Let me begin, though, by asking physically where are you located and explain what happened 50 years ago this month. David hi, thanks for having me. We are sitting near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, which is to say we are sitting where the cuyahoga reaches lake erie. So you can see over my shoulder, one of the Railroad Trestles that crosses the Cuyahoga River. There is a lot of bridges in cleveland. Downtown cleveland is to my left. To my right is ohio city neighborhood in the city of cleveland. We are sitting down in the area called the flats, which are the lands right along the Cuyahoga River. They run up several miles. This is the former Industrial Area of the city of cleveland, and 50 years ago on june 22, 1969, there was a fire on the Cuyahoga River at the end of navigation, couple of miles south of here, end of navigation meaning boats could not go farther upstream. This is where a couple of low Railroad Trestles blocked some debris that was coming downstream, which is not unus
The Cuyahoga River as it reaches lake erie after a 100 mile twisting and turning journey from its headwaters is an exhaustive stream, abused and misused by man and his machines. Without the cuyahoga, cleveland and akron would not exist. The river was the reason for originally settling this portion of the western reserve in the 1780s. The river called crooked by the delaware indians provided a waterway to the interior of ohio. And so man came and continued coming. Until today, nearly two Million People live and work in the river basin. In creating this urban complex, man has used the river as men have always used rivers. The flow has been put to work as a navigable stream, a water supply, and as a sewer. Mans mark is everywhere. Is this mark an epitaph or the cuyahoga . Host joining us from the cleveland area is David Stradling. He is a professor of history at the university of cincinnati and the coauthor of where the river burned carl stokes and the struggle to save cleveland let me be
live from clevelands news center, cleveland 19 news starts now. p denise meteorologist jeff tanchek is tracking snow for the weekend. the first alert details on how much you can expect coming up in just minutes. p romona first, we uncovered huge personal money issues for the chief Financial Officer at the Cuyahoga County prosecutors office. Marvin Davies the third was in deep debt before he was hired. and we were curious, why didnt his boss know about it . p denise thats because no one checked the mans personal finances. Now our scott taylor is back and continuing his investigation that is spreading all over the county. p reporter i was shocked when nobody ran a background check after a guy who was in charge of a multimilliondollar budget, and then i found out it is common practice across the county. On wednesday i exposed that Marvin Davies, the third had multiple lawsuits filed against him before he was hired totaling more than 170,000. A 19 thousand judgment was actually handed down