Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Weblog

Bike Cleveland hired Jacob VanSickle as the organization's first executive director. Meanwhile, AMATS issued a draft of its its bike plan (PDF) for Portage and Summit counties, and will hold public meetings on February 13 and 14.

Update: the Plain Dealer reported on Jacob VanSickle's new position.

A new report from the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University looked at changes in poverty rates in Northeast Ohio communities between 2000 and 2010. The figures reflect rising poverty across the region and the growth of suburban poverty.

Update: the Plain Dealer reported on the poverty figures.

Fresh Water described the nonprofit organizations that collaborate to promote economic development in Northeast Ohio.

NOACA issued its 2009 Crash Report (PDF) in December. It says that the number of crashes in the five-county Greater Cleveland area declined by 24.8% between 2000 and 2009, and identified the intersections that experienced the most crashes from 2007 to 2009. ODOT said that it is working to improve the intersection of Carnegie Avenue and Ontario Street in downtown Cleveland.

The NOACA Governing Board approved the addition of 15 projects to its long-range transportation plan. Eight of the projects are in Cuyahoga County, including the planned redecking of the I-480 bridge in Valley View and Independence.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District submitted its green infrastructure plan to the U.S. EPA on Wednesday. It identifies 20 green infrastructure projects that the sewer district may fund over an eight-year period, as part of its combined sewer overflow control program. The agency will invest at least $42 million in the green infrastructure projects. Federal approval is required for the overall plan but not for individual projects.

The Ohio Department of Development awarded $14.9 million in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits for 13 rehabilitation projects. Eight of the projects are in Northeast Ohio, and four are in Cleveland. The Victory Building at Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street received a $4.38 million credit, the Park and Southworth Buildings on Public Square received a $1.98 million credit, the Rialto Theater on West 25th Street received a $484,108 credit, and the Gifford House on Prospect Avenue received a $108,914 credit. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial supports the tax credit program.

Researchers are the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland examined changes in population densities within metropolitan areas and asked whether they correlated with productivity. They used Greater Cleveland as an example, and said that "evidence suggests that denser MSAs are more productive."

(via Rust Wire)

A 60 Minutes segment looked at the impacts of the housing crisis in Cuyahoga County and at how local governments and residents are responding to foreclosures, abandonment, and underwater mortgages. The Plain Dealer's Brent Larkin also described the struggles. Rob Pitingolo said that exurban housing construction and regional population declines contributed to the problems.

Update: Businessweek also looked at the local housing market.

At GreenCityBlueLake, Marc Lefkowitz looked to San Diego for ideas to inform the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium's planning process.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its second annual set of five-year American Community Survey estimates. The release provides detailed socio-economic data covering the period from 2006 to 2010. It showed decreasing household incomes and a growing income gap.

WKSU is airing a series of reports on the plans for the downtown Cleveland casino. The series includes an examination of its urban connectivity, a look at its potential regional impacts, and lessons that can be learned from Pittsburgh's casino.

The Fund for Our Economic Future issued its sixth annual Dashboard of Economic Indicators. It "measures the region's economic performance in the context of a slow-growth, fragile, post-recession economy."

WKSU's Kabir Bhatia spoke with Neil Donovan of the National Coalition for the Homeless about homelessness in Northeast Ohio.

From April through October, Greater Cleveland experienced 14 days with elevated ozone levels, close to the annual average of 15.5 days. NOACA staff noted (PDF) that "in general, ozone concentrations have decreased in the long term".

The Center for Community Solutions issued a set of 20 heath, social, and economic indicators for 16 Northeast Ohio counties through its Northeast Ohio Regional Indicators and Objectives initiative.

Update: the Plain Dealer looked at the income inequality indicator and the region's rising disparity.

The board of the Gund Foundation awarded $7,425,902 in grants at its November board meeting. The 75 grants included a two-year $775,000 grant to LAND Studio and a $60,000 grant to Bike Cleveland.

Update: the award will enable Bike Cleveland to hire an executive director.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin attempted to quantify the benefits of reducing automobile usage for short trips in 11 Midwestern metropolitan areas, including Greater Cleveland. Their findings suggested that "significant health and economic benefits are possible if bicycling replaces short car trips."

(via GOOD)

Researchers at the Brookings Institution analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data and found that concentrated poverty increased over the past decade, and that it nearly doubled in Midwestern metropolitan areas. They added that "the picture today likely looks quite a bit worse than much of [the] report reflects." The five-county Greater Cleveland area saw an 8.0% increase in its concentrated poverty rate and the City of Cleveland experienced a 13.1% increase.

A new paper from PolicyBridge (PDF) draws connections between the social determinants of health in Greater Cleveland and the area's economic competitiveness. It identifies relevant policy areas and makes recommendations for increasing local health and wealth, and says that "recognizing the importance of personal physical and mental well-being to the overall region's economic well-being would be a critical first step toward a more vibrant Northeast Ohio."

The trial on the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's stormwater management program began in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and is expected to take about three weeks. The sewer district wants to implement fees to support the program, and is opposed by a group of suburbs.

The U.S. Census Bureau published three-year American Community Survey estimates. The release includes data on more than 40 topics. The Plain Dealer used the information to compile statistics on the ethnic backgrounds of residents in Northeast Ohio cities.

In a new report, Transportation for America continued its examination of the condition of bridges by looking at those in the country's 102 largest metropolitan areas. It says that "structurally deficient bridges in metropolitan areas carry a disproportionate share of all trips taken on a deficient bridge each day." In the five-county Cleveland metropolitan area, 11.4% of bridges were rated as deficient, while the two-county Akron metropolitan area had 12.7% of bridges rated as deficient.

NOACA officials warned that potential cuts in federal transportation funding could affect area road construction projects.

A new report from the Brookings Institution examined the increasing use of housing vouchers in suburban areas across the United States. Of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, the Akron metropolitan area saw the most growth and the Cleveland metropolitan area the 15th-most between 2000 and 2008.

More than 100 people attended the EfficientGovNetwork Regional Collaboration Conference in Akron on Thursday. They learned about practices and policies for increasing intergovernmental cooperation and efficiency.

Update: Adam Harvey shared his notes and reactions from the conference.

Update 2: conference attendees explained their views.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a report on the housing market in the five-county Cleveland metropolitan area. It says that "the housing market in Cleveland remains fragile (PDF) - with low property values, deeply-discounted foreclosed properties affecting neighborhood values, and many severely underwater mortgages."

Participants on a recent Outspoken Cyclist show on WJCU discussed mountain biking in Northeast Ohio, and the conversation on the latest Civic Commons radio show was about bicycling in Cleveland. An article in this month's issue of Cleveland Magazine calls for faster progress in the construction of the Cleveland portion of the Towpath Trail.

The conversation on this morning's Sound of Ideas program was about how local universities are encouraging nearby mixed-use development.

Update: Cleveland Magazine explored the changes to the Cleveland State University campus.

The Texas Transportation Institute issued its annual Urban Mobility Report. It said that too little is being done to address traffic congestion issues and that congestion occurs even in off-peak hours. The study was criticized as being overly automobile-centric. It reported that the average Cleveland driver (PDF) spent 20 hours in traffic jams last year, the same amount it reported for 2009 and 2008.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is finalizing its identification of green infrastructure projects that will be a part of the combined sewer overflow control program. The Green Infrastructure Feasibility Study will include 1,000 acres in 30 projects.

Update: the Plain Dealer published more information about the $42 million program.

In its annual release of American Community Survey statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau published data covering more than 40 topics for 2010, including income, poverty, and educational attainment. Median income declined and poverty rates increased in most of the nation's metropolitan areas, including Greater Cleveland. Suburban poverty rates continued to rise. The City of Cleveland remained among the nation's poorest large cities.

A new report from Environment America looked at smog figures in American cities. It ranked the five-county Greater Cleveland area as being tied as the 20th-smoggiest metropolitan area in 2010.

Sound barriers along Greater Cleveland highways are deteriorating more quickly than anticipated. The Ohio Department of Transportation spends $5 million per year to repair and replace noise walls statewide. Councilman Mike Polansek of Cleveland said that ODOT made poor choices.

More than 125 people attended the inaugural Bike Cleveland Summit and helped to craft the new organization's vision, principles, and goals. Marc Lefkowitz considered the state of transportation advocacy in Greater Cleveland.

Between 2000 and 2010, the ten least-segregated metropolitan areas in the United States saw greater population growth than the ten most-segregated. The least-segregated metro areas were in the South and West, while the most-segregated (including Greater Cleveland) were in the Midwest and Northeast.

The Ohio EPA intends to ask the U.S. EPA (PDF) to declare that the seven-county Greater Cleveland area is in compliance with 1997 federal fine particle pollution standards. The state's draft redesignation request and maintenance plan (PDF) is available online, and it will hold a public hearing on September 23 in Twinsburg.

Bob Dyer of the Akron Beacon Journal related a critique of ODOT's implementation of Intelligent Transportation System technologies.

The Community Land Trust of Greater Cleveland will merge with Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland. The land trust will become a program of NHSGC.

Update: Neighborhood Housing Services issued a press release.

As anticipated, Team NEO was selected to coordinate economic development activities for the JobsOhio program in 18 Northeast Ohio counties. Team NEO will expand its staff to manage the additional work, and added 13 new trustees, doubling the size of its board. The Ohio Third Frontier Commission gave $4.1 million to Team NEO for 2012. Mark Kvamme, JobsOhio's chief investment officer, visited Independence to explain the changes to local officials. Channel 3's Tom Beres interviewed Mark Kvamme.

NOACA published its latest freeway travel time study (PDF, 24.0 MB). It identified the sections of area freeways with the greatest traffic congestion. The agency released its last travel time study in 2006 (PDF, 49.8 MB).

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District leaders and a group of suburban mayors were unable to reach an agreement about the fees associated with the District's stormwater management program. A trial will be held on October 31 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial concludes, "If these cities win their lawsuit, it will mean a big loss for the region. Working with the sewer district is cheaper and smarter in the long run."

Larry Miller, Lubrizol's vice president for human resources, will be the first president of Global Cleveland. He is one of several top executives leaving the company following its acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway, and will start his new job in October.

Building upon their earlier work, researchers at the Brookings Institution examined zero-vehicle households in the United States. In the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, an average of 90% of those households are in neighborhoods with access to public transit. In Greater Cleveland (PDF), the figure is 88%.

The Plain Dealer used IRS migration data to calculate net population losses and gains from domestic migration in the seven-county Greater Cleveland area.

Participants on Monday's Sound of Ideas program discussed Northeast Ohio invasive plant issues. The guest on Tuesday's program was Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority President William Friedman.

Daniel Hartley and Kyle Fee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland compared changes in population density in the Chicago and Cleveland metropolitan areas between 1950 and 2010. They concluded that "the big question for Cleveland is to what degree population loss at its core is a cause or consequence of its overall population loss."

Four smaller local sewer systems are developing plans to reduce combined sewer overflows. Systems operated by the cities of Avon Lake, Elyria, Euclid, and Lakewood currently discharge 274 million gallons of untreated wastewater per year. The work is addition to the plans of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the City of Akron.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial says that the improvements are worth the expense.

In Canton's Repository, Brad Whitehead of the Fund for our Economic Future wrote about the benefits of government collaboration in Northeast Ohio.

Team NEO submitted a proposal to be one of six regional economic development offices under the JobsOhio program. If accepted, Team NEO would coordinate job attraction and retention efforts over an 18-county Northeast Ohio area. Meanwhile, opponents of JobsOhio asked the Ohio Supreme Court to block funding for the organization until their lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is concluded.

Update: the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the program.

A new report from Good Jobs First concludes that property tax incentives fueled urban sprawl in the Cleveland and Cincinnati metropolitan areas. It looks at 63 business relocations in the eight-county Cleveland metropolitan area, and says that "by dispersing jobs away from the two urban cores, the relocations contributed to disparities in wealth and opportunity among localities in the regions. They moved jobs away from areas with higher rates of poverty and people of color to more affluent and less racially diverse areas. And by moving mostly to locations that are not served by public transportation, they denied job opportunities to carless workers and denied thousands more any choice about how to get to work."

