• Bill Moyers Journal investigates the mortgage foreclosure crunch and the impact on Cleveland tonight at 10 p.m. on WVIZ-PBS Channel 25. In 2007 and 2008 the City of Cleveland will have spent $12 million demolishing foreclosed and abandoned homes, the Journal reports. And the number of homeless students in Cleveland's public schools has increased by 40% over the last year. Read more.
• Want to learn about the latest developments in solar energy and the solar tax credits in Congress? NPR's Science Friday radio show today (7/18) at 2pm will feature a 'solar energy roundup' discussion.
• Locavores swear you can taste the difference with local food and that it’s more nutritious. Farmer’s markets are in full bloom right now. Saturday markets include The Coit Road Farmers Market at Huron Road Hospital (featuring blueberries, peaches, corn, tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash, sweet onions, new potatoes and farm fresh eggs); the North Union Farmers Markets at six locations including Shaker Square and Parma; The Countryside Farmers’ Market at Heritage Farms in Peninsula; The Tremont Farmer’s Market and more. For a complete list, go here.
• Do you want to learn more about how to reduce the carbon footprint of your meals? A local foods potluck on Thursday, July 31at Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath will share dishes and ideas about promoting a healthy and sustainable local food economy. Read more.
• How important is public transit to Cleveland?
  
  

• Merrick House is partnering with Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital's Injury Prevention Center and Safe Kids Greater Cleveland to offer a summer bike camp. For kids ages 10-13 living on the Near West Side of Cleveland, CVC summer bike camp is not just about traveling by bike. It's a way to explore the many educational, recreational and future career opportunities on the Near West Side in a supportive atmosphere of friends, neighbors and community. For more information, go here.
• Northeast Ohio (NEOCL) Citizens League, a new, citizen-led regionalism discussion group held its first meeting on July 9th. While its vision is in formation state, ultimately, NEOCL aims to return the voice of the citizen to the decision-making process and help build a new regional governance structure for NEOhio. Read the notes from the initial meeting (pdf).
• ParkWorks is hosting its biggest event of the year on Mall B downtown on Thursday, July 17th at 7 pm. Come watch "Blades of Glory," play bocce, croquet, badminton and cornhole. Ride your bike or take the RTA to the event to be entered into a drawing for free Cavs and Indians tickets, among other prizes. While at Mall B, also check out The Verdant Walk fully illuminated by solar energy technology.
• Attention NE Ohio architects, design firms and specifiers: Spec. samples don't have to end up in the dumpster. ZeroLandfill NE Ohio will collect and distribute your donated spec. waste to local artists and arts educators who seek out these items as viable studio and classroom supplies.
  
  

At a telephone press conference today, authors of "An Economic Analysis of the Wayne National Forest Plan," a new study by Greenfire, LLC, commissioned by the regional forest protection organization Heartwood, discussed their conclusions that the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) 15-year management plan for southern Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF)––Ohio’s only national forest––does not maximize net public benefits as required by law.

Study co-author, economist Christine Glaser, PhD, stated that the plan “does not create a net public benefit,” because both monetary and nonmonetary public costs are greater than public benefits. Andy Mahler, Heartwood Coordinator, summed up: “It’s really the worst of both worlds. Not only are we getting a degraded and cut-over public forest, but we are wasting tax money and preventing more desirable benefits from the forest in the process.”

The study evaluated costs of running USFS operations and found that “logging, mining, and off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails cost the Forest Service more than is coming back in revenues.” They also found that extensive pollution costs result from Forest Service plans to log more than 18,000 acres and to burn 68,000 acres (over a quarter of the Wayne) in the next ten years, as well as to expand OHV trails by over 100 miles.

The authors challenged the rationale for logging, burning, and OHVs on economic and environmental grounds. The study points out that Southeast Ohio has one of the highest air pollution levels in the nation, that four Wayne counties are in noncompliance with EPA particulate standards, and that OHVs are high emitters of particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrous oxides (NOx). The authors also found high costs in lost ecosystem services from FS activities.

