Each year the City of Rochester tears down numerous abandoned houses and produces empty lots at a cost of around $10,000 each.  Since the  boarded up homes are eyesores and targets for vandalism and arson, the neighborhood is often better off seeing empty lots take their place.  Sometimes the neighbors contract with the city to use the lots for gardening and put them to good use for food production during the summer months.

On January 15, 2014 the SWCC Education Committee reviewed the PLEX C.A.M.P.U.S. proposal that would, amongst various things, promote setting up an aquaponics facility in the area near School 19, the Gandhi House and The Flint Street Community Center.  While one of the objectives is the production of healthy food year-round in and urban food desert, it would also provide needed jobs for youth in the area.   In particular this would make good use of students returning from the State School at Industry.  Students at Industry are currently receiving training as aquaponics technicians at the state-of-the-art facility that has been set up at Industry in the past two years. 

It occurred to me after re-posting information from Judi Baker about the benefits of an "Underground Greenhouse" that we are overlooking the value of the cellars of the homes we are demolishing.  These could provide low cost sites for very economical to operate greenhouses that could house a aquaponic facilities.

Just taking a quick Google maps drive down Frost Avenue found this possible location:  https://www.google.com/maps/@43.143774,-77.63333,3a,75y,212.14h,94.... .  The picture is probably one or two years old, but shows two boarded up houses next to an empty lot on the south side of Frost Avenue across from the Wilson Foundation Academy.  If these are city property this might be one of many possible sites. 

Instead of creating empty lots and wasting the valuable foundations, the wooden frame houses would be remove and the cellar holes cleaned out.  The aquaponics technicians would then move in and build the greenhouse and assemble the aquaponics facility inside.  A fence would be put around the cellar hole greenhouse to prevent dogs or kids from damaging the greenhouse roofs which would be made of polycarbonate.  The rest of the lot would be more accessible to let neighbors plant community gardens in the summer.  Security lights and cameras on the neighboring houses would help keep the greenhouses secure from vandalism as would the extensive instrumentation that would remotely monitor the operation of the of the greenhouse system: temperature, Ph, water level, etc.  The instrumentation would be constantly monitored at a central location connected to the greenhouses via internet.  A good overview of what this could involve can be seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wWTadsBDA

The sketch below shows an elevation of the cellar facility as seen from the east side.