Meetings scheduled to plan Greenway for Train Avenue
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, May 2008) The second in a series of three public meetings on creating a greenway along Train Avenue will be held at 7 p.m. on May 8th at Urban Community School, 4909 Lorain Avenue. Planners hope to develop a bikeway and multipurpose trail that will connect five Near West Side neighborhoods (Stockyards, Clark Metro, Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway and Tremont) and link to the Towpath Trail and Canalway Corridor that will go through the Cleveland Industrial Flats to Lake Erie. Plans call for a connection to the Big Creek bikeways to the south as well. The results of the planning effort will be presented to the community at a third meeting on May 29th at 7 p.m. at the West 58th Street Church of God (just South of Clark on W. 58th).

Al Brazynetz, Executive Director of the Stockyard Redevelopment Organization, part of a collaborative involved in the planning process, said the vision is of a “funky urban parkway with great views of bridges.” He recalled some impressive urban vistas viewed from Train Avenue, saying the views are spectacular, especially at night.

At the first meeting on February 28th at Zion United Church of Christ on W. 14th, Brazynetz said those in attendance learned some of the history of the area along Train Avenue -- from its beginnings as a path along a creek, called Walworth Run, through the creation of breweries, factories and the railroad, to its conversion into a large combined sewer and the creation of Train Avenue connecting Clark near W. 65th to Scranton Road.

The challenge for residents coming to the meeting is to help devise plans to transform Train Avenue from what now is a sewer and a dumping ground to a green parkway. Breakout sessions at the May 8th meeting will work on trail planning, traffic planning and safety, green space and recreational planning, land use along the route and placement of public art, directional signs and historic heritage markers along the trail.

Brazynetz says the goals of the collaborative are “to create an aesthetically pleasing greenway, re-establish Train Avenue as a community asset, promote alternatives to the auto by providing a route to pedestrians and cyclists, develop improved access to adjoining neighborhoods and community assets, and to create a regional recreational amenity centered on a multipurpose trail plan that will link into the City of Cleveland’s Bikeway Master Plan.”

While the idea of uncovering Walworth Run was looked at, it was dismissed because after heavy rains raw sewage flows through the combined sewer and into the Cuyahoga River. Instead planners hope to devise methods to help reduce the rainwater flow into the combined sewer to prevent the overflow and dumping of raw sewage into the river. Brazynetz said some ideas include creating rain gardens and bio-swales to divert rainwater and retain it in the soil.

Brazynetz says the roughly two-mile stretch of Train Avenue currently is about 48% industrial, 43% green or open space and 9% residential. He says there are over a dozen schools located within a half mile of Train Avenue, which will provide opportunities to introduce students to use of the trail.

(see related photos here)

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