From The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Northeast Ohio will get millions to help foreclosed properties
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Stephen Koff - Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
To read this story online, go to: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1232011995322260.xml&coll=2

 

Washington- The federal government is sending millions of dollars to help Ohio communities fix up, buy or sell homes and apartments in foreclosure, because of a program Congress passed in 2008.

Euclid will get $2.58 million. Lake County will get $3.4 million. Dozens of other communities will get more later as the government processes the grants.

The money for the national Neighborhood Stabilization Program comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program. Congress included the stabilization program in a bill last year to help state and local governments deal with foreclosures.

"These vital funds will enable communities throughout Ohio to make necessary renovations to reverse the trends of the housing market," U.S. Sen. George Voinovich said in announcing the grants Wednesday. "In the midst of a financial crisis which originally stemmed from a crashing housing market, I can't think of a better place to invest funds than to help redevelop foreclosed property in Ohio."

More than $258 million will be awarded to 23 Ohio communities under the program, Voinovich's office said, including $16.1 million for Cleveland and a separate $11.2 million for Cuyahoga County.

The money is for buying and redeveloping foreclosed properties that threaten to become blights on a community. Communities can use the money for demolition and rehabilitation, financial assistance for low- to moderate-income buyers, and creation of "land banks" for development later.

Voinovich also announced $22.46 million from HUD to help Ohio seniors and people with disabilities get housing. Of that, Cleveland Heights will get $4.76 million to buy and rehabilitate 36 one-bedroom units for very low-income elderly persons.

South Euclid will get $456,900 for a proposed group home in a single-story, ranch-style building. Residents will be chronically mentally ill individuals, with public and private agencies providing a range of services.

The rest of the $22 million will go to communities in other regions in Ohio.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

skoff@plaind.com, 216-999-4212

©2009 Plain Dealer
© 2009 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

 

How to Reverse the Trend of Concentrated Poverty
Sunday, December 28, 2008 ~ Cleveland Plain Dealer
by Alan Berube

Find this story online at:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1230370272297280.xml&coll=2

 

One of Cleveland's neighborhoods made the Wash ington scene earlier this month.

Alas, it wasn't up for a multibillion-dollar bailout.

Instead, the Central neighborhood and 15 other communities across the United States were the centerpiece of a new report published by the Federal Reserve System and the Brookings Institution.

These communities share a simple, disappointing characteristic. In 2000 - the peak of the last economic boom - at least 40 percent of their residents lived below the federal poverty line. That was about three times the national average.

No American needs to look very far to find places like these. Concentrated poverty affects manufacturing cities like Cleveland, and Albany, Ga.; immigrant gateways like Miami, Fla., and Fresno, Calif.; and rural areas like eastern Kentucky and northern Montana. About 4 million poor Americans live in these areas of extremely high poverty.

How did this happen? Policy decisions made decades ago - like clustering thousands of the Cleveland region's public housing units in the Central neighborhood - helped shape their trajectory. So too did economic changes, like the long-run loss of decent-paying manufacturing jobs, or - in rural areas - mining and agricultural jobs.

By allowing poverty to concentrate in these places, we've magnified the problems their poor residents face. For instance, many low-income children in these communities start school not yet "ready to learn." On top of that, though, they attend schools burdened with lots of other poor kids who face similar challenges, and deal with higher levels of neighborhood crime that affect their mental health and educational performance.

The challenges of concentrated poverty extend to many other areas: low adult work-force skills and employment, poor-quality housing and a lack of investment by mainstream businesses.

And that's in a good economy. Today, Central - and thousands of other high-poverty communities like it across the nation - faces even more significant challenges as the United States enters what may be its worst recession in decades.

So what should Washington do for these places and their residents in the face of such difficult circumstances?

First, we must not lose sight of them in the economic turmoil. That's especially true because the roots of this crisis, in the subprime mortgage market, grew in many very poor neighborhoods like Central. As a result, home foreclosure rates in high-poverty communities are more than double the national average.

To stabilize these hard-hit communities, Washington must adopt new measures to prevent foreclosure and provide additional resources and guidance for state and local governments to help them cope with the rising numbers of vacant properties.

Second, a forthcoming economic stimulus package from Washington that could amount to half a trillion dollars or more should not bypass these neighborhoods and their residents.

That implies the need for immediate federal aid to sustain basic public services in states like Ohio, where the deficit for this year already tops $1 billion. It also suggests providing direct assistance to struggling workers and their families, through enhanced unemployment benefits and tax credits.

At the same time, the infrastructure dollars in the package - which could amount to more than $100 billion - must be spent strategically. States should not be permitted to go on expanding highway capacity at the metropolitan fringe, to the detriment of poor communities near the urban core. Cities like Cleveland, and metropolitan organizations like the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, should get their fair share of new transportation funds. And funds should be set aside for training programs that provide low-income residents with a pathway to decent jobs.

Third, we have to rethink neighborhood policy over the longer term.

For too long, government has funded housing, schools and economic development in these communities as though they were islands unto themselves.

That's not how the real economy works. These neighborhoods are part of larger regional labor and housing markets. Decisions made across the Cleveland region, such as where firms locate new jobs, or where families buy homes and send their kids to school, ultimately dictate whether neighborhoods like Central can become real neighborhoods of choice and better connected to economic opportunity.

Public policy must leverage that real economy for the benefit of lower-income residents, by building on smart regional strategies like the Fund for Our Economic Future and WIRE-Net in Northeast Ohio. It should diversify housing in poor communities, but also encourage affordable housing development in wealthier parts of metropolitan areas.

Cleveland's Central neighborhood, like other high-poverty communities across the United States, faces a tough road ahead. Short-term opportunities, and long-term strategies, are needed to help its next generation of residents overcome the challenges of concentrated poverty.

Berube is research director at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.


