Know this about India Pierce Lee — she’s a hugger. Her generous embrace comes with a quick warning. Then, suddenly, you’re in a hug – and in a part of her world.
For Lee, 60, her world is one with big ideas in a relatively confined area — several struggling inner-city Cleveland neighborhoods. She works with a team of corporate heavyweights, public sector groups, community organizations, foodies, bankers and almost anyone else who can inject a positive influence in places that are distressed and careworn.
She presents an interesting dichotomy — a dynamo who juggles dozens of projects and ideas at a time while being entirely present when talking one-on-one. It’s a quality that comes in handy with her work at The Cleveland Foundation and its many interests aimed at bolstering neighborhoods with high unemployment, dilapidated housing and — until recently — waning hope.
PRACTICAL PROJECTS FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT
Like many large cities, Cleveland’s most impoverished neighborhoods are located around some of its most prominent institutions. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University have well-deserved reputations as first-rate institutions. Yet, until just over a decade ago, their influence was underutilized in the areas closest to them.
A challenge for Lee and others she has worked with was to figure out the best way to buoy these neighborhoods and their residents. Central to this is The Cleveland Foundation, a nonprofit group that links donors with worthy projects throughout the city. The foundation uses its substantial endowment and connections to support a myriad of programs. Lee is the foundation’s Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community Development.
“We used maps to show vacant properties and poor building conditions in the neighborhoods, and the Clinic, Case and UH were all within a 1.5 mile radius,” Lee says. “These neighborhoods basically were declining. We wanted to see how these wealthy institutions can leverage their buying power and resources to stabilize their neighborhoods around them.”
One thing is clear — pouring money into neighborhoods without long-term goals that address the complexities of an area doesn’t work. Vibrant communities are communities with businesses. The question for Lee and others was, “How can we create businesses in the neighborhoods using the strength of the anchor institutions’ buying power?” she says.
A CAUSE CLOSE TO THE HEART
Lee is familiar with the low-income areas the foundation has set its sights on. She was raised in the Glenville neighborhood. Her younger brother was killed when he and her father were caught in crossfire while driving down E. 93rd Street. She graduated from Dyke College in Cleveland with a management degree, then attended Case Western Reserve University, where she earned a master’s in science and applied social administration.
Lee decided to venture away from the city she loved and became an air traffic controller — a job that in hindsight seems fitting for someone who today works on numerous projects with divergent interests.
She married her husband, Peter Lee, 20 years ago after meeting on a Glenville tennis court.mShe has two stepchildren and five grandchildren. She’s close to her sister, brother, nephews, nieces and extended family, most of whom live in Glenville or within a short drive. Lee has successfully recruited friends and others to move to the close-knit neighborhood.
Her husband was a more than 30-year city employee and retired as fire chief at Hopkins and Burke Lakefront airports. He stays busy with volunteer work.
The couple are members of Bethany Baptist Church, whose pastor is the Rev. Dr. Stephen Rowan. The church is an important part of their lives.
“In a neighborhood like Glenville you always hear about the bad stuff, never the good stuff. Because of my faith, I guess I’m willing to take those hits when I have to and also admitting when I’m wrong and being humble.”
SMART SOLUTIONS FOR TOUGH PROBLEMS
Eleven years ago, the foundation started the Greater University Circle Initiative aimed at launching employee-owned businesses in the Greater University Circle area. After Lee joined The Cleveland Foundation, her attention quickly focused on housing, employment and other components key to neighborhood stabilization. Lee met with people from around the country to learn about successful programs and returned to the foundation with plenty of information about what did and did not work elsewhere.
“We always worry about numbers, but if you look at programs across the country, millions and millions are spent, but do they really help people?” she asks.
“Here, you have people who show up and they (may) miss work and maybe they have been sleeping in their car or have domestic abuse. The people who have the hardest time have a lot of stuff going on.”
She continues, “I’ve been in community development for almost 28 years, and working in an urban community all you hear is “No.” “ She quickly discovered that race, class and cultural issues complicate even the most well-meaning programs.
The multi-million dollar effort was complicated. The group put together grant and loan money and mind power from the Cleveland Foundation, the City of Cleveland, the anchor institutions, private banks, community lead- ers and others to launch the initiative. The first was Evergreen Cooperative Laundry on Elk Avenue. The $5.8 million employee-owned laundry opened in 2009. It contracts with hospitals and others and employs people from the neighborhood.
Next was Evergreen Energy Solutions, a solar panel, construction and home-weatherization company. Opened also in 2009, it recently won a contract from Cleveland Heights to install and retrofit LED energy-efficient lighting for the city.
The latest Evergreen Initiative is Green City Growers Cooperative, the largest hydroponic (water grown) greenhouse in the state and the largest urban food production greenhouse in the country. Like the others, GCG is employee-owned and uses the greenest techniques available. The greenhouse opened in 2013.
FROM A BROWN FIELD TO ROWS OF GREEN
A steady hum of motors and fans seems to fade away as a visitor walks through the 3.5 acres of greenhouse space in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood just off E. 55th St. Workers carefully transplant plugs of lettuces with translucent root webs dangling from the ends.
Foam trays of lettuces float in long, shallow pools of room-temperature water. The rows stretch from one end of the greenhouse to the other in varying stages of growth. It takes 45 days to grow a head of lettuce from seed to shipping size.
Although she and a team helped nurture GCG from an idea to a greenhouse the size of three football fields – with plenty of sidetracks along the way – Lee still seems amazed by and certainly proud of the green rows surrounding her.
The lettuces are perfect. Grown pesticide-free and non-GMO (genetically modified organisms), their delicate roots spend their short lives in nutrient-rich water in a tightly controlled environment. No brown spots or holes mar their leaves. It makes them highly in demand among regional distributors, who in turn sell them to grocery stores, restaurants and specialty markets.
One small area of the greenhouse breaks from the hues of purple and green lettuces and sprouts. Here, bachelor’s buttons and other edible blooms grow in a riot of blues, yellows and oranges. They’ll be mixed with microgreens or show up as a dinner plate garnish at restaurants through- out the region. Workers are experimenting with 36 varieties of basil. GCG recently contracted with one of the world’s largest food processors to roll out a new line of basil pesto.
The $17 million New Market Tax Credit investment in the greenhouse is starting to pay off. GCG employs 40 people, most from the surrounding neighborhoods. It ships three million heads of greens annually. Between 1 percent and 2 percent of the produce is donated to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
Workers here and at the other Evergreen Cooperatives get employment training and support to buy homes. The goal is to help them become ambassadors in the community.
“People always ask me what’s next, and I always say wherever God leads me,” Lee says. “I know I can make a difference, and I have the resources available to me. We’ve had people come from around the world and nationally to see what’s happening here. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve, and the City are anchors that are at the table every day trying to help us figure this out. The Cleveland Foundation has been a great place to innovate.”
