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).

After years of debate and stalling, Cuyahoga County Commissioners recently approved a new county juvenile detention center and courthouse to be located at E. 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue. Juvenile Court judges opposed to moving the facility from downtown were convinced that ‘having both buildings on the same site would result in more economical operations,’ according to a report in the new CNDC newsletter.

Indeed, operations will be even more economical if the county follows through with its commitment to make this a ‘green building’. Back in early 2001, the county was considering a proposal for a 325,000-square-foot facility with a strong environmental focus, including energy saving mechanical systems, on-site water retention systems, and natural daylight.

“A green building is natural-light friendly, which is important with kids and having a happy environment,” Lee Trotter, deputy county administrator, told Inside Business. “And we’re starting to see limits in our energy environment, so you have a positive spin of doing the right thing environmentally.”

Bruce blog hopes that someone at the county is still leading the charge to make the center and courthouse ‘green’.

They'll be dancing across the Cuyahoga

Now that Cuyahoga County has purchased Whiskey Island and promises to follow through with its plans to make it a premier green space for the enjoyment of the region, the practicalities of getting people there are sure to be high on the list of priorities. Access is an issue because the only road leading to the finger of land poking into the lake at the west bank of the mouth of the Cuyahoga River is built for trucks and not much more. To make it part of the city’s Lakefront Plan, an idea is being floated to build a world-class pedestrian bridge over the mouth of the Cuyahoga from the east bank (and future home of the lakefront bike path, bike park and other big city amenities). See an early rendering of how the bridge might look.

Bruce blog disdains the comparison game, i.e. look at all the neat things Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis are doing to improve their local economies through innovative green building practices. But, it does marvel at those accomplishments and hopes that Cleveland is paying attention. Those cities are rightfully proud for jumping early on the green building bandwagon, building what Kansas City architect Bob Berkebile calls, "Buildings that give back to nature."

A year or so after Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley lured away Cleveland Green Building Coalition director Sadhu Johnston to head his sustainability initiatives, Chicago has put together an impressive array of projects that positively impact economy, environment and the city’s social life – the so called “triple bottom line” that new environmental champions preach about.

A source familiar with Chicago’s efforts to green its public housing told Bruce Blog that, while the city has little resources for this end of things, it generally makes a difference having more than verbal support from the top. And, Chicago has been successful at the flashier green building projects. A recent email announcing a regional green building conference in Chicago touts the following accomplishments:

First city to construct a municipal building to earn a LEED® Platinum Rating from the U.S. Green Building Council (a rating system where credits are earned for satisfying specified green building criteria)

The city is one of the largest non-utility purchasers of renewable energy in the United States

The city remediated nearly 1,000 acres of Brownfield sites to create a boom in the environmental corporate economy in the region.

In addition to environmentally sensitive tiffs and incentives, a new wave of building and renovating is currently ongoing in Chicago.

Bruce blog disdains comparisons because Cleveland has taken some fitful steps such as creating a sustainability czar position, as well as talking about wind power, the lakefront and streamlining the urban development process. Like Chicago, we have a massive manufacturing infrastructure and acres of brownfields left fallow, but we need to work on the collective vision for how Cleveland can become a green city. For soon the time will come for Cleveland when the mayor or city council will make sustainability a major agenda item not out of competition with Chicago, but because it’s too hard to ignore economic good sense.

Ohio Governor Taft used his State of the State address last week to promote his end of big government agenda, promising cuts in support for municipal government and hand outs to business – such as eliminating the tax companies pay on new equipment – to boost the state’s economy.

Meanwhile across the border and a world apart in Illinois, Governor Blagojevich announced in his State of the State speech a renewable energy development plan that will make Illinois a national renewable energy leader. The plan calls for 3,000 megawatts of new "green power," mostly wind power, by 2012. “This is enough to power one million homes and is expected to create 3,000 construction jobs,” according to the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Blagojevich plans to give his plan more than lip service, too. He will also try to use state financing authority to support building the largest wind farm in the world, a 432-megawatt project near Bloomington, Illinois, ELPC adds. If implemented, the governor's plan would make Illinois the second biggest wind power state in the country by 2012. “That is a climate change solution and positive alternative in the Midwest coal heartland.”

Looking for a step back from embracing a sustainable, new economy venture a little closer to home? Two weeks ago, Cleveland city councilman Mike Polensek came out against an entrepreneur who is working to convert a former manufacturing facility into an indoor vermicomposting center. In a recent article in Crain’s Cleveland Business, Polensek hit the alarm button, saying the operation is smelly and doesn’t create jobs.