©2008 Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Faith coalition pushes U.S. on foreclosure crisis
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post

To read this article online, go to:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/other/1227951167212840.xml&coll=2

Washington - A national coalition of faith-based organizations has launched an effort to push the federal government for a more streamlined approach to handling troubled mortgages, with the aim of keeping more owners in their homes.

"Families are losing their homes and they're on the street, and that's just morally wrong," said Mary Rabon, a member of the Kansas affiliate of PICO National Network, an alliance of 1,000 U.S. congregations, based in Oakland, Calif.

More than 200 members of PICO, which stands for People Improving Communities Through Organizing, were in Washington last week to meet with federal officials and stage a "prayer rally" outside the Treasury Building.

"This building behind us has the power to prevent another 2 million foreclosures," shouted the Rev. Lucy Kolin, a Lutheran pastor from Oakland.

"Wake up. Wake up," chanted the demonstrators. They say they want Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. to "wake up" to the reality of the foreclosure crisis and use the powers granted to him in the bailout legislation to stop "preventable" foreclosures.

Paulson opposes funding a plan championed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair that offers loan modifications on standardized terms to as many borrowers as possible from the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund.

But PICO members say the painfully slow, case-by-case loan workouts of those already in foreclosure, which is normal practice in the mortgage industry, are too little, too late. As congregation leaders watched foreclosures sweep through their communities, "it became clear to us that voluntary, case-by-case [loan workouts] wasn't going to cut it," said Gordon Whitman, PICO's director of policy.

Under the plan supported by PICO, every bank that accepts taxpayer bailout money would be required to accept the same set of loan-modification procedures, setting payments to no more than 34 percent of borrowers' incomes and, in some cases, reducing principles to reflect falling property values. Funding for the program would come from the $700 billion bailout fund.

Many congregations are finding themselves on the front lines of the foreclosure crisis.

Even members of the clergy are not immune.

The Rev. Marvin Webb of Richmond, Calif., a Baptist pastor who came to Washington with the PICO alliance, has seen his adjustable-rate mortgage soar. He is struggling to make his $2,700-a-month payment, which is more than half his income.

"We want to keep our homes. We want to help our communities," Webb said.

In the Washington area, houses of worship are offering foreclosure workshops, emptying their food pantries to help those facing financial difficulties and scrambling to help those who have lost their homes find new housing.

"Churches are where people go," said Donna Hurley, executive director of Housing Options & Planning Enterprises, a Prince George's County, Md. nonprofit that counsels people facing foreclosure. Her group has held foreclosure workshops at area Catholic churches. "When things aren't going right, they go to the house of God to get answers," she said.



©2008 Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

Neighborhoods Are Key To Future, Leaders Told

Carol Coletta, president and chief executive officer of CEOs for Cities, addresses annual meeting of University Circle Inc.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Michelle Jarboe, Plain Dealer Reporter

Find the original webpage of this story at: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-8/1227087104257940.xml&coll=2

Leaders of urban neighborhoods including University Circle hope that President-elect Barack Obama's roots in Chicago will give cities a boost during the next administration.

"Cities like Cleveland are not the problem. They are the solution," Carol Coletta, president and chief executive officer of CEOs for Cities, told a crowd at Severance Hall on Tuesday.

Coletta spoke during the annual meeting for University Circle Inc., a nonprofit group focused on developing, caring for and promoting the district. She and UCI President Chris Ronayne recently participated in a Chicago gathering of urban leaders focused on rebuilding American cities with help from the federal government.

"I think what we need to do with this economic moment is say, How do we recapture the value of the investments we've already made?' " Coletta said in an interview. "We're all equally challenged, but that doesn't change the momentum for cities."

Ronayne said the group planned its meeting months ago, in hopes of pushing for a "cogent urban policy" from whoever won the election. One area of emphasis was remaking buildings, bridges, roads -- rather than developing new ones. Another, Ronayne said, was an effort to reduce poverty, increase the college-education level and cut reliance on driving in major cities across the country.

"Some of the things we focused on are most certainly the talent dividend. Can we in Cleveland and University Circle increase educational attainment by 1 percent?" Roynane said. "Another is overall city vitality as measured by innovation. What if we focused not so much on the number of Fortune 500s but on the number of patents coming out of the city of Cleveland?"

The CEOs for Cities group asserts that the nation's 51 largest cities could create more than $166 billion in new wealth by increasing college education levels by 1 percent, cutting residents' car travel by 1 mile per day and reducing the impoverished population by 1 percent. Of that yield, more than $2.1 billion could go to Cleveland, Ronayne said.

Coletta lauded efforts by Cleveland and University Circle to build on educational and cultural institutions, develop health care and other global businesses and create jobs in alternative energy and other "green" fields.

"You're actually doing, I think, more good thinking about this than most cities I visit," she said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mjarboe@plaind.com, 216-999-4830

©2008 Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Mayors Of Ailing Big Cities See Obama As A "Partner", Optimistic About Potential Help
Posted by Henry J. Gomez/Plain Dealer Reporter November 07, 2008 23:44PM
To read this story in its original website, go to: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/mayors_of_ailing_big_cities_se.html

 

On his historic path to the White House, Barack Obama pledged billions of federal dollars to decaying urban cores.

Washington, he said, had for too long turned its back on places like Cleveland, Detroit and Youngstown -- the crippled backbones of once-flourishing metropolitan areas.

Now, armed with an electoral landslide and congressional majority of fellow Democrats, President-elect Obama faces tremendous expectations from big-city mayors and community activists. Not since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson set the framework for his Great Society programs, has a dramatic shift in the nation's domestic policy been so hungrily anticipated.

In Obama, local-government leaders across the state see a man with roots as a community organizer, a man making the leap from a storied urban pocket in Chicago to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. For the first time in years, they see an advocate for repairing American cities.

"What I know now is that we have a partner in the White House that we didn't have before," said Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, a Democrat. "That is the key thing.

"We know that when we call, he will listen."

