MOUNTAIN VIEW — In a far corner of a former Navy base near the edge of San Francisco Bay, construction crews have embarked this summer on building nine brand-new Google (GOOG) “noodles” — a collection of long, oddly curved buildings that will be a new workplace for several thousand employees of the Internet search giant.

Google’s planned Bay View campus, sitting on 42 acres of the former Moffett Field in Mountain View, represents the company’s first effort to build its own offices from the ground up, instead of taking over buildings from other companies.

And

while Google has kept a tight lid on many details, company officials promise the new campus will have the outlandish amenities Google is known for — including gourmet cafeterias, an elevated bike path and maybe a zip line — and a design that’s friendly both to workers and the surrounding baylands, with lots of windows for natural light and optimum views, native landscaping and a cutting-edge water treatment system.

“We love our existing home, but it’s an office park,” said Anthony Ravitz, a civil engineer who oversees environmental issues for Google’s real estate division. The new complex is designed “to give us a better sense of place,” he added. “The idea is for there to be a very different look and feel.”

Google has a long-term

lease on the site from NASA, which is operating the old Moffett property as a federal research park. The new campus is just east of the current Googleplex, a sprawling assortment of buildings scattered on both sides of Shoreline Boulevard that Google has leased or bought over the years.

The project is the first in a wave of campus expansions in Silicon Valley, where Facebook and Apple (AAPL) are also planning major new buildings. But not everyone’s thrilled with Google’s plans.

Some Mountain View residents worry it will disrupt the natural surroundings and draw more commuters to clog local roads. Since the site is on federal land, Google didn’t undergo a city planning review, but the company says it’s sensitive to environmental and traffic concerns.

“We’re encouraging people to leave their cars at home,” Google Vice President David Radcliffe told city officials at a meeting about the project. The company says 7 percent of its 12,000 Mountain View employees ride bicycles to work, and it hopes to triple that figure. At another meeting, Google real estate executive John Igoe vowed that half the Googlers on the new campus will arrive on bikes or company shuttle buses.

Google won’t say which business units or exactly how many workers will occupy the new structures, although sources estimate 3,500 to 5,000 people. Google initially talked about building employee housing on the site when it announced the NASA lease in 2008, but a spokeswoman said there’s no housing in the current plans. She declined to elaborate.

Company officials also wouldn’t disclose the cost of the new campus, slated to open in 2015. But at heights ranging from three to five stories, the buildings amount to 1.1 million square feet of office space, which Google hopes will earn top marks from the LEED certification program for energy and environmental design.

All the buildings will be connected by an elevated pathway for walking or bicycling, said architect Ryan Mullenix, who described it as an “infinite loop” that will let a worker on any floor of any building get to a meeting in any other building in less than five minutes.

The nine buildings will use radiant heating and cooling from a system of pipes that circulate chilled or heated water from a central plant on the campus, said Peter Rumsey, a design engineer on the project. A separate ventilation system will bring in fresh air from outdoors, instead of recirculating what’s inside.

And because the buildings are long and narrow, with plenty of windows, Google says more than 70 percent of the interior space will use natural light during the day. The buildings are arranged at various angles and each structure is “bent” rather than shaped like a perfect rectangle. Ravitz said that’s why designers have been calling them “noodles.”

The alignment of the buildings is designed to provide optimal views of the bay and surrounding landscape, according to Ravitz, who said designers also studied air patterns so the structures will serve as wind breaks for a series of outside areas where Google hopes workers will picnic, stroll or even hold meetings.

“We want to create a transparent campus, where people will feel connected to what’s outside,” he said, “so the buildings almost to some degree go away.”

Google is planning mostly natural landscaping for the campus, with trees and native plants that are favored by local butterflies and other wildlife. It also will create eight acres of new wetland habitat on the site, said Cheryl Barton, a landscape architect on the project.

At least one of the buildings will have a “green” roof with live plantings and open-air space for meetings or informal gatherings, Barton said. Google says the other roofs will have environmentally friendly features, but the details have not yet been decided.

Google representatives have hinted at other amenities: A company fact sheet lists a “rooftop vineyard” on one building, along with zip lines and a “wind-driven music farm.” A spokeswoman declined to give details, saying they are “ideas in the works.”

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey.

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. — Pound Ridge’s Susan Cox is one of 26 artists in the exhibit “Placemaking: Re-envisioning White Plains.”

The exhibit is at ArtsWestchester’s Peckham and Shenkman galleries at 31 Mamaroneck Ave. in White Plains through July 13. In the exhibit, artists examine one-square block in White Plains, and imagine creative public art projects for key locations.

“This invitational show was conceived as part of an ongoing conversation to re-examine the potential of downtown White Plains as a cultural destination,” said exhibition curator Nazanin H. Munroe.

