Cleveland Cultural Gardens Could Be Improved

A true gem in our community is the cultural gardens down MLK Blvd in Cleveland Ohio.  This snakes from University Circle through the Wade Park neighborhood ending at the Shoreway and Cleveland Rockefeller Greenhouse.  The Greenhouse is not huge and really beautiful especially in June, but I try to go there every few months.  It is a long undisturbed green space that has survived decades of boom and bust years in Cleveland with the amazing University Circle on one side and the wonderful Greenhouse and Metroparks Lakefront Park on the other side. I don't think the Gardens/Greenhouse get much attention, but it is a real hidden treasure overshadowed by the Museum, Natural History Museum and the Botanical Gardens.  I have a few suggestions to improve the prominence and ease of use for the Cultural Gardens.

• There should be a partnership with the Famicos Foundation to provide food, concessions and even swag celebrating the Gardens at Rockefeller Park and/or the Greenhouse.  They could have maps of all the cultural gardens and provide information to the guests about other tourist locations.  They could manage the crush of wedding bridal parties and provide some income to the Gardens.  They have a cool gazebo and previously had one with a foot bridge that could be rebuilt under the trees.  It would great to be able to sit out in the summer with a coffee or fresh squeezed lemonade among the bees, birds, statues, and flowers.  Older volunteers from the neighborhood and the Famicos apartments could volunteer and staff the concession area at the Greenhouse.  It would be great to have a t-shirts, magnets, postcards, sweatshirt of some of the fantastic photos that people take at the Gardens and Greenhouse for sale or get a hot cup of coffee and a cookie while sitting in the Helen Keller Garden at East 88th St. They could distribute more information about the garden especially where to park to see a specific national garden.  
• There needs to be a parking lot halfway down the Gardens (maybe between the Lithuanian and Hungarian Gardens) or somewhere around there with a warming center.  They could have a similar concessions area in partnership with Famicos or University Circle Inc. It would make it easier for older folks to walk the Gardens if there was an indoor resting point that also could also get some swag, information and some food.  It would be great to be able to meet friendly neighbors who could staff or volunteer the warming center on the walking trip from University Circle to the Lakefront MetroPark.  
  
• Try to convince more of the gardens to create winter landscapes that represent their country.  There has to be some nice winter displays in Estonia, Latvia, or Finland that could attract visitors in the winter months.  These countries must have Gardens that accentuate the winter wonderlands to represent these home countries.
• Leaders need to fill in some of the holes with Gardens that are missing from Cleveland's history.  The Hispanic community is poorly represented in the cultural gardens and there are very few gardens from countries that were decimated by the American slave trade.  Both these communities built this city and should be represented in the cultural gardens.  There are no Mexican, Dominican, Haitian, or Puerto Rican gardens.  No Nigerian, Angolan, Congolese, or Ivory Coast Gardens while ancestors from these areas are really the backbone of the region.  I am not sure the continents of Africa or South America are represented at all in the Cultural Gardens.  Also, no Central American countries host a cultural garden.  One weird thing is a Pakistan Cultural Garden listed north of the Shoreway on Google maps but not listed on the Cultural Garden's website.  Is this a rogue garden similar to the lawless regions of Pakistan near the Afghan border? 
• City officials should convince local non-profits, neighborhood centers and Community Development organizations to adopt an existing Garden or fund raise for a new garden.  Shouldn't the Spanish American Center work to open a Dominican garden?  Or the Housing Center/Community Shares own a piece of the current Peace Garden?  You could have Clark Fulton CDC adopt a Puerto Rican garden and the Fairfax Development could help to start a Nigerian or Argentine garden.  St. Clair/Superior could push the Korean Garden from development to reality or the Turkish garden.  This is such a special piece of Cleveland that every city issued contract to a non-profit organization should require some commitment to the Cultural Gardens.  The City could require clean up days or volunteer events or adoption of a garden in every contract they execute so that the entire city is supportive of this cultural institution.
• There should be more events at the Cultural Gardens.  Groups should be encouraged to host meetings at their favorite garden such as board meetings.  They could invest in a couple of enclosed tents that the City staff would set up on a daily basis at the different parks.  They could make it easy to request a meeting for a nominal fee to the City.  

  

  Lianna and her yellow boots hang out at the Greenhouse in Cleveland

It is really beautiful part of Cleveland that does not get the fanfare it deserves.  Anything we can do to improve the Cultural Gardens is good for the City of Cleveland. 

by Brian Davis