Comprehensive Approaches to Vacant Properties and Affordable Housing

Successful affordable housing strategies and abandoned property strategies can go hand in hand to improve neighborhoods, cities, and regions while ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing.  Two standout programs - or family of programs - are underway in Columbus, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky.  Learn about Columbus' Home Again Program, a
$15 million dollar strategy designed to return vacant properties in targeted neighborhoods to productive homeownership, and Louisville's series of initiatives including the Blight Buster's Initiative and the Louisville Land Bank.

Moderator: Liz Hersh, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania

• Melissa Beyl Barry, Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Louisville Metro Government
• Donna Hunter, City of Columbus Department of Development Land Redevelopment Office
• Derrick Pryor, City of Columbus Department of Development Home Again

Strategies for Equitable and Healthy Communities

Capacity building, advocacy, and visioning are a few of the tools that have been successful in empowering distressed communities to reclaim vacant properties.  Researchers and community development experts will introduce how residents have positioned themselves as community change agents, and how neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and other cities are applying strategies to bridge the connections between smart growth and equitable development.

Moderator: Carlton Eley, U.S. EPA Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation

• Carolyn Coleman, National League of Cities
• Deeohn Ferris, J.D., Sustainable Community Development Group, Inc
• Victoria Wilson, Universal Companies

Data for Change: Property Information Systems and Equitable Revitalization

Readily available and accurate information is a critical component of the infrastructure needed to support analysis, planning, and decision-making for land reclamation efforts. Property data systems that integrate information from multiple sources into a single system can be made available to government agencies, community organizations, and the public to better inform revitalization efforts. Hear about innovations and challenges in the field.

Moderator: Sarah Treuhaft, PolicyLink

• Phyllis G. Betts, Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action, School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Memphis
• Kristin Dawson, City of Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development Land Resources Division
• Michael Schramm, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western University

The Overlap and Synergies Between Vacant Properties and Brownfields

For many cities, vacant properties and brownfield sites constitute a significant portion of the land available for development.  This session will provide the opportunity to discuss the relationship between brownfields and vacant properties and the corresponding remediation and redevelopment issues surrounding these sites.

Moderator: Deborah Lange, Steinbrenner Institute for Environment Education and Research, Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center, Carnegie Mellon University

• Bob Gradeck, Carnegie Mellon Center for Economic Development
• Sven-Erik Keiser, U.S. EPA Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment

How Tax Liens and Tax Foreclosure Can Help Communities Control Vacant Properties

In many jurisdictions, vacant properties are also tax delinquent. Because tax liens have priority over all private liens, tax foreclosure can be a powerful tool to help local governments address vacant properties.  But tax foreclosure can also be subject to problems, including protracted time periods, extensive notice requirements, ineffective processes failing to result in clear title, and the role of third-party buyers of tax liens.  This session will focus on the challenges associated with tax foreclosure and describe specific changes to state laws that have strengthened the role of tax foreclosure and tax liens in vacant property reclamation.

Moderator: Frank Alexander, Emory University School of Law

• Daniel T. Kildee, Genesee County, MI
• David Marcello, The Public Law Center, New Orleans, LA

Leveraging Resources to Meet Your Financing Needs

Financing is a key barrier to re-deploying and reusing vacant properties, but private financing policies and procedures and public sector tools can be tapped to jump-start vacant property projects and leverage private investment. This presentation will provide a brief overview of what needs to be considered as part of a vacant property financing strategy, look at ways - beyond grants - that the public and private sector can meet financing needs, describe new and creative applications of federal financing programs, and highlight cutting-edge local innovations.

Moderator: Joseph C. Ott, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Pittsburgh Branch

• Charles Bartsch, ICF International
• Rosalind Paaswell, National Development Council
• H. Robert Spicher, Community Real Estate Group PNC Bank, NA

Challenges and Strategies for Resolving Title Issues

Ensuring clear title to properties is critical to both redevelopment at any cycle and preserving homeownership in many communities. But what often results from ineffective tax foreclosure systems and generations of heir properties is anything but.  Hear from those active in developing systems that work in creating clear, marketable, and insurable title, including title insurance companies, attorneys, and citizen leaders.

