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 fight over dwindling fossil fuel resources has arrived in Cleveland’s suburbs. A coalition of eastern suburban communities led by Mayfield Heights sued the state this week to stop energy companies from drilling for natural gas in or nearby residential areas. Home dwellers complain about the noise of drilling derricks, but the companies have a new state law on their side. The law stipulates that state regulators draft rules for urban and residential drilling, and under the new rules, the state is already issuing well permits, according to a report in the Plain Dealer.

This local skirmish is noteworthy in itself, but striking in the context of the global energy market. Anyone who paid a heating bill last winter knows natural gas prices are climbing through the roof. The reason: global supply is fixed while demand is ever rising. Energy experts quoted in a 2004 documentary about Peak Oil (the year when global oil supply peaks forever) remark that 15 percent of the U.S. supply of natural gas comes from Canada. Not alarming until placed in context: Our 15 percent accounts for a whopping 50 percent of the total output of Canadian natural gas. The must-see documentary titled, “The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream” cites a number of pundits and even an oil executive who argue that global peak oil will occur in our lifetime (domestic supply has already peaked), and that the prospect could be accelerated if and when the U.S. and China start competing for scarce energy resources.

While no silver bullet solution exists, a message of hopefulness in the impending energy crisis could be in a serious reexamination of globalization. One pundit, James Howard Kunstler, author of Home from Nowhere, suggests that the only solution is local—such as neighbors pooling resources to purchasing community solar panels and microturbines, forming tool co-ops, community gardens, etc.—as well as urban design that emphasizes walkable communities.

Cleveland anoints sustainability czar

Some 40 people crammed into the Red Room at City Hall last week to see Andrew Watterson anointed as the city’s new sustainability czar, a new “cool job (that) will change the way we do business,” Mayor Jane Campbell said during her introduction. Watterson, housed at the Public Utilities Department, outlined his role “to view city projects and procurement through the lens of sustainability, to save the city money and to reduce its environmental impact.”

Both Campbell and Watterson cited examples of current city initiatives, including a little known Economic Development Department effort that awards additional tax abatement points and lower interest rates on city loans for projects that meet ‘green standards’.

Also on the former Cleveland Environmental Center project manager’s plate is the planned ecological redesign of Matthew J. Zone Recreation Center at W. 65th and Lorain Avenue (with promises of water elements, new gardens, art and more), energy audits of city facilities, a review of life cycles of city purchases, and assistance with the fledgling efforts to bring wind power to Cleveland.

In the last issue, Bruce blog reported on a bi-partisan effort to introduce a new Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit in the state budget. It now appears likely that the tax credit will not survive the budgetary process, sources inform Bruce blog. Advocates will once again pin their hopes to Senate Bill 60, which has been stalled in committee.

Apparently, the budget proposal was killed when the state’s Department of Taxation published a revenue impact statement that failed to recognize the economic benefit of the measure. The credit would reduce the revenues collected from the personal income tax and the corporate franchise tax, according to department. How large a loss is not clear, but this is how the tax department estimated the amount of credits would produce:

“In 2003 the total investment in historical building rehabilitations in Ohio was $230 million, in 2002 it was $86 million, and in 2001 it was $93 million. The Ohio historic rehabilitation credit for those years would have been $59.2 million, $21.4 million, and $23.3 million, respectively,” according to Glenn C. Wintrich, an economist who helped with the report.

It's unclear if the state’s conservative estimates of costs include the potential gain in property taxes? Besides, successful models do exist (Ohio would not exactly be blazing new trails here). North Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, and New Mexico are just a few states offering a historic tax credit in conjunction with the federal historic tax credit.

“Since 1998, North Carolina authorizes a 20% credit for those taxpayers who receive the federal credit, providing investors with a combined 40% credit against eligible project costs,” according to a state Web site. In addition, the state provides a 30% credit for the rehabilitation of nonincome-producing historic properties, including private residences.

When will Ohio get serious about an economic development program that views urban revitalization as a smart investment?

In its spring '05 issue, Hotel Bruce contributor Birgit Wolter, an urban desiger from Berlin who recently completed an exchange program with the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, looks at Cleveland's deteriorating condition, old industrial relics and abundant green as an opportunity to rebuild in a way that Connects Green and Rust.

Since the Cleveland Museum of Art insists on going forward with its massive $200+ million renovation plan (in the midst of an economic recession that has hit the city of Cleveland particularly hard), the very least it could do is make an effort to build-in some green elements and save itself money on energy costs.

If it needs some ideas, it can look to the smaller Toledo Museum of Art, which in 2004, installed three microturbines to generate power from wind, a renewable resource, for the museum’s consumption. It’s a breath of fresh air for usually stuffy art museums. The museum also collects the waste heat from the turbines to use in controlling the humidity inside the museum.

The museum paid for the wind turbines with a $240,000 Ohio Energy Loan Fund (ELF) loan through Huntington National Bank, a participant in the ELF program. By utilizing the ELF program, the museum is potentially saving more than $42,000 annually in interest costs over a conventional loan, according to a statement. It also received a $75,000 grant from the ELF program. Pretty cool.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded a whopping $5.9 million to Michigan State University's Land Policy Program to support land-use policy research, education, and innovation.

The three-year grant builds upon the program's People and Land (PAL) initiative, a statewide partnership that has played a major role in initiating change in Michigan land-use policy, according to a statement. The PAL approach focuses on educating citizens and policy makers about land-use issues, informing them of innovative policy tools and alternative options, and convening organizations to understand various perspectives and implement appropriate land-use agendas.

"Michigan is unique; no other state can boast of this kind of public-private partnership infrastructure in land-use policy," said Soji Adelaja, director of the program. "Success in addressing land-use issues like sprawl, traffic congestion, and resource conservation is critical to Michigan's future prosperity, and a broad consensus is forming around that premise."

The Euclid Creek Watershed in Cuyahoga County is applying innovative solutions to an old challenge faced by many urbanized watersheds: relatively few acres of green space combined with the need to reduce stormwater runoff. One of these solutions is use of rain gardens to reduce storm water runoff and remove urban pollutants such as sediment, metals, and phosphorous. Read more.

The Cleveland FalconCam is an entertaining and educational project that follows a pair of Peregrine Falcons nesting on Cleveland's historic skyscraper, the Terminal Tower. Now in their fourth year together, the latest pair of falcons, Buckeye (male) and SW (female) have hatched four young ones, who are almost fully grown and getting ready to fledge (leave the nest). Check out their progress.