POINT' ·ln$iCle·· PAST THE seedSOf:NT~~~~~~:ovement OF NO. RETURN? o From mastodon.s to maple syrup: ~ The prehistoric landscape ofthe.·Cuyahoga Bioregion o Unfunded mandates are greatly .exaggerated . o S)ripping interestsrequired to help' . testorethe Cuyahoga River o Re-examining the.connections jJetween. sprawl and infrastructure o Bicycle news ' o Bath residentsorgarnze for open space Cleveland needs.regional strategies .. o to stem urban decline Bioregionai Calendar, EGoCity Digest It's taken ·Greater Clevelanders many years to overcome their collective inferiority -.0 complex and begin to call themselves the "Comeback City." So it was hard to listen · GooClWords to David Rusk .when he came to town in December and said that Cleveland may very . well be "past the statistical point of no return. II we. have never.Ie.med; Rusk, the former mayor of Albuquerque, NM, has spent the past few years studying which American cities are succeeding or failing, based on mea~ures of we have forgotten, or poverty and racial segregation. He has found that healthy cities are those with . thafihe environment is the b.sis fot aU life metropolitan governments or other regional approaches for sharing responsibility for and for aU production. urban problems. Failing cities, like Cleveland, have been isolated by their Rather than being an interest competing surrounding suburbs. with other interests for attention, Speaking at the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the City Club, Rusk ·said that Cleveland's lIluch-heralded downtown developments--- . it is in reality the playing field Gateway, the Flats, North Coast Harbor~are making it "a great p'lace for a yuppie on,which all interests compete. lawyer to live. II But such developments have not, and will not alone, rev.erse the ...-,Stephen V iederJ1lan city's alarming slide into urban oblivion. Jessie Smith ;Noyes Foundation Continued on p. 8 HOME AT ECOCITY I Mission Too depressing? EcoCity Cleveland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, educational organization. Through the publication of the "Your stories were so depressing. I felt guilty because this,horrible doom of Ec,oCity Cleveland Journal and other programs, it will destroyed ecosystem is approaching, and I don't have the energy or will to stimulate ecological thinking about the Northeast Ohio region (Cuyahoga Bioregion), nurture an EcoCity help,more than I do ... " So wrote a woman in Geauga County to explain Net\vork among local groups working on urban and why she was not renewing her subscription to EcoCity Cleveland. environmental issues, and promote sustainable ways to 'meet basic human needs for food, shei.ter, ' It was an unusual letter. Most ~f our reader~ renew their subscriptions productive work and stab le commun.ities. and seem to find our stories useful and stimulating. So the woman's Board of Trustees plaihtive tone unnerved me. I could sympathize with her sense of being lll.avid Beach) Director, EcoCity. Cleveland overw'helmed, for we all feel that. But is EcoCity really so depressing? Robert Staib, Cleveland Division of the Environment Phil Star, Center/or Neighborhood Development, CSU Don't we cover a lot of positive Chris Trepal, The Earth Day Coalition things people are doing to protect and restore ecosystems , Advisory Board Deborah Alex·Silunders,.J\1inority Environmental Assoc. in OUf bioregion? And even Thomas Bier, CSU Housing Policy Research Program when we do write about all the JalJ1es Bissell, ·Cleveland Museum ofNatural History Diane Cameron, Natural Resources Defense Council bad stuff, don't we try to point Anne Chaka, Union ofConcerned Scientists the way toward understanding Edith Chase, Ohio Coastal Resource Mgt. Project Lee DeAng~lis, Environmental Careers Organizatiop and solutions? Joho Debo, Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area We try to. 'And this issue is a good example. It deals with some ofthe Lois Epstein, Environmenial Defense .Fund Stuart Greenberg, Environmental Health Watch most depressing trends in Greater Cleveland-growing poverty and racial Lynne Hannah, Northeast Ohio Greens isolation as the inner city is left behind by sprawling suburbs. But it also Soreo Hansen, interGraphic Engineering Ser.vices Kim Hill, Sierra Club points the way toward a new movement-a network of anti-sprawl ' Robert Jaquay, Cuyahoga County Planning Commission constituencies- that could push for regional solutions. David Knapp, United Labor Agency "I ,can only vote," the woman went on in her, note. "Please cover Susan Lacy. Churches Acting Together for Change and Hope (CATCH) people/politicians/programs that you either discover, devise or develop for Craig Limpach, Wildlife biologist which I could vote." Elaine Marsh. Friends ofthe Crooked River Mary O'Shea, The Food Co-op Okay, here are some questions for politicians about the key issues facing Nonnan Robbins, CW,RU Program for the Environment our region ..Will they support some form of regional governance? Will they Jerome Walcott. Commission on Catholic Community Action speak up for the creation of low- and moderate income housing in all Roberta Wendel. Friends o/the Black Riv~r communities? Will they support tax-base sharing between wealthy and poor Organizations listed for identification only. cities? Will they work to establish urbim growth boundaries to steer Articles in EcoCity Cleveland do not necessarily reflect the views of bo~d members, ol~ough thcrc's a good chance they do. development into existing urban areas? Will they develop regional plan's to • protect open space, watersheds and significant natural areas? Will they The EcoCity Cleveland Journal is published monthly at change our transportation system to reduce the need to drive cars? 2841 Scarborough Road, Cleveland Heights, Oli 44118, . Cuyahoga Bioregion. telephone/fax (216) 932·3007. Unlcss Our former subscriber may not fmd many local poliiic,ians willing to otherwise noted, all articles and photographs are by David Beach. Submissions from others are welcome, but please call champion such issues. After aU, they aren't elected to represent the region fi(st. We cannot be resp,onsible for unsolicited materials. Copy as a whole. They generally have more parochial concerns. deadline is the 15th of each month . . Readers are encouraged to use the information in EcoCily But I hope she ,can fmd th~ time and energy to ask th'e questions. And I Cleveland. Just call for permission to reprint articles. After you're finished with your copy the newsletler, pass it on to hope the questions inspire her to gefinvolved in one of the many .of friends or recycle it. [fyou are a regular reader, please organizations----our civil society- working for cbange ~ubscribe. Supported by grants from the George Gund and Nord around the bioregion. Our collective future depends on it Family foundatioris, subscripti ons and individual donations. - David Beach Printed at Orange Blossom Press in Cleveland on ·100% post-Consumer waste recycled paper using soy~baseo inks. Editor © 1995 Ecodty Cleveland
2 EcoCiTy ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 COSTS AND BENEFITS '''Unfunded mandates" greatly exaggerated
