It was inevitable that the flush of excitement that fueled the formation of 20 ‘work groups’ at the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit would meld with reality. Since many of the groups share common visions, recently they and rovers acting on their own have started merging. It has been suggested by the city that this would be a desired outcome, but, to their credit, five communications groups have decided to meet as one. The so-called “G5” includes writers, urban planners, organizational management professions and members of the Engage 1.6 Million, Communications & Branding, Public Compact, Strategic Partnerships and Learning and Post Summit Momentum groups

Others−like Advanced Energy and Green Building−are starting to join in conversations with groups they see sharing interests.

Read more.

No doubt, building bridges is an adult endeavor. The nuts and bolts, the girders, the EISs and RFPs, and then the responsibility inherent with carving a form that people will or will not take pride in as they negotiate a city that is or is not sustainably evolving. Yes, building bridges is not for the unserious, the depthless. And so its ironic (yet not unsurprising) that ODOT has reacted to the latest round of Inner Belt discussion with a bit of childish unsophistication; in effect, hijacking the conversation by not allowing one—not unlike the kid refusing the rest of us the game by taking their ball back home with them.

At least that is how it felt when word broke last Thursday that ODOT would in fact not be ready to reply to the Planning Commission’s formal resolution asking ODOT to reconsider the addition of a multipurpose path, then waking up the next morning to see that ODOT was in fact ready to make a statement—in a vacuum, to a reporter. The answer: leave us alone, we have serious work to do that does not involve amending paperwork that could allow for the betterment of the designs we’re paying $3 million to request.

What could you do with hundreds of professionals in 220 hours? Apparently ODOT thinks between now and March 2, it’s not enough to amend electronic documents that can vastly improve the future for Greater Cleveland’s citizens. The documents, which include ODOT’s environmental impact statement, would allow thousands to choose to ride a bike or walk on the new Innerbelt Bridge and catch views of downtown on the way to an Indians game or to dinner in Tremont.

“When you design a bridge, you don’t design it just for cars you design it for people,” Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone told ODOT Innerbelt Project Manager Craig Hebebrand at today’s Cleveland Planning Commission. “Why should the citizens of Cleveland settle for second class? We should demand (a multi-use path on the bridge) from the design phase. We should demand something better. Let’s see what the prices come in. In Shanghai and in Portland they are designing bridges for people.”

Hebebrand said it’s too late from ODOT’s perspective to make any changes. “There’s no way to physically amend the documents to add the addendum in time.”

Planning Commission member Lillian Kuri, however, got Hebebrand to admit that there will be many addendums to the Environmental Impact Statement before the end. Adding an addendum to that EIS for a bike/ped multi-use path now should not be used an excuse, Kuri said.

• In late breaking news, ODOT will not discuss the multi-use path on the Innerbelt Bridge at tomorrow's Cleveland Planning Commission meeting, even though they were confirmed on the agenda. ODOT representatives will be at the Planning Commission meeting anyway, presenting plans for the West Shoreway, but will not respond to a resolution approved by the Planning Commission inviting ODOT to address questions and concerns on the possibility of a multi-purpose path on the new Inner Belt Bridge. The local office is waiting as "ODOT Central (Columbus) formulates a response," writes an ODOT 12 staffer. Bicyclists, joggers, walkers and sustainability advocates are still expecting to have a conversation with ODOT about this at a future Planning Commission meeting. To support a bike/pedestrian path on the Innerbelt Bridge, click here.

The 2019 Sustainable Water group met on Jan. 28 to reaffirm its mission: To promote, educate and support the sustainable use of water.

“What is our vision for sustainable water—where do we want to be in 2019?” asked Nikki Luna, green team coordinator at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. “We need metrics, like no beach closures due to contamination." And no more plastic-bottled water.

Read more.