Update: an Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that the study "adds an important voice to other studies and initiatives, all grounded in the realization that shifting jobs within a region does virtually nothing to advance competitiveness in a global economy." A News-Herald editorial concludes that "Northeast Ohio is better off if community leaders work together to attract new businesses to the region instead of compete against each other for businesses that are already here."

In its US and Canada Green City Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit used nine environmental indicators to rank 27 American and Canadian cities (PDF). Cleveland was ranked 25th (PDF) overall, and received the lowest scores of any city in the buildings, CO₂, and land use categories. Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council evaluated the evaluation.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Nugent approved the agreement between the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and federal agencies for addressing combined sewer overflows in the region. NEORSD now can implement the $3 billion consent decree.

Reinventing America's Legacy Cities is a report from the American Assembly of Columbia University. Its strategies were developed by 80 attendees at an April event in Detroit. It "focuses on how America can help legacy cities stem their losses, uplift their communities and their institutions, and harness their assets to help move the nation toward success in the next economy."

A new report from the Brookings Institution "assesses public policies and economic development strategies in eight U.S. metropolitan areas that had a significant specialization in manufacturing in 1980 and lost manufacturing jobs between 1980 and 2005," including the Cleveland area. Cleveland's evolving economy is also one of nine case studies in The Next American Economy, a new book by William J. Holstien.

The Cleveland Foundation announced $18 million in grants, including $3 million to economic development organizations.

NOACA uploaded more videos from its annual summit, in addition to its coverage of Jerry Wray's talk. Part one includes introductory remarks, part two features commentary from Commissioner Hambley of Medina County, and parts three, four, five, and six are a panel discussion about the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium.

A new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists identified Ohio as one of ten states likely to see significant increases in respiratory problems from rising ozone levels associated with global warming. Meanwhile, Jeff Opperman of the Nature Conservancy expanded upon his earlier premise that ranked Cleveland as the city least vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Rust Wire's Kate Giammarise interviewed Al Douglas of the Ontario Centre for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Resources about its effects on the Great Lakes.

A new report from the Brookings Institution used American Community Survey data to determine the educational attainment of immigrants in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. It says that highly skilled foreign-born workers now outnumber lower-skilled ones, and that the five-county Cleveland (PDF) metropolitan area has a very high concentration of high-skilled immigrants.

By a vote of 4-2, the board of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District approved a series of sewer rate increases over the next five years. Mayors Starr and DePiero dissented. The largest factor in the rate hike is the work to address combined sewer overflows identified in the consent decree with the U.S. EPA. Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program was devoted to a discussion of the rate increases in Cleveland and Akron.

Kent State University's Center for Public Administration and Public Policy compiled an inventory of more than 240 intergovernmental collaboration projects in 16 Northeast Ohio counties, and published a list of 105 initiatives. The most popular areas for partnerships were in public safety, public works, and economic development.

Meanwhile, in a Plain Dealer op-ed, Brad Whitehead and Joe Roman describe a regional approach to economic competitiveness. Ohio's proposed budget bill would provide funds to encourage government collaborations. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that the final budget should include the incentives, while a Plain Dealer editorial says that the budget asks too much of local governments.

Update: the Plain Dealer has more information about the Kent State study.

The Global Cleveland initiative officially commenced with a launch party on Tuesday evening and a day-long summit on Wednesday. The initiative will employ a four-part strategy targeted at strengthening Northeast Ohio by attracting and retaining newcomers. A Plain Dealer editorial supports its goals. The Civic Commons spoke with the initiative's leaders and with summit attendees for its weekly radio show and is hosting continuing discussions.

Guests on Wednesday's Sound of Ideas program discussed greenspace conservation in Northeast Ohio.

A new Greater Ohio analysis of Ohio's sales tax patterns and policies concludes that "Ohio's county-based sales tax structure is misaligned with regional shopping trends." It recommends strategies for modernizing the state's taxation system. A short report issued (PDF) by Advance Northeast Ohio puts forward a case for increasing local government collaborations as a method of increasing efficiency.

Update: Crain's Cleveland Business and WKSU reported on the Advance Northeast Ohio report. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that communities need more financial support for collaboration initiatives.

In its second Dangerous by Design report, Transportation for America highlights pedestrian safety issues and recommends actions to create safer walking environments. The report examines pedestrian fatality statistics, maps individual pedestrian deaths, and ranks the 52 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The five-county Cleveland metropolitan area was the nation's second-safest. Meanwhile, the League of American Bicyclists issued its fourth annual Bicycle Friendly State rankings. Ohio was ranked 37th-friendliest.

Northeast Ohio retail developers at the annual International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas are focusing on renovations and expansions of existing shopping centers. Stark Enterprises is seeking upscale retailers for the final phase of Crocker Park in Westlake.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology issued an analysis of the Greater Cleveland economy (PDF). It examines regional strengths and weaknesses, and offers a variety of suggestions. CNT published similar reports for Cincinnati and Columbus.

Update: the Plain Dealer highlighted several of the report's recommendations.

The NOACA Governing Board voted to oppose the proposed privatization of the Ohio Turnpike. Members said that it would lead to higher tolls, reduced maintenance, and increased traffic on alternative routes. The Governing Board also adopted the agency's 2012-2015 TIP (PDF).

"Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America", a new report from the Brookings Institution, compared access to public transit in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. It analyzed how well transit systems connect people to jobs, examining the share of residents served by transit, the share of jobs accessible by transit, and its frequency of service. The five-county Cleveland metropolitan area was ranked 41st, with figures close to (PDF) national averages. Alan Berube said that "transit simply must be part of a successful 21st century metropolitan economy," and Shaun Donovan and Ray LaHood described shifts in federal programs. An interactive map offers detailed information at the block group level.

Prompted by a recent blog post and an online conversation, the discussion on this week's Civic Commons radio show centered on urban sprawl. The participants were Angie Schmitt of Rust Wire and economic development professionals Tim Smith of Brunswick and Ralph Waszak of Richfield.

Marc Lefkowitz wrote about the Healthy Communities Active Transportation Conference & Workshop held earlier this week and the state of local bike planning. Cleveland Bicycle Week 2011 starts on Monday. Meanwhile, a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Foundation says that most states lack adequate information to accurately evaluate the performance of their transportation networks. Ohio's scores were in the middle.

Update: ODOT posted the presentations from the HCAT conference.

The American Lung Association's 12th annual State of the Air report says that Cuyahoga County's air quality continues to improve, but it again gave the County failing grades for its levels of ozone and particulate pollution. The eight-county Cleveland metropolitan area was ranked as having the nation's 12th-highest level of year-round particulate pollution. Previous reports: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004.

In the fifth report (PDF) in the Paying More for the American Dream series, a group of nonprofits examined mortgage refinance lending in seven metropolitan areas. In the five-county Greater Cleveland area, residents of neighborhoods with large minority populations were denied loans at a much higher rate than homeowners in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Dan Moulthrop and Luke Frazier of the Civic Commons spoke with Cuyahoga County Deputy Chief of Staff Nathan Kelly about the County's recently-announced $100 million economic development fund. The Foundation Center's Cynthia Bailie talked to Christine Amer Mayer of Akron's GAR Foundation about the foundation's involvement in economic development. With the State of Ohio poised to spend $1.4 billion on economic development this year, USA Today compared Ohio's approach with those of other states.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Pokorny ruled that the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has the authority to implement its stormwater management program, but did not rule on a challenge by several suburban communities. The district filed for a declaratory judgment in January 2010. Judge Pokorny's decision (PDF) removes seven Summit County communities from the program. The Summit County Engineer's Office continues to develop its own stormwater management program.

Update: an Akron Beacon Journal editorial encourages communities to work cooperatively instead of through the courts.

The Akron Beacon Journal provides more details about the new Thriving Communities Institute at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

After a brief delay, the National Park Service published the Western Reserve Heritage Feasibility Study on Friday. It concludes that the 14-county area is neither suitable nor feasible for national designation. The document is open to public comment through May 5.

In a new paper, Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution used Greater Cleveland as one of three examples of metropolitan areas that are "engaged in practical, smart, and self-starting efforts to grow the economy that are all about pragmatic, bottom-up problem solving at a time when the ills of top-down, business-as-usual economic affairs have become increasingly apparent." Brad Whitehead of the Fund for Our Economic Future presented Northeast Ohio's strategy today at a Brookings Institution event in Washington, D.C.

Participants on last Wednesday's Sound of Ideas program discussed sustainable urban development, and on Thursday talked about the implications of the 2010 Census figures.

This May, Global Cleveland plans to open the Cleveland International Welcome Center in a Euclid Avenue storefront of 200 Public Square, the former BP Building. It will serve as an information and resource center for immigrants and as the headquarters for recruitment efforts. The organization has raised more than $1 million to support the initiative, including $500,000 from Huntington Bank.

Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution was the keynote speaker at last week's annual meeting of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. He delivered a message (PDF, 13.3 MB) about a vision for the next American economy, and described how it will be based on metropolitan areas and driven by exports.

The second annual County Health Rankings from the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked the health of counties by state. In Ohio, Cuyahoga County again ranked well in health factors and lower in health outcomes. Both rankings were improvements over last year's scores. Geauga and Medina counties appeared near the top of both lists.

Update: an Akron Beacon Journal editorial and PBS's The Rundown weblog reflected on the report.

The Plain Dealer compared the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 population estimates to the 2010 Census figures, and also examined local migration patterns. Cleveland's African-American population is suburbanizing and its Latino population is growing. Racial segregation continues to be an issue.

National media outlets are focusing on population declines in older industrial cities, and Terry Schwarz of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative discussed the subject on the Diane Rehm Show. Terry Schwarz and Brad Whitehead contributed opinion pieces to a set of commentaries in the New York Times. In Shelterforce, Alan Mallach explored how community development corporations are responding to the demographic changes. Greater Ohio's Lavea Brachman looked to Europe for ideas.

Update: WKSU's M. L. Schultze spoke with Kimberly Phillips of the College of William & Mary about local African-American history.

Former Cleveland Planning Director Hunter Morrison will be program director for the 12-county Northeast Ohio Consortium for Sustainable Communities. Medina County Commissioner Steve Hambley will serve as the regional planning initiative's chairman and AMATS Director Jason Segedy its vice chairman.

Update: the Medina County Gazette described Commissioner Hambley's role.

Update 2: the Plain Dealer and WCPN have more details.

The Gund Foundation awarded nearly $3.5 million in grants at its March meeting. They include awards of up to $250,000 to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, $180,000 over two years to the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, $100,000 to the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, and $60,000 to the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation.

A group of 12 political, business, and community leaders is urging Governor Kasich to support high-speed rail in Northeast Ohio.

Update: Youngstown's Business Journal published the text of the letter.

U.S. District Judge John Adams rejected the proposed consent decree intended to address Akron's combined sewer overflow issues. A civil trial is now scheduled to begin in his court on May 31. Akron officials say they are "extremely disappointed" and that they will appeal the ruling.

In Greater Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will hold a series of public meetings about proposed rate increases that would fund work identified in its combined sewer overflow consent decree. The NEORSD Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the changes in June.

Update: Mayor Plusquellic of Akron held a news conference on Friday. The Akron Beacon Journal summarized his remarks.

Update 2: an Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that the judge should have allowed the City of Akron and the U.S. EPA more time to revise the agreement.

A National Park Service report recommends that a 14-county Northeast Ohio region should not be designated as a National Heritage Area. It concludes that the proposed Western Reserve National Heritage Area is qualifies for the designation, but lacks a coordinating entity. The report will be available on March 28 and will be open to public comment for a month.

Update: the National Park Service will host town hall meetings on March 23 and 24.

