Cleveland that I love

So there are these t-shirts in Cleveland with a variety of graphics reading “Cleveland that I love.” The t-shirts have hit the fan through the playoffs. Because of course. I’m not throwing stones either, because I bought two Cleveland shirts since this began (from a Cleveland based company of course). Now, I love the Cavs and basketball, but I also love Cleveland. However, I don’t know if the Cleveland that I love is the Cleveland everyone is talking about.

I grew up in Slavic Village, which is now often called South Broadway on maps. But it will always be Slavic Village to us. Old, closed, formerly owned businesses with Slavic and Polish names and boarded up windows. Stella Walsh rec center, where we weren’t allowed to go because of gang violence. If you don’t know who Stella Walsh is, Google her, she is worth knowing. So imagine my glee that Cleveland is in the national news, sure it is for basketball, but hey people are looking our way and while we’ll probably fuck this up, because that is the Cleveland way, we might win.

[Image is from the Cleveland Plain Dealer] At the same time, the Cleveland Plain Dealer is running a series on Slavic Village, “Hard time in Cleveland” which is about a Blaine Murphy being sentenced to serve 18 months of his prison term in Slavic Village, ground zero of the foreclosure crisis. Yeah, this guy who screwed people out of their homes and money in Slavic Village now has to live there. Justice, right? Wait, a minute, you mean the neighborhood I came up in, the one my mom still lives in is the equivalent to prison. Bitch, please.

I would drive either via 77N or Jennings to the Catholic Worker to volunteer, and during rush hour, I’d drive across the Harvard-Denison Bridge and up Pearl. All to get to Ohio City where you can get three meals, a shower, laundry, and somewhere to sit out of the elements till 9pm most nights. We’ve never had the homeless in Slavic Village, not the way you have them downtown. We have squatters. We also have 1,200 vacant homes most of which are waiting to be demolished. Boarded up doors have red and blue notices painted on them giving warning or notice, drugs were here and no copper. Blaine Murphy and men like him bled Slavic Village and I’m sure many neighborhoods like ours.

There are kids I grew up with who are trying to save the neighborhood, and I don’t know how to tell them they are going to fail or ruin it. I want to support them, but I think, guys, a median down Fleet? How are the police (all three of them) going to chase thieves (mostly kids)? A man was shot over copper at the head of my street across from their family business. Copper. I think, you’re encouraging the city to fine old people who can’t paint their houses? My dad’s house is one of those houses now, painted this ugly tan color. We’re going to have a neighborhood of poor tan houses. Pick your battles kids. Paint and some construction isn’t going to save you.

A championship isn’t going to save us either. Maybe nothing can. We’re going to have to ride this one to the last stop and see what is there. These boys I grew up with are trying to gentrify our neighborhood in the good way. I really don’t think they have malicious intentions. They see tons of vacants and think, let’s get people in here, let’s get businesses going again. But it feels short sighted. It feels like privilege people coming to save us the best way they know how, but that’s not going to work. Because what happens when property taxes go up? What about the poor and working poor that have called this place their home since the 70s who can’t afford higher taxes in a neighborhood with the lowest property tax rate and the some of the worst schools? How are you going to address the gangs? What family is going to move into a neighborhood with three officers to patrol it? You need buy in, and from what I’ve heard no one is buying it. Change like what we need can’t be driven by people who drive home to the suburbs at night. You call Slavic Village home, and it is your home, but you don’t live it. Neither do I. We can’t prescribe what they need. You can facilitate it. 

An Ode to Slavic Village Cleveland

I love when people still call Slavic Village, Slavic Village, which isn’t often anymore. It seems to be being rolled into South Broadway, which makes sense, it hasn’t been a Slav neighborhood, well most of my life. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you white flight. But all that aside, Slavic Village has a fun a long history, which took a turn for national recognition during the foreclosing crisis in 2007, where it has been called “ground zero.” CLEVELAND!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michelle Jarboe McFee wrote a story about Slavic Village’s potential comeback funded by private companies. Anyone familiar with me or Cleveland knows I typed that with hesitation. After all, the Browns have entered their second rebuilding decade. And I really hate the idea that private companies are going to deliver us all from poverty. If I had a self-congratulatory masturbation gif, I’d insert that here (that isn’t an invitation to send one).

Let me start by telling you what Cleveland does with foreclosed houses in Slavic Village we bulldoze them. People freeze to death in Cleveland during the winter, and we destroy houses to prevent squatters; Slavic Village has more of a “squatter problem” than “homeless problem”. I understand the logic, I do. There is something unbelievable cold and cruel about this. People strip the copper piping out of the houses and then they burn down because of 100 year old wiring, which is the motivation behind this.

