About ConnectEC.

Building community and connecting East Cleveland.

ConnectEC is a community process for placemaking and placekeeping.

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What is Placemaking & Placekeeping?

PLACEMAKING
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Placemaking means creating places and focusing on transforming public spaces to strengthen the connections between people and these places. Placemaking is a process centered on people and their needs, aspirations, desires, and visions, which rely strongly on community participation.
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PLACEKEEPING
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Placekeeping as the active care and maintenance of a place and its social fabric by the people who live and work there. It is not just preserving buildings but keeping the cultural memories associated with a locale alive, while supporting the ability of local people to maintain their way of life as they choose.
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ConnectEC Visioning Process.

The Cuyahoga Land Bank selected a project team which will work with the community from January through July 2023 to collectively reimagine and reinvent the public spaces in the Circle East district. Through multiple engagement activities, community members will provide the input which will guide the design of streetscape elements, green spaces, and the look and feel of the neighborhood.

Our goals are to strengthen the connection between people and the places they share, shape the public realm to maximize shared value, and create the physical, cultural, and social identities that will define this neighborhood and support its ongoing evolution.

The focus area is approximately 30 acres along Euclid Avenue at the western gateway to East Cleveland.

Background.

In a series of studies from 2015 to 2020, the City of East Cleveland and its residents identified the residential and commercial districts at the western border of the city adjacent to University Circle as the place to begin revitalizing the city and rebuilding its tax base. The Cuyahoga Land Bank is acting as master developer for the project and has acquired 180+ residential parcels and 18 commercial parcels & demolished 103 structures and is finalizing the site planning for this area. The goal is a unique and inclusive neighborhood that showcases the potential of the East Cleveland residential market. Key project elements include:

New infrastructure: Install infrastructure on the residential streets including new waterlines, sewers, greenspace, paving, sidewalks, streetlights and fiber to every home.
New Homes: Using a combination of private and public investment to build approx. 200 middle-income, owner-occupied housing options that are at the leading edge of design, highly energy efficient, accessible and offer contemporary lifestyle options, including opportunities for working from home.
Housing Preservation: Provide home repair grants to existing owner occupant residents to repair and invest in their homes.
New Connectivity: Create multimodal connections from the neighborhood to existing community amenities such as Lakeview Cemetery, Windermere Station and University Circle.
New Jobs: Redevelop the Mickey’s Building as a catalyst to bringing new jobs and a community gathering hub to the area.

The target area as shown in the map below, is dominated by vacant lots. Of the 403 residential parcels, 74 (18%) are in Cleveland and 329 (82%) are in East Cleveland. Rebuilding this once vibrant neighborhood will first require developing stronger connections between the existing approx. 150 households while also creating organic opportunities for them to define a new sense of community with the residents who will be moving into the neighborhood. Creating inviting public spaces will be a key part of this strategy.