As the new Republican majority in complaints about unfunded mandates are Sarokin's figures are based on a new Washington sets about to dismantle many greatly exaggerated. "The conventional analysis of a 1992 report on of the environmental protections' wisdom is all wrong," says the report's environmental spending by Ohio achieved during the past 25 years, one of author, David Sarokin. "Local municipalities (a report·coordinated by . their slogans is I!unfund~d mandates." It's communities afe paying tens of dollars the city of Columbus' and published by the notion that Washington requires per person, not thousands of dollars ~s is the Ohio Municipal League). This Ohio costly environmental improvements at often cited. Overall , the costs are very report has been a principal source of cost the state and local levels without . reasonable given the improvements in infonmition in debates on unfunded providing funds to pay for them, and thus environmental quality thathave mandates and has fueled the national creates unwarranted burdens. occurred." movement to revoke' such mandates. But a new report by the Washington The new analysis of based Public Data Project says that information reveals: • The Ohio report is not based . on actual spending, but on projected costs to the year CPR for the 200 i . The Ohio cities were essentially guessing.what their future costs would be . . Cuyahoga • Estimates were based on worst-case scenarios, and It's the dead zone of the Cuyahoga impacts, and so far their response bas been probably bear little relationship to River-the stagnant, dredged, navigation less than enthusiastic. They are saying, actual levels of spending . . channel that winds 5.6 miles through the "You want us to pay how much to save The Ohio report made costs appear Flats of Clevehmd. During part of the year some fish?!" higher by calculatin g them for the water in this stretch of the riveibas According to Ohio EPA's Bob Wysenslii, households and per decade, instead little or no oxygen to support aquatic life. "11's the same response we used to get from of for indivduals per year. Thus, a industrial' dischargers in the early days of Multiple sewer overflows dump or&anic modest cost of $25 per person per pollution whiclireduces dissolved oxygen the Clean Water Act. They're not year for cleaner water could be levels,.and the physical configuration of accustomed to enforcement." translated to the much more daunting the deep channel permits little aeration. To gerthe attention ofthe shippers and figure of $1 ,000 per household per 'During the past two years, the Ohio EPA the Army Corps ofEngineers (after more and members of the Cuyahoga River than a year of fruitless meetings), Ohio decade. Remedial Action Plan (RAP) have EPA is playing its trump card. It is Not all Ohio cities participating in analyzed this probl~m with computerized 'withholding permission for the Corps' the Ohio Report shared the high models of water flow and chemical annual Cuyahoga dredging project until the degree of concern about unfunded changes. They have concluded that oxygen Corps agrees to participate in a cost study mandates. Cincinnati limited its levels in the chaimel need to be boosted of methods to increase oxygen levels. participatio~ in the project, citing a artificially, perhaps by blowing air into the This is a risky strategy. The Corps could desire to deal assertively with water, creating say. IIFine, we won't environmental and health concerns, waterfalls or ~------~ dredge." Then, LTV Much of the costs presented in the augmenting flow. ... the altered physical Steel might threaten to report are not linked to federal Who's going to pay configuration of the shut down, and Ohio mandates, but would have to be to do tbis? To find the Cuyahoga River navigation EPA would take spent anyway to replace aging 11 funding, Ohio EPA.is channel is a primary cause intense political heat. infrastructures, such as sewer lines. looking beyond the The outcome could In addition to exaggerating the costs, for a complete lack of determine whether one usual polluters to the 'the unfunded mandates movement also shipping interests that oxygen in a segment of the of the inost glaring has ignOred many of the benefits of clean cause the channel to channel and a.degraded water quality p'roblems air, clean water and safe workplaces, as be dredged and fishery resource throughout on the river can be well as the fact that the public supports channelized in the fIXed any time soon. the channel. strong environmental protection. For first place. This is the And it will be a m'\ior first time that local -Ohio EPA to the test ofthe inore information, contact the Public shippers have been Army Corps of Engineers; effectiveness of the DataProj.ect, 3734 Appleton St. NW, held accountable for DecemberZ8, 1994 RAP process. Washington, DC20016, ielephone (202) their environmental 363-5856.
EcoeiTY ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 3 OUR PLACE ON THE PLANET Fro·m mastodons to maple syrup
The prehistoric landscape of the Cuyahoga ·Bioregion
This is the first in a three-part series .ofarticles - to appear in the Life on the tundra coming year- on the changing I~ndscape oj the Cuyahoga imagine waking up one morning wrapped in skins and lying beneath Bioregion. . a rock overhang, P~etend for a moment that instead of driving to By Benjamin Hitchings work, you spe~t Y9l!f day chipping a 'spear tip out of flint, attaching it to a stick, and chasing animals as large as elephanis. If you had Western author Mary Austin once wrote that "The manner of the lived i~ the Cuyahoga Bioregion II~OOO years ago, that's what you country makes the usage ofUfe there~ and the land will not be. lived would have done. in except in its own fashi9n." Here in the Cuyahoga Bioregion, we The earliest inhabitants of Northeast Ohio are known as the Paleo have spent the last 200 years trying to .discount this wisdom, instead Indians. They ,were hunters, dra~n to the area by the relative treating the landscape like our personal sandbox. d abund
Illustration by the Cleveland Museum ofN ~tural History 4 EcoCil)' ClEVElANd O ·January 1995 altogether, like the mammoth and the mastodon. The extinction of This development is reflected)n the more varied "tool kitH these latter species coincides with the increasing pre.sence of the assembled by these populations. Among other things, this period newly-arrived human populations. "':'hil~ Paleo-Indian populations marked the advent of the mortar and pestle, used to grind plant .. were of an extremely low density compared with human food :;. Adaptations such as this improved the chances for survival. populations today, some archaeol9gists speculate that they may By the late Archaic period, human populations had grown have hastened the disappearance of these creatures. Nomadic dramatically, as evidenced by ·the substantial increase in the hunters,. these people followed the herds'until a changing climate number and size of the prehistoric sites- uncovered from this time displaced the plants that the animals depended upon. period. Adapting to hardwoods Bows and beads Ecosyst.ems that had retreated south during the Wisconsin Glacial The advent of ceramic pottery' is generally used by archaeologists ,Stage advanced steadily north as the climate grew more hospitable. to mark the end of the Archaic and the beginning of the Woodland This process culminated in the re-establishment of the hardwood Period around 1,000 B.C. In terms of lifestyle changes, this forest around 8,000 B.C. In contrast to the tundra and the boreal transition point is somewhat arbitrary . For the m,ost part, th~ forest, which supported a limited number of phint and animal Woodland Period ma!ked a continuation'ofthe technological. species, the qeciduous forest hQsted a wid~ diversity of flora and developments begun in the Archaic . fauna. ' Tools continued to grow in complexity. Developments included One particularly sigl)ificant change was the relative size of the· bone fish hooks and slate sinkers that were attached to fishing nets, animals. While the Paleo-Indians"could harvest large quantities of as well as the "atlatl," a throwing s"tick with ,a stone weight used to food ~t a time ·by hunting the relatl~ely slow megafauna, the later hurl a spear at game. Bows and arrows first came into usage . Archaic Indians lived in 'a.Iandscape populated with smaller an.d sometime after 900 A.D. Copper beads were also in wide swifter creatures. In this world, hunting did not yield nouri shment .circulation, as evidenced by their presence at the Girdled Road Site as readily: To survive in this altered la\ldscape, Archaic .Indians in Leroy and Concord Townships in Lake. County. began to supplement their diet with seeds, 'nuts, fish, 'and shellfish. Ouring the Woodland Pe_riod, human populations practiced a Whife their predecessors had been hunters, the Archaic peoples, "modified nomadi,sm" that includ~d an increasing attachment to were hunter-gatherers. specific p.laces. They exploited a variety of foods, dependin·g·on what was most.abundant at a given ,------~~------~------_, time during the year. In this way, their lifestyle became increasingly linked with the seasons. Also during this time period, modern archaeologists were first able to link archaeological remains with specific cultural tra~itions in the Cuyahoga Bioregion. This led to a realization that the Portage Escarpment, which separates the Allegheny Plateau in the present-day "Heights" area from th~ ' Lake Plain below, n:tarked not only the interface of two environments:""-the plain~ to 'the west and the northeastern ·woodlands to the'east-but also the contact line between two different cultural traditions that had developed in response to each landscap'e. To date, howeve:r, no archaeologist has , established any link between this prehistoric east-west cultural division [ and social differences felt in modem times. Traces of indigenous peoples Farming the land Archaeologists generally point to the These artifacts from the collection of the Cleveland Museum. of Natural History provide clues as advent of agric'ulture around 1,000' to how Native Americans lived in Northeast Ohio just prior to European settlement (1300-1600 A.D. as the beginning of the so- A.D.) The' artifacts were found in thdndependence area of Cuyahoga County. called Whittlesey Focus. Develo.ped At the upper left are an awl for making holes, a bird bone bead, a bone pendant and a barbed in southern climates, the practice of bone tool. At center left are three arroW heads and a bipointed tool made of chipped stone. At farming gradually made its way bottom left are aground stone pipe and a type of ax head called a "celt:" At right is a large northward. Its adoption by people in fragme~t of a pot and three fragments of decorated pot rims. . this region radically increased their ~~~--~--~--~--~--~----~----~----~ EcoCil)' ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 5 -
attachmeJ.1tto specific places. from animal teeth, clay pipes, nbeamers~' fashioned from deer bone In addition to providing a source of food that could be stored 'and used for removing the hair arid other parts from animal skins, bone consumed throughout the year, agriculture gave people a greater "planers" for removing the bark from arrow shafts, and bone needles .incentive to stay in one place. After making the investment of labor . for sewing. ·that agriculture required, inhabitants were not inclined to leave until . One interesting fact to note is the complete absence of European the crops had been harvested. They wer:e also ~ ______'""I trade goods at the various Whittlesey sites. more inclined to protect their investment. This For eons, the Cuyahoga While trade goods from other Native American change in land use not only encouraged people Bioregion uncJ, erwent cultures had made their way to the area, material to become more sedentary. but also to begin culture from Europe still had not arrived. Soon, defending their land. Increasingly, land became drastic changes however, this changed dramatically. "territory" controlled by a specific tribal group. attributable solely to Artifacts uncovered at the Reeve Site in natural causes, and the Trade wars In recent years, there has been much debate over Eastlake demonstrate the increasing practice of human cultures that first agriculture. The Indjan Museum of Lake County which group of Native Americans last occupied has specimens of hoes and spades made of stone inhabited it developed Northeast Ohio prior to European settlement. A and animal bone. . largely in response to number of historians have maintained that tpis Located on a bluff overlooking the Chagrin this evolving natural group had to be the Erie. This argument was . based largely on a reference by Jesuit Ri~er , the Reeve site had a nuinber of ' landscape. missionaries in 1641 to th'e Erie or nCat Nationn advantages. The river pr<;lvided a route for travel, '------~------' that was said to inhabit the southern shores of both inland and out onto Lake Erie. In addition, it yielded fish and provided fertile and well-watered' soil for Lake Erie. Archaeological evidence; however, indicates that the Erie Nation probably did not extend much farther west than present-day growing crops. The high bluff may have also provided protection Erie, Pennsylvania. from hostile tribes. For many years, archaeologists thought such bluff siteS throughout Northeast Ohio were the remains of late Obscuring the whole issue-is the general problem of tribal conflict prehjstoric forts. Recen.t study, however, has provoked a re- . and dislocati.on that characterized the region during this time period. evaluation ofthis assessment. Ex"cavatiop at the Greenwood Village The Cuyahoga Bioregion may even have been essenti~lly unoccupied for large stretches of time. One theory maintains that the site in the Cuyahoga Valley has revealed a style of construction Whittlesey Culture area prior to the arrival of similar to that of ceremonial earthworks in Southern Ohio, leading evacu~ted · the experts ·to·conclude that these structures had ritual rather than European trade goods. When thes~ goods did arrive, al~mg with traders and soldier!:" NaJive Arnerican efforts to control- the trade rnilitary significance. Artifacts at the Reeve site ·also illustrate the food sources utilized . with Europeans led to widespread confli~t b~tween tribes. The result by the Native American oceupants. Remains found in fire .pits and in Northeast Ohio was a series of brief occupations by a variety of different tribal group<. trash heaps at the site indicate that the By the time Moses Cleaveland aod inhabitants hunted everything from rabbits and squirrels to deer, black .P rehistoric' periods his party of surveyors landed in 1796, . bear. and wild turkey. Fish in their " the Cuyahoga bioregion had been of human occupation . partially abandoned by indigenous diet included channel catfish, white bass, and yellow perch. Foods that in the Cuyahoga Bioregion peoples. Dispatched by a group of land speculators known as the were gathered included freshwater • Paleo-Indians (9500-8000 B.C.): The first humans to Connecti~ut Land Company, mollusks and snails. hickory nuts, occupy the Cuyahoga bioregion, the Paleo~Indians were Cleaveland's men spent the next two grapes, and blackberries. The \'Jig-game hunters who pursued mastodons, bison-, and other inhabitants cultivated white potatoes, large creatures across the tundra that formed in the wake of . years dividing up the Western Reserve for sale to settlers from New -England. beans, watercress, sweet potatoes, the retreating glacierS'. < • The arrival of the surveyors, then, ' ~ild onions, and peas. In addition, • Archaic Period (8000-IOOOB.C.): As the climate grew ' marked the final stage in the they brewed drinks from sassafras Walmer, the hardwoo~ forest returned, causing human displacement of one culture by-another ' bark and herbs, and drank the sap they populations to shift to hunting smaller game and gathering - a change that would have profound collected from maple trees. As these seeds, nuts, fish, and shellfish .. effects for the bioregio·n. The history foods indicate, agricult.ure may have • Woodland Period (1000 B.C.-1000 A.D.): This period of these changes is the story of our helped srnooth out.the seasonal is marked by the advent of ceramicpottcry and the increasing separation from, the land. 0 fluctuation in the food supply, but continued evolution· of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. populations in the Cuyahoga T~chnological innovatio~s inclUded bows and arrows and Benjamin Hitchings was trained as a land Bioregion still depended heavily on fishing nets. lise historian and works as the ~·taff person hunting and gather.ing for their for the Grassroots Environmental Caucus. • WhittleseyFocus (1000-1600 A.D.): During this time, This article was adaptedfrom A Land Use sustenance. human occupants adopted the practice of agricult1)re, History of Penitentiary Glen Reservation, Tools used during this period ctramatical!y increasing their attachment to specific places . which Ben wrote for Lake Metroparks. For . included mortars a.nd pestles for more information, call 791·8043. grinding grain, and "celts" made of • Proto-Historic Period (1600-1720 A.D.): This period To learr! more about the prehistoric granite and ·slate for skinning anirn-als. was a tini~ oftribal conflict and dislocation resulting in part landscape and peoples oj Northeast Ohio, from efforts to c6'ntrol the emerging trade in European Other items consisted offlint knives, visit the Cleveland Museum of Natural goo.ds. A number of different tribal groups occupied the History, 231-4600, and the Indian Museum of bone awls, flint drills, necklaces made region~ for brief intervals. Lake .County, 352-1911.
