Saving the Shaker Lakes: How an Alliance between Two Wealthy Suburbs and Cleveland’s Black Mayor Stopped the Clark Freeway

Abstract

In the 1960s, the suburbs of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights protested the routing of an Interstate highway through their historic park. Known as the Clark Freeway, I-290 was meant to connect downtown Cleveland with the newer suburbs located beyond the city’s outer beltway. Fearing irreparable damage to their communities, a group of garden club women and a committee of citizen activists brought pressure on county, state, and federal officials to delay route selection. However, only after Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes joined the fight, did Governor James Rhodes summon the political will to cancel the highway.