Hotel Bruce

Welcome to the Bruce blog—a weekly update on news, events and issues affecting life in Cleveland. Reporting as it happens on transit, development, planning, environment and arts & culture.

Basically, we write about creative ideas forming, talk to the people who have an inside track on the issues, and sometimes offer a commentary of our own. (For disclosure purposes, Bruce blog is a local, independent writer who also works part-time with nonprofit organization EcoCity Cleveland. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of EcoCity or any other organization).

The effort to create Canal Basin Park, a new urban park in the Flats combining historic tourism and recreation, received a giant boost this month. The city received the approval from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for $3 million in land acquisition funds for the park. The money will be used to assemble parcels from more than two dozen landowners who are sitting on mostly vacant parking lots in the 20-acre area under the RTA bridge (at the bend in the river between the east and west banks). Topping the list, planners and developers are eyeing a two-acre parcel at the river’s edge that is a failing parking lot as the future home of the Hulett ore unloaders (the giant crane-like lifts that were salvaged from the lakefront).

The park will also include a home for the Western Reserve Rowing Federation and the extensions of the Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga Valley Historic Railroad (creating new links to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Akron). Certain developers are also eyeing the possibility of redeveloping some abandoned buildings in the area and creating new infill development that supports the expected influx of tourists (the Towpath Trail, for instance, attracts more than one million visitors annually).

The city will be no doubt overjoyed at the prospect that a major greenspace initiative is moving forward (especially after the fight regarding Whiskey Island and with the storm brewing over rumors that the Port is looking into reopening Dike 14 for dredge fill). See the results of the Ohio Canal Corridor and Cleveland Urban Design Center's Charrette for Canal Basin Park.

On December 11th, newly formed bike advocacy umbrella organization ClevelandBikes and a delegation of local bike advocates met with the offices of Senators DeWine and Voinovich to advocate for more federal funds for local bike initiatives. The group explained why the Senate should match the $250 million dollars the House of Representatives has proposed for the Safe Routes to Schools Program, according to Brendan McNamara of ClevelandBikes.

A generation ago, 80 percent of children biked or walked to school compared to today when that number rests around 15 percent. The reason for this change has a lot to do with the recent phenomenon of car-based design for communities, McNamara writes. Some consequences of this shift are epidemic levels of childhood obesity, type II diabetes, and asthma.

The group discussed the benefits of incorporating cycling into everyday activities and how bicycles should be considered in all new road projects. And they asked for the State Department of Transportation to bill the completion of the Towpath Trail as a high priority project while citing the economic stimulus the tourism will provide upon the path's completion. “So, we know they've been asked,” McNamara concludes, “let's see how they vote.”

On December 2, 2003, The Ohio House passed HB 218, which will effectively deed more rights to private property holders at the shores of Lake Erie. The law, which needs Senate approval, grants property owners new rights to control the land to the low-water line on the state's shores. The state is traditionally entrusted to maintain its shores for public use, and is empowered to do so under its Public Trust doctrine. Opponents say the law will limit public access to the shore in a state that already ranks low in the nation for maintaining public beaches. A few quick facts about Ohio, which has one of the most intensely developed coasts in the nation: Only about 15 percent of the Ohio shoreline is publicly owned—that's about 40 out of 262 miles. And out of those 40 miles, less than 7 miles are publicly accessible beaches.

Nonprofit environmental organization The Ohio Environmental Council vows to defeat the Senate’s version of HB 218. The OEC requests that you contact your state representative to express your thanks for voting no or disapproval for voting yes. Click to contact your state representative.

State reps from Cuyahoga County who voted no on HB 218 are:
Timothy DeGeeter, D—15th Ohio House district
Dale Miller, D—14th Ohio House district
Michael Skindell, D—13th Ohio House district
(All three lawmakers represent a district that borders or nearly borders Lake Erie).

I just read your leadoff in Hotel Bruce on the "gift of housing" by the Campbell administration to the city. New urban starts are definitely welcome, but we must also evaluate these starts in proportion to our region and within the continued, consistent outward migration of city and inner-ring residents to our outer-ring suburbs.

Cleveland, which has about 1/2 the population of Greater Cleveland, claims about 1,500 housing starts in 2003 out of some 7,000 for the region. This means that though the city has about a 1:1 ratio on population when compared to the rest of Greater Cleveland, it has more than a 1:3 deficit in new starts.

In other words, for every new housing unit in Cleveland, there are 3 to 4 being built and bought outside Cleveland in the suburbs, mainly in the outer suburbs. Many of these Cleveland starts are directed to young professionals who are either renting or looking at their purchase in a 3-5 year timeframe before either moving out of Cleveland (partly to avoid the schools, etc.) or out of the area (to pursue better career advancement).

Furthermore, these new housing starts outside the city mainly attract middle-class Cleveland residents and current residents of inner-ring suburbs (either directly or by purchasing the residences just sold by other home owners in their move up and out) as opposed to newcomers ("immigrants") to Greater Cleveland.

This does not bode well for the City of Cleveland. Even with a revitalized downtown and the creation of substantial downtown neighborhoods—both of which are not certainties—most other already established Cleveland neighborhoods are losing residents at a rate seriously imperiling the Campbell's administration's publicized run for "The Federal 500K."

Unfortunately, there is little evidence this outward trend is reversing itself in any meaningful, statistical way.

Regards,
Jim Harris
H//L Communications

Bruce blog on the radio
Make sure you tune in to WCPN 90.3 FM at 9 a.m. on Monday, December 29, as the Bruce blog will be an on-air guest. Host April Baer will lead a discussion on ‘hip’ things to do in Cleveland. Bruce blog will bring you highlights of the show next week in case you missed it.