This image comes from Mark J. Burrows, a physical scientist at the Great Lakes Regional Office of the International Joint Commission.
To submit an image for consideration for Great Lakes Echo’s Photo Friday feature, send the image, a caption and your name to greatlakesecho@gmail.com. Put Photo Friday in the subject line.

Faced with unoccupied land and a scarcity of fresh, healthy foods, Detroit is reviving its tradition of urban agriculture. But this time, an entrepreneur has proposed for-profit commercial farming instead of non-profit experiments.

A Wisconsin city looks to job creation as a motivation for brownfield redevelopment. Racine hopes to eliminate contaminated urban sites and attract jobs with the help of a $1 million federal grant.

Great Lakes cities recycle brownfields into urban hope
Abandoned urban lots are community eyesores that increasingly represent economic opportunity.These so-called brownfields carry social ills, but finding a way to reuse them is more important than ever. Local officials tap jobs programs, private investment, bond sales, tax incentives, cultural history and other measures for what might be the ultimate city recycling projects.
Buffalo’s industrial past linked to economic future
The Lake Erie shore is scarred here with remnants of another time. But amidst the eyesores is evidence of Buffalo’s exciting future. Eight …

As traditional brownfield redevelopment funds dwindle, state and local officials seek creative public measures and private investment to finance new uses of urban land – like jump-starting a Midwest movie industry.

The Fort Piqua Hotel hosted three U.S. presidents, rallies for Women’s Suffrage and Prohibition and some of the first Civil Rights sit-ins. That past ensured its future. In Ohio, most brownfield sites are razed. The Fort Piqua Hotel is unusual.

To enter a submission to Great Lakes Echo Photo Friday, send your photo, a caption and your name to greatlakesecho@gmail.com.

The nation’s largest urban solar plant is built on a Chicago industrial site once contaminated by lead paint. It’s part of an alternative energy trend: Using abandoned urban properties to generate power where people live.

The shores of Lake Erie here are scarred with remnants of another time. But amidst the eyesores is evidence of Buffalo’s exciting future. Eight wind turbines hint at a broader redevelopment driven by diverse motivations. Local officials are using the past to prepare for the future and revive a city from economic shock.

Abandoned urban lots are community eyesores that increasingly represent economic opportunity.

These so-called brownfields carry a lot of social ills, but finding a way to reuse them is more important than ever.