Gordon Park on Cleveland's East Side — part of Cleveland Metroparks' Lakefront Reservation — offers a long list of amenities spread across its 122 lakefront acres. There are boat ramps, walking trails, tennis courts and a picnic lawn.
But ever since Interstate 90 was built in the 1950s, East Siders have had a hard time accessing the park, and Lake Erie in general.
Cleveland Metroparks has been working on solutions to the problem for several years. And they’ve recently gotten some help from students at the Mastery School of Hawken, in University Circle.
“Through a conversation [with the school], we developed one of the questions we're trying to solve, which is how to improve neighborhood access to Lake Erie,” said Kelly Coffman, principal planner for Cleveland Metroparks.
The students recently presented their recommendations before parents, community members and staff from Cleveland Metroparks. The recommendations included building bike lanes on major streets around the park and restoring crosswalks and the pedestrian bridge over I-90 — currently gray, rusty and lined with chain-link fence — with murals and artwork.
Sophia Borders, a sophomore, said her group’s focus was on helping pedestrians access the lake without a car.
“There are highways and busy roads where pedestrians feel unsafe,” Borders said. “So we thought that if we [recommended] adding stops to the RTA route, people could use public transportation because it's not very utilized in that area.”
Leo Zucca, a sophomore, said controlling road traffic could protect pedestrians, especially on nearby streets such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
“We also tried to implement some caution signs and crosswalks, so that pedestrians could get to the different spots on the road safely, because there are some weird and poorly designed areas of the sidewalk,” Zucca said.
Metroparks planners said they were impressed with the solutions the students presented.
“We kind of looked at each other and chuckled. Some of the ideas they have are actually on the drafting board right now to be built next year,” Coffman said. “So hopefully we'll see a lot of those solutions brought to light.”
The students also learned about the history of the surrounding St. Clair-Superior and Glenville neighborhoods, and conducted community surveys to get feedback directly from residents.
“One thing I've learned while going through this process is that there's a lot to consider when working both on a street and with a community,” said NeVaeha Harder, a sophomore at the Hawken School. “There's a lot of legal things you have to take into account in terms of how long something takes.”
Cleveland Metroparks says it plans to start work on improvements to the park in Spring 2026.
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