Urban Planning and Cleveland's Great Bones with Isaac Robb

Cities don’t forget—their land remembers. In this episode, we speak with Isaac Robb, Chief Urban Program Officer at Western Reserve Land Conservancy, and explore how his organization works to turn Cleveland's vacant and underutilized land into living assets, including neighborhood parks, memorial gardens, and reforestation programs that cool, calm, and reconnect neighborhoods. Hear what Isaac loves most about Cleveland and what surprised him most when first coming here in 2105. 

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy is a land trust known for farmland preservation, but also built a robust urban program from the tragedy of the foreclosure crisis. Programs to reforest the city, create community parks and green spaces, and reconnect residents with the land in their own backyard are improving health and quality of life. 

The Conservancy's urban projects honor community memories and experiences and offer healing and reconnection by planning guided by environmental justice, public health, and the power of place. Join us to hear about the people who founded this work and those who shepherd it today, and the many ways to be a part of this transformative work.  

Learn More:

• About the Conservancy
• Conservancy Projects
• Getting Involved

Transcript

Diane Bickett, Host: 0:04

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the Eco Curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Vickett, and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together, we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn, and live with our community and planet in mind. Hello, friends. We are excited today to be joined by Isaac Robb, who is the Chief Urban Program Officer for Western Reserve Land Conservancy. Now you may think of farmland preservation when you think of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, but their work in urban areas is just as robust and having real impact by improving tree canopy, creating community green spaces, and transforming vacant and underused land to create safe and beautiful neighborhoods. Now I was able to see seven of their completed projects last summer when I participated in the Conservancy's Urban Conservation Tour. And there are several more projects in the works. So please stay with us and hear how the Land Conservancy is working to create healthy urban spaces that improve quality of life and health for Clevelanders. Welcome, Isaac.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 1:11

Thank you so much for having me.

Diane Bickett, Host: 1:13

Yeah, thanks for joining us. Now I want to start with kind of your background because you're not a Cleveland native. You were born in Oregon, grew up on the Oregon coast. Lucky you. And then you wound your way, wound your way here through Seattle, I think, and Cornell and Hong Kong. And here you are in Cleveland and when 2015 is when you arrived. That's correct.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 1:40

It's been a decade.

Diane Bickett, Host: 1:41

A decade. Well, welcome. And I'm curious about what surprised you most when you got here.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 1:49

I think Cleveland has a very outsized national reputation for the size of the city. And having never lived in a former industrial legacy U.S. city, I didn't really know what to expect. And what really surprised me was, you know, people like to say that Cleveland's the homes have great bones, but I think the city really has great bones, whether it's the architecture, the pre-automobile neighborhoods, uh the access to the lake and all of the natural resources. That was something, you know, I wasn't anticipating when I came here. And then what's really kept me here is just the strength of the communities that we get to work and live and play with. I'm a resident of Ohio City. I've lived here most of the time that I've been in Cleveland. And just the people are so authentic, hardworking, and we absolutely love it.

Diane Bickett, Host: 2:43

Yeah, awesome. Well, I would totally agree with all of that. So you're an urban planner. Can you talk a little bit about your role at the Conservancy?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 2:52

Yeah. So the Land Conservancy is a staff of about 50, and I'm happy to be part of the minority that we're not all urban planners. We have a very diverse set of professional background, you know, wetland ecologist, biologist, GIS professionals, finance attorneys. And I'm one of two folks on staff that have a background in urban planning. So I think it provides a really nice kind of generalist perspective on how regions interact and systems thinking, but we're not kind of preaching to the choir all the time with everyone's unique backgrounds.

Diane Bickett, Host: 3:30

Yeah. Well, I was surprised to learn that the Conservancy operates in 29 different counties in Ohio. So you're very big. Just a few stats that I'd like to throw out, if I may. In addition to serving 29 counties, the Conservancy has preserved 78,843 acres of farmland, or of land, I should say, and created 20,741 acres of parks. And that's not all here in Cleveland, but you know, you're getting there. So your mission is to conserve, connect, and sustain. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 4:12

