posted Aug 19, 2010 2:19 PM by Yan Ling
[
updated Aug 20, 2010 11:11 AM by Fran Mentch
]
Please share your opinions about the closing of Denison Pool.
Our community has to make a decision about Denison Pool.
You can help by taking 1 or 2 minutes to answer the 5 questions.
Your answers are anonymous.
The survey will be closed 9/30/10.
One person who takes the survey will be selected at random to win an Igloo Cool Fusion 40 Icy Toons Cooler.
This $149.99 value holds 58 cans and "Loaded with speakers and an amplifier, this cooler can be used with any MP3 player. Comes with removable music player pouch and connects to sound system from outside or inside."
You do not have to sign the petition to reopen Denison Pool in order to be entered in the drawing. The winner must be a resident of either Cleveland Heights or South Euclid.
If you would like to SIGN a petition addressed to Cleveland Heights City Council asking for Denison Pool to be REOPENED, please email your name and address to sno@heightsSNO.org. You will also be automatically entered in the contest for the Igloo Icy Tunes Cooler.
If you do NOT want to sign a petition, but would like to be entered in the drawing for the Igloo Icy Tunes Cooler, please send an email to sno@heightsSNO.org.
THANK YOU for taking the time to help all of us by participate in this important community survey.
The results of this survey will be shared with city officials who help make decisions about the pool.
THANK YOU! |
posted Jul 25, 2010 9:39 AM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Aug 19, 2010 2:19 PM by Yan Ling
]
Celebrate the last days of summer and say goodbye to Denison Park Pool with good music, friends, and food. Losing Denison Pool is losing a wonderful community amenity; many of us have fond memories of the Pool and the fun we had there with our friends and families.
The potluck starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 22, in the Denison Park Pavilion. Dinnerware and charcoal will be provided. Please bring everything else needed for your meal and a dish to share.
Enjoy a free concert by the local folk-rock band, oldboy, from 3-5.
We will have a “Goodbye and Celebration of Life” ceremony for Denison Pool during this event. Please bring mementos, flowers, photos, etc to place at the fence. And, if you have a story about Denison Pool please come prepared to share it with the group. It would be great to hear from former lifeguards, staff, etc.
Don't know about you, but the only thing to make us feel better about losing Denison Pool would be building a new indoor pool in its place.
Additional information:
- Here is a Sun Press story about removing the pool.
- Here are some photos of Denison dump before it became a park; photos taken circa 1945.
For more information, about the celebration on August 22, contact sno@heightssno.org or call 216-381-5356. |
posted Jun 8, 2010 6:27 PM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Jun 8, 2010 6:51 PM
]
The 4th Annual Mayfield-Warrensville Streetscape clean-up was a great success! Many thanks to all who participated and donated plants, soil, time and perspiration...it was a very hot day. Our hardworking volunteers included: Norma, Chatal, Alan, Lynn, Laurel, and Yan. Check out the slideshow below to see them in action.
Board member Sandy Stone directed this project, which included something new--we planted annuals and perennials around the Cleveland Heights sign that is at the entrance to the city. Tamika, the manager at BP, kindly agreed to see that they are watered.
Over the years more and more flowers are being planted by the business owners on the street. We thank them for their collaboration and for being good neighbors. By working together we'll make the streetscape continue to look better every year...
|
posted May 20, 2010 1:33 PM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Jul 1, 2010 6:59 PM
]
We're all concerned about keeping the empty houses in our neighborhood safe and preserving our property values. Twelve streets in our city are now better off because residents volunteered to “Adopt-A-House” near them.
Volunteering to “Adopt-A-House" simply means that you make the commitment to walk around the outside of an empty house in your neighborhood once a day, just to do a brief visual inspection.
That way, if anything is broken or vandalized it can be reported to the police quickly, while there is a chance to get fingerprints, minimize damage, etc.
Also, empty houses can be used for criminal activity. Recently a house in our area was used as a "keep house" for breeding and keeping pit bulls. Someone rented the house, but did not live in it. The animals were neglected and the neighbors were alerted to what was going on by barking and the smell of feces. Someone else reported an incident that occurred some time ago, where two dogs were locked inside an empty house for weeks; by the time officials intervened one of the dogs was in such poor condition that it had to be put to sleep.
