The Scottish poet Alexander Smith wisely said, “A man doesn’t plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.”
I’ve visited Ohio City with my parents and six siblings since the 1970s, and in the last 14 years I’ve lived, worked, and played in this great rebuilding neighborhood. My business partners and I have renovated 140,000 square feet of vacant properties in Ohio City, opened 6 businesses, and have created over 200 well-paying jobs in the neighborhood. We recently built 7 transit-oriented
townhomes on a vacant property in the adjacent Duck Island neighborhood.
In other words, I’m very much in favor of dense, urban development. Which is why I studied Urban Planning and Real Estate Development at CSU’s Urban Studies College. It was there that I learned that dense transit-oriented development only works when it is balanced with accessible green space.
I write today to express my strong opposition to the development of the RTA-owned land adjacent to the Red Line Greenway. (RTA issued an request for qualifications from developers in August 2018). The sale of publicly owned green space – indeed, one that includes a protected wetland – to private for-profit developers sets a dangerous precedent; especially at a time when RTA is wracked with legal woes and management lapses.
I propose RTA tables the sale of the land until it is able to clean house and set straight its internal challenges. Then let’s have the taxpayers decide what they want to see done with this important piece of taxpayer-owned green space.
I’ve watched thick clouds of migrating monarchs hovering over this narrow stretch of wooded habitat. And the migrating tropical forest songbirds, and ruby-throated hummingbirds that visit in spring and fall are a sight to behold.
When the Cleveland Metroparks opens the Red Line Greenway trail to the public, this forested habitat will be enjoyed by Clevelanders of all walks of
life. Perhaps the Western Reserve Land Conservancy would step in and purchase this urban forest from RTA and permanently protect it from development so that it can forever be part of the growing Cleveland Metroparks Emerald Necklace.
Posterity will thank us.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2019.
As executive director of All Aboard Ohio and as someone who also studied urban planning with emphasis on urban transportation way back in college, I find Mr. McNulty’s viewpoint interesting. However I disagree with him. Greenspace in TOD works when it is accessible and usable for community gatherings, playgrounds, happenstance social interactions, etc. The greenspace he’s talking about is unkempt underbrush. It is not useful or attractive nor does it contribute to the neighborhood’s quality of life or to the utilization of public transit.
Does anyone really think that the RTA board will do anything that makes any financial sense??? Or something that would be in the best interest of taxpayers??? Absolutely not!!!! They waste millions of taxpayer funds now, especially after Mr. Dicksons shenanigans That all got swept under the rug thanks to ex-CEO Calabreeze.
Just like the completely incompetent thieves at the CMSD. Whatever RTA does will be nothing more than another waste of money, and they will come back to property owners for a massive property tax increase, and/or sales tax levy!!!
Its time to vote out the entire RTA board now!
I agree. When we adopt a mentality of gobbling up every inch of land to create nothing more than profit, we’re selling out future generations. Space has great value, especially when nothing is built upon it.
Some green space is worth saving. This one is not. Check it out. All of Irish bend park is worth saving.
I have to disagree with Ken Prendergast on one point. Land is not just for the use and pleasure of humans. We share this planet with a myriad of other species. The hummingbirds and monarchs Mr. McNulty mentions have just as much right to habitat as we do, yet we keep taking more and more of theirs away with little thought, and at our own peril. One species “unkempt underbrush” is another’s home. Habitat of at least equal size and quality should be provided, and not years down the road.
I am disappointed the Scene decided to run this piece, despite the obvious conflict of interest. What Sam does not mention here is that he is building townhomes directly across the street from the land in question, only a few of which have sold so far. Sam is trying to stifle competition for his development by painting this space as an “urban forest”. I assure you this space is FAR from that. Please go take a look yourself. It is a fenced off hillside with weeds and brush, right next to transit tracks. This isn’t usable space. its not safe for children or animals. I agree that we need to maintain greespace, but the idea that THIS space qualifies as an “urban forest” is absolutely laughable.
What Sam omits from his op-ed is that he owns and lives in one of the newly built townhomes and any development on this property might very well obstruct his view. he has been a huge bike-advocate etc but fails to align his thoughts without being self-serving . I personally hope RTA does sell this, lowers fares and allows the people that Sam claims to support take public transportation. After all, bike lanes in NE Ohio are not very practical. Further, imagine the carbon footprint expended to build 600k townhomes when the property he built on was a non-carbon emitter.
The land is question has been groomed by volunteers for the past 42 years and will become part of the Red Line Greenway, which begins construction by Metroparks next spring as part of a partnership RTA entered into in 2014. The approximately $7 million currently allocated for the first two phases of this project have come from two Federal grants and a $500,000 Clean Ohio grant. The primary Federal grant is a $4 million TIGER grant which is extremely difficult to obtain (2% success rate) . The primary reason we landed this grant was because of the volunteer work performed at the site, which reduced the cost to build it by $2 million. Without the urban forest Sam correctly sites, the Red LIne Greenway will be reduced to a 700′ long cattle shoot identical to the one we already loath behind Steelyard Commons. With the forest intact, we have a true linear park with space for events of all kinds and we get to maintain the authentic wetland and historic towers currently present on the site. Dr. James Bissell, Curator of Biology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the person responsible for preserving over 10,000 acres in NE Ohio, recently toured the site and agreed it should not be developed. He noted the presence of native willow and dogwood which, in fact, do attract butterflies.
I have photos and videos of deer and their fawns, fox and their kits and numerous other forms of wildlife on the iste. Without the forest we will have a cement alley. But perhaps the best reason to preserve this green space besides the numerous economic, environmental and social reasons, is for our children. Studies have proven the profound effect early exposure to nature can have on a child’s development. Dr. Bissell also cited proof of this in a program we hope to restart called “Nature in the City” in which children previously thought to have developmental disabilities thrived in natural settings. Metrohealth’s billion dollar makeover is based on a similar belief that patients recover faster in green settings.
If your only exposure to the site is Columbus Road or from the train, you do not have the entire picture. I will be posting photos and video on the Red LIne Greenway and my personal Facebook page in hopes of giving everyone a better visual of how beautiful it truly is and how horrible any development of the site would be.
It is a win-win for RTA not to develop the site as the events held on an open linear park would provide far more transit riders than any development could possible hope to provide. RTA has told me it is not about the money and their post on their web site that implies they will give any money from the development back to riders is misleading, at best. Any lease payments from a development would be less than 1% of RTA’s annual revenue and will not provide the long-term permanent revenue stream that is needed to properly and adequately fund our public transit system. Keep our Greenway Green. Please write to the RTA board at gcrtaboard@gcrta.org to ask them not to develop this land.
Mr. McNulty, this wouldn’t by any chance have to do with your new properties completely adjacent to the proposed greenway would it? I’m calling BS on your extremely obvious and greedy self-interests.
“He calls the neighborhood, known as Duck Island, as the “connective tissue” between Ohio City and Tremont. Hip hangouts like the Velvet Tango Room, Forest City Brewery, and Duck Rabbit Coffee are literally around the corner. There’s also a RTA rapid stop across the street that will soon be surrounded by the Red Line Greenway, a two-mile multi-purpose trail being developed by Cleveland Metroparks. The Flats and Cuyahoga River are just down the hill.”