Sustainability + Environment

grrl power: encouraging more female riders key to city's cycling health
If women indeed are the barometer of a healthy cycling city, then making women feel safe while cycling in Cleveland must be a priority, say local biking advocates. Female riders are less likely to cycle without infrastructure that makes them feel safe, including separated bike paths and physical barriers on roads that divide bikes and cars.
music box supper club in the flats set to break ground, open in august
The development partnership behind the Music Box, a forthcoming supper club on the west bank of the Flats that will offer live music on two stages, will break ground this week. A demolition permit has been issued by the city, and the club will hold a soft opening in August and have a full concert lineup by September.

"The best part has been the breadth of support from around Cleveland," says Mike Miller, a boomerang who returned from Chicago with his wife, Colleen Miller, an experienced concert promoter. "People saw this as an important development for Cleveland, a new concept right on the river. While Cleveland has some great rock clubs spread out across the city, there isn't a downtown concert venue except for the House of Blues. If we’re going to have the Rock Hall and be the city that discovered rock, we should have another venue, and one that’s centrally located."

To pull off the project, Mike and Colleen Miller assembled a team of over 20 investors, including the Jacobs Group, owner of the former Club Coconuts space where the Music Box will be located. They also obtained financing from Key Bank and funding from the City of Cleveland's Vacant Property Initiative.

Krill Construction will handle the build-out. The architect is Dave Krebbs from AODK and the interior designer is Scott Richardson of the Richardson Group.

The basic architecture of the space, which has huge windows overlooking the Cuyahoga River, Flats East Bank and downtown, will remain the same. Construction will add new flooring and finishes, mechanicals, restrooms, two stages and an outdoor deck where guests can enjoy dinner and drinks overlooking the city.

Miller highlighted the support of the Jacobs Group and their vision for the west bank. Jacobs has already begun repositioning the Nautica complex as major event space to capitalize on the tourism wave that's hitting downtown Cleveland. Currently, the developer is working on a new master plan for the area.

The Music Box is located directly across from the new Flats East development, and plans are in the works to revive the water taxi service to better link the two areas.


Source: Mike Miller
Writer: Lee Chilcote
tremont leaders seek to reconfigure w. 14th street for bikes, pedestrians, growth
Tremont West Development Corporation is pushing a plan to reconfigure W. 14th Street, which for decades has been a busy thoroughfare for residents and commuters, into a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly street that will spur business growth. Under the proposal, the current configuration of two lanes in each direction (plus parking in some places) would be reconfigured to one lane in each direction plus a turning lane. This would create a dedicated parking lane and bike lane.

According to Cory Riordan, Executive Director of Tremont West, the proposal was warmly received by residents and stakeholders at a recent community forum. The next steps are to further refine the plan, respond to feedback and seek funding. Riordan wants to see the project done before the I-90 ramp reopens in 2016.

"Now's the time," he says. "There's an opportunity to reconfigure the street prior to the opening, have traffic calming measures in place and create a new experience."

W. 14th is an uncharacteristically wide street for Tremont. Additionally, it serves as a gateway to the community, yet the majority of businesses are located along Professor Avenue or other side streets. Finally, the street can be both confusing for drivers and hazardous for pedestrians. Riordan believes there's a win-win-win opportunity for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and businesses.

"We have a crosswalk at St. Augustine Church, but when people drive 50 miles per hour down the road, it's not a very safe crosswalk," he quips. "The bike community has expressed how dangerous they feel W. 14th is."

Depending on the final plan and available funding, there might be opportunities for streetscape enhancements including public art, decorative crosswalks, curb bump-outs and reconfiguration of the Steelyard Commons roundabout.

The good news is that Tremont has seen a transformation of W. 14th Street in recent years from a place considered hard to do business in to a sought-after location. As Professor Avenue storefronts have filled up, W. 14th storefronts have become more valuable. Riordan believes that's a sign of things to come and sees the potential for even more commercial growth along that street.


