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Lake Erie is one of Ohio's greatest assets. Let's live on it, dine on it, boat on it, swim in it, shop near it and house our out of town guests with a great view of it, writes Beth H. Hallisy.

(file photo)

I’m a Clevelander. Lived here my whole life. I just uttered those words for probably the 650th time to a fellow passenger on a plane I just boarded from Cleveland Hopkins.

But the truth is I never lived in Cleveland. I’ve lived in Wickliffe, Willowick, Euclid, Shaker Heights, Akron, Bainbridge Township and now Aurora.

I hear other suburbanites make the same claim to CLE. Generally with the same oozing pride. Cleveland is just a cool place to be from. And it's an easy place to live. It's Goldilocksian; i.e., the "just right" size, temperature and hardness. (If I lost you there, think the story of the three bears.)

&lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7652052/"&gt;Is a suburban tax to fund lakefront development worth studying?&lt;/a&gt;

Like many fellow faux Clevelanders, I'm a die-hard Indians fan. (We should have had a parade for Terry Francona!) I've been a Browns fan since the Brian Sipe days. And a Cavs fan before, during and after King James' reign. I go to the theater and clubs downtown. I'm a card-carrying member of the world-renowned Cleveland Museum of Art. I shop on weekends at the century-old West Side Market. I go to world-class Cleveland Orchestra performances and brag on our celebrity chefs, fabulous local restaurants and divey joints and our amazing parks and trail system. All the time.

I’m frankly way more interested in Cleveland’s elections than Aurora’s. I can’t even tell you — though I did vote — how Aurora’s recent elections came out. I’m not proud of that, but it helps make my point. I celebrated the good outcomes in Cleveland’s election. Cleveland Metroparks and the Port Authority got the funding they asked for thanks to the residents of Cuyahoga County’s 1,047 precincts who got to vote on the issue — wallets open.

Sitting here on the plane, I’m reading in The Plain Dealer that Cleveland may absorb troubling East Cleveland. And Cleveland is continuing to pick up part of the tab for the stadium. And the schools are in such need, a travesty when you compare them to our suburban schools.

And I think, as I often do, why is it that some of the burden doesn’t fall on me, as a clear benefactor of all of Cleveland’s riches. Yes, I pay for shows, meals and parking, and I donate to Cleveland charities. But I’ve never given a dollar (if you don’t count traffic violations) to the actual city of Cleveland.

I figure the powers that be, the super-brainiacs of politics and government, must have this all figured out. So I end up landing somewhere between "Oh, lucky me," and "I suppose I pay my fair share by having a company in Cuyahoga County and payroll taxes…"

But now we are engaged in a great civil …. I’ll call it opportunity.

I borrow these words — at the risk of sounding trite or naïve — to punctuate what I believe to be a critical moment for Cleveland. I believe with all my heart — as the fanatical (albeit vicarious) Clevelander that I am — this is a pivotal moment. It is the moment we take back our lakefront. Or we don’t.

This is the moment we decide, finally, whether we will do what it takes to restore the lake’s beauty and provide access to all of her people. To build walkways and bike trails, bridges and parks. Affordable homes, restaurants, hotels and stores (kudos, Heinen’s). Or not.

Lake Erie is arguably Ohio’s greatest asset. Let’s live on it, dine on it, boat on it, swim in it, shop near it and house our out-of-town guests with a great view of it.

The momentum is at last in our favor. Significant groundwork has been completed. Plans are drawn. All the stars (powers that be) are aligned. We can — we must — win this one.

Wouldn’t it be awesome, when all is said and done, when the vision is at last a reality — and we’re talking years, people, not decades — to boast to the world (yes, this would be global news!) that we did something truly remarkable, truly collaborative, truly CLE? To say communities came together because that’s just how we do things here?

The moment the plane touched ground, I called my (outgoing) mayor. He told me a 0.5-mill tax levy would cost an Aurora homeowner less than $40 and generate $300,000 annually. Multiply that by, say, 30 for starters, and that could generate $9 million for our great lakefront each year.

Yes, I’m proposing a citizen-imposed Great Lakefront tax. Honestly, I’m not sure what $9 million buys. But I’m fairly certain it would warrant a sign: This one’s on us, Cleveland. Signed, your loving suburbs.

Beth H. Hallisy is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Alumni-Lakefront Development Committee.