Heritage Amid an Urban Crisis: A Case Study of Cleveland, Ohio's Slavic Village Neighborhood

Cleveland, Ohio's Slavic Village is a shrinking neighborhood within a shrinking city that, in recent years, garnerednational attention as an epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. High vacancy rates, deferred maintenance, vandalism,and low market-values present challenges to neighborhood leaders and policymakers. While demolition hasdominated policy discourses in shrinking cities, Slavic Village's built environment is the tangible manifestationof the community's rich working-class and immigrant heritage. Thus, this research asks: In an era of urbanshrinkage, what role do heritage and historic preservation play in stabilizing or revitalizing shrinking neighborhoods? Drawing on a qualitative case study of Slavic Village, the findings show that neighborhood leaders valueheritage, yet historic fabric is in peril as traditional preservation regulations and incentives are insufficient giventhe scale of devastation. For historic preservation to retain relevance in places like Slavic Village, the professionneeds to consider new, creative, even radical approaches that respond to the challenges of urban shrinkage