This is going to be my more informal blog for the summer. For a more comprehensive and formal description of my work in Cleveland, check out www.elianaincleveland.wordpress.com. It'll be up and running in about a week. I'll keep you posted on that.
This week has been incredibly busy and overwhelming. We arrived in Cleveland at an insane hour on Sunday morning (3:30 am). After a quick tour of the city, Erin and I collapsed into our temporary room in what we have dubbed "The Castle House." We've since moved in to The Purple House, which is two houses down. Our housing in Cleveland is an epic story in itself.
The Purple House: The owners of this old, charming house moved away two years ago, leaving a cluttered but moderately organized house behind. They intended to come back and retrieve the rest of their belongings. When they did, they found their house ransacked. Some people had broken in, ripped the copper piping out of the walls, and threw everything on the floor. Overwhelmed, the owners left the house for another year in this condition. The leaders of the Urban Defense Project heard about this house and met with the owners. The owners graciously decided to let us stay in their house under the condition that we help organize and clean out the house. A HUGE collaborative effort ensued and now the house is comfortably livable. We still have some fixing up to do on the first floor, but the second floor is lovely and welcoming. (See the first picture for an example of what one of the rooms looked like).
The Castle House: When the leaders of the UDP were waiting for the owners of the Purple House, they started up a conversation with the neighbors about our project and the neighborhood. The leaders told the neighbors that we were still looking for some housing and that we were willing to do some fixing up in exchange for free housing. These neighbors called the people across the street, who called their next-door neighbors, who called a friend, who called the owner of the Castle House. The owner of the Castle House showed up and talked to the leaders of the UDP for a while. After some discussion, the UDP found themselves with some more free housing (conditional on some cleaning). Not only was he generous enough to let us use his house, he also wants to participate in the weatherization program that we are organizing this summer.
I'll give a more in depth description of each of the projects in a following post, but here's the general idea of what I'm up to.
The Office of Sustainability has a goal of weatherizing (making homes energy efficient) 100% of buildings in Cleveland by 2019. This is a HUGE goal. We, the Urban Defense Project, are running the pilot program for this weatherization project. We will be using a pay-as-you-save program, meaning that the city will pay for the weatherization (using stimulous funds). This initial investment will eventually be paid for by the energy savings for each building. For example:
a) Before weatherization, a family pays a $100/month energy bill
b) After weatherization, the energy bill only comes to $75/month
c) The $25 saved will be given back to the city until the weatherization is paid for. This way, no one loses any money in the end! And we reduce energy consumption! Who could say no?
The following pictures are a brief, segmented, and random selection of the things we've done in the last week. I'll be better about taking relevent pictures soon.
I'll keep you posted!!
e
Part of our scavenger hunt to get to know the city. We had to take a group picture in front of this community garden. Some kids from the school across the street were there gardening and wanted in on the picture.
Also part of the scavenger hunt. Put on a weird piece of clothing in the local thrift store.
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