The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has seen increases in bus and transit ridership for nine months straight, and the number of riders on the Red Line in January was the highest since 1988.

Yet this month, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a surface transportation bill known as H.R. 7 that would eliminate dedicated federal funds for public transit across the country.

RTA is advocating against the cuts by working with Representative Steven LaTourette and other members of Congress to promote an amendment that would restore federally guaranteed funding.

"If you leave it up to chance that public transit gets funded, that's a big chance to take," says Mary McCahon, RTA's Media Relations Manager. The change would require agencies to lobby for federal funding each year, she says. "We provide 200,000 rides per day, and federal funding is our third biggest revenue source."

McCahon says that while the bill has been tabled, it is scheduled to come back to the floor of the House of Representatives for further discussion this week.

RTA's increased ridership is due in part to higher gas prices and ongoing Innerbelt construction, McCahon says. Improved marketing efforts, partnerships with businesses and the popularity of the Health Line are also factors.

For more information about H.R. 7 and the ongoing federal transportation bill debate, visit the RTA newsroom or American Public Transit Association website.


Source: Mary McCahon
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Nearly 60 percent of newly-created jobs require a postsecondary degree, yet only six percent of Cleveland residents hold an associate's degree and just eight percent hold a bachelor's degree.

This stark statistic is one of the driving forces behind the fledgling Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, an unprecedented collaboration among 15 colleges and universities, 25 nonprofit organizations, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cuyahoga County. This new effort seeks to boost the number of college graduates in Northeast Ohio.

"Every day, there are 3,000 jobs that the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Summa Health Center can't fill," explains Lee Friedman, CEO of College Now Greater Cleveland, a member organization of the Compact. "If you can't increase educational attainment, then you can't fill jobs. At some point, if these organizations can't find talent, then they can't grow."

While this lofty goal is hardly unusual or unique, what makes the Compact stand out is its regional approach towards addressing the higher education gap. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is increasingly touting the benefits of addressing such problems on a regional level. Cuyahoga County has not historically been involved in education, yet Executive Ed Fitzgerald has joined the Compact. Until now, the colleges and universities involved in the Compact also have not worked together to seek a comprehensive solution to the problem.

"It truly takes a village to help students get to school and graduate from school," says Friedman. "Many of the young people we're helping are first generation college students who don't have anyone to help them get on that path. The commitment of these university presidents is truly best in class."

The goal of the Higher Education Compact is to ensure that students are ready for, have access to and graduate from college. To achieve this goal, leaders will create student-focused action plans, educate the community on why college is important, help students become college ready, link them with scholarship and financial aid opportunities and create a College Success Dashboard that measures results.


Source: Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, Lee Friedman
Writer: Lee Chilcote

As the number of local bike commuters continues to increase, so too does the number of savvy entrepreneurs who serve and service them. In recent years, a mini boom of bike-based businesses has developed across Northeast Ohio, including frame builders, messenger bag makers, rickshaw drivers and an indoor bike park that attracts visitors from throughout the Midwest.

Vedette Gavin knows how difficult it can be for any new initiative to take root in an older neighborhood. So, instead of pushing her "Healthy Eating and Active Living" program onto residents of the Buckeye and Shaker Square-Larchmere neighborhoods, she has planted seeds in resident leaders who are growing it from the ground up.

"Place impacts choice and choice impacts health," says Gavin, a Community Health Fellow with the Saint Luke's Foundation, a three-year placement that focuses on community initiatives that support healthy lifestyles. "What I do is help people to wrap their arms around these ideas and make change."

The Healthy Eating and Active Living program is conducted in partnership with the Case Center for Reducing Health Disparities at MetroHealth. Residents, stakeholders and community groups are represented on an Advisory Board.

So far, Gavin has partnered with a local salon and barbershop to introduce "Shop Talk," a series of informal, drop-in conversations about healthy lifestyles; introduced a community gardening program that offers residents simple, low-maintenance ways to grow fresh produce; and organized fun community exercise programs that include line dancing and the ever-popular Zumba.

