Seeing through different lenses

Days after our deadline for this column, the Nov. 15 “Cleveland Heights City News” presented the Seren administration’s 135-page draft Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) for public review and feedback. The deadline for responses: Nov. 20. A quick scan revealed a dense compendium of data and charts, missing essential elements and containing multiple errors. Absent from CARP's mile-high view are concrete action steps, benchmarks and timelines, plus any indication that implementation plans and budgets might follow. 

We hope a completed CARP can guide Cleveland Heights in preparing to face the challenges ahead. Otherwise, this document will join the 2017 master plan and similar civic exercises gathering dust in a virtual attic.

Meanwhile, at ground level, we were noticing how environmental concerns can be overlooked in the rush to get things done.

On Nov. 4, Cleveland Heights City Council authorized funds to purchase equipment for spreading road brine, which prevents ice from forming on streets. At the foregoing Committee of the Whole meeting, Council Member Gail Larson had queried Mayor Kahlil Seren about the chemical composition of the brine to be used. He replied that he believed it was "a salt solution." For over a decade, Ohioans have fought the spreading of brine made with fracking waste, which contains radioactive radium and other carcinogens. Given that history, we hope to see the mayor's vague response confirmed in writing in the contract with the supplier.

On Nov. 6, council's Planning and Development Committee, chaired by Council Member Davida Russell, held its second public hearing on establishing a dog park. At the first hearing, on May 29, Climate and Environmental Sustainability Committee (CESC) member John Barber testified that large concentrations of dog urine, containing anti-flea and -tick agents and other drugs, will contaminate surrounding soil, ground water and adjacent streams, and be lethal to insect pollinators. While Russell cited these concerns as the reason for the second hearing, CESC members were not informed about it. No environmental experts attended or testified, nor did Russell mention having consulted Andy Boateng, the city's sustainability and resiliency coordinator.

For Cleveland Heights to become a truly green city, every plan, purchase and procedure must be subject to the highest standards of public safety, energy conservation and stewardship. Lowering Cleveland Heights’ carbon emissions may sometimes require hiring consultants such as Leopardo Energy, the firm currently conducting an extensive overhaul of our municipal facilities; but environmental awareness and commitment cannot be outsourced, nor can they be the sole purview of the staffer with "sustainability" in his job title. They must be practiced and modeled daily by the mayor, city administrator and department heads, taught to every employee, and communicated clearly and comprehensively to residents. Turning for guidance to Boateng, CESC and other experts should become routine.

Likewise, it is essential that residents who serve on council and volunteer for boards and commissions learn to see through, in Barber's words, an "environmental lens." Only then will sustainability and resiliency become leading attributes of our city, not just aspirations.

Environmental responsibility is just one of many values our community professes to hold. Issues of democracy, economic and racial justice, and human rights may overlap with environmental concerns or arise separately. Those who develop policy and draft, vet and implement legislation are obligated to consider its potential impact on everyone, especially those poorest and historically most disenfranchised. In other words, all officials must see the city and its needs through multiple lenses.

And because any organization—including a government—can lose sight of its stated values, we residents have a responsibility to remain focused on what is most important and hold our leaders accountable.