Update 2: the Medina County Gazette and Brunswick Post also published articles about the feasibility study.

Fresh Water looked to Pittsburgh for lessons that Clevelanders can incorporate into local efforts to make the city more bicycle-friendly and to improve its bicycle culture.

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy will establish Thriving Communities Institute in partnership with former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, who will serve as its director. The 14-county initiative is intended to facilitate the "transformation of aging and declining urban areas through troubled mortgage and land vacancy mitigation, land conservation and land reuse in an intentional and integrated manner."

Update: Jim Rokakis spoke with WCPN's Eric Wellman about the initiative.

The Fund for Our Economic Future awarded $1.385 million in grants at its meeting last week. The awards include a $500,000 grant to support Northeast Ohio's Sustainable Communities Initiative.

The release of Census 2010 population figures prompted a variety of local responses. Dennis Kucinich attributed Cleveland's population decline to the loss of manufacturing jobs, while Bill Callahan drew connections between the population decrease and foreclosure levels. An editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal suggested that "initiatives to rein in expensive sprawl are more important than ever," but a Morning Journal editorial said that "Lorain County needs to capitalize on its growth image".

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial took a more optimistic approach.

The U.S. Census Bureau today published the first set of detailed Census 2010 demographics for Ohio, redistricting data that covers population, race, Hispanic origin, and housing occupancy. Between 2000 and 2010, the population of Cuyahoga County fell by 113,856 to 1,280,122, a decrease of 8.2%. The City of Cleveland's population declined by 17.1% to 396,815, and most of its inner-ring suburbs also lost population. The populations of Cleveland Heights and Euclid each fell below 50,000, putting their status as entitlement communities into question. Lakewood's population remained over 50,000. We have posted population figures for Cuyahoga County communities and will provide other tables soon.

The eight-county Cleveland-Akron CSA's population declined by only 2.2%, as Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, and Portage counties gained population. The City of Columbus grew by 10.6%, but all of Ohio's other major cities saw population decreases. The Census Bureau will release additional data in the coming months.

Update: area newspapers reported on the release, including the Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal, News-Herald, Morning Journal, Chronicle-Telegram, Record-Courier, and the Medina County Gazette. In addition to posting the Cuyahoga County population figures, we posted data and maps on the county's racial distribution, Latino population, and housing occupancy.

Update 2: Ohio's Office of Policy Research and Strategic Planning compiled population data for every county, city, village, and township (PDF) in the state.

Update 3: the Plain Dealer published a corrected population change map.

The annual Inrix National Traffic Scorecard says that average travel times in the United States increased by 10% in 2010, and that several metropolitan areas experienced more congestion than their pre-recession 2007 highs. It ranked the Cleveland MSA as having the nation's 31st-highest level of congestion.

Update: Todd Litman criticized the analysis and the Urban Mobility Report that was released in January.

Monday's flooding destroyed a 104-year-old lowhead dam on the Chagrin River in Gates Mills. It was the last remaining dam between the river's mouth and Chagrin Falls. The storm also damaged the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant in Cuyahoga Heights and led the sewer district to temporarily divert untreated wastewater directly into the Cuyahoga River.

Update: the Gates Mills dam probably won't be rebuilt. Its absence is expected to improve water quality and fish populations.

Update 2: repairs are underway at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Two Northeast Ohio funds received a total of $53 million in federal New Markets Tax Credit allocations, part of the $3.5 billion awarded nationwide. The Cleveland New Markets Investment Fund received $35 million in tax credits and the Northeast Ohio Development Fund received $18 million.

Leaders of local governments, businesses, and nonprofits will serve on the board of Global Cleveland, an initiative scheduled to launch in May. The group seeks to make Cleveland more welcoming to immigrants and to assist immigrants after they arrive. They hope to attract 200,000 immigrants and minorities over the next 20 years.

Update: a Global Cleveland video describes the initiative, and a Plain Dealer editorial backs the effort.

A group of local paddlers is developing a plan for a Cuyahoga River water trail, and held a day-long workshop in Cuyahoga Falls. Officials in Cuyahoga Falls also anticipate that the removal of two dams will create conditions for whitewater rafting.

Participants in the community roundtable on this week's Civic Commons radio show (MP3, 16.3 MB) discussed regional collaboration.

Ohio Authority's Jonathan Sin-Jin Satayathum interviewed Michele Kilroy of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the United States Green Building Council about sustainable development initiatives in Greater Cleveland.

Update: participants on Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program also discussed green building in Northeast Ohio.

The Housing Research & Advocacy Center prepared an analysis of the occupancy codes of communities (PDF) in six Greater Cleveland counties. The report "examines limits on the total number and configuration of residents allowed in dwellings" and its data was "collected to make the varied requirements easily referenced and comparable."

Civic Economics and the American Booksellers Association issued the Indie City Index, a comparison of the strength of independent retailers by metropolitan area. It assigned a score to each metropolitan area in the United States. Of the 363 metropolitan areas, the Cleveland MSA was ranked 356th, earning the lowest score among metropolitan areas with populations between 1 and 3 million.

Willoughby Mayor Dave Anderson explained why he does not support the Regional Prosperity Initiative to Dan Moulthrop of the Civic Commons. On Thursday, the Levin College Forum will host discussions about regional collaboration.

Update: participants on Thursday Sound of Ideas program also talked about regional planning.

Update 2: Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder addressed attendees at the CSU forum, and Dan Moulthrop spoke with Richfield Mayor Mike Lyons, one of the event's panelists.

Update 3: the Levin College Forum posted a summary of the event, and the Civic Commons radio show addressed the subject (MP3, 16.3 MB).

The Texas Transportation Institute published the 2010 Urban Mobility Report, which states that traffic congestion in 2009 began to rise as the economy improved. Drivers in Greater Cleveland (PDF) continued to experience one of the lowest average delay times of the nation's large urban areas. CEOs for Cities issued a critique of earlier reports' methodologies in September, and said that the 2010 report "continues to present an exaggerated and incorrect picture" of urban transportation issues.

Update: the Plain Dealer looked at the report.

Decades of road salt usage has changed the habitat of Northeast Ohio roadsides, creating areas where invasive halophytes can thrive. Stream and groundwater contamination is also a concern.

Entrepreneurs for Sustainability founder and president Holly Harlan announced that she will step down on February 15 in order to "have more time to explore new opportunities to create prosperity and improved quality of life for all." Mike Dungan will serve as interim executive director.

Jeff Opperman of the Nature Conservancy ranked 50 major U.S. cities (PDF) by their vulnerability to climate change. He found that Cleveland was least likely to experience negative repercussions, while Miami was the most vulnerable.

Economist and blogger Chris Briem described how Northeast Ohio and Southwestern Pennsylvania are interconnected and asserted that "in many ways it already functions as a single region." The Cleveland-to-Pittsburgh area is also the focus of the Regional Learning Network and the Tech Belt initiative.

The Plain Dealer's Joe Frolik reflected on the past year, and thinks that "in 10 years, we will look back on 2010 as the year that Cleveland turned the corner and began to regain its status as a vibrant American city." Steven Litt described the year's architecture highlights, while GreenCityBlueLake summarized the major sustainability stories, and the Cleveland Heights Bicycle Coalition listed the top bicycling news.

Writing about the recent Brookings Institution report and summit, columnist Neal Peirce described Greater Cleveland as one of several metropolitan areas that have "devised ingenious recovery strategies."

"Immigration: Path to Prosperity or Calamity?" (PDF) is the newest report from PolicyBridge. Among other immigration policy recommendations, it says that "Encouraging population growth in Ohio - and Cuyahoga County, specifically - through immigration must be an imperative to offset the outflow of residents to other parts of the country. Regardless of ethnic background, the emphasis must be on attracting new residents to the state and region."

Update: a Plain Dealer article looked at the local African-American community's evolving opinions about immigration.

Northeast Ohio communities may soon see a dramatic rise in the number of new natural gas wells. Portage County saw 101 natural gas leases filed in the first half of 2010, and 1,125 have been filed thus far in the second half of the year. Stark County saw 160 in the first half and 836 to date in the second.

Other cities have lessons for Northeast Ohio:

• Changing Gears aired "Reinventing Our Cities", an hour-long program that "looks at all the issues facing our cities, from Pittsburgh to Chicago, Detroit to Gary, Indiana."
• Through the German Marshall Fund's Cities in Transition Initiative, participants from Great Lakes cities visited Leipzig, Germany and Manchester, England.
• Time recently published an article titled "What Torino Can Teach Cleveland".

The new American Community Survey five-year estimates have elicited a range of interpretations:

• Locally, the Akron area and Lorain County both experienced decreases in their median household incomes. Geauga and Lake counties saw more stability.
• The New York Times looked at shifting settlement patterns of immigrants and mapped a number of demographic attributes.
• Discovering Urbanism used the New York Times maps to explore changes in median income in several metropolitan areas.
• Bill Frey of the Brookings Institution examined the evolving patterns of racial segregation.
• The American Planning Association presented some caveats about the data.

The U.S. Census Bureau published its first set of five-year American Community Survey estimates. The release includes information about smaller units of geography and topics that were previously only available through the decennial census. It covers 72 topics for the period between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2009. The estimates show a country that continues to become more urbanized and more integrated, although segregation remains an issue. They also reveal a variety of details about Greater Cleveland. The Census Bureau will issue new five-year ACS estimates every year, and will release the first data from the 2010 Census on December 21.

The NOACA Governing Board approved $9 million in Transportation Enhancement funding for 17 bicycle and pedestrian projects in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. Nine Cuyahoga County initiatives will share about $5 million: projects in the Flats, Garfield Heights, Lakewood, Larchmere, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Village, Tremont, University Circle, and the Warehouse District. In Summit County, AMATS approved two $50,000 grants through its new Connecting Communities Planning Grant Program.

Update: the Sun Press described the Larchmere project.

The Gund Foundation awarded $8 million in grants, which included a $100,000 grant to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition and $70,000 to the Trust for Public Land. The Fund for Our Economic Future announced a $50,000 grant to the Regional Prosperity Initiative.

Local wind turbine initiatives have been highlighted in the media:

• Fresh Water described the current state of wind power generation in Northeast Ohio, while Next American City looked at offshore wind turbine projects in Chicago in Cleveland.
• A new interactive map from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources highlights opportunities for offshore wind turbines.
• The Lake County Commissioners voted to support the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation.
• Case Western Reserve University recently installed a 156-foot tall wind turbine on campus near Veale Athletic Center, and plans to install three more elsewhere in Cuyahoga County. In addition to generating electricity, they will be used to conduct research.

By a vote of 5-2, the board of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District approved an agreement with the U.S. EPA that lays out a 25-year plan for addressing combined sewer overflows. The board may vote in January on rate increases to fund the $3 billion program. Other cities across the country have reached similar deals with the EPA.

Update: David Beach posted his comments.

The new Cleveland Hazecam provides a live image of Cleveland's skyline every 15 minutes. It's intended to increase public awareness of local air quality issues and their health impacts.

The board of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether to accept an agreement with the U.S. EPA. The agreement covers plans to reduce combined sewer overflows over the next 25 years. Proposed rate increases will not be a part of the vote. A Plain Dealer editorial encourages the board to ratify the agreement, using Akron's experience as an example of the alternative.

Update: the Plain Dealer described its projected impacts on sewer rates.

Participants on Monday's Sound of Ideas program discussed the Soul of the Community survey and what makes people attached to their cities. Tuesday's program was devoted to a discussion about the future of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Update: Neotropolis also looked at the Soul of the Community survey.

Northeast Ohio experienced 15 days with elevated ozone levels in 2010, an increase over recent years. Average ozone levels over the three-year period were an improvement over the previous three-year period for most Northeast Ohio counties, but not enough to meet anticipated new federal standards.

As the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority begins its strategic planning process, a consultant prepared an economic impact study. It says that the port directly or indirectly contributes to more than 10,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in economic activity (PDF).

A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office identified Ohio and Greater Cleveland as being among the areas that have experienced the most bank walkaways. It recommends that federal agencies should require mortgage servicers "to notify borrowers and communities when foreclosures are halted and to obtain updated valuations for selected properties before initiating foreclosure." Sherrod Brown said that the practice exacerbates neighborhood blight.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial called the report "a welcome first step, but still just a beginning."

A mistake by an Ohio Department of Transportation engineer has delayed the agency's Greater Cleveland launch of Intelligent Transportation System technologies by a month and a half. ODOT now hopes to have the system operating in December.

Update: the first message boards are now operating.

The Northeast Ohio Local Food Assessment and Plan was unveiled on Saturday at the Northeast Ohio Local Food Mini-Congress. It includes an analysis of the current state of the local food system and proposes that within 10 years, local production could supply 25% of Northeast Ohio's food needs. The document then offers more than 50 recommendations for meeting that goal. Michael Shuman, one of the plan's authors, will present its findings at the City Club on Tuesday.

Update: GreenCityBlueLake and Crain's Cleveland Business provided more information about the plan, and the City Club posted audio of Michael Shuman's talk (MP3, 52.2 MB).

At the Urbanophile, Aaron Renn used U.S. Census Bureau and IRS data to separate domestic migration statistics into in-migration and out-migration figures. He found that several Midwestern metropolitan areas, including Greater Cleveland, did not have disproportionally high out-migration rates, but did experience very low in-migration rates.

Meanwhile, Professor David Barnhizer wrote in a Plain Dealer op-ed that Cleveland needs to make itself more attractive to high-skilled international immigrants. The Knight Foundation and Gallup recently completed the Soul of the Community survey, a three-year study of community attachment in 26 American cities. One of its findings in Akron was that new residents felt more attached to the city than residents who had lived there longer.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District shared details about its proposed agreement with the U.S. EPA. The documents describe plans to spend $3 billion over 25 years to address combined sewer overflow problems and specify the speed at which sewer rates would rise. Some Clevelanders oppose the agreement. The plans will be presented to the agency's board on November 18, and the board is expected to vote on the plan on December 2.

Mayor Akers of Pepper Pike recently spoke in Shaker Heights about the Regional Prosperity Initiative. He described it as "connecting existing systems of collaboration."

In a Plain Dealer op-ed, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan described the federal Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program and its recent $4.25 million grant for regional planning in Northeast Ohio. Columnist Neal Peirce highlighted the Northeast Ohio award and said that the grant program shows how federal government can be made more efficient and effective through cross-department collaborations.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is holding a series of public meetings to explain its plans to address combined sewer overflow problems and the associated rate increases. The first meeting was held on Thursday in South Euclid, and NEORSD tweeted updates from the event. The program, dubbed Project Clean Lake, is facing opposition from Summit County officials. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that the "regional approach makes the most sense."

Tim Donovan of Ohio Canal Corridor spoke at the City Club last week (MP3, 54.1 MB) about the Ohio & Erie Canalway and the Towpath Trail.

Living Cities announced that it will provide at least $80 million to five cities, including Cleveland, through its new Integration Initiative. Over the next three years, Living Cities will invest $14.75 million in Cleveland, with much of it supporting new worker-owned cooperatives and initiatives in the Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor. Cleveland was named a finalist in April.

Update: guests on The Takeaway talked about the awards.

Update 2: a Plain Dealer editorial praised the initiative.

Research conducted by the Brookings Institution and the Reinvestment Fund examined access to supermarkets in 10 metropolitan areas, including Cleveland. In the Cleveland MSA (PDF), they found that 11.3% of the population lives in areas with poor access to supermarkets. Results of the analysis for the 10 profiled areas and for the entire nation are available at the Reinvestment Fund's PolicyMap.

Northeast Ohio was one of 45 areas selected for funding through HUD's $100 million Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program. The consortium of 21 entities from 12 counties was awarded $4.25 million to "develop a cooperative regional plan to address housing, transportation, environmental impact and economic development for Northeast Ohio." The consortium consists of MPOs, housing authorities, and county and city governments, plus the Levin College of Urban Affairs, the Regional Prosperity Initiative, and the Fund for Our Economic Future, which helped to fund and organize the application.

"Designing a Better Cleveland" is a new booklet written by Steven Litt and published by the Cleveland Public Library and Cleveland Public Art. An outgrowth of last year's Lockwood Thompson Dialogues, it's meant to be "a call to action and a mini-primer on the ways in which citizens, developers, planners and designers can raise standards of civic design in Cleveland." Electronic copies (PDF) are available online, and paper copies can be obtained from Cleveland Public Art.

Architect Chuck Miller of Doty & Miller makes suggestions for ways that environmentalists and historic preservationists can successfully work together instead of talking past each other.

The Brookings Institution prepared two analyses of metropolitan poverty. They found rising levels of suburban poverty and growing overall poverty rates in the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas. In the five-county Cleveland MSA, the estimated poverty rate increased by 2.6% between 2007 and 2009, rising to 15.3%.

Participants on Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program discussed the plans and the costs for addressing combined sewer overflows, both in Greater Cleveland and Akron.

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District officials say they are close to reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to address combined sewer overflow problems. Sewer rates would increase substantially, beginning in 2012. The final settlement could be announced by November.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau published data from the 2009 American Community Survey, and the release reflects the major impacts of the recession. Figures are available for areas with a population of at least 65,000. In Northeast Ohio and across the United States, median household incomes declined and poverty rates rose. The City of Cleveland's estimated 35.0% poverty rate was second-highest in the nation, trailing only Detroit.

The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology continues to advance its BUILT in Ohio initiative, and recently convened stakeholders in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus to discuss smart growth policies.

The 12 Cuyahoga County suburbs that are challenging NEORSD's stormwater management program jointly issued a statement. It characterizes the program as an "involuntary tax disguised as a fee."

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial criticizes the cities' decision to fight the program.

As University Hospitals nears the completion of its Vision 2010 plan, the Plain Dealer examined the $1.2 billion expansion project. Its two largest components, the $298 million Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood and the $250 million cancer hospital in University Circle will open next year.

At Streetsblog Capitol Hill, Angie Schmitt described how decades of urban sprawl have damaged Greater Cleveland and the small hope offered by the Northeast Ohio application for a federal regional planning grant.

"Why does the Northeast Ohio region's new stormwater management program have a dozen suburbs fit to be tied?" asks Marc Lefkowitz.

A new study by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force quantified the health problems (PDF) caused by fine particle pollution from the nation's coal-burning power plants. It ranked Ohio as having the second-highest number of adverse health impacts, trailing only Pennsylvania. For metropolitan areas, the Cleveland MSA ranked eighth-highest. Power companies and the coal industry dispute the group's findings.

Update: the Statehouse News Bureau's Jo Ingles spoke with Nolan Moser of the Ohio Environmental Council about the study.

The Center for Community Solutions and Cleveland State University jointly published An Analysis of Health Disparities in Northeast Ohio (PDF). They found that "African Americans, and to a lesser extent, Hispanics, have significantly poorer health status, access to care and health care utilization than do Whites" in the eight-county Greater Cleveland area. Earlier this year, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health released an update of its Child and Family Health Services Indicators Report (PDF). It includes an analysis of maternal and child heath indicators for each community in the county.

The German Marshall Fund's Cities in Transition Initiative is "a three-year project designed to build a sustained network of leading policymakers and practitioners" in Cleveland, Detroit, Flint, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown. Greater Ohio is participating in the project, which will be launched in October at a one-day meeting in Detroit.

A coalition of 20 Northeast Ohio stakeholders submitted an application for a regional planning grant from the federal Sustainable Communities Initiative. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Transportation filed $259 million in grant requests through the federal TIGER II program, including a request for $12.3 million to develop a statewide electric vehicle readiness plan. None of ODOT's 12 projects are specific to Cuyahoga County.

This summer's hot weather has led to more days with poor air quality. There have been 11 ozone action days in Northeast Ohio so far this year, compared to three in 2009. There have also been three days with elevated particulate levels.

Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program on WCPN featured a spirited debate about municipal revenue sharing and the 16-county Regional Prosperity Initiative. The guests were Medina County Commissioner Stephen Hambley, Aurora Mayor Lynn McGill, and Professor Tom Bier, who recently wrote an op-ed about ideas for improving Northeast Ohio's older cities.

Because of the unresolved legal challenge, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District indefinitely delayed implementing its stormwater management program and impervious surface fee. The sewer district's board approved the program in January. It was initially scheduled to begin in July, and was later postponed until October. Sewer district officials hope to start the program later this year.

Cleveland's OneCommunity received a $44.8 million federal stimulus grant to expand its fiber optic network in 27 Northeast Ohio counties. The award will fund 64% of a nearly $70 million project that will add about 1,000 miles of new cable, including 111 miles in Cuyahoga County.

Citing reduced demand and proposed federal regulations, FirstEnergy announced plans to reduce operations at four of its smaller coal-fired power plants in Ohio. The changes include plans (PDF) to temporarily idle the Lake Shore Plant in Cleveland and to operate the Eastlake Plant only during the summer and winter.

Turning the Tide (PDF), a new report from the Healing Our Waters Campaign, says that between January 2009 and January 2010, combined sewer overflows in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Gary, and Milwaukee discharged 41 billion gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater into the Great Lakes. The report recommends upgrading sewer systems and increasing implementation of green infrastructure techniques, and calls on Congress to fund the improvements.

This week's issue of Scene looks at the growth of the urban agriculture and local foods movements in Cleveland. The Northeast Ohio Local Food System Assessment is calculating the economic impacts of shifting to local food.

Thursday's Sound of Ideas program focused on the debate over the value of highway noise walls in Brooklyn Centre and across Northeast Ohio.

A group of Summit County elected officials is urging property owners to refuse to pay the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's planned impervious surface fee. NEORSD Executive Director Julius Ciaccia defended the stormwater management program (PDF) and said that the officials were acting irresponsibly.

Update: participants on Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program discussed the issues. The Akron Beacon Journal also published an editorial on the subject.

Update 2: A Plain Dealer editorial criticizes the Summit County officials.

The conversation on today's Sound of Ideas program was about the plans for a Lake Erie wind farm and for encouraging the local wind turbine industry. The guests were Lorry Wagner of LEEDCo, Rebecca Bagley of NorTech, and George Sterzinger of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, who recently wrote an op-ed in which he described how the federal government could support the initiative.

Kent State University named Douglas Steidl as the dean of its College of Architecture and Environmental Design, and Terry Schwarz as director of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. She had been serving as its interim director since last fall.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ended a program that allowed local governments and nonprofits to take control of foreclosed houses. Cleveland officials were surprised and disappointed by its termination, and Dennis Kucinich asked HUD to reverse its decision.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial is critical of HUD's actions.

The Chagrin Solon Sun summarized former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell's recent talk at South Franklin Circle (DOC) about regionalism.

Richard Herman believes that Cleveland leaders need to view the local immigrant community as a valuable resource when pursuing foreign direct investment. Meanwhile, a group of foreign investors committed $20 million to the Flats east bank project through the Cleveland International Fund.

Update: A Plain Dealer editorial says that the investment "is good news for Greater Cleveland -- on many fronts."

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2009 municipal population estimates, the final set of estimates to be based on Census 2000 data. The City of Cleveland's population fell to 431,363, with an estimated loss of 2,658 people between July 2008 and July 2009. The 0.61% rate of decrease was lower than the estimated decreases of recent years. While most Cuyahoga County communities lost population, many communities in the surrounding six counties gained population. The City of Avon grew by an estimated 52% between 2000 and 2009.

The most recent episode of NEOtropolis looked at how several Northeast Ohio communities are implementing the Ohio Main Street Program.

Steve Hoffman of the Akron Beacon Journal was disappointed by the modest scope of the government collaborations in the recently-concluded EfficientGovNow competition. He believes that revenue constraints will compel more intergovernmental cooperation, and that "for some smaller units, survival may well depend on their willingness to collaborate."

