A Trail to Make New York Whole

Take a walk through downtown Cleveland, and you’re immediately reminded of the city’s former reputation as an industrial powerhouse. Cleveland’s perch on Lake Erie—and access to markets through the Ohio and Erie Canal—unleashed a manufacturing boom that, by 1920, had made it the fifth-largest city in the country, with a skyline to match. When the Beaux-Arts Terminal Tower opened in 1928, it was the second-tallest building in the world.

But like many great industrial centers, Cleveland began a swift decline in the 1960s, shedding its population along with its manufacturing base. The city became ground zero for suburban flight, and the number of residents has since plunged by 60 percent from the 1950s peak of nearly a million people. From a parks perspective, the downturn was both a curse and a blessing.

Fiscal turmoil constrained the city’s investment in the parks system. But at the same time, the loss of residents and factories opened opportunities for new green spaces. Tens of thousands of vacant houses were torn down, clearing the way for community gardens and pocket parks. And the pullback of industry from the city’s waterfront, along both Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, left room for new trails and greenways.

Planting its flag in Cleveland in 1974, Trust for Public Land made the most of those opportunities.

A Green Space Renaissance

Before concepts like climate resilience and equitable access to the outdoors entered the national discourse, TPL staff had been in Cleveland for decades, connecting underserved neighborhoods to parks and helping areas adapt to weather extremes.

One such initiative was a critical link between the city’s downtown and Lake Erie: the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail. The paved multiuse path wends along the sinuous Cuyahoga River using an old railroad right-of-way, delivering walkers, joggers, and cyclists to the shores of Lake Erie.

The trail, which opened in two phases a decade ago, is a powerful example of how communities can transform an abandoned piece of infrastructure into a vibrant greenway for people to get outside. Its first run/walk 5K, held in 2019, had more than 500 enthusiastic participants. What was once a neglected space is now lined with trees and vegetation that reduce stormwater runoff, filter pollution, and cool the air. The trail also provides a safe alternative transportation route for those seeking to avoid getting in their cars, thus lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

In 1973, sewage was dumped directly into the Cuyahoga River. Today, residents enjoy a cleaner, greener waterfront and multiuse trail. Photo: Frank J. Aleksandrowicz/ National Archives/NAID: 550204

And in 2010, TPL partnered with the Cleveland Rowing Foundation to save 7 acres of waterfront land at Rivergate Park, turning a vacant lot into a popular spot for picnics and lawn games; plus, it has a public boat launch for paddlers.

These days, the TPL team in Cleveland is working in both the urban core and rural areas beyond the city. We’ve partnered with local nonprofits on projects that include the expansion of Cuyahoga Valley National Park—whose woodlands and waterfalls lie only 30 minutes south of downtown—and a new mountain bike trail planned for Kerruish Park, located on the city’s outskirts in the historically African American Lee-Seville neighborhood. (The community was dubbed the “Black suburb in the city” when it was developed in the 1920s.)

But first, Trust for Public Land had to convince the city to put parks and green spaces back on its radar. After the financial crisis of 2008, the City of Cleveland decided to disband its parks department in order to cut costs. Parks were folded into public works, which was more focused on trash collection and road improvements. What happened next surprised precisely no one: “It was thought to be a good tactic at that time, but over the course of 10 years or more, there wasn’t much emphasis on parks, and they suffered from long-deferred maintenance,” points out Sean Terry, TPL’s Ohio state director.

When Terry arrived at TPL in 2020, Cleveland had been led by the same mayor, the one who had abolished the parks department, for 16 years. An election was scheduled the following year, and TPL joined a parks coalition that held a series of brainstorming sessions culminating in a forum for two mayoral candidates. The final question was whether the candidates supported bringing back a stand-alone parks department. “One candidate said ‘no,’ and the candidate who said ‘yes,’ Justin Bibb—he became the mayor,” recalls Terry.

Now the city is enjoying something of a downtown—and parks—renaissance. Parts of the downtown are sprouting condos and rentals, geared toward the young professionals turning the suburban-flight phenomenon on its head.

Last fall, Cleveland hired a new parks director. And this past spring, the parks department released a 15-year parks master plan, with a strong emphasis on equity. Trust for Public Land plans to keep pressure on the city to bring the master plan to fruition, as well as make other improvements in the parks system in the near term.