The 26 intriguing proposals represent the wide range of possibilities for public art in the city. Sculpture, landscaping, video projection, and murals are among the varied ideas to animate and enliven the streetscape. The exhibition features artist renderings of the potential artwork on site, as well as scale-models.

Cox said about her piece, “Banners Across ArtsWestchester:”

“Image Significance: Banners have been the traditional means of making public announcements for generations. It is appropriate to tie the history of this 1929 neo-classical building with its contemporary use in a manner consistent with the architecture, but designed for the twenty-first century aesthetic. The original purpose of the building was as the financial center of White Plains, and now the purpose is as the artistic and creative center of the entire county. The banners announce the shift from financial to creative usage.”

“The primary banners will be mounted across the top segment of the Palladian window above the gallery entry door, visible from the street, and from the interior gallery, announcing entry.  Additional banners will be mounted in a manner to capture attention and direct the eye to important elements of the building.”

More information is available on the ArtsWestchester website. ArtsWestchester is also encouraging people to take an online survey about public art.

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Have you ever thought about living in a cooperative environment? Where one day you might end up cooking for others, and the next day you might be sitting down to a meal prepared by the same friends? Picture a house where responsibilities are shared amongst the residents…  these types of living environments thrive on social situations, and might not be right for everyone, but then there are those of us who thrive in cooperative living quarters.

The Nickel City Housing Cooperative (NCHC) is opening its doors on Saturday July 6 from 2-5pm, showcasing its two living environments – Ol’ Wondermoth and Plankton. The occasion marks the International Day of the Cooperative, “an annual celebration of the co-operative movement observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923 by the International Co-operative Alliance.”

Cola Bickford is one of the dwellers who lives in the fantastic brick home located at the corner of North and Elmwood. ”I love cooperative living and I am excited to open our doors to people who are curious to learn about who we are, what we do, and what it means to be a cooperative!” says Cola, a resident member of NCHC, Ol’ Wondermoth.

It’s hard for me to believe that NCHC has been around for over a decade. I remember that the cooperative was one of the first articles that we ever covered… right after the launch of Buffalo Rising in print. It was then that I learned that the mission of the group was to find vacant buildings in the city, fix them up, and then occupy them with residents. It’s still a great formula – maybe it’s time to see a third project spring up somewhere?

*Members of both houses will be offering tours of the houses that will detail the history of the property to date and how the houses operate today as a cooperative living environment. Refreshments will be offered and people of all ages are welcome. For more information, please contact nickelcityhousing@gmail.com. 

Have you ever thought about living in a cooperative environment? Where one day you might end up cooking for others, and the next day you might be sitting down to a meal prepared by the same friends? Picture a house where responsibilities are shared amongst the residents…  these types of living environments thrive on social situations, and might not be right for everyone, but then there are those of us who thrive in cooperative living quarters.

The Nickel City Housing Cooperative (NCHC) is opening its doors on Saturday July 6 from 2-5pm, showcasing its two living environments – Ol’ Wondermoth and Plankton. The occasion marks the International Day of the Cooperative, “an annual celebration of the co-operative movement observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923 by the International Co-operative Alliance.”

Cola Bickford is one of the dwellers who lives in the fantastic brick home located at the corner of North and Elmwood. ”I love cooperative living and I am excited to open our doors to people who are curious to learn about who we are, what we do, and what it means to be a cooperative!” says Cola, a resident member of NCHC, Ol’ Wondermoth.

It’s hard for me to believe that NCHC has been around for over a decade. I remember that the cooperative was one of the first articles that we ever covered… right after the launch of Buffalo Rising in print. It was then that I learned that the mission of the group was to find vacant buildings in the city, fix them up, and then occupy them with residents. It’s still a great formula – maybe it’s time to see a third project spring up somewhere?

*Members of both houses will be offering tours of the houses that will detail the history of the property to date and how the houses operate today as a cooperative living environment. Refreshments will be offered and people of all ages are welcome. For more information, please contact nickelcityhousing@gmail.com. 

Have you ever thought about living in a cooperative environment? Where one day you might end up cooking for others, and the next day you might be sitting down to a meal prepared by the same friends? Picture a house where responsibilities are shared amongst the residents…  these types of living environments thrive on social situations, and might not be right for everyone, but then there are those of us who thrive in cooperative living quarters.

The Nickel City Housing Cooperative (NCHC) is opening its doors on Saturday July 6 from 2-5pm, showcasing its two living environments – Ol’ Wondermoth and Plankton. The occasion marks the International Day of the Cooperative, “an annual celebration of the co-operative movement observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923 by the International Co-operative Alliance.”

