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Redevelopment of brownfield in Cleveland presents opportunities for jobs, workers

Interior of the National Acme plant showing graffiti and debris all around the structure.
The City of Cleveland
The interior of a structure on the site of the former National Acme plant. Crews will demolish more than 300 thousand square feet of remaining structures, remove 27 thousand tons of asbestos-contaminated waste, and remediate soil contamination at the site during the six-month cleanup.

In Cleveland, large parcels of land for development or redevelopment are hard to come by. But a new project may be a rare opportunity to reimagine a current industrial brownfield site and bring people back to the city.

Spurred by state and city funding, the former National Acme building on East 131st Street will be demolished and the newly vacant land remediated. Combined with an adjacent parcel of 22 acres acquired by the city and once occupied by Republic Steel, the combined plot will offer 37 acres to attract businesses and jobs back into the city.

The Acme site in its heyday was a national leader in the manufacture of machine tools but has been shuttered for decades.

We will begin Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas” with the stakeholders on the remediation project including the Cuyahoga Land Bank and the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund. 

Later, we'll bring you an excerpt from our podcast, “Living for We: Keep Ya Head Up.” The newest episode of the podcast focuses on mothers who have lost children to gun violence. The grief has driven these mothers to try and transform their pain into lasting change so that no other family or community is torn apart by tragedy.

We'll end the hour with a feature from Ideastream Public Media’s Arts and Culture team on the Karamu Arts collective exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Guests:
- Zaria Johnson, Environmental Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
- Ricardo Leon, President & CEO, Cuyahoga County Land Bank
- Brad Whitehead, Managing Director, Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund
- Marlene Harris-Taylor, Co-Host, Director, Engaged Journalism, Ideastream Public Media
- Myesha Watkins, Co-Host, Executive Director, Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance
- Marshawnette Daniels, Cleveland
- Shanika Jackson, Cleveland
- Kabir Bhatia, Sr. Reporter, Arts & Culture, Ideastream Public Media
- Erin Benay, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History, Case Western Reserve University