Yeah, we all know rankings don't mean much on their own, but this study has some interesting things to say about sustainability practices in the nation's 50 largest cities (including Columbus and Cleveland but not Cincinnati). Incidentally, Cleveland ranks #28 and Columbus is #50.

 

http://www.sustainlane.com/article/895/

 

#28 Cleveland: Give and Take on the Lake

Cleveland is making promising strides toward fulfilling its tagline as “The New American City.”

 

Cleveland, which ranks #28, is no stranger to the consequences of unsustainable practices. The modern environmental movement literally blazed into public consciousness here during the 1960s, when the polluted Cuyahoga River, which flows through the city into Lake Erie, caught fire. Lake Erie, the fourth-largest Great Lake, was declared a “Dead Lake” in the 1970s, after pollution had caused algae to bloom in such quantity that fish populations died en masse. Now the river no longer lights up the night and Lake Erie, though still subject to a seasonal dead zone in its middle, supports sport fishing and healthy aquatic populations.

 

Besides its lakefront location, Cleveland has advantages over other large cities in Ohio in that it has good public transportation combined with a historic downtown that has been undergoing continual revitalization since the 1980s. The bad news is that the city continues to lose population to its suburbs and other parts of the nation: The city’s population declined from 914,000 in 1950 to 458,000 in 2004.

 

Healthy Living

Cleveland gets middle-of-the-road marks in most healthy living categories, including #29 in air quality and #31 in tap water quality. Lake Erie supplies plentiful water, but not all of it is savory. The city’s tap water contains 19 contaminants, including 4 over the recommended EPA threshold.

 

For parks, the city also rates below average—its 5.8% parkland (out of total city acreage) puts it at #35 in that category. You can, however, spend years exploring Lakefront State Park, created in the 1970s when four city parks were combined into a single “super park” connected by a bicycle path and fitness course.

 

Overall, the city ranks #27 in local food and agriculture, with a high rate of community gardens—there are about 200—offset by a paltry two farmers markets.

 

Getting Around

Cleveland’s public transit ranks above average in both its city commuter rates (#14) and in its regional transit ridership (#21). About 8.3% of Clevelanders ride public transit, and just over 4% walk to work. Biking to work is almost nonexistent, at 0.1%. The carpooling rate, at 11.7%, is higher than average. Still, more than 72% of residents drive alone to work, a higher rate than, for example, Los Angeles’s 70%. Cleveland remains the least traffic-congested city in our study.

 

Economic Factors

Industry in Cleveland still conforms to a typical Rustbelt profile: chemical and food processing; some steel, electrical products, and auto parts manufacturing; and printing and publishing. Other economic opportunities include the city’s newer status as a regional and national tourist attraction. In addition to the lakefront, the city is known for the Cleveland Metropolitan Orchestra, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and some famous pro sports teams.

 

Green building appears to be making fast progress, with the city’s ten LEED Registered buildings ranking it #13. The city is the 8th most affordable of the 50 largest US cities.

 

Summary/Next Steps

Cleveland started a Sustainability Program within its water department in 2005. The department, staffed with one person, is responsible for developing alternative fuels in the city fleet and investigating the use of renewable energy. The successful growth in green building appears to be a partial result of the program’s incentives and guidance. The status of the program under Mayor Frank Jackson, elected in 2006, is unclear.

 

If it wants to move faster toward sustainability, there are a number of actions Cleveland can take. To complement its ongoing urban historic district redevelopment, Cleveland might consider encouraging the development of more parks, farmers markets, and clean technology businesses.

 

#50 Columbus: Time to Get Green

A new “Get Green” policy should get Columbus moving forward.

 

Smack dab in the center of Ohio on the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, Columbus is the state capital and host to Ohio State University, as well as a transit hub for rail freight and trucking. Its city center, though, has never caught on as a hub of redevelopment and revitalization—the city’s energies and population have flowed ever outward on asphalted spokes.

 

In 2005, Mayor Michael B. Coleman launched a Columbus “Get Green” policy that targets air quality, recycling, and green building. The city has made a number of improvements around recycling, and has a huge opportunity to take action by developing sustainability programs.

