Take a stand for better transportation options in Cleveland. You are invited to testify at tomorrow’s NOACA Board meeting about why a bike and pedestrian path on the new $450 million Innerbelt Bridge is so clearly wanted and needed. GreenCityBlueLake Institute, ClevelandBikes, Ohio City Bike Co-Op, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, EarthDay Coalition and others will present a design and facts (such as, how it works in 30 communities across the country) for ODOT and NOACA to consider.

Letters of support for a beautiful and scenic bike and pedestrian space on the new bridge are pouring in every day to GreenCityBlueLake. The following excerpt is from a letter sent by Ryan McKenzie, founder and President of CityWheels. It informs NOACA that advocates have been pushing ODOT for more than four years on this issue, and ends with a direct request for NOACA to adopt a new vision for the bridge… (go to article)

More than 100 advocates rallied for a bike and pedestrian path on the new Innerbelt Bridge yesterday, signing letters of support and calling on decision makers to adopt the design for a multi-modal bridge that serves all Clevelanders.

U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich addressed the crowd, promising to take their fight to Washington and Columbus. Rep. Kucinich presented a letter he wrote to Governor Strickland. In it, he insists:

…There is no reason not to provide a separate roadway for pedestrians and cyclists within the architecture of the bridge…Providing access for non-motorized traffic would enhance the Innerbelt Bridge by making it multi-modal and enabling more people to have access to neighborhoods the bridge connects… (go to article)

A message brought to you from GreenCityBlueLake, Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, Cleveland Bikes and Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative:

“The Ohio Department of Transportation plans to build a new, $450 million I-90 bridge through downtown Cleveland.  Although all of us should be able to use it, the existing plans do not include pedestrian and cyclist access.  We need your help to change this.”

“Thirty highway bridges across the U.S. have safe and attractive bike and pedestrian amenities on them.  It can happen in Cleveland with your input.”

Let your public officials know you support access for all on the new bridge.  Here are three ways you can help:

1. Learn more about the issue, including important public hearings and who to contact, by logging on to www.gcbl.org/innerbelt
2. Send your comments in support to bridge@greencitybluelake.org and we’ll forward them to decision makers.
3. Or call ODOT Innerbelt Project Manager Craig Hebebrand at (216) 581-2100.

This is not just another road building project, this is an urban redevelopment.  To read more about why bicyclist and pedestrian access to this bridge is critical for creating a more sustainable Cleveland, and for a history of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s fight against the community’s request for a separated bike/pedestrian lane on the bridge, I highly recommend that you read GreenCityBlueLake’s articles on the subject.

We need your help to support this once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve Cleveland’s inner city quality of life and sustainability.

To get a better idea of what this might look like with your help, here are some images provided by the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative:

Concept of bike and pedestrian access on new Innerbelt Bridge in Cleveland. Bikes and pedestrians would be separated by a 17 foot breakdown lane and a concrete barrier. Sketch shows potential to include stormwater management on the bridge structure itself.

One of the initial concepts on how bikes and pedesrians could be accommodated on the new bridge.

Percentage of households without an automobile (2000 Census data). Note that on both ends of the bridge the high % of households that don’t own a car. Data from NEOCANDO.

Initial sketch of bike and pedestrian accommodation on new Innerbelt bridge.

This is no time to think small about the possibilities for transportation in Ohio. 

A bike/pedestrian path on the Innerbelt Bridge would not only make Cleveland a more attractive city to tourists–as the Golden Gate Bridge has done for San Francisco and as the Cooper River Bridge has done in Charleston, SC–it would also improve the quality of life for residents who would be able to walk or bike up the Towpath Trail directly into downtown Cleveland.

Not to mention that creating additional infrastructure to support walking and biking would promote healthier lifestyles, increase the number of people walking around in Cleveland and lower carbon emissions.

Since Cleveland has already committed to becoming a more sustainable city, creating a bike lane on a bridge seems like an obvious choice.