Cola Bickford is one of the dwellers who lives in the fantastic brick home located at the corner of North and Elmwood. ”I love cooperative living and I am excited to open our doors to people who are curious to learn about who we are, what we do, and what it means to be a cooperative!” says Cola, a resident member of NCHC, Ol’ Wondermoth.

It’s hard for me to believe that NCHC has been around for over a decade. I remember that the cooperative was one of the first articles that we ever covered… right after the launch of Buffalo Rising in print. It was then that I learned that the mission of the group was to find vacant buildings in the city, fix them up, and then occupy them with residents. It’s still a great formula – maybe it’s time to see a third project spring up somewhere?

*Members of both houses will be offering tours of the houses that will detail the history of the property to date and how the houses operate today as a cooperative living environment. Refreshments will be offered and people of all ages are welcome. For more information, please contact nickelcityhousing@gmail.com. 

Have you ever thought about living in a cooperative environment? Where one day you might end up cooking for others, and the next day you might be sitting down to a meal prepared by the same friends? Picture a house where responsibilities are shared amongst the residents…  these types of living environments thrive on social situations, and might not be right for everyone, but then there are those of us who thrive in cooperative living quarters.

The Nickel City Housing Cooperative (NCHC) is opening its doors on Saturday July 6 from 2-5pm, showcasing its two living environments – Ol’ Wondermoth and Plankton. The occasion marks the International Day of the Cooperative, “an annual celebration of the co-operative movement observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923 by the International Co-operative Alliance.”

Cola Bickford is one of the dwellers who lives in the fantastic brick home located at the corner of North and Elmwood. ”I love cooperative living and I am excited to open our doors to people who are curious to learn about who we are, what we do, and what it means to be a cooperative!” says Cola, a resident member of NCHC, Ol’ Wondermoth.

It’s hard for me to believe that NCHC has been around for over a decade. I remember that the cooperative was one of the first articles that we ever covered… right after the launch of Buffalo Rising in print. It was then that I learned that the mission of the group was to find vacant buildings in the city, fix them up, and then occupy them with residents. It’s still a great formula – maybe it’s time to see a third project spring up somewhere?

*Members of both houses will be offering tours of the houses that will detail the history of the property to date and how the houses operate today as a cooperative living environment. Refreshments will be offered and people of all ages are welcome. For more information, please contact nickelcityhousing@gmail.com. 

View full sizeCyclists arrive for a Critical Mass event at Public Square in 2012.Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The nationwide urban bike revolution is poised to shift into higher gear in Cleveland.

The question is whether the city can accelerate quickly and become more competitive with capitals of bike-friendliness such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco and regional standouts such as Pittsburgh.

With only 47 miles of a proposed 89.5 miles of bike paths and trails complete within its boundaries, Cleveland isn’t yet a star performer, but it appears ready to improve soon.

The city’s Office of Sustainability is nearly finished with an ambitious inventory of streets aimed at ranking which ones are most eligible for upgrades as “Complete and Green Streets” with enhanced landscaping and amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

And the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which oversees how federal transportation dollars are spent, just completed a four-year update of its regional bike plan.

Activists and civic volunteers, meanwhile, are coming forward with terrific proposals to repurpose and re-use traffic lanes and other pieces of baggy, loose-fitting infrastructure built when the city’s population was more than 50 percent larger than it is today.

View full sizeA photo of the proposed Red Line greenway viewed from Lorain Avenue.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

 To wit:

• The Rotary Club of Cleveland is raising awareness about a concept four years in the making to turn part of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line right-of-way into a three-mile bike path on the city’s West Side.
• A second brilliant idea is that of turning former streetcar median lanes on 50 to 70 miles of city streets into “bicycle boulevards” for commuting and recreation. The prime movers behind this notion are John McGovern, board president of the Ohio City Bike Cooperative; and Barb Clint, director of Community Health and Advocacy at the Cleveland YMCA.
• Meanwhile, the Kent State University Urban Design Collaborative recently completed a detailed study on the feasibility of turning the lower level of the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge, once used by streetcars, into an all-weather bike and pedestrian link.

(Incidentally, the lower level of the bridge, normally off-limits, will be open for free public tours on Saturday, July 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

All of these ideas are deeply inspiring, and deserve to be realized immediately.

View full sizeRotary volunteers Jason Rohal, left, and Leonard Stover, visited the site of the proposed Red Line Rapid greenway site earlier this week.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

The problem – and it’s a good one to have – is that a plethora of great proposals requires making choices. 

Not everything can happen all at once, and the new ideas join an already substantial portfolio of projects for bike paths and trails in Cleveland that are under way in various stages, including the long-delayed completion of the northernmost section of the 110-mile Towpath Trail.

Also, obviously, moving from concept to reality requires highly detailed and expensive planning, not to mention construction dollars. Yet money to fix potholes in the city, much less revamp entire rights-of-way, is always scarce.

