“Plastics and Ohio” forum August 29, 2019 Rocky River Library

“Plastics and Ohio” forum
Plastic pollution, is it the next burning river?
What can residents do?

August 29, 2019 at 7pm

the flyer is here
the summary is here
the video is here

Moderator: Jocelyn Travis, Sierra Club Ohio

w/panelists:
•Cheryl Johncox, Sierra Club Ohio,

•Sunny Simon, District 11 Cuyahoga County Council,

•Sarah Damron, Surfrider Foundation,

•Sarah Mathews, Rumpke Waste,

•Cristie Snyder, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District

Rocky River Public Library, 1600 Hampton Rd. Rocky River OH 44116

Cosponsored by LWV Greater Cleveland, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, the Bay Green Team, Rocky River Green Team and Rocky River Public Library

Re-visiting Mayor Stokes’ Cuyahoga River Pollution Tour, 50 Years Later WCPN 6/18/19

Re-visiting Mayor Stokes’ Cuyahoga River Pollution Tour, 50 Years Later
WCPN 6/18/19 by Elizabeth Miller
On June 23, 1969, a day after the fire on the Cuyahoga River, Mayor Carl Stokes took reporters on a four-stop pollution tour. It would turn out to be the last fire on the river. We retraced the tour 50 years later.
by Elizabeth Miller 90.3 WCPN ideastream
The link is here
 
https://www.ideastream.org/news/re-visiting-mayor-stokes-cuyahoga-river-pollution-tour-50-years-later

A Cuyahoga River timeline, from Moses Cleaveland to Blazing Paddles By Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com June 19, 2019

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The history of the Cuyahoga River is much more than a fire.
The 100 miles of curves has always mixed city and nature, recreation and industry.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the fire that caught the nation’s attention, learn more about what shaped the Cuyahoga River and how the river shapes us.
By Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com June 19, 2019
 

“Plastics and Lake Erie” a forum on Tues Dec 4, 2018


Tuesday December 4, 2018 at 7:00 pm
“Plastics and Lake Erie”
The flyer is here
The video is here

Rocky River Library, 1600 Hampton Rd, Rocky River 44116
Moderated by Elizabeth Miller, Environmental Reporter, Ideastream
Panelists:
Jill Bartolotta, Extension Educator, Ohio Sea Grant College Program
Crystal M.C. Davis, Policy Director, Alliance for the Great Lakes
Erin D. Huber, Executive Director and Founder, Drink Local Drink Tap


Elizabeth Miller

Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club, Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland, Cleveland.com, Ideastream, Rocky River High School Environmental Club and Bay Village Green Team
Corporate sponsor: First Interstate Properties, Ltd.

 

City Planning Commission adopts new plan for East Side lakefront greenway Plain Dealer April 14, 2016

The link is here

http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2016/04/city_planning_commission_adopt.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The city’s Planning Commission on Friday voted unanimously to adopt a plan for an East Side lakefront greenway loop with new connections to neighborhoods.

Proponents characterized the plan as “unsexy” and “meat and potatoes,” but also as pragmatic and achievable.

“We wanted something that could be built in our lifetimes, or at least our work lifetimes, and not so expensive that it couldn’t be built,” said Bobbi Reichtell, executive director of Campus District Inc., one of the community development organizations that led the study.

The plan aims to improve access to a stretch of waterfront walled off from Lake Erie by the I-90 Shoreway, the lakefront railroads and Burke Lakefront Airport.

Generally, the East Side lakefront is less accessible and has less high-quality public space than the West Side, which boasts Edgewater Park.

The plan is an attempt at addressing that imbalance, and to follow up on ambitions outlined in the city’s 2004 Waterfront District Plan, but on a relatively tight budget.

The $24.5 million plan calls for creating 8.1 miles of greenway paths along North and South Marginal roads, with connections to North Coast Harbor to the west and the lakefront marinas and Gordon Park to the east.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to adopt the plan, making it the city’s official vision, and eligible for funding.

Likely sources of money would include federal programs that could provide cash by 2021 at the earliest, said Michelle Johnson, a director at Akron-based Environmental Design Group, which co-authored the plan with the Cleveland office of Michael Baker International, an engineering firm.

“The implementation is obviously going to be incremental,” said Freddy Collier, the city’s planning director. “The city will be working in tandem with others to explore financial possibilities wherever possible.”

A key portion of the plan depends on moving the chain-link fence on the south side of Burke Lakefront Airport three feet to the north to improve the existing Lakefront Bike Path on North Marginal Road.

Today, the path varies from 6 to 10 feet in width, but because it’s right next to the fence, the usable width is narrower, the plan said. Hydrants also exist in the middle of the path, making it dangerous.

Johnson said the plan calls for moving two 800-foot-long sections of the fence three feet to the north.

“We are very supportive of this project to identify and overcome those barriers to the development,” Pat Singleton, chief of business development and management at the city’s Division of Port Control, said about moving the fence.

She said the division, based on the newly approved plan, would apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to move the fence.

Other portions of the plan call for creating a new pedestrian and bike bridge across the I-90 Shoreway to North Marginal Road at East 40th Street, plus a similar bridge from the city’s Municipal Parking Lot at East 18th Street to South Marginal Road.

The bridges alone would account for nearly half of the cost of the plan.

Developer Fred Geis, a member of the Planning Commission, said he’d like to see the greenway loop finished as a single project, instead of having the city build a collection of small segments as small pots of money become available.

He criticized the patchwork approach to completing the Cleveland section of the Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley, which intersperses completed and incomplete sections.

“It changes every year, and the street markings can’t keep up.”

He praised the new lakefront plan as “super necessary.”

“It’s an ambitious plan,” he said. “I really hope you get it done from stem to stern.”

 

Lake Erie aggregation

Bill Roberts

PBS Newshour 8.3.2014 about Lake Erie Algae Blooms

2 Lake Erie from Cleveland Historical

Lake Erie’s 20-Year Battle With Zebra Mussels. Article from Twineline Magazine, 2009 Winter/Spring edition published by Ohio State University

4 Lake Transportation from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

“Emerging Routes to Environmental Activism: Lake Erie Sportsmen and the League of Women Voters” by Terrianne Shulte D’Youville College Excursions Journal 2011

Saving Lake Erie Short Documentary from National Geographic

Environmentalism by David Beach written in 1997 for Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

8 Great Lakes Area of Concern from Wikipedia

9 Fishing Industry in Cleveland

10 Lake Erie from Wikipedia

Teaching Cleveland Digital