Today's Sound of Ideas program was devoted to a discussion of natural gas drilling and the risks it entails.

The discussion on today's Sound of Ideas program was about policy changes to support bicycling and walking in Greater Cleveland. Panelists also discussed the plans to complete the Cleveland segments of the Towpath Trail.

The Los Angeles Times looked at how the Cleveland Catholic Diocese's parish consolidations and church closures are impacting Northeast Ohio's ethnic communities.

More Greater Cleveland residents and businesses are installing rain barrels and rain gardens, for environmental reasons and to qualify for a reduction in the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's impervious surface fee. The City of Cleveland's Office of Sustainability will launch its annual summer rain barrel program on June 21.

The National Park Service will hold a second round of five town-hall meetings on the Western Reserve Heritage Feasibility Study. One meeting will be in Cuyahoga County, on June 22 at the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course clubhouse in Brecksville.

On Wednesday, the Fund for Our Economic Future announced the winners in the second round of the EfficientGovNow program. The projects that received the most votes were the land bank for Mahoning County, 911 dispatch for Stark County, and the renewable energy SID in Cuyahoga County. The Fund also chose to fund a multi-county GIS cooperative. The four projects will share $331,420 in grants. Voters cast more than 17,400 ballots.

Update: Channel 3 described the Renewable Energy Special Improvement District in Cuyahoga County, while editorials in the Repository and Plain Dealer praised the competition.

Bill Purcell, the former mayor of Nashville, spoke about regionalism and city-county consolidations at South Franklin Circle in Chagrin Falls. He also spoke with WCPN's Eric Wellman.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's eighth annual housing policy summit called for "re-examination of that cornerstone of the American Dream: owning a home." It featured panel discussions where experts said that the nation's housing crisis is not over, asserted that new ideas are needed, and discussed methods for preventing a reoccurrence.

Update: the Wall Street Journal's James Hagerty summarized one of the talks.

Panelists at yesterday's Creative Voices Summit discussed ways to use creativity to improve communities and encourage economic development. Richey Piiparinen recapped the event at GreenCityBlueLake.

Update: CEOs for Cities shared some observations.

A new report by Becky Gaylord (PDF) for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland explores why and how Greater Cleveland should encourage immigration, and presents 31 strategies that could be used to support immigration.

Building a Better Bridge (PDF) is a new policy brief from Policy Bridge. It makes recommendations for increasing social capital by creating sustained opportunities for public engagement from diverse constituent groups.

The Maltz Family Foundation donated $50,000 to the effort to establish an international welcome center in Cleveland. It's the first foundation support for the initiative.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial cheered the announcement.

The June issue of Cleveland Magazine includes a profile of ParkWorks Executive Director Ann Zoller, an essay on the breakwall at the East 55th Street Marina, and a map illustrating grant awards in the Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor.

Representatives of each of the 10 finalists in the EfficientGovNow competition described their projects on the Sound of Ideas this morning. The Mahoning County Land Bank project continues to lead the voting, which concludes on May 31.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial praises the initiative.

GreenCityBlueLake reported on the recent "Rebuilding the Cities that Built America" conference in Youngstown, and the Vindicator summarized Dan Kildee's remarks.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District postponed implementation of its new stormwater management program until at least October. The district had intended to impose an impervious surface fee in July, but agreed to the delay because of an ongoing legal challenge.

Update: the Plain Dealer supplied additional information.

The Plain Dealer has more details about the Ohio Department of Transportation's plans to grind rumble stripes along the edge lines of state routes.

A new paper by Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institution looks at the "challenges facing America's distressed older cities," examines the "role and influence of federal policy on these cities" and "offers a set of specific recommendations for how the federal government can help." A second paper by Alan Mallach and Lavea Brachman focuses on Ohio and suggests changes in state policy.

This week is Cleveland Bicycle Week, and a variety of events are being held across Greater Cleveland. The Plain Dealer reported on the City of Cleveland's bicycle parking requirements and the plans for the downtown Cleveland bicycle station.

A new multi-state report (PDF) by a coalition of seven organizations examined the lending patterns of four large national banks in seven metropolitan areas. It found that between 2006 and 2008, prime mortgage lending decreased disproportionately in minority neighborhoods. In Cleveland, prime purchase and refinance lending fell by 42.7% in predominately white neighborhoods and 68.5% in minority neighborhoods.

Backers of the 16-county Regional Prosperity Initiative recently presented its regional planning and tax-base sharing concepts to local officials at a meeting in Fairview Park. The Initiative was also the subject of a debate in Hudson.

Update: organizers delivered a similar message in Shaker Heights.

Update 2: a Sun News editorial supports the initiative.

As of Wednesday, the Mahoning County Land Bank project was leading the voting in the EfficientGovNow program. The 10 competing finalists are promoting their entries to potential voters. In Cuyahoga County, the Sun Press described the solar power project, while the Sun Star Courier wrote about the road salt project.

The State of Metropolitan America is a new report from the Brookings Institution. It "focuses on the major demographic forces transforming the nation and large metropolitan areas in the 2000s" and says "that our nation faces five 'new realities,' currently redefining the country." It also sorts the country's metropolitan areas into seven categories, placing the Cleveland MSA in the Industrial Core classification, which it describes as "in some ways the most demographically disadvantaged of the metropolitan types." Local leaders and academics expressed concern about the demographic trends.

Update: the News-Herald backs the report's recommendations.

The Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh Regional Learning Network will hold a conference in Youngstown on May 21. Titled "Rebuilding The Cities That Built America," it will feature workshops, speakers, and other events. Hunter Morrison wrote about the megapolitan area that some call the Tech Belt.

The Regional Prosperity Initiative's tax base sharing proposal has its supporters and detractors. WCPN's Eric Wellman spoke with a backer and a critic.

The Ohio Department of Transportation's implementation of Intelligent Transportation System technologies will include traffic cameras and sensors. The $22 million system should be in place along Greater Cleveland highways by October.

Public voting in the second round of the EfficientGovNow competition began on Saturday and will continue through May 31. Two of the 10 finalists are projects in Cuyahoga County: a solar power project in Cleveland and its inner-ring suburbs, and a road salt collaboration for four south side suburbs.

The American Lung Association's annual State of the Air report shows that the air quality in Cleveland and other Midwestern cities has improved, but that pollution levels remain dangerously high. Greater Cleveland was ranked as having the country's 19th-worst year-round particulate pollution, an improvement over last year. Cuyahoga County again received failing grades for its its levels of ozone and particulate pollution.

About 62% of Cleveland households mailed back their 2010 Census forms, and the statewide return rate was 76%. Both figures were slightly below 2000 levels. The national response rate was 72%. Census takers will start visiting nonrespondents on May 1.

On Tuesday, Jeff Heinen, Mary K. Holmes, and Doug Katz participated in a discussion about local food systems at the City Club (MP3, 53.0 MB).

There are now 27 proposals for governmental collaborations in the second round of the EfficientGovNow grant program. The Fund for Our Economic Future will announce the finalists on April 30 and public voting will begin on May 1.

Today is the last day to mail back 2010 Census questionnaires. Census takers will begin visiting households that did not respond on May 1. Participation rates in Greater Cleveland communities vary widely.

A recent trip to Indianapolis prompted Steven Litt to consider lessons that Cleveland could learn from its Midwestern neighbor.

Backers of a proposed Cleveland international welcome center are developing strategies for attracting international immigrants to the area.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial says that Cleveland's leaders must support the concept. Participants on Channel 3's Between the Lines also discussed the subject.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is gathering feedback from local communities on the draft guidelines for its stormwater management program.

Update: NEORSD posted the draft stormwater fee credit policy manual.

The Ohio Department of Transportation installed its first three Greater Cleveland traffic cameras as part of its introduction of Intelligent Transportation System technologies. The webcams are available at Buckeye Traffic.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual county population estimates say that Cuyahoga County's population fell by 7,171 people between July 2008 and July 2009. The decrease of 0.56% was smaller than in previous years, but Cleveland State's Tom Bier believes that outmigration will increase once the economy improves. The eight-county Cleveland CSA lost an estimated 2,990 residents over the same period. Many of the decade's fastest-growing counties were in Texas.

Update: the Plain Dealer looked at the trends.

Organizers of the EfficientGovNow program disqualified 19 of the submitted abstracts, and the backers of the 31 remaining projects will be invited to submit final proposals.

Tuesday's Sound of Ideas program was devoted to a discussion of stormwater and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's contentious stormwater management program. At GreenCityBlueLake, Marc Lefkowitz says that "we should give the new stormwater program a chance."

The Cleveland Foundation's latest round of awards includes grants to WIRE-Net, Neighborhood Progress Inc., the Cleveland Housing Network, and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

Update: the Plain Dealer offers more information.

Author Richard Herman asserted that "immigration provides the only way for cities like Cleveland to generate the kind of numbers needed to make up for decades of mass out-migration." NEOtropolis explored some of the concepts of his book, and this week's issue of Scene made similar points. A recent Plain Dealer editorial urged local leaders to open an international welcome center.

The first Greater Cleveland Trails & Greenways Conference will take place on June 7 in Middleburg Heights. Registration opens on April 12.

Marc Lefkowitz considered the challenges that Greater Cleveland could face when applying for grants from the federal Sustainable Communities Initiative.

A group of commercial property owners and developers may challenge the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's authority to implement its new impervious surface fee. When the NEORSD board voted to adopt the stormwater management program, they also asked the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to issue a declaratory judgment. The group represented by attorney Sheldon Berns may attempt to intervene. The Sewer District has also increased its advertising budget in recent years.

Update: the group of 21 parties filed a motion in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Judge McMonagle will decide whether they can participate in the case.

The NOACA Governing Board approved a resolution that urges the U.S. EPA to set achievable ozone standards. In January, the federal agency announced its intention to tighten the ozone limit. It is expected to finalize its decision in August.

As the U.S. Census Bureau prepares to start mailing 2010 Census forms, the Plain Dealer highlighted the importance of obtaining an accurate count in Northeast Ohio. A recent Sound of Ideas program was also devoted to a discussion of the subject.

Update: the Census Bureau is encouraging households to complete and mail back their census forms, and a Plain Dealer editorial says that "a failure to tabulate everyone will ripple negative effects."

Because Summit County leaders have filed legal challenges to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's new stormwater management program, the Sewer District may withdraw its sponsorship of conservation projects in northern Summit County.

Update: the Hudson Hub Times has more details.

Update 2: the Sewer District will not pull its support for the projects.

A group of Northeast Ohio public health and medical professionals recently met in Akron to discuss the findings (PDF) of the County Health Rankings report. Their next step will be to develop strategies for improving community health outcomes.

WCPN's Eric Wellman spoke with organizers and applicants in round two of the EfficientGovNow regionalism program, and Bob Paynter classified the 50 applications. The finalists will be announced on April 30 and public voting will occur in May.

The Gund Foundation made a $3.6 million, three-year grant to Neighborhood Progress, Inc. The foundation also awarded grants to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, and the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy.

The new signs for the Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway will be officially unveiled on Tuesday morning in a ceremony at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue in Cleveland. About 320 signs will be installed along the 110-mile corridor.

Local governments in the 16-county Northeast Ohio region submitted 50 projects in the second round of the EfficientGovNow grant program. Sixteen of the applications are from Cuyahoga County communities, including a proposal from Moreland Hills, Orange Village, and Pepper Pike that would fund implementation of a forthcoming municipal collaboration study.

Update: organizers encourage public input on the project ideas.

Vicky Poole and Jack Hamilton have begun operating Gardens Under Glass, a hydroponic garden in the Galleria at Erieview in downtown Cleveland. The project is funded by a $30,000 start-up grant from the Civic Innovation Lab. Meanwhile, panelists on NEOtropolis discussed food policy and access to fresh foods.

Update: Fast Company also reported on the Galleria.