Yeah, so I think you hit on a few, and I I trust that your stats are correct. I got them on the website. Yeah, yeah. The website's always always updated. The history of the land conservancy starts like a lot of traditional land trusts. We are part of the land trust alliance, which is a national organization. We are accredited through that. There are thousands of land trusts throughout the country. But we recognized pretty early on that in order to have the maximum benefit, we not only needed to grow in a sustainable way. And that's what led to a merger of eight smaller land trusts in 2006 to sort of create what is now the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, but it's really meeting people where they're at. So it is conserving natural areas, working farms. It's connecting, though, to each of those communities. One thing I really appreciate about Ohio is it's such a microcosm of the US. And both politically, demographically, there are a lot of really interesting dynamics, especially around people's connection with land. And people that live in sort of the rural countryside have deep histories and legacies with the land, but so do people that live in our cities. They might interact with it differently, but that passion and connection to place is very strong. So that's really the connect aspect of it. And then sustain is we make promises to landowners and to communities for these spaces to be conserved natural areas in perpetuity. And so we need to make sure that we are sustaining our organization not for the next five, 10, or 50 years, but for the next 200 years, to make sure that the promises we're making today will be upheld long after all of us are gone.

Diane Bickett, Host: 5:51

Wow. That's that's super cool work. So do you want to say anything about you know, your the work that you're doing in the city is really building on work of others. Do you want to name some names?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 6:07

Always happy to name drop in Cleveland. Yes, our urban program, what we call Thriving Communities for our Urban Team, started in 2011 and it was founded by former county treasurer Jim Rakakis. And he put together a really phenomenal team. And many of the people I still consider my mentors today, people like Frank Ford, Jay Westbrook, Robin Thomas, and our late great friend and colleague Jackie Gillen were some of our early colleagues, as well as Kate Hidock and numerous other people that really, I remember when I started as an intern in 2015, I was pretty far and away the youngest person on the urban team. But learning about the history of the place and the its people, those folks really set us on a trajectory for success. And then as people transitioned into retirement or different work opportunities or life obligations, Matt Zone stepped in. He took the helm of our organization. And all throughout this time, we were growing and evolving in different ways, especially with our urban program. Both, you know, it was really founded out of a response for the foreclosure crisis and creating county land banks statewide. And while that work is not done and we still have a lot of things to tackle, our work has evolved to be more of the greening and the neighborhood stabilization, and especially with our reforestation program.

Diane Bickett, Host: 7:39

I remember back during the foreclosure crisis, the county created a demolition program that took down thousands of homes in Cleveland, which begged the question what do we do with all this vacant land? So I understand that's part of what you're doing is is doing an inventory of parcels that are either vacant or underutilized to create more green spaces for for residents. Is that correct?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 8:08

That is, and I appreciate you bringing that up because that was one of the surprises and what led me to Cleveland was Jim Rakakis came to my graduate student seminar to speak on legacy cities and the foreclosure crisis. I completed my undergraduate studies in 2008, so the foreclosure crisis really has been this through line in my professional experience, and it really resonated with me. And he said, again, this was over 10 years ago now. I don't know what's going to happen with all the vacant land, but I do know we cannot sustain a city and a community with all these vacant and abandoned properties and all of the really negative impacts that it has. And so it's interesting that I feel that that baton has been passed, that they were the folks we worked with and people in different civic institutions in 2006 through 2013, 14, 15 were really in emergency response mode. And now we have to be really strategic in figuring out ways to plan and have land use strategies that reflect the demographic conditions that we have in our city right now.

Diane Bickett, Host: 9:24

I think too people are more spread out in Cleveland because you have a house and then you might have a few vacant parcels around. So there is isn't as cohesive. How are you working, or how do you see people accessing their natural surroundings and how are you working to foster a connection with the land in the inner city?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 9:45

Yeah, this again, everything is sort of an iterative process. And Sandra Albro was working at Holden Forest and Gardens at the time, and she had this fantastic program called Vacant to Vibrant, actually wrote a book about this exact topic. How can this land that has been left behind as people have moved and have left our urban core, how can it be a true resource for the people that still live here? And that spatial mismatch that you said, where you had a few vacant parcels on a lot and then a handful of occupied structures, it actually looks like some of the historic map from around 1920 in some of these Cleveland neighborhoods. I'm thinking Mount Pleasant, Union Miles, as the first sort of wave of immigration was coming. And so whether it's green stormwater infrastructure, whether it's kind of naturalizing these spaces, I think there are a lot of ways to approach this, but you have to start with listening because the land really holds these community stories. And a lot of times there are moments of significant trauma. And if you remember growing up on a street, and maybe you went to your neighbor's house for a barbecue a few times every summer, and now that neighbor moved away and that house has been demolished, there's a natural and an understandable desire, you know, to have more people move back to see occupied homes like you might have remembered it. So I think it's it's really meeting people where they're at and recognizing that, you know, in a city that has a very diminished tree canopy that doesn't have access to high-quality green space for everyone in every neighborhood. What is our role as a land trust in bridging that divide between people and place in a very urban context?

