Investment Ready Place Profile: Ohio City

Great Lakes Brewery, an anchor of Ohio City, occupies a row of buildings off of West 25th Street

What does a place that has been invested in look like?  It can end up looking a lot like Ohio City, a thriving Investment Ready Place (IRP) in the Near West Side of Cleveland, Ohio.  Let’s view Ohio City as a case study of Investment Ready Places.  We will use the checklist to show why investment makes sense for this neighborhood and we will document previous investments. 

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You-Street

A Place Profile with Brian Tomaino

Memorable urban public spaces cater to two basic human aspirations:
First is a need to act in a communal setting. We are social beings with an innate desire to observe, interact with and learn from our fellow humans. Spaces that facilitate this interplay effortlessly are resilient and thrive for generations.
Second is our great affinity for freedom of self expression. We want to interact with others, but at the same time express our uniqueness and display our beliefs. Great public spaces are simple by design. They welcome diverse groups and allow users to comfortably project their identity onto the public realm.
The U Street Corridor in DC is such a space. Walking along its shops, restaurants and churches, we see what Jane Jacobs called the urban ballet, unfold.

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One Neighborhood at a Time

Portsmouth is regenerating itself one neighborhood at a time. Image courtesy of Joe Nickol and David Csont, Urban Design Associates.

The Portsmouth, Virginia, Story

Cities are never finished. Settlement happens, sites are chosen for their natural and strategic advantages, buildings built, and industry churns. Communities grow over time, ushering in change with each generation that grows up with them. While growth and decline is part of a natural order, the most resilient places constantly invest and reinvest, invent and reinvent, and do so neighborhood by neighborhood. Portsmouth is such a place.

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