ClevelandBikes, the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, GreenCityBlueLake Institute, theKent State Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and others are developing a plan for a cycling and pedestrian lane on the proposed I-90 bridge, from Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood to downtown Cleveland. So far, Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has refused to consider accommodating all Clevelanders, despite strong public support and legal requirements. Access for all on highway bridges is a reality for 30 communities across the United States; it can happen in Cleveland with your support.

A rally to support pedestrian and bike access on the bridge will be held this Sunday, December 6 at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Park in Tremont (W. 14th Street and Kenilworth Avenue). Anyone interested in safe, convenient and healthy car-free access between Downtown and Tremont (and a great scenic overlook of downtown) is invited to attend. The event is free… (go to article)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is making a brave acknowledgement with his proposal that residents pay the true cost of trash. The Mayor is taking fire for proposing to balance the 2010 budget by charging a $9.25 monthly fee per household for trash collection. Although poorer residents will be affected, charging fees for trash may have an unintended environmental benefit if people think about how much trash costs… (go to article)

Ohio’s transit service is experiencing “death by a thousand cuts” including the latest deep slash in service due to the state’s reduced support. Instead of regarding transit as welfare, All Aboard Ohio has a smart plan that boosts transit within and between cities without raising the state budget. The report looks at the millions saved by thousands of state and local government workers using the 3-C instead of government-owned cars. It tallies $80 million generated from an ‘all-Ohio transit pass’—a rail pass paid in the tuition of thousands of university students who benefit by being part of Centers of Excellence, the model of university collaboration envisioned by Gov. Strickland. To see the report and how its innovative funding strategies can be used to ‘save transit in Ohio’ go here... (go to article)

As it stands, NOACA is the only MPO (metropolitan planning organization) along the 3C corridor in Ohio that has not approved adding the 3C project to this region’s transportation improvement plan (TIP). This step is necessary for the project to receive federal funding, and sends a strong message that Northeast Ohio supports passenger rail investment.

Please consider attending NOACA’s Transportation Advisory Committee meeting on Friday, November 20 at 10 am. The public is allowed to sign in before the meeting and provide comments on this project for up to 2 minutes. Please help fill the room with positive comments on how having transportation choices in Northeast Ohio will help you, your family, business, etc. to live and do business in Ohio. And just as important as a statewide train, transit in Ohio’s urban areas needs to be strengthened. All Aboard Ohio has started an advocacy campaign to Save Public Transit… (go to article)

The city reconvened participants from theCleveland 2019 Sustainability Summit yesterday to gauge progress and assess the needs of twenty ‘Outcome Groups’ that formed at the summit in August. Three months later, progress ranges widely—from start-up business being pursued to groups working with existing nonprofits and community development groups to pledges and policy recommendations written and submitted to the city to some groups still searching for guidance… (go to article)

• Cleveland wants to hear from its residents how it should spend tens of millions in federal Community Development Block Grants. Green urbanism advocates can comment here how CDBGs can be used to support, say, the projects envisioned at the 2019 Sustainability Summit or to revive Cleveland’s Safe Routes to School programs, which were not renewed due to lack of funding.
• John McGovern, Clean Fuels Coordinator for Earthday Coalition, blogs about David Pauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Program and an avid bike commuter who helped establish bike parking in many Clinic parking garages. Pauer has a fascinating presentation on how street design can help you lose weight… (go to article)

The city of Cleveland is hosting an important event next Tuesday from 3-5 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewing to continue the momentum of the Cleveland Sustainability 2019 Summit. This is a chance for the 20 working groups that formed at the summit to check in and figure out ways to collaborate with each other.

To participate, email the group representatives who will be reporting out at this event your answers to the following questions… (go to article)

A standing room only crowd of advocates for sustainable urbanism were witnesses at the Cleveland Planning Commissionmeeting last week with half of the people there in support of including bike and pedestrian accommodations on the rebuilt Innerbelt Bridge.

