Living Cities wants to get Cleveland rockin’ again. At the end of May, the New York City-based organization, which has invested more than $543 million in 23 cities, launched its American City Agenda initiative. It’s a multidisciplinary approach that seeks to improve the nation’s most challenged cities by dealing with everything from crumbling infrastructure to housing affordability and inventory.
“This is an unprecedented partnership, uniting the eff orts of the state and city with local and national philanthropic partners,” says Neil Kleiman, Living Cities’ director of policy and research. “The unique aspect of this initiative is the recognition that housing doesn’t reside in a vacuum. Our new model off ers direct support for developing affordable housing by attacking the whole environment, using collaborative realignment of policy as the first tool.”
The plan is to align and coordinate major investments already being made by government and private developers who seek to rebuild blighted areas and reshape cities for livability and competitiveness.
The initiative was launched in Cleveland because “here we have a governor, mayor, and local foundation community that are willing to work together and break down traditional silos that exist across policy areas and develop a new and holistic model for community development,” Kleiman says.
The American City Agenda hopes to get results by focusing on broad neighborhood impact. “Living Cities will be working with Cleveland and other cities to stabilize and improve entire neighborhoods that have a large concentration of foreclosed property,” Kleiman adds. “Th e goal is to identify alternative
development uses and routes to local home ownership.” —M.C.L.
