Is the Port Authority Helping or Getting in the Way?

Authors Avatar

Recreation in Downtown Cleveland        

Recreation in Downtown Cleveland:

Is the Port Authority Helping or Getting in the Way?

Eric Walk

Spring Project

Mr. Champ / Mr. McGovern

2 May 2007

The debate continues in Cleveland over the best use of our lakefront. For almost two centuries the lakefront in Cleveland has been mostly industry. Here, like in other cities, we want recreational access to the lakefront.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority plays a major role in increasing recreational opportunities in downtown Cleveland in two ways: first, it owns a good part of the lakefront (the number one source of land for recreation.); and second, it occupies much of its own land or leases it for industrial purposes. So, therefore, the port authority is one of the major players in the decision of where and how to put recreation along the lakefront.

As with anything it is important to understand the past before we can understand the present. I have found a time line dating to 1818 that documents this history.

• 1818: The first steamboat on Lake Erie arrived in Cleveland.

• 1828: To improve shipping between the Great Lakes and the Ohio & Erie Canal, a new shipping channel – the current mouth of the Cuyahoga River – was cut to allow the river to flow directly into Lake Erie.

• 1849: A pier was built at the foot of Water Street (West 9th Street).

Join now!

• 1851: The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad opened the first Cleveland depot on the lakefront at West 9th Street. By 1853, railroads constructed six piers east of the Cuyahoga River.

• 1852: The first shipment of ore for smelting iron arrived in Cleveland from Marquette.

• 1870s: Construction of a breakwater began in the 1870s to protect Cleveland’s harbor area. The United States Congress authorized funds for breakwater construction in 1875, 1886, 1896 and 1902.

• 1912: The New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad opened an ore dock on fill placed along the lakefront on the north side of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay