Shaker Lakes Blog

I actually thought after my previous entry that I'd be taking a break from writing these posts for at least a little while, but the Sewer District pulled me right back in when I learned of their outrageous most recent project update. Easily one of the most controversial aspects of the Horseshoe Lake project is the fact, which became public knowledge late last year despite having been in the works for several years, that the plans call for removing over one thousand trees. Most people are shocked when they learn this. I've gotten pushback, though, from people who say that most of the thousand trees are invasive or unhealthy. They thought this because the Sewer District led them to believe it. I'd looked into it and come across a statement I previously hadn't known about in which the Sewer District said "most or about half" of the trees are invasive. Still a very large number of native trees! Imagine my surprise when I learned that, on February 20 of this year, ...

 "The lovely landscape and lakes mattered not just to nearby residents but also to those in surrounding neighborhoods. As a Realtor I was awed by the geographic spread of those who valued and used the area. It made the area a 'destination.' Don't lose those irreplaceable assets." -Mary, someone who signed and commented on the  petition to save the Shaker Lakes. Of the many reasons I think the Shaker Lakes are worth preserving, the one that stands out above the rest, and that in some ways encapsulates all the other arguments, is this: the lakes undeniably make the area around them a nicer and more desirable place to live. Losing them would make the area a less nice and less desirable place to live. We should be very reluctant to do something that would make our community a less desirable place to live, and should thoroughly explore all reasonable alternatives before doing it. It was recently suggested to me that I look for data to support this argument, so I did, a...

In the 1960s, residents of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights famously stood up to fight against and ultimately stop a plan that would have destroyed the Shaker Lakes and surrounding parklands. Today, the leadership and some other prominent voices in the same communities are content to go along with, or in some cases enthusiastic proponents of, plans to remove one or even both of our historic lakes. How did this happen? It's an interesting question, and I think it has an interesting answer. If you look at official descriptions of the lake removal plan and at things that members of the public who support the plan have said, a prominent theme consistently emerges. From the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) page describing the project , in an update on July 26, 2022: "In other words, this will help the team restore Doan Brook to its original, natural state  [emphasis mine]." In an update on August 25, 2022: "As the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District ...

Alternate title: Save Doan Brook from the "Doan Brook Restoration" 3/2/26 edit: After reading this post, be sure to see the followup from after I talked to some people from the Sewer District, which answered some of my questions but raised others: shakerlakes.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-response-from-sewer-district-i-dont.html In December 2022, I attended a public open house at the Shaker Heights library about the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's plan for a new park at the site of Horseshoe Lake. I was very disappointed about the news that the beautiful, historic lake would be going away, but I was also relieved by the since broken promise that the Sewer District would preserve Lower Shaker Lake, the other historic lake in the Shaker Parklands. I had also heard a lot about how "brook restoration" was "more natural," and I didn't know at the time that this was misleading, so I thought maybe it made sense to return one of the two Shaker Lakes to a...