Traffic congestion and travel times increased nationally in 2009, according to the annual Inrix National Traffic Scorecard. Congestion levels decreased in 2008 and reached their low point in spring 2009 before starting to rise again. The worst bottleneck in the Cleveland metropolitan area was the I-90 westbound interchange at Chester Avenue.

Northeast Ohio governments have so far submitted five projects in the second round of the EfficientGovNow program. The application deadline is February 26. Journalist Bob Paynter will be writing about the process.

A new report from the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked health outcomes and health factors in the United States by county for each state. In Ohio, Geauga and Medina counties were among the state's healthiest. Cuyahoga County ranked highly in clinical care, but poorly in morbidity, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

Update: the report was the subject of a Sound of Ideas program on WCPN.

The U.S. Census Bureau classified much of Cleveland as a "hard to count" (PDF) area for the 2010 Census. One of the Bureau's Portrait of America Road Tour vehicles is visiting locations in Northeast Ohio.

Christine Borne summarized one of yesterday's Western Reserve Heritage Feasibility Study town hall meetings.

WKSU looked at biomimicry initiatives across Northeast Ohio. Jeff St. Clair spoke with Biomimicry Guild co-founder Janine Benyus, among others.

The Plain Dealer explored the reasons behind the Cleveland Foundation's decision to greatly reduce its contributions to the Fund for Our Economic Future and the choice's subsequent repercussions. Brent Larkin thinks that the decision was harmful to regional collaboration.

Researchers are studying changes in Northeast Ohio's coyote population. Urban coyotes currently pose little threat to people.

A new report from the Brookings Institution shows the growth in suburban poverty between 2000 and 2008. Poverty levels in the suburbs of the nation's largest metropolitan areas increased almost five times faster than the levels of core cities. The unemployment rate also rose more quickly in the suburbs. In the Cleveland metro area, the share of the poor living in the suburbs grew by 9.3%, the second-largest increase in the nation. An earlier report examined the changes from 1999 to 2005.

Update: WKSU's Jeff St. Clair interviewed Elizabeth Kneebone, the report's author.

Participants on yesterday's Sound of Ideas program discussed investments in public spaces, focusing on the concepts for redesigning Cleveland's Public Square. The page also includes an interview with architect Peter van Dijk about the restoration of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Public Square.

Area communities reacted differently to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's new stormwater management program. Mayor Cicero of Lyndhurst was disappointed, and the City of Hudson may join Summit County's lawsuit against the sewer district. Mayor Elliott of Brook Park, on the other hand, thinks the program will help the city alleviate and prevent flooding problems. David Beach called it "one of the most important developments for local water quality that I have seen in the past 25 years."

Greater Cleveland residents have the opportunity to share their opinions at several meetings:

• On January 20, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will present its revised findings about the Harshaw Chemical Company site in Cuyahoga Heights at a public meeting.
• On January 21, the Ohio EPA will hold a public hearing (PDF) to discuss a request from FirstEnergy. The company is seeking an exemption so that it may continue to discharge mercury from its coal-burning Lake Shore Power Plant in Cleveland into Lake Erie.
• On January 28, sponsors of the proposed aerotropolis around Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will hold several stakeholder sessions.
• Planners working on the Western Reserve Heritage Feasibility Study will hold a series of town hall meetings. Two of the meetings will be in Cleveland on February 9.
• On February 11 and 13, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park will hold three public open houses about its comprehensive trail management plan. The scoping information is open to public comment until March 1.

A study released (PDF) by the Municipality of Bayham, Ontario examined the feasibility of ferry service between Bayham and four potential ports on the American side of Lake Erie: Ashtabula, Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, and Erie, Pennsylvania. It concluded that Cleveland and Fairport Harbor were the most promising destinations, but that while "service is feasible, it must be viewed as speculative."

Update: Bayham Council decided to cancel the second phase of the study.

On Thursday, the board of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District unanimously approved the new stormwater management program. The district has identified more than $220 million of critical stormwater projects, which will be financed by the new impervious surface fee. Once the board adopted the plan, NEORSD asked the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to confirm the district's authority to implement the plan.

The U.S. EPA proposed tougher new standards for ground-level ozone that would replace standards set by the Bush administration in March 2008. The proposal calls for new standards between 60 and 70 parts per billion, down from the 75 parts per billion standard adopted in 2008. Northeast Ohio, which last year attained compliance with the 1997 standard (80 ppb), would not meet the new standard. Much of the rest of the state would also be in noncompliance, and the major metropolitan areas may have difficulty reaching the lower levels.

On Friday, Tom Waltermire of Team NEO and Brad Whitehead of the Fund for our Economic Future spoke at the City Club about economic forecasting over the next decade. Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg moderated the discussion. They stressed that greater collaboration could increase opportunities for economic growth.

Despite a reduction in support from the Cleveland Foundation, the Fund for Our Economic Future is proceeding with plans for its third phase, and recently received a $3 million grant from the Knight Foundation to support local government reform efforts. The Fund also launched round two the the EfficientGovNow program yesterday. Local governments have until February 26 to submit a proposal for a collaborative project for the competition. The Fund listed 10 ways that residents can support the program.

Update: the Fund shared more information about the Knight Foundation grant.

With the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District expected to vote on the proposed stormwater management program on Thursday, the Summit County prosecutor asked a court to issue a permanent injunction against any fees. Leaders in outer-ring Cuyahoga County suburbs also dislike the proposal. NEORSD Executive Director Julius Ciaccia discussed the approach on Channel 3's Between the Lines.

Update: the Akron Beacon Journal and WKSU have more details. Joe Koncelik considered the implications of the proposed regulations.

Friday's episode of NEOtropolis looked at various aspects of sustainable urbanism in Northeast Ohio.

As the Fund for Our Economic Future prepares to embark on its third three-year phase, Phil Ranney of the Kent H. Smith Charitable Trust and Brian Frederick of the Community Foundation of Lorain County say that the "collaboration is indeed making a difference in transforming the future of Northeast Ohio. And philanthropy remains committed to, and invites others to join, the mission we embarked on in 2004 to make our region great again."

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's board is expected to vote on the proposed stormwater management program on January 7. If the board approves the proposal, collection of a new impervious surface fee would begin in July. The district is also preparing for legal challenges of its authority to implement the fee. A Plain Dealer editorial calls it "a fair plan that the sewer district board should approve in January."

Update: the Bath Township Trustees oppose the initiative.

Participants on Monday's Sound of Ideas program on WCPN discussed the status of major projects across Greater Cleveland. The guests were Tom Bier of CSU, Stan Bullard of Crain's Cleveland Business, and CPC director Paul Alsenas.

The Cleveland Foundation awarded $15 million in fourth-quarter grants. One of the largest awards was a $1 million grant to Team NEO. The foundation substantially reduced its commitment to the Fund for Our Economic Future, awarding $300,000 for its third phase. The Fund had requested $10 million for the three-year phase. The Gund Foundation gave $4.9 million in grants, including awards to Entrepreneurs for Sustainability and ParkWorks. The two foundations distributed fewer dollars in 2009 than in 2008.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial expressed concern about the Cleveland Foundation's decision to give less to the Fund for Our Economic Future.

The Akron Beacon Journal has more details about the dispute in Summit County about NEORSD's proposed stormwater management program. In neighboring Portage County, Aurora leaders are considering a stormwater fee.

A bill under consideration in the Ohio Senate would revise Ohio's oil and gas drilling laws. It would change the minimum setback from 100 to 150 feet, but does not include enough changes to satisfy Northeast Ohio legislators and residents. They hope to include stronger protections in an Ohio House bill.

Update: this week's issue of Scene has more details. It was also the subject of a discussion on WCPN's Sound of Ideas.

NOACA awarded a total of $777,250 in Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative grants to 13 projects in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties. The NOACA Governing Board also added the 3-C Corridor passenger rail line to its long-range transportation plan.

The most recent episode of NEOtropolis looked at neighborhood revitalization in Euclid and downtown Akron. Panelists Raymond Cox, Gus Frangos, and Hunter Morrison also discussed the subject.

Public transit agencies would like additional federal funding and greater flexibility in assigning the dollars. RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese was among those who testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Thursday. Lorain County leaders are seeking congressional approval to redirect unspent stimulus money in order to save Lorain County Transit.

A group of Lorain pastors wants the Lorain County Commissioners to restore funding for Lorain County Transit. RTA, meanwhile, will hold 10 public hearings from January 4 through January 7 about its proposed service reductions. Laketran, which made cuts and raised fares in July, does not plan further changes.

Leaders in Summit County are banding together to oppose the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's proposed stormwater management program. County officials may file a lawsuit against the sewer district.

Friday's episode of NEOtropolis focused on regionalism in Northeast Ohio. The show's panelists were Rob Briggs, Ned Hill, and Carin Rockind.

The Fund for Our Economic Future approved a second round of the EfficientGovNow program today. The Fund's Brad Whitehead described reactions to the first round in an Akron Beacon Journal op-ed.

Update: up to $330,000 will be awarded to governmental collaborations. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial supports the program.

A study of immigrants in the nation's largest metropolitan areas found that while the five-county Cleveland MSA's proportion of immigrants is relatively low, the area's immigrant population has made strong economic contributions. The study identified correlations between immigration and economic progress, saying that "there is no doubt that immigration and economic growth go hand in hand." In October, panelists on WCPN's Sound of Ideas discussed immigrant attraction.

More than 100 people attended the last of five public meetings about the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's proposed regional stormwater management program. Some residents objected to the new stormwater fee it would entail.

Update: leaders in Summit County remain opposed to the program.

The tax sharing component of the proposed 16-county Regional Prosperity Initiative continues to draw opposition in Lake County. The Initiative issued an interim revenue sharing report (PDF) in September.

Kent State University surveyed participants in the EfficientGovNow process. The majority of respondents said that they are advancing on the regionalism initiatives identified as part of the competition.

Members of the new White House Office of Urban Affairs recently visited Cleveland to gather feedback about the federal stimulus program.

WCPN looked at how the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Ohio EPA have invested their federal stimulus dollars.

The Cleveland edition of GLUE's "I Will Stay If..." campaign will take place on Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Speakeasy in Ohio City. The evening will feature opportunities for networking and idea-sharing, plus presentations from Lillian Kuri, Randell McShepard, and Matt Zone.

Dangerous by Design, a new report from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, examined pedestrian safety in American cities. It highlights the hazards of inadequate investment in pedestrian infrastructure and the need for better design. The Cleveland MSA was one of the safer large metropolitan areas for pedestrians.

Update: the Columbus Dispatch looked at the situation in Ohio.

The discussion on The Sound of Ideas this morning was about sustainable development and lessons that Cleveland can learn from other cities.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will hold five public meetings this month (PDF) about the proposed regional stormwater district. The first meeting will be in Mayfield Heights at the DeJohn Community Center on November 9.

Cleveland Area History is a new weblog that describes itself as having "an opinionated, vocal, approach to history, preservation, and related issues in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area."

Highway traffic volumes are rising in Greater Cleveland, mirroring national trends. Traffic congestion in American urban areas reached its low point in the second quarter of 2009, and experts say that the increases are tied to the stabilizing economy.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration agreed to review the feasibility of adding a connection between Cleveland and Pittsburgh to the list of designated high-speed passenger rail corridors.

The Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine today announced the establishment of the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control, the new center will "address common health issues faced in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods in and around Greater Cleveland."

Local leaders and Census Bureau officials have begun efforts to build awareness of the 2010 Census.

Yesterday, the U.S. EPA announced that six Greater Cleveland counties fail to meet 2006 federal standards for fine particle pollution (PM_2.5), making official the designation made in December 2008. Ohio must develop a plan for bringing Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties into attainment status.

Update: Brad Chase at GreenCityBlueLake looked at what Northeast Ohio has done and what it still could do to lower particulate pollution levels. The Akron Beacon Journal has more details about the announcement.