As a candidate, Obama touted cities as "the building blocks of strong regions."


In June, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, the Illinois senator promised to spend billions of dollars to fix crumbling infrastructure, invest more in public transportation, restore community development funding and address other problems that plague metropolitan areas.

On his campaign Web site, Obama listed dozens of urban priorities, including the creation of a White House Office on Urban Policy. The office would "ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs."

In addition, Obama wants to restore funding to the Community Development Block Grants program, an initiative that dates to the Nixon administration and benefits neighborhoods. Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown each have seen this aid decrease in recent years, officials said.

Cleveland's share dropped by more than $1 million, to $31.6 million, in the last year. The money helps fund housing code enforcement, the cleanup of vacant lots and other public improvements. With less coming in, prioritizing has been a challenge for Mayor Frank Jackson.

Obama "will really help us a great deal," said Jackson, also a Democrat. "We're looking forward to when he's able to straighten out the mess that was left for him."

Jackson has outlined his own urban agenda -- one that calls for the federal government to send $6 billion in aid to Cuyahoga County, mostly to the city. On his wish list is money to combat the foreclosure crisis, improve education, enhance public safety, fix roads and expand public transportation. He endorsed Obama early, convinced he was the best choice for Cleveland.

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic is optimistic, too.

On a recent visit to the region, Obama met with Plusquellic and "acknowledged to him the work that Washington needs to do to resume support of American cities that has been lost over the last eight years," said Mark Williamson, a spokesman for the Democratic mayor.

But with two wars overseas and a domestic economic crisis that reaches far beyond core cities in the Midwest rust belt, are such towering hopes for an urban rescue plan realistic?

"I think it's very important that we all have pragmatic expectations," said Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, a Democrat who was elected three years ago as an independent. "We can't wait, hat in hand, thinking the solutions are going to come solely from Washington, D.C."

Even so, Williams and others believe Obama's background makes him uniquely qualified to understand the plight of urban cores and work in partnership with local government.

"Ironically, during the campaign, he was somewhat belittled for being a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago," Williams said. "But his experiences will not be forgotten as he deals with the urban areas of Youngstown and Cleveland and Detroit."

Chris Ronayne, president of the nonprofit University Circle Inc. advocacy organization, who served as a planning director and chief of staff to Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, agrees.

"Obama has a lot of weight on his shoulders," Ronayne said. "But he's walked the walk as a community organizer and understands more than anyone what neighborhoods need."
 

 

 

Cleveland's best, as seen through the eyes of the rest of America
by Laura DeMarco/Plain Dealer Friday magazine editor
Thursday July 31, 2008, 10:08 AM

To read this story online, go to: http://www.cleveland.com/goingout/index.ssf/2008/07/clevelands_best_as_seen_throug.html

We Clevelanders have low self-esteem. Every Cleveland joke or negative comment we hear about our city sets us off. We rage. We rant.
But we also have a hard time taking a compliment. We barely pay attention to the good things people across the country say about our fair city.

So Friday magazine has compiled some of the best things written about Cleveland's people and places in the last two years. Read on for a look at what the rest of the world sees when they look at us. Then stand proud. You are a Clevelander!

Travel & Leisure, July 2008: From the "50 Reasons to Love the U.S.A. Now" article: "Because in Cleveland, Old World meets new kid on the block. Combine alternative gallery owners, steelworkers, celebrity chefs, and transplants from the Old Country, and you get an idea of Cleveland's Tremont district." Sokolowski's University Inn, Lolita, and Prosperity Social Club are suggested destinations.


Food & Wine, July 2008: Dante restaurant in Valley View has one of the "Best new wine lists, 2008": "The restaurant's formerly California Cabernet- and Bordeaux-stocked cellar now holds a worldwide selection that mirrors the global flavors in chef-owner Dante Boccuzzi's cuisine."

Dante, 8001 Rockside Road, Valley View, 216-524-9404
National attention is nothing new to Dante Boccuzzi, the chef-owner of his acclaimed namesake restaurant. Dante was toasted in the Zagat newsletter before it even opened.

But Boccuzzi appreciates each new mention.

"It's a huge honor," the Parma (Ohio) native says of his recent nod in Food & Wine. "It generates buzz and people are curious to see what they're missing."

Boccuzzi is rightfully proud of his wine list, compiled by sommelier David Eselgroth, especially the 90 wines by the glass.

"It's very popular in this type of economy. They're all reasonably priced [starting at $7] and are great wines. Wine by the glass gives you the opportunity to try different things. The menu goes all over the map" he says of his French-Asian-Italian informed cuisine, "and our wine will also take you around the world."

Dante is open from 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Food, and, of course, wine, is served in the large bar in addition to the dining room.

Conde Nast Traveler, May 2008: Ohio City's Velvet Tango Room is one of 28 nightclubs on the "international hot list": "Set in an undistinguished building in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, this establishment has a dim front room that attracts well-
dressed patrons quaffing classic cocktails. ... Drinks are about $14, but flavors unfold like a gourmet mini-meal."

Esquire magazine, Feb. 16, 2008: Three local restaurants make the cut in their "Best Sandwiches in America" article: Slyman's Corned Beef ("a softball-sized lump of lean the color of a Great Lakes sunset, kissed with fat and slow-cooked to succulence, then nestled between clouds of fresh bread"), the Polish Boy at Freddie's Rib House ("Soul on white") and the Trailer Park Monte Cristo at the Beachland Ballroom ("Dip a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich in pancake batter, dunk it in a deep fryer, and dust it with powdered sugar. ...The crisp, cakey crust conceals a molten heart as sweet as Cleveland's own."

Slyman's, 3106 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, 216-621-3760
"We've never spent a penny on advertising," says Freddie Slyman, whose family has owned Slyman's for 42 years. But the accolades keep coming. The restaurant has been praised by everyone from Rachel Ray to the London Review of Breakfasts.

