Where the River Burned

David Stradling, Richard Stradling

Description

In the 1960s, Cleveland suffered through racial violence, spiking crime rates, and a shrinking tax base, as the city lost jobs and population. Rats infested an expanding and decaying ghetto, Lake Erie appeared to be dying, and dangerous air pollution hung over the city. Such was the urban crisis in the "Mistake on the Lake." When the Cuyahoga River caught fire in the summer of 1969, the city was at its nadir, polluted and impoverished, struggling to set a new course. The burning river became the emblem of all that was wrong with the urban environment in Cleveland and in all of industrial America.Carl Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city, had come into office in Cleveland a year earlier with energy and ideas. He surrounded himself with a talented staff, and his administration set new policies to combat pollution, improve housing, provide recreational opportunities, and spark downtown development. In Where the River Burned, David Stradling and Richard Stradling describe Cleveland's nascent transition from polluted industrial city to viable service city during the Stokes administration.The story culminates with the first Earth Day in 1970, when broad citizen engagement marked a new commitment to the creation of a cleaner, more healthful and appealing city. Although concerned primarily with addressing poverty and inequality, Stokes understood that the transition from industrial city to service city required massive investments in the urban landscape. Stokes adopted ecological thinking that emphasized the connectedness of social and environmental problems and the need for regional solutions. He served two terms as mayor, but during his four years in office Cleveland's progress fell well short of his administration's goals. Although he was acutely aware of the persistent racial and political boundaries that held back his city, Stokes was in many ways ahead of his time in his vision for Cleveland and a more livable urban America.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Local history
• History of the Americas
• Ohio

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 07 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801455667
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

WHERE THE RIVER BURNED

David Stradling andRichard Stradling

WHERETHE RIVER BURNED

Carl Stokes and t he Struggle to Save Cleveland

CornellUniversityPress IthacaandLondon

Cover฀images:฀top฀photo฀by฀Bill฀Nehez,฀Cleveland฀Press฀Collection,฀ Cleveland฀State฀University;฀bottom฀photo฀by฀John฀W.฀Mott,฀Cleveland Press฀Collection,฀Cleveland฀State฀University.

Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

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Firstpublished2015byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Stradling, David, author.  Where the river burned : Carl Stokes and the struggle to save Cleveland / David Stradling and Richard Stradling.  pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801453618 (cloth : alkaline paper) 1. Cleveland (Ohio)—Politics and government—20th century. 2. Cleveland (Ohio)—Environmental conditions. 3. Urban renewal— Environmental aspects—Ohio—Cleveland. 4. City planning— Environmental aspects—Ohio—Cleveland. 5. Community development— Environmental aspects—Ohio—Cleveland. 6. Stokes, Carl. I. Stradling, Richard, author. II. Title.  F499.C657S77 2015  977.1'32—dc23 2014031091

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Contents

Preface ix

EnarivnehtbrUmeonntIntctioroduehC:nTsniiris 1 What Will Become of Cleveland? 19 1 Hough and the Urban Crisis 44 2 3 Downtown and the Limits of Urban Renewal 79 4 Policy and the Polluted City 111 5 The Burning River 144 6 From Earth Day to EcoCity 173 Epilogue: What Became of Cleveland 201

Notes209 Bibliographic Essay 221 Index 239

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Preface

O ur story begins with a river catching fire in June 1969. The Cuyahoga, prone to oil slicks and accumulating debris and, it turns out, to catching fire, burned for about half an hour on a Sunday morning. Two days after the fire, thePlain Dealernewspaper ran an editorial under the headline, “Cleveland: Where the River Burns,” foreshadowing what would happen over the next couple of years. More and more Americans came to associate Cl eveland, a once wealthy and mighty industrial city, with the environmental crisis and rapid urban decline. The burning river ran through the stories and the jokes Americans told about the “mistake on the lake.” Thefirebecamenotoriousbutnotwellunderstood.Overthelastfewde cades, all kinds of people—politicians, scholars, journalists, and average Clevelanders—have told the story of the fire, usually quickly and with little detail, but always with the conclusion that this little fire had a big impact. To this day, the Cuyahoga fire plays a prominent role in the story many Cleve landers tell about their city. It also plays a prominent role in the story environ mentalists tell about polluted America, about devastated industrial landscapes in the preregulatory era. In some versions of this story, the fire led directly to the Clean Water Act in 1972; in others it was simply a watershed moment, when Americans began to realize just how polluted their environment had become. Sincealmostnoonehasevenattemptedtoexplainwhythiseventtookon so much meaning, we set out to write a history of the Cuyahoga, leading up to its burning and then following the role of the fire through the passage of the Clean Water Act and perhaps beyond, to the river’s eventual (and partial) cleansing and Cleveland’s eventual (and partial) rebirth. In essence, we set out to write a biography of the Cuyahoga, one that centered on the river’s long

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