Moderator: David Tipson, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

• Craig H. Baab, Alabama and Georgia Appleseed Centers for Law and Justice, Inc.
• James J. Kelly, Jr., University of Baltimore School of Law
• Catharine B. LaMont, LaMont Title Corporation

Model Vacant Building Licensing and Registration Programs: What Works and What Doesn't

Regulatory strategies are effective prevention approaches that reinforce good business practices and require minimal staffing. Registration and fees associated with the programs better ensure reliable contact with a local point of contact and can encourage an owner to develop a timely rehabilitation or property transfer plan. This session discusses the strengths of these programs by looking at two cities: Cincinnati and Chula Vista, while highlighting the programs of several other jurisdictions. Participants will learn about key components including penalties and inspections, and hear about successes including compliance rates, revenues received, and the overall reduction of vacant properties. Registration is not an end in itself however. Find out how registration can become the cornerstone of a comprehensive community development plan.

Moderator: Ed Cunningham, City of Cincinnati, OH

• Doug Leeper, City of Chula Vista, CA
• Stephanie Moes, Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati
• Matt Strauss, Prince Will Hill Community Development Corporation

Partnerships for Property Preservation

Mortgage servicers and code enforcement officers both play a role in preserving properties once they have become vacant due to mortgage foreclosure.  But finding the right way to communicate with each other to ensure the properties are kept clean and sage can be difficult.  Join this session to hear about new developments by leaders in these fields who have been working together to develop a better system to maintain open communication between lending institutions and code enforcement officers.

Moderator: Robert Klein, Safeguard Properties, Inc.

Residential Property Nuisance Abatement and Receiverships

Court-ordered receivership has been used as a powerful code enforcement tool to correct problem properties -- either by requiring the owner to do so, or through a court-appointed receiver when the owner can't, or won't take responsibility. In the last year, over 70 cases have been filed in Baltimore and more than two dozen in Cleveland. Learn from attorneys, a judge, and community receiver about the strengths and weaknesses of each city's model. Hear about the methods and success of the efforts as well as the circumstances in which receivership can be used effectively.

Moderator: Kermit Lind, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University

• Julie Day, Code Enforcement Legal Section of Baltimore Housing
• Blair Griffith, Neighborhood Conservation for Baltimore Housing
• The Honorable Raymond L. Pianka, Cleveland Municipal Court, Housing Division

Models of Statewide Advocacy Coalitions: Building Consensus for Legislative Change

Over the past few years, local advocated of vacancy prevention and reuse have been joining together to lead systematic, statewide policy reform to provide better enforcement tools and improve community quality of life. This session will feature different types of statewide initiatives formed in Arkansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Hear about the initiatives' genesis, organizational structure and development, and strategies for promoting policy change.

Moderator: Mary Helen Petrus, Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition

• Paul Dodds, Urban Frontier LLC
• Liz Hersh, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania
• Alan Mallach, National Housing Institute

Rebuilding Communities: Preservation Lessons Learned in the Northeast

In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation published Rebuilding Community: A Best Practices Toolkit for Historic Preservation and Redevelopment. This session will explore successes and lessons learned from neighborhoods in the northeast that used preservation as an effective tool to battle disinvestment and abandonment. Hear about best practices (and strategies to avoid) in the areas of public policy, advocacy and marketing, design, partnerships, adaptive use, and financing.

Moderator: Rhonda Sincavage, National Trust for Historic Preservation

• Adrian Scott Fine, National Trust for Historic Preservation Northeast Field Office
• Ernie Hogan, East Liberty Development Inc.
• Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation

Innovative Solutions for Marketing Urban Properties

Innovative programs in Baltimore and Pittsburgh show how efforts to market vacant or other “forgotten” urban properties have paid-off through increased home sales, attraction of forward-thinking businesses, retention of the region’s youth, and enhanced civic engagement and pride. Hear about Cool Space Locator in Pittsburgh, SCOPE (Selling City Owned Properties Efficiently) and other marketing techniques from Baltimore, as well as learn how these successful programs are bringing people back to the city to live and work.

