A joint effort to connect 101 miles of biking and hiking paths from New Philadelphia to Cleveland's Lake Erie shoreline via the Towpath Trail Extension Project is preparing to cross the finish line. 

Fifty looks good on you, Cuyahoga River. As Cleveland celebrates the momentous 50-year milestone of the Cuyahoga River Fire—and the remarkable progress made—with #Cuyahoga50, we're answering all of your burning questions about the river with these 50 fun facts.

Ever since Cove Park unofficially reopened last fall, Lakewood councilman Dan O’Malley has been watching to see how residents are enjoying the revamped recreation area. “I’ve been riding my bike to the park a couple of times a week to see how people are using it, and it’s really popular,” the Ward 4 councilman says. “It’s great to see it already being used.”

Artist Will Sanchez grew up in the La Villa Hispana neighborhood. But it wasn’t until he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2003 for trying to rob a convenience store at 5404 Storer Ave. that he discovered his love and talent for art—and re-embraced his childhood community. In 2018, he opened La Cosecha Gallery in the exact same location he tried to rob 15 years earlier.

Though the 20^th-century heyday of Euclid Beach Park is long gone, vibrant remnants remain—from the carousel at the Cleveland History Center to the rocket cars roaming around Cleveland to the newly opened Humphrey’s Popcorn on E. 185th Street. Today, another ode to Euclid Beach joins their ranks with the official ribbon-cutting of the Euclid Beach Pier.

The children who come through Providence House—a crisis nursery providing free, voluntary emergency shelter to children—have enough going on in their worlds without having a quiet, relaxing place to think, reflect, or just be alone. Last week, Valley City-based landscape tool manufacturer Troy-Bilt sent six gardening experts to Providence House on W. 32nd Street to help revive the facility’s sensory garden as a place where even the youngest clients can take a peaceful time out.

Last year, we wrote about the ever-evolving Towpath Trail Extension Project, and this week, we got the chance to check out Stage Three for ourselves. Almost two miles long, the trail runs from the northern entrance of Steelyard Commons to Literary Avenue in Tremont. Get a first look at the views from this new part of the Towpath Trail, courtesy of our managing photographer Bob Perkoski.

For more than 50 years, the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes has stood as both an environmental haven and educational resource on 20 acres that were once proposed as highways to connect Cleveland’s eastern suburbs to downtown. Now, the Nature Center is about to undergo a $2.5 capital improvement project to renovate the All People’s Trail (APT)—built in 1983 and perhaps the focal point of the preserve.

Not surprisingly, Cleveland’s geological landscape 200 years ago was quite different than today’s modern, industrialized city. In 1820, spring-fed streams ran freely throughout the region, running through neighborhoods like Cleveland Heights, Kinsman, Scranton Flats, and Ohio City. Last Saturday, April 6, these now-hidden waterways took the spotlight during a sold-out tour: Exploring Cleveland's Hidden Waterways.

Fifty years after the Cuyahoga River burned on, the yearlong Cuyahoga50 celebration kicks off with Creative Fusion: Waterways to Waterways—an exchange program of sorts for local and international artists, designed to inspire the world with all the ways Cleveland has revived and reimagined its river.

The Cleveland Amateur Boating and Boatbuilders Society now has a permanent workspace instead of PHASTAR, near the Foundry and the Cleveland Rowing Foundation. It's part of a larger community boating center that PHASTAR is putting together that will house other groups—each with a unique tie to boating, the river, or Lake Erie, according to CABBS President Ed Neal.
 

With 2019 around the corner, Sustainable Cleveland is gearing up for a monumental year. Fifty years have passed since the Cuyahoga River Fire ignited not only a Cleveland waterway, but a major environmental movement.

For decades, the Brecksville Nature Center has essentially been the “last one standing” of the Cleveland Metroparks' trifecta of original trailside museums, and in 2017, the center delivered programs to almost 30,000 people despite a limited, 1000-square-foot-space. Now, thanks to the recent addition of an auxiliary Trailside Program Center, the popular Nature Center can expand its presence and programming to serve more Clevelanders interested in the great outdoors.
 

Tucked away amid the urban hustle and bustle of commuters driving through Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights is one of Cleveland’s little-known natural wonders: Doan Brook. Now bordered by Coventry Road, Fairhill Road, and North Park Boulevard, the 15,000-year-old bluestone tributary to Lake Erie originated as the glaciers retreated from the region. Today, there are hiking trails that meander around the 8.4-mile brook, showing off a bit of Northeast Ohio’s natural state—yet most people don’t even know these trails exist.

Every tree tells a story, but this one is for the (record) books. Aptly located behind the athletic complex at James Ford Rhodes High School, the Jesse Owens Olympic Oak tree pays homage to the track star of the same name who brought home four gold medals from the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin—and, right now, the tree is having a moment.

Work will begin this September to transform the former Worsted Mills site—once one of the country’s largest garment manufacturers—into the Morgana Bluff Nature Preserve Learning Center. The project will encompass four acres of abandoned industrial land adjacent to the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland in Slavic Village, offering hiking/biking trails and boardwalks, outdoor learning areas for groups and school classes, and spots for observation.

Originally slated to close yesterday, the Asian Lantern Festival has been such a popular attraction this summer that Cleveland Metroparks decided to extend the luminous, intricate exhibit that winds through the lower zoo ground for two more weeks through Labor Day weekend. That's a testament to the hard work of Metroparks staff, plus the 35 lantern makers who came to Cleveland from China to lend an authentic touch.

For Euclid residents, Lake Erie has always been something of a shimmering mirage: a beautiful resource always within sight, but perpetually just out of reach. After all, Euclid—one of six lakefront communities in Cuyahoga County—has four miles of shoreline, but 94 percent of that number is privately held by homeowners.

However, that elusive status is about to change after the Euclid City Council’s vote to move forward with Phase II of its Waterfront Improvement Plan.