Cleveland Real Estate News

Every person has their own view of what makes a place a neighborhood, what makes them feel connected, belonging to a community. I have my own sense of what makes me feel like I belong. Like I have a sense of place.

 

I grew up in Cleveland, went to college and lived in Massachusetts, moved to St. Louis for two years, then to Maryland for 19 years. When I moved back, I lived in Cleveland Heights for a year, then Lakewood and now have been living in Cleveland for five years. I’ve lived in 11 different homes/apartments along the way. I feel like I belong to a community when I get to know my neighbors and when I get to know the shopkeepers, and all the available businesses in the ‘hood.  I love shopping at Vinnie’s, getting food from Portage K & K market, getting home repair supplies at Torch Hardware.  You get the idea. It got to the point that I knew, after 30 days, I’d know the neighborhood street shortcuts, the services available, where i could go to get what I needed, and the names of a few neighbors and shopkeepers. Then I’d be okay.

 

One thing that can make me feel a bit down about my neighborhood is vacant storefronts.  Or a lack of necessary services. I’m sure I am not the only one who feels this way! I can’t walk to a coffee shop, for example.  Or a dry cleaners. Or a restaurant with an outdoor patio. Ever watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food TV? One of the shows featured a car wash, laundromat with a classically trained chef so you can wash your car, clothes and eat a fabulous meal all in one swoop. (And btw, stay tuned, next season DD and Dives is featuring Cleveland eateries a lot!) I guess the key word is vibrancy.  We all feel it, and what can change it?

 

One of the biggest expenses for businesses is overhead.  I know in my own office (and it’s a small square footage), we spend around 50k a year on utilities. Businesses can fail because they can’t keep up with this expense. I remember reading stories in the PD, when gasoline and energy costs went up so high, restaurants were in dire shape because they couldn’t transfer the increased energy costs to the customers in food sale prices. What to do?

 

How about solar energy? I’ve already spoken to a few businesses who are not only willing but very interested in exploring the idea.  One thing giving this a sense of urgency to me is the Federal Tax Incentive for renewable energy available to businesses who make things like solar energy a part of their utility plan. Federal Solar Energy Tax Incentives. You can also read about it on this Green Energy Ohio website (which is a great place to get all sorts of energy information).

 

We all want the best education system we can get, streets with no vacant homes or buildings.  We are all aware of the Federal Recovery program, the funds available in Ohio, the Cash For Clunkers program.  These are all great, but I say to you, these are band aid solutions, not long term solutions. What will get us long term solutions?  JOBS.  And I would say the best way to start that is to tie into the area of renewable energy.

 

Can you imagine a neighborhood (yours?) with storefronts able to put money into more services for you and better ‘curb appeal’ for all of us, because they are saving money on utilities?  Can you imagine a neighborhood that finds people opening store fronts and businesses, because their business plans don’t have to include as much money per month for utility overhead?  I wonder how many people came this close to opening a business in the last five years but did not because of overhead costs?

 

So storefronts and small businesses stay in our neighborhoods, happily, and new ones open.  That creates jobs.  I can take this a step further.  If we have a goal of every store front in our neighborhoods having solar panels (or some other form of renewable energy), that means we could also wind up with more renewal energy companies in our area.  That also means jobs.  It means people have jobs, can pay their taxes, then we get more money for schools and other vital areas.

 

I’m starting the discussion in my neighborhood.  Any thoughts on yours?  Peace Out – 3C