If you see that something has happened, call the police. If you feel that the situation is an emergency, call 911. Otherwise, the number for non-emergency police calls in Cleveland Heights is 321-1234; the number for non-emergency police calls in University Heights is 932-1800.
Then be sure to make a second contact by calling or emailing (preferably) the city’s housing department In Cleveland Heights, contact Rick Wagner, Manager of Housing Programs, at 291-4962; his email is rwagner@clvhts.com . In University Heights, contact David Menn, Building Commissioner at 932-7800 ext. 226 d.menn@universityheights.com
The cities’ housing departments are also who you contact if the lawns of empty houses are not being mowed.
Severance Neighborhood Organization is sponsoring this program and plans to compile a list of “lessons learned” from the participants and to host a thank-you party for the volunteers. If you are interested in “adopting” a house in your neighborhood, please contact Fran Mentch at 381-5356 or fran@heightssno.org with your name and the name of the street where the empty house is located.
Additionally, please contact Fran if you have a child’s drawing of a house that you are willing to let the “Adopt-a-House” project use as a logo.
|
posted May 2, 2010 7:35 PM by Fran Mentch
[
updated May 9, 2010 7:46 PM by Yan Ling
]
About sixty people gathered on April 11, 2010 for Severance Neighborhood Organization's first annual meeting.
Sandy Stone, a long-time Crest Rd resident, was elected as a new board member; Fran Mentch, Yan Ling and Teresa Ciz-Madia were elected president, secretary and treasurer, respectively. Sandy was elected to fill the position that was open due to Tamika Williams’ resignation. Tamika will always have a special place in our hearts because she was one of the four people who started Severance Neighborhood Organization.
Following the business meeting, Dr. Dennis Keating gave a presentation titled "Cleveland Heights: How Do We Compare To America's Other Older, Inner-Ring Suburbs?"
Dr. Keating used Bernadette Hanlon’s book, Once the American Dream: Inner-ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States as a springboard to discuss the factors affecting Cleveland Heights. Like many other inner-ring suburbs, our community is showing some signs of decline that include: decrease in population, increase in poverty and concentration of poverty, decrease in median household income, poor performing public schools, fiscal stress from high cost of city services and declining tax base, and aging housing stock. We also face a lot of competition with other suburbs to fill the large numbers of vacant homes and vacant storefronts in our area.
Our strengths include proximity to University Circle, local organizations, including the First Suburbs Consortium, mixture of old and new housing, libraries, the community center, shopping and retail centers.
Participants suggested that we improve Cleveland Heights’ marketing to people who move here to work at the Clinic or in University Circle, we should focus on our neighborhoods and the amenities they offer (walkability, etc.), we should plan for the housing needs of seniors, build less expensive new housing, and increase grassroots efforts to move the community forward.
Sue Blough complemented Dr. Keating’s presentation by facilitating the Q&A and group discussion that followed, and created a graphic summary. Check out the pictures of Dennis and Sue in action and be sure to look at the graphic Sue created. |
posted Mar 21, 2010 7:13 AM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Apr 3, 2010 9:46 AM by Yan Ling
]
A smart alec once defined an expert as “someone who lives 50 miles away”. Well, in Dennis Keating’s case this is not true. Dr.Keating, JD, PhD is a longtime resident of Cleveland Heights and is also an expert on Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Parma and the other inner-ring suburbs in Cuyahoga County. An internationally renowned authority on housing, urban planning and neighborhood development, he has also researched and written extensively about housing policies in Cleveland Heights and Cuyahoga County.
Dr. Keating holds a joint faculty appointment in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Additionally, he has been a visiting scholar and fellow at universities in England and Scotland. A respected author, his book, “The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods” is used extensively by educators in the fields of sociology and urban studies.
"Cleveland Heights: How Do We Compare To America's Other Older, Inner-Ring Suburbs?" will be the topic of Dr. Keating’s presentation at the first annual meeting of Severance Neighborhood Organization, Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 3p.m. at the Cleveland Heights Community Center 1 Monticello Boulevard (at Mayfield Road).
Discussion afterwards will be facilitated by Sue Blouch, a Cleveland Heights resident and an expert in organization change, who has has received multiple awards and recognition for her work; she is currently working for Deloitte Consulting.
All are welcome. The program is free; light refreshments will be served. For more information, please call 216-381-5356, or email sno@heightssno.org. To learn more about Dr. Keating’s work and publications, see his faculty profile on the Cleveland State University website.
