reuse, San Diego Market Garden, repurpose, community"
Special Notes,
Minutes: ,
0,"introductions, Zautner Reimagining Cleveland Program Mangager for Neighborhood Progress Inc. since July 2009, currently working as their consultant three days a week also employed at Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization as ECO  project director"
1,"Zautner grew up in Geneva, went to several different colleges graduated from CSU Bachelors in Environmental Studies, started graduate school Arizonia State University"
2,"when finished with coursework MA in Environmental Geography, came to Neighborhood Progress Inc working at Detroit Shoreway Community Organization, was ECO director involved in many programs NPI working on "
3,"interviewed for and got the grant program side of Re-Imagining Cleveland, a shared staff position, NPI did not want to hire full-time person"
4,"still in graduate school when this was created, many partners and history of project, Cleveland categorized as shrinking city "
5,"started off with study that was part of National Foundation, looking at best way to use vacant land "
6,"most land owned by city stresses its' capacty, most vacant areas problem areas, Re-Imagining Cleveland and more sustainable Cleveland is name of study, determine what should be done with vacant areas"
7,"Use GIS information systems as a tool to use in the project, what comes out of study is a decision tree to guide reuse"
8,"decision tree is being used to implement projects at many different levels, 2nd wave of study implementation, NPI approached city to allocate funds"
9,"NPI request 500,000 to go towards pilot projects, City Council allocated 500,000 from Federal dollars to go to Re-Imagining Cleveland"
10,"There were 58 projects 56 funded, money from Federal Government to HUD than the City, project dollars go through OSU Ext. and Park Works Inc. also private dollars"
11,"Private funds from national foundations, each of the projects and groups have to provide 50% match of funds, such as in kind, volunteeer"
12,"people solicit donations from local businesses, ex. 12 man hours with a dozer"
13,"land used belongs to City of Cleveland land banked land, higher concentration in some areas because of this, when reviewing applications wanted to see projects in many neighborhoods as possible, Federal dollars only used in NSP target area"
14,"NSP Neighborhood Stablization Projects, general speaking did not include neighborhoods not impacted by economy and housing crisis"
15,"continued so projects could use these federal dollars, happy with public response with applications, looked at different groups split into two major areas 1. urban gardens 2. greeing groups"
16,after spliting into two groups for review split again and reviewed by different professionals
17,"also people from communities, some local activist, applications reviewed by a minimum of six people using a scorecard"
18,continued capacity of group applying for project looked at social and environmental benefits
19,"challenge of review-anywhere from a single person applying to a community  development corporation with 30 years of experience, really tried to not pick projects that only sounded good on paper "
20,"tried to balance out and not just reward people with good grant writing skills, now what program is about, review process July 31st to end of Sept. "
21,"announcements made in Oct., approval part of review process"
22,"every project went through Planning Department, City Council had a chance to weight in, funds came through form City,"
23," each of grantees paired with fiscal agent, 31 agricultural projects, 27 greening projects"
24,"Urban agricultural people paired with OSU extenstion, all other ones paired with Park Works, put through workshops, met at least once with fiscal agent"
25,"all projects interesting, frustration with all the rules and regulations, when getting to point of frustration would reread applications to realize why this is being done"
26,"Urban agricultural project mostly community gardens, market gardens people grow food to sell, community gardens for personal consumption or donation, have to seperate this because of funding"
27,"Community gardens required to meet City code, but can be as creative as they want"
28,"some community and market gardens used raised bed, others growing in ground, some don't know because need to do a ground test"
29,"Most growing pretty typical produce, some creative, ECO Village Market Garden"
30,"ECO Village Market Garden formed LLC, received 10,000 grant to expand, using 1 city lot, using ""Spin Model"""
31,"this model is a system for growing very high value produce, way it is laid out optimizes sunlight, space, water and pest control"
32,"This project in ECO Village part of Detroit Shoreway, example of group on leading edge already had some experience, had a business plan"
33,"Continued their business plan weighed in  decision making process, some other gardens are much simpler have a some other gardens are much simplier"
