Dare to dream, dare to have initiative.

Yesterday Crain's Chicago Business announced that Baum Realty Group Inc. would turn the old Cooper lamp factory (which closed down in 2005) into a 25,000 s.f. business park for "environmentally conscious businesses". Baum Realty reports that "Several businesses have signed non-binding "letters of interest" to lease space in the building, including Consolidated Printing, Co.,...and Greeenmaker Supply".

Coming days after Ohio's first renewable energy summit and a week before Wooster's Sustainable Energy Puts America to Work lecture one can see how "sustainable design" is becoming more then just mainstream, it is becoming the standard. One can wonder if Cleveland will find a way to capitalize on this movement. I know that there is plenty of empty retail and office space downtown and with the Euclid Corridor and the push to create a "design district" on Euclid I couldn't think of a better time or place to consolidate an effort to incorporate a concentrated effort to make Cleveland a lead runner in "green design".

While I don't think that one would have to put every entity in the city that deals with green design in one spot, I think it would be nice to create a more consolidated area. Architects and interior designers could walk clients next door to look at material and color samples. Designers that incorporate sustainable technologies would be kept constantly updated while companies and manufacturers would immediately know where trends are heading.

I imagine a wide variety of stores from furniture to print shops, from organic foods to restaurants, book stores and artists. All working together for a common goal. I think this is highly possible. Those involved with green design are typically so passionate about it and constantly yearning to accumulate and disseminate knowledge that allowing a free flow of multidisciplinary ideas would only accelerate commercial growth and the creative process as a whole.

I imagine the district spreading and growing, tendrils reaching into surrounding communities as more people realize the driving principles (which are both market and earthy-crunchy) and more companies start up. I imagine the local community jumping on board, realizing the tax incentives of bringing not only new business but cutting edge new business to its area.

I imagine being able to walk from tower city to the inner ring suburbs, window shopping the entire way, living a sustainable lifestyle in a city renowned for being chance taking and forward looking and setting the standard for every other city in the country.

Will Cleveland use Chicago as a model to improve upon? Will we be bold and daring, realizing that something must be done, something drastic and dangerous? Or will we sit and watch the world pass us by, happy that we were once a growing metropolis reaching for the sky, rivaling any other American city and thinking that our time in the Sun is over?

Will the passionate please take this opportunity to speak out and be heard?