6 EeoCiTy ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 SPRAWL Challenging the values that promote urban sprawl Thefol/;wing perspective on urban sprawl in cultural values about the ownership and use Northeast Ohio comes from a corporate of private property. These values are stable insider. . -!ack Lica/e, former director of Build and widely held, but not unchangeable. Up Greater Cleveland, a program based at In order to rectify the worst effects of th~ Greater Cleveland Growth A~sociation. urban sprawl_in Northeast Ohio, we must which promotes economic development change the value system that caused them. To through enhancement ofthe region's do that, we can start with a simple question infrastructure. Licate recently became that a cross-section of people will consider to director ofgovernment sponsored programs be valid: "How can we make our central at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. This cities competitive again, and how can we article ;s his farewell column/or the B;tild preserve the character of suburban and rural Up Greater Cleveland newsletter. Northeast Ohio?" Infrastructure Update (NovemberiDecemQer One answer that we knoW won't work-it's 1994). already been attempted-is to divert highway • funds from one area to another with little or By Jack Licale no justification. Infrastructure policy is central to any Here are three points that might be the .discussion of urban sprawl. Infrastructure is basis for the desperately needed discussion tied in a complex way to land~use decisions, 0':1 how to address urban sprawl: yet public~works expenditures are oflen made • Infrastructure planning and land-use with little or no reference to their potential planning must be better coordinated. impact on the landscape. Many critics often . While thaCs more easily said than done, the blame this discrepancy on the traffic most practical place for this to happen is in engineer, who they cl aim has been insensitive the region's metropolitan planning to the land~use impact of his or her decisiQns .. organizations (Northeast Ohio Areawide Other critics blame planners for proposing Coordinating Agency, Akron'Metropolitan unrealistic and unworkable so lutions to make Area Tran.sportation Study and Stark County our cities more viable. Area Transportation Study). They have the Both sides generally agree that staff and the Congressional mandate to take infrastructure expcnditures since World War such an initiative, and they have the n have had an unequal impact on different capability to bring larger number~ of citizens parts of the region. The cities--Cleveland, into the planning process. A~ron, Canton and Lorain-Elyria- have lost • Local political subdivisions or public residents and employers. They have suffered private partnerships need to take the from increased racial and income segregation, initiative in. shaping their physical futurt:s. impeded access to jobs, inequitable access to Notable efforts to that end include Cuyahoga transportation and the abandonment of large County's work addressing problems posed by tracts of potentially usable land already abandoned urban industrial land, and Summit. served by a developed infrastructure system. County's lead in acquiring abandoned rail On the other hand, suburban and rural lines with a focus on possible use for areas have seen much of their character commuter rail lines into central Akron. disappear as they have had to provide the • The potential role.of public transit as infrastructure to support new residents and an urban economic development tool must jobs. be refined. For example, discussion of The map on·the back page of this issue Cleveland's proposed Dual Hub project has shows· Northeast Ohio~s pattern of dispersed, focused on traditional issues. Instead, we low~density, metropolitan areas which have should give serious consideration to how the physically and economically, ifnot socially, funds for its construction could be leveraged. coalesced into a sprawling mega~city. to attract additional public .and private monies Discussions of how public~works investments for reshaping·central Cleveland's physical can effectively alter this situation must begin form to better attract and retain employment with the realization_that infrastructure opportunities. investment decisions are not made in a As a community, we have not spent vacuum unrelated to other community enough time di scussing such issues, and the priorities. Northeast Ohio's urbanized ·result has been unchecked' urban sprawl. If landscapes resu ll from thousands of ~e ma~e the effort to redefine our values, it's individual decisions based on deeply held not too late to change course. 0
EcoCiT)l ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 . 7 -
SPRAWL Point of no return? • uFair shareU housing policies (supported by planning and zoning) that will encourage the Environmental Fromp. I Rusk cited the ominous trends: development qf low- and moderate-income housing in all jurisdictions of the metropolitan nightmare • Cle~eland is increasjngly becoming the area . .. .Overlaying this poorhou·se of the region. The city's . poverty rate jumped from 17.3 percent I----~------~------, socio-€conomic in 1970 to 28.7 percent in 1990. The ~~:-_ number of l'povertyu census tracts in the - polarization is an city (those with more than 20 percent enVironmental poverty) grew from 64 to 147 during the same period. And the number of "hyper nightmare. As, the' , poverty" census tracts (those' with more wave of socio than 60' percent poor) grew ftom one to 21. economic decline rolls • Poverty in the region has taken on outward from the ci,ty the appearance of apartheid. Overall, the area has nearly as many poor whites as and older suburbs, poor bla~ks. but poverty is much more tides of middle-class concentrated in the' black community of the inner city. Almost two out of three homeowners sweep poor whites live in m!ddle-class • Fair employment and fair housing policies to into fringe neighborhoods dispersed throughout the region, ensure full access by minorities to the job and while nine'out often poor .blacks live in poverty housing markets . neighborhoods. Cleveland is the fourth most .communities. " • Housing assistance policies to disperse low segregated city in the nation behind Hammond, income families to small-unit, scattered-site Growing communities IN; Detroit; and Chicago. housing projects and to ~ent-subsidized private in turn use expensive Fingers in the dike? rental housing throughout a diversified home zoning to These kinds of s.obering statistics have been cited metropolitan housing market. before, such as in the reports of the Council for • Tax-sharing arrangements that will offset tax "protect themselves:' ~conomic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland. base disparities between the central city a~d its and to compete for Boosters of the "Com.eback City" do recognize the · suburbs. challenges. But they maintain that we are already . In his recent book, Cities Without Suburbs, Rusk tax base. In so doing, responding effectively. They say that strategic writes: "In baldest te"rms, sustained success requires moving poor people from bad city they lock the region investments in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other attractions will make Cleveland a tourist neighborhoodsto good suburban neighborhoods into low density destination and create jobs. They point to and moving dollars from relatively wealthy " suburban governments to poorer city governments. development patterns . neighborhood-based programs to retain industry and build new housing. They brag about the new The long-term payoff will be an overall reduction that are fiscally federal Empowennent Z(;me, which will bring in poverty, dependency, and crime areawide, and 'prosperous cities [which] are the key to vital _ irresponsible, foster concentrated 'investment to three neighborhoods on Cleveland's east side. We're making progress, regional economies and to safe and healthy '11 automobile they say. We are turning things around. suburbs. Critics like Rusk respond that such programs are The state and federal governments must playa dependency: important"and good, but they can't overcome the strong role"to promote such metropolitan strategies, Rusk adds. For example, the state cOr:ltaminate regional forces of urban ~prawl and inner city decline. ~o city has successfully carried out an government must: groundwater, and . inner-city, neighborhood-centered strategy • Improve annexation laws to facilitate central needlessly destroy sufficient to reverse the city's decline, Rusk said. city expansion into urbanizing areas. qften, the persons who b~nefit from such • Enact laws to encourage city-county tens of thousands of programs are able to moye out to better consolidation through local initiative or to reorganize local government by direct state statute. acres of forest and communities, leaving poor "neighborhoods more isolated than ever. • Empower county governmertts with all farmland. " munIcipal powers so that they can act as de facto A metro strategy . metro governments where appropriate. -Minnesota Rusk's alternative is a metropolitan strategy--one • Require all local governments in metro areas state leg islator that is far more politically controvers.ial than _to have "fair sharell affordable housing laws. anything attempted in Greater Cleveland. It would • Establish metrowide tax-sharing Myron Orfield involve at least the following four policies to arrangements for local governments, or use state reduce racial and eco!1omic segregation: aid as a reve~ue-equalizing mechanism. 