All of this shows why this is absolutely the perfect moment for a new, citywide bike summit to sort through all the great ideas, to rank them in order of importance and urgency, and then to raise the money to realize them sooner rather than later.

View full sizeA proposal developed by members of Bike Cleveland’s board of trustees including Barb Clint and John McGovern calls for turning miles of former streetcar medians in Cleveland into bicycle expressways.Bike Cleveland

 Such a process could further energize Cleveland’s efforts to make itself a greener, healthier and more beautiful city. It would give greater confidence to local government, foundations and private philanthropists about the critical next steps needed to create a strong, citywide bicycle network.

Bike Cleveland, the city’s leading advocacy group, would be the most likely convener of such a summit. The young organization held its first summit in 2011 to craft its mission of building “livable communities by promoting all forms of cycling and advocating for the rights and equality of the cycling community.”

The logical next step is for Bike Cleveland to help the community sort through and prioritize the many excellent proposals for transforming city streets – in collaboration with the city, NOACA and other agencies.

“I think it definitely makes sense,” said Jacob VanSickle, Bike Cleveland’s director since 2012, when I called him earlier this week about the idea of a new bike summit.

He estimated that there are “dozens” of large and small bike plans that have been funded by sources including NOACA.

“Maybe some of them are getting implemented, but a lot are sitting on shelves gathering dust,” VanSickle said.

NOACA Director Grace Gallucci, who moved to Cleveland less than a year ago after leaving a high-ranking transit post in Chicago, said her agency’s updated regional bike plan is based on extensive public participation by bicycle advocacy groups, but to her thinking it is still “probably not bold enough.”

She also said the plan lacks any methodology to rank and prioritize projects, and that such consensus is needed. She’d welcome the chance to refine NOACA’s plans and has proposed to her agency’s board of directors that an update be completed within a year.

The city of Cleveland, meanwhile, wants to update its 2007 Bikeway Master Plan.

View full sizeA proposal to install bike lanes on the lower level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, envisioned here in a digital rendering, could cost from $2 million to $11 million according to a new estimate.Detroit-Superior Bridge Project Connectivity Plan

“We are fully on board with the idea of being comprehensive and not piecemeal,” said Robert Brown, the city’s planning director.

“One of the next steps is updating and making more robust our citywide bicycle plan,” he said. “We would do that in a way that would engage a broad range of stakeholders.”

Well, a summit could be one way to get started. The need is urgent because the physical transformation of Cleveland’s hard, gray public realm would improve livability for all residents – and help Cleveland attract new ones.

A new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., shows that the percentage of residents aged 25 to 34 in Cleveland is still shrinking as a proportion of the city’s overall population.

This makes it even more important to capitalize on the influx of millennials in neighborhoods that are growing, such as University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway.

Linking those and other neighborhoods to downtown and regional parks with better bike trails and paths would be an enormous boon to newcomers and existing residents.

So here’s what I envision for the summit: The event would begin with a Critical Mass bike ride attracting hundreds of cyclists to the city’s new downtown Mall, which doubles as the roof of the new convention center.

The meeting would then proceed inside the new Global Center for Health Innovation, which faces east toward the Mall with glassy, four-story atrium.

A bike summit at the Global Center would underscore the message that cycling and physical exercise are very much part of Cleveland’s desire to become a green, healthy city.

It would also be a way for the cycling community to assert itself dramatically, at least for a day, in the heart of downtown, and to show that the big new civic investments downtown can serve as a jumping off point for a transformation of city neighborhoods as a whole.

Dave Johnson, director of public relations and marketing for the convention and global centers, said he’s open to the idea of such a meeting and that he likes the sound of it.

Here’s hoping that such a meeting can take place – and soon. It would be exciting to see a mighty convergence of cyclists, health advocates and great plans for the future of city streets that could balance bikes, pedestrians, cars, transit and safety.

A new bike summit could be a solid step toward the transformation of Cleveland – a city that finally, after two recessions and a mortgage foreclosure meltdown, seems to be gaining traction toward a better future.

View full sizeCyclists arrive for a Critical Mass event at Public Square in 2012.Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The nationwide urban bike revolution is poised to shift into higher gear in Cleveland.

The question is whether the city can accelerate quickly and become more competitive with capitals of bike-friendliness such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco and regional standouts such as Pittsburgh.

With only 47 miles of a proposed 89.5 miles of bike paths and trails complete within its boundaries, Cleveland isn’t yet a star performer, but it appears ready to improve soon.

The city’s Office of Sustainability is nearly finished with an ambitious inventory of streets aimed at ranking which ones are most eligible for upgrades as “Complete and Green Streets” with enhanced landscaping and amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

And the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which oversees how federal transportation dollars are spent, just completed a four-year update of its regional bike plan.