After a year of considering a bike lane on the new Innerbelt Bridge and laying out reasons for it, including attracting a younger generation to Cleveland, members of the planning commission appeared to be split on whether the issue was resolved.  Commission chair Tony Coyne pointed out that the city and ODOT would like Abbey Avenue bridge—the connection between Tremont and Ohio City—widened and adding a 5 ft. bike lane on each side plus two 5 ft. sidewalks… (go to article)

Join advocates of sustainable transportation this Friday (11-6) at the Cleveland Planning Commission hearing, 9-11 a.m. at Cleveland City Hall where ODOT will present ideas on how the Innerbelt Bridge should look and feel. It’s a good opportunity to express your desire for a bridge that’s a source of pride for the community.

GreenCityBlueLake posed the following question to the Ohio Department of Transportation… (go to article)

The Cleveland Design Competition and the recent exhibit, “All you can eat: A buffet of architectural ideas” at The Sculpture Center are evidence that young urban designers are stirring the pot on reusing vacant land and figuring out what makes Cleveland attractive.

“They have made Cleveland a blip on the national architecture/design radar,” Dru McKeown comments at TOI Studios. “To be truly successful it (the need for and exhibition/celebration of thoughtful design strategies and innovative ides) needs to be so overpowering as to be happily annoying… (go to article)

Fifty eight Clevelanders will start re-designing their city this week in ways that reflect a shrinking population and a new mindset that vacant land can be an engine for social, environmental and economic opportunity. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson signed agreements yesterday to invest $449,405 in 58 projects — many from city residents who are interested in urban agriculture and greener land use.

The pilot projects represents a cross-section of only a few hundred of the city’s 3,300 vacant properties, but they are a downpayment on sustainable land-use ideas from the “Reimagine a more sustainable Cleveland” study. Led by Neighborhood Progress, Inc. “ReImagine” is a now nationally recognized study that, with an infusion of federal funds, NPI presented for RFPs at public meetings in seven Cleveland neighborhoods earlier this year… (go to article)

• Why should you attend the annual Bioneers-Cleveland Conference this week? Here are a couple of reasons.
  See Cleveland’s Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) Schoolstudents present their semester-long study on sustainability (Thursday). Hear national leaders such as “Omnivore’s Dilemma” author Michael Pollan and a panel of local experts including local author Michael Ruhlman deliver a progress report on local foods (Friday). And get your highlights all in one place why Cleveland ranks #2 in the nation on local food (have you guessed yet that local food systems are this year’s Bioneers theme?)… (go to article)

Cleveland will have cracked the code on sustainability when it figures out how to correct the course of transportation funding, the biggest flow of dollars into the region, and use it as the engine that spurs neighborhood revitalization. A big test will be in the so-called Opportunity Corridor. The city has expressed interest in a higher design outcome and has hired former councilwoman Stephanie Howse to drive ideas for sustainable business and green infrastructure from the ReImagine a More Sustainable Cleveland study in the Opportunity Corridor. This Thursday and Friday, Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Public Art and CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs will hold two public forums to drive the conversation of “how we can make the most of this moment by exploring how engineering and design can come together to shape the new American city.” Read more about Opportunities in the Opportunity Corridor… (go to article)

Recycling ‘waste’ into profit was a topic discussed by one of twenty outcome groups formed at the 2019 Sustainable Cleveland Summit. The group met for the second time to discuss post-summit ideas last week. E4S staffer Victoria Avi led off with a call for businesses to take a zero waste pledge. E4S’ zero waste network goal is to get 50 businesses to sign up and reduce their waste.

“We want to celebrate the fact that nine local businesses have already signed on,” Avi said. The group identified strategies to reach more businesses including reaching out to traditional media and posting the Zero Waste Challenge on social media sites like Facebook… (go to article)

“We’ve turned the corner,” Andrew Light, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress (CAP), warned about global warming at the Case Baker-Nord Humanities “Cultures of Green” Weekkeynote address on Oct. 22. “We’re not talking about computer models, but observable changes.”

