The west side of Cleveland neighborhood my family calls home, Edgewater Parke, for years has endured a negative reputation. One source of the problem is that our neighborhood is effectively cut off from the lakefront and Edgewater Park by the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, the Shoreway, and the historic, but dilapidated, Lake Avenue Bridge. Putting us firmly "on the wrong side of the tracks."

A few years ago, one of my neighbors, Julia Van Wagenen, started an ioby project to beautify the Lake Avenue Bridge. Along with public art, the project involved planting daffodil bulbs and other plants near the bridge on Viking Court and along Desmond. I noticed that the daffodils, in particular, stood out in the early spring and thought what if we could do something on Desmond similar to Daffodil Hill at Lakeview Cemetary - fill the Desmond hillside with tens of thousands of daffodils! I believe that if we plant 50,000 daffodil bulbs on the Desmond hillside it will have a stunning effect on the neighborhood's landscape for a few weeks each spring. 

It will take a small army of volunteers to plant that many daffodil bulbs in one day - my goal is 50 people. I am hopeful that our day of planting, in addition to the shared sense of accomplishment and pride when the flowers bloom in the spring, will foster positive change in the neighborhood.