"It's so flattering to know the name Slyman's is synonymous with the best in Cleveland," says Slyman, who credits the eatery's popularity to "quality, quantity and ambiance. We're a mom-and-pop place where we work every day to give people the best possible experience when they visit."

But the biggest praise is the crowds who line up every lunch- hour for Slyman's towering delectably moist-but-not-too-fatty corned beef sandwiches.

Slyman's is open from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Blender Magazine, February 1, 2008: The Beachland Ballroom has the best jukebox in the country: "The vintage 1966 Rock-Ola at Beachland is free, plays a handpicked mix of vinyl ... It holds 80 records, which means 160 sides, all lovingly chosen by Beachland's crate-cruising co-owner Mark Leddy."

Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. 216-383-1124
Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom is best known for the music on its stages -- everything from indie and garage rock to alt-country, blues, folk to punk -- but in the last year it's also gained renown for some more offbeat reasons. Namely, its amazing retro jukebox and decadently retro Trailer Park Monte Cristo sandwich.

What does this mean to club whose main business is music? "It's a little feather in your cap," says club owner Mark Leddy. "They are something for people to look for when they come in, and they may bring people to the venue for the first time."

Sadly, the days are numbered for the unabashedly unhealthy-but-oh-so-good Trailer Park Monte Cristo. The club is redoing their menu and the sandwich hasn't made the cut.

But the grooviest tunes of the last 50 years are still spinning. Leddy even has added "new" cuts to the jukebox, including Columbus singer Bill Moss' 1960s-era "Sock It to them Soul Brother" and Sister Midnight's "Iggy."

USA Today, Jan. 4, 2008: The Rock Hall is one of "10 great places to know it's more than rock 'n' roll": "John Lennon's costume, The Supremes' dresses, Grace Slick's Woodstock outfit, Kurt Cobain's guitar, along with many other artifacts, can be found in this stunning building designed by I.M. Pei."

Esquire Magazine, Oct. 15, 2007: Table 45 is one of the country's "Best New Restaurants": "... it's one of the most strikingly modern [restaurants] in America .¤.¤. like a retro-modern first-class dining room on a Richard Branson space station. Chef Zachary Bruell has never been more versatile, drawing on global influences in dishes like his homespun bowl of Vietnamese noodles ..."

Spin, Nov. 1, 2007: "Cleveland Rock City" is the focus of a two-
page article: "Forever fighting economic hardships and rampant cultural stereotyping, Cleveland is a city where the history runs deep and the fans hold steady to a serious belief in the sounds." Derek Hess, the Grog Shop, Now That's Class, the Bears and Mick Boogie are among the names dropped.

Alternative Press, April 2008: Cleveland's Bears are one of "100 Bands You Need to Know in 2008": " ... the band specialize in simple songs full of starry-eyed harmonies, autumnal acoustic guitars and twinkling percussions."

Bears, www.bearspop.com
The nation finally is discovering what Cleveland rock fans have known since Bears joined the scene in spring 2006. This band is worth watching. They consistently draw large crowds to area venues for their harmonious, twee-but-not-cutesy pop.

Singer-guitarist Charlie McArthur says being featured in Spin was an honor, but it was the AP nod that sent their itunes sales soaring.

Next up is a CD titled "Simple Machinery" due in September, and an August tour that includes the New American Music Union fest in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Aug. 9.

USA Today, Oct. 5, 2007: Murray Hill is one of "10 great places to discover Italy in America." "Corbo's Bakery has the best cassata [cake] I have tried in the USA," says chef and Food Network star Mario Batali.

Corbo's Bakery, 12210 Mayfield Road, Cleveland, 216-421-8181.
"We have no idea how Mario Batali found out about us, but we really saw an impact," says Valerie Corbo, whose family has operated the Little Italy bakery for four generations. "Our customers were the once who told us about it. .. but it's not a surprise. Our cassata cake is what we are known for." Corbo says the recipe for their lushly sweet berries-and-cream cake traces back 100 years to the family's hometown in Sicily.

In addition to cassata -- about half of their business -- Corbo's serves scrumptious cannoli and the best Italian lemon ice this reporter has tasted (including in Italy).

And after decades of customer requests, Corbo's opened 40-seat a sit-down cafe in April. With outdoor tables and large picture windows, it's the perfect spot for a bit of people watching while you bite into that heavenly cake.

Corbo's is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.

O Magazine, Oct. 1, 2007: The "renewed and improved" Cleveland is "the place to be." Cleveland Orchestra, Tremont, University Circle and Lola restaurant are among the picks.

Cottage Living, July 1, 2007: Ohio City is one of "10 top cottage communities" in the United States: "This comeback story started locally, fueled by creative and committed newcomers." The "gracious street layout and fine 19th-century homes" are praised.

Playboy, April 18, 2007: Red, the Steakhouse in Beachwood is one of the ten best in the country: "... a trendy, completely original operation with enough craftsmanship and buzz to fill three restaurants."

Every Day with Rachel Ray, April 1, 2007: The Word of Mouth column cites nine Cleveland spots to visit, including the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Lava Lounge and Truffles Pastry.

National Parks Magazine, Jan. 1, 2007: The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad is "one of the most scenic excursion railways in the country."

And even the French like us. Following a recent tour of Cleveland, French writers praised the city's location on the Great Lakes, the "Pantheon du Rock 'n' roll" and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Those great wine lovers even liked Great Lakes beer.

 

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Living Cities' Help Is Welcome
Monday, May 26, 2008
A national nonprofit group that has channeled $25 million in loans and grants to help Cleveland's community development corporations build more than 4,700 homes will soon plow more into revitalizing this city.

New York-based Living Cities will work with state and city officials here to encourage everything from building residents' personal wealth to improving Cleveland's infrastructure.

Some of the assistance will be financial. Some will come in the form of technical assistance. Ben Hecht, president and chief executive officer, says Living Cities wants to help Clevelanders in developing "a comprehensive blueprint of what they want to do and bringing the right people to the table."