 

Healthy Living

The air in Columbus ranks #37, with an EPA ozone air quality violation in 2004-2005. As part of Get Green, an anti-idling measure for municipal vehicles was put into effect, but efforts to control air pollution will need to go beyond limiting idling vehicles. The roots of the city’s overall low ranking in our study are the pervasiveness of vehicles, their frequent use, and the lack of an infrastructure encouraging viable alternatives.

 

Tap water ranks at #41 in our study, as it contains 18 contaminants, 6 of which are over the recommended limits set by the EPA.

 

Parks take up about 6% of the city’s total land. The largest city park, Three Creeks, is a major hub in the Franklin County Greenways program, an interconnected system of trails along seven major streams in Central Ohio. The 13 miles of trails parallel the streams, winding through forests, fields, prairies, and wetlands. Most other area parks are under the management of Metro Parks, which includes 13 suburban parks splayed out around the circumference of Interstate 270, the city’s outer ring.

 

Getting Around

Without any commuter rail, light rail, or metro system, Columbus commuters rely almost exclusively on their cars, which they drive alone in great numbers—more than 83%. Though the city has a bus system, less than 3% of residents use it to commute. Only about 2% of people in town walk or bike to work. Because the town is bisected by two diverging Interstates, non-vehicular movement is somewhat impeded.

 

The Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Organization does just what its name suggests, including sponsoring city group rides to raise awareness about cycling and to build community.

 

Economic Factors

Columbus is a classic Rustbelt city, with major industry in heavy manufacturing, printing, insurance, and retail clothing. It’s also home to the headquarters of the hamburger restaurant corporations Wendy’s and White Castle. Many national retailers use Columbus as a baseline for product launch testing.

 

In terms of a green economy, there are few indicators that any such thing exists in Columbus. The city had four LEED buildings registered as of early 2006. Renewable energy businesses, local food, and a local green business directory are also scarce, hidden, or unavailable. Green Energy Ohio is attempting to fix that situation by promoting news, tours, and legislation for renewable energy in the state.

 

Summary/Next Steps

Columbus would be best served by confronting head-on its dependency on the automobile and fossil fuel energy. The city is in danger of becoming less competitive economically as its citizens feel the pinch of higher gas prices. With no viable public transit, more and more of their hard-earned money will be spent on just getting around—reducing income for spending on restaurants, entertainment, and nonessential shopping.

 

It makes sense for Columbus to expand its fleet of public transit buses and to examine developing other forms of public transit as well. Besides improving the city’s air quality, such actions would provide insurance against energy-related economic woes.

That's nice.

 

These rankings can be odd.  "Cleveland Metropolitan Orchestra"??  And the whole thing about percentage of parkland? If that excludes the metroparks and the national park (which I'm sure it does), then we have a much better park system than the rankings show.

^ And while we only have two major farmers' markets, there certainly are some other ones, correct? I was thinking that there was an East Side market. And this is definitely only looking in city boundaries ... otherwise, we also have a number of markets operated by North Union.

 

What shocked me most: We ranked thirteenth in the country with a paltry TEN LEED-certified buildings?! That's really insane to me.

It appears from the Cleveland article that they were looking just at the city proper. But in other places, it seems they consider a whole metro area. I also found their description of Columbus as having "a classic Rustbelt economy" to be way off. Columbus isn't part of the Rust Belt.

 

Again, the rankings are worthless as is some of the commentary, but some interesting insights nonetheless.

That's nice.

 

These rankings can be odd.  "Cleveland Metropolitan Orchestra"??  And the whole thing about percentage of parkland? If that excludes the metroparks and the national park (which I'm sure it does), then we have a much better park system than the rankings show.

 

Especially since the National park was rated the 3/4 best and I think the 4 most visited national park in the nation. 

 

The rankings/rating are always wrong.  No I pose this question.  which one of you is going to write in to correct this??

It's funny, though, that we get so riled up with methodology when the results are disfavorable or we don't feel we've gotten our due. But I haven't heard of any write-in campaigns to correct The Economist's livability methodology. Guess that's human nature, though; we'll happy with distorted analyses as long as they're distorted in our favor :wink:

It's funny, though, that we get so riled up with methodology when the results are disfavorable or we don't feel we've gotten our due. But I haven't heard of any write-in campaigns to correct The Economist's livability methodology. Guess that's human nature, though; we'll happy with distorted analyses as long as they're distorted in our favor :wink:

 

We'll i actually met the CEO of the economist and ask how about methodology and facts.  They leave no stone unturned and its a fact based report.  Not a "popularity" contest.  IIRC, they even list the critieria used.

 

She her self visited Cleveland twice. while in the states.

I thought the article was pretty positive and fair about Cleveland overall. What hurt us most was not the local agriculture thing -- it was unmitigated sprawl (there was a chart included with each ranking that I couldn't copy here). I think that's pretty accurately our biggest sustainability challenge now.

^^^ I haven't looked at The Economist methodology, so I shouldn't really speak to its validity. I will say this, however. Simply listing the criteria used in a study doesn't make the study sound. Robert Putnam provided a great deal of statistical background regarding his study of social capital, but the Creative Class researchers still tend to pick at his methodology. Meanwhile, Richard Florida provides ad nauseum background research for his Creativity Ranking, but it remains one of the most prevalently disputed rankings of American cities.

 

Meanwhile, whether it's cogent or not, SustainLane does provide a pretty thorough methodology as well (http://sustainlane.com/article/896/). One immediate red flag for me is that the study engaged in primary research with representatives from a number of cities nationwide ... but not Cleveland or Columbus.

 

^ The chart does indicate that Planning/Land Use was our big killer. But I believe that this factor included not only sprawl but percentage of green space in the municipal footprint. Without taking the vast majority of the Metroparks into account, nor the National Park, I think we could have been unfairly judged in this category. That being said, pointing to park assets that lie outside the city just deflects away from our lack of commitment to greenspace in the city. And obviously, unmitigated sprawl and lack of smart growth principles continues to be a major problem locally.

Summary/Next Steps

Columbus would be best served by confronting head-on its dependency on the automobile and fossil fuel energy. The city is in danger of becoming less competitive economically as its citizens feel the pinch of higher gas prices. With no viable public transit, more and more of their hard-earned money will be spent on just getting around—reducing income for spending on restaurants, entertainment, and nonessential shopping.

 

It makes sense for Columbus to expand its fleet of public transit buses and to examine developing other forms of public transit as well. Besides improving the city’s air quality, such actions would provide insurance against energy-related economic woes.

 

I agree completely.  Now how the hell do we make that happen?!?! 

Yeah, we all know rankings don't mean much on their own, but this study has some interesting things to say about sustainability practices in the nation's 50 largest cities (including Columbus and Cleveland but not Cincinnati). Incidentally, Cleveland ranks #28 and Columbus is #50.

 

So I'm not quite sure I follow....is this survey saying that Cincinnati is not one of the 50 largest cities...or is it saying that it is not one of the 50 most sustainable.  I'm pretty sure that Cincy is in the top 50 cities (population wise).  But who knows, I guess it depends which screwy data source they got their information from.  I guess a metro of over 2 million people isn't large enough for them to waste their time on :|

^ I think they based the list on the 50 largest municipalities and not the 50 largest regions. Unfortunately, in terms of city population, I don't think Cincy makes it; Pittsburgh similarly does not get ranked.

The Countryside Conservancy just released The Countryside Harvest Guide (http://www.cvcountryside.org/Website/Local%20FoodWorks/countryside_harvest%20guide%202006.htm), which provides background information on Northeast Ohio's farm resources. In addition to the West Side Market, they list a number of city-based farmer's markets (not counting the many available in the inner ring suburbs). These include:

 

- The Galleria, T 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

- City Fresh (Clark Metro CDC), R 3 - 7 p.m.

- City Fresh (W. 48th and Lorain), R 3 - 7 p.m.

- City Fresh (Slavic Village CDC), F 3 - 7 p.m.

- North Union Farmer's Market, Sa 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

 

Obviously, we could stand to improve in this area (more locations, longer hours, indoor sites so that they can operate year-round), but I still think we got undercounted here.