34,"people want to repurpose their lot, neighbors coming together, another group San Diego Market Garden group of Mothers and Fathers run home school association on west side, put in application to use this garden to teach children"
35,"Fully using garden as a learning space, creating curriculum around it. Kids call it Devil's Backbone because of the step hill it is on and they ride bikes down it"
36,"right now different agencies are figuring out out things are going to work, groups will make formal reports to fiscal agents and they will report back to grantees"
37,"set up website Re-Imagining Cleveland.org to share stories, CSU oral histories capture good part of stories"
38,"grantees do a great job of helping each other, Greening projects, not growing food for consumption most passive, there are no permanent structures on land"
39,"they are natural areas like rose gardens and pathways, it is a way to formalize space people already use by putting in pathways"
40,"natural habitat like plants, parks will serve as habitat for little animals, insects and birds, one is to make a nursery to grow more plants to go to other areas"
41,"another project side yard expansion, vacant lot in middle of two houses where homeowners split vacant lot-adds value to home, neighborhood and gets ride of blighted spaces, also parking lot used as green element, fight over mediation contentious research area"
42,"continued using green plants to suck up heavy metals and pollutants, and take these plants off to clean up, some labs say it works and some labs do not, this is log term strategy, their view  is it's a vacant lot why not try it and see what happens in log term"
43,"test soil to see what is learned storm water projects, rain garden create and design landscapes to hold water on site"
44,"all money has to be spent by Nov. 30, 2010, groups ready to go as soon as supplies ordered, next five years groups agree to be stewards of land taken off city hands"
45,Would like to see all projects succeed in five years
46,individuals who are taking care of these projects such as side yard expansions and market gardens would like to see property rights gifted to individuals
47,"this program has highlighted where we have been successful and where we could use help, policies at both local and Federal level have thrown up roadblocks"
48,"one example: very hard to get acces to city water for these projects, creates huge barrier to market gardens, can see why it inhibits success"
49,"no one is asking for free water, just help, since asking have gotten help with water"
50,"able to push policy agenda because we have right here 56 reasons why we have gained attention from people all over the country, this is progressive and people in Cleveland came up with this"
51,"Reimagining came from Cleveland, a Cleveland born and breed program, people have come from the Federal level to see the program and asked how can we change things to be more responsive"
52,"would like to see all policy agenda items crossed off list but would be happy with half and say we are empowering people, now looking at suburbs struggles with same isssues"
53,"expanding Reimagining Cleveland, where will additional problems be once foreclosure crisis plays out, this is next round"
54,"look at projects that can be used in suburbs, of 56 pilot projects used only 15 acres of land Cleveland alone has 3,300 acers of land and 15,000 vacant buildings"
55,"this problem is no where near finished, NPI look at foreclosure demolition, is it going to get worse"
56,"Even if foreclosure crisis stopped would still have thousands of vacant structures and vacant land, this is dangerous to the communit"
57,"using decision tree, where are we going to focus demolition efforts, vacant lots scatered all over, where can we create vacant land to create a driver"
58,"if we create large areas of vacant land than can take things to scale, if we can take two acreas to create urban agriculture and use as economic driver, there will be a cost benefit, same with environmental projects"
59,"Reimagining and looking forward would like to see this way of thinking, another question is posed by another individual, what type of people make up the project"
60,have not gotten to evaluation point of different people but they are passionate
61,"continued, they are a can do people, went into this not thinking it wasn't going to work, diverse people, organizations and individuals"
62,"some projects are born because an individual was tired of looking at a vacant lot with garbage and/or other problems, talk about urban agriculture sector"
63,only place where you can see people sharing best pactices and such a diverse group of individuals
64,"amazing to see all people come together, lines get blurred, talk about future interviews"
65,Huff neighborhood and vineyard in the middle of Huff also can tell where Huff was burned
66,continued talk about other interviews and projects
67,end