It's not clear how much money this will involve or which programs will receive the resources. But what is clear - considering the track record Living Cities has got in Cleveland - is that this is good news for this city.

© 2008 The Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

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January 2008

Cleveland's Foreclosure Crisis Series

http://www.cleveland.com/foreclosure/

 

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December 2007

Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Focus

The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper and 90.3 FM Radio presented a series of stories and features focusing on poverty and change centered around the story of Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

50 years ago it was a vibrant neighborhood, with shops and well-kept homes. But today, it is on the verge of a complete changeover: buildings sit in disrepair, shops are boarded up, kids become high school drop outs. What happened? What can happen now to turn this neighborhood back in the other direction?


Cleveland Plain Dealer
http://www.cleveland.com/mountpleasant/

WCPN 90.3
http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/series/poverty_in_the_city

Cleveland not friendly to walkers, Brookings study says

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Monday, December 10, 2007
Laura Johnston
Plain Dealer Reporter
To read this article online, go to: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1197279521307820.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

If you're going somewhere in Cleveland, you're probably driving a car.

That's because the region has one truly walkable urban place - University Circle, according to a study released this week.

With its hospitals and hotel, university and museums, homes and restaurants, University Circle fits the stringent criteria set by the Brookings Institution, which ranked Greater Cleveland 29th out of the 30 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.

Based on places per-capita, Washington, D.C., took first, boasting 20 neighborhoods with workplaces, medical facilities, stores, restaurants, entertainment, culture, schools and homes. Tampa, Fla., placed last, with none.

And although Columbus and Cincinnati have just one walkable urban space each, they beat us by virtue of smaller populations.

"It's no doubt that the research is depressing," said Keith Benjamin, director of community services in South Euclid. "In the last few decades, our Greater Cleveland region has not done a great job of creating a sense of 'place.' "

But the news isn't all bleak.

"Downtown Cleveland is certainly going to make it," said the study's author Christopher Leinberger. "It's certainly on the edge, but it's almost there."

Meanwhile, we have plenty of neighborhoods that may not meet the study's criteria, but welcome walkers just the same.

How about downtown? Or Coventry? Or Crocker Park?

Ken Silliman, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's chief of staff, lists eight neighborhoods he argues should have made the list, including Ohio City, Tremont, the Warehouse District and Shaker Square.

But those spots don't pack the regional significance or critical mass demanded by the study, said Leinberger, a University of Michigan professor who has traveled often to Cleveland.

He called them local spots - residential neighborhoods that serve everyday needs with small businesses such as drugstores or dry cleaners.

For critical mass, he says, a real estate development would not require government assistance to make it financially feasible.

However, Crocker Park, a lifestyle center in Westlake, and downtown Cleveland nearly meet those strict standards. As for all those other neighborhoods - downtown Lakewood or Cedar-Fairmount or Little Italy - one or two of them could grow to be regionally significant, Leinberger said. But, still, the more than 2 million people in Greater Cleveland should have about eight to 10 walkable places.

"You certainly have a lot of good bones, good infrastructure in place," he said. "It's just critical to continue the focus of making downtown, midtown work to make University Circle work, to make Lakewood work."
How did we lose walkability?

Basically, we like our cars.

In the 1950s and '60s, as interstate highways stretched across the country, folks moved farther away from urban centers to ranches and colonials in bucolic, sprawling suburbs.

And then there were zoning codes, which forced the separation of housing from retail and industrial uses, said Jim Kastelic, a Cleveland Metroparks planner.

Also, many factories evaporated.

"It's not that Clevelanders don't like to walk," said Coral Co. President Peter Rubin, who is developing a mixed-use Cedar Center in South Euclid. "But the way this city grew up over 200 years, it was in industrial spurts. It developed around industrial centers that then left the city."

Why should we care?

That fickle group demographers called Generation X wants to live in walkable urban places, Leinberger said. Highly educated people, too, flock to spots where they won't need a car to pick up a gallon of milk.
"It's an economic development question," he said. "There are two types of cities: magnets for young people and others that are losing their young people."

Silliman, Mayor Jackson's chief of staff, agrees. Mixing shopping and restaurants with homes and offices is appealing, which is why developers are creating mini-downtowns, called lifestyle centers, in the suburbs, he said.

"We have the means to draw people, draw businesses, into Cleveland," he said. "It's good for the city because it's energy-conserving."

So what can we do about it?

In Cleveland, the city is encouraging pedestrian amenities, streetscape improvements and bike lanes in all new developments. And then there were zoning codes, which forced the separation of housing from retail and industrial uses, said Jim Kastelic, a Cleveland Metroparks planner.

In the inner-ring suburbs, officials are emphasizing their compact layout, with sidewalks and neighborhoods close to commercial districts. South Euclid is replacing tired strip malls with a gleaming row of retail and residential, a city park and a community center, steps from Whole Foods and the big-box stores of University Square.

In the Metroparks, planners are building links from neighborhoods to the Towpath and bike and hike trails.

And throughout the region, developers like Rubin and Bob Stark want to build gathering places.

Call them "community cores" or lifestyle centers, but both developers - who are battling over who gets to build in Solon - are proposing offices, retail, housing, arts centers, health facilities, college classrooms, hotels and movie theaters, all in one spot.

Leinberger applauds any walkable developments in suburbia, in old downtowns and in new ones.

"Fifty percent of these places are in suburbs," Leinberger said. "This is not just a downtown turn-around story."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:  ljohnsto@plaind.com , 216-999-4115



 

Cleveland neighborhood revival plan focuses on anchor projects

Architects of revival in six Cleveland neighborhoods are focusing their cash and expertise on the streets around big, new projects.

 

The strategy, they say, is to build "model blocks" on the streets that border new neighborhood anchors -- housing and commercial projects totaling $915 million.

 

The projects are under way or planned for a half dozen neighborhoods on the city's East and West sides.