Moderator: Kyra Straussman, Cool Space Locator and Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh

• Michael Bainum, City of Baltimore, MD
• Vito Simone, Greater Baltimore REALTORS and Simone Real Estate

Land Assembly for Neighborhood Development: A Community Development Initiative in Cleveland

The Neighborhood Progress, Inc. Land Assembly Team will report on the past two years of work demonstrating the techniques and strategies it has used to clear blighted properties and acquire land for redevelopment in support of regionally significant developments in inner city neighborhoods. Speakers will show how neighborhood-based CDCs, collaborating with an intermediary provider of financing and technical assistance, can more effectively acquire and assemble key property for redevelopment.

Moderator: Frank Ford, Neighborhood Progress, Inc.

• Kermit Lind, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University

Getting the Most Out of Your Data: Maximizing the Impact of Community Development

This session will highlight tools available to cities and community developers to maximize the benefit of their projects given finite resources. Panelists will discuss strategies and uses of descriptive indicators for informational, planning, and benchmarking purposes. Participants will be presented with ways to turn data from various sources into tools to help prioritize development projects and target resources. Presentations will include examples of cross-community collaborations focusing on regional health and housing.

Moderator: Lisa Nelson, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

• Patrick Ford, City of Pittsburgh, PA
• Brian Mikelbank, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University

Redevelopment Ready Communities in Michigan

The past several decades in southeast Michigan have seen investment bypass older communities, opting instead for the outer fringe of new suburbs. To empower cities to retain residents and attract investment, in 2004, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance launched Redevelopment Ready Communities, a program that provides cities with the tools and guidance to streamline their redevelopment processes and bolster their competitive attractiveness. Through a set of best practices and a certification system, RRC encourages older suburbs to integrate innovative, efficient practices into their development processes, resulting in condensed project timelines, reduced cost and risks, less red tape – and most importantly, enhanced capabilities to build vibrant, thriving communities. Hear about the cities that participated in the 2005 pilot program and how this beta-testing process influenced the 2006 program and Best Practices.

Moderator: Melanie Piana, Michigan Suburbs Alliance

• Conan Smith, Michigan Suburbs Alliance

Pittsburgh's Elm Street Program: A Comprehensive Strategy for Neighborhood Revitalization
Commercial districts are vital to downtown areas and cannot succeed when surrounded by decaying residential areas and neighborhoods. Pennsylvania’s Elm Street program strengthens both by integrating downtown and neighborhood renewal strategies. Hear from Elm Street managers and program administrators in Pittsburgh as they describe the community engagement process and investments made in their neighborhood, how to measure success, and the planning process for selecting Elm Street districts.

Moderator: Wanda Wilson, Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development

• Courtney Ehrlichman, Friendship Development Associates
• Kelly Hoffman, Lawrenceville Corporation
• Alecia Sirk, Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh

Rural Reuse for Sustainability: A Case Study in Fayette County, PA
Vacancy and abandonment are not solely urban phenomenon. New development on adjacent green-field sites helps to exacerbate the seeming downward spiraling economy of rural America's small towns. Hear about how one agency has lead the fight in Pennsylvania’s most distressed county – Fayette County - to rebuild sustainability and revitalize towns by using the vacant land and abandoned buildings as a community asset. Learn about expanding capital investment in housing and other real estate; increasing family income and wealth; stimulating economic activity connecting to regional economy; improving access to quality education; and, supporting healthy environments and lifestyles.

Moderator: Joe A. Yarzebinski, Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation

• Rich Dieter, Dieter Consulting
• Jim Stark, Fayette County Community Action Corporation
• Rich Stull, Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Development Corporation

Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Cities
The evidence is clear. On the whole, America’s central cities are coming back with growing employment and increasing numbers of young people, empty-nesters, and others choosing city life over the suburbs. Unfortunately, not all cities are fully participating in this renaissance. Many cities are lagging behind their peers, especially older industrial communities that are still making the transition from manufacturing-based economies to more knowledge-oriented activities. A new initiative, targeted at state and local government, business, and civic leaders, is providing a framework for understanding how to restore prosperity in America’s struggling cities, particularly those in the Northeast and Midwest.