Activists and civic volunteers, meanwhile, are coming forward with terrific proposals to repurpose and re-use traffic lanes and other pieces of baggy, loose-fitting infrastructure built when the city’s population was more than 50 percent larger than it is today.

View full sizeA photo of the proposed Red Line greenway viewed from Lorain Avenue.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

 To wit:

• The Rotary Club of Cleveland is raising awareness about a concept four years in the making to turn part of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line right-of-way into a three-mile bike path on the city’s West Side.
• A second brilliant idea is that of turning former streetcar median lanes on 50 to 70 miles of city streets into “bicycle boulevards” for commuting and recreation. The prime movers behind this notion are John McGovern, board president of the Ohio City Bike Cooperative; and Barb Clint, director of Community Health and Advocacy at the Cleveland YMCA.
• Meanwhile, the Kent State University Urban Design Collaborative recently completed a detailed study on the feasibility of turning the lower level of the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge, once used by streetcars, into an all-weather bike and pedestrian link.

(Incidentally, the lower level of the bridge, normally off-limits, will be open for free public tours on Saturday, July 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

All of these ideas are deeply inspiring, and deserve to be realized immediately.

View full sizeRotary volunteers Jason Rohal, left, and Leonard Stover, visited the site of the proposed Red Line Rapid greenway site earlier this week.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

The problem – and it’s a good one to have – is that a plethora of great proposals requires making choices. 

Not everything can happen all at once, and the new ideas join an already substantial portfolio of projects for bike paths and trails in Cleveland that are under way in various stages, including the long-delayed completion of the northernmost section of the 110-mile Towpath Trail.

Also, obviously, moving from concept to reality requires highly detailed and expensive planning, not to mention construction dollars. Yet money to fix potholes in the city, much less revamp entire rights-of-way, is always scarce.

All of this shows why this is absolutely the perfect moment for a new, citywide bike summit to sort through all the great ideas, to rank them in order of importance and urgency, and then to raise the money to realize them sooner rather than later.

View full sizeA proposal developed by members of Bike Cleveland’s board of trustees including Barb Clint and John McGovern calls for turning miles of former streetcar medians in Cleveland into bicycle expressways.Bike Cleveland

 Such a process could further energize Cleveland’s efforts to make itself a greener, healthier and more beautiful city. It would give greater confidence to local government, foundations and private philanthropists about the critical next steps needed to create a strong, citywide bicycle network.

Bike Cleveland, the city’s leading advocacy group, would be the most likely convener of such a summit. The young organization held its first summit in 2011 to craft its mission of building “livable communities by promoting all forms of cycling and advocating for the rights and equality of the cycling community.”

The logical next step is for Bike Cleveland to help the community sort through and prioritize the many excellent proposals for transforming city streets – in collaboration with the city, NOACA and other agencies.

“I think it definitely makes sense,” said Jacob VanSickle, Bike Cleveland’s director since 2012, when I called him earlier this week about the idea of a new bike summit.

He estimated that there are “dozens” of large and small bike plans that have been funded by sources including NOACA.

“Maybe some of them are getting implemented, but a lot are sitting on shelves gathering dust,” VanSickle said.

NOACA Director Grace Gallucci, who moved to Cleveland less than a year ago after leaving a high-ranking transit post in Chicago, said her agency’s updated regional bike plan is based on extensive public participation by bicycle advocacy groups, but to her thinking it is still “probably not bold enough.”

She also said the plan lacks any methodology to rank and prioritize projects, and that such consensus is needed. She’d welcome the chance to refine NOACA’s plans and has proposed to her agency’s board of directors that an update be completed within a year.

The city of Cleveland, meanwhile, wants to update its 2007 Bikeway Master Plan.

View full sizeA proposal to install bike lanes on the lower level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, envisioned here in a digital rendering, could cost from $2 million to $11 million according to a new estimate.Detroit-Superior Bridge Project Connectivity Plan

“We are fully on board with the idea of being comprehensive and not piecemeal,” said Robert Brown, the city’s planning director.

“One of the next steps is updating and making more robust our citywide bicycle plan,” he said. “We would do that in a way that would engage a broad range of stakeholders.”

Well, a summit could be one way to get started. The need is urgent because the physical transformation of Cleveland’s hard, gray public realm would improve livability for all residents – and help Cleveland attract new ones.

A new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., shows that the percentage of residents aged 25 to 34 in Cleveland is still shrinking as a proportion of the city’s overall population.

This makes it even more important to capitalize on the influx of millennials in neighborhoods that are growing, such as University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway.

Linking those and other neighborhoods to downtown and regional parks with better bike trails and paths would be an enormous boon to newcomers and existing residents.