 

Since 2004, the nonprofit Neighborhood Progress Inc. has doled out $6.2 million in grants to seasoned neighborhood-development groups in Detroit-Shore way, Fairfax, Buckeye-Shaker, South Broadway/Slavic Village, Glenville and Tremont.

Neighborhood Progress gets its money from local philanthropies, including the Cleveland, George Gund and Mandel foundations, and Enterprise Community Partners.

Working with Neighborhood Progress and the city, the neighborhood groups are pushing home repair, improved security, new parks and image-building along streets -- so-called model blocks -- that could benefit from proximity to big investments.

Near the Lake Erie bluffs west of downtown, one in five property owners has opted for home improvements in the blocks around Battery Park, an upscale, $100 million housing development, says Jeff Ramsey, director of the Detroit Shoreway Commu nity Development Organization.

In the heights of Buckeye- Shaker, new stairways, roofs and landscaping spruce up homes along East 115th Street. The anchor here is the $70 million development planned for the former St. Luke's hospital campus.

The goal is to seed sustained community growth in one of America's poorest big cities. Too many neighborhoods sag under the scourge of blight and fast population decline.

City leaders say Neighborhood Progress' work with the six neighborhood development corporations aligns with a macro- strategy to rebuild neighborhoods around regional assets, including downtown, the lakefront, University Circle and the Cuyahoga River valley.

And it complements the city's micro-strategy of establishing model blocks on the streets near neighborhood assets. Twenty-six neighborhoods have model blocks so far, said Chris Warren, Mayor Frank Jackson's chief of regional development.

All told, the Neighborhood Progress money has allowed the six development corporations to improve 120 properties, through home repairs, painting, landscaping, major renovation and demolition, said Bobbi Reichtell, Neighborhood Progress' senior vice president for programs.

Detroit-Shoreway used $50,000 of Neighborhood Progress money for the $200,000 purchase and renovation of a landmark farmhouse at West 74th Street and Herman Avenue.

John McGovern and his wife, Lisa, recently paid $155,000 for the house, which sits within walking distance of Edgewater Park and Detroit Avenue.

The couple had been renting in Ohio City. McGovern said he's intrigued by the prospects for neighborhood growth, fueled by Battery Park to the north and the Gordon Square Arts District to the south.

"We wanted city living and a walkable neighborhood," said McGovern, 35, a clean-transportation consultant for the Earth Day Coalition.

A drawback is not having a grocery store within walking distance, he said.

Nearby, longtime resident Mary Elliott is likely to land a $2,000 rebate from Detroit- Shoreway for at least $4,000 in painting and home repairs done to her distinctive Italianate home at West 73rd and Herman, as well as a rental property next door.

The model block strategy is a "fantastic way to blend the old and the new," said Elliott, 45, a Cleveland Municipal Court employee.

Despite concern about car theft in the area, Elliott is excited by the neighborhood's increased vitality.
 

The Neighborhood Progress money also allows the six neighborhood development groups to look beyond real estate to more holistic community-building.

The Fairfax development group, for example, led the construction of a new park at East 82nd Street and Quincy Avenue.

The Famicos Foundation, operating in Glenville, helped build a new playground at a popular day-care center on East 105th Street.

In Buckeye-Shaker, the neigh borhood development group joined nearby community organizations to hire private security and install surveillance cameras.

Detroit-Shoreway used part of a $20,000 marketing grant from Neighborhood Progress for a mailer to 3,000 residents, urging them to patronize a dozen new businesses and restaurants on Detroit during Black Friday.

Detroit-Shoreway is also tracking the ownership of 150 homes around Battery Park, particularly the 15 or so that are vacant or recently foreclosed, Ramsey said.

A stable and improving neighborhood helps Battery Park, which is selling three to four units a month, he said.

"If homes look run-down, you'll think twice about investing $300,000," Ramsey said. "It's important to make the neighborhood around it look attractive."

Overall, it's too early - and the real estate market too soft - to know if Neighborhood Progress' neighborhood-recovery strategy is working, said Terry Schwarz, senior planner for the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.

"There's no such thing as a 'sure thing' in Cleveland," says Schwarz, whose planning group works with Neighborhood Progress, Detroit-Shoreway and Buckeye-Shaker. "But if we get these six strategic initiatives going, they become a model we can use elsewhere."

Neighborhood Progress Inc.'s initiative in six Cleveland neighborhoods is the subject of a panel discussion from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, 1717 Euclid Ave. For more information, go to urban.csuohio.edu/ forum/sii or call 216-523-7330.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tbreckenridge@plaind.com , 216-999-4695
 

This was sent to me by Joe Wolf, member of Franklin Circle Christian Church.  I thought it was simple and yet profound.  Pastor Allen

 

******************************************************************************************************************************

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE BRIDGE
by Suzanne Benner

"For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have" (2 Corinthians 8:12).

"I think there are people living up there, behind the pillars."

"Those people are staying under the bridge because they don't have a house."

"I want to be friends with those people under the bridge."

"We should help them."

All fall, every day they drove under the highway overpass, the young boy watched for the people under the bridge and made comments to his mother. Unwilling to simply ignore his remarks, she asked him, "What do you think we should do?"

"I would give them a pillow," was his response.

Not a complicated strategy to end homelessness, not an intellectual discussion on why poverty exists, just the offer of a pillow.

Well, not just a pillow.

When his mother agreed to buy some pillows, the boy thought blankets would be good too. When his mother suggested second hand blankets from the thrift store, he responded, "Mom it's Christmas, we should give them new blankets. I have $75 in the bank, so I'll buy the blankets."

Not just new blankets, either.

"I think I should give a Bible to my friends under the bridge, because I have three and nobody needs three Bibles."

And so that is how pillows, blankets, a jar of peanut butter, some bread and a Bible were put into a garbage bag tied up with a Christmas ribbon and delivered one night to the people under the bridge. Inside was a note that read: "God loves you through a nine year old boy."