Diane Bickett, Host: 11:44

So I assume you're working with community organizations, community members. When you talk about honoring the past, several of the prod projects that we were touring through the Urban Conservation Tour kind of spoke to that with the Garden of Eleven Angels. You want to talk about some of those projects and how how you're kind of meeting that mission?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 12:06

Yes, and back to some of that historic kind of leadership we had in the organization. I'm thinking of Jay and Jackie. They were so well connected and had such deep relationships in different neighborhoods throughout our city. And so a lot of our projects, in fact, all of our projects, they aren't necessarily conceived by staff at the land conservancy. These are really ideas that have come about through those neighborhood-based organizations or residents themselves. So the Garden of Eleven Angels is, I would argue, probably the most important thing I've ever worked on. It's on Imperial Avenue and the site of a really horrific series of events that resulted in the loss of life of 11 women. And not only was it incredibly traumatic for those families and the victims themselves, but also for the community. And so through Jackie's leadership in partnership with Burton Belcar, the local community development corporation, faith-based leaders in that neighborhood, family members and others, Jackie was invited for us to participate with Land Studio and a handful of other sort of civic partners to design and create a space for the remembrance of the women that lost their lives. Not only that, but also as a memorial to all women who have suffered from sexual violence and create a space that honors that traumatic history, but also being a community space where people feel comfortable to gather and spend time and reflect.

Diane Bickett, Host: 13:56

Some of the other places mature that if you want to maybe just say a thing about a thing or two about would be the Derrick Owens Memorial Park, the Thurgood Marshall Green, the Brighton Park. There's just a lot a lot of good stuff happening.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 14:11

Yes, thanks for bringing those up. The Derek Owens Memorial Garden was sorry, not Garden Memorial Park, was again something that came about out of a community tragedy when Officer Owens was responding to a call that a neighbor made about some illegal activity occurring in actually a vacant, abandoned garage. He responded and was killed in the line of duty. And through a partnership with the St. Luke's Foundation, who's been a great supporter of ours over the years, as well as Land Studio and the Cleveland Police Foundation, this remembrance park was created not only on that site, but on the two adjacent parcels as well. And David Wilson from Land Studio did a great job leading that design work, working with the Cuyahoga Land Bank, who has partnered with us on pretty much all the projects we're going to talk about. They were able to help get the land. And then the Cleveland Police Foundation actually owns the park, maintains it with volunteers, and it's just an immaculate place and really pays a great honor to someone who gave their life to the community doing and working in a neighborhood that they grew up in and cared deeply about.

Diane Bickett, Host: 15:24

Good work by David Wilson, who was on this podcast a couple few years ago when we did our episode with the Black Environmental Leaders.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 15:32

Oh, that's fantastic. And Jackie, who I mentioned was one of the founding members with David and Simeon.

Diane Bickett, Host: 15:38

Yeah. We uh spoke about Jackie.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 15:40

Yeah, she's a legend.

Diane Bickett, Host: 15:42

I never got to meet her, but I it was uh wish I had.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 15:45

There's a great mural of Jackie that everyone can see. Um yeah, on 116th and Kinsman on the side of Henry's Cleaners. She worked with RTA and and other local uh residents and business owners to get a transit waiting area, a bus stop. We did a tree planting and a garden, and then after her passing, there's a beautiful mural there. So you can always see her smiling face. Oh, that's awesome. Even if you didn't get to meet her. Yeah.