Gavin, who has a Master's in Public Health and an evident passion for helping to make low-income, urban neighborhoods healthier places to live, says her goal is to ensure that the program lives well beyond her three-year tenure. "We're taking healthy eating and active living and weaving it into the neighborhood."


Source: Vedette Gavin
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The newly minted nonprofit Bike Cleveland will bring together Northeast Ohio cyclists through cycling events, educational programming and advocacy work, says Jacob Van Sickle, the group's new Executive Director. The group also will provide area cyclists with a unified voice in transportation planning across the region.

Over the course of the next year, Bike Cleveland plans to focus on prioritizing bike investments in the West Shoreway project, collaborating with the City of Cleveland to update and prioritize its Bikeway Master Plan, creating fun biking events and advocating for cyclist-friendly policies throughout the region.

One of the group's first advocacy projects will be to rally against HR 7, the transportation bill that has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives. That bill would eliminate dedicated funding for transportation, cut funding that helps to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians, and shortchange funding for repairing existing roads and bridges and improving roadways for cyclists.

For several years, Cleveland's cycling community has been fragmented among different organizations. The launch of Bike Cleveland last summer and now the hiring of Van Sickle unites cyclists under a common banner for the first time.

Van Sickle says Cleveland's energized cycling community has a lot ot be proud of. The 2010 American Community Survey shows that .8 percent of Clevelanders now use a bicycle as their primary mode of transportation to work -- a figure well above the national average of .53 percent. This is a 280-percent increase over one decade, giving Cleveland the highest 10-year increase in the country.

“I am looking forward to working with current and future Bike Cleveland members, and the greater cycling community, to continue to grow the cycling movement in Greater Cleveland," said Van Sickle in a press release.


Source: Jacob Van Sickle
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Local writer, speaker and entrepreneur Craig James has some big ideas. In fact, he is a regular contributor to NEOtropolis's "What’s the Big Idea" segment on PBS. He and his partner Sue James formed CatalystStrategies, which helps organizations best communicate their message, market and meaning. In this "Letter to Cleveland," James pens an open letter to the city he loves.

The nonprofit organization LiveCleveland has launched a website which provides urban parents with comprehensive school information for the areas in which they live. Our Neighborhood Schools allows parents to search by community and zip code to determine the best educational opportunities available to them across the spectrum of public, private and parochial schools.

"We wanted to battle head-on the perception that there are a lack of school choices in the City of Cleveland," says Jeff Kipp, Executive Director of LiveCleveland. "Our Neighborhood Schools is a searchable database and resource for parents that highlights high-performing schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as well as charter school and private school options."

The new website was made possible through a partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and grant funding from the Cleveland Foundation. LiveCleveland shares with CMSD a marketing and web design staff person who works to increase enrollment in the city's public schools.

"CMSD basically had no marketing strategy previously, and was losing hundreds of kids each year to charter schools who were doing a more proactive job," says Kipp. "Now the district is trying to market its own strong schools to parents."

The website, which attracts about 500 unique visitors per month, is a "win-win" for LiveCleveland, CMSD and the city's neighborhoods and schools, Kipp adds.


Source: Jeff Kipp
Writer : Lee Chilcote

For decades, the east side of Cleveland was almost hopelessly cut off from its lakefront by scars of past planning mistakes -- the ugly sutures of highways, concrete barriers, railroads and, of course, industry.

No more. With the opening this week of the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, these impoverished neighborhoods -- and indeed, all of Greater Cleveland and beyond -- have access to a premiere wildlife habitat in the heart of the city.

This new, 88-acre urban preserve is located just north of where Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. meets I-90, and it is accessible from Lakeshore Boulevard before it enters Bratenahl. The park is built upon the former Dike 14, a dredging disposal facility operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1979 until 1999.