So here’s what I envision for the summit: The event would begin with a Critical Mass bike ride attracting hundreds of cyclists to the city’s new downtown Mall, which doubles as the roof of the new convention center.

The meeting would then proceed inside the new Global Center for Health Innovation, which faces east toward the Mall with glassy, four-story atrium.

A bike summit at the Global Center would underscore the message that cycling and physical exercise are very much part of Cleveland’s desire to become a green, healthy city.

It would also be a way for the cycling community to assert itself dramatically, at least for a day, in the heart of downtown, and to show that the big new civic investments downtown can serve as a jumping off point for a transformation of city neighborhoods as a whole.

Dave Johnson, director of public relations and marketing for the convention and global centers, said he’s open to the idea of such a meeting and that he likes the sound of it.

Here’s hoping that such a meeting can take place – and soon. It would be exciting to see a mighty convergence of cyclists, health advocates and great plans for the future of city streets that could balance bikes, pedestrians, cars, transit and safety.

A new bike summit could be a solid step toward the transformation of Cleveland – a city that finally, after two recessions and a mortgage foreclosure meltdown, seems to be gaining traction toward a better future.

View full sizeCyclists arrive for a Critical Mass event at Public Square in 2012.Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The nationwide urban bike revolution is poised to shift into higher gear in Cleveland.

The question is whether the city can accelerate quickly and become more competitive with capitals of bike-friendliness such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco and regional standouts such as Pittsburgh.

With only 47 miles of a proposed 89.5 miles of bike paths and trails complete within its boundaries, Cleveland isn’t yet a star performer, but it appears ready to improve soon.

The city’s Office of Sustainability is nearly finished with an ambitious inventory of streets aimed at ranking which ones are most eligible for upgrades as “Complete and Green Streets” with enhanced landscaping and amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

And the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which oversees how federal transportation dollars are spent, just completed a four-year update of its regional bike plan.

Activists and civic volunteers, meanwhile, are coming forward with terrific proposals to repurpose and re-use traffic lanes and other pieces of baggy, loose-fitting infrastructure built when the city’s population was more than 50 percent larger than it is today.

View full sizeA photo of the proposed Red Line greenway viewed from Lorain Avenue.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

 To wit:

• The Rotary Club of Cleveland is raising awareness about a concept four years in the making to turn part of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line right-of-way into a three-mile bike path on the city’s West Side.
• A second brilliant idea is that of turning former streetcar median lanes on 50 to 70 miles of city streets into “bicycle boulevards” for commuting and recreation. The prime movers behind this notion are John McGovern, board president of the Ohio City Bike Cooperative; and Barb Clint, director of Community Health and Advocacy at the Cleveland YMCA.
• Meanwhile, the Kent State University Urban Design Collaborative recently completed a detailed study on the feasibility of turning the lower level of the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge, once used by streetcars, into an all-weather bike and pedestrian link.

(Incidentally, the lower level of the bridge, normally off-limits, will be open for free public tours on Saturday, July 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

All of these ideas are deeply inspiring, and deserve to be realized immediately.

View full sizeRotary volunteers Jason Rohal, left, and Leonard Stover, visited the site of the proposed Red Line Rapid greenway site earlier this week.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

The problem – and it’s a good one to have – is that a plethora of great proposals requires making choices. 

Not everything can happen all at once, and the new ideas join an already substantial portfolio of projects for bike paths and trails in Cleveland that are under way in various stages, including the long-delayed completion of the northernmost section of the 110-mile Towpath Trail.

Also, obviously, moving from concept to reality requires highly detailed and expensive planning, not to mention construction dollars. Yet money to fix potholes in the city, much less revamp entire rights-of-way, is always scarce.

All of this shows why this is absolutely the perfect moment for a new, citywide bike summit to sort through all the great ideas, to rank them in order of importance and urgency, and then to raise the money to realize them sooner rather than later.

View full sizeA proposal developed by members of Bike Cleveland’s board of trustees including Barb Clint and John McGovern calls for turning miles of former streetcar medians in Cleveland into bicycle expressways.Bike Cleveland

 Such a process could further energize Cleveland’s efforts to make itself a greener, healthier and more beautiful city. It would give greater confidence to local government, foundations and private philanthropists about the critical next steps needed to create a strong, citywide bicycle network.

Bike Cleveland, the city’s leading advocacy group, would be the most likely convener of such a summit. The young organization held its first summit in 2011 to craft its mission of building “livable communities by promoting all forms of cycling and advocating for the rights and equality of the cycling community.”

The logical next step is for Bike Cleveland to help the community sort through and prioritize the many excellent proposals for transforming city streets – in collaboration with the city, NOACA and other agencies.

