I toured the Ecovillage in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood (on the Cleveland west side) for a couple hours about weeko ago along with Lilah from Detroit-Shoreway CDC and a EcoVillage project director.

What does an ecovillage mean ?

From their website, the ecovillage:
”The EcoVillage is:
* An innovative partnership involving nonprofit organizations, the city, the regional transit authority, private developers, and neighborhood residents.
* A national demonstration project that will showcase green building and transit-oriented development.
* An opportunity to realize the promise of urban life in the most ecological way possible.
”
That being said, what does the label ‘ecovillage’ really mean in this neighborhood ?

Walking through, I would not be aware that I was walking through the Ecovillage if I had not known it was there (Lilah acknowledged branding is one of their weaknesses). At first glance, it was a neighborhood like others in Cleveland: closely spaced homes [colonials and ranches] from the early 1900s (about 5 feet from neighbor’s driveway to your house). No businesses on the side streets. Empty grass lots dotted the landscape. Some houses well maintained, others – not as much.

As a neighborhood that labelled as environmentally conscious, the level of participation in the ecological urban life for a resident varies. Some of the residents participate (I saw one working the compost pile at the community garden).

There were also included some newer ‘green homes’ (built with coordination of the CDC) which had some greener amenities [a heating bill of $600 a year], no-mow grass (which I really like and want to plant myself when I buy a home).

I Walked through the RTA Rapid Station on West 65th containing some sustainable features in it (natural lighting is one specific I remember). The location appears to be situated well, near Lorain, running through the neighborhood. I did cringe when $2.3 million was spent on the station (I don’t know its sources of funding).

There were some failures in the neighborhood. The ‘pocket park’ (a small spot of trees and greenspace on the corner of an intersection) never came to be and is now littered with trash and a sink hole. Plans for more green homes never came to fruition with the decreased demand for housing after the housing bubble. Some ‘broken-window’ elements [like spray-painted benches at the station] remained.

This was a quick walk through and still leaves a lot of questions, which leaves me wanting more after the walkthrough and a discussion.

Do residents care about the EcoVillage label ? How do they think it will impact their lives ? Do they know and take advantage of the opportunities that exist ?

Can an ecoVillage thrive in a place which a lot of the housing [built in the 1940s-50s - hasty generalization from looking at a couple parcel records at the county GIS] ?
Are these older houses structurally sound and able to be adapted to more environmental modifications ?

(A long overdue post from over a month ago !)

The ‘Sustainable Cleveland 2019′ – a three day summit presented by the City of Cleveland is similar to summits and symposiums in which I participated [the symposium on youth violence for juveniles in cleveland (August 2007), Voices and Choices (2005-6) and numerous ones in college] .

Such an event usually has small group discussions and brainstorming sessions which produce a plan of action to attain the goals is created the participants’ consensus of a list of priorities and goals. Some times, no plan of action is created to reach these goals. Even if a plan of action to attain the goals is created at the event (a failure of Voices and Choices) there is not sufficient follow-up among the participants and the event’s leadership to ensure actions towards the goals are made and if the current actions are not effective to achieve the goal, change the actions. In a comment on BFD, Ed Morrison concisely articulated this criticsm as well.

2 Weeks after the summit, what steps are being taken to harness the energy created at the summit and follow through with the talk ?

- There have not been any published action plans to move forward.
- Earlier this morning, I have asked the City’s Office of Sustainability in an email if any recommendations or goals have been released yet and if not, when they will be. No reponse yet – I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

- When are the future meetings that will measure the implementation of the goals ?

Reported in the Plain Dealer is that Frank Jackson hoped formal recommendations would be made in a week or two. (At this blog post’s publishing, has been 11 days since the summit ended).

- </Frank Jackson writes that he will “report to the community on the progress we have made in the first year of this journey.”
- While it’s nice to announce the city’s progress after one year, it’s important to make short-term before the energy and enthusaism from the summit dissipates and people and organizations resume their previous routines.

Update [Aug 26, 7:30 PM]: I received a response from the office [Evelyn Burnett] and ‘the recommendations are being finished and will be released soon, but no firm date’ However, Evelyn noted that online collaboration is continuing at http://clevelandsummit.ning.com/

I think I found a new blogging client. I’ll be deleting this post soon.

a link

Sad to see…
The City of Cleveland (Blue) Recycling Bins have been removed from the Brooklyn Heights United Church Parking lot, located on the corner of Schaaf and Broadview.

A couple paperboard signs taped on the walls of the neighboring building and the paper bins (which still remain and are not organized by the City of Cleveland) and state that illegal dumping of non-recyclables [computers, tires, and other waste] has occurred and is the reason for bins’ removal. The paper bins are still there.

The bins’ removal is a shame. I have dropped off my recyclables there dozens of times and only recall a handful (say, less than 5) where there were non-recyclables dumped there, although I’ve only utilized that place 2 or 3 times in the past 9 months as I away at school. In my experience, the greatest problem at the location was the capacity of the bins that full of legal recyclables.

Update: May 13, 2009 After a couple months of sitting in a box without a battery, I put a battery back into the recorder and it started up and successfully works. I have no idea why it began to function normally again. None of the previous data had shown up on this ‘new’ recorder.

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