For more than a decade, a coalition of environmental groups calling themselves the Dike 14 Nature Preservation Committee has been fighting to turn this manmade outcropping into a park. Their vision was simple: no ballfields, just park benches and a loop trail that allow visitors a peaceful retreat among the flora and fauna, as well as stupendous view of downtown Cleveland from the "beak" of the park.

Thanks to the critical leadership of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority, this vision finally became a reality. When new CEO Will Friedman took the Port's helm, he made the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve an institutional priority. The Port will continue to manage and oversee the Preserve now that it's open.

Despite the barbed wire fences, birds still stop here on their annual migrations, trees and plants grow in abandon, and many animals call this place home. (Truth is: hikers, birders and wildlife lovers have been slipping through a neglected gap in the fence for more than a decade to enjoy winsome walks along the coast.)

Still -- there's something to be said for the fact that it's now official.


Source: Earthday Coalition
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The foreclosure prevention plans that President Obama announced in his recent State of the Union address may help struggling Northeast Ohio homeowners, says Lou Tisler of the nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS), but our hard-hit region is not out of the woods yet.

"When lenders and government-sponsored entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac look at what keeps people out of foreclosure, they see it's principal reduction," says Tisler. "The new program that the Obama administration has proposed offers triple the incentives to lenders to keep people in their homes through principal reduction."

Although Tisler says that it's "obscene" that the government must provide lenders with additional help, he adds that it's crucial that lenders come to the table and negotiate. "Banks continue to say that they can't reduce principal because that would mean that every homeowner would want a reduction. Yet we're not seeing people strategically defaulting and trashing their credit ratings. People are coming through our door nonstop, and until they're gainfully employed, it won't stop."

Unfortunately, Tisler does see an end to the steady stream of people calling his office seeking help. Yet he believes that principal reductions, more effective foreclosure relief and an economic uptick that reduces unemployment will eventually reduce foreclosures. Until then, he says, Northeast Ohio can continue to expect the foreclosure problem to be an unwelcome guest on its doorstep.


Source: Lou Tisler
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Liz Maugins of Zygote Press remembers the moment in 2008 when she realized just how fragile her own organization's existence was in Cleveland's ever-shrinking nonprofit ecosystem. Like many nonprofit groups, she was looking at fewer philanthropic dollars during the worst recession in decades. Meanwhile, many foundations were stressing collaboration or proposing outright mergers.

"Like a lot of nonprofit leaders, I was freaking out and wondering what would come our way," recounts Maugins, who worried that her small nonprofit would be wiped out by the tidal wave of the national recession. "So I started sending out messages to other arts leaders to see if they were feeling the same thing."

Not surprisingly, other nonprofit leaders were losing sleep over their situations, too. Yet rather than retreating to their own private islands to struggle in maudlin isolation, Maugins and her colleagues banded together for survival.

"The number one challenge was that we had no exposure, especially with the dwindling arts coverage locally," says Maugins. "Yet we knew that our arts organizations were doing amazing things with education and other programming, and we're the economic engines of our neighborhoods."

Today, Zygote and 27 other groups in Northeast Ohio have banded together to form the Collective Arts Network (CAN), received a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, and produced a magazine-style journal touting their work. Ten thousand copies have been distributed to galleries and other hotspots in the city.

Next up, the CAN group is working on other kinds of collaboration, including programming, events and sustaining the journal as a quarterly publication.


Source: Liz Maugins
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Slavic Village, a neighborhood once considered to be the epicenter of the national foreclosure crisis, took another step this week towards remaking itself as a regional hub for urban recreation. A public meeting was held to kick off the design of a new skateboard park that will be located at Broadway and Union Avenue on the site of a former brownfield.

"It all started when a neighborhood resident approached us about creating a skate park," says Jacob Van Sickle, Active Living Coordinator for Slavic Village Development, the nonprofit community development group that serves the neighborhood. "From there, we worked to build awareness of skateboarding by creating the 'East Meets West' competition, offering lessons at Stella Walsh Recreation Center and engaging skateboarders in the neighborhood."

