Issue 108 on the November 6th ballot is a proposed levy increase and replacement, totaling 0.67 mills, to support Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority projects, including the repair and beautification of Franklin Hill.  According to portofcleveland.com, “For the owner of a $100,000 home the cost would be about $20 a year or about $1.65 a month. The Port’s millage rate is currently at 0.13 mills – the same as in 1968 when the Port was created.”

Franklin Hill is the barely drivable stretch of road between the West Side Market strip and Hooples.  The Port plans to stabilize this crumbling stretch and beautify it to match the grandeur of its breathtaking vistas of the downtown skyline and the Cuyahoga.

Franklin Hill, along with other swatches of Port renovations along the river and lake, would fit like puzzle pieces with other non-Port projects that are now funded and under way.  These non-Port projects include the restoration and environmental upgrading of the river frontage from Scranton Peninsula’s old marina and old rail bridge to the W. 3rd Street Bridge, turning the land into a park, and making the river more environmentally friendly to fish and wildlife.  This non-Port river frontage improvement is the result of a consortium, including Ohio Canal Corridor and Cuyahoga County, which applied for and won a $9 million grant from the federal EPA – one of the largest Great Lakes Initiative grants in all of the Great Lakes.

William Friedman, president and CEO of the Port, said, “Combine that with the Franklin Hill project, and you start to see significant sections of river open up to the public.”

When asked about the October 10th Scene Magazine article, “The Dredge Report,” on the Port levy Issue 108, Friedman said “A lot of folks are seeing a lot of the positives in our levy proposal, and I believe the levy has a good chance of winning on its own merits, but there was a lot of misinformation in Mr. Robert’s story.”

The conclusion of the Scene article stated, “If you live in the suburbs, you could consider the levy to be taxation without representation. Once, 237 years ago, another government treated citizens in a similar manner. The results changed the world.”  Friedman said, “‘Taxation without representation’ – I really got a chuckle out of that because a voted levy is direct democracy, so I found it interesting he would state that it was somehow imposing a tax on someone when, if anything, this is the most direct form of democracy…you get to vote on the tax!”  He laughed, “That was both puzzling and amusing to me.”

Friedman said, “Setting aside the fact that everybody gets a vote – and, by the way, suburban voters have strongly supported Port levies even when most of the money gets spent in Cleveland – I just don’t think that’s how county residents see it.  I think they see the Port and these proposed investments as good for everyone, whether you live inside the city or not.  I think, perhaps, they’re a little more enlightened than that author gives them credit.”
Friedman stated, “It’s true we have six board members appointed by the mayor, three appointed by the county executive, and it comes up from time to time as ‘you know, maybe we ought to rebalance the appointments because more growth is taking place in the county and more tax base.’  I suppose a county executive and a mayor and a county council and a city council could take that up at some point – I mean, to me, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.  I think the Port board functions very well today.  They’re able to take the regional view, the county-wide view, and I don’t think rebalancing the appointments…at the end of the day, would impact our direction that much, but some people make an issue out of that.”

“He made this point about a professor who had given us a solution for dredged material management a couple of years ago, which we looked into,” Friedman continued, “and there was an Ohio State professor who submitted something which, in and of itself, was not bad thinking.  Basically, what he was proposing was that we beneficially use the dredged material…which is exactly where we want to go.  Had Mr. Roberts looked into it,” Friedman laughed, “he would have known that.  It had nothing to do with the other part of the solution on dredged material,” said Friedman, “which is continuing to use the existing basins north of Burke Airport on the lake where we put material – his story suggested this professor had proposed that solution two years ago, but he didn’t even touch on that…that was way off-base.”

“Mike Roberts, in particular – and he’s written about this a number of times – he has this theory, really, that the Port board is really just…a puppet, if you will, for the Mayor, and that there’s no independence.  What he said in the story was that we were taking on liabilities that were really the city’s problem – Franklin Hill – and I just don’t agree with that point of view.  It certainly isn’t how things have been working between the Port and the city since I’ve been here – I can’t speak to the time before I got here – but since I’ve been here we have done our own, independent planning work, we brought forth a strategic plan to the Mayor – and to the public – and now this levy is an implementation step.  There’s been virtually no interference other than the normal interaction between the city and the Port Authority since I’ve been here, so I’m not sure…it’s sort of a baseless statement that he makes, and he didn’t really back it up.”

When asked what changes Tremonsters could picture for Franklin Hill, Friedman mentioned the annual design competitions that have generated renderings of the Franklin Hill project from planners and architects from around the world.  According to Friedman, these renderings are not necessarily what the end project will look like, but they can allow Tremonsters to visualize what Franklin Hill could look like without all the growth and with road improvements and landscape beatification.  Some of these renderings are now in the care of LAND Studio (formerly Park Works) and have been used in the project proposal process.

Friedman said Franklin Hill “does have a tremendous potential to be a really important public amenity for Cleveland, and then – of course, being relatively close…really within walking distance – for Tremont.”

The proposed Lakeland Trail connection would merge with the Towpath Trail at the base of the Scranton Peninsula and veer off westward to transit across Franklin Hill, following a rail bed from an old railroad right away.  “That rail bed was bought by LAND Studio some years ago,” Friedman said, “They acquired it, which was really forward-thinking.”  The idea is to get the funding, develop the trail, and then turn it over to the MetroParks, most likely, to become an extension of the Towpath Trail stretching from Scranton Hill – right near Lorain and W. 25th Street – all the way to Wendy Park on Whiskey Island.

“As a Tremont resident, you’d be able to access the Towpath Trail,” Friedman pointed out, “get on it, ride your bike – or take a nice, long walk – all the way, culminating at the lake.”  Friedman added, “just so I’m being clear – a major segment of this Lakeland Trail goes right through Franklin Hill, and you’d have to stabilize Franklin Hill before you’d build a trail, so, really, the trail is contingent on solving the Franklin Hill problem,” said Friedman, “then the trail can get built.”

Another portion of the Lakeland Trail will proceed north across the west side of the Flats, with modifications to the Willow Street Bridge (the bridge to Whiskey Island) now used mainly by salt mine and other industrial trucks, with no way to cross the railroad tracks to get to over to Wendy Park.  The proposed trail would add to the width of the bridge to separate the trail from traffic, and cross the river channel to land on the Whiskey Island side. It will be a pedestrian bridge that will go up and over the railroad tracks to allow direct access to Wendy Park, as the last piece of the Lakeland Trail project.  The Port levy, Issue 108, includes funds for this portion as well as funds to improve the roads and to ensure safety for the trucks and for industry, “because that’s jobs, and that’s important,” Friedman said, “as well as for people who want to go through the area on foot, or on a bike, or what have you…non-motorized traffic.”

“I’m a really big fan of that trail,” Friedman concluded, “and I think that’s the kind of connectivity that Tremont, Ohio City, even Detroit Shoreway folks need to get to the river, and to get to the lake.”

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