8 EcoCiT)' ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 . Could such policies be enacted in Ohio? water authorities under metropolitan control so Certainly it's hard to imagine a local politician that growth can be managed better at the brave enough to suggest that growing suburbs regional level. PR paradox like Solon or Hudson should build low-income There's a story going housing -or' share tax revenue with Cleveland or Organizing a force for change Akron. The same arguments about who is hurt by around .town that illustrates· present patterns of development that have been how hard it is for public People regionalism influential in the TWin Cities could also win in But a handful of metro areas in the Cleveland, according to Rusk. [See our id-eas officials to keep Cleveland'S nation- including Minneapolis/St. Paul, for an ·anti-sprawl network on p. 11 .] urban reality in mind asthey Chattanooga and. Rochester-are doing such : "The caSe is waiting to be made-py the · things. They have embraced what Rusk calls central city, older suburbs and really by ·all of strive to sell the city and · "people regionalism," in addition·to the more Cuyahoga ~o~nty , which is passing into a promote development. common "things regionalism." ·(e.g., regional . phase of decline as a whole," he said: sewer or park districts): The case ·could also be made by the business During the competition to "These are com.munities that are ~orking on . community, which needs an educated, be designated a feae(al acting like a region," Rusk said during his productive workforce. Or by taxpayers who Empowerment Zone several recent visit. "They have a high level of must pay to duplicate city infrastructure in neW engagement over the i s su~ of disparities." suburbs. months ago, Cleveland · In the Twin Cities area, for example, "The European cities with wliich we compete Mayor Michael White w~s cemmunity activists and a courageous ~tate don't simply discard an earlier generation's legislator. named Myron Orfield have worke.d to capital investments," Rusk noted. "They don't taking some top officials strengthen thei,Metro Council. They showed incur that burden." from the Department of that the cities, older blue-collar suburbs and The case for regionalism eQuid also. be.made Housing and Urban rural areas were all being vi6timized by high by environmentalists, who decry sprawl's end growth in outer suburbs. And they put impact on fossil ~el consumption, air pollution Development on a tour of . together a political coaliti,?n of those interests and land use. Envireiunentalists would add, .. the city. At the fi(st stops he to level the playing field. In addition to however, that it's not enough just to reduce preserving the region's tax-base ·sharing fiscal diliparities, We also need sensible land showed off all the j;lositive 'program, they have worked to require low- and ·use planning at the regional lever to steer things happening in the . moderate-income housing in all communities, development and keep cities geographically reduced tax incentives for selling fannland to compact. We-need policies such as urban neighborhoods-the usual developers, and placed regional sewer and growth boundaries and green belts. Allowing pitch about public-private the central city to annex surrounding communities (like partnerships andurban Where the growth is Columbus does) might keep renaissance. middle-class residents and tax base But it soon. became Residential real estate assessed value within the city limits, but it won't % change, 1983-1993 stop sprawling land use. apparent that the folks from "To end Cleveland's isolation Washington wanted to hear City of Cleveland 1.2 you need a regional solution," Rusk concluded. "You need to more about how distressed Inner suburbs (Cuyahoga) 7.6 open up economically and the city was in order to Outer sUburb.s (Cuyahoga) 37.0 racially: .. lfyou don't, it will affect the economic competitiveness of ·justifY federal funding. So at Total Cuyahoga 17".0 th.e entire region)' the next stop, White -We should strive for a society reversed his rhetoric and Western Geauga 50.2 of "balanced opportunity," he said. "We are not well served by the gave the bad news. He Western Lake 11.0 abandonment of the inner city and wam't being duplicitous. It's the movement ever outward," Eastern Lorain 19.9 In Greater Cleveland, our civic just that the job of big city leaders have raise'd the possibility Northern Medina 21.1 mayor requires him to of regional cooperation to finance experience cognitive I'!orthwest Portage 26.3 footbaJI stadium renovations for the Browns. What we need are dissonance-holding Northern Summit 72.8 leaders willing to advance regional · opposite i·mages of the city solutions for the far more serious Total adjacent counties 28.1 problenis of raci.al segregation, in his mind at the same economic disparity and sprawling Real change after inflation time.· Prepared by the Housing Policy Research Program. Cleveland State University land use. 0
EcoCiI)! ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 I i .Lr/>O,." The toughest issue r""'Jf;~~;;~~ Enterprise zones, community development arena of opportunity and upward mobility. In . banks, nonprofit inner-city housing America the "city" has been redefined since developments- ali the tools of World War II. The real city is nOW the whole "empowerment"-ar~ not futile efforts. They . urban' area---city and suburb-the will produce some new businesses, some' new metropolitan area. Redeeming inner cities and jobs, some new homes, and some revitalized the urban underclass requires reintegration of neighborhoods. They will be more effectiv,e, city and suburb. however, if carried out within.a framework of This is the toughest political issue in actions to'bring down the walls between city American society. It goes right to the heart of and suburb. Absent efforts at reunification, Americans' fears about race and class. There ' such programs will be unable to reverse the will be no short-term, politically comfortable downward slide of the inner cities ... solutions. Throughout hi story cities have been the
~~~j A movement to heal the·cities Sustained change will require a grassroots productivity of inner city residents and burden 1~~~~~~~~~ 1 movement like the civil rights movement or society with growing costs of dependency and ~ the environmental movement. This new social disruption? movement will be tougher to begin. The civil In a capital-scarce society would we choose rights moyement in the 1960s mobilized moral to discard the tremendous investment in the outrage against Jim Crow laws. The inner citi~s? environmental movement in the 1970s [n a world of fragile interdependence would _o.c.~/~ \I reflected compelling concern with human we choose to have the suburbs survive as ~'hil'-/~-\h survival on a despoiled planet. But for the independent and prosperous communities movement against urb3.!1 segregation to get ofr while the inner cities collapse at the the ground in the 1990s, a clima:te of metropolitan core? perception, a climate of support, and a climate In a world in which the technology of of change must be created. ' violence can touch anyone, would we choose Over 80 percent of all minorities now live in .to live in a garrison state where police power America's metropolitan areas. A racially tr ies to seal off the have-nots from the haves? equitable society can be achieved only if urban These "choices" suggest where the racial America ts changed. Conversely, solving the and economi~ segregation of urban America is problems of cities requires addressing the city- leading. The crisis requires not just urban aid suburb schisms that have developed since or even a true "urban policy" but a World War II. commitment to a spirit of shared sacrifice and This is a journey on which few may initially renewal. The crisis requires exchanging the choose to embark. But consider some of the old politics of exclusion for a new politics of alternative choices. inclusion. It will test whether or not the In an increasingly global economy would American people can develop a new spirit of we choose to sacrifice the talent and community.
-David Rusk, excerpted from his book,.Cities Without Suburbs, 1993 -
Seeds of an anti-sprawl movement
On the previous page. urban critic David Rusk caUs for a how~ver, they would make a powerful political force. Below grassroots movement to heal America's cities-a movement we offer ~ preliminary list pf such constituencies. Then we 'list on the scale of the'civil fjghts movement or the environmental some of the organizations-in the city and the country- that movement. It woul~ involve all the constituencies harmed by are already working on pieces ofthe sprawl problem. the sprawling development patterns around our metropolitan Linking the city and country is key, for we have to fight the areas, sprawl battle at both ends. We have to revitalize- inner~city A movement is needed because in places lik~ Northeast neighborhoods so people will want to move into them, And Ohio the scale of our existing political institutions (local and we have to stop subsidizing the sprawling development on the county government) does not match the regional scale of our metropolitan fringe, which saps the strength of the c;entral problems. Eve'ry mayor and cou!1ty commissioner is looking cities. out for his or her own turf, No