“I think it definitely makes sense,” said Jacob VanSickle, Bike Cleveland’s director since 2012, when I called him earlier this week about the idea of a new bike summit.

He estimated that there are “dozens” of large and small bike plans that have been funded by sources including NOACA.

“Maybe some of them are getting implemented, but a lot are sitting on shelves gathering dust,” VanSickle said.

NOACA Director Grace Gallucci, who moved to Cleveland less than a year ago after leaving a high-ranking transit post in Chicago, said her agency’s updated regional bike plan is based on extensive public participation by bicycle advocacy groups, but to her thinking it is still “probably not bold enough.”

She also said the plan lacks any methodology to rank and prioritize projects, and that such consensus is needed. She’d welcome the chance to refine NOACA’s plans and has proposed to her agency’s board of directors that an update be completed within a year.

The city of Cleveland, meanwhile, wants to update its 2007 Bikeway Master Plan.

View full sizeA proposal to install bike lanes on the lower level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, envisioned here in a digital rendering, could cost from $2 million to $11 million according to a new estimate.Detroit-Superior Bridge Project Connectivity Plan

“We are fully on board with the idea of being comprehensive and not piecemeal,” said Robert Brown, the city’s planning director.

“One of the next steps is updating and making more robust our citywide bicycle plan,” he said. “We would do that in a way that would engage a broad range of stakeholders.”

Well, a summit could be one way to get started. The need is urgent because the physical transformation of Cleveland’s hard, gray public realm would improve livability for all residents – and help Cleveland attract new ones.

A new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., shows that the percentage of residents aged 25 to 34 in Cleveland is still shrinking as a proportion of the city’s overall population.

This makes it even more important to capitalize on the influx of millennials in neighborhoods that are growing, such as University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway.

Linking those and other neighborhoods to downtown and regional parks with better bike trails and paths would be an enormous boon to newcomers and existing residents.

So here’s what I envision for the summit: The event would begin with a Critical Mass bike ride attracting hundreds of cyclists to the city’s new downtown Mall, which doubles as the roof of the new convention center.

The meeting would then proceed inside the new Global Center for Health Innovation, which faces east toward the Mall with glassy, four-story atrium.

A bike summit at the Global Center would underscore the message that cycling and physical exercise are very much part of Cleveland’s desire to become a green, healthy city.

It would also be a way for the cycling community to assert itself dramatically, at least for a day, in the heart of downtown, and to show that the big new civic investments downtown can serve as a jumping off point for a transformation of city neighborhoods as a whole.

Dave Johnson, director of public relations and marketing for the convention and global centers, said he’s open to the idea of such a meeting and that he likes the sound of it.

Here’s hoping that such a meeting can take place – and soon. It would be exciting to see a mighty convergence of cyclists, health advocates and great plans for the future of city streets that could balance bikes, pedestrians, cars, transit and safety.

A new bike summit could be a solid step toward the transformation of Cleveland – a city that finally, after two recessions and a mortgage foreclosure meltdown, seems to be gaining traction toward a better future.

View full sizeCyclists arrive for a Critical Mass event at Public Square in 2012.Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The nationwide urban bike revolution is poised to shift into higher gear in Cleveland.

The question is whether the city can accelerate quickly and become more competitive with capitals of bike-friendliness such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco and regional standouts such as Pittsburgh.

With only 47 miles of a proposed 89.5 miles of bike paths and trails complete within its boundaries, Cleveland isn’t yet a star performer, but it appears ready to improve soon.

The city’s Office of Sustainability is nearly finished with an ambitious inventory of streets aimed at ranking which ones are most eligible for upgrades as “Complete and Green Streets” with enhanced landscaping and amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

And the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which oversees how federal transportation dollars are spent, just completed a four-year update of its regional bike plan.

Activists and civic volunteers, meanwhile, are coming forward with terrific proposals to repurpose and re-use traffic lanes and other pieces of baggy, loose-fitting infrastructure built when the city’s population was more than 50 percent larger than it is today.

View full sizeA photo of the proposed Red Line greenway viewed from Lorain Avenue.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

 To wit:

• The Rotary Club of Cleveland is raising awareness about a concept four years in the making to turn part of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line right-of-way into a three-mile bike path on the city’s West Side.
• A second brilliant idea is that of turning former streetcar median lanes on 50 to 70 miles of city streets into “bicycle boulevards” for commuting and recreation. The prime movers behind this notion are John McGovern, board president of the Ohio City Bike Cooperative; and Barb Clint, director of Community Health and Advocacy at the Cleveland YMCA.
• Meanwhile, the Kent State University Urban Design Collaborative recently completed a detailed study on the feasibility of turning the lower level of the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge, once used by streetcars, into an all-weather bike and pedestrian link.