The Village Voice

“It’s a great plan, but residents have to be part of the process,” says Kaela Geschke, TPL’s Ohio Parks for People program director. “Our 10-Minute Walk® score is not bad, at 88 percent.” She’s referring to the percentage of the 365,000 Cleveland residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a park, a goal that’s a cornerstone of TPL’s work nationwide but that still eludes 100 million Americans.

“But what is the quality of those parks?” Geschke asks. “How well is the quality distributed? Sometimes it’s the neighborhoods where people get the council members’ ear and have the time and energy to push, push, push that get the investment. A lot of the work we are doing is getting more resources to residents in other parts of the city, to help them be part of that process.”

Much of the advocacy is centered on a group led by TPL: the Cleveland Parks and Greenspace Coalition, designed to be a bridge between city residents and the reconstituted parks department. Tait Ferguson, TPL’s parks program assistant, is the coalition’s point person. He organizes park forums across three dozen neighborhoods where residents can ask questions and swap ideas. And he works directly with the parks department to improve relations with various park “friends” groups.

“The number one challenge was a lack of transparency and consistent processes,” Ferguson explains in TPL’s offices overlooking the Cuyahoga River. For residents who are eager to be active stewards of their neighborhood parks, the inability to communicate with the city’s parks staff had been frustrating.

“The city has not been the greatest partner,” says Ronaldo Rodriguez Jr., a community activist and member of the Tremont Garden Club, which looks after Lincoln Park. Recently, for example, the lights in the park had been broken for five months. Only after Rodriguez repeatedly contacted a local councilmember did the parks department fix them: “There was no way to get permission to do anything, even if it was planting some annuals,” he says. “You just had to do it and hope the public works department doesn’t mow over it.”

Poplars for Public Health

Collaborating with local nonprofits, whether through the Cleveland Parks and Greenspace Coalition or on individual park projects, is central to TPL’s approach. That’s true both for the most ambitious undertakings, which benefit an entire region, and for pilot projects affecting small neighborhoods. The latter is the kind of partnership we’re pursuing in southeast Cleveland’s Slavic Village, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, so named for the waves of Polish and Czech immigrants who settled there.

In recent decades, the demographics have shifted in Slavic Village to include Latinx and African American residents. Faded two-story homes are interspersed with vacant lots where houses were demolished—scars of the relentless population loss that has only recently begun to plateau.

When the city tore down houses, the ground was often left with lead contamination, a result of the lead-based paint commonly used in homes until the late 1970s, when it was banned. TPL’s Terry was familiar with a process called phytoremediation, in which certain trees absorb contaminants, and he reached out to scientists at Ohio State University (OSU) about teaming up on an experiment.

Working with OSU and Slavic Village Development, a community nonprofit, TPL planted two vacant lots last spring with scores of tulip poplars, which have been shown to remove and destroy pollutants in the ground. Soil samples taken before the plantings revealed contamination that was up to six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s “level of concern” for lead, which is 200 parts per million.

“The new trees are a point of pride for the neighborhood.”

– Krystal Sierra, Slavic Village Development

 

Krystal Sierra of Slavic Village Development checks on a poplar tree, one of many that will provide environmental health benefits
to the neighborhood. Photo: Daniel Lozada

Trust for Public Land is leasing the plots from the Cleveland Land Bank, a repository of parcels that reverted to city ownership after they were abandoned by their owners. The soil will be tested annually to watch for improvement. Adjacent parcels will serve as control sites, so scientists can tell if lead levels change without any intervention.

On an overcast day in late spring, Terry and Ferguson returned to the planting site to check on the trees’ progress. They were joined by representatives from the Cleveland Tree Coalition, which funded the initiative, and Slavic Village Development. “They are really fast growing,” says Sara Tillie, director of the tree coalition, referring to the poplars. “This pilot project could expand our notion of what a healthy tree canopy is for—not just economic development, community revitalization, or carbon capture, but environmental remediation.”

Rising in the shadow of Interstate 77, the new poplars are essentially a budding “pocket forest,” a new trend in urban planning in which small lots are densely planted with trees. Residents had joined Slavic Village Development, along with TPL staff, to plant the poplars. “The new trees are a point of pride for the neighborhood,” says Krystal Sierra, the nonprofit’s director of neighborhood planning.