Moderator: Jennifer S. Vey, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program

• Lavea Brachman, Greater Ohio and ReBuild Ohio
• Diane Sterner, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey

Early Warning Systems For Abandoned Property
The best strategy for dealing with abandoned properties is preventing them from being abandoned in the first place. Accurate and detailed information is critical in determining the correct levels of intervention to prevent this. This presentation looks at how two cities - Cleveland and Pittsburgh - are creatively using data to prevent and quickly address abandonment, encourage better use of resources, and enhance decision-making.

Moderator: Grant Ervin, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania

• Bob Gradeck, Carnegie Mellon University Center for Economic Development
• John Kromer, Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania
• Michael Schramm, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University

Understanding Mortgage Foreclosures and Prevention Strategies
The complex nature and significant rise of mortgage foreclosures requires a continuum of solutions for prevention. These solutions are coming from national and local intermediaries, county treasurers, and others. Learn how a foreclosure prevention program started by the Cuyahoga County treasurer last March has saved over 500 homeowners from foreclosure by creating a hotline, working with borrowers on workouts, leading the formation of a task force to prosecute criminals in the business, and directing state-wide efforts to solve this crisis.

Moderator: Carole O. Heyward, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University

• Cathy Martin, Neighborhood Legal Services Association
• The Honorable Jim Rokakis, Cuyahoga County, OH
• Mark Wiseman, Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program

Vacant Land Management and Community Revitalization through Greening
Greening strategies help manage vacant land, clean contaminated property, manage storm water run-off, and even increase surrounding property values. Well-developed strategies impact far more than the land – leading to strong community-based partnerships, raising the profile of urban environmental improvements, and empowering people and businesses to promote environmental, economic, and social well-being. Hear from leaders of two important models – the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Groundwork USA – and how they are working with local government, businesses, and others to gain quantifiable benefits in the community.

Moderator: Joseph Schilling, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech

• Eva Gladstein, City of Philadelphia, Neighborhood Transformation Initiative
• Michael Groman, Philadelphia Green Project, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
• Vernice Miller-Travis, Groundwork USA
• Steven Silver, Groundwork El Paso

New Models of Land Revitalization
Stimulating and managing growth in cities that have seen prolonged disinvestment requires a new frame of mind and a more proactive strategy to rebuild the urban market and prevent further abandonment. Learn from three of the leading innovators about how they created new policies and tools to remove many of the barriers of redevelopment. Hear how the Genesee County Land Bank in Michigan took advantage of aggressive tax foreclosure laws to support redevelopment of vacant properties in Flint’s urban core, the establishment of a new type of land bank in Cleveland – one that focuses on industrial and commercial properties, and how the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has worked with communities to produce new hubs for innovation and emerging technologies.

Moderator: Jennifer Rigterink, Genesee Institute

• Brooke Furio, U.S. EPA Region 5, Brownfields & NPL Reuse Section
  and City of Cleveland Department of Economic Development
• Robert Rubenstein, Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh
• Daniel T. Kildee, Genesee County, MI
• Nathanael Hoelzel, City of Cleveland Department of Economic Development

Here Come the Judges: Housing and Environmental Courts
Not all jurisdictions have a special division of their courts devoted exclusively to housing and code enforcement cases, but judges from housing and environmental courts can be active champions of community revitalization efforts. Whether the focus is on blight programs or remedies for single-family property owners who do not have the resources to repair their homes, these specialized courts can devote their full attention to complex cases and work closely with community groups, civic and political leaders, and professional organizations to determine how to reach the best outcome for individuals and the community.

Moderator: Regan Savalla, Office of the San Diego City Attorney

• The Honorable Larry E. Potter, Shelby County Environmental Court
• The Honorable Henry J. Nowak, City Court of Buffalo
• The Honorable Raymond L. Pianka, Cleveland Municipal Court, Housing Division

Rebuilding New Orleans: Vacant Properties as a Critical Resource
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is facing a rebuilding challenge the likes of which this country has never seen. Prior to the storm, there were approximately 20,000 abandoned, blighted properties scattered throughout the City; post-Katrina it is now estimated that there are more than 225,000 homes damaged or destroyed. In response to this devastation, leaders at the state and local levels are creating and implementing policies and programs to address both the destruction of the built environment and a critical shortage of affordable housing. In this session, New Orleans and Louisiana leaders will describe coordinated strategies to facilitate blighted property acquisition, management, disposition and redevelopment – in essence, turning vacant properties into assets for recovery.

