Cleveland Real Estate News

Mayor Jackson likes to hold what he calls dialogues around the City. Last night it was time for the West Park Dialogue.  It was held at Our Lady of Angels school gym. Hundreds of chairs were set up in advance. I arrived about twenty minutes to six (the dialogue was supposed to run from six until eight pm).

 

I had a chance to talk with Commander Tom McCartney (District One) of the CPD before the meeting started (we walked in together). Last May there was a redistricting for District One and Two, with portions of One going to District Two. He said he is now able to put more police on the street since the system is more efficient.

 

Where were all the residents? By 6pm there were maybe six people in the room who were not City staff of some sort. By ten minutes after six, there were less than 20 people.  A few people straggled in as the meeting went on but the attendance was abysmal. I spoke to a resident who is involved with the Police Auxiliary.  When I asked if she thought the meeting was too early, she said yes because in West Park people are still getting home at six. But she is a resident of the area and said apathy is the word to describe most of the residents who have gotten a lot less involved since the 1970s. 

 

The Mayor was on time, even early. While everyone waited for more people to show up, he walked around the room and talked to everyone. Since I’m always trying to find a silver lining, (much to the dismay of many friends who roll their eyes at me), I think it might have given the people who were there a chance to talk to Mayor Jackson ‘one on one’ in a way that would not have happened should the room have been packed.

 

 

Mayor Jackson made some opening remarks which were very brief because he apparently really was there to have as much time for Q & A as possible. He highlighted what he felt were the four major points he had already either concluded on his own or gotten from residents around the City:

 

1. Public Safety

2. Job Creation/Economic Development

3. Neighborhood Clean Up

4. Education

 

On education, he said there were two themes he heard from students. Why worry about going to college when there are no jobs? And how can I go to college even if there were jobs, since it’s so expensive?  Mayor Jackson talked about his administration’s goal of scholarships to students, all students, so they can go to college. (He was talking numbers here and I admit to being confused as to how this program works, if anyone can explain it to me great and please do!)

 

What were the issues the audience wanted him to address?

 

1. Airport Noise. Rather than get into the specifics of the question, it was interesting that Mayor Jackson felt the questioner had not been given appropriate help. It was a theme that ran throughout the evening. Basically it goes like this: if you call City Hall for assistance, it’s not enough to have someone agree with you that your issue is a concern and give a telephone version of a pat on the back. Mayor Jackson said you might not get the results you want once an issue is investigated, but you should get the full voice you deserve. I’m paraphrasing. 

 

When questioned about the growth of Hopkins, Mayor Jackson said the City will definitely continue with plans to grow the 400 acres around Hopkins. My take on this is that it’s a good idea, it’s existing City property that can be developed and bring jobs to NE Ohio. (yeah I know, no one asked me!)

 

2. Gridlock intersections.  Specifically Rocky River Drive and Lorain Avenue. One resident spoke about how hard it is to get out of his street at rush hour (if he had ever lived in the DC area he would know serious gridlock! But I digress…). 

 

You could have knocked me over with a feather, but guess what, Mayor Jackson’s response was that he felt public transportation was the key to gridlock issues! He did hook the resident up with the appropriate staff person in attendance so maybe a traffic count study could be revisited. But he went into a long tangent on public transportation and commuter rail and light rail saying that maybe the high gas prices are going to push people into action who can help make this happen in our area as well as the entire State. By the time the evening was over, Mayor Jackson had referred to public transportation and passenger rail as being a necessity for our area no less than four times.

 

3. I asked if IBC Solar Panel had decided on a location for their new headquarters here. He said not yet, they have a small office downtown while the logistics are being discussed and worked out.

 

4. Regional Government. His opinion? Revenue sharing (taxes) but not regional government. He feels the less contact each resident can have with their elected officials the less their voices can be heard and the same officials risk becoming out of touch with what they really need to be doing. He used the example of the transition from being a council person to mayor. He used to answer constituent calls, make calls in return, etc. Now he can’t do that (for obvious reasons).  He also said he gets tired of questions that lead off with why can’t we be like (insert city)?  He said he doesn’t want Cleveland to be like any other place. He said the goal should be to  see what other places have done and then do what would work for Cleveland, not Chicago or anywhere else.

 

5. A question by one resident pointed out the need for better organization in the schools. The transfer office is being moved from one building to another and so now, just a few days before school starts, it’s not possible to talk to anyone in that department.

 

I could relate to this line of thought and admit I am guilty of the same why not be like… mentality at times. Since I’m in real estate, people are always trying to relate what has happened to housing in San Diego or Philadelphia or Phoenix to what is happening here. And analyses about what needs to happen and why things happen have to be done locally. So i related to his point of view.

 

 

I enjoyed mostly the chance to talk with neighbors. It was also cool to meet people like Chris Warren, Chief of Regional Development, who I think has some fabulous ideas for us…it was nice to put a real person to the Internet words Chris writes. I still think the numbers were way down. I don’t know the exact population  in my area but I know it’s more than 20,000. It would seem that 20 some people at a meeting like this is a bit under representative of our community yes? So what is the disconnect that occurs, that would keep people from wanting to participate in events like this? One resident said apathy but I think it’s more than that. What do you think?  Peace Out – 3C