Metroparks Board Meeting- my public comments 10.17.24

Good morning -   

Today I want to focus on trailheads.

It’s a great day to celebrate the Metroparks investment at one of the country’s first major City Beautiful parks - the Garfield Reservation and also the removal of another impairment to the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie -by  restoring beach quality. Thank you to the Metroparks for their part in this effort. 

I also want to thank the Metroparks for a clearly identified  TRAILHEAD to east side trails and the towpath in the Gateway District in downtown Cleveland.  I am here today to ask that the Metroparks also prioritize the MetroHealth campus as a major trailhead.  

There is a great need for the coordination of city and county services on the campus to include moving utilities underground, traffic flow and a trail connector to support the planned BRT line for West 25th St corridor.

The “hospital in a park” concept under Dr. Boutros included a less than a mile long towpath trail connector that ran from historic Riverside Cemetery (another National Heritage Area City Beautiful asset) to Scranton, along View Drive, over Valentine, and over the W 14/71 ramp to Steelyard Drive.  The Cuyahoga County Greenprint now shows an abbreviated trail head from Valentine.  The ramp connecting to Steelyard Drive is slated for major repairs that will include a pedestrian path on the north side of the ramp. MetroHealth needs this access route - not only for staff, but for visitors to the MetroHealth campus. Please work with the City and County to prioritize this trailhead.

I also want to call attention to the transit to trailhead connections along the Greater Cleveland RTA 19A route.  The 19A travels from downtown from the new Gateway District Trailhead along Turney (slated for a BRT)  to the Garfield Reservation and to the Bedford Reservation and continues to Maple Heights where riders can transfer at the Southgate Transit Center to Akron’s METRO transit #31 that connects to the Summit Bike and Hike Trail at Rt 303 - but also travels through Macedonia and Cuyahoga Falls to Akron.  This is also an access  opportunity for major trailheads to the Towpath from the Garfield Reservation via Garfield Heights Blvd and in the historic City of Bedford at Tinker’s Creek Viaduct Falls. Metroparks interactive  maps.clevelandmetroparks.com [1] and the mobile app can be synced with RTA’s interactive https://www.riderta.com/systemmap [2].