Slavic Village is one of the most depressing looking places in winter with gray snow and slush on the roads and a coating of salt on everything. There are large vacant lots where homes used to be. Houses are boarded up with a variety of colors of spray painted information on the doors to indicate drugs, foreclosure, and if copper remains inside this on top of the declining storefronts. There is little business left here. When I think of distopenian futures where society is in decline and people have decreased in numbers, I think of my home. People rounded because of layering just kind of wander in the streets, and there is nothing to do with a backdrop of buildings in disrepair and vacancies: homes, businesses, and lots. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not beating up on Cleveland. I love Cleveland, and I love Slavic Village. But things are bleak and have been for a while. This doesn’t even include a summary of the rolling our police force into another district, the violent crime, the drugs, and gangs. This is just what it looks like any mid-morning in winter. Of course we still have some things. Slavic Village still has a strong community development corporation, recreation facilitates, and business, which includes Third Federal Savings and Loan (last time I checked not many locals employed here).

Back to Jarboe McFee’s article. A private-philanthropic partnership has focused on Slavic Village to acquire, renovate, and sell or rent out the houses left vacant from the foreclosing crisis. The number looks like about 50 houses to start, but could grow to hundreds in the southeast side of Cleveland. The company appears to be a joint venture composed of Neighborhood Progress Inc., Slavic Village Development, Forest City Enterprises Inc., and Safeguard Properties (their founder is Robert Klein). The group is focusing on a specific 530-acre slice of Slavic Village with between 23 and 30 percent vacant homes (according to Neighborhood Progress Inc. and Slavic Village Development). Personal fact, this includes where my parents still live (north of Fleet on E 54^th). 

 

 

This effort doesn’t rely on public money. Instead private sector investment layered with targeted public services for example swift demolition for quick development. The leaders think this promises profit and alleviating the communities from the weight of the empty homes. Neighborhood Progress and Slavic Village Development expect to sign an operating agreement this week with Forest City and Robert Klein. The non-profits will own 10% of Slavic Village Recovery LLC, the rest will be split between Forest City and Klein’s RIK Enterprise LLC.

Each group gets one vote on how the project is run. Councilman Tony Brancatelli said, “It’s a complicated endeavor, but it’s very simple in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish. We are really looking at market recovery in one of the hardest-hit communities in the United States.”

Slavic Village Development is going to identify the houses that need to be razed and provide a list to the city this will speed up demolition. Meanwhile, Slavic Village Recovery LLC will pinpoint houses that can be saved and purchase hem from lenders, mortgage services, or the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp, the country’s land bank. The land bank takes houses after the county forecloses on delinquent property tax and received near-worthless properties from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Most of these structures can’t be saved. So far the land bank has demolished 201 houses in Slavic Village since 2009 and only developed 20. If this is effective the land bank can focus on the neighborhood and not the redevelopment.

Klein is a proponent of fast-tracking the foreclosure process and eliminate the empty homes in neighborhoods. Most likely because he’s a capitalist. “Klein believes lenders will give away those troubled houses, starting in Slavic Village, to get the burden off their books.

“His goal: Get a house for free or fore very little money. Invest $40,000 to $50,000 in renovations, using Safeguard’s national network of contractors to lower the cost. Then sell the house for $60,000, turning a small profit and providing affordable housing in the city neighborhood.”

Call me cynical. Actually, go ahead. I’ll believe this when I see it. Government redevelopment has longer timelines, but they tend to use local labor and actually focus on the neighborhoods. I’m not convinced that is what is going on here.

Marie Kittredge, who leads Slavic Village Development said, “Not that there’s not a role for the public sector, but when we keep relying on them to bail us out, it gets more and more costly because of their limitations. Being able to rehab at scale is the only way to get ourselves back on an even playing field.”

Kittredge noted that Slavic Village Development can only fix up 20 houses a year when the neighborhood has more than 400 homes in need. Slavic Village Recovery hopes to sell 15 of the first 50 and rent the other 35. Renovations could start in the next few months.

So this is kind of an experiment as well to see if this model can work in neighborhoods. Forest City will focus on marketing, promotion, and property management. Neighborhood Progress will provide market data, digging for vacant, foreclosed, and troubled real estate (this is a concerning phrase). Slavic Village Development will handle daily opps and work with the community to engage repairs to occupied homes and neighborhood clean-up.

Alan Mallach, senior fellow at Brookings Institution (nonresident) who has studied housing challenges in Cleveland and other cities said, “I think it’s a very interesting idea, and I’m hopeful it’s going to work. What I really like is the fact that all these people, as I understand it, are really trying to take a comprehensive approach to the area where they are working. It’s not I’ll fix up this house and I’ll fix up that house.”

Mallach posed two questions:

“Can the Slavic Village group churn out high-quality renovations without subsidy and sell or rent the homes at a profit?

And if so, will there be enough demand to fill the houses without cannibalizing other Cleveland neighborhoods?”

To these questions, I have to say I’m not sure. Cleveland schools are shitty, so families with kids probably won’t want even the renovated homes. As I mentioned briefly, Slavic Village’s police force is now shared with another district. Cleveland has been hemorrhaging their population for a while. I do hope this is successful, and doesn’t exploit the neighborhood or the people they claim to be aiming to help.