Moderator: Lisa Levy, National Vacant Properties Campaign and the Vacant Properties Initiative of Local Initiatives Support Corporation

• Carey Shea, Rockefeller Foundation
• Joseph E. Williams, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority

Learn how market data has been used in Memphis, Tennessee, Shaker Heights, Ohio, Baltimore, Maryland, and Camden, New Jersey to develop targeted initiatives to strengthen neighborhood markets. Hear how to develop strategies in different types of neighborhoods - low-wealth, working-class, and transitional, middle class neighborhoods and how to influence local government to take a market driven approach versus a more traditional effort.

Moderator: Marcia Nedland, Fall Creek Consultants

• Kamla Lewis, Department of Neighborhood Revitalization, City of Shaker Heights, OH
• Jeremy Nowak, The Reinvestment Fund
• Beanie Self, Southeast Memphis Community Development Corporation

Reviving the Pulse of Commercial Corridors
Critical to the redevelopment of any community is the revival of its commercial corridors – the "main streets" of groceries, drugstores, coffee shops, restaurants, barbershops, hardware stores, and services that frequently act as a neighborhood pulse. To recreate that pulse in once-vibrant commercial corridors, business owners, residents, politicians, and police must organize around a common vision for neighborhood business revitalization, which often involves tackling blight and abandonment. This session will feature three cases where vacant property reclamation was a central component of commercial district improvement initiatives.

Moderator: Larisa Ortiz, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

• Joel Bookman, Chicago Local Initiatives Support Corporation
• Kevin Hanley, Southside Local Development Company
• Will Pritchard, Indianapolis Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Making Vacant Spaces Safe Places
In many communities, vacant and abandoned properties are havens for criminal activity. Even properly secured vacant properties can contribute to an environment of fear and disorder that facilitates crime and deters positive investment. This session will explore how community developers, police, and public agencies can build mutually reinforcing strategies to address crime and abandonment. Speakers, including those affiliated with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Community Safety Initiative, will describe cross-agency partnerships, communications systems, and policy tools that helped them reduce crime in and around problematic properties. Topics will include Nuisance Property Task Forces, Community Impact Statements, and joint codes-police inspection systems.

Moderator: Julia Ryan, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

• Patricia Garcia Duarte, Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix, AZ
• Sheila Jackson, Jefferson East Business Association
• Connie Stine, Phoenix Police Department

Rebuilding Our Home Towns: Using Philanthropy to Restore Older Industrial Cities
In 2001, Baltimore city announced an 80-acre redevelopment in East Baltimore – that proposed to relocate close to 800 households, businesses, and blighted properties – to develop 2 million square feet of office and lab space, ground level retail, nearly 1,200 units of housing, green spaces and a new community school. When Annie E Casey and other foundations were asked by city leaders to give long-term support to a new non-profit organization charged with project development, the philanthropic community led a paradigm shift – one that leveraged foundation investment and placed human development at an equal place with physical and economic development. Hear about the investments and commitments, outcomes and lessons learned to date, and complicating factors in this endeavor.

Moderator: Scot Spencer, Annie E. Casey Foundation

• Cheryl A. Casciani, Baltimore Community Foundation
• Gail Hayes, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Facing Adversity: Mortgage Foreclosure Fallout and Strategies for Redevelopment
Rising home mortgage foreclosures have had significant impacts on individual homeowners as well as local and national housing markets. Policymakers, lenders, and advocates have responded with new and innovative solutions to prevent foreclosures by assisting homeowners and instituting stricter lending regulations. Despite this, some localities are still facing increased property abandonment due to mortgage foreclosures and are seeing adverse impacts on entire neighborhoods, especially those located in areas with already high concentrations of tax-foreclosed vacant properties. Mortgage and tax-foreclosed properties pose similar challenges to neighborhoods, but key jurisdictional differences have made reclamation of mortgage-foreclosed properties difficult. This panel will discuss some of those differences and the challenges that both neighborhood organizations and municipal governments are facing due to increasing mortgage-foreclosed vacant properties. Panelists will also highlight strategies being used by some localities to tackle these problems, particularly as part of broader comprehensive community redevelopment efforts.

