• 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.
  
  

• 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.

• 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)

• Final touches will be placed this week on the newly transformed public space at East 118th and Buckeye Road. The intersection underwent two months of landscape redesign including two murals from local artists, Chip Carter and Francisca Ugalde. They’re part of a larger initiative by the Buckeye Area Development Corporation, Cleveland Public Art and ParkWorks to enhance and promote arts and culture within the district. This week, the second of two statues by artists Angelica Pozo (Cleveland) and James Simon (Pittsburgh) will be installed, just in time for the Art & Soul of Buckeye music festivals, which runs this weekend from July 11-13. For more pictures of the Buckeye neighborhood park, check out Cleveland Public Art's website here.
• Midtown Brews is hosting a conversation at Insivia this Thursday, July 10th at 5:30 p.m with Jim Cossler of Youngstown Business Incubator and Craig Zamary of Green Energy TV to discuss building innovation networks to encourage enterprise development and quickly move toward new levels of transformation and scale.
• Walk+Roll Cleveland is back and expanding: This is the first year for Walk+Roll Lakewood where a two-mile stretch of Belle Avenue (from Lakewood Park) and Detroit Avenue will be closed to cars from 4-9 p.m. on July 19th. Programming includes a bike rodeo, skateboard demonstrations and more. Inspired by Cyclovia events worldwide, Walk+Roll Cleveland closes off three miles of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to cars from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on August 24th for the third consecutive summer. Both events are free and family friendly.

Bike commuters in Cleveland should have plenty of spots to park their bikes in the near future thanks to a new law requiring all parking lot operators in the city to install at least one bike parking spot (and associated bike racks) for every 20 car spots.

Cleveland City Council passed the law in June, which applies to lots both existing and new. Read more here.

One of the authors of Ohio’s 1999 energy deregulation bill warns we cannot afford to wait for state lawmakers to hash out the rules of the recently passed Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard. We can’t afford to wait for Congress to pass legislation limiting carbon emissions, either.

What Paul Fenn, founder and CEO of Local Power, Inc., insists we need is an entirely new paradigm to finance and build renewable energy production. Fenn touts Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) agreements which he credits for making states such as California into renewable energy leaders.

Ohio’s 1999 law did open the way for the state’s only CCA—The Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC). By banding together 400,000 customers from 126 municipalities, NOPEC has leverage to keep utility rates from rising too fast, and it converted a portion of its power to natural gas from dirtier coal.

NOPEC could also broker an agreement with its municipalities to issue bonds to build wind farms or co-generation power plants that supply waste heat to produce biofuels. Those type of projects and more are happening in California where CCAs are, for example, helping Sonoma County set a target of supplying 66% of its power from renewables.

“CCAs provide a bridge because you need investment in supporting infrastructure,” said Fenn at an event this afternoon sponsored by EarthWatch Ohio and Green Energy Ohio. “NOPEC is a big player, and (executive director) Leigh Herington seems interested in greening the power supply.”

“We could take Northeast Ohio from a few hundred solar arrays to ten thousand,” Fenn adds. “You’re not waiting for the market or for regulators. Just issue bonds and if it doesn’t get built, someone gets sued.”

Last week we reported that dozens of temporary green collar jobs were created for Cleveland’s Summer Youth Program. Now we discover that the city built a pipeline for green collar jobs.

In 2003, the Water Department started a training program for unemployed city residents to convert paper maps of its extensive water delivery system into digital format. Cleveland Resident Workforce provided 50 paid trainees on Geographic Information System (GIS), a mapping software program, to create maps and a searchable database of 500,000 water connections, 5,200 miles of water mains, and 270 electric feeders and electrical substations.

Four of the trainees stayed on as permanent hires, and the GIS work continues to improve operations at the city. Analyzing routes with GIS has allowed truck rerouting and led to a 15 to 22 percent savings for mileage and drive time, according to a study done by the Division of Waste Collection and Disposal. The city used this savings to reinstate a recycling program that had been cut for lack of funds. It bought new recycling containers and trucks to start a pilot recycling program.

ESRI, the company that makes GIS software, recognized Cleveland’s use of GIS with its 2007 Special Achievement Award. Read more at American Planning Association’s Planning magazine.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History and MOCA Cleveland explore the link between bird watching and conceptual art at a two-part event this Saturday (July 12).

MOCA’s latest exhibit, “A Bird in the Lens” features artist Jean Luc Mylayne, who spends hours, days, weeks, and even months gaining an intimate knowledge of the environment and birds that he photographs. Mylayne’s conceptual practice bears formal similarities to bird watching, a popular and passionate activity for many Northeast Ohioans.

Andy Jones, Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum will lead a one-hour introductory lesson on bird-watching along the trails at the Shaker Lakes Nature Center starting at 8:30 a.m. Afterwards, ‘migrate’ to MOCA where Assistant Curator Megan Lykins Reich leads a tour of the Mylayne exhibition.

Space is limited; Reservations required. RSVP by calling Megan Lykins Reich at 216.421.8671 ext. 26.

• Chipotle Mexican Grill is exhibiting their commitment to local food by purchasing 25 percent of its produce from farms within 200 miles of each store. In Ohio, this means that Chipotle will buy seasonal romaine lettuce, green bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers from Holhouse Farms in Willard, OH. Read more here.
• Stormwater runoff and management is a continuing issue in Northeast Ohio. As the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District considers forming a stormwater management agency, plenty of local activity is occurring. The City of Cleveland has a summer program to make rain barrels and rain gardens in the city, offering a learning experience, summer jobs and a coordinated effort to reduce storm runoff speed and combined sewer overflows. Another resource for Cleveland’s green infrastructure efforts is Depave.org, which documents the progress of projects around the country that are taking up unneeded pavement. The site’s mission: “to inspire and promote the removal of unnecessary concrete and asphalt from this earth.”
• PD writer Chuck Yarborough got to pretent he's Indiana Jones when he accompanied Cleveland Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology Brian Redmond on a dig in Lorain County. Read about his adventure here.