• Winners were announced last Friday (January 29th) for the third annual Cleveland Design Competition. This year’s project focus was the Lakefront Station (the current Amtrak site), which required contestants to design a multi-modal transit center that could double as a pedestrian path bridging the Mall with North Coast Harbor. The winners—Mario Caceres and Christian Canonico of France—were among 83 designers who submitted proposals for the project. The top designs can viewed here.
• Although winter is traditionally a downtime in the local fresh food market scene, several farmer’s market sites—including Shaker Square and Kamm’s Corner—have indoor hours of operation. Click here for more information.
• A new report out of Policy Matters Ohio suggests that the presence of a clean energy sector is not a matter of if but when, and Ohio will only benefit if it prepares its industrial workforce in accordance with the renewable energy and efficiency industries. While the report states that Ohio has many components of a green training infrastructure already in place, there are gaps that still exist. The report, then, recommends a few ways to further integrate the green training infrastructure, including: re-investing in existing vocational/tech programs rather then creating sometimes unnecessary programs, and eliminating silos between government and business so that investments in training programs are driven by actual demand.

Last week the Yale Climate Project and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication released the results of national survey that follows up on their 2008 survey, Climate Change in the American Mind. 

The survey focused on the public’s belief and attitudes about global warming and how they’ve changed since 2008. The results are alarming. In the past year public opinion on the topic has cooled; Americans are less convinced that climate change is happening.

The following summary of the survey results is from an email release by Anthony Leiserowitz, PhD, Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change and a principle investigator on the project.

• The percentage of Americans who think global warming is happening has declined 14 points, to 57 percent. 
• The percentage of Americans who think global warming is caused mostly by human activities has dropped 10 points, to 47 percent.
• Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.

In line with these shifting beliefs, there has been an increase in the number of Americans who think global warming will never harm people or other species in the United States or elsewhere.

State officials and sustainable transportation advocates cheered today's announcement of $400 million of federal funding for development of Ohio's "3C" passenger rail corridor linking Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. 

"With today’s historic announcement by President Obama, Ohio takes a major step toward modernizing our state’s transportation infrastructure," said Governor Ted Strickland. "The 3C Corridor will create economic development opportunities and serve as a model of environmental sustainability. Most importantly, it will put thousands of Ohioans to work over the next few years."  

See more on the 3C passenger rail plan here.

While the current plan will offer modest service at first -- a handful of trains a day at speeds up to 79 miles per hour -- it will be a vital downpayment on a transportation alternative that will begin to rebalance the state's transportation system after decades of automobile-oriented development. Go here for more on how the funds might be spent from an analysis by All Aboard Ohio.

The 2019 Sustainable Transportation Action Team held a well-organized meeting on January 27. The group—a cross section of cycling advocates, environmental groups, urban planners and staff from the city of Cleveland, NOACA and ODOT—has decided to focus on advocacy, policy, and improving the performance of current infrastructure.

The 2019 group claimed a victory recently on its work with the Cleveland Planning Commission, which passed a resolution of support for a multi-use path on the Innerbelt Bridge. The group expressed hope that the same collaboration and energy will be gathered around its concurrent efforts: Complete Streets legislation at Cleveland City Hall, improving the performance of the HealthLine, and winning federal support for Cleveland's bike plan. Read more.

Three Work Groups from the 2019 summit with an advanced energy focus toured NASA Glenn Research Center’s renewable energy labs yesterday. For decades, scientists here have been testing and building solar, wind, fuel cell, biofuels and waste heat for energy systems, and spinning off technology from the space program to the commercial market.

NASA has built local capacity for renewable energy intellectual property – which the agency sells or lends to firms like Athens, Ohio-based Sunpower, which developed a power condenser for LG refrigerators based on the nuclear propulsion system in spaceships (German company Microgen also modeled the system in a residential co-generation heating and cooling unit). We saw the high intensity photovoltaic (“PV”) concentrator systems developed by Bernard Sater when he worked at NASA. Sater’s invention led to his forming Greenfield Solar, a company that produces the solar concentrator in Oberlin, Ohio.