Urban Ecovillages USA

Like L.A. Eco-Village, Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage (www.enrightecovillage.org) in Cincinnati, Ohio, was also created by neighbors in an already-existing neighborhood. Enright Avenue has 80 one-story to two-and three-story older houses and with 10 rental units along both sides of a three-quarter-mile-long narrow cul-de-sac street in a working class neighborhood. The homes range from small one-story dwellings to two-and three-story houses, most built in the late 1800s through about 1915. Because most lots are long and narrow, many houses are closer together than in most urban areas, and the front porches much closer to the street as well.
Enright Avenue runs along the crest of a wooded north-south ridge in the middle of Cincinnati, so even though it’s a big city, every back yard on both sides of the street adjoins the woods. At the start of the street where it T-intersects with a cross-street, one side is a large cemetery, and the other side has the 16-acre wooded property of Imago Earth, a sustainability education center. The unusual features of this location — a relatively narrow street with houses nestled close together and close to the street, with large greens spaces at the beginning of the street, no through traffic, and surrounded on three sides by woods — makes it a relatively quiet and protected enclave in a bustling city. Because of this, most residents on Enright Avenue tend to know each other better than in most urban areas.

In 2004 Imago Earth Center founders Jim and Eileen Schenk and 15 neighbors started an ecovillage project similar to Los Angeles Eco-Village, intending to become a group of neighbors who supported each other in living more sustainably. However, unlike in LAEV, each person lived in their own house on its own lot.
One their first projects was to make a long hiking trail behind everyone’s house on both sides of the street. (So theoretically anyone can start on the trail behind their back yard back yard and end up at their other-side neighbor’s house without ever crossing the street.) The new ecovillagers began monthly potluck dinners at the Imago Earth Center, an easy walk from everyone’s house. To encourage more people to get involved, they talked with more neighbors, distributed a brochure and created a website, and erected an “Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage” sign at the entrance of Enright Avenue.

At the same time the new group began raising money to purchase and renovate houses on the street that came up for sale, in order to resell them to people who might join the ecovillage. Working with a friendly investor who loans them investment capital at a low 3 percent interest, and only purchasing houses cheap enough for an investor to buy, over the years they bought, renovated, and resold 10 houses to new ecovillage residents.
Over time increasing numbers of original neighbors began participating as well. The ecovillagers organized a recycling and composting project (which influenced Cincinnati to later begin a city-wide recycling program), created a tool-sharing group, and often helped each other with gardening and construction projects. Some added a greenhouse to their home; others installed solar water-heating panels on their roofs.
In 2008 the group began the Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage CSA farm, comprised of land in various members’ back yards and some of the 36-acre Imago Earth property. Now, with 40-60 members and 1.5 acres under cultivation, the CSA offers dozens of different varies of vegetables over a six-month period, and is run by two full-time farmers and two interns.

“About a third of the households on the street — about 40-60 people — now actively participate in the ecovillage,” says Jim Schenk. “Another third participate less actively. And while the rest of our neighbors don’t participate, they don’t oppose what we’re doing either. And most people here know almost all their neighbors, at least by sight.”
The ecovillage is governed by a four-member elected board, along with the chairperson of each committee. They make decisions by consensus. The communication committee, for example, publishes the website and a newsletter, hosts presentations and workshops for potential interested members, and conducts monthly neighborhood tours.
Recently several households within easy walking distance started participating in the ecovillage as well. These folks live on two short streets that dead-end at the back of the Imago Earth property. Two households out of six-household from one street now participate, and seven households of the fourteen households on the other street.
When I visited Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage in July, 2014, people waved from porches not far from the sidewalk and children playing in the middle of the street, moving out of the way for the occasionally passing car. I saw a greenhouse and solar panels. I heard birdsong, chattering squirrels, the wind rustling in the huge trees in people’s yards, and the cries of children playing happily. I was in in the heart a large city, and it sure felt congenial and peaceful.
Currently a new committee, the Green Group, is working to get the community’s green space certified as a National Wildlife Community, although it would be the smallest certified wildlife community in the country. Nevertheless, their 200 acres of green space — consisting of the cemetery, Imago Earth’s 36 acres, the three largest homesites (11 acres, 5 acres, and 4 acres respectively), parts of many neighbors’ back yards, and all the woods, are home to deer, fox, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, chipmunks, and many species of local and migratory birds, including geese, swans, ducks, herons, hawks, falcons, and owls.
“Once several people even saw a mountain lion,” says Jim.
How could a create-it-in-our-neighborhood urban ecovillage with woods, a hiking trail, a large and successful CSA farm, a friendly investor, abundant wildlife, and the occasional visiting mountain lion do anything but succeed?

Continue to read about N St. Cohousing, Central Valley, California: http://news.ecovillage.org/en/node/4923