Tinsley Park Is Reopening as the Crossroads of Cleveland's Greenway

On one of his morning runs along Mouse Creek, Cameron Fisher had to work his way around the construction at Tinsley Park. Fisher chairs the Cleveland/Bradley County Greenway Board. In a column for the Cleveland Daily Banner, he wrote that the new pickleball complex had permanently changed one of the old entrances from the Tinsley parking lot. He also wrote that the dog park renovation had pushed out onto the greenway, and that some repairs would be needed before the project was done.

The wait is close to over. City Manager Joe Fivas announced at the Sept. 28 council work session that Tinsley Park's grand reopening is set for Saturday, Nov. 7. The ribbon cutting is at 10:30 a.m., with family activities planned through 2 p.m., according to a Mix 104.1 WCLE recap. The council's own Sept. 28 agenda listed the date with the time still to be decided.

The new courts matter, and so does where Tinsley sits. Cleveland's greenway turns 25 this month. It spent its first two decades as one line along Mouse Creek, and the projects now underway are turning it into a network. Tinsley Park is the knot at the center of that network.

What Opens on November 7

Fivas laid out the numbers at an August council work session, as reported by the Cleveland Daily Banner. The core project is a 20-court pickleball complex, and eight of those courts are covered. With it, the total number of courts at Tinsley goes from six to 26.

The rest of the list:

• A pavilion with an enclosed 700-square-foot building for a pro shop and storage
• Covered spectator seating on each side of the pavilion, built for watching tournaments
• More parking spaces
• New pavilions and sidewalks
• A small dog park that has doubled in size

All of this sits beside the seven-court Tony Cavett Tennis Center, which is named for a longtime area tennis coach.

In August, Fivas hinted at more than a ribbon cutting:

"We are anticipating having some really cool events. We might start off having a 5K, a pickleball or softball tournament."

The September recap mentions only the 10:30 ribbon cutting and family activities, so the 5K and tournament remain ideas Fivas floated in August. The city's Parks & Recreation catalog still lists Tinsley as temporarily closed for renovations and calls the pickleball complex "coming soon." Anyone hoping to get on the new courts before November should check that page first.

Why Tinsley, of All the Parks on the Trail

The greenway's own distance chart shows where Tinsley falls on the main line. It is 1.0 mile south of the Mohawk Drive end. From there it is 1.2 miles to Raider Drive, 0.80 mile to 25th Street, and 0.76 mile to Willow Street. According to the amenities page, the trail's 17 outdoor fitness stations sit between Tinsley and Raider Field, and the Mouse Creek trail is lit around the clock.

Tinsley is also where two creeks meet. Fisher's Banner column on the Fillauer Branch traces that stream from a spring in East Cleveland, through the Lee University campus and the Spring Creek development, past several established neighborhoods, and into Mouse Creek at Tinsley Park. Greenways follow creeks, so wherever two creeks meet, two trails can meet too.

That connection already exists in one form. The Casteel Connector starts at North Ocoee Street near Ocoee Crossing, passes under Keith Street to Tinsley Park, and joins the main greenway at the Mouse Creek pedestrian underpass, according to the greenway's network page. Fisher describes the Casteel Connector as about a mile long, with a separate half-mile section at Schimmels Park near Lee at the far end of the Fillauer route. The Fillauer projects are meant to connect those two ends.

A revised greenway map presented to the board in July even mentioned a possible "Fillauer Branch Trail" arch at Tinsley, according to a Citizen Portal meeting summary. For now it is an idea, but it points to Tinsley as the gateway to the new branch.

Twenty-Five Years on One Creek

The greenway officially opened in October 2001 with a quarter mile between 20th and 25th Streets, according to the Greenway's chronology. The Greenway Board put "Greenway Anniversary" on its May 28, 2026 agenda as a discussion item, and Fisher wrote that he would cover the milestone in a future column.

