{"id":21,"date":"2025-07-28T18:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T18:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/?post_type=front-matter&p=21"},"modified":"2025-08-04T16:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:33:08","slug":"acknowledgements","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/front-matter\/acknowledgements\/","title":{"rendered":"Acknowledgements"},"content":{"raw":"The Van Aken District project has been widely reported on and has received both state and national recognition. The City of Shaker Heights maintains a detailed online repository<\/a> of plans, reports, and public documents that were useful in developing this case study. In addition, presentations by Jon Ratner, Joyce Braverman, former Mayor Earl Leiken, and current Mayor David Weiss during a 2023 site visit with Levin School graduate students provided valuable firsthand insight. Tania Menesse\u2019s 2016 article<\/a> in Economic Development Journal<\/em> also served as an important resource.\r\n\r\nThis case study was a collaborative effort shaped by multiple forms of expertise, people, and tools. I served as author, editor, content curator, and prompt engineer with support from the generative AI platform ChatGPT. Feedback from former Mayor Earl Leiken; former Gund Foundation Executive Bob Jaquay; Levin School Senior Lecturer Beth Nagy; Professor and former Levin College Dean Roland Anglin; and Ken Kalynchuk, Director and Principal from Project Management Consultants, LLC. strengthened the final product. Joyce Braverman and the city\u2019s planning department also provided helpful documents, including a detailed breakdown of project funding. I am grateful to them all.\r\n\r\nWhile this case celebrates many successes of the Van Aken District, I also tried to keep a balanced perspective. Where relevant, the case acknowledges community concerns and the broader context of interlocal and retail development competition.","rendered":"

The Van Aken District project has been widely reported on and has received both state and national recognition. The City of Shaker Heights maintains a detailed online repository<\/a> of plans, reports, and public documents that were useful in developing this case study. In addition, presentations by Jon Ratner, Joyce Braverman, former Mayor Earl Leiken, and current Mayor David Weiss during a 2023 site visit with Levin School graduate students provided valuable firsthand insight. Tania Menesse\u2019s 2016 article<\/a> in Economic Development Journal<\/em> also served as an important resource.<\/p>\n

This case study was a collaborative effort shaped by multiple forms of expertise, people, and tools. I served as author, editor, content curator, and prompt engineer with support from the generative AI platform ChatGPT. Feedback from former Mayor Earl Leiken; former Gund Foundation Executive Bob Jaquay; Levin School Senior Lecturer Beth Nagy; Professor and former Levin College Dean Roland Anglin; and Ken Kalynchuk, Director and Principal from Project Management Consultants, LLC. strengthened the final product. Joyce Braverman and the city\u2019s planning department also provided helpful documents, including a detailed breakdown of project funding. I am grateful to them all.<\/p>\n

While this case celebrates many successes of the Van Aken District, I also tried to keep a balanced perspective. Where relevant, the case acknowledges community concerns and the broader context of interlocal and retail development competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"front-matter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-21","front-matter","type-front-matter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/21\/revisions\/215"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/21\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/vanaken\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}