Activating (and Funding) a New Generation of Parks

A few miles to the east, Kerruish Park—one of the city’s largest green spaces—has a full-fledged forest, but one that is little used. Ten years ago, the tangle of trees covering 20 acres in one corner of the park was eyed for a potential mountain bike trail. But residents objected because of concern that the illegal use of dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles there would only increase.

In the past year, however, that sentiment has changed. Trust for Public Land is now partnering with a local nonprofit called Syatt, which strives to “introduce our community to sports that are under-represented in Black and brown [neighborhoods],” explains cofounder Ebony Hood, “and mountain biking is one of those.”

Erika Hood (left) and her sister, Ebony, cofounded the nonprofit Syatt, which is partnering with TPL to improve amenities at Kerruish Park. Photo: Daniel Lozada

The park already has a heavy emphasis on recreation, with tennis courts, baseball diamonds, a swimming pool, and other ball fields. A few years ago, TPL launched a partnership with the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), which is designing the new trail. The result will incorporate input from residents who attended workshops held by Syatt. The goal: a mountain bike trail that will capture the imagination of a young generation, introducing them to a new, self-powered outdoor activity they might not otherwise experience.

Terry added that TPL is in talks with a national mountain bike manufacturer that has expressed interest in donating a fleet of bicycles that could be used as free loaners in Kerruish Park. And he hopes that, in addition to a mountain bike course through the woodlands, the project will include a “pump track”—an undulating surface that allows children and adults to practice mountain-biking skills before hitting the actual trails.

Erika Hood, who founded Syatt with her sister and their mother, Marcia, says the group hopes that interest in the future mountain bike trail will draw attention to nagging problems in the park, from the lack of bathrooms to splintered bleachers by the sports fields. “How can we use this as a catalyst to bring other amenities to the park?” she asks. “We can’t do a mountain bike trail without addressing other needs of the community.”

Of course, building trails or adding amenities of any kind requires funding. The 15-year parks master plan—for which TPL led community feedback pop-ups and provided research and technical advice—recommends several potential revenue streams, such as a voter-approved tax levy. Trust for Public Land staff members have helped write and support such ballot measures for decades, with an impressive passage rate of 84 percent. That’s because communities repeatedly prioritize creating and improving local green spaces.

The Commonsense Schoolyards Solution

Offering positive experiences for young people to get outside is a common thread running through TPL’s work in Cleveland. Earlier this year in East Cleveland, a small city just over the Cleveland border, we broke ground on a new schoolyard at Caledonia Elementary School.

In keeping with TPL’s community schoolyards model, we target schools in communities with little access to green space and aim to improve their outdoor play and learning areas. Often, the schoolyard itself is nothing more than bare asphalt—a parking lot without the cars. Trust for Public Land then orchestrates brainstorming sessions with students and professionals such as landscape architects. Kids are encouraged to generate ideas and dream big in the realm of playground design, all while learning about the importance of adapting to climate change.

At Caledonia Elementary, which includes kindergarten through second grade, students chose basketball hoops, a climbing wall, an outdoor classroom, and new play equipment, as well as a walking path and expanded garden beds, as top priorities for the renovation. What’s more: New trees and shrubs will capture stormwater and counter extreme heat.

Just beyond the schoolyard is a ravine that, over the years, had become a dumping ground. During multiple weekends, TPL worked with community partners such as the Cleveland Heights Green Team to clean up the ravine, transforming it into a sylvan setting visible from the nearby walking path.

“We pulled out mattresses, toilets, lots of tires, and garbage,” TPL’s Geschke recalls. “It looks the best it has right now. And the walking path will have benches. Before, people were right next to nature but couldn’t sit and enjoy it.” The school district has agreed to open the school grounds to the public after school and on weekends, expanding access to green space for the community.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Terry talked about the potential for renovated schoolyards to address both equity and climate in a city like East Cleveland, where 44 percent of residents live in poverty (compared to 13 percent statewide).

“For inner-city neighborhoods, the equity disparities are common,” he told a crowd of students, teachers, and parents assembled for the groundbreaking under a brilliant sun in early May. “We lack safe places to play. We live in heat islands, so when the weather warms up, so does the anxiety and the tension. And we reside in communities that are food insecure. When communities are dealing with complicated challenges, oftentimes the simple solution is the one we ignore. But at TPL, we like to lean into those commonsense strategies that amplify the fun and peel back the layers on the environmental justice issues that plague our neighborhoods. We know that parks are essential for healthy and equitable communities.”