• Burning River Fest needs your help at this year’s big environmental party taking place on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at the Nautica Entertainment Complex on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. Choose to help with admissions, bike parking attendants, merchandise sellers or as a recycling educator. Most are three hour shifts. Volunteers receive one Burning River Fest t-shirt, food/activity tickets and admission/parking passes. Become a volunteer today by registering online at www.burningriverfest.org
• Greater Cleveland has one of the highest rates of childhood lead poisoning in the nation. Despite this, only about half of at risk children are screened for lead poisoning. Next week (7/21) is Ohio Lead Poisoning Awareness Week. It kicks off with a press conference on Monday and continues with free lead testing throughout the week. Read more here.
• Next week is also a chance to flex your commuting muscle by participating in NOACA’s Commuter Challenge. Starting Sunday, July 20 the region’s transportation planning agency wants to know, “How many days can you avoid commuting alone?” Get connected with other carpoolers by logging on to NOACA’s Ride Share web site. Download a free county bike map to chart a bike commute route. Or ask your employer if telecommuting or flex time is an option. For more information, go here.

During the Second World War, conservation at home was more than a virtue, it was a crucial act that every American man, woman and child was asked to make in their daily lives. Saving every last scrap of metal, paper, even grease from frying pans for the good of the troops abroad was embedded in every move you made.

A brilliant series of posters sold the American public on quickly mobilizing around actions like “Plant a Victory Garden”, “Is your trip necessary?” or, emblazoned above an image of a war-weary soldier, “Have you really tried to save gas by getting into a car club?”

The fight against manmade global warming demands a similar mobilization campaign. On July 4th, 40 busses hit the streets of Cleveland with banners designed by Michael Bierut. They are asking people to enlist as a Green Patriot by using mass transit, advocating for green jobs, and changing their daily habits–right now–to improve our chances for survival. The Cleveland posters are a pilot for a nationwide Green Patriot campaign.

This Thursday at 10:30 a.m., join a local group of Green Patriots mustering at Public Square to ride RTA buses and spread the message while building support. You can also go online, sign a petition to fight global warming and create green jobs, figure out ways to tweak your actions to be more green, and view the WWII-era posters that inspired Green Patriots.

• Americans are tired of feeling like victims of high gas prices and are ready for innovative changes in how they live and get around, Former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening writes in Planetizen this week. Read it here.
• Tickets are now on sale for the Countryside Conservancy’s first fundraising event: “Taste of the Markets Fund Grazer.” Chef David Uecke will be preparing a variety of bite-sized creations featuring products available at the Countryside Farmers’ Markets. The event will take place on July 29th from 6-9 pm at Anthe’s at the Lakes in Akron. Tickets are $45, make your reservations at the market or call 330.657.2178.
• On July 7th, nearly 100 Earth First! activists occupied the headquarters of American Municipal Power (AMP), an electric utility in Columbus, Ohio. AMP-Ohio has proposed a coal-fired power plant that would emit 7.3 million tons of CO2 every year in Meigs County, an area with a high concentration of coal industries and related health problems such as asthma and cancer. Costs of the coal plant have escalated from $1.2 to $2.9 billion since October of 2005. Morgan Kipler, an Earth First!er from Columbus, said that the proposed plant "is currently the greatest threat to Ohio's health, safety, and welfare, and must be cancelled immediately.” Some activists climbed flagpoles and locked themselves to each other in the AMP lobby; several were pepper sprayed and arrested.
• Following Ohio’s approval in June, Michigan this week signed the Great Lakes Compact, making it a clean sweep. All eight states and two Canadian provinces surrounding the Great Lakes have signed on to the Compact, which protects against water diversions. The Compact now heads to Congress for final approval. Read more here.

(Read more)

Bicycle patrols—a community policing tactic that some law enforcement agencies de-emphasized in recent years—are seeing a resurgence as the price of gasoline approaches or surpasses $4 a gallon across the country, CNN reports. Pittsburgh is one city to hop on the bike trend.

When will Cleveland police hit city streets on bikes? It may not be as simple as Third District Commander Thomas McCartney and Fifth District Commander Calvin D. Williams first thought. When a small group of patrolmen under McCartney’s command discovered a dozen bikes collecting dust in a storage locker, they rescued and cobbled together a half-a-dozen rideable bicycles by combining parts.

