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On October 18, 2011 the German Marshall Fund, in conjunction with the Gund Foundation, the Port of Cleveland, and RPM International Inc., co-sponsored the Flats Forward Summit, a planning workshop designed to engage stakeholders and the public in the process of re-imagining “the Flats”, the waterfront along the Cuyahoga River adjacent to the west of downtown Cleveland. According to Summit organizers, the goal of the summit was to “learn from the experiences of cities similar to Cleveland that have successfully redeveloped waterfront neighborhoods to resolve issues of infrastructure, connectivity, access, and co-existence to catalyze economic development, and to help stakeholders to begin to see their cities in new ways.” To support this goal, GMF’s Urban and Regional Policy Program identified and sponsored travel for four waterfront development experts. Three of the experts were recruited as a direct result of GMF’s Transatlantic Cities Forum on Waterfront Development, which took place in Genoa, Italy in May 2010: Roberto Bobbio, Professor of Urban Planning and Landscape Preservation, University of Genoa; Tony Harvey, Head of Regeneration, West Midlands Region, British Waterways; and Lisa Schroeder, Executive Director, Pittsburgh River Life Task Force. The Genoa forum—sponsored by GMF’s long-time partners, the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Bank of America Foundation— was the inspiration for involving transatlantic perspectives in the Flats Forward planning process.  The fourth expert, Arne Lorz, Project Manager, Duisburg 2027, City of Duisburg, represented a project visited on GMF study tour, the Great Lakes Regionalism and Economic Development Study Tour, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Leading the planning effort for the Flats project in Cleveland was another Genoa forum alumnus, Justin Glanville, Project Director, Park Works.  Symbolic of the importance placed on this project, summit participants were addressed by elected representatives at the local and national levels. United States Senator Sherrod Brown spoke first, hailing the opportunity to reinvigorate the Flats in order to create jobs and promote Cleveland’s economic competitiveness by creating an environment where people will want to live and work.  http://brown.senate.gov/download/FlatsForwardWaterfrontConference.mp4

 

Senator Brown’s comments were echoed by Councilman Joseph Cimperman, Ward 3, The City of Cleveland and former Marshall Memorial Fellow. He represents all of the stakeholders in the Flats and is one of the primary driving forces behind the project. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson also addressed the audience, encouraging them to continue to work together to create a strategy that respects the existing businesses along the Flats, but allows for new development and a diversity of land uses.  Presentations sponsored by GMF were the primary focus of the public portion of the event. Each of the four cities represented, Genoa, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, and Duisburg, has experience with the challenges of redeveloping waterfronts to mitigate industrial impacts, diversify adjacent land into residential, commercial and recreational uses, spur new economic development, and create great community spaces. Each of the four presenters offered compelling visions for the Flats in the not-so-distant future. The experts also participated in non-public, working group meetings with key stakeholders and decision makers designed to begin to solve significant challenges such as coexistence of uses, water quality, management and governance, and funding and implementation.  Local participants in the discussion during the Summit included many of the existing stakeholders along the Flats. Although redevelopment planning of the Flats is in the early stages, it is encouraging that the people of Cleveland are engaged and the stakeholders are talking with one another. Early consensus appears to be forming around the need to address water quality and critical infrastructure challenges for the benefit of everyone. More information about the Flats Forward Summit, including the experts’ presentations and the Flats Forward project, can be found on the Civic Commons website, which facilitated the meeting and is responsible for community outreach for the duration of the project’s planning phase. http://theciviccommons.com/issues/flats-forward/pages/summit