Rust Wire recapped the Levin College Forum event yesterday that featured author Alyssa Katz. The next Forum event on October 30 will be a panel discussion about interdisciplinary partnerships for infrastructure investments.

The cool weather and poor economy led to cleaner air in Northeast Ohio this summer. There were only three Ozone Action Days and four days when particulate matter levels were unhealthy.

Community Research Partners analyzed IRS migration data to identify the destinations of people moving from Ohio and the originations of people moving to Ohio. The report looked at migration between Ohio and the rest of the U.S., within the state, and within metropolitan areas. From 2007 to 2008, Ohio experienced a net loss of 35,692 residents through domestic migration.

This week's Scene explored the suburban conflicts resulting from Ohio's deregulation of natural gas wells. Some Ohio legislators want to change the 2004 state law.

Additional 2008 American Community Survey data released by the Census Bureau includes information about income, poverty (PDF), and food stamp receipts. The poverty rate rose in Ohio and the Midwest, while in Northeast Ohio, the number of people with incomes near the poverty line increased. An analysis by the Brookings Institution predicts that poverty rates will remain elevated for years.

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District leaders are negotiating with state and federal officials about the district's plans to eliminate combined sewer overflows. NEORSD officials want 30 years to resolve the problems, but the U.S. EPA is insisting on a 20-year timetable.

The Gund Foundation announced $5.6 million in grants yesterday. The largest award was a $4 million grant to the Fund for Our Economic Future, a 30% increase in the foundation's support for the effort. The Cleveland Foundation awarded $14.8 million in grants, including $250,000 for two ParkWorks programs.

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2008 American Community Survey data on Monday. Social, housing, demographic, and economic data are available for areas with populations of 65,000 or more. It showed decreases in median household income across Ohio, especially in the state's major cities. For the first time, the ACS included data on health insurance coverage, and Northeast Ohio's big cities had a greater percentage of people without coverage than state and national averages.

The proposed Regional Prosperity Initiative continues to generate mixed reactions. Some leaders in Wayne County support the concept, while others have doubts.

Joe Koncelik believes that Northeast Ohio needs to prepare for the likelihood of tighter federal ozone standards.

As anticipated, the U.S. EPA declared that eight Greater Cleveland counties now meet federal ozone standards. The region likely will not comply with new federal standards scheduled to take effect next spring. The announcement does not affect the E-Check program.

Update: the EPA also announced that it will reconsider the new standards "to ensure they are scientifically sound and protective of human health." They could be made more stringent.

On Friday, NOACA's Governing Board approved changes to its membership. The weighted voting provision was removed, and six new members were added. The new seats on the 44-member board went to the cities of Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Lakewood, and Parma, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, and the Medina County Engineer. Under the previous rules, Cuyahoga County representatives controlled 50% of the votes in an unweighted vote and 62.5% of the votes in a weighted vote. Cuyahoga County members now make up 54.5% of the board, while Cuyahoga County's population is 61% of the five-county region. The Governing Board also narrowly approved a rule that requires its president and vice president to be elected officeholders.

In a Plain Dealer op-ed, David Cooperrider of the Weatherhead School of Management wrote about sustainability in Cleveland and the recent summit. He believes that Northeast Ohio is poised to become a leading sustainable economy, and that the summit was the end of the quiet crisis.

The Fund for Our Economic Future is considering a second round of funding for the EfficientGovNow program and is gathering feedback from first round participants.

Update: the survey results are now available.

The U.S. EPA and a group of local partners are conducting the Cleveland Multiple Air Pollutant Study, a two-part air quality study of Cleveland and the surrounding area. The program is a national model intended to help identify the sources (PDF) of a variety of specific pollutants.

The Fund for Our Economic Future adopted the new Fund for Sustainability, an outgrowth of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit. When it is more fully funded and gains guidelines, it will provide loans to sustainable businesses.

Whether the E-Check program continues in Northeast Ohio may depend on how the U.S. EPA designates the region under its new ozone standards. It could be named as a moderate nonattainment area or a marginal nonattainment area. The Ohio EPA currently intends to extend E-Check until at least June 2011.

Update: Envirotest will continue to operate the program through the end of June 2011.

The Lake County Mayors and City Managers Association has taken no action on the proposed 16-county Regional Prosperity Initiative since it was presented to members in April. Painesville City Manager Rita McMahon expects that building consensus will be difficult.

The 2009 APA Ohio Statewide Planning Conference will be held from September 23 to 25 at the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls. The Cleveland Section's 21st annual Planning and Zoning Workshop will take place on November 13 at LaCentre in Westlake.

The cool and wet weather this summer has contributed to an improvement in Northeast Ohio's air quality. Ozone and particulate pollution levels have been lower this summer.

NOACA has begun uploading videos of speakers at its annual summit to YouTube. Available so far are videos of Senator Voinovich and Mayor Hruby of Brecksville.

A Plain Dealer editorial about the EfficientGovNow awards says that they "demonstrate just how far this region has to go when it comes to government collaboration and also how much low-hanging fruit is within reach of communities", while a Sun Post-Herald editorial says that the proposed Westshore Regional Fire District "could not be more timely."

The annual Dashboard of Economic Indicators compared the economic performance of Northeast Ohio's metropolitan areas with other American metropolitan areas. It found that the area's economy improved between 2004 and 2007, but noted that it is "unclear how the region will fare after the present recession ends." The Dashboard site has not yet been updated with the latest figures.

Update: the Chronicle-Telegram offers more details.

BusinessWeek profiled Cleveland's Entrepreneurs for Sustainability.

The U.S. EPA is developing national air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) . Area officials expect that Ohio cities will be able to comply with the new limits.

The Fund for Our Economic Future announced the three winners of EfficientGovNow grants today. The Mahoning River Corridor Redevelopment will receive $57,451, the Westshore Regional Fire District will receive $100,000, and the Mahoning-Youngstown Regional Information System will receive $120,000. The Fund's Chris Thompson said that the government efficiency program "has helped the region take another step in its progress toward a more vibrant economic future."

Update: the awards attracted media attention from across Northeast Ohio.

Marianne Eppig described the efforts to establish a biomimicry hub in Northeast Ohio. Biomimicry Guild co-founder Janine Benyus participated in a June meeting about the creation of the local network.

The discussion on this morning's Sound of Ideas program on WCPN was about the impending service cuts and fare increases by RTA and other local public transit agencies. The City of Lakewood objects to the elimination of its community circulator route, and Cleveland City Council asked RTA leaders to reconsider their decision to end circulator service. RTA will hold a community meeting in each neighborhood served by a circulator.

Today is the final opportunity to cast a vote in the EfficientGovNow program. As of yesterday, the Westshore Regional Fire District project was in first place.

About 150 people attended the U.S. EPA's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative stakeholder meeting in Cuyahoga Heights on Monday evening. Agency officials heard feedback about the proposed $475 million restoration program. The EPA is also gathering suggestions online.

Update: Michael Scott of the Plain Dealer summarized the recurring themes of the meeting.

Public voting in the EfficientGovNow program will conclude on July 31, and as of today, over 11,000 ballots have been cast. Representatives of each of the nine finalists participated in yesterday's Sound of Ideas on WCPN.

The Texas Transportation Institute's 2009 Urban Mobility Report found that traffic congestion in American cities eased slightly in 2007. Greater Cleveland figures followed the national trends (PDF). Of the 29 large urban areas studied, the Cleveland area had the second-lowest amount of congestion per driver.

Unlike Chrysler, General Motors intends to retain around 67% of its stores in the Cleveland-Akron area, including around 79% in Cuyahoga County.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual subcounty population estimates state that Cleveland's population was 433,748 in July 2008, which is 4,265 people below the 2007 estimate. The figures reflect similar changes at the county level and in other urban areas. Population losses slowed in urban cores and growth slowed in exurban areas. Cleveland lost 0.97% of its population, an improvement over last year's loss of 1.11%. The Plain Dealer chose to highlight a more negative angle, focusing on the estimated population decrease of 43,724 between 2000 and 2008.

Update: CSU's Mark Salling talked about the estimates on WCPN. Dr. Salling was also among the guests on the station's Sound of Ideas program devoted to the subject. Demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution examined the trends on a national level.

The Fund for Our Economic Future announced the nine finalists in the $300,000 EfficientGovNow grant program. Up to three of the governmental collaboration projects will be funded. The only finalist in Cuyahoga County is the proposed Westshore Regional Fire District. Public voting on the proposals opened today and will continue until the end of the month.

Update: the Plain Dealer has more information, and editorials in the Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal say that area residents should cast a vote.

Congressman Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania wants a Pittsburgh to Cleveland route added to the federal list of high-speed rail corridors. It would connect the Chicago Hub Network with the Keystone Corridor. Pennsylvania officials are concerned that their planning for high-speed rail lags behind other states.

The Brookings Institution posted the text of Bruce Katz's remarks at the recent Restoring Prosperity to Cleveland Mini-Summit.

Brad Whitehead of the Fund for Our Economic Future encourages Northeast Ohio residents to participate in the EfficientGovNow grant program, which will open to public voting on July 1.

A Plain Dealer editorial says that Mayor Jackson "is right to be skeptical" about the the Ohio Department of Transportation's promises to replace diverted federal transportation stimulus dollars. The projects funded by the shifted funds are not in the Cleveland area, which the editorial says "reveals the depth of the state's neglect of its urban economic engines in favor of spreading political peanut butter for votes."

Joe Koncelik says that obtaining attainment status for ozone levels will create economic opportunities for the Greater Cleveland area.

The U.S. EPA plans to redesignate the eight Greater Cleveland counties as being in compliance with federal ozone standards. While the region's air quality is improving, it is not expected to meet tougher ozone standards adopted last year.

Update: additional details are available from several local news sources.

Over 400 people attended the Restoring Prosperity to Cleveland Mini-Summit on Monday. Keynote speaker Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution made suggestions for improving Ohio's competitiveness through government reform, and urged state leaders to target investments in urban areas instead of spreading them around "like peanut butter."

Members of the Fund for Our Economic Future unanimously voted to continue with a third phase of the program. It will begin in February 2010 and end in February 2013. Leaders anticipate that the phase will be smaller than the first two phases due to the effects of the recession.

About 60 people attended a Regional Prosperity Initiative meeting in Warrensville Heights today. Mayor Currin of Hudson said that the group hopes to introduce a revenue sharing and regional land use planning proposal by September.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar visited the Cuyahoga Valley National Park yesterday and then spoke at the City Club of Cleveland. He said that the park annually generates $38 million for the local economy and helps create 1,000 jobs.

Update: the City Club posted audio of Secretary Salazar's remarks (MP3, 60.6 MB).

A Restoring Prosperity to Cleveland Mini-Summit will be held at Cleveland State on June 8. The event is part of the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio Initiative of the Brookings Institution and Greater Ohio. The Brookings Institution's Bruce Katz will be the keynote speaker.

Friday's Sound of Ideas program on WCPN was devoted to a discussion of cycling issues in Northeast Ohio

Update: Jim Sheehan of the Ohio City Bicycle Co-Op shared his thoughts in a Plain Dealer op-ed.

Gary Moneysmith interviewed King Hill and Scott Chapin of DigiKnow about the Cleveland Ideas website.

Ohio bicycling advocates are promoting a proposed new bike safety bill. One local cyclist is a staunch advocate of vehicular cycling, and disagrees with plans to build more bike lanes and paths. Other cyclists, like Ian Sacs at Planetizen, believe his arguments are flawed.

While automakers have favored suburban locations for car dealers in recent years, the recently announced Chrysler dealer closings appear to indicate a preference for exurban dealerships. Of the 14 Greater Cleveland dealerships slated to close, eight are in Cuyahoga County. Only four will remain open in Cuyahoga County.

WCPN's David C. Barnett explored the impacts of outmigration on Northeast Ohio's religious institutions.