Constituencies hurt (NOACA, AMATS)-'-Joint land use and . River Partners, Friends of the Crooked River, transportation planning in the multi-county Friends of the Slack River)-Action to stop by sprawl and region. suburban development's destruction of urban abandonment • Urban research programs at Cleveland streams; restoration of urban creeks. State UniversitY .and the University of • Sprawl-Mar1: foes-Qrganization _at the • Residents of declining inner-city Akron-Studies of housing trends and regional level. neighborhoods, with all their community outmigration impacts. • Cleveland Museum of Natural History~ development organizations whose hind work • Other university partners (Case Western Basic research on ecology of the region, is being undermined by outmigration. Reserve University Center for the • Religious groups. (Catholic Diocese, • Residents of older, inner-ring suburbs, who Environment and Mandel School of Applied Interchurch Council, Jewish Community are also victimized by the spreading Social Sciences, Oberlin, Kent State, Federation, CATCH)-Moral arguments disinvestment (and who typically have fewer community colleges). against sprawl, sist~r church relationships resources and amenities than the central city • Neighborhood development organizations between city and suburb, with which to stem ·decline). (Cleveland Housing Network and member • Schools-Sister schoQI relationships • Everyone who can't drive-children, senior groups, Cleveland Neighborhood between city and suburb. ·citizens,. people who can't afford a car. Development Corporation and member • Environmental education (Cuyahoga Valley • Institutions with fixed investments in the CDCs, Center for Neighborhood Environmental Education Center, Lake Erie city-churches, schools, hospitals, arts Dev.elopment at Cleveland·State, Nature and Science Center, Shaker Lakes organizations, banks, utilities. Neighborhood Progress Inc.)-Greater Regional Nature Center, Great Lakes • Environmentalists working to protect natural attention to the outmigration trends that Science Museum)-Programs to increase ·.areas and wetlands, save energy, and undermif!e their work. awareness of the bioregion and the natural prevent air pollution. • Anti-poverty programs (Council for limits of life here. • Transit and bicycle advocates. Economic Opportunities in Greater • Farms- Links between farmers on the edge • Fair and affordable housing advocates. Cleveland, Cleveland Community-Building of the metro area and consumers in the city. • The many ad hoc groups fighting Wal-Marts, lnitiative}-Regional solutions for poverty. . • Arts organizations-Cultural critiques of highway interchanges and road widenings in • Fair housing organizations (Metropolitan suburb·an sprawl,' celebrations of urban life. their communities. Strategy Group, Cuyahoga Plan, Greater • Business organizations (Greater Cleveland • Historic preservationists. Clevelanders for Fair and Affordable Growth Association, Cleveland Tomorrow, • Country residents who want their Housing)-Support for low- and moderate Build Up 'Greater Cleveland,. Akron Regional communities to remain rural. income housing. in every municipality. Infrastructure Alliance)-Business locations • Farmers who want to keep farming without • Public housing authorities-Scattered site and infrast.ructure investments to revitalize the threat of encroaching subdivisions. housing and rent vouche·rs . central cities instead of promoting sprawl. • Business leaders who realize that their • Park districts-Cooperative projects to • "Good governm~nt" groups (Citl:zens· sprawling metropolitan areas will have a hard preserve open space on a regional scale. League)-Ideas for regional governance. time competing with compact, efficient cities • Land conservation organizations (Land • Utilities (water, sewer, electric, in Europe and Asia. trusts, Trust for Public Land, Nature telephone)-Promotion of compact • Developers who are tired of fighting anti Conservancy)-Land protection in the path development patterns instead of facilitating development NIMBYs and who would like .to . of development. . sprawl. see a consensus on where development is • Transit agencies in the • . Real estate. industry-Goal of steady appropriate. region-Investments to make cities more appreciation of real estate values in existing livable and transit-oriented. urban areas instead of speculation on the Parts of • Environmental organizations (Sierra Club, suburban fringe .. an anti-sprawl network Earth Day Coalition, Citizen Action, • Computer FreeNets-Regional information etc.)-Support for transportation and ' discussion groups in cyberspace, • . Governments of central cities, inner-ring alternatives, compact development, • Media-Coverage of sprawl and disparity suburbs, exurban townships-United action sustainable communities . issues in a coordinated, comprehensive way. . on economic disparities and sprawl.- • Watershed organizations (Cuyahoga and • EcoCity Cleveland-Ideas, coordination, • County pJanning commissions and Black River Remedial Action Plans, Grand citizen planning. metropolitan planning organizations
EeoCiTy ClEVElANd 0 January I 995 11 F -_... "
ECOCITY DIGEST Bath residents mobilize Pressure pOints Residents in Bath Township ha~e been organizing furiously to preserve one of the largest tracts of uri developed land left in Northeast Ohio-the· l,500-acre . • Trans~t ax"?: R1'A officials are wortied·thatGongressioual estate of the late Raymond Firestone. The former head of Firestol?e Rubber budget cutters will .be h1!rd on mass transit and jeopardize plans bequeathed the land to Ohio State University for $5 inillion·, and now the to improve·service in Cleveland's Dual Hub corridor. RTAand uni.Yersity is studying how to develop the site at a profit. . the city liave spent y~ars imd millions q( dollarsstiJdying the A grassroots group, Bath Open Spaces, has been meeting at 7 p.m. every feasibility,ofarai1line between downtown ~nd University Sunday night in the Historic B.ath Township Hall to plan how to maintain the Circle. A local decision on, whether to proceed with some.form estate's open fields and wooded hills for recreational uses. Residents are .of the bual Hub project is expected in the next several months. working with the Medina COti~tY Park District, which is interested in acquiring Meanwhilet federal funding:to study where to locate an a portion of the estate which lies in Medina County, and the Revere Schoo.1 intermodal hub in Cleveland (a transportation hub to connect District~ which is already being stretched to capacity by. new residential existing bus, rapid qansit and intercity tail services as.well as development. . future cOTI;lmuter rail -3:nd high~speed J~il seryices) is also in Residents have had less luck with the Summit County Metro Parks. It tunis jeopardy. out that parks commissioner David Brennan is also a trustee of OSU. a possible • Medina outlet roaU: Reside~ts of runii Harrisville Twp, in conflict uf.interest. Brennan is a developer who is well know for his attempts ·to southern Medina County are protesting plans for [20,store .' get a regional jetport built in Northeast Ohio. . o.utlet mall near the intersection ofl"71 and .SR, 83. If township For information. call the Bath Open Spaces hotline at 643-9328. officials,approve ~he deveh?pers' rezoning request. 'residents,say they. will circulate petitionS and force the issue to be placed on Hagan re-elected NOACA president. the ballot in November. A regional outlet mall could dramatically transfonn the sparsely popUlated area .. Cuyahoga County CommissiQner Timothy Hagan has been eJected to_a second • Wetland.nukes: High~level radioactive waste keeps piUng ·term. as president of the governing board of ~he Northeast Ohio Areawide up on the shore of Lake Erie. the driQ_king water source for ~oordinating Agency (NOACA). Thus he will continue to have gre~t influence millions Qfpeople. The Nuclear Regulatory Commis~ion on how the five-county plaf!ning agency addresses transportation and other recently gave permission for Toledo Edis~n . (a qi,vision;of regional issues. . Genterior Energy) to stof.e spent reactor fue! jn concrete.c3:sks Other NOACA board officers for 1995 include: outside the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. Since the plant • Vice president: Lorain C~JUnty COlllmission.er Betty Blair. beg.n operating in 1977, spent fUel has been stored in holding • Assistant vice president: Cleveland Councilman Charles Patton. . pools inSide, but now those poolS ate full. Davis-Besse is built •. Secretary~ Willoughby :tvrayor David Anders~n. on a lakesh.()rewetland between Toledo and Sandusky. • T~easurer·: Geauga County _Commi.ssioner Neil Hofstetter. ' ., • Ainl;mhlnce-chasi~g: 10 order toJchase their patients, local ho-spitals keep b9ilding new facilities farther out into the sprawling suburbs-another example of costly duplication of infrastructure: Two recent ef{amples arethe_plans o(Meridia Bicycle news. Health System and Univ.ersity H05pitaisHealth Systern to bund separate medical office b.uildings on SR 91 in Twinsbtug . . your local roads aren't getting the • EucH~ trees: Euclid residents are having fits over the city's . right treatment, it's time· to start . -plans t'? cut down scores of mature trees on E.' 208th, E. 214th ' bugging "your city officials. and E. 21'7th streets to make way for sewer ,repairs. Residents • TASSLE returns: Northern say the city is ignoring their pleasto do the work· differently and spare the trees. Ironically, Euclid is replacing leaky, old sewers • Lakefront bikeway: Ohio's popular autumn bicycie . 