~O God, give us hearts like that nine year old boy, to truly care for those in need.

Question: How could you help someone that is in dire straights today with what you have? Ask yourself this question, "Do I really care about those in need?" How can we become more sensitive to the needs of others?

About the Author: http://talk.thelife.com/experience/devotionalforwomen/authors/suzanne-benner/

 

******************************************************************************************************************************

Bill Moyer's Journal: American Cities on PBS at
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/profile3.html

[I felt that this story and interviews was so important to our current understanding of how our cities got to be the way they are, that I am copying the entire transcript here.  I highly recommend you also go to the link above to see all the resources available.  ~Pastor Allen]

March 28, 2008
THE KERNER COMMISSION — 40 YEARS LATER
THE JOURNAL looks at an update of the Kerner Commission Report, which blamed the violence on the devastating poverty and hopelessness endemic in the inner cities of the 1960s and includes an interview with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, one of the last living members of the Kerner Commission.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/transcript1.html

BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL.
You have to go searching deep into their websites, to find out what the presidential candidates think about urban issues. Their speeches on the subject have been few and far between, and during all those debates of the past year, cities were rarely mentioned. Perhaps it's because to talk about cities, we have to think about the very touchy subject of race. Or perhaps the culprit is amnesia; we've simply forgotten the past that produced the urban challenges of today. Here's what I mean:
The official name for it was the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. But it passed through the press into popular lore as the Kerner Commission report, and that's how it's remembered today — at least to those of us old enough to remember. If you think all the talk about race in this presidential campaign is savage, you should have been around 40 years ago, in 1968, when this report was published. Talk about controversy! The Kerner Report was an unflinching portrait of America — and it was born from the flames of exploding cities.

BILL MOYERS: July 1967, Newark, New Jersey goes up in flames. Reacting to a rumor that police had beaten and allegedly killed a local man, residents protested peacefully at first. But then the scene turned violent.
For six days, state troops and police clashed in the streets with rioters. Twenty-six people were killed, including a ten year old boy.

Six days later, it happened again in Detroit, Michigan

NEWS REPORTER: Detroit. It looked like the wartime blitz on London, but this was no war, it was arson, looting, a race riot blowing up into something beyond control.

BILL MOYERS: Triggered by another police action, and another angry protest gone haywire, the destruction of downtown Detroit was worse than Newark's… the nation watched on TV as Detroit was torn apart.

As reports poured in of snipers shooting at police, President Lyndon Johnson called in the army to put an end to the violence. Thousands of blacks were rounded up, and a curfew was thrown over the city.

Five days on, forty-three people were dead, hundreds wounded, and block after block of inner-city Detroit was destroyed. Locals picked through the ruins, stunned and confused. Detroit's mayor said his city looked "like Berlin in 1945"
It wasn't just Newark and Detroit that erupted that year. Scores of other cities seemed under siege.

NEWS REPORTER: In 1967, 126 cities were hit by racial violence, with 75 incidents classified as major riots.

BILL MOYERS: The country was stunned and terrified…what was driving these events? President Johnson felt compelled to act.

LYNDON JOHNSON: We need to know the answer, I think, to three basic questions about these riots: What happened, why did it happen, what can be done to prevent it from happening again and again.

BILL MOYERS: To answer those questions, LBJ appointed what became known as the Kerner Commission… named for its Chairman, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner. New York City's Mayor John Lindsay was Vice-Chair.
The youngest member of the panel was a populist senator from Oklahoma named Fred Harris. Just in his 30s at the time, and coming from a mostly white state, Harris nonetheless went to the floor of the Senate and called on the president to fully and publicly reckon with these awful events.

SENATOR FRED HARRIS: It's gonna take a national commitment, a massive kind of national commitment and anything less than that will not cure the ills that we have, and poverty generally, and the problems of race and the problems of our cities.

BILL MOYERS: The President listened. He was furious about these riots. Believing that militant groups such as the black panthers must've somehow been behind the violence.

But when the Kerner Commission's work was done, its findings would shake Lyndon Johnson, and the country. The Kerner Report became a moment of clarity for America. A time when the nation was forced to focus on the harsh realities of racism, poverty and injustice in our cities.

BILL MOYERS: On the 40th anniversary of this historic Kerner Commission Report, I asked that formerly-young Populist Senator Fred Harris to talk about his experience. He's one of the last of the surviving members of the original Commission.

BILL MOYERS: What was the urgency? I mean here you were just recently elected to the senate from Oklahoma, a basically white state, little town of Walters. What were you thinking? Is this the end of the country? Is this-- what is it?

FRED HARRIS: We just didn't know how-- how far this was gonna go. Johnson-- the President, later I went down to talk to him while we were working on the commission. And he said to me, "Have you seen the FBI reports about these riots?" Johnson was like a lot of people who thought maybe there's some conspiracy behind them. And I said conditions are such and the hostilities are such in these central cities that almost any random spark could've set them off

BILL MOYERS: You and all the commission actually went to the streets where the riots were--

FRED HARRIS: That's right. We--

BILL MOYERS: What did you see? What all these years later, what are the particulars you remember most formidably?

FRED HARRIS: We divided up into teams. And my team was John Lindsay and me. John was then the Mayor of New York. You couldn't have had two more different people me from a little ole town in Oklahoma and John Lindsay.

BILL MOYERS: For one thing, he was tall, and you were short.

FRED HARRIS: That's right. And I remember one-- we went for example, we went to-- Milwaukee. And I spent a good portion of that day in a black barbershop. We found Milwaukee as segregated really, maybe more so, then southern cities. I kept saying to people-- "Do you run into much discrimination here in Milwaukee?" And people didn't know quite how to answer it. It turned out the reason was, that they didn't see any white people. That's how segregated Milwaukee was.
And we found there people, of course, and this was true all over. Black people had come up there looking for jobs.