Van Sickle soon found that skateboarders were leaving the city in droves to pursue their sport elsewhere. The reason is that the City of Cleveland lacked a decent, permanent skatepark. "Many of them are artistic and entrepeneurial; they're part of the creative class," he says. "We saw an economic development opportunity to attract people from across the region to our neighborhood."

Slavic Village Development engaged the nonprofit Public Square Group to help create a new park. Both parties saw it as a way to redevelop the blighted Broadway Avenue corridor. "Skateboarding evolved out of an urban environment, and skaters have always reclaimed less developed public spaces," says Vince Frantz, President and Executive Director of the Public Square Group.

Van Sickle and Frantz expect the new park to create amenities for skaters and non-skaters alike, as benches and spectator amenities will be incorporated. The design has been funded by Neighborhood Progress Inc., and additional public meetings are scheduled to take place in the coming months. As the design is completed, project leaders will seek sources of funding to build the park.


Source: Jacob Van Sickle, Vince Frantz
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Families in Central know well the distinctive whistle blow of Heaventrain, and that it means hope is on its way. They also know to follow its call to help rebuild their east side Cleveland neighborhood through fostering stronger neighbor-to-neighbor relationships, a mission that the nonprofit Lighthouse Inc. has been fulfilling for more than 30 years.

Heaventrain is a full-size bus that Lighthouse has outfitted as a mobile classroom. It serves more than 1,200 kids every Saturday, providing them with character-based education, fun and games, and a free meal.

"Central is not a neighborhood where parents typically feel safe letting their kids just go out and play," explains Lighthouse Executive Director Andy Batten of the community, which is home to several low-income, subsidized housing projects. "We provide an almost carnival-like atmosphere, and then the kids are fed."

In addition to Heaventrain, Lighthouse runs a tutoring program at East Tech High School that builds in-depth relationships with kids to ensure success, manages a youth basketball program to provide kids with positive alternatives to gang involvement, and provides a summer-long nutrition program.

"One of the high school students on our basketball team turned things around and went from a 1.4 grade point average to a 3.8 grade point average," says Batten.

Yet what he is most proud of is how Lighthouse develops its programs. Rather than repeating programs each year, the organization continually evaluates its successes and failures and how it's serving the community. "We work with residents to build programming, and only develop programs if the neighborhood says it's important and neighbors are willing to get involved."

Last year, the charity rater Guidestar rated Lighthouse the second best charity overall in Ohio, and the third best charity in the U.S. for nutrition programs.


Source: Andy Batten
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Former County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, who prophesied Ohio's foreclosure crisis as early as 2000 and was a prime mover behind Ohio's land banking law and the Cuyahoga Land Bank, is now working with the newly formed Thriving Communities Institute to form land banks throughout Ohio.

The Thriving Communities Institute was formed last year by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, a nonprofit that works to preserve undeveloped land in Northeast Ohio, as a way to spread the successful land banking movement. It has since grown rapidly, and Rokakis now finds himself traveling throughout Ohio to provide technical assistance and help counties set up land banks.

Since the Cuyahoga Land Bank was formed, Rokakis says, it has effectively shut down the supply of low value properties to investors in the county, secured agreements with lenders to acquire distressed properties, and facilitated over 1,000 demolitions of eyesore properties throughout Cleveland.

Now other counties in Ohio are following Cuyahoga County's lead. "There's a land bank in Montgomery County now, Franklin is close and we've just been hired by Hamilton County," says Rokakis, stressing that vacant properties are not just an urban issue. "Land banks work in urban, rural and suburban settings."