Earlier in the decade, Philadelphia was listed alongside Cleveland as a former gateway for immigration, but it recently has re-emerged as a destination for immigrants. The Plain Dealer looked at the turnaround in Philadelphia and compared the situations in Cleveland and Philadelphia. Anne O'Callaghan, founder of the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, led a discussion about immigration at the City Club today.

Update: a Plain Dealer editorial says that Cleveland "needs a talent-attraction strategy that sees immigration as one of its cornerstones." Audio of O'Callaghan's talk (MP3, 58.0 MB) is now available.

The Ohio Nowcast, a system that provides water quality data for area beaches, is operating for the season. Information is available for Edgewater Beach, Huntington Beach, and new for 2009, the Cuyahoga River at Jaite.

Backers of the Regional Prosperity Initiative continue to promote the concept to area officials, but two Lorain County mayors are concerned that it would not help their communities. Supporters will convene additional meetings in the coming weeks.

Update: WKSU shared more information about the initiative. A Morning Journal editorial calls for more details.

The Plain Dealer offers more details about the entries in the EfficientGovNow grant competition. Public voting will begin on July 1.

WCPN reported on green infrastructure initiatives in Northeast Ohio and the way the relate to federal policies and positions.

Although some expected the NOACA Governing Board to vote on Friday about changing its weighted voting provision, the board instead voted to table the issue until September.

Of the 65 projects submitted to the EfficientGovNow grant program last month, 45 met the qualifications to proceed. Expanded abstracts and proposals are now available for reading and comments. Complete proposals must be submitted by May 31.

Amtrak proposed a route for 3-C Corridor as part of the study it is conducting for the Ohio Rail Development Commission. The route includes stops in downtown Cleveland and near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, but does not go through Akron or Elyria. The passenger rail study should be completed in August.

Author David Osborne spoke with WCPN's Eric Wellman about the challenges to increasing municipal cooperation.

Update: Mr. Osborne also spoke about government collaborations at the City Club.

The American Lung Association's 2009 State of the Air report gave Cuyahoga County failing grades for its levels of ozone and particulate pollution. The 10th annual report listed Greater Cleveland as having the nation's 10th worst year-round particle pollution, but unlike last year, did not include the metropolitan area in the list of cities with the worst short-term particle pollution.

Update: the report (PDF) noted that Greater Cleveland's air quality has significantly improved over the past five years.

Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville recently made three stops in Northeast Ohio as part of his trip across the country. He visited and wrote about how the public library in Hudson has become a community hub, the flexibility and diversity of Shaker Heights, and the strategies identified in the Re-Imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland initiative. Map of the Week also reposted several images from the Re-Imagining Cleveland guidelines.

Members of the Lake County Mayors and City Managers Association are skeptical about the Regional Prosperity Initiative, and question the need for regional revenue sharing. The Regional Prosperity Initiative will hold its first monthly webinar on May 1.

University Circle Incorporated President Chris Ronayne wrote a Plain Dealer op-ed in which he calls on local leaders to adopt a smart growth strategy that includes city-county consolidation, regional tax sharing, and changes to state policies that enable urban sprawl.

The Ohio EPA yesterday announced plans to invest $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funds and low-interest state loans in water and sewer infrastructure projects. Approximately $46 million will go to projects in Northeast Ohio, including $5 million for two NEORSD sewer projects. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior unveiled plans for $750 million in stimulus funds, of which the Cuyahoga Valley National Park will receive about $7.8 million. The award will fund five projects in the Park. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial says that the dollars (PDF) will help address the Park's maintenance backlog. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced that it will reallocate $115 million of the $200 million in stimulus funds it recently assigned to the Innerbelt Bridge project in Cleveland to 52 other projects across the state. ODOT officials say that the funding will be replaced with other state and federal dollars.

Local bloggers provided recaps of several recent events:

• Dru McKeown shared some pictures and his thoughts about the recent tours of two historic Cleveland churches.
• Jeffrey Sugalski posted his notes from yesterday's Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation community meeting.
• Rust Wire has a summary of the "Building our Future Beyond Foreclosure" event held at Cleveland State University yesterday.
• Robert Stockham wrote about this afternoon's ribbon cutting ceremony for the Green Cottages in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

The Urbanophile used personal observations and commentary from other bloggers to compile an outsider's view of Cleveland's problems. The post engendered a thoughtful conversation, which the Urbanophile highlighted and replied to in a second post.

(via Brewed Fresh Daily)

Cleveland Ideas is a new website where citizens can make suggestions for making Northeast Ohio a better place to live and work and vote on ideas offered by others. The strongest concepts will be compiled into a report that will be distributed to area leaders.

Tim Grendell and Chris Varley discussed Northeast Ohio's water resources at the City Club today (MP3, 55.3 MB). It was the final event in the "Water–Our Region's Biggest Asset" series.

A Plain Dealer editorial on the new job sprawl report from the Brookings Institution concludes that "metropolitan areas are America's economic engines, and as long as the cores are eroding, it will be harder to create and sustain jobs."

Editorials in the Plain Dealer and the Canton Repository are upbeat about the projects submitted to the EfficientGovNow program.

Update: an Akron Beacon Journal editorial is also positive about the news.

The Fund for Our Economic Future received 65 project abstracts for proposed government collaborations across the 16-county Northeast Ohio region. The projects are competing for $300,000 in grants available through the EfficientGovNow program. The next stage is the public comment period, which will begin on May 1.

U.S. Census Bureau employees began field work in Northeast Ohio this week. The workers will be collecting address data through July.

Elizabeth Kneebone of the Brookings Institution analyzed data from 1998 to 2006 to update research on job sprawl in 98 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. She found that private sector employment continued to decentralize. Over 45% of employees work more than 10 miles away from downtowns, compared to the 21% who work within three miles of city centers. Greater Cleveland was one of 53 large metropolitan areas classified as experiencing rapid decentralization, with 45.7% of jobs located more than 10 miles away and 16.2% of jobs located within three miles of downtown as of 2006.

Container manufacturer Nalgene conducted a survey of wastefulness in the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. Cleveland finished as the 16th least wasteful city in the nation, ranking highly for library usage and saving leftover food, but scoring poorly in avoiding driving for short trips, use of energy-efficient light bulbs, rain barrel usage, and turning off the lights when not in the room. San Francisco was named as the country's least wasteful city.

Most Greater Cleveland communities are not taking a regional approach with their requests for federal stimulus funds. However, Mayor Kelley of Cleveland Heights recently suggested combining his city's fire department with those of Shaker Heights and University Heights.

A Plain Dealer editorial says that Greater Cleveland "needs to re-establish itself as a magnet for new Americans" to again become "one of America's most prosperous cities." It also praises the Greater Cleveland Partnership for including immigration as one of the focus areas of its public policy agenda.

On Thursday, the Cleveland Foundation announced $10 million in first-quarter grants. The awards included $450,000 for three Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority initiatives, $827,000 for Neighborhood Progress Incorporated's Strategic Investment Initiative, $167,000 for the Cleveland Housing Network, and $450,000 for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The Gund Foundation also awarded $1 million in grants, including $42,000 for the OSU Extension's Community Gardening program, $70,000 for the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, and $50,000 for the GreenCityBlueLake Institute.

The Levin College Forum at CSU will host a discussion titled "Building our Future Beyond Foreclosure" on April 23. It will "highlight existing civic visions and plans for the Northeast Ohio region and the state." Panelists will include David Beach, Lavea Brachman, Andrew Jackson, Robert Jaquay, and Wendy Kellogg.

Northeast Ohio water quality experts continue to suspect that increases in the area's Canada Goose population are contributing to the high bacteria counts at Lake Erie beaches.

Leaders of the Fund for Our Economic future expect that the recession will prevent the organization from raising the $30 million it was able to collect in earlier phases. Member organizations may not be able to contribute as much because of substantial declines in the value of their endowments.

In the second event in the City Club's "Water–Our Region's Biggest Asset" series, NEORSD Executive Director Julius Ciaccia and Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski spoke about the past, present, and future of the region's water infrastructure (MP3, 55.0 MB). The third and final installment of the series will be held on April 22.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual county population estimates show that Cuyahoga County lost 11,262 people between July 2007 and July 2008. However, the rate of decrease slowed for the second consecutive year. The County's rate of population change peaked at -1.32% in 2006, was -0.97% in 2007, and was -0.87% in 2008. The other four counties in the Cleveland MSA continued to gain population, but their increases did not completely offset the decrease in Cuyahoga County. The metropolitan area's population fell by 6,594 between July 2007 and July 2008. Population losses slowed across the Midwest, while increases slowed in the South and West. Some attribute the changes in migration patterns to the poor economy.

Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair continues to lobby for changing the NOACA Governing Board's weighted voting provision.

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese released the full list of parishes that will close or merge over the next 15 months. In the eight-county Diocese, 29 churches will close and 41 others will merge to form 18 new parishes. In Cuyahoga County, 38 churches will close or merge. Most are in the City of Cleveland. The Plain Dealer mapped the downsizing plans, while WKSU and WCPN looked at the adaptive reuse of former church buildings. WCPN also devoted Monday's Sound of Ideas program to a discussion of the Diocese's plans.

Hudson Mayor William Currin, chairman of the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Managers Association, wrote in a Plain Dealer op-ed that now is the time for regional cooperation in Northeast Ohio, and announced the new Regional Prosperity Initiative. The new initiative promotes regional land use planning and revenue sharing as ways to achieve a prosperous future.

Last week, NOACA approved allocating $43.6 million of federal stimulus funds for 21 infrastructure projects in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina counties. The largest awards were $14 million for the reconstruction of Bainbridge Road in Solon and $4.2 million to widen State Route 611 in Sheffield. An additional 32 improvements were named as reserve projects. NOACA also selected four projects to receive $9.8 million in federal CMAQ funding, including $6.25 million for replacement RTA buses.

A Plain Dealer editorial on regionalism in Northeast Ohio says that "collaboration and reform are nothing less than economic imperatives" and that local autonomy is "a luxury governments cannot afford and taxpayers cannot tolerate."

The second Inrix National Traffic Scorecard found that peak hour traffic congestion in American cities was nearly 30% lower in 2008 than in 2007. Authors attributed the decline to increases in gas prices and unemployment. They also noted that a relatively small decrease in traffic volumes had a large impact in reducing urban congestion. The Cleveland MSA was the least congested of the nation's 25 largest metro areas, and was ranked as number 38 among the 100 metro areas surveyed. It was number 36 in 2007. Half of the region's ten most congested spots are along the Innerbelt freeway.

The Fund for Our Economic Future officially unveiled the $300,000 EfficientGovNow grant program on Monday. Local governments in a 16-county Northeast Ohio area can apply for funding of government collaboration and efficiency projects. The deadline for submitting project abstracts is April 15, and final proposals are due by May 31. Finalists will be announced on July 1, and public voting will end on July 31. WCPN's Eric Wellman spoke with the Fund's Chris Thompson, and WKYC's Tom Beres spoke with Brad Whitehead about the program.

The Plain Dealer examined the 2007 Census of Agriculture's figures for the seven-county Greater Cleveland area. The region lost 100,000 acres farmland between 2002 and 2007, 20% of the total supply. Cuyahoga and Summit counties saw some the most rapid drops in Ohio, while Lorain and Medina counties experienced some of the state's highest losses of agricultural land.

The Edgar Farm in Valley View, one of the farms in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, will be offered for lease through the Countryside Initiative later this year.

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority will receive $35 million in federal stimulus funds, and eight other Northeast Ohio public housing agencies will receive an additional $18 million. Fifteen area cities and counties will also receive a total of $12.5 million in Community Development Block Grants. Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has allocated $10.1 billion.

Author Charles Michener recently spoke at the City Club about a book he is writing (MP3, 52.5 MB) on the reinvention of Northeast Ohio. The Plain Dealer published an excerpt of his talk.

The GreenCityBlueLake Institute unveiled its first State of Sustainability report at its Emerge event on Saturday. It includes "items from the many issue areas of sustainability, including arts and culture, building, economy, e