STATE CAPITAL PROJECT FUNDING SPURS NEW EFFORT

PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Friday, June 26, 2026; Site of proposed shared use path at Lake Avenue and West Boulevard: (L-R) Ward 12 Cleveland City Council Representative Tanmay Shah, District 13 State Representative Tristan Rader, and Ward 11 Cleveland City Council Representative Nikki Hudson mount bicycles as they prepare to ride on the site of the proposed shared use path.

by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press August 2026) An award of $100,000 in State of Ohio capital funds has resurrected a plan to build a shared use path from Edgewater Park south into the Cudell West Boulevard neighborhoods.

   On June 26^th District 13 State Representative Tristan Rader, Ward 11 Cleveland City Council Representative Nikki Hudson and Cleveland City Council Ward 12 Representative Tanmay Shah gathered with staff and community residents at Lake Avenue and West Boulevard to announce the awarding of the funds and their commitment to hold meetings to involve the community in the process of planning the new shared use path.

   State Representative Tristan Rader said when the State of Ohio 2027-2028 Capital Budget process began, he decided to send out forms to every city council representative in his district asking for proposals. When he received a joint proposal for a share use path from Cleveland City Council Representatives Nikki Hudson and Tanmay Shah, Rader said it became number one on his list. He said the proposal soon received enthusiastic support from State Senator Nickie Antonio and other State House members from Greater Cleveland.

   Both Ward 11 City Council Representative Hudson and Ward 12 City Council Representative Shah pledged to contribute additional funds from the 2027-2028 City Council discretionary funds. Hudson said she saw the State of Ohio capital fund application as an opportunity to reintroduce a proposal made years earlier by West Boulevard resident Jeon Francis for a shared use path that would connect Cudell Park and the West Boulevard Cudell rapid station to Edgewater Park.

   Shah said he believes that by working together the two City Council wards came up with a stronger proposal. “People are excited that Ward 11 and Ward 12 are working together,” he said.

   The first phase of the project is expected to go along West Boulevard from Lake Avenue to Detroit Avenue and then over the West Boulevard Cudell Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Rapid Station. The distance is about a half mile.

   Jeon Francis, now serving as executive assistant for community affairs in Council Representative Nikki Hudson’s office, says he believes residents along West Boulevard are receptive to the idea of a shared use path in front of their houses.

   Jeon Francis shared some history of the proposed path. In 2021, Francis recalled, a Cleveland Metroparks proposal to build a multi-purpose trail along Lake Avenue to connect Edgewater Park to Lakewood received some push back from Lake Avenue residents. Francis said he and fellow West Boulevard residents met with Cleveland Metroparks Chief Planning and Design Officer Sean McDermott to propose that the Metorparks instead support a path along West Boulevard south into the Cudell/West Boulevard neighborhood. Francis says McDermott went on a tour of the neighborhood with some residents and was receptive to the idea of the Metroparks partnering with the neighborhood to create a path going south along West Boulevard. The idea was put on hold until after the 2021 Mayoral election and other pressing issues put it on the backburner until now, said Francis.

   Ward 11 Executive Assistant Paula Furst says the shared use path will fit nicely with plans already underway by the City of Cleveland to redesign Cudell Park, make traffic improvements on Detroit Avenue, and install traffic calming measures along Detroit Avenue. She noted that RTA is also excited about the proposed shared use path. RTA is currently engaged in building Depot on Detroit, a fifty-unit transit-oriented design housing project just west of the West Boulevard/Cudell Rapid Station at 10300 Detroit Avenue.

   Furst envisions the City of Cleveland, the Metroparks, Bike Cleveland and community residents all involved in the planning process and in securing additional funding for the project.

   The long-term vision presented by the two Cleveland City Council offices calls for use of the shared use path by “cyclists, joggers, walkers, families with strollers, skateboarders, and others living in and visiting the West Boulevard, Cudell/ Clifton Baltic/ Edgewater neighborhoods on Cleveland’s west side.”

   Plans call for extending the shared use path in the future. After completing the path to the rapid station, a second phase calls for connecting the shared use path to Cudell Commons Park, the Cudell Recreation Center, and Cudell Fine Arts Center to the south on the other side of Detroit Avenue. Phase II also hopes to provide a connection to the new Depot on Detroit housing to the west of the rapid station.

   A third phase calls connecting the shared use path from the Cudell Recreation Center to the intersection of Madison and West Boulevard.