Tomorrow, Tuesday at 9am, the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Steering Committee will consider purchasing the controversial 2700 Transport Road property to build a new county jail. Cuyahoga County Council may also vote to purchase the property later this month. Riders object to the proposed county jail site at 2700 Transport Road because it is inaccessible to transit.
Recently, three members of Clevelanders for Public Transit took over 34 minutes to walk from the Tri-C Campus Rapid Station to the proposed county jail site at 2700 Transport Road (see videos of the walk below). Adam Bresnahan, Matthew Ahn, and Chris Martin walked the poorly maintained path to experience the same walk that would have to be traversed by a transit-dependent employee, a visitor of the proposed county jail, or a returning citizen upon release.
VIDEOS OF WALK BETWEEN THE TRI-C CAMPUS RAPID STATION AND 2700 TRANSPORT ROAD:
This video shows some of the obstacles on the way from the rapid station to the jail site:
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpSxJX0UTo
This video shows some the obstacles on the way from the jail site to the rapid station:
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrBhnn_GiI
This video shows a timelapse of the entire walk from the rapid station to the jail site:
The walk from the rapid station to the jail site is mostly downhill, but it still took three reasonably fit and able-bodied men in their 30s over a half hour to complete. At times there was no sidewalk at all to walk on. Most of the way, the sidewalk was poorly maintained. Walking mainly along Broadway Avenue, the three were occasionally forced to step onto the busy truck route because of overgrowth blocking the path.
Photo Credit: Clevelanders for Public Transit
Someone trying to visit a loved one incarcerated at a new county jail at 2700 Transport Road would have to take this walk from the rapid station. During a rainstorm or after a heavy snowfall, this walk would be outright treacherous. Any person with a mobility impairment would find the walk hard to do, if not impossible. The walk from the jail site back to public transit is uphill and dominated by heavy industry.
“The site is not sufficiently accessible to visitors via public transportation,” said Chris Ronayne, the Democratic candidate for County Executive, in a letter mailed to Cuyahoga County Council last week. The nearest bus stop to the jail site is a twenty minute walk away at Broadway and E. 37th Street, nearly a mile away, and is just served by 2 bus lines. The current jail is served by 20 bus lines within a quarter mile.
Photo Credit: Clevelanders for Public Transit
The jail site itself is surrounded by heavy industrial uses such as its neighbor Fortuna Aggregates, a concrete crushing company. These industrial uses attract industrial truck traffic, which poses a danger to pedestrians walking from public transit to the jail site.
Photo Credit: Clevelanders for Public Transit
Photo Credit: Kaitlin Durbin, cleveland.com
Initially, Matthew Ahn raised concerns about the lack of transit at the July 19th County Council meeting. During an August 25th public meeting about the jail site, attendees were asked to place red stickers on a chart indicating the issues of most importance to them. While most attendees used their stickers to indicate they wanted “no new jail,” 15 stickers were placed to indicate “connection to public transit” was an important issue of concern. Neither the Justice Center Steering Committee nor County Council has taken any action to deal with the lack of transit access.
Clevelanders for Public Transit calls on the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Steering Committee and Cuyahoga County Council to recognize that 2700 Transport Road is not an acceptable jail site because it is not transit accessible. CPT invites the Steering Committee and Council Members to walk to 2700 Transport Road to witness these issues first-hand. CPT urges the Steering Committee and Council not to rush into purchasing land for a new jail that is not transit accessible.
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Clevelanders for Public Transit is a riders’ organization that builds power for affordable, accessible and equitable public transit in Northeast Ohio. CPT’s policy platform, Ending the Transit Death Spiral, was released last year. For more information, visit clefortransit.org.