Light’s presentation “Ethics and Climate Change” put the latest science in the framework of policy prescriptions moving through Congress. He left a glimmer of hope that the U.S. is not going to blink facing down the maw of global catastrophe… (go to article)

The Evergreen Cooperative Laundrycelebrates its grand opening today at 4 p.m. It’s an employee-owned business that represents rising interest in an economic model that values building social and environmental as well as personal equity. In the wake of stunning abuses by Washington elites and Wall Street firms from over the counter derivitives to sub-prime mortgages that rocked the very foundations of the global economy, its refreshing to see a Main Street idea capture so much attention… (go to article)

Chris Carmody, formerly president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, is now the director of the Institute for Sustainable Development in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Carmody is spreading the word about Cleveland and connecting us to a national green business effort. Here are his thoughts on the launch of Green Plus in Cleveland.

As a native Clevelander, it’s exciting to see how the sustainability discussion has advanced over the years and really taken off recently. From the early work of the originalGreen Building Coalition, E4S and Green City Blue Lake to initiatives by Mayor Jackson, the Weatherhead School, and the Cleveland and Gund foundations, I’m proud to point to Cleveland as a great example of the sustainability movement as I talk with communities around the country… (go to article)

• Cleveland is competing against the 50 most populous U.S. cities for the SustainLane Local Action Challenge, an awareness campaign before the December 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen. To add points to the city’s score, simply upload a photo and caption of a carbon-lowering step you’re takinghere. (You can also get ideas on what to do at the site).
• A controversial new report from Policy Bridge recommends Cleveland focus on strong neighborhoods while rationing investment in weak areas of town. It rightly points out that no politician in Cleveland has had the strength to pull off a plan that reshapes the city where healthy areas are connected by large greenways. Here’s an excerpt… (go to article)

“The Lake to Lake trail hits all of our issues – conservation of important natural areas, recreation and outdoor education,” explains Cleveland Metroparks Senior Planner, Jim Kastellic, who helped usher the 2.4 mile all-purpose trail in to the Big Creek Reservation this year.

The woodland trail is bookended by duck-and-heron-filled Lake Isaac and the panoramic but marshy Lake Abram, a tributary of the Rocky River, to the north. Linking the two is a ten-foot wide asphalt trail that winds through woodlands, behind residential areas, tunnels under a CSX freight line, and connects to businesses such as the Polaris Vocational Center, where a trail spur connects the students to a covered boardwalk with a view of a huge wetland area… (go to article)

• Stockton Williams of the nation’s largest philanthropic collaborative, Living Cities, recently named Cleveland a leader in sustainability in national blog, Grist.
• The city of Cleveland updated its web site on the follow up to the 2019 Sustainability Summit.
• “We have a cab driver take recruits around the city, its neighborhoods, but mostly downtown. First impressions impact on our ability to attract top talent here. We have found downtown Cleveland to be extremely effective in recruiting, myself included,” David L. DeBord, associate, Jones Day and downtown resident at the City Club New Leaders Using the urban core as a talent attractor program this Thursday… (go to article)

• Former Cleveland Green Building Coalition interim director Melanie Knowles has been hired as Kent State University’s first manager of sustainability. Knowles plans to set long-and short-range goals, such as examining Kent’s recycling programs and participating in an energy-savings competition coordinated by the University System of Ohio for residence halls throughout the state. CompareKent’s sustainability efforts with 12 local colleges, and see GCBL’s Climate Neutral Toolkit.
• One of Cleveland’s local food leaders is being called up to the big leagues. Matt Russell—a staffer at Case’s Center for Health Promotion Research, Director of the Cleveland Corner Store Project and an organizer of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Food Policy Coalition… (go to article)

Folks at the CWRU Weatherhead School of Business are bursting with excitement over the recent hiring of Roger Saillant as executive director of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value. They think they have attracted a sustainability star to Cleveland.

As a recognized authority in renewable energy and sustainability, Saillant has been a pioneer in fuel cells, energy policy, and holistic management techniques, according the university’s announcement. His extensive corporate experience includes seven years as CEO of Plug Power, a cutting-edge fuel cell company. Prior to that, he was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation, and he has worked to open plants and operations in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia… (go to article)