The picturesque Doan Brook meanders through Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, providing walkers and joggers with a scenic backdrop. Yet the section that flows through Cleveland's Rockefeller Park remains boxed in by crumbling stone walls.

This year, a $2.5 million project to restore these portions of the Doan Brook will finally get started. The project will remove failing stone walls and concrete dams for nearly a half-mile, allowing the stream to flow more naturally... Read more >

Local rowing advocates say their beloved sport is about to get even bigger thanks to the Cleveland Rowing Foundation's recent acquisition of Rivergate Park, a former marina on the East Bank of the Flats. Over the next two years, CRF will redevelop Rivergate into a seven-acre riverside recreation venue, with a boathouse, kayak rental and public park. Rivergate is part of an emerging recreation district in the Flats that includes a new skate park and bike path to Whiskey Island.

These days, it seems that everyone is singing Pittsburgh's praises. Our Rust Belt neighbor to the east recently scored a Google corporate office. And last year, perennial Cleveland-basher Forbes Magazine named Pittsburgh the country's most livable city. Ouch. Clearly Pittsburgh is doing something right. Simply put: That city is light years ahead of Cleveland when it comes to bike-friendliness -- and bike-friendly cities are more attractive to young professionals, the creat... Read more >

A proposed $7.5 million indoor cycling track in Slavic Village would be the only such facility of its kind east of the Rockies. The nonprofit organization Fast Track Cycling says the velodrome would attract thousands of cycling enthusiasts while helping to transform Cleveland into a greener, healthier city. Slavic Village supporters say, Bring it on.

When Mayor Jackson promoted Andrew Watterson from sustainability programs manager to Chief of Sustainability, a cabinet-level position, he illustrated in very certain terms his commitment to sustainability. Watterson will have his work cut out for him. Recently, the City kicked off Sustainable Cleveland 2019, an ambitious 10-year initiative to leverage sustainability as an engine for economic growth while distinguishing Cleveland as a "Green City on a Blue Lake."

Justin Husher graduated with an MBA from Cleveland State University in May of 2008 -- just in time for the collapse of the financial markets.

Instead of wringing his hands, Husher considered his bleak job prospects as a sign. "I never wanted to be a banker," he told the audience at last week's forum on vacant land reuse at Cleveland State University's Levin College of Urban Affairs. His college major had been botany, and he'd always dreamed of tending the soil.

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At a public meeting held last week at Market Avenue Wine Bar, planners showed off designs for the future Market Square Park, an Ohio City park slated to receive a $1.5 million makeover this year from the city.

"We hope the new Market Square Park will become the de facto outdoor dining room for the West Side Market," says Ben Trimble, Program Manager with the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation (OCNW). Trimble says the park, located at the corner of Lorain and West... Read more >

Billed as an outdoor music and arts festival, Brite Winter Festival is proof that you can indeed have fun in Cleveland, in February, out of doors. This year's dazzling array of temptations includes nine holes of snow mini golf, 24 feet of alfresco skeeball, ski-mounted bicycles, wall-to-wall music and white-hot gourmet food trucks.

 The controversy over the proposed Oakwood Commons development reinforces the need for Cleveland Heights to plan for future development, says a local nonprofit leader.

"We're being forced to react to the developer's plan because the city of Cleveland Heights does not have a plan," says Deanna Bremer Fisher, Executive Director of FutureHeights, a nonprofit that promotes community engagement in Cleveland Heights.

"I understand the need for additional tax reve... Read more >

When it comes to retail, how much is too much? That's the question being raised by residents who live near the former Oakwood Country Club, a 154-acre parcel where First Interstate Properties proposes to build a shopping mall that would rival nearby Legacy Village in size.

"There are moribund, vacant retail areas all over the Heights, so why do we need another mall?" asks Fran Mentch, president of the Severance Neighborhood Organization (SNO), a Cleveland Heights-based ne... Read more >

The Flats has often been called the birthplace of Cleveland. Soon, it will gain a new tagline when it's reborn as the city's first green-certified neighborhood.

The Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties, co-developers of the Flats East Bank project, are using sustainable building practices in the $272 million project, which broke ground in December. The project's financing dried up in 2008, but the developers revived the deal, cobbling together more than 35 public and ... Read more >

The first attempt to secure the former Oakwood Country Club for park land has failed. The 90-day purchase option held by the Trust for Public Landexpired recently, before the San Francisco-based group could raiseenough to buy the 150-acre privately owned site, which spans ClevelandHeights and South Euclid.

Fran Mentch, of the Severance Neighborhood Organization, is disappointed but continues to hope that mostly undeveloped land can be preserved as a public park. As a Face... Read more >

Wendy Park on Whiskey Island might be Northeast Ohio's greatest greenspace success story.Less than 10 years ago, precious few Clevelanders had ever visited thesite, which sits right where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie. Nighon impossible to get to, and offering little more than volleyballcourts, there just wasn't much point. Steady improvements under countyownership have pushed annual visits from about 7,000 in 2006 to morethan 200,000 today, and the work is not nearly over.Read more >

Thomas Paine would be proud. At a time when it seems like every new idea is first floated online, Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt has chosen good old-fashioned paper as the primary vehicle for his impassioned paean to beautiful surroundings, Designing a Better Cleveland.

"To the extent that Cleveland fails to make the most of public andprivate investments in buildings, highways, bridges, streets, parks andwaterfronts, it will waste opportunities, fail to com... Read more >