Cleveland Real Estate News » Cleveland’s neighborhoods

Did You Know Cleveland is Leading the Way?

Carole Cohen — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:59:45 +0000

as we wait at the Levin Forum for the Panel and Alex Kotlowitz

Last night was another terrific CSU Levin College Forum. You may recall a New York Times article by author Alex Kotlowitz about people’s recent experiences in Slavic Village’s efforts to rebuild the neighborhood after a wave of predatory lending and foreclosures. Alex was invited to be the keynote speaker at last night’s forum. When I listened to him I couldn’t help but think about Studs Terkel, because Alex is in that vein. He believes that storytelling is the way to understand issues and figure out ways to solve them. And it rang true with me. What better way to really get a perspective than to hear how ‘people in the trenches’ of an issue are dealing with it.

Alex Kotlowitz spent quite some time in Cleveland gathering stories for this story and he described how residents, council people, neighborhood groups (those in the trenches) were dealing with the issues. He said they did so mostly with quiet, understated defiance. That phrase says it all.

Alex wasn’t the only speaker, but I’ll cover his comments first.

1. Story telling is important because it fleshes out those with the least power and how the power is used to help/hinder what is happening.

2. He spoke about the people, with updates, from his NYT’s article. He talked about how his views changed from seeing the foreclosure issue as grim and dark to one of optimism through rebuilding and solutions.

In fact, when asked why he chose Cleveland when there were other cities experiencing foreclosure as well, he said a) because Cleveland wasn’t just experiencing it, but Cleveland and the neighborhoods seemed to be plowing ahead with this quiet defiance but subtle optimism to make things better. That means he was impressed that Cleveland and Slavic Village seemed to be moving ahead with new solutions when maybe others were not.

The entire Forum was built around this theme: Creating a New Story, From Crisis to Opportunity. Moderator Dan Moulthrop did what he does so well on Ideastream; kept people focused don the ‘what are the new solutions’ theme. And there was a lot of creativity flowing from the panel. Tony Brancatelli, the Slavic Village area’s councilman; Ray Pianka, Cleveland Housing Court’s Judge; Marie Kittredge, Executive Director of the Slavic Village Development Corporation; and Chris Warren, Chief of Regional Development for the City of Cleveland.

I’ve been following the foreclosure issue closely because yes I’m in real estate but also like many of you, I’m very aware that these are new issues for our city (well, new to this decade) and so problem solving has to be about 21st Century ideas that will work, not necessarily the tried and true. Some comments from the panelists that struck a chord with me:

Judge Pianka described his efforts to make a more level playing field between corporations that own large amounts of property that wind up foreclosed, and individual homeowners. In other words, no special treatment for the big guys, be they real estate corporate owners or banks who have now become large land holders here. He also made a point to say that Housing Court was an effort to fix the problem and help the neighborhoods move forward, as opposed to just sending someone to jail for violations.

Chris Warren pointed out the ground breaking lawsuit filed by the City of Cleveland (my words, ground breaking, not his) in which a suit was filed against 21 large owners of foreclosed properties who started out as predatory lenders and wound up owning hundreds of foreclosed properties. They originally just started putting them back on the market in their code violation conditions. Cleveland and the neighborhoods said no way and demolition, repair, neighborhood design strategies, all were considered as necessary for these land holders.

One positive note. Apparently out of the original 21 named in the lawsuit, two of them are working to not just resolve the issue with Cleveland but pay back our tax payer monies that were used by Cleveland to take care of the violations when the home owners were not doing it. It’s a small step but positive, yes? I gather the other 19 are just embroiled in the lawsuit, you can draw your own conclusions from that. And we were all reminded that HUD does not get to be included in this lawsuit and can’t really be held as accountable as the private lenders because they are, well, protected as a government entity. HUD is however, now allowing the City of Cleveland to have the right of first refusal on whether a property should/could go on the market for resale. Or if some other option should be considered. I still think the real take home point from this lawsuit was that two of the 21 defendants were dealing with their entire inventories owned and how they can solve the issues and pay back the tax monies used on their properties.

Councilman Brancatelli of Ward 12 has been working hard on this issue. He says one of the things we need is a change in disclosure laws so that large, wholesale owners of foreclosed properties will be more transparently listed as owners and easier for cities to track down.

