Here we are a year later and apparently the first meeting about the Opportunity Corridor has finally been held. Yes things move slowly in NE Ohio. To be fair, this has been a wild and crazy year economically so I would imagine that could have played a part in the delay as well.

The PD and Karen Farkas report on the Corridor idea here. And here is the ODOT page outlining the issue. Farkas’ take on it is that this Corridor idea offers so much possibility that an unusual step was taken to set up a steering committee of public and private members to over see the ideas. Here is a list of the committee members(pdf form).  Besides City Planning Department members and Mayor Jackson, Vickie Eaton from the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp and Ward 12 Councilman Tony Brancatelli are on the list. That gives me comfort, because I can’t see either of them, based on past actions, going along with a plan that makes no sense. However, I’ll have to call and ask them about a rail component and public transportation component.

In a way this idea really ties in (for me, anyway) with the ‘what do we do now that we’ve had the foreclosure/abandoned housing crisis to move forward’ issue raised at the Levin Forum the other day.

It’s still the core issue (again, in my mind, yours too?) that we have less population now than we did fifty years ago, so why not do as much redevelopment and planning with that idea in mind.  Saying that means The O Corridor could be a major step towards answering that question in Ward 12.

From the PD/Farkas article, is a great quote by two other Cleveland Council People:

Council members Phyllis Cleveland and Mamie Mitchell said the development has to extend beyond the corridor into their communities.

….In my community they say it is an ‘Opportunity for whom?’ ” said Cleveland. “My focus is that this will equally benefit the neighborhoods. I need to know the commitment to make that happen is there.”

What are your thoughts?  Peace out – 3C

Are you single and looking to buy a house or condo? As I mentioned in a post, there is a nice collection of Downtown condos for sale at very reasonable prices. But I’d like to focus on one. For $79k you can get a two level condo that faces the Lake at the edge of the Warehouse District. It’s considered an efficiency but in reality there is a separate bedroom on the second floor. It has all the exposed pipe and brick and mortar textures you’d want if you were buying a more expensive loft or Downtown condo. Yes it’s small but very cool. If it was in New York City it would probably sell for a half a million dollars, no joke.  But it’s only $79,000.  $79,000 in the Warehouse District! I wouldn’t be surprised if the monthly mortgage (even with taxes and maintenance fees) isn’t less than some people pay in rent every month.

The second place is a single family home on Bridge a short walk to Gordon Square or Gypsy Bean and five minutes from the West Side Market. I held it open yesterday. It was built in the late 90s, still has a few years tax abatement left on it. The home has over 1800 square feet of finished space, a really cool antique-like staining of the hardwood floors, french doors, a huge deck to a beautifully landscaped backyard. It is also very reasonably priced at $149,900.

I sold a home to a client who became a good friend.  She bought a lovely home but I couldn’t help thinking as I held the home open yesterday that this would have been a perfect home for her.  With 1800 + square feet you don’t have to be single to buy this home, but it’s priced well for a single income purchaser.

The best part about both of these homes is they are very accessible to either the RTA bus lines or the RTA transit stops.

There are other really nice homes in move in condition that are priced very well for first time home buyers. So if you want any more information about these homes or the ones I described, let me know!  Peace Out – 3C

In a continuing quest on my part to figure out what gets people involved in their communities in the 21st Century, I’m reading the Randy Cunningham book called Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland Ohio, 1975-1985. It shows how neighborhoods all over Cleveland came together, with and without outside help, to try to solve housing issues, school issues, arson issues, etc. I’ll do a full review of it (almost finished reading the book), but for now am impressed how neighbors came together on both sides of the River to tackle some of these issues, and did so successfully in many cases.

I’ve long felt that the less I participate the less invested I am. There are those who feel that renters don’t have as much invested in their community as home owners, which is why many towns have percentage requirements for rental property (i.e., no more than 25% of a community can be rental housing, etc).  I don’t share this view because some of the most committed, invested community people I know rent their homes. But I do believe there are things that keep us from feeling invested.

The Cunningham book talks about how CDC’s developed and that while they were once the trail blazers, now they are part of the establishment. There is an inference that among some of the CDCs public involvement isn’t sought out as much or even welcomed. I read a book a few years back called Is There A Public For Public Schools?.  It discussed the disconnect in parental involvement in our schools and how school administrations moving to corporate management systems of operation wound up discouraging or just putting up with parental involvement. Anyone ever taught in a school where people (teachers and admn) kvetched about not being able to wait until parent/teacher day is over? Sometimes this is the only real involvement parents have or are encouraged to have.  Not always, but sometimes.

Jennifer Gonzalez wrote in yesterday’s PD about a new bill before the Ohio leglislature that would mandate all parents do 13 hours or more of volunteer work at their children’s school or face a $100 fine for not doing it. I understand the sentiment, I guess my question is, can you mandate involvement or interest? Maybe so, maybe not.

What are other issues that get people involved? How do we (wait for the buzzwords) take back our neighborhoods? I’m not going to blame the powers that be or the residents – just looking at our current status. Some communities are still very well organized with block clubs and probably strive to be as inclusive and transparent as possible. Some communities have no block clubs and not much involvement by residents.  

There are also issues about master planning of neighborhoods which (after about what, 7,000 words!) got me thinking about this topic in the first place. We know in Cleveland proper we have many fewer residents than we did when the master plans, mandated or ‘laissez faire’ generated, went into existence.  Now our Planners recognize that business districts are not as sustainable if they are as long and wide as they used to be, they should probably be grouped. We have too few residents for all the aging housing stock around Cleveland, what do we do about that? And regardless of how we got to the point of not being as in charge or involved in what happens in our own communities, how do we change that?

Thoughtful article on CDC’s and non profit issues from NeighborWorks® in Lawrence Massachusetts. Part of it:

form needs to follow function – that all the power structures (committees, working groups, and so on) have to be seen as “provisional” – useful only in that they get residents to where they need to go. LCW believes that in community organizing and community building, practitioners suffer greatly from dysfunctional or old organizational structures that persist long after their usefulness and have no real connection to action or accountability. LCW believes, instead, that creating an environment where no one gets too comfortable in positions of power is an important precondition to creating accessible and accountable groups.

My next post deals with two more ideas, stay tuned.  Peace Out – 3C

I’m convinced Spring flowers are nature’s way of telling me to get out and clean the yard so we can look pretty. I have an all day open house today so there won’t be much time to do anything outside, but I did spend last Saturday raking and chopping up tree branches from that midi evil style ice storm we had in March. And hats off  to the City of Cleveland garbage men who took this huge, long branch for me. I had it in the middle of my front lawn, not even on the curb (I found my ax and was prepared to hack away this week). I was surprised to see it gone when I got home on Tuesday!

Just as a reminder, if you have your house listed, a beautiful Spring day like today might nudge you out to make that curb appeal a bit more, er, appealing lol.

I’m going to be at an open house in Puritas Park (Big Met Place off Grayton at Puritas) from 2 to 5 pm if anyone wants to stop by. Peace Out – 3C