Source: Cory Riordan
Writer: Lee Chilcote
bus rapid transit in cleveland: no mistake by the lake
Detroit-based writer Matthew Lewis travels to Cleveland to check out the RTA HealthLine, one of the premier BRT systems in the nation. As his city debates its public transportation future, leaders can look to Cleveland as a beacon of hope, a place that has embraced transit and is now enjoying the benefits of its investments.
the next must-live cleveland neighborhood is...
Larchmere Boulevard might just be Cleveland’s best-kept secret. This classic commercial strip has never earned the attention of Coventry, W. 25th Street or East 4th Street, but it offers one of the best examples of a “complete” neighborhood in the region, chock full of retail and residential within a walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood.
sprav takes top honors at the ohio clean energy challenge for its smart showerhead
Craig Lewis, Andrew Schad and CJ Valle, CWRU and Cleveland Institute of Art students and founders of Sprav Water, won the 2014 Ohio Clean Energy Challenge at Cleveland State last week for their wireless water meter. Sprav won $10,000 and will advance to the regional competition in Chicago in April, where they will compete for the $100,000 grand prize and a place in the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition in Washington, D.C. this summer.
 
Although Lewis says the competition was “fairly stressful,” it was a good opportunity to showcase Sprav. “I think it means a lot because we’re entering a beta phase where we’re going to start testing it,” he says. “And the cash prize helps.”
 
The Sprav meter helps users conserve water in the shower by measuring water temperature and usage and relaying that data to a smartphone or tablet.
 
NorTech director of Cluster Acceleration Rick Earles served as Sprav’s mentor during the competition. “He was really helpful and added a lot of value,” says Lewis. “He gave us access to contacts at manufacturers in Northeast Ohio, which will be very valuable moving forward.”
 
In fact, Sprav is now a part of NorTech’s Speed to Market Accelerator. “It’s a lot of fun working with promising startups like Sprav Water,” Earles says. “These guys are so passionate about what they do. They have created a beautifully designed product and really understand what it takes to get it to market.”
 
Sprav just signed contracts with CWRU and Baldwin Wallace to test the meters in 60 of the universities’ showers. “We want to see how people’s behavior changes when they have real-time feedback with our device,” says Lewis.
 
Eight other teams from around the state competed in the Clean Energy Challenge, five from CWRU, and one each from University of Cincinnati, Wright State University and Ohio University.

 
Sources: Craig Lewis, Rick Earles
Writer: Karin Connelly
national roundup: pitt's young entrepreneurs, denver's new breweries, tampa's next hot hood
Fresh Water Cleveland is one of 22 publications run by Issue Media Group. Week in and week out, our sister sites cover all the latest news in urban innovation and development. This is the first in a new monthly series that will aggregate top news stories from around our network and profile "What’s Next" for cities.
author, huff post writer tracks progress of 'sustainable cleveland 2019'
Michele Hunt, who attended the 5th annual Summit of Sustainable Cleveland 2019, is tracking the progress of this bold 10-year initiative, which began in 2009. In a feature for Huffington Post titled "Sustainable Cleveland 2019: A Community of DreamMakers Creating a 'A Thriving Green City on a Blue Lake,'" she offers a comprehensive look at the halfway point.
 
"The people of Cleveland are mobilizing around a compelling vision to transform their communities into a flourishing city. They have the courage to dream a magnanimous vision for their city in the face of tremendous challenges," she writes.

"At the Summit, I was surprised to see hundreds of people from diverse sectors of Greater Cleveland working together. They came from the local neighborhoods, businesses, government, education, nonprofits, as well as advocacy groups from the sustainability community. They were highly engaged, enthusiastic and clearly committed to transforming their vision into reality."

These are not merely dreams, she adds, five years into their journey Clevelanders are delivering on their vision. Their results are impressive:

• Last year the 50-member Climate Action Advisory Committee, published the Cleveland Climate Action Plan, which has six focus areas, and 33 actions Clevelanders can take to strengthen the economy, clean up the environment and improve health and wellness.