We know our population is down from decades ago and our housing stock is not. So one of the things Cleveland and other communities have to consider is, what is the best solution for that street, neighborhood, or block? If a house in nestled into a small plot of land and doesn’t really need to be there, why not demolish it and have a larger yard for the adjacent neighbors? Just one of the solutions Cleveland is already putting into place.

Cleveland was ahead of the curve on the foreclosure wave. That means we are at a different point than many other cities or counties also experiencing it around the Country. You know how we are always looking at models of growth, development, education, etc, from other cities, and people will blog about how Cleveland should follow that model, or at least ask the question ‘is this also good for Cleveland?’ Well everyone from Alex Kotlowitz to the Panelists pointed out that this time, the situation is reversed. The question was asked, what is important about Cleveland’s story for the rest of the universe? The answer lies in how we approach solutions, what works, what does not, things other communities will also have to tackle now that they are experiencing what we have.

Besides the planning review/input idea I mention above, as to whether an abandoned house should be rebuilt or demolished with new uses for that land, Chris Warren pointed out the uniqueness of our Cuyahoga County land bank. Now there is a vehicle with good monies to boot, that can deal with the issue of abandoned properties on a broad scale.

So Alex Kotlowitz came to Cleveland as opposed to any of the other cities he investigated, to do a story on how a neighborhood deals with lots of foreclosures and vacant properties. And he came here because he could see that through quiet defiance, Cleveland wasn’t just experiencing it, but was pushing back. Nothing like a non-Clevelander perspective to teach me something.

Peace Out – 3C

photo taken at May 11th Levin Forum by Carole Cohen. Well before the event started, because the seats in the atrium looked pretty well filled up to capacity to me.

Does It Really Take People From Other Cities to Point Out What Is Good About Cleveland?

Carole Cohen — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:55:30 +0000

Remember when Sally Field won the academy award and said ‘you like me, you really like me?’ Two things happened in the last 24 hours that showed me people who are not from here really, really do like Cleveland. I know you know this, and I know I knew this before yesterday, but sometimes I think to myself do we really accept this as truth or do we hold onto our old beliefs about how we see Cleveland? Without trying to get too convoluted, I’ll explain.

Last night I was surfing the tube and I happened upon a 2006 show Rachael Ray did for the Food Network. It stopped me in my tracks because there she was standing in front of our iron bridges, displayed in all their glory. She went east of the River to places like Fire and Giardino d’Italia in Little Italy. She went to Fahrenheit in Tremont. She went to Fat Fish Blue Downtown. She loved the fact that we can eat and dance and laugh in a place like Pickwick and Frolic. She gushed over Steve’s hot dogs, available late night. She loved Johnny Mango’s juices/smoothies. (And I love their lime enhanced steak salad.) I don’t think it’s possible to watch the video of the show on line (watch for a repeat on TV). To be fair about it, here is a blog post by someone named Madeline who traveled to Cleveland in 2006. Downtown left her unimpressed (we do still need to work on that, she’s not telling us anything we don’t know, although there is more going on since 2006). But she was impressed with some of the other places. Check it out. And apparently she was inspired by Rachael Ray to venture out into our NE Ohio world of food.

Then a friend of mine and fellow Realtor® Leanne Paynter from Florida directed me to a site and I found an article that caught my attention. Jay Walljasper is involved with Project for Public Spaces. He did a visit here in 2004 and had a lot of good things to say about Cleveland, pointing out our outstanding architecture for one. Check out his article here.

For a minute I thought, this is old news. Then I decided, if I wasn’t aware of Rachael Ray’s show or Jay Walljasper’s comments, there might be others who were in the same position. Besides, it seems like I sometimes need a splash of cold water to remind me we have a lot going for us and that means it’s worth doing things to help make it even better.

