In partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Greater Ohio Policy Center released an online toolkit with resources for practitioners working to revitalize smaller legacy cities. The Smaller Legacy City Toolkit compiles materials from respected sources to help local government, nonprofit, philanthropic, and private-sector leaders implement the eight revitalization strategies that were identified in the report Revitalizing America’s Smaller Legacy Cities. This toolkit is intended to help leaders of revitalization efforts free up time for creating and implementing their vision for the future by compiling high-quality resources into a single online toolkit.
The toolkit features three kinds of resources for each of the revitalization strategies:
- Tools, including how-to guides and checklists;
- Programs, often with examples of replicable initiatives; and
- Background information, which includes white papers and websites that further explain the strategy, program, or tool.
The Smaller Legacy City Toolkit also includes in-depth case studies that illustrate how the revitalization strategies have been used successfully in two smaller legacy cities, South Bend, Indiana and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The toolkit is intended to be a living document, and will be periodically updated with cutting-edge resources. If there is a new resource that you believe should be included in the toolkit, you can submit it for review here.
The Revitalizing America’s Smaller Legacy City report, released by GOPC and the Lincoln Institute in summer 2017, found that smaller legacy cities have unique challenges and opportunities facing them as they transition to be fully competitive in the twenty-first century economy. GOPC is committed to providing support for leaders in Ohio’s twenty small and mid-sized legacy cities, including through this online toolkit. More on GOPC’s smaller legacy city work is available at https://www.greaterohio.org/legacy-city-regrowth/.