Fisher sums up the history this way. For the first 20 years, all the focus was on Mouse Creek and the five miles between Willow Street and Mohawk Drive. Then came the first mile along Candies Creek, between Candies Lane and I-75. Now the board is turning to a third waterway. The greenway's own pages disagree on the length of the Mouse Creek trail: 3.94 miles on the distance chart, 4.2 on the amenities page, and "over five miles" on the homepage. Roughly four to five miles, depending on where you count from, is the fair way to put it.

Here is where each of the branches stands, based on the most recent dated sources:

Fisher says Phase One is under a quarter mile long. It enters off the southeast corner of Blythe Ferry and North Ocoee, curves into the woods, comes out behind two sets of apartments, and ends at Westview, giving new views of the Fillauer Branch near the Bowman Hills neighborhoods. Phase Two picks up where the trail comes out from under 25th Street and runs to where Elm Drive dead-ends near Spring Creek. In his other column, he says that extension is meant to give easy access to the hundreds of homes in the Sullivan Addition neighborhoods.

The Loop That Runs Through Tinsley

Fisher has written out the route he hopes to see once everything connects. Following it in order shows how many pieces pass through one park:

1. Start at the Inman and Keith Street trailhead.
2. Pass under the Rotary arch and head north toward Willow Street.
3. Continue through Greenway Park and Tinsley Park.
4. Take the Casteel Connector to the Fillauer Branch Trail.
5. Follow the Fillauer Branch to Lee University.
6. Return on the downtown greenway connector streets to the Inman trailhead.

The loop still needs the unbuilt Fillauer stretch between the new phases and Phase VI, the Willow-to-Inman link the board has been calling Phase VI for more than a decade. In his construction column, Fisher said he expects the 0.2-mile section heading south from Willow to close while that work happens. He also said he would welcome the detour to get an unbroken trail from Inman Street to just past Mohawk Drive. The Visit Cleveland greenway guide lists Phase VI as a proposed 0.44-mile link.

Where Candies Creek Fits

The Candies Creek trail is already its own destination, separate from Tinsley. Jim Sharp Park opened this spring at 2300 Candies Lane NW, with a public open house on May 15. It has open green space, walking paths, an ADA-accessible playground, and what the city called, "in true Jim Sharp style, a pond that will be stocked for fishing," according to Chattanoogan.com. Parking at the park is limited, and the city sent visitors to the lot and greenway trailhead across the street. That makes the Candies Creek trailhead the practical way into the park.

Fisher reported that concrete had been poured under the Candies Lane bridge to a temporary end point, which will hold until the Candies Creek trail continues north past the park.

Getting On the Trail While Tinsley Is Still Closed

Until Nov. 7, these Mouse Creek access points from the greenway's access points page avoid the work at Tinsley:

• Mohawk Drive Trailhead at the north end, with 18 parking spaces
• Harris Circle Trailhead, with a sidewalk, restroom and 18 spaces
• Greenway Park, with multiple access points
• Church of God International Offices, where two lots are open to greenway users, though it is not a designated trailhead
• Kingsway Press, with a lot next to the building on Keith Street
• Stuart Avenue, with several designated spaces
• Creekside Shopping Plaza and Northway Plaza, with access from the rear sidewalk and the parking area

Two big downtown weekends land before the reopening. The Cleveland Apple Festival runs Oct. 17 and 18 downtown. MainStreet Cleveland's 39th Downtown Halloween Block Party starts at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, and Treat Street opens at 6 p.m. on Church Street in front of the Police Services Center, as the Cleveland Daily Banner reported. One week later, the focus moves north to Tinsley.

Being close to the trail is part of what people pay for in Cleveland, and that map is changing this year as Tinsley reopens and the Fillauer Branch and Candies Creek segments are built. If you're weighing a move near one of these segments, or wondering how a new trail connection affects your home's value, Dustin Mullins and the team can walk you through the Cleveland market street by street. Schedule a free consultation.