CITY OVERVIEW
Focused On The Future Photo: Iler Aerial Imaging
By Ken McEntee
A highway traveler driving into Strongsville may first experience the city’s vibrant shopping, dining and service areas. But community residents, while appreciating the abundance of convenient amenities, may also tend to cherish the more leisurely, family focused aspects of the town, represented largely by numerous parks and recreation areas. “There isn’t a better balance of business and recreational amenities than you’ll find here in Strongsville,” insisted Mayor Thomas Perciak, noting the myriad youth sports, arts, scouting and other activities available to kids and adults. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the size of Strongsville’s green space alone is larger than the entirety of many full cities in western Cuyahoga County. Most notable among the park spaces is the Cleveland Metroparks Mill Stream Run reservation, which nearly bisects the town from the northwest to the southeast. Perciak calls it the “jewel of the city.” 8 Strongsville Image Book & Community Guide | 2023
This year, construction is expected to begin on another recreational area that will transform the town center area that spans from the Walter F. Ehrnfelt Recreation & Senior Center to the iconic Strongsville Commons, which serves as the venue for Strongsville’s most popular community gathering events, like the holiday Winter Wonderland and Christmas lighting ceremony, the Strongsville Chamber of Commerce’s summer Homecoming Festival, the Strongsville City Club’s annual Rib Burnoff and Arts in Strongsville’s Art & Chalk Walk event for budding artists of the future. The Town Center Enhancement and Walkability Initiative will create a walkable community gathering place that will include a public pavilion, a splash pad, a new all inclusive playground, courts for tennis, pickleball and other sports and a food truck area. The new recreational areas, to be located just west of the senior center and adjacent to the Strongsville Backyard Preserve nature trails, will connect to the Commons via a stroll along the town’s Freedom Trail and
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