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Can large amounts of field grass clean up important areas of the gulf oil spill as shown in this Web video ?

It probably is worth trying using field grass along wetlands and beaches as the oil moves toward shore. Considering how BP and the U.S. Government are handling the spill, it is hard to imagine them taking serious interest in using grass to collect the oil. President Obama says he is talking with experts and the two farmers with this idea probably are not considered experts. If such a cleanup happens it will be if the local populace starts doing it. If it works, the locals could shame BP and the Feds into using the technique.

While BP has been the worst player of the oil industry in the U.S. (according to several sources), in South America U.S.-based Chevron is in the running to be even more devastating. On June 4th New York Times columnist Bob Herbert provides this horrid story about Chevron's corporate behavior: Disaster in the Amazon .

At last notice BP still denies that there are plumes of diluted oil deep in the ocean, while independent researchers have found two plumes. This is an indication that BP will continue to deny the full extent of the damage. It will be necessary to drag this corporation to justice.

We must remember, we Americans use this misbegotten oil from the gulf and South America. The rampant environmental injustice will only stop if the American populace makes it stop. Since major oil companies only react to dollars accumulated through sale of petroleum products, we need to use less of their products and vote with our dollars and spend them on other energy sources.

The following was sent as a an email message to many editors and reporters at the Plain Dealer and public relations executives at the American Public Transportation Association. You can find a list of recipients at the end of the his article.

The American Public Transportation Association is holding a national conference in Cleveland at the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel through May 5th. Attendees at this conference will be touring the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's new Health Line.

Cleveland's Health Line is one of the few, if only, Bus Rapid Transit lines in the United States. This innovative transit line affords travel by public transit that is faster than automobile between downtown Cleveland and University Circle. This new $200 million facility affords much opportunity for Transit Oriented Design.

Tremendous potential for E. 56th Street RTA Health Line station poised to be squandered

There may be no area along the Health Line better posed for Transit Oriented Design than the 16-or-so shovel-ready acres around the E. 56th Street Health Line station platforms. Instead of waiting for commercial interests to develop this land, (it is a short ride on the Health Line to the medical research juggernauts Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), in the summer of 2009 the City of Cleveland chose to place a regional state psychiatric hospital to the north of the E. 56th Street Station.

Later in 2009 the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority sold land it owned during the construction of the  Health Line to the City of Cleveland. For what? According to the first Cleveland Plain Dealer story linked below, a parking lot to service the proposed hospital across the street. The intended destination of the people parking here is not the Health Line. Use of land in this locale as a parking lot goes against the principles of Transit Oriented Design by removing a potential destination for transit riders.

The questions to ask: Is this  appropriate Transit Oriented Design being proposed through installing a parking lot to service a building on centrally located prime development land on Cleveland's new BRT line? What can $200 million in tax paid transit infrastructure can afford us in Midtown Cleveland?  What is good Transit Oriented Design that could occur at this location that would best benefit the people of the City of Cleveland and the metropolitan area?

Three Plain Dealer stories spell out the situation:

Cleveland buying Euclid Avenue land from RTA for state psychiatric hospital project
By Plain Dealer reporter Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer, October 20, 2009

Noted land use expert calls the alarm over the psychiatric hospital:

Euclid Ave. was primed for economic growth -- until City Hall got involved
By Tom Bier, (the version of this article linked to gives an incorrect by-line). Bier is an executive in residence at the Center for Housing Research and Policy at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University.  The Plain Dealer, July 26, 2009

More Plain Dealer coverage of the proposed psychiatric hospital proposal:

Dueling views on Cleveland City Hall's support of the proposed Midtown psychiatric hospital
By Plain Dealer reporter Henry Gomez, The Plain Dealer, August 04, 2009

American Public Transit Association
Virginia Miller
Senior Manager – Media Relations, Phone: (202) 496-4816, Email: vmiller at apta.com

Mantill Williams
Director – Advocacy Communications, Phone: (202) 496-4869, Email: mwilliams at apta.com

The Plain Dealer
Publisher
Terrance C. Z. Egger
Editors
Susan Goldberg
Randy Roguski
Elizabeth Sullivan
Elizabeth McIntyre
Elizabeth McIntyre
Debra Adams Simmons
Debbie Van Tassel
Daryl Kannberg

Reporters
Chris Ball
Tom Breckinridge
Henry Gomez
Joe Guillen
John Horton
Michelle Jarboe
Steven Litt
Michael McIntyre

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