Diane Bickett, Host: 16:10

I will have to check that out. So the the you have your parks programs. You also have a reforest our city program. Let's let's hear about that.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 16:20

Yeah, Reforest City is something we're really proud of and the growth that it has experienced. It sort of mirrors actually the growth of a tree. It's it's 10 years old this year. We're celebrating its 10th anniversary. And it really started out of a belief that you know trees are a key component and are critical infrastructure. These are something that aren't nice to have. It's something that every community deserves. The research is resounding in the impacts it has on physical, emotional health, and well-being from property values to capturing stormwater to heat helping you know cool your house in the summer from an urban heat island effect. The benefits are just are truly numerous. And so we've thought that that was a great opportunity for us to get more involved. So we launched the Cleveland Tree Plan that was adopted by the Planning Commission in 2015. We are an executive member of the Cleveland Tree Coalition, which is led by Sarah Tilley. We recognize that when Alexa de Tocqueville came to America, he referenced Cleveland as the forest city. And our tree canopy continues to diminish, whether it's in comparison to our suburban peers or peer cities of similar size and kind of economic background. And so, unfortunately, if you look at the tree canopy data and even aerial imagery of Cleveland, you can see the outline of the city of Cleveland's municipal boundary based on its aerial tree canopy. If you go to Buckeye, Woodhill, Mount Pleasant, and then just go over the border to Shaker Heights, the tree canopy drastically changes. And we think that this is an environmental justice issue that has gone unaddressed for far too long. And so we work in a variety of ways. We both plant, not only plant, but maintain trees. That's the real key thing is growing the trees. We also do have a free tree steward training that we offer to Cleveland residents, as well as our Trees for Clea program, where all Cleveland residents can get a free tree to adopt and place on their yards. So we try and again meet people where they're at. And we've to date planted and distributed over 17,000 trees in the city of Cleveland.

Diane Bickett, Host: 18:37

So the tree steward program, you're training Cleveland residents to care for the trees that you've planted?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 18:43

Yes. And the hope is that they are equipped with enough knowledge that if they want to lead a tree planting project or program in their own neighborhood, that they would get the support and the knowledge that they would need to do that. There are grants through Cuyoga County and the Cleveland Tree Coalition to have these types of neighborhood plantings. And some of our most successful tree stewards will obviously come to volunteer at tree planting events, but they also have become leaders in their own communities. And it's one of those models that I think can grow exponentially the more kind of tree stewards we have throughout our city.

Diane Bickett, Host: 19:22

Yeah. I was volunteering for a Cleveland History Days event at the Monroe Cemetery, and there were people all over the cemetery walking around watering the trees that were out there. So maybe those were the same tree stewards or just the cemetery tree stewards, but it was very cool.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 19:40

I actually live on that block. The Monroe Street Cemetery is our neighborhood park. And yes, they have a very active friends of the Monroe Street Cemetery and they take their tree canopy very, very seriously. So yes, they've they've gone through the program and actually have gotten a grant to plant trees there and work with the city. So it's a great partnership, and it's a beautiful cemetery if anyone finds themselves in Ohio City.

Diane Bickett, Host: 20:03

Yeah, there's some cool dead people there.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 20:05

Very cool.

Diane Bickett, Host: 20:06

What what what time of year should people be looking out for the trainings and that you're offering in the free trees?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 20:13

We're revamping the tree steward training schedule to try and open it up to more folks. Gen Giles on our team has done a great job of kind of figuring out like a lot of things. We went from in-person training pre-COVID to doing more limited engagements. And online learning is great. It provides a much larger scale, but there also is something really important about being in person, especially if you're learning how to plant and prune a tree. So Jen's coming up with some really innovative ways of having the tree steward program being open more, but usually the tree steward training occurs in February, with our tree planting seasons being in the fall and the spring. So we're actually still out planting right now before the ground completely freezes, and we'll be back out there probably next March planting again. So Tom, Devin, Anna, Jen, the whole ROC program and the seasonal staff are just fantastic.

Diane Bickett, Host: 21:11

Awesome. So I want to circle back to an interview we did in July. No, it was April, I think, with Renee Baranka, who is also with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. It was about the Cleveland, the children's outdoor bill of rights. And she worked with kids from, I think it was John Marshall High School to create a list of things that the kids felt they wanted, whether it was to be able to camp outside or, you know, play in safe neighborhoods and things like that. And it was adopted by the Cleveland City Council, I think, around Earth Day. And I know you're doing a lot of work with kind of measuring and tracking health outcomes for children and in the work you're doing. Can you talk about the Metro Health project a little bit?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 22:04