My last point? (yeah, I can be as chatty as Joe Biden, can’t I!) I was at The Garage Bar last evening with friends I met in 1997. They moved to San Diego for few years and then returned to Cleveland. Two things they perceived about San Diego: the lack of a true concert scene and an art community that needed some spice. They both felt Cleveland was way ahead of San Diego in this department. (I would imagine art lover George Nemeth would agree with them about the vibrancy of Cleveland’s art community). All you have to do is look at the Winchester’s or Beachland schedule every week (not to mention all the clubs listed in Scene magazine!) to know how lucky we are that we do have a vital music scene. What strikes me when I help find someone from Chicago or Houston or NYC or anywhere else a house, is how they genuinely appreciate what I guess I sometimes take for granted. The architecture, the housing stock, the Lake, the music, the iron bridges, the whole ball of wax. Peace Out – 3C

Why Can’t There Be A Rail Component to the Opportunity Corridor?

Carole Cohen — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:16:00 +0000

That’s what I kept saying over and over to myself as I read a PD post about how Governor Strickland seems to want to revive the stalled roadway work between I-490 and University Circle. All through the discussion of the Corridor is talk about how rail lines need to be bought and moved, etc. If rail becomes a key component to it, doesn’t that help our economy? Imagine a light rail for example that extends the entire way from I-490 to University Circle. Or does this interfere with ‘their’ ideals of the Euclid Avenue Corridor being the be all end all for transportation?

I found this blog post by Green City Blue Lake from 2007 (I had to go browsing for more information to see if rail had been proposed). The entire post is creative thinking and analysis at it’s best. Here is a highlight:

“….We question why a $100 million investment shouldn’t include passenger rail. Certainly, the answer will be influenced by current land-use factors, including the industrial uses of the land where the OC road alignment is being proposed. Toxic contamination fills 49 ‘super fund’ sites along the road’s proposed path as it hugs the Norfolk Southern line right of way and the remnants of residential areas of Cleveland’s Wards 5 and 6 near Grand Avenue.

We’d have questions if this doesn’t leverage the RTA Red Line which also runs in NS’ right of way. Opportunity Corridor offers a more direct commute from the West side heading to the Circle whether by car or train. It can also help with the acquisition and clean up of contaminated industrial land that has clogged up the Forgotten Triangle for decades. Clean land for new industrial parks and a new connection to the Interstate highway will raise opportunity for new business and local residents. The road will add value to land and, if more funds were available, could help direct aid from state and federal brownfield remediation programs. …”

In May of 2005 there were Opportunity Corridor brainstorming or planning meetings held with all sorts of people and you can read the meeting notes here. They do a bulleted overview of various plans throughout the decades for this corridor and I found this excerpt telling:

“…I-490 was supposed to continue on through Shaker Heights and Beachwood but neighborhood antagonism killed this proposal in the 1960′s….”

REALNEO has had a lot to say about the Opportunity Corridor but I particularly liked this November 2007 post.

I had to go to the Urban Ohio Forum (if you don’t read it, it could be one of the best places for information sharing, idea sharing on the web). KJP brings up a point about not examining alternative ideas (besides just a roadway) for the O Corridor: (read the entire thread here)

“….What alternatives analysis was done? Unfortunately, none — at least for the UCAB. Such an objective analysis, under federal regulations, is supposed to include transit alternatives as well as a consideration of land use changes. To my knowledge, the only alternatives associated with the UCAB were two different alignments the road could take to reach UC (via the Norfolk Southern/Red Line railroad corridor or via the Blue-Green Lines/CSX railroad corridor). …”

Can’t you just see light rail extending from I-490 to Shaker Boulevard? Or at least start out with examining how much it would cost to do light rail to University Circle from there. Does anyone know of actual discussions on transit or hooking the Oppty Corridor to The Ohio Hub plan? Just asking!

Peace Out – 3C

Cleveland Residency Laws Part Two

Carole — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:13:00 +0000

Got back onto Cleveland.com’s forum as people discussed the residency laws. One ‘thread’ talks about people not living in Cleveland then not doing their jobs well (i.e., police). I find that one hard to believe, it’s a tough job. Would someone really not do their best as a policeman because they don’t live in the same community?

I thought the idea was to put City workers in the City so they could become involved in every aspect of their communites, a win-win situation for them and the rest of us residents. I don’t really believe the residency law is about public safety workers not caring about us. Anyway, you can decide for yourself, and read all the other comments on the Forum.
Peace Out – 3C