Mansfield Frazier at the Vineyards of Château Hough in Cleveland
Last April I was in Cleveland writing a story about City Councilman Joe Cimperman and the city's vigorous urban gardening movement. While everyone else around the city was taking vacant lots and turning them into high-yield vegetable gardens or community orchards (awesome enough!), Mansfield Frazier, a reformed ex-con who lived in the hard-hit neighborhood of Hough, has reclaimed a weed-choked lot near his house and turned it into a vineyard. (Nevermind that he knew nothing about vineyard management or wine-making. "I tell people I'm an expert at taking a cork out of the bottle," Frazier, a devoted wine aficionado, told me.) As I interviewed urban farmers, restaurant owners, and city officials, Frazier's name kept popping up. So I decided to pay him a visit.
Though it's less than a mile from the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, Hough is a poor neighborhood with lots of boarded-up homes and empty lots. It's the kind of place where teenage boys saunter across a busy street without looking to see if a car is coming. So it was surprising—and delightful—to come across a meticulously groomed vineyard on the corner of East 66th and Hough Ave. As I sat on a bench with Frazier, chatting with him about his ambitious plans for the neighborhood (which include a bio-cellar, a wine bar, and possibly even an indoor fish farm), half a dozen people honked as they drove by, waving or giving an enthusiastic thumb's up.
I immediately pitched Frazier and his vineyard to O: the Oprah Magazine. My article is in the November issue, page 46.
The boarded-up Victorian in the background will soon be a biocellar
Comments