Port's plans for E. 55th St. should be opposed, not encouraged

By Bill Gruber

I would like to comment on the editorials/articles by Jeff Biasella called VisionQuest? having to do with the Cleveland waterfront.

The Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee has been working for about 9 years to save and develop Dike 14, the former Army Corps dredge disposal facility, as a nature preserve. Dike 14 is located in Lake Erie at the northern end of Martin Luther King Blvd., adjacent to Gordon Lakefront State Park. (I should note that the late Ed Hauser was an active member of our Committee.)

A few years ago, we heard that the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority planned to destroy the Cleveland Lakefront State Park and Marina at East 55th Street and to replace it with a massive 200 acre industrial facility for the Port along the lakefront. Since this would have a severe negative impact on a nature preserve at Dike 14, would represent a colossal trashing of the City's 2004 Waterfront District Plan, and would be a dangerous violation of the Public Trust, we began to research and then to oppose the Port's plan.

Our concern about Mr. Biasella's Vision Quest starts with his premise, which he states as follows:

"The overall goal of a Waterfront is to funnel people downtown. Edgewater Park and Burke Lakefront Airport are great strategic borders because in between lies the heart of the city. More importantly both could be the solution for creating an environmentally friendly Waterfront."

We very strongly disagree that the overall goal of a "waterfront" is to funnel people downtown, or that Burke should be seen as a "border, or that creating an environmentally friendly waterfront means ignoring the lakeshore east of Burke. The overall goal of a waterfront should be to bring people to the waterfront, make it accessible to people, and to encourage a variety of water-related uses, especially through green space, parks, recreation, natural areas, marinas, picnic areas, bikeways, and similar public uses.

Certainly, being in an urban-industrial City, a waterfront located on a Great Lake also has industrial and commercial uses. The waterfront, including both lake and river fronts in Cleveland, should be shared for both public and commercial/industrial/port uses. Unfortunately, for almost a century the Cleveland waterfront, both river and lake fronts, have provided very little access for the public and very little green space and recreational opportunities.

Mr. Biasella wisely looks to Cleveland's history in considering Cleveland's future. However, his notion that all commercial/industrial shipping activity should be pushed off of the Cuyahoga River contradicts a vision that incorporates Cleveland's historical strengths and practical future. So does the notion that industrial and Port uses should be pushed out along the lakefront east to Burke Airport and East 55th St.

When Cleveland was at its greatest, its lakefront at Gordon Park (the area between East 55th Street and MLK) was a beautiful parkland that included thousands of trees, a wonderful beach and lagoons on the Lake that were perfect for boating.

Furthermore, the State of Ohio and City of Cleveland have had plans for improvement and expansion of the parks along the Lake between E.55th St. and MLK for at least 30 years, including the comprehensive Waterfront District Plan of 2004 approved by the Cleveland Planning Commission. This Plan emerged and was approved after a two year process involving hundreds of public meetings and the input of thousands of area residents.

The Port's Plan for a new 200-acre industrial port facility to replace the existing park and marina at E. 55th St. is an unnecessary, costly and harmful violation of these longstanding plans and the public trust. There are many reasons that this Plan is bad for Cleveland.

Mr. Biasella states the following:

“There is no reason why all Cuyahoga River shipping and receiving can't be done at BKL. Especially now since the Port Control is looking for an excuse to shutdown aerial operations. Also a new port is slated to be right next door on E. 55th. Why not include the BKL in the planning? We should be doing everything possible to get ships off the Cuyahoga.

Docks can easily be constructed along the shore to accommodate any size ship. There is plenty of room on BKL's land to build storage facilities for companies. BKL connects to Route 2 making transporting goods via semi-truck easy. It would dramatically improve the water quality of the Cuyahoga River while freeing up property essential to a Waterfront. This might be an inconvenience for some but the time has come to say, “Deal with it”.”

First, it is just not true that the City's Department of Port Control "is looking for an excuse to shutdown aerial operations" at Burke. (Note, I performed a study of Burke, which is available online, for EcoCity Cleveland a few years ago.) While closing Burke as an airport and making it available for other activity may be a good idea (there are arguments both ways), it is very complicated. Also, why should an airport-free Burke become another industrial/commercial use, rather than a spectacular lakefront development with public access to the lakeshore, and residential and other development to create a new lakeshore neighborhood for the city?

Second, as stated above, the Port's plans for E. 55th St. should be opposed, not encouraged, by concerned Clevelanders. Besides, it is fundamentally wrong to destroy access for thousands of east side neighborhood residents to the lakefront in order to increase downtown access to the lakeshore for some public activity and much private development. In addition, it is fundamentally wrong to destroy long-time state and city parkland along the lakeshore for those same downtown interests.

But this is not a zero-sum situation. There is no reason that green space, beneficial commercial and residential development and public access cannot be increased along the downtown river and lakefronts while saving and improving our eastside lakefront. We have several alternatives to the Port's terrible plan to propose.

From Cool Cleveland reader Bill Gruber GruberWLATaol.com, who currently serves as the Vice Chairperson of the grassroots environmental group called the Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee. He is also active in other environmental groups, and was at one time the local Chairperson of the Sierra Club Executive Committee and a member of the Statewide Ohio Sierra Club Executive Committee. Gruber has served as a member of the Sierra Club's Lakefront Committee for many years. In addition, he served as an early Board member of the Cleveland Waterfront Coalition. He currently serves as a member of the City of Cleveland's Industrial Air Pollution Advisory Committee. Bill Gruber served for 9 years as Chief of the Environmental Section of the City of Cleveland's Law Department.

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