(Incidentally, the lower level of the bridge, normally off-limits, will be open for free public tours on Saturday, July 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

All of these ideas are deeply inspiring, and deserve to be realized immediately.

View full sizeRotary volunteers Jason Rohal, left, and Leonard Stover, visited the site of the proposed Red Line Rapid greenway site earlier this week.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

The problem – and it’s a good one to have – is that a plethora of great proposals requires making choices. 

Not everything can happen all at once, and the new ideas join an already substantial portfolio of projects for bike paths and trails in Cleveland that are under way in various stages, including the long-delayed completion of the northernmost section of the 110-mile Towpath Trail.

Also, obviously, moving from concept to reality requires highly detailed and expensive planning, not to mention construction dollars. Yet money to fix potholes in the city, much less revamp entire rights-of-way, is always scarce.

All of this shows why this is absolutely the perfect moment for a new, citywide bike summit to sort through all the great ideas, to rank them in order of importance and urgency, and then to raise the money to realize them sooner rather than later.

View full sizeA proposal developed by members of Bike Cleveland’s board of trustees including Barb Clint and John McGovern calls for turning miles of former streetcar medians in Cleveland into bicycle expressways.Bike Cleveland

 Such a process could further energize Cleveland’s efforts to make itself a greener, healthier and more beautiful city. It would give greater confidence to local government, foundations and private philanthropists about the critical next steps needed to create a strong, citywide bicycle network.

Bike Cleveland, the city’s leading advocacy group, would be the most likely convener of such a summit. The young organization held its first summit in 2011 to craft its mission of building “livable communities by promoting all forms of cycling and advocating for the rights and equality of the cycling community.”

The logical next step is for Bike Cleveland to help the community sort through and prioritize the many excellent proposals for transforming city streets – in collaboration with the city, NOACA and other agencies.

“I think it definitely makes sense,” said Jacob VanSickle, Bike Cleveland’s director since 2012, when I called him earlier this week about the idea of a new bike summit.

He estimated that there are “dozens” of large and small bike plans that have been funded by sources including NOACA.

“Maybe some of them are getting implemented, but a lot are sitting on shelves gathering dust,” VanSickle said.

NOACA Director Grace Gallucci, who moved to Cleveland less than a year ago after leaving a high-ranking transit post in Chicago, said her agency’s updated regional bike plan is based on extensive public participation by bicycle advocacy groups, but to her thinking it is still “probably not bold enough.”

She also said the plan lacks any methodology to rank and prioritize projects, and that such consensus is needed. She’d welcome the chance to refine NOACA’s plans and has proposed to her agency’s board of directors that an update be completed within a year.

The city of Cleveland, meanwhile, wants to update its 2007 Bikeway Master Plan.

View full sizeA proposal to install bike lanes on the lower level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, envisioned here in a digital rendering, could cost from $2 million to $11 million according to a new estimate.Detroit-Superior Bridge Project Connectivity Plan

“We are fully on board with the idea of being comprehensive and not piecemeal,” said Robert Brown, the city’s planning director.

“One of the next steps is updating and making more robust our citywide bicycle plan,” he said. “We would do that in a way that would engage a broad range of stakeholders.”

Well, a summit could be one way to get started. The need is urgent because the physical transformation of Cleveland’s hard, gray public realm would improve livability for all residents – and help Cleveland attract new ones.

A new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., shows that the percentage of residents aged 25 to 34 in Cleveland is still shrinking as a proportion of the city’s overall population.

This makes it even more important to capitalize on the influx of millennials in neighborhoods that are growing, such as University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway.

Linking those and other neighborhoods to downtown and regional parks with better bike trails and paths would be an enormous boon to newcomers and existing residents.

So here’s what I envision for the summit: The event would begin with a Critical Mass bike ride attracting hundreds of cyclists to the city’s new downtown Mall, which doubles as the roof of the new convention center.

The meeting would then proceed inside the new Global Center for Health Innovation, which faces east toward the Mall with glassy, four-story atrium.

A bike summit at the Global Center would underscore the message that cycling and physical exercise are very much part of Cleveland’s desire to become a green, healthy city.

It would also be a way for the cycling community to assert itself dramatically, at least for a day, in the heart of downtown, and to show that the big new civic investments downtown can serve as a jumping off point for a transformation of city neighborhoods as a whole.

Dave Johnson, director of public relations and marketing for the convention and global centers, said he’s open to the idea of such a meeting and that he likes the sound of it.

Here’s hoping that such a meeting can take place – and soon. It would be exciting to see a mighty convergence of cyclists, health advocates and great plans for the future of city streets that could balance bikes, pedestrians, cars, transit and safety.

A new bike summit could be a solid step toward the transformation of Cleveland – a city that finally, after two recessions and a mortgage foreclosure meltdown, seems to be gaining traction toward a better future.