• There has been a 50 percent increase in recycling since 2006.

• LEEDCO (Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation) is building the first offshore freshwater wind project in North America in Cleveland.

• Over 200 community gardens and local food initiatives have grown up around the city.

• Cleveland is transforming abandoned buildings and vacant lands into green spaces, local parks, urban gardens, as well as restoring homes.

Read the rest of the green news here.

shaker heights becomes latest city to vie for bike-friendly community designation
Shaker Heights is seeking to become the next city in Northeast Ohio to earn a bicycle-friendly community designation from the League of American Bicyclists. A crowdfunding campaign launched this month to raise funds for 25 additional bike racks for the city illustrates one way the leafy east-side community has redoubled its efforts to develop cycling amenities.

"The city just finished its second application," explains Rick Smith of the advocacy group Bike Shaker and the Shaker Heights Public Works and Safety Committee. "One thing the League encourages cities to do is provide bike parking around the community, so we figured that we'd try to focus on that as low-hanging fruit."

So far, the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights and Lakewood are the only ones in Northeast Ohio to receive the increasingly coveted designation. Each one has earned a bronze-level award for its efforts. By comparison, Portland, Oregon, is the only major city in the U.S. to earn a platinum-level designation.

The IndieGogo campaign aims to raise $4,500 to help fund racks produced by Metro Metal Works, a project of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries that employs low-income individuals. The bike racks will be installed at public and private locations throughout the city. The goal is to paint them "Shaker Red," pending city approval, Smith says, to enhance the city's brand as a bike-friendly community.

The city also is offering five cycling-related courses through its Department of Recreation, and plans are in the works to add more "sharrows." The next step is to revisit the Lee Road plan and add bike lanes/infrastructure there, Smith says.

"The city is getting serious," notes Smith, citing the fact that Shaker Heights now has a Bicycle Programs Manager and has issued a proclamation designating May as Bike Month throughout the city, similar to other communities around the country.

"It's slow going, but all agree that cycling is an asset to the community, and that cycling improvements improve property values and quality of life," says Smith.


Source: Rick Smith
Writer: Lee Chilcote
livability for residents, businesses job one for neighborhood non-profits
It’s no secret that "destination" development is happening all across Cleveland. But thanks to the diligent work of community development corporations (CDCs), there also is a renewed focus on improving livability for the residents who call their neighborhoods home.
city of cleveland installs 40 recycling bins downtown as part of 'year of zero waste' initiative
The City of Cleveland has installed 40 recycling bins downtown as part of its "ongoing efforts to increase recycling bins and materials diverted from landfills," according to a press release from the Office of Sustainability. The bins, which are being funded by Cleveland’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, are being rolled out as part of the Year of Zero Waste, which is part of Mayor Jackson's Sustainable Cleveland initiative.

“The presence of recycling bins downtown is a visible way for residents, employees and tourists to understand that Cleveland is committed to sustainability and to do their part by recycling,” said Jenita McGowan, Chief of Sustainability, in a release. “These bins not only provide opportunities for the public to recycle in high traffic areas downtown, but also increase the City’s recycling rates. We look forward to collecting metric information from these bins to inform future expansion of recycling in public spaces.”

The blue-lidded recycle bins have been placed next to existing waste receptacles. They are located between West 9th Street and East 12th Street from Lakeside Avenue to Prospect Avenue, and there are also some locations on Euclid Avenue near Playhouse Square and Cleveland State University.

For more information on the Year of Zero Waste, click here.


Source: Jenita McGowan
Writer: Lee Chilcote
'rooms to let' to transform vacant slavic village homes into pop-up art galleries
An innovative art installation that transformed empty homes in Columbus into day-long art galleries is coming to Slavic Village.

