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).

During the last few years, green building has moved from the fringe to gain a solid foothold in the design/build industry in America. A number of flashy projects that combine high technology (geothermal HVACs & solar panels) with plain old common sense (rebuilding in communities knit with density and transit lines) have helped.

But, while the Oberlin Environmental Center and a 1 million sq. ft. green convention center in Pittsburgh pushed the envelope in terms of size and technology, the movement has not managed to shake its elitist air.

That’s why critics are paying close attention to a new green building initiative recently announced by environmental champions Natural Resources Defense Council and Enterprise Foundation, a grantor of affordable housing initiatives. Their Green Communities initiative
promises technical support and $550 million in grants or financing to build more than 8,500 homes that “provide significant health, economic and environmental benefits to low-income families and communities across the country,” according to a press statement.

The five-year project has already started to receive proposals for HUD replacement housing—Hope VI projects (like the townhomes in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland) that are replacing the high-rise complexes of the last, grand federal experiment in public housing in the 1960s. In Chicago, the group is working with the city’s sustainability director, Sadhu Johnston, to deliver green public housing using replacement credits from the now infamous Cabrini Green and Taylor Homes, according to local Enterprise VP Mark McDermott.

In all likelihood, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority will apply for grants to green up the replacement homes at Valleyview in Tremont, McDermott adds. Developers both private and nonprofit are the intended customer. Projects will likely include more small scale public-private development such as the 20 ‘green’ townhomes in the Cleveland EcoVillage, or the recently completed green single family home in Shaker Heights.

If the equitable distribution of affordable housing in a regional context still eludes Cuyahoga County, at least the promise of healthy indoor environments shows real progress.

In the last issue, Bruce blog observed that a simple move by the Cuyahoga County Engineers office—to strip a five-foot shoulder on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge—was quietly applauded by bike commuters from the West side.

Apparently, the move also got props from city of Cleveland planning department. Certain staffers brought the blog item to the attention of Cleveland traffic engineering department commissioner Rob Mavec, who, reportedly, is looking into the feasibility of upgrading the shoulder into a bike route. Failing that, the city might experiment with something called a ‘Sharrow’, a bike symbol that can be applied to the pavement without conferring official bike lane or route status.

Sharrows are meant to raise awareness that motorists and cyclists equally share the road. Cycling advocates are feeling positive about the city’s recent interest ever since it acquired a Sharrow pavement stencil. To drop Mr. Mavec a note of encouragement write, Harvard Yards, 4150 E. 49th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44105 or 216-664-3167-FAX, and stay tuned...

One of the few bright spots in the last election may have, understandably, gone unnoticed. The reelection of Cuyahoga County Engineer Bob Klaiber was seen as a crucial achievement in urban-ecological design circles. Klaiber, who at one point was rumored to be considering a jump to private practice, is a visionary leader in a not always forward thinking field.

To name just a few of his accomplishments, Klaiber has lent crucial technical support to the Towpath Trail extension; he attends Mayor Campbell’s Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meetings and has voiced support for bike/ped initiatives; the Fulton Road bridge across the Zoo is going to be built with bike lanes because of the support of Klaiber and his staff; and he helped usher the Detroit-Superior pedestrian promenade and bike lane through the shark infested waters of Cleveland politics.

Big deal, you say, he’s just an engineer. Actually, the county engineer is one of the most important professionals for shaping livability—he controls a huge budget, and streetscapes are defined under his watch. Streets can become a softer and greener environment or a concrete hell (the engineer decides on enhancements and on how far beyond the bare minimum they will go).

For instance, Klaiber could have quashed the Detroit-Superior Bridge project, but instead showed real leadership by agreeing to work with consultants and ODOT to come up with a compromise. The staff time he devoted to it and his willingness to express his ideas is an outstanding situation in Cleveland engineering and should be commended.

While we’re handing out kudos...Bruce blog commends Michael Gill for penning a thoughtful article titled, “Where the Levy Breaks” (Oct. 27 Free Times). If you didn’t catch it, the piece brought to light an important finding—that economic, and not necessarily racial integration, is the key to improving a school’s performance. Gill quotes researcher Richard Kahlenberg, whose study found that concentrated poverty is a more significant barrier to educational success than racial segregration.

Unfortunately, the path toward economic integration always seems to intersect with busing students, which has high social and legal barriers. Compounding matters is the failure of the Cleveland school levy, , and a new Brookings Institution report that shows the income gap is still widening in cities such as Cleveland and its suburbs.

One of the bright spots in the article is a program underway to improve the literacy of parents of students in the Cleveland schools in order to engender an environment of learning.

And Bruce blog thanks The Guv for sharing the following item off the Planetizen Web site. The New TOD: Technology-oriented Development: A North Philadelphia neighborhood includes technology as the foundation for an economic development plan.

"Several urban planners and a community group want to bring wireless Internet access, a community technology center, and new housing and commercial development to a North Philadelphia neighborhood shared by low-income residents and Temple University.

Part of the ambitious plan will begin this week when Mathew Davis, a Temple geography and urban studies professor, and several of his colleagues use a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to train neighborhood high-school students to use computer software to map vacant and occupied land and buildings in the area for potential future development."

