Cleveland’s Green Movement Getting Good Press
Our thanks to the Generation Foundation’s Bob Miller for the following from www.grist.org:
Most people — if they give Cleveland much thought at all — probably see it as a Rust Belt city, a victim of white flight and the decaying industrial economy, and of environmental gaffes in the 1970s when Lake Erie was declared dead and the nearby Cuyahoga River was so choked with pollution that it caught fire. But this Midwest metropolis is also home to a surprisingly forward-looking sustainability subculture. The city hired a sustainability programs manager in 2005; last year, its transit system was named the best in the nation by the American Public Transportation Association. A focus on energy-efficient, affordable housing has seen new town homes and cottages springing up in a formerly depopulated neighborhood, and community gardens sprouting along with them. Cleveland also ranks second only to Los Angeles in the number of projects per capita seeking certification under LEED-ND, an expanded version of the notorious green-building guidelines that applies to entire neighborhoods. Its biggest problem may be convincing people to move there — or move back — but even in that realm, there are signs of hope: one activist reports that Cleveland natives currently working on green programs in other cities have begun calling to find out how they can help back home.
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