But, a source close to the project says Polensek knew about the proposal for two years and didn’t create a stink until it became apparent that it was really moving forward. The source says Polensek isn’t sharing the whole picture on the operation – which admittedly trucks organic waste from consumers into the facility where worms break it down and produce a rich soil amendment. Namely, that it promises to create some 60 jobs, divert a municipal waste stream from the landfill and create a useable product, and that the operation remediated a brownfield that was sitting vacant among a wasteland of shuttered industry on Cleveland’s near east side.

It may not be sexy, but it’s also not the quixotic biotech company that our city leaders keep chasing. While some questions about quantities of waste need to come to light, this is supposedly based on a new technology that sequesters the waste inside to avoid the smells that some composting facilities have created in the past. If Cleveland doesn’t wake up and smell the future on this one, another city will snatch this up and all the talk of fostering the creative class will remain just that, talk.

The Coral Company’s plan for Domain on Lee, a mixed-use (retail and residential) project to be located on Lee Road between Tullamore and Meadowbrook, seems to be flying through planning commission approval. This week, Coral won approval to subdivide the property and to plan for two ATM machines. While Bruce blog supports the proposal, we wonder if the pace with which the project is moving is allowing for any serious community discussion of the design.

While Coral presented preliminary sketches at the Considering Lee Road exhibit at Heights Arts Gallery last summer and invited viewers to share their thoughts, all the comments haven’t been made public nor has the company indicated it has taken any of them seriously. After reports surfaced in the Plain Dealer last week that Chagrin Falls worked backroom deals with a developer and then paid the price in public outcry, Cleveland Heights would be wise to insist on more public meetings in order to hear and share the vision of the project before the final plans are drawn up and ground is broken.

For example, preliminary sketches show only two doors into the ground floor retail spaces – what gives? This shows little consideration for the context of Lee Road’s retail spaces, which are inviting because they have doors that lead directly into each store, which is more inviting from the street. If only two larger tenants are planned, then, at the very least, each store should have another set of doors that allow pedestrians to walk in from the side streets. Designing for a single tenant type (Ohio Savings Bank) may limit the building’s future market if the tenant decides to move after its lease it up.

Bruce blog welcomes a new member to the Cleveland urban blogosphere –EcoCity Cleveland’s Ryan McKenzie brings us news from the frontlines as he advocates, thinks about and tirelessly works with others to improve transportation in all its incarnations in this tough, car-driven town.

A sample of McKenzie’s transport blog includes news of a new priority for timed traffic signals at NOACA which might finally serve to unlock buses from the snarl of slow traffic and help them make their schedules.

Did you know that Hotel Bruce is a quarterly journal that explores creative living in Cleveland? In December, 2004 we released our third issue which showcases imaginative ways to explore Ohio City, and also creative ways to deal with a “gentrified” housing market. Check out the whole issue at the Hotel Bruce homepage if you haven’t already. And, as a subscriber, stay tuned for special announcements, including the release of the Spring ’05 issue.

Senate bill threatens natural areas protection
A last minute rider on Senate Bill 18 threatens floodplain protection, setbacks from streams and wetlands, storm water structures, and other local measures to protect water quality. This bill is now in Gov. Taft's hands. He is currently weighing support and opposition to the bill. The Ohio Environmental Council urges people to take action now and ask Governor Taft to veto this legislation. Click here to send a letter. For more information, email
or call 614-487-7506.

NEO, you are the one
The Cleveland Museum of Art won't have to suffer the local arts community's wrath since it cut the May Show during Robert Bergman's tenure. The creation of the North East Ohio (NEO) Show, a juried exhibition open to all locals, should go to some lengths in smoothing over the rift. Artists 18 years or older living in the 15-county area have until March 18 to submit one work, in any media, for consideration. Cash prizes will be awarded and one piece will be selected for the museum's permanent collection. Click here for an entry form or call 216-707-6835.

February 24
Cleveland Urban Core Project, 9-11 a.m. at the offices of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), 1299 Superior Ave., Cleveland. Ohio Dept. of Transportation established a Cleveland Urban Core Projects Advisory Committee to discuss projects arising from the Lakefront Plan, Innerbelt, Cuyahoga Valley and more. Sit in as some of the region's planning, nonprofit and business leaders discuss the possibilities for major urban revitalization stemming from the billions of dollars being spent on roads and highways.