If the goal is to bring high tech to low-income areas, The Guv adds, “consider that Cleveland's public school infrastructure is being rebuilt and both CSU and Case are expanding their roles in the community. This combined with the work of (wireless Internet enabler) One Cleveland, and the new TOD seems like a no-brainer. Consider the potential in a neighborhood like Glenville…"

For all those bummed out post-election progressives who drove traffic to Web sites like the Canadian Immigrations page or the spoof-turned-serious matchmaker Marry An American here are a few more sites to help ease the pain of seeing all that Red on election day. PurpleStates.org and group of students at the University of Michigan both re-color the U.S. electoral map to better reflect the true color of the United States. The result is enough to make Prince feel right at home.

"We cannot continue in this paralyzing mistrust. If we want to work our way out of the desperate situation in which we find ourselves, another spirit must enter into the people. The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics. We have reached the point of regarding each other only as members of a people either allied with us or against us. Now we must rediscover the fact that we all together are human beings, and we must strive to concede to each other what moral capacity we have. Only in this way can we begin to believe that in other peoples as well as in ourselves there will arise the need for a new spirit."

—Albert Schweitzer, 1958.

December 10
Hotel Bruce in the OC: Come and celebrate as Hotel Bruce releases Issue No. 3, the all-Ohio City issue, on December 10. Enjoy wine, cheese and refreshments; take in an exhibit of local artists' work and see an urban design showcase of an innovative plan for a sustainable and affordable ‘village’ in Ohio City. That’s Friday, 12/10 at Cleveland Public Art, 1951 W. 26th Street (right behind Market Square). Mark it in your calendar!

November 17
The Impact of Social Compact on Urban Retailing, 4-6 p.m. at the former Joseph Beth Bookstore at Shaker Square. Social Compact was a study commissioned by Key Bank that found that Cleveland presently has a large amount of untapped buying power. What do the top area professionals in the urban retail industry have to say about this figure? Is it reliable and will it encourage retail investment in Cleveland? Join moderator Peter Rubin (President of the Coral Company) and panelists Mayor Jane Campbell (City of Cleveland), Chip Marous (President of Marous Brothers Construction), Gerald Buck (SVP Commercial Real Estate, Huntington National Bank), Daryl Rush (Director of Community Development, City of Cleveland), Bruce Murphy (Director, KeyBank Community Development), and Robert Simons (Professor, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs) as they discuss this topic. Free and open to the public, but RSVP.

Through Dec. 3
Route 42 Revisited: A Documentary Portrait. Nine photography students from CSU explore the two distinct landscapes of one road – W. 25th Street/Pearl Road. From the Detroit-Superior Bridge to garage sales in Parma Heights, it’s a look at where the city and the ‘burbs meet. At Gallery of Photographic Arts (formerly CIG), 2512 Church Ave., off W. 25th just south of Detroit Ave. Weekend gallery hours only.

Your article "New ideas needed to reduce skyrocketing infrastructure" was interesting. Having a lot of knowledge of the history and planning for Crocker Park, I can assure you it has many features that can be models for sustainable development and slowing urban sprawl even though it is in an outlying suburb. The vision of (developer) Robert Stark integrates work, living, shopping and entertainment.

The city required by ordinance that buildings would be multistory, retail no greater than 35% of the floor area, mixed uses of retail and office or retail and residential, and that more than half of all parking would be in multistory parking garages.

[Garages] really concentrates the development, shortens walking distance, visually makes the development “feel" like a small town and permits the density required to create an urban place. Although garage parking may reduce stormwater flow, it does not save money probably even as a net cost. In order to get parking garages, the development has to be rather dense.

Total site development [at Crocker Park] is limited to 1.7 million square feet on 75
acres, with 41% open space. All buildings are required to be at least two stories in height unless approved otherwise and the maximum story of buildings is four stories (garages have been approved up to five levels).

All of these requirements of the Planned Unit Development code were to insure a new urbanist development and not another retail strip or big-box mall. Much of the development in Crocker Park could not have been allowed in our traditional zoning districts.

This is extremely difficult to do; difficult for the developer, the city and to get financing. Single-use, free-standing retail buildings or retail strips with a surface parking lot are easy to build and finance. Banks don’t like mixed-use developments, which have leased retail but the office and residential are speculative (built without tenant leases). And that is why there is so little of this development in Northeast Ohio.

Because of this, Crocker Park will be one very unique project that may lead the way for other efforts to build community and special places as was done in the 1920's with the construction of Shaker Square.

—Bob Parry, Director
Department of Planning & Economic Development
City of Westlake

I enjoyed Lee Chilcote's interview with Peter Rubin, the new owner of Shaker Square. I like the fact that Mr. Rubin is looking at the Square as the center of the fictional town of Shaker Square, and that he is looking at drawing from that market and not trying to compete with Legacy Village-type projects. Local retail, comprehensive planning of the area amenities (reading gardens!), parking and safety, creating an experience for the visitor that will draw them to the Square again and again—that's the answer. I hope that districts like Tremont, Ohio City, and Detroit-Shoreway will watch closely.