Cleveland resident Ricardo Peña started paying attention to air quality when it became personal. 

About 10 years ago, he learned from a teacher that his daughter was having trouble breathing in pre-school. 

“We took her to a doctor, and they rushed her to the main campus in the ambulance at Metro Hospital,” he recalled recently. “…She actually had to spend the weekend there. It was so bad.” 

It’s a call – and lesson – Peña said he’ll never forget: Poor air quality is a health risk. 

“You don’t realize that even on a beautiful day, the air quality can not be the best, especially for children or people with health issues,” he said. “So I learned that lesson the hard way.”

That day – combined with years of odors he suspected came from a manufacturing plant in the Cudell neighborhood – is the reason he joined a team of Cleveland residents helping track air quality. A $500,000 EPA grant helped Cleveland launch the program, called CLEANinCLE. 

The project is part of a larger city effort to improve Cleveland’s air quality and bring down asthma rates. Asthma is a big issue in Cleveland, especially for kids. Some neighborhoods see a far higher portion of kids with asthma than the national average. 

Through CLEANinCLE, the city is adding 30 air quality sensors in neighborhoods. It created a website to allow residents to monitor air quality data in real-time. The city hired clean air advisors, such as Peña, to decide where to put the sensors. Over the past year and a half, Peña and four other community advisors have attended local meetings to gather complaints about neighborhood air quality.  

Peña is a born-and-raised Clevelander who lives in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood on the West Side. He spoke with Signal Cleveland about his impressions of the CLEANinCLE project and what it means to city residents. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

What got you interested in air quality issues?

In the past, I’ve called the city with air complaints and didn’t get very far, to be honest. So, you sometimes have to know the right department, the right person, the right phone number to get some results. 

My own personal story: My daughter was hospitalized for basically child asthma.

Fast-forward about 10 years, and … I was listening on the radio, and I heard that they were looking for air advisors for the City of Cleveland. And I applied.

One of the big roles of clean air advisors is basically meeting community members – either hearing from them or sharing information with them. Do you feel like you have focused on any certain communities?

My main focus has been the West Side because … I believe I’m the only one of the clean air advisors that lives on the West Side. 

What is the difference between what you did last year and what you’re doing this year?

Last year was, ‘Hey, can we get your feedback on where there’s air quality issues in your neighborhood?’ This year, I’m trying to advocate and let them know about … the CLEANinCLE website to let them know how they can actually monitor the air quality every day.

The example I use is that I help to coach my son’s soccer team. … That summer that we had those wildfires from Canada, everyone was telling me how dangerous it was to hold practice. I said, ‘What are you talking about? It’s fine.’ But there is a concern and everything, especially if a kid has a health issue. 

People are like, ‘Well, what can I do?’ One of the things you can do as a citizen is, one, report the air quality concerns. Know the phone number (216-664-7442). Two, monitor the air for you and your family if you’re doing outside activities. And three, there’s programs where you can receive a discounted electric lawnmower and everything. So just control what you can for yourself and your family to make it better. You can’t control those fires in Canada, but you can control some of these things locally.

The first year, when you were gathering feedback from community members, what did you hear?

I tried to go to the ward meetings and City Council meetings, and a lot of times … air quality is not brought up by anybody. Because there’s all these other issues. There’s crime issues, employment issues, quality-of-life issues. But when you are able to get up and talk to them for two minutes, you, one, bring up why there’s still a concern even today. And that the air quality is not the best in the city of Cleveland.

Were there any areas that you as an individual were hoping to see covered by the monitors?

Playgrounds and schools were at the top of the list. 

I know the Steelyard was one. … And I was advocating hard for that because I noticed some issues at Steelyard recently. And then several of the advisors were advocating hard in the Slavic Village area. 

One and a half years in, how are you feeling about the sort of impact that you all have made? 

I think it’s been a great, positive impact because we’re out in the community. Two years ago, we weren’t out in the community, so no one was getting the information. 

Doing my research on what other communities are doing … they’re organizing and communicating. And that’s always the key first step for any community. 

The city will hold two meetings sharing updates and information about its CLEANinCLE air monitoring project in July. Information attached below.