Please join us at noon on February 1, 2019 for a lecture by Jane Goodman, Executive Director of Cuyahoga River Restoration, and Halina Steiner, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Ohio State University. Jane and Halina will discuss the Habitat for Hard Places initiative, aimed at improving fish habitat along the Cuyahoga River in Downtown Cleveland.
The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
The Cuyahoga River was once so polluted that it caught on fire 13 times. It’s been almost 50 years since the river last burned. Today, water quality and the environment along the river is much improved. But it’s still tough to be a fish, especially a young one, in a channelized, working river. Cuyahoga River Restoration has implemented several green bulkhead projects that give fish places to feed and rest as they travel through the ship channel. These experimental installations have begun to improve conditions for local fish populations. Ohio State landscape architecture students took this work a step further and developed designs that improve fish habitat along the river's edge in ways that are also legible and appealing to people.
Earlier this year, with support from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Ohio Environmental Education Fund, the CUDC took the students out on the Cuyahoga with a group of developers and riverfront property owners so they could learn about the needs of their prospective fish and human clients.The students generated dozens of detailed proposals, some of which are highlighted in a set of six postcards from the water's edge, designed by the CUDC. We hope this project will lead to more ecologically sensitive riverfront development and also to better relationships between people and their fish neighbors.
To learn more about this project, there will be a public program at the CUDC at noon on February 1, 2019. Sign up for our newsletter or watch this blog for additional details.Postcard sets are available free of charge at the CUDC, so join us for the lecture on February 1 and pick up a set. Or stop by (1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200) any time during office hours, or email cudc@kent.edu and we'll send them to you.
First-ring suburbs also offer walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and access to nature. The stereotypical view of the suburbs implies homogenous housing and lush green lawns--the so-called crabgrass frontier. But on closer examination, there are a variety of housing types in these communities. And nature abounds in the inner-ring. Garfield Heights and Maple Heights sit at the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Euclid is rediscovering its lakefront. Warrensville Heights rests along Mill Creek. And South Euclid has numerous neighborhood green spaces on vacant lots where houses have been demolished, and a growing portfolio of innovative green infrastructure projects that manage stormwater and a host of ecological benefits.Cleveland’s first-ring suburbs are ripe for rediscovery. City residents looking for a stable and affordable place to raise their families and establish home equity are already settling in these communities. Inner-ring suburbs also serve as a gateway to the “American Dream” for new immigrants. And although Millennial households show a distinct preference for urban living, some will likely opt for suburban living as they get older and have children. Having come of age during the Great Recession, Millennials may appreciate the affordability of housing in first-ring suburbs and reinvent these communities to reflect their values and preferences. Changes in local, regional, and national policies are needed to encourage reinvestment in first-ring suburbs, along with new visions of suburban living that appeal to a larger and more diverse swath of prospective residents.The CUDC is proud to have played a supporting role in 
