Cleveland is a funny city. Many people are familiar with our playfully comedic (fake) advertisements on youtube. #1 and #2. Both were made by a Cleveland resident who jabs at the fact that Cleveland has been on the way out for about 50 years. People who live here both accept it and reject it in the same breath. I mean, I'm not poor, but at the same time I drive through neighborhoods where stores and homes are closing up on the daily.
So why mention Cleveland in this Eco blog? True, in 2007 our public transportation was named the greatest in the United States by the American Public Transportation Association (to which Cleveland residents would probably do a Scooby-Doo like double take), but from an outside perspective there is nothing green about Cleveland. I mean for God's sake, our river caught fire in 1969 because it was so polluted! We are a manufacturing city-- er, were a manufacturing city, that has poor air quality and coincidentally good healthcare. But on my first day back in the Cle, sitting down in my bunker of a basement (my family moved and are currently cooking on a hotplate in our basement while we redo the kitchen) I noticed on the front page of the Plain Dealer (our local newspaper) an Amish person plowing an abandoned city lot and preparing the soil to be farmed.
Now what you need to know is that I am like a kid at Christmas when it comes to learning about new green urbanization projects in the US. And to find one in Cleveland when I wasn't even looking for one is like realizing that your parents got you a bicycle even though you didn't tell them that you wanted one. Golly Gee Cleveland, for me?? How did you know?
Well I would be the most egotistical person in the world if I actually thought that Cleveland plowed this field just because I suddenly took an interest in Eco Cities. So I should clarify that I understand that the legislation for this has been years in the making. But it doesn't stop me from being any more excited.
To read the article and see pictures, click on this link.
I won't pretend that I am the most educated person on the subject of Cleveland. But it strikes me that such a run down city with manufacturing on the way out has an incredible opportunity to invest in itself. We have a huge healthcare industry. In fact the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are about the only two businesses that are routinely expanding just because they can. We have more Colleges and Universities than I can even name, and a prime location to do some experimental greening. Why couldn't Cleveland become a research hub? Because of our proximity to Lake Erie, we could do experiments not only with tidal hydro turbines, but with costal wind energy as well. Why not try to hook up some of the outer buildings to geothermal heating and cooling? We do have the space, given all of the abandoned mines and mills. Cleveland is one of the few big cities that doesn't have a lot of traffic at any time of day, so closing off one or two of the roadways to improve them for public transportation would only slightly inconvenience commuters.
Now I'm not saying that being Carbon Neutral is anywhere on our horizon. To start, the white flight and sprawl that began in the 60s is still going (and going and going). People commute as far as an hour away and further on a daily basis just to avoid the "terrors" of Cleveland. Yeah, it's been said that we're the 7th most dangerous city, and yes there's a lot of truth to that. But studies have shown time and time again that by greening the city (and I do mean literally greening it, this farm could be the start of an urban farming movement as well as a rise of city parks and green roofs) you also decrease the crime rate. People are happier when they get to look at trees, they're healthier when they eat local foods, and they move back to the city when they feel like they will be safe. That decreased commute lowers the amount they drive their cars, and therefore the amount of gas they guzzle.
Oh, I know it's incredibly idealistic. But unfortunately for the planet, my idealism needs to become reality and soon. Regardless of whether you believe in Global climate change, we cannot continue to pollute as we have, for our sakes and for the biota around us. Anyone trying to make the claim that putting mercury into the air is good for the environment as a whole is just wrong. Period.
Going green needs to be more than just a fad. It needs to be a lifestyle change. As Americans we have to lose this idea that we need to cram as much as possible into one day. We must be willing to add a little extra time to our commute, not so we can live further away, but so that we can take public transit, or bike. Instead of flying across the country to go to the beach, we can learn to enjoy our on natural landscapes and make do with what we've already been given.
But I sound redundant. Anything that I say here has been said by someone else before. Yet I don't think it can be said too often. As much as I know that any amount of change takes years to take effect, I don't see enough being done. Tax breaks are still being given to fossil fuel companies, people are still unwilling to take the bus, and there are still bananas at my local grocery store. It just seems that if you knew your house was going to catch on fire if you didn't fireproof it, you would fireproof it, instead of saying "my house isn't going to catch on fire, that's stupid."
