Ghost Bike
The browned wildflower stems resting against the spokes are the first clue the lonely white bicycle chained to a light post doesn’t belong to a forgetful bus rider. It marks the tragic death of Sylvia Bingham, a 22-year-old Yale University graduate who was killed by a motorist at the busy intersection in 2009. Jim Sheehan, executive director of the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, replaces and paints the bike every few years. “It’s a sad job,” he says. East 21st Street and Prospect Avenue, Cleveland
Liberty Row
If you catch flashes of sea foam green at the bases of nearly 100 oak trees lining South Park Boulevard in Shaker Heights, you’re not daydreaming. Along the street, each patinaed bronze plaque, stamped in 1919, bears the name of a Clevelander who died in World War I. “We have areas with large oak trees,” says Patrick Neville, Shaker Heights’ superintendent of forestry. “But nothing like a stretch of these.” South Park Boulevard between North Woodland Road and Warrensville Center Road, Shaker Heights
Col. Charles Young Monument
The black marble column tends to blend into the trees. But Charles Young, who was born in Kentucky in 1864 and raised in Ohio, did anything but blend in. Young was the first black colonel in Army history. Every year, local members of Young’s Omega Psi Phi fraternity pay homage to the barrier breaker. “We talk about our vision to impact the world in the shadow of Charles Young,” says Ben Holbert, former Cleveland chapter president. Prospect Avenue and Prospect Street, Cleveland
