This past weekend, the Financial Times of London ran a piece in its House & Home section on Suzhou Creek, Shanghai, China. According to writer Geoff Dyer “the area’s fortunes have changed since a $1.3bn government investment to tackle river pollution.”

The parallels with our own Cuyahoga River and parts of its surrounding valley are pretty amazing–as are the lessons we could learn from what has happened there:

“Until about a decade ago the area was filled with low-rise housing for factory workers…which is now looked down upon by aspirational Shanghaiese. But property developers have given the area a substantial makeover in recent years and it is now lined with new high-rise residential and office buildings. Along the river some of the old factories and warehouses have been converted into offices, art galleries, and a few upscale restaurants.

“The image of Suzhou Creek has been transformed by three big changes in recent years. The first is a project to clean up the river, which used to be a fetid, black strip of water, the result of decades of dumping of industrial waste and sewage. In 2003 the Shanghai authorities embarked on a $1.3bn, 20-year program to get rid of the pollution and make the river bank an attractive place to walk. At the end of last year the local government began putting native freshwater fish into the river and will do regular tests on them to monitor the levels of pollution. Residents say the smell has largely disappeared. The neighborhood is also emerging as one of Shanghai’s up and coming business centers…[and] on top of that, Suzhou Creek has begun to acquire an edge of radical and artistic chic–an essential quality for up and coming urban neighborhoods….There are now about 100 artists’ workshops in a maze of disused warehouses and factories.”

Imagine if we were to take a similar approach to the entire Cuyahoga River Valley. Sure, pieces and parts of what is taking place in the Suzhou Creek area are also already happening here, but there is something about focusing on and using the natural geography of the river as the centerpiece in a redevelopment effort that brings everything into focus, making for a more coherent whole.

A focus on the river also could lead to the development of the region as a center for clean water and water reclamation technologies–something that will prove more critical in the future than even energy is today. The Valley would remain a working industrial center, but with an emphasis on healthier, cleaner technologies–something that, again, meets both local and global needs. And the encouragement of more arts-based small businesses in and around the area is something many have called for over the years.

It was, after all, a fire on our river that kick-started the environmental movement. (Never mind the fact that there were more fires on other rivers elsewhere in the country, the famous photo was of ours, as were most of the jokes that followed.)

A lot of progress has been made since then, but there is still more work to needs to be done. And what better way to revive the “brand” than to make the river–a clean, healthy river–the key driver for a new, thriving “green” community of businesses, artists and residents?