'only because it has been orde~ed to do so by the EPA. As more Cleveland's long-delayed Lakefront event, Tour Along the ~outh Shore older commiuiiiies in the region are forced to replace aging . Bikeway is finally moving. The of Lake Erie (TASSLE), will be ·back .this year after a. two-year . infrastructure, itwill be i.mportant to figure out ways to make Ohio Department ofN-atural hiatus. A new sponsoring the improvements without damaging trees and other Resources has committ~d $500,000 neighborhood assets. for engineering, planning and organization, the l..;orain Lions Club, will provide volunteers to • No PUDs for Willough.by: Cr.e~tive developments that construction d~awings. The city's organize the tour. The club is would preserve open space and sensitive natural areas wonlt be Division of Research, Planning & . wo~king with long-time TASSLE allowed in WilJou~hby. The suburb's new master plan had Development exp~cts to hire. a -included provisioJ.1s for planned unit developments (PUDs) and design firm by the middle of this co-di(ectors James Guilford and year. The bikeway willliilk · Jerry Storer. To receive an entry cluster zoning. but backward residents got them deleted by·City Council. Now instead of having the flexibilitY to work with the Edgewater Park and Euclid Beach form when they become available, Park. send a self-addressed, st?mped, . land, city official.s wilLhave to keep on requiring ~ookie-cutter business size envelope to TASSLE, lots. Flexible zoning options are often 12 EcoCil)' ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 ECOCITY DIGEST Ohio's new spine CSU enviro.center Gund grants Ohio could soon have a new Local universities-including Case recreational greenway. the Western Reserve, Baldwin Wallace and for' the environment Ohio-to-Eri~ Trail, running 320 John Carroll- have strengthened miles from the lakefront in environme~tal education programs in the ' Th~ George Gund Foundation of c;leveland recently Cleveland to the Ohio River in p ~t few years. One of the mQst ambitiou~ announced a number of grants to support Cincinnati. It would cut diagonally programs is beginning at Cleveland State. environmental and urbari initiatives in the region,. .. through the state, passing through inchjdi~g: Under'the'leadership of ProvOst Harold Columbus, and would serve as the spine Allen, CSU has begun the Center for '-Scenic America-Technical assistance for for the state1s emerging trail system. It Environmental Science. Technology and developing the Ohio scenic byways system and scenic also would complement the Buckeye Policy. The interdisciplinary center aims development ofth~ Ohio & Erie Canal.Corridor, Trail, which circles the state. to identify i~tlOrtant environmental $45,000. About two-thirds of the proposed trail issues in the region, identifY strengths of . ,.The Qhio~to·Erie Trail Fund-Operating support is now iri pubJic hands, such as the 2~. · the local business community related to for a 320-mile trail linking Lake Erie and the Ohio mile Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga environmental issues, and promote River, $15,000. Valley National Recreation Area. The research, teaching and community . -Sierra Club Fourrdation-Clean Steel program to Ohio-to-Erie Trail Fund is working with outreach. It will have a special focus on reduce toxic emissions in the Great Lakes and support local organizations to secure the rest, Lake Erie and could help to raise the a Cleveland-area Sierra Club Clean Steel office, . including critical links through Columbus profile of Great Lakes research in $45,000. and Cleveland. Northeast Ohio. Start-up funding was -Rivers UnUmited-Start~up support for a . For details, call the Trail Fund at (614) ' provided by the Cleveland Foundation statewide river conservation council, $80,000 over h~O 538-0607, Ohio Rails'-to-Trails and the George Gund Foundation. years. .Conservancy at (614) 224-8707 or Ohio CSU also has· begun offering masters -Union ofConcemed Scientists-Development ofa Canal Corridor at 348-1825. and-bachelors degree programs il1 wind power pilot project in NOl1heast Ohio, $40,000. environmenta] fields at its Levin College -Cleveland State University Foundation-Stal1-up Loving the Towpath of Urban Affairs: of the Center for Environmental Science, Technology ·Do people want recreatiQnal trails? Iryou and Policy, $110,000 over two years. have any doubts, just check out the Sustainable energy -Great Lakes United-Habitat and biodiversity task crowds packing the Towpath Trail on a Efforts to· promote renewable energy force to respond to the "takings" issue in the Great summer weekend. The 20·mile trail sources in the region got a boost recently, Lakes region, $35,000. through the Cuyah(Jga. Valley National as SEED Ohio (Sustainable Energy for -National Trust for Historic Preservation Recreation Area attracted 1.6 million Economic Development), a local project Continuing support for the American Resources users in 1994. It's not often that a small sponsored by the Union of Concerned Infonnation J:Jetwork to coordinate and inform public investment creates so much public Scientists, [eceived funding from The response to the "wise useot movement, $lOO,OOO. enjoyment. George Gund Foundation. ·-Greater Cleyelan'd Roundtable-Minori~ . The trail is getting so much use that the The project will study .the potential for Economic Opportunity Center, $150,000 over two park ~as had to recruit volunteers to help wind turbines along the Lake Erie shore, patrol it. These IlTrail Blazerslt will be as well as the feasibility of converting old years. < - Westsjde Industrial Retention and Expansion trained in first aid, vj~itor contacts, coal-fired power plants to biomass. The Network-Nbighborhood Preservation Initiative, interpretation and law enforcement. They project's Susta:inable Energy task Force $45,126. will patrol in pairs during peak hour~. plans to educate small businesses about . -Cleveland Neighborhood Development the economic: savings from energy Protecting Ohio's rivers efficiyncy. Participants will encourage Corporation-Neighborhood policy development, With its 40,000 to 60,000 miles of rivers , training and planning assistance programs, $40,000. municipally-owned utilities in the region and· tribu~ies . Ohio is one o.f the most to help customers conserve energy. And -Cleveland Restoration Society-General support, "river rich" states in the nation. These the group is also working with Lake .Neighborbood'Historic Preservation and Sacred rivers concentrate biological diversity and Metroparks.Farm Park to develop a Landmarks Assistance programs, $] 00,000 over two support a wide range of human uses. sustainable energy education center. years. But Ohiols rivers enjoy limited For information on getting involved, -Cleveland Development Foundatipn protection. Only a handful are designated. call Lisa Hong at 791-9520 or Anne Comprehensive Clevehmd master signage program, as wild or scenic, and recently the Ohio Chaka at 468-3077. $93,133. . General Assembly lowered pollution - St. Clair-Superior Coalition-'-BlackBox Gall.ery standards on most streams. CartoPhiles meet and community.11 workshops, $25,000. Although many streams have "frien.ds" A new map inter~st group has -The New Organization for the Visual Arts-Arts organizations to advocate river restoration formed in the area. Its monthly and Activism project, $14,750. and protection, there has been no @. meetings are open to the public -Committee for Public Art---G~ide to Public Art in co.ordinated voice at the state ievel to and cover all sorts. of Downtown Cleveland, $6,25Q. develop policy. build statewide coalitions cartographic issues, including computer -Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and provide assistance to the grassroots mapping technologies such as geographic Brownfields Redevelopment Project seminar, $4,25Q. gr:oups. To meet this need. the Cincinnati information systems. For more • Citizens League Research Institute-Regional based organization, Rivers Unlimited, is information, call Maureen Far:rell at the Public EconOmy and Public Services project, now adding staff and b~coming a Cleveland Public Library Map Collection, $138,000 over two years. statewide presence. For details, call (5 I 3) 623-2880, or Bill Barrow at 585-9716. 351-4417. EcoCi'Y ClEVElANd 0 J anuary 1995 13 GLEANINGS Environmental to reduce polluted nmoff and flooding below the Heights in Permits to pollute award winners Cleveland. , Here are some Ohio EPA actions of interest from recent weeks. For • Clevehind Metroparks won The nature center grew out of complete and up-to-date lists of permit.activities in your county, watch the 1994 National Gold Medal citizen1s successful efforts to for weekly legal notices in your local newspaper. For more detailed Award sponsored by the National save the Shaker Lakes from the information, call the Ohio EPA Northeast District Office in Recreation and Park Association. proposed Clark Freeway. Twinsburg, 425-9171 The award is presented annually • to the rnost outstanding More on Water pollution community in the United States RTAwishes American Steel and Wire, Cuyahoga Heigh.ts, discharge to Cuyahoga for excellence in park and In our last issue, we ran an "RTA River. - LTV Steel, Cleveland, discharge to Cuyahoga River. recreation administration. The wish list, II which included the Metroparks was praised for suggestion that the transit Burton Rubber Processing, Burton, discharge to Cuyahoga River. Associated Materials. Cuyahoga Falls, proposed revocation of discharge " ... aggressive development and authority use small buses or vans permit. use of non-tax fimds to expand to offer more frequent service on services, development of a less traveled routes. Mark Air pollution strategic master plan, and Adamcik, a member ofRTA1s Maceo Adhesives, Wickliffe. adhesive and sealant mixer. cooperative emphasis to improve Citizen Advisory Committee, Aexcel Corp., Mentor. paint disperser. Court Metal-valve FmlshIng, Mentor, chrome platmg machines. urban recreation opportunities called to tell us that fixed Accyspray, Beachwood, paint spray booth. .. through management of operating costs for personnel . 