Community Revitalization Fellowship

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2022-23 CRF Cohorts

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Syracuse, New York

In Syracuse, New York, fellows will build upon creative placemaking efforts which highlight the diverse communities and cultures that call the historically redlined communities of the Northside, Southside, and Westside home. Their existing initiatives include the Sankofa District, a stretch of Salina Street that was rebranded by the city in 2015 to pay respect to those displaced from the historically Black 15th Ward, as well as the Salt City Market and Westside Gateway Projects.

The institutional partner for the Syracuse CRF Fellows is the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, which works to return vacant, abandoned, underutilized, and tax-delinquent properties to productive use in ways that support the community’s vision for its future. The land bank acquires and stabilizes properties, markets them to responsible buyers for redevelopment, and assembles larger parcels for long-range redevelopment plans.

The Syracuse fellows are:

• Patrona Jones‐Rowser
• Oceanna Fair
• David Haas
• Rasheada Caldwell
• Syeisha Byrd
• Ed Griffin‐Nolan

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Loíza, Puerto Rico

In Loíza, Puerto Rico, fellows have worked to transform a vacant public school into Community Center Emiliano Figueroa Torres, a gathering place for the Torrecilla Baja neighborhood. The former school houses community-led programs focused on passing on Puerto Rican culinary and cultural heritage through distribution of hot meals and by providing educational tutoring to local youth which incorporates local music and dance. Fellows have also organized the creation of murals on the school’s exterior which reflects the neighborhood’s culture and identity.

The fellows will build on existing work in institutional partnership with the Center for Habitat Reconstruction (CRH). CRH is the only 501(c)(3) in Puerto Rico dedicated to leveraging vacant and abandoned properties as assets for building sustainable communities. By executing a model rooted in citizen participation and access to social justice, their interdisciplinary team partners with community-based and nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders to design and facilitate nuisance abatement and land use planning processes.

The Loíza fellows are:

• Yolanda Pizarro
• Tanisha Gaspar
• Maria Carrasquillo
• Shantille Quiñones
• Ingrid Pérez
• Omar Paris

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Braddock/East Pittsburgh/North Braddock (BEN), Pennsylvania

In BEN, Pennsylvania; fellows’ work envisions a clean energy future through art and placemaking in communities once known for their role in steel production. These initiatives have worked with local youth to reenvision vacant properties into community gathering spaces and design a new park which utilizes recycled materials. Fellows have also created art installations on vacant land which highlight the need for clean energy in a community with high levels of exposure to air particulate and asthma.

The institutional partner for the BEN fellows is Grounded Strategies. Decades of deindustrialization, suburbanization, white flight, and community divestment led to the proliferation of vacant land in the BEN region, with lasting negative effects concentrated specifically in high poverty areas and predominantly Black neighborhoods. Grounded Strategies serves the underserved communities reclaiming vacant and underutilized land to improve socioeconomic and environmental health. Their specialties include urban planning, public policy, landscape design, permaculture, and sustainable land stewardship advocacy.

The BEN fellows are:

• Chardae Jone
• Crystal Jalil
• Edith Abeyta
• Fitzhugh Shaw
• Jona Reyes
• Natiq Jalil