Moderator: Mary Burkholder, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

• The Honorable Henry J. Nowak, City Court of Buffalo
• Mary Paumen, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

MOBILE SESSIONS ($25) -- Monday, September 24th 2:00 - 5:15 pm

Mobile workshops will combine bus transportation and walking. Make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes!

Find the Rivers! in the Hill District
The predominantly African American community of the Historic Hill District has been called home by jazz greats Art Blakey, Lena Horne, and Stanley Turrentine; August Wilson’s plays were inspired by the people and places from his Hill neighborhood. Today, the Hill is centrally located between Pittsburgh’s Central Business District and Oakland – home to university, medical, and technological facilities. Learn how a new project, Find the Rivers! has collaborated with a wide range of stakeholders to integrate the community with economic development opportunities linked to Pittsburgh’s three rivers. The workshop will include a visit to the site for a proposed scenic overlook and a meeting with residents, architects, parks experts, funders and other partners.

Preservation on Pittsburgh’s Northside
Pittsburgh’s Northside will soon be home to over a billion dollars of new development, including two stadiums, a casino, and other mixed-use development. Learn how nearby neighborhoods such as Manchester and Central Northside are preserving their historic properties and developing new houses on formerly vacant land. Our session starts in Manchester, where you’ll learn the basic data collection and planning strategies that have led to successful results. We’ll visit examples of classic Victorian homes that would have faced urban renewal’s wrecking ball in the 1960’s had it not been for organized residents. Then we’ll continue to Central Northside and see how one man’s vision has transformed his entire block into a pastel paradise known as Randyland. We’ll look at several thriving community gardens as well as a vacant former adult movie theater that will serve as the cornerstone of the neighborhood’s revitalization efforts. We’ll pass by a storefront that former Pittsburgh Steeler great, Franco Harris, plans to renovate as a Mediterranean restaurant. This session will show you how creative and grassroots planning can lead to interesting solutions to vacant properties.

A Tale of Two Sites: The Waterfront & SouthSide Works
The South Side’s eclectic bars, restaurants, boutiques, cafes, and bookstores beckon throngs of young and old alike, who fill the sidewalks each evening with energy. In the past decade, the historic neighborhood has enjoyed a meteoric rise in real estate values — uncharacteristic for the city. Just a few miles down the Monongahela River, the town of Homestead is strewn with vacant and derelict properties and continues to struggle towards financial solvency. Both the South Side and Homestead communities have recently played host to large-scale retail and entertainment riverfront developments on former steel mills. Tour each site and experience two models of brownfield redevelopment. Join the developers, city, and county officials as we compare and contrast each development’s effects on community investment, land use, parking facilities, use of the riverfront, scale, housing options, amenities, community engagement, financing, and the respective roles of the public and private sectors for each site.

The Strip: Pittsburgh’s Historic Market District
It's a festival every Saturday in The Strip, with bustling crowds of enthusiastic shoppers and tourists. But what happens the rest of the week? Join Neighbors in the Strip for a fun, informative, and interactive discussion and tour of the Strip. The tour begins at the Heinz History Center, formerly the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company built in 1898, and ends at the Cork Factory – the restored 1901-1913 Armstrong Cork Factory that has doubled the Strip’s population. In between we will visit a Catholic Church converted to a vibrant dance club, a 1907 Bath House turned into a grocery store, and the future site of Pittsburgh’s Public Market in the Pennsylvania Fruit Auction Building. We’re getting back to our roots. Hear about other residential adaptive reuses, including a silver LEED-certified 82-unit condo-residential development in the historic structure at 2839 Liberty Avenue. This is a great opportunity to experience Pittsburgh's Historic Market District – the cacophony of sites, sounds, and smells – while finding out how and why this neighborhood is never the same Strip twice. Wear walking shoes! Check www.neighborsinthestrip.com for more information on Pittsburgh’s Historic Market District – The Strip.