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Does Northeast Ohio like business as usual?

David Beach  |  04/17/13 @ 1:00pm  |  Posted in Vibrant cities

Northeast Ohio has lost 7 percent of its population since 1970, while increasing the area of developed land by 33 percent, or 400 square miles. This sprawl without growth has emptied the region’s central cities and created a host of fiscal, environmental, transportation, and social problems. Do you want more of this suburban pattern development in the coming decades? Or do...

Abandoned in the city<br />Construction of homes in new communities has outpaced household growth, causing surplus old homes to be abandoned and the region's urban cores to decline.Encouraging, but not enough<br />Walkable, mixed-use redevelopment projects, such as Uptown in Cleveland's University Circle, are encouraging, but they are not happening at a large enough scale to counter-balance the loss of urban population and tax base.

Cleveland plans for a changing climate: Public input meeting April 11

David Beach  |  04/03/13 @ 4:00pm  |  Posted in Clean energy, Transform

Cities are at the front lines of climate change. Many of the actions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the risks of climate change must be implemented at the local level. And many of the effects of climate change that are already occurring—from heat waves to severe storms—directly impact the life of cities.

Clean power to mitigate climate change<br />Cleveland Public Power's solar photovoltaic concentrator demonstration project at the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse uses parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight and produce electricity and thermal energy to heat the greenhouse.

Lakefront parks deal moving fast thanks to state funding

David Beach  |  04/02/13 @ 3:00pm  |  Posted in Connecting to nature

People who dream of a great Cleveland lakefront cheered yesterday, as Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a state transportation bill containing $14 million for repairs to Cleveland Lakefront State Park (not included in the bill was more support for transit, but that’s another story).

No access<br />The Cleveland lakefront has been poorly maintained for many years, but now there is hope for better management.

When will the Cuyahoga be okay?

David Beach  |  02/21/13 @ 1:00pm  |  Posted in Clean water

Remaining challenges for a working river<br />Much work remains before the Cuyahoga River can be de-listed as a Great Lakes Area of Concern.

The following happy press release appeared in my email recently: WASHINGTON (Feb. 14, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that Presque Isle Bay, on the Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie, has been removed from the list of heavily contaminated Great Lakes sites targeted for cleanup by the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Environmental conditions in Presque Isle Bay...more

Here's your chance to critique NOACA's transportation planning

David Beach  |  02/01/13 @ 11:00am  |  Posted in Transportation choices

Transportation for a sustainable society?<br />NOACA's federal certification process gives citizens a chance to critique regional transportation planning.

Is the region’s transportation system helping to create the walkable, vibrant, energy-conserving, affordable communities we will need to be sustainable in the future? Or is it producing more sprawl and dependence on the automobile? Citizens have an important opportunity to address such questions during the federal certification review of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), which is happening this month....more

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