Chris Bernardo

Downtown Cleveland property owners back renewal of special improvement district

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Property owners in downtown Cleveland have thrown their support -- and their wallets -- behind renewed efforts to make the center city clean, safe and attractive to businesses.

Cleveland's City Council could begin voting this month on legislation to reauthorize a special improvement district, in which property owners pay to support street-cleaning crews, marketing programs and safety escorts for workers and residents. The district, created in 2005 and set to expire this year, runs from West 10th to East 18th streets and from Front to Carnegie avenues.

The Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a nonprofit group that reports to property owners, has been collecting more than $3 million a year from the district. The reauthorization would maintain the district from 2011 through 2015.

Despite the challenging economy, many owners are willing to keep paying. The fees, levied on all owners in the district, are based on property values and the length of property lines. They range from about $45 to $130,000 a year.

When Parks Must Rely on Private Money

A majestic staircase of granite rises some 30 feet above the Brooklyn edge of the East River, revealing a panorama that sweeps from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Midtown Manhattan. A salt marsh lined in limestone offers a contemplative look at the river as ecosystem. Along paths winding up manufactured hills and ridges are hundreds of trees that outline velvety fields of green.

This is Brooklyn Bridge Park, perched atop a ribbon of piers, and already hailed for its design and scope. But the park is taking shape only in fits and starts, and even opening the small part that is complete has been delayed until spring as the city and state hash out questions of money and control.

Despite 20 years of planning, work has barely begun on the bulk of the project. The $350 million construction budget is still short $125 million, and no one is sure who will come up with the $16 million needed each year for operations and maintenance.

Wolves good for U.S. parks, report says

Wolves should be reintroduced in U.S. national parks to help restore damaged ecosystems, according to a new report.

Researchers writing in the February issue of "BioScience" propose reintroducing small, managed populations in an effort to improve the biodiversity of many natural areas in North America.

These areas, say the authors led by Daniel Licht of the U.S. National Park Service, have been environmentally-impacted by population growth of hoofed mammals, for example elks and deer, which have prospered in the absence of "top-level" natural predators.

At historic Victory Trail in Mercer County, a new battle emerges at Washington's path

On a steep ravine leading down to Jacob’s Creek in the hills north of Trenton, the march that changed world history almost came to a crashing halt.

George Washington’s horse slipped on the sleet-coated terrain, almost sending the general down the 50-foot embankment into a icy, fast-flowing stream.

Washington grabbed the horse’s mane with both hands, and pulled it’s head up, all while shifting his weight forward to allow the horse to gain hind-leg traction. The animal righted itself, and like they say, the rest is history.