It seems like a happy ending, except the six officers aren’t so much patrolling on bikes as they are “skulking around” on them, says Lois Moss, founder of Walk + Roll Cleveland, who is advocating to make Cleveland Police on bikes a legit operation.

"From what I understand, some members of the police union do not want officers riding bicycles because they want it to be a separate Unit whereby it gets special funding,” Moss explains. “They also are saying that officers should get paid more to ride a bicycle as opposed to use a car or a motorcycle or a horse.”

That way of thinking is behind the times, Moss says. She cites the "Bike Bill" being considered by the U.S. Senate. It lists a number of statistics regarding bicycles, including this one: Many public agencies in cities are using bicycles to deliver critical municipal services…96 percent of those serving more than 250,000 residents now have routine patrols by bicycle.

"They are not seeing the up-side, which is officers are healthier," she adds. "One cop told me he lost 40 pounds due to cycling – plus the relationship between the police and citizens is more open.”

Peter McDermott figures, heightened interest where our food comes from is a sign that a central “spot” to connect and share ideas on how to grow a sustainable, local food system is needed. Like the subject of his interest (foodies, urban gardeners, locavores, etc.), he decided against waiting, and just rolled up his sleeves.

McDermott is a Network Weaver at
Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S), and recently launched localfoodcleveland.org, a social network that’s free to join, but on the look-out for valuable ideas.

He used a free program called Ning to build the local food site. The main feature is a forum where any registered user can post a topic, such as McDermott’s on Farmers of the future - immigrants, hipsters, retirees, and the green-collar workforce?

The West Creek winds eight miles through heavily developed areas of Parma, Seven Hills, Independence and Brooklyn Heights before unceremoniously joining with the Cuyahoga River through a pipe under a building. It’s a reminder of how many creeks and rivers, not so long ago, were buried below concrete. Today, a few daring visionaries believe Northeast Ohio is hungry for something new— a connection to more parks and nature close to home.

“We know that we can never completely restore West Creek to the way it was back in the 1800s. But we can make it so that people want the stream to be a part of their lives,” Neal Hess, watershed coordinator for the West Creek Preservation Committee, explains in the documentary film, “The Return of the Cuyahoga.”

Hess, David Vasarhelyi and Dave Lincheck were the dreamweavers of restoring West Creek and, with a small army of volunteers, spent years knocking on doors, organizing support, and finally building an organization to create a West Creek Reservation.

Cleveland Metroparks assumed management of the 400 contiguous acres of greenspace in the West Creek Reservation on January 1, 2006. The Park District's goal is to effectively protect, restore and enhance the ecological integrity of the West Creek Valley. (Read more).

What will make Cleveland more of a Bicycle Friendly Community? The city may have earned an honorable mention as a ‘BFC’ from the League of American Bicyclists this past May (during Cleveland Bike Week), but the national group says the city still has a long way to go. The League recently supplied the city with a four-page list of priority improvements that would move it up the ranks to BFC-Bronze or higher.

“Set an ambitious, attainable target to increase the percentage of trips made by bike in the community,” the League urges. Currently, less than ½ of 1 percent of trips to work are done by bike in Cleveland. “This number should be increased significantly in order to demonstrate bicycle friendliness.”

Beyond recognition, Cleveland is interested in adopting the ‘bike friendliness’ list as its agenda for making cycling a real transportation option, says Martin Cader at Cleveland City Planning.

Miles of new bike lanes are one measures of bike friendliness, but just as important is how safe people feel cycling on city streets. Cleveland (and Cuyahoga County) can boost safety by traditional means—re-educating adults how to ride a bike safely on the street and offering special BikeEd training during driver’s education courses and to bus and truck drivers. Cleveland can also adopt innovative programs like Chicago’s Bike Buddies. There, 240 ambassadors make house calls—bike commuting along with people from their home and teaching basic bike maintenance.

Agenda items are categorized under the ‘Five E’s’—Engineering, Education, Encouragement and Enforcement. (Read more).