Now TPL is in conversation with Akron Public Schools—where students face similar challenges—about bringing the community schoolyards model there.

Beyond the Metro

Trust for Public Land’s work in the Cleveland metro area also extends to the outlying landscapes where Ohioans like to spread out and recreate. The biggest magnet is likely Cuyahoga Valley National Park, established more than a half century ago. The 33,000-acre national park includes woodlands, streams, waterfalls, and even a few small villages that were grandfathered in during its creation.

“President Nixon said, ‘Hey, we have this beautiful story of national parks, but half the country doesn’t have access to them because they’re mostly out West,’” says Stacey Rusher, director of park projects for a conservancy that supports the national park. “So the focus turned to urban parks. We fit that bill beautifully because we are right between Cleveland and Akron.”

The Cuyahoga River on fire in 1952, just one of many times pollutants ignited the waterway. Photo: Cleveland Public Library/Photo ID: SCL014835

Just five years before the park’s creation in 1974, the Cuyahoga River itself caught fire when a spark from a passing train in Cleveland ignited an oil slick on the water. The fire became a symbol of ecological degradation and helped spark the environmental movement. Today, after decades of restoration, the river, which flows through the national park, is home to otters and beavers, with bald eagles soaring above.

The national park is a quilt of public and private lands. (Indeed, there are 125 private homes within the park’s boundary.) Larger pieces of private property occasionally come up for sale, and when they do, TPL moves quickly to conserve them, preventing new development.

Over the decades, TPL has added more than 2,300 acres to the national park through two dozen acquisitions. “The federal government moves incredibly slowly, regardless of the administration,” says Joan Sweeny Dent, a business management specialist for the national park. “So it’s imperative we have partners like TPL who can help us navigate some of these protections.”

One of the biggest came in 2011. That’s when TPL completed a conservation deal that protected 578 acres surrounding the Blossom Music Center, summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Musical Arts Association, the orchestra’s parent, sold the land to raise money and protect its natural surroundings. Conservation of this land, which officially became part of the national park, ensured the continued health of the watershed, as well as a number of woodland species.

More recently, we got involved when Brandywine Golf Course, also in the park, came on the market. The owner had died, and demand for golf courses was waning. Trust for Public Land urged the estate to consider selling the 213-acre property, which included both an 18- and a nine-hole course, to the National Park Service rather than let it sprout McMansions. But real estate developers were circling, and the seller was motivated.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park hosts nearly 3 million annual visitors. Photo: McKinley Wiley

Ultimately, TPL and the park service decided to pass the baton to the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, since the nonprofit didn’t have to wait for an official appraisal, as TPL would have. The conservancy’s offer was accepted, and the group turned 198 acres over to the National Park Service in 2022. In true TPL fashion, we put our mission first and did what was necessary to bring the land into public ownership as efficiently as possible—in this case, handing it to the player with the greatest chance of success. “The threat of development was real,” says Laura Hnat, TPL’s director of philanthropy in Ohio.

The conservancy retained 15 acres that sit on a bluff overlooking the Cuyahoga, which glinted in the sun on a mild afternoon. On the other side of the river is the old Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath, now a popular multiuse trail that bustles with bicyclists and joggers.

About a mile south of the former golf course is TPL’s latest conservation project in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. There, we have a contract to buy a former homestead on 85 acres. “The original owner was a high school teacher with a hobby farm,” Hnat notes. “He had a house that he built himself and outbuildings and animal pens.”

The densely wooded property is crossed by two streams, and last spring, red-bellied woodpeckers and white-breasted nuthatches could be heard amid the black oaks and red maples. The farmhouse and buildings are gone, but a horse-drawn wagon—its lone wooden wheel now a silver-gray—lay forgotten in the tall grass.

The property is one of the largest remaining private inholdings in the national park; TPL plans to transfer it to the National Park Service once the acquisition is completed, which is expected in 2026. The land will support wildlife and climate resilience—and provide a more expansive view of nature for park visitors. As part of a national park, says Dent, “It’s your land.”

That attitude carries back to the parks and trails of Cleveland, too, where every piece of public green space serves a mix of purposes: inspiring recreation, bringing ecological balance to the city, cleaning the air and water—and ultimately, advancing greater health for nature and people.

Lisa W. Foderaro is a senior writer and researcher for Trust for Public Land. Previously, she was a reporter for The New York Times, where she covered parks and the environment.