The gradually declining numbers of foreclosures are misleading, Rokakis says, because they don't reflect the number of delinquent homeowners or the fact that banks are frequently walking away from properties without taking title. To address these ongoing problems, cities and counties need more tools and money for acquisition and redevelopment. "If we don't take the eyesores and turn them into things of beauty, the problem will only get worse," he says. "This isn't just about demolition, it's also about positioning properties for redevelopment."

The long-term solution? Instead of another bank bailout, relief for underwater homeowners and communities saddled with foreclosures is needed, he says. Rokakis is now working with a group of state and federal legislators to propose a federal tax credit that would create a pool of money for property redevelopment.


Source: Jim Rokakis
Writer: Lee Chilcote

A $3.2 million grant from the federal government's Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program announced last week will help pay for green upgrades to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. The private, nonprofit rail line carries nearly 200,000 passengers yearly, including more than 25,000 who carry bikes aboard the train, as it traverses through the picturesque Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Nearly half of the grant funding -- about $1.4 million -- will go towards building a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Cuyahoga River at Rockside Road. The bridge will span from the Rockside Station parking lot to the Lock 39 Trailhead along the Towpath Trail. It will facilitate safer, easier access for bikers and hikers who wish to ride the rail and take advantage of the scenic Towpath.

Steve Wait, President and CEO of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, says that the funds will also help the rail line integrate technology that will make it more efficient and environmentally friendly. "We'll be investing money in upgrading and rebuilding an older locomotive to save up to 75 percent in fuel and also reduce emissions," he says. "Many commercial railroads are investing heavily in newer green technologies, but as a small nonprofit we never had the money before."

Other planned improvements for the rail line include rebuilding an older passenger car to make it more accessible, retooling a baggage car to add extra room for bikes, and replacing an old power generator rail car to make it greener and more efficient.


Source: Steve Wait
Writer: Lee Chilcote

ReImagining a More Sustainable Cleveland, a creative land reuse initiative to transform empty city lots into gardens, orchards and farms, has received the American Planning Association's National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Sustaining Places.

The program, which is led jointly by Neighborhood Progress (NPI), the City of Cleveland, Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and LAND Studio, was first launched in 2010. In its first round, the program funded 56 vacant lot reuse projects, including 13 community gardens, 10 market gardens, six pocket parks and three vineyards.

Now in its second round, ReImagining Cleveland will spend $1 million in 2011-2012 to turn city-owned vacant lots into community green spaces and expanded side yards for residents. To date, nearly 60 homeowners have applied for side yard expansions and 16 green space projects are being implemented.

"ReImagining is an incredibly significant and collaborative effort that helps transform neighborhoods into safer and more stable communities," said Joel Ratner, President and CEO of Neighborhood Progress. "We are so proud that the program has received this honor from the American Planning Association."


Source: Neighborhood Progress
Writer: Lee Chilcote

What's the cumulative impact of Cleveland's 200-plus community gardens, 20-plus farmers markets and 60-odd acres of urban land that have been tilled and planted for a future harvest?

That's an as yet unanswered question, says the City of Cleveland's new Sustainability Chief, but one she hopes to glean serious answers to in the coming year. Billed "The Year of Local Food" by Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a grassroots, city-led movement to employ sustainability as an engine to grow the regional economy, 2012 is going to be a momentous year.

"Local food is exciting because it combines entrepreneurship and environmental benefits with making connections in the local community," says Jenita McGowan, who last week succeeded Andrew Watterson as the city's Sustainability Chief. "We're really hoping to better connect Cleveland residents with local food, since many people still don't know what is available and how to access it."

Other plans for 2012 include increasing the number of urban farmers in the city, tying into the West Side Market's centennial celebrations this fall, and garnering commitments from large institutions to buy more food locally.

"The Year of Local Food allows all local groups to co-market their work," says McGowan. "That helps them to tie into a larger movement."

Sustainable Cleveland 2019 will host a kick-off event for the Year of Local Food this Friday, Jan. 20th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cleveland City Hall at 601 Lakeside.


Source: Jenita McGowan
Writer: Lee Chilcote