Description. It was the coming of the railroads?specifically the freight line linking Cleveland and Pittsburgh?followed by the extension in the 1860s and ?70s of streetcar lines along Kinsman Road and Woodland Avenue that brought about the development of this area, as factories sprang up south of Woodland along East 79 th Street. Housing and retail had to be developed quickly for the workers who flowed into the area to apply for jobs. The neighborhood developed as a number of individual residential enclaves interspersed along the rail lines and industrial districts.
Assets. Among the neighborhood’s most significant assets are:
- service from both RTA’s Red and Blue/Green Line rapid transit lines
- nearby access to Interstate 490
- a number of industrial employers such as the Orlando Baking Company
- the Ken Johnson Recreation Center
- the Marion Motley Playfield which occupies a portion of the Kingsbury Run Valley
Challenges. Among the challenges faced by the Kinsman neighborhood today are:
- deteriorated housing conditions and large areas of vacant lots
- incompatibility between railroads and residential
- industrial brownfield sites which need clean-up before redeveloping
- illegal dumping on vacant sites
- roadways whose width and turning radii do not easily accommodate industrial traffic and access to the interstate system
- outdated and unattractive retail buildings at East 93 rd and Kinsman
Vision. Rebuild the neighborhood offering greater amenities and a variety of housing types to accommodate people with different lifestyles and various levels of income. Among the development opportunities and initiatives proposed for Kinsman are the following:
- development of housing and community center on vacant land off of Kinsman between Laisy and St. Catherine
- construct a new shopping plaza at the southwest corner of East 93 rd and Kinsman
- construct a new mini-shopping plaza along Kinsman between East 72 nd and East 75 th
- construct Opportunity Blvd. to open up access to the Forgotten Triangle area
- development of vacant and underutilized land west of the Hemisphere site
- reconstruction of the Sidaway Bridge over the Kingsbury Run Valley
- use open space and underutilized land in the Kingsbury Run Valley for trail development
Printable version: can be downloaded here.
Maps (current as of May 2007): Assets, Development Opportunities, Land Use (existing and proposed), and Retail Strategies are available here. (PDF)
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