'Ferro Corp., Cuyahoga Heights, quartz railroad car unloading dust Brookside and Garfield parks." make it costly to add more collector. • Greater Cleveland Ecology vehicles, even if they are smaller Lincoln Electric, Euclid, surfabe coating line-. Association's yardwaste recycling and more fuel efficient. He also Waco International, Parma,. paint line. program has been named an asked that people in Northeast Oberlin Light & Power, Oberlin, rebuilding en'gine/generator No.2. Environmental Success Story by Ohio support ODOT/Arntrak Ohio Oil Gathering Corp., Atwater, crude oil loading tenninal. Renew America, a Washington planning for rail service between Ferro Brecksville, Brecksville, batching and extruding lines for based organization that promotes Cleveland and Pittsburgh. manufacture of powder coatings. . PPG Industries. Strongsville, automotive powder coating lines. environmen~al sustainability LubrizoJ, Painesville, 54,000·gal. storage tank for inorganic liquid. nati.onwide. JOe ecology Ohio Sealants, Mentor, caulk and adhesive prqduction. association's program composts Hydro Tube, Oberlin, curing oven for powder coatings. yard waste for 10 municipalities in Cuyahoga County. The Hazardous waste Diamond Hard Chrome. Cleveland, closure plan for container _storage area yardwaste is made into humus and waste pile. . and sold to homeowners. A perch isn't Forge Properties. Bedford Heights, closure plan for paint pit. landscapers and garden centers. I. Schumann & Co., Oakwood VilIage, closure plan for hazardous waste always a perch = • The Friends of the Crooked disposal areas. . River video, The Cuyahoga: ,Consumers of "lake perch" might Lubrizol; Wickliffe, draft installation and operating permit. Portrait ofa Crooked River, won want to check what kind of fish Ross Incineration Services, Grafton, addition ofthird feetlline to the Special Recognition/Selected they are getting, according to incinerator. for Merit award at the North Ohio Sea Grant. Health Solid waste . American Association for authQrities reconunend eating BFI Lorain County Landfill No.2, Oberlin, methane gas eXtraction Environmental Edu,cation Film . Lake Erie white perch no more system . and Video Festival held last .than once a month becatise of Sewer/water line extensions September in Cancun, Mexico PCB .contamination. But there is Sprague Road Subdivision No. 2, Seven Hills. no consumption advisory for Ridgefield Homes Phase 1 and 2. North Ri.dgeville. Shal 14 EcoCiry ClEVElANd 0 January 1995 BIOREGIONAL CALENDAR . EI'l,{ironmentalcommunity f~aturing · a ~howing of Dr. Seussl classic mobilization ..forum tale of environmental degradation, The Larax. The Cleveland State University College of Urban Affairs Will February 18 'S[ionsor a forum on ' Town meeting ~o gather public input for 'environmental organiZing at the Ohio EPA's Compa rative Risk Project, T~:~;:~~~::~ Prj,,",erv.tir'n and author or grassroots, January 30 at 2 p.m.,· which is seeking to establish How SpmwlHann.s Communities in the pively.Room at the college, E. 18th environmental priorities for the state, 10 and What CI"/i:;;ens Can Do A1;>out It, will Street and Euclid Avenue. Speakers will a.m. at the Cleveland Metroparks' Look speak at 8 p.mi Febfriarjl 2T~t Wiley Middle include: ' ~ , About Lodge in the South Chagrin School Auditorium,.218I MirhnarBlvd.in • 'Jim Schwab; aulborof the new book, Reservation. University Heigbts. In recent years, lbe Trust Deeper Shades ofGreen: The Rise ofBlue, for Historic Preservation has become a February 18 C:911ar and Mjnorj~ty Envtronmentalism in prominentop,!'onent oU.mpant supelStor. Identifying trees iri. winter, 10 a.m. at the America, which includes chapters o~ the development'-cthe'growth of stores like Wal Meyer Cente~ in Big Creek Park, Geauga GSX incinerator struggle in Cleveland and Mart which desb"o~s traditional Main. Streets the fight against the wn incinerator in E. Park District. call285-2222. and rural character. Liverpool. . ' February 19 Begminont's:appearancein Northeas~, Ohio • Alonzo Spencer, president of Ihe Tri-State Winter plant life, a workshop for young is sponsored by Stop lbe Mart (lhecitiZens Environmental Coalition. ' naturalists, ages 9-12. Happy Days Visitor group fighting Iheproposed sale of OakwOod • M;arge Grevatt, director of Ihe Center for Center of the Cuyaboga Valley National Country Club'in Clevelaiid HeightS and > Cooperative Action, South to sllperstore developers), Ihe Recreation Area on SR 303 at 1:30 p.m. EUcliq • Sandy Crawford, director of Ihe Center Cleveland Restoration Society, the Northeast for Environmental Education and Trailling at February 22 Ohio Gtoup of the Sierra Club, and EeoCity Cuyahoga Community College. Ohio .Environmental CouncnAnnual Cleveland. Call 687-2136 for more informatiOn. Lobby Day, Hyatt on Capitol Square in Columbus. A"good chance to get caugbt up January 31 February 28 on state environmental issues and talk to Conservation options for private . Join a park ranger for a hike. along the route. legislators. Call (614) 224-4900 for landowners, a class about conservation of the planned extension of the Ohio & Erie registration infonnation. . easement techillques, 7 p.m. at Holden Canal Towpath Trail north ofR~ckside Arboretum, 9500 Sperry Rd. in Kirtland. February 2 2 Road. Meet at the Lock 39 Trailhead oflhe $18 fee for nonmembers. Call'946-4400 or Monthly meeting of Ihe Northeast Ohio Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area 256'-1110. Gtoup oflhe Sierra Club, 7:30 p.m. at the at 9":30 a.m. Cleveland Museum of Natural History in February 7 March 2 University Circle. A discussion of Ihe 1995 Monthly meeting of Ihe Black River Public meeting on Ihe Cleveland'Dual Hub politic"al outlook for enyironmentalists will Audubon Society, 7;3.0 p.m. at Ihe Lorain transit project. Tentatively scheduled--: . include fonner Congressman Eric County Metro Parks Carlisle Visitor Center watch daily papers for details. Fingerhut. "in LaGrange. A representative of the Rails to Trails· Conservancy ~i.ll speak on plans February 24 for new trails in Ohio. Winter wildlife of the Western Reserve, . Northeast Ohio Greens a talk by prominent nature photographer February 10 The Greens are meeting weekly to work ori Gary Meszaro's, 7:30 p.m. at the Meyer Nature writer's workshop with local poets low-level nuclear. waste, campaign fmance. Center in Big Creek Park, Geauga Park reform and olher issues. Can 63) -0557 for Jill Sell and Cyril Dostal, 7:30 p.m., . District. details . . sponsored by the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Fee $3. Call 524-2248 for registration information. Priorities Project prepares to prioritize February I I The Northeast Ohio Regional Environmental Priorities' Project is wrapping up the flrst The art of tracking phase ~f its work and has scheduled meetings at which participants will attempt to rank the animals, a hike in the most serious environmental issues facing the region. Cuyahoga Valley National • During the last week of Februruy, the project's three technical advisory committees meet to recommend most important issue~ their fields. The Ecology Quality Recreation Area, 9:30 a.m., will the in and ofLife"cornmiUees will meet. at 3-8 p.m. on February 23. The Human Health committee will . . . beginiling at the park meet at 8 a.m. to tp.m. February 24·. . headquarters, intersection of -.On March 16 from 1 to 5 p.m. the teclmical advisory committees will present their Riverview and Vaughn roads. fmdings to the Public Committee, a 36-member body composed of repc:esentatives from February 16 around the region. Monthly meeting of the Friends of the • On March 20, the Public Committee will have a day-long meeting to decide the fmal Black River at 7 p.m. A family night at Ihe rankings. Lor~in Metro Parks· Carlisle Visitor Center, The project is organized by the Center for the Environment at CWRU. For more information about observing any of the upcoming meetings, call 368-2988. . ' EcoChy ClEVElANd 0 January 199 5 1 5 MAP OF THE MONTH Growth of urbanized areas in Northeast Ohio ( • 1950 Urbanized Area .. \ • Projettcd CrhaJlized Areafor the Year 2010 ,~ . , I • ,. OUf sprawling region: :rhe map shows the projected growth of urbanized areas between 1950 ·and 2010 in the eight-county region (Cuyahoga,- Lorain. Medina, Sl,lmmit, Stark, Portage, Geauga and Lake counties). An "urb~ized are:a" comprises 'one or more central places and the adjacent densely settled surrounding territory that together have a minimum of 50,000 people. Not included are surrounding suburban areas with low-density . housing, even though such areas look and feel developed .. 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