We look forward to seeing you there! |
posted Mar 16, 2010 8:59 PM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Mar 24, 2010 10:32 AM
]
These are photos taken by Lisa Rainsong (the co-chair of the Oakwood Project steering committee) and Kim Kimlin, from the Trust for Public Land, when they walked the Oakwood Country Club property earlier this month.
They found the land to be beautiful, and full of potential for a new life as a public park. The presence of Nine Mile Creek running the length of the property will not only be the source of lots of interesting plant and animal life, but will attract monies allocated to improve watershed and water quality in our area.
The Steering Committee met on 3/22/10 and was given an update by staff of The Trust For Public Land. There is nothing definitive at this point; the Trust For Public Land is continuing its effort to acquire the land. |
posted Jan 30, 2010 1:56 PM by Fran Mentch
[
updated Jan 31, 2010 4:14 PM
]
Ed Smega generously donated his time to create this chart and the attached map (at the link below). Together they compose an inventory of the public greenspace if Oakwood Country Club became a public park in Cleveland Heights.
The Shaker Lakes acres have not been included because some parcels straddle the border and so the amount of space cannot be accurately identified.
The 88 acre parcel labeled 'oakwood golf club' is the part of the country club that is in Cleveland Heights. The other 62 acres are in South Euclid.
As you can see, the Oakwood Country Club exceeds the amount of public greenspace currently inside the city's boundaries.
Attached below is a wetlands inventory for Cuyahoga County.Detailed maps are on pages 27,29.
Source:Table and map created by Ed Smega with assistance from Jim Wyles at NODIS (Northern Ohio Data and Information Service) at Cleveland State University. |
posted Jan 28, 2010 10:37 AM by Fran Mentch
Dear friends and neighbors, Oakwood Club, a 144-acre golf course on the South Euclid/Cleveland Heights border, is being put on the market in April. It is bordered by Warrensville Center Road on the east and runs from just south of Mayfield to just north of Cedar. You can see a satellite map that shows the size of the golf course by inputting 1516 Warrensville Center Road, Cleveland, OH 44121. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl Oakwood Club has been in existence for over 100 years, but the membership has combined with another club to the east and the newly-combined organization will be using that property instead. They need to sell their property in South Euclid/Cleveland Heights. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/oakwood_mayfield_golf_clubs_to.html Will this land - a huge oasis of green space - be developed, or could it become a park for our residents instead? The local Sun Newspaper's editorial this week called for the golf course to become a park. http://www.cleveland.com/sun/all/index.ssf/2010/01/sun_news_editorial_keep_golf_c.html There are many reasons why a park would greatly benefit our community - and many resources to help us make it possible. We have already contacted or are contacting the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land, Cuyahoga County Soil and Water, Ohio Environmental Council, the Cleveland Metroparks, and conservation specialists from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Natural Areas Program. We will also investigate the possibility of a NatureServe grant to help with park trails. We have received a great deal of helpful information and resources - and several offers of assistance. As older, inner-ring suburbs, we don't have any other options for more green space in our area. This is it - and if it's developed, we've lost our last chance. 144 acres in the inner ring suburbs is not something to let go without trying everything we can to preserve it. Cleveland Heights/South Euclid redevelopment projects currently underway such as Cedar Center should be supported, but our local area certainly can't sustain futher new development. A large park in Cleveland Heights/South Euclid, however, could be a powerful asset that makes our suburbs look more attractive to potential residents and improves the quality of life for those of us who already live here. Please come to a meeting sponsored by the Severance Neighborhood Organization ( www.heightsSNO.org) at the Cleveland Heights Community Center on Wednesday, February 3rd from 7:30 - 9:00 PM. I will be one of the speakers on the panel, and there will be community discussion after a short presentation. Lisa Rainsong |
posted Jan 25, 2010 10:05 AM by Yan Ling
[
updated Feb 1, 2010 7:30 AM by Fran Mentch
]
A community meeting to discuss the possibility of purchasing Oakwood Golf Course will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, February 3rd at the Cleveland Heights Community Center, 1 Monticello Blvd.
There will be a panel presentation by community experts and government representatives followed by an open discussion.
For more information, contact the Severance Neighborhood Organization at 216-381-5356 or e-mail sno@heightsSNO.org. Additional information:
Sun Press article 1/28/10 about Oakwood Golf Course proposed sale and asking price.
|
|