Rooms to Let: CLE will take place Saturday, May 17 on Forman Avenue. The event promises not only temporary art installations that transform vacant homes into interpretive displays, but also a block party and street tour featuring live music on porches and activities for the whole family.

Ben Campbell, Commercial Development Officer with Slavic Village Development, says he got inspired to bring Rooms to Let to Cleveland after seeing the impact it made in Columbus. He also loves the idea of hiring mostly local artists to help transform the houses. So he partnered with other SVD staff, Zygote Press and Rooms to Let: Columbus to bring the project to vacancy-pocked Slavic Village.

Rooms to Let isn't just an art show in an empty house; the project transforms the house itself into an art installation, transforming telltale signs of abandonment like broken drywall into symbols of fortitude, loss and renewal.

"Among the 11 installations created by 28 artists, visitors will find fabric pushing out of holes in walls, kitchen images painted on the walls of a demolished kitchen and a giant hole in a floor exposing a message on floor joists," Jim Weiker wrote last year in a Columbus Dispatch article. "Structural issues that would have been major flaws in a gallery have been seized upon as artistic opportunities."

Several curators -- Westleigh Harper and Michael Horton of MAKER design studio, Barbara Bachtell of Broadway School of Music & the Arts and artist Scott Pickering -- will select specific artists interested in transforming the abandoned and foreclosed homes. The houses are located in the area surrounding the Slavic Village Recovery project, and they're all slated for eventual rehabilitation.

"Given the larger context of Slavic Village’s unique history and the national attention received in the wake of the American foreclosure crisis, Rooms to Let: Cleveland creates an opportunity to see one of Cleveland’s most historic neighborhoods in new light," touts the project's Facebook page.

Rooms to Let: CLE is supported by a Cuyahoga Arts and Culture project grant.


Source: Ben Campbell
Writer: Lee Chilcote
jonathon sawyer launches kickstarter campaign to help fund new university circle restaurant
Jonathon Sawyer, the award-winning chef behind Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat, is opening a new restaurant with his wife Amelia. The venue, to be called Trentina, will feature cuisine from the Trento region of northern Italy, where Amelia's family is from. It will open in the former Sergio's space in University Circle in the coming months.

Sawyer describes Trentina as a "passion project" that will allow him to pay tribute to his wife's heritage while introducing the cuisine of Northern Italy to a wider audience.

"I always had an affinity with 'the Boot,' as it were," he says. "When I started Bar Cento, it was really a Roman restaurant in the style of the street mongers of Rome. I didn’t want to repeat that, but I knew my wife’s family had tie-ins with Trento."
 
He traveled there and fell in love. "We subsequently returned -- more than 100 days in past four years, in fact. The thing I keep coming back to is how similar the growing seasons are in Trento and the Cuyahoga Valley. The indigenous people are very similar to the ethnic backgrounds of a lot of Clevelanders; there's Austrian, Swiss, Slovenian… so much more so than just straight-up Italian."

To help fund the restaurant and pay for some extras like a pasta extruder, wood-burning grill and double-sided hearth, Sawyer launched a Kickstarter campaign. The original goal was $21,999, but the project already has exceeded that amount by nearly $10,000 with 18 days still left to go.

So Sawyer set a new, loftier goal: "We want to be the most-funded hospitality Kickstarter campaign in Ohio, whatever that is," he jokes.

Sawyer certainly has earned his fan club, but the campaign rewards also don't hurt. For $100, you can take a cooking class that normally would cost $150. Three hundred bucks buys a cocktail named after you, while $600 gets you meals shipped to your home for six months. The list goes on and on, all the way up to dinner at your house for 20 of "your foodiest friends and family," cooked by the chef himself ($500).

Trentina will offer fine dining with showy tableside service like polenta seared over burning embers. Sawyer says, "For us, it will be the first time we'll be able to accurately portray cuisine with ingredients from just outside our back door."


Source: Jonathon Sawyer
Writer: Lee Chilcote