Yeah, that Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights is something really exciting for not only our organization, but the entire city. That's something that Renee and Matt championed for a really long time. Other cities have adopted something similar through the National League of Cities support. And I think how that connects to our work is really around that human health aspect of it. And that it's not just about creating a healthy environment for the environment's sake, it's also about human health. And so we were working closely with partners from Metro Health, Cleveland Clinic, and Case Western Reserve University, Chrissy Wells, Ellen Matlock, and Tim Dean from our team, amongst many others. Ellen wrote this fantastic grant that got funded through the Office of Minority Health through the U.S. federal government. And this allows us to continue to do our work on vacant land through our Reforce Our City program, our legal dumping prevention, which is something that we're really proud of as well. But what we haven't had is sort of that academic research-based evaluation partner. And obviously, with those institutions, that brings a level of horsepower to the evaluation research side that we would never have as a relatively small land trust. And so that's something that over the next four years we're going to be working in Huff, St. Clair Superior, Buckeye Woodhill, and did I say Glenville? I don't know if I said Glenville yet. Glenville. Those are the four neighborhoods where we'll be doing a lot of vacant lot interventions, a lot of targeted reforestation work. And then those research partners are really going to track the health data. They're doing some really innovative stuff over there.

Diane Bickett, Host: 23:52

Well, like, can you give us some examples of what they're tracking?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 23:55

Yeah. So we're really focused on active lifestyles as well as elevated blood pressure. And what's fantastic about what they're doing is because they all work for these large healthcare institutions, they have an enormous amount of health data and records. But because those need to be protected for privacy reasons, obviously, what they're able to do is remove the identification and identities for all of this data and then run what is called a digital twin to create essentially a like a sim city of people, these synthetic populations that our interventions then can be measured about. So while they won't have actual names, we'll be able to identify underlying health conditions and neighborhood demographics to be able to track these changes. We're doing walking tours and narratives with residents to do sort of a pretest where a group, the Curtis Lab out of case, will do these walking geo-narratives to get a sense of where people feel safe, improvements that can be made. We'll then go out with other sets of residents to see which places need to have the most interventions and improvements, and then working with community groups on the implementation of that.

Diane Bickett, Host: 25:08

Wow, that's really cool. That's very cool. That's really cool. So the use of data to inform your work is really important. You're also doing vacant land and property inventories. Is that to help assemble parcels for parks and things like that? Or or what?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 25:26

Yeah, we like to say that data doesn't make us smarter, but it keeps us more informed. And those property inventories is actually what I started out doing as an intern. So in 2015, we inventory with a team of 16 every parcel in the city of Cleveland. That's over 167,000 parcels. In 2018, we updated that data for the 13 neighborhoods on the east side. And then in 2022, going into 2023, working with Director Sally Martin and building and housing in the city of Cleveland, we updated the entire citywide inventory. And so that entailed taking photos of every parcel, answering a series of questions. It could be up to 50. And it would range from is there a structure on the parcel? Is it occupied? Is it vacant? What's the roof condition? Are there missing windows? Is there peeling paint? Obviously, with the lead hazards that our cities continue to fight with. But also, what's the sidewalk condition? Is there a street tree? So with all of that, is there illegal dumping? With all that data, we're able to be a little more strategic in our outreach to residents to make sure that the narratives and the conversations we're having are informed by empirical data.

Diane Bickett, Host: 26:37

Okay. Wow. That's a lot.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 26:41

It's a lot of fun.

Diane Bickett, Host: 26:42

It's a lot of fun. Is there a recent project you want to talk about? I know there is. Yeah.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 26:48

If you haven't been there, you got to go there. The newest park in the city of Cleveland, the Thurgood Marshall Green. This is a project that our team has been working on for over four years. Tim Deem, Khalid Ali, again, Chrissy Wells, Matt Zone, a bunch of people have worked on this. This is a former elementary school, the John W. Raper School site in the Huff neighborhood. It's directly adjacent to the Thurgood Marshall Rec Center. We went through a community design process just coming out of COVID. And this really came about through an RFP the city of Cleveland put out for sort of surplus lands and properties. And this had been demolished around 2010, 2011 and was a two and a half acre site that was just mowed grass. And so we were working with the CDC, the councilperson at the time, and then some really fantastic local leaders, Jamel at Village Family Farms, Mickey at Little African Food Co-op, and others to go through a design process for this green space. And the result was working with City Architecture and Andrew Sargent at Layer Cake to take these concept designs and turn them into construction drawings that we could then fundraise for to create a park adjacent to this rec center. So the play equipment is out of this world. I wish I had stuff to play on like that when I was a kid. We got a state capital budget request, a federal earmark, sustain our great lakes. I mean, the the funding sources, I think we're over 16 and got some really transformational private philanthropic gifts that really allowed us to do to do that work.

Diane Bickett, Host: 28:44

Wow. Really making an impact.

Greg Rotuno, Producer: 28:47

Probably going to be a lot of vacant land in the coming years through CMSD.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 28:52

That is correct.

Greg Rotuno, Producer: 28:53

Yeah.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 28:54

Yes, we are actively working with our civic partners on that. The recent announcement that they and I can't remember the name of the initiative, like Build Better Together, Brighter Future.

Diane Bickett, Host: 29:08

The closing schools, right?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 29:10

Closing and consolidating schools. And so again, from a land use planning standpoint, this is we talk about land holding memories. Well, schools are some of our most prized public institutions. And if you're a young parent that sends the kids to one of these schools, if you're a teacher, if you remember going to that school or you have maybe had a family member that worked there, I mean, this is a significant change. But given the declining birth rates and just the demo demographic shifts, it seems like that this is a responsible, yet really difficult decision that's going to be made. And we're happy to partner with the city, CMSD, and others on figuring out how to kind of adaptively reuse. Cleveland has such a rich history, and people are so proud of it, and rightfully so. And so it's how do you simultaneously honor the past? While working towards a future that is more inclusive and beneficial for everyone, both those of us that live here, but also the people that maybe are going to move here or be born here.

Diane Bickett, Host: 30:12

Wow. That's a great quote to wrap with. Perfect. But is there is there anything else you want people to know about or ways to support the conservancy?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 30:26

Yeah, I think land trusts in general are a really important, powerful tool that have been around. We're still in, I would say, like the nascent stages as an industry, but there are plenty of ways to get involved wherever you live in that 29-acre geographic service area, like I mentioned. Renee runs a fantastic educational programming. I think she should just be.

Diane Bickett, Host: 30:46

Oh, 29 County, you mean?

Isaac Robb, Guest: 30:47

29 County. Thank you. Thanks for clarifying. Yeah. Renee just ran an owl banding field trip excursion. I saw that. I'm sorry, I missed it. Yeah, there are webinars on vultures. You can do tours with bats or berry picking. So Renee leads a lot of really fantastic educational programming. But the tree steward training, like I mentioned, we do a lot of volunteer tree plantings and tree maintenance. So if you want to grab a water bucket during the summer and get some really significant exercise and understand how hard it is to not only plant but to grow trees in a place like Cleveland, you're always more than welcome to do that. And we even have some volunteer land managers and stewards that make sure that all of our conservation easements are being monitored properly and that the land is in its natural condition and is not being encroached upon. There are a lot of ways to get involved.

Diane Bickett, Host: 31:42

Yeah. And often you have employment opportunities too. So you have a staff of 50, but I think you're continually growing.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 31:49

So and I would just say there's a need for a diverse skill set. So whether you're an expert in finance or fundraising, GIS, legal, we have a lot of internships, we have a lot of seasonal employment as well. And that's a great way to just see if this type of work is what you're interested in. You know, some people love working outside, other people would prefer, you know, maybe to sit at a desk in air conditioning, but we have something for everybody.

Diane Bickett, Host: 32:16

Yeah. And you have two offices. One is your main campus, I think, in Moreland Hills by the Metro Parks Polo Field, and then your your office downtown.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 32:25

Yeah, we also have a couple satellite offices in Oberlin and Medina that go back to our early days with the merger. So we we have a pretty large geographic footprint. We just moved into a new tree house in the flats, which is really going to allow our ROC program to expand and grow in in exciting ways. So we'll have to get you down there.

Diane Bickett, Host: 32:44

Please. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Well, thank you, Isaac, so much for this interview and all the good work you're doing. I'm really exciting to follow and see what happens next.

Isaac Robb, Guest: 32:55

Thanks for uh sharing everyone's story. Absolutely. Thanks for keeping me.

Greg Rotuno, Producer: 33:00

Sorry about my stupid dog. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of EcoSpeaks DLE. You can find our full catalog of episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes are available the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please follow EcoSpeaks CLE on Facebook and Instagram and become part of the conversation. If you would like to send us feedback and suggestions, or if you'd like to become a sponsor of EcoSpeaks CLE, you can email us at hello at ecospeaksle.com. Stay tuned for more important and inspiring stories to come.