BILL MOYERS: From the South.

FRED HARRIS: And the trouble was they found very little opportunity.

FRED HARRIS: Jobs is what we heard everywhere. John Lindsey and I were walking down the streets in Cleveland, I believe it was, for example. And we'd see idle young black men on the streets, you know. And these guys get up, and they said, "What we need is jobs baby. Jobs. Get us a job, baby." I remember that so-- and that's what we heard all over.

BILL MOYERS: It was the promise of those jobs that had lured so many African-Americans up from the south in the first place. From World War II on, millions of blacks migrated north. Packing into the booming industrial cities of Chicago and Newark, Milwaukee and Detroit. There they earned wages that were the first steps out of poverty for an entire generation.
But twenty years on, even as this great migration kept bringing more and more people into the cities, many of those jobs began dwindling. Huge plants closed down. Moved out to the suburbs and beyond. Many white residents followed suit, leaving the central cities in droves.

By the mid-1960s, many of the biggest inner-cities in America had become chronically segregated. And were drying up economically.

FRED HARRIS: There was low family income, high unemployment. Almost criminally inferior schools. No jobs. The jobs had moved out to the suburbs. There was poor transportation. People couldn't get, you had to take two or three buses to get to some of those jobs. And there were jobs, the new jobs that were created, were either requiring a very high level of skills or education, or were just service jobs that were very low pay kind of flipping hamburgers kind of jobs. The people that black people saw as sort of representing society were police officers. And they were nearly all white. And most of them lived outside the central city. And came in during the day to enforce the law. So there was a great deal of hostility.

BILL MOYERS: I had a remarkable woman on this broadcast a few months ago, Grace Lee Boggs. She's 91 years old, still lives in, Detroit. She said, "Bill, this was not a riot. This was a rebellion. This rebellion against what you just described as the phalanx of white faces that surrounded the ghetto and kept it segregated." She said it was a rebellion against the loss of jobs. Do you think there's something to that?

FRED HARRIS: Well there is, in a way. Although you've gotta be careful to say, you know, it wasn't some organized thing. That is it wasn't a rebellion in the sense that somebody decided to organize it, with a definite ends in mind, goals. It was more spontaneous than that. But what we finally decided on the commission was we couldn't say what caused the violence. Or why the violence would occur, for example, in Watts in '65, but not in '67. What we could do was to describe with particularity, the terrible conditions that existed in these places, where riots had occurred.
We found as I said, no conspiracy. There were one or two on our commission said, "Well, should we actually say that?" Well, isn't that the truth?

BILL MOYERS: There was no conspiracy?

FRED HARRIS: There was no conspiracy. No organization to this. And they were, "Well, yeah. Well, let's just tell the truth."

OTTO KERNER: (Illinois Governor, Chairman of Kerner Commission) There is no indication, no fact, to indicate that any of them we're planned. The elements were there. And some fuse, an unpredictable fuse, set them off, but at this point there is still no evidence for any planning for the civil disorders within the cities.

BILL MOYERS: In March of 1968, the Report was published. It was brutal in its honesty:

While saying that a growing black militancy may have added fuel to the riots, the commission rejected the idea that there'd been any organization behind the outbreaks.

Instead, the Commission blamed the violence on the devastating poverty and hopelessness endemic in the inner cities of the 1960s.

Among their many findings:
One in five African-Americans lived in "squalor and deprivation in ghetto neighborhoods."
The unemployment rate was double for African-Americans, as compared to whites.
The report described communities that were neglected by their government, wracked with crime, and traumatized by police brutality.

Disproportionate rates of infant mortality were astonishing - African-American children dying at triple the rate of white children.

The statistics weren't new. But the Kerner Commission pushed further, and laid the blame for many of these conditions on white racism: quote "what white Americans have never fully understood -- but what the Negro can never forget -- is that the white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it. White institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."

The report's conclusion — and it's most memorable message — was this: "our nation is moving towards two societies - one white, one black - separate and unequal."

FRED HARRIS: We used the word racism. And on the commission, we had two or three people say, "Should we use that word, racism?"

BILL MOYERS: Not a word that was thrown around largely by-- government panels in the 1960s.

FRED HARRIS: We felt that was very important. I did and I think it was to say it. Because what we know is that oppressed people often come to believe about themselves the same bad stereotypes that the dominant society has. Our saying racism-- I think was very important to a lot of black people who said, "Well, maybe it's not just me. Maybe I'm not-- by myself at fault here. Maybe there's something else going on."

BILL MOYERS: I remember that the headlines based on the premature leak of a summary of the report would read-"A Commission Blames Riots on Whites."

FRED HARRIS: That's right.

BILL MOYERS: White racism. And that inflamed-- whites who didn't want to be blamed.

FRED HARRIS: No, that's right. But we felt-- now I think if we had time to background it so that people would have understood it a little better. What we telling about-- with racism was not-- one white person hating one black-- or all black people. We're talking about kind of an institutional racism which existed. And where people live in all white neighborhoods. Send their kids to all white schools. Drive quickly through black section maybe, or on the train, to a job where all their associates are white. And don't see anything odd about it. That was what-
BILL MOYERS: The natural order of things.

FRED HARRIS: That's right. That's what we were talking about.

BILL MOYERS: For civil rights leaders like the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. the Kerner Report confirmed reality

MARTIN LUTHER KING: And now we see the surfacing of old prejudices and hostilities that have always been there and they're out in the open — that's very good they're out in the open because you can deal with them much better when they are there to see and when people admit them. My analysis was no more pessimistic or gloomy than the Kerner Commission's report the other day. I do feel that we've got to say in no uncertain terms that racism is alive and on the throne in American society and that we are moving towards two societies... separate and unequal and if something isn't done to stop this in a very determined manner, things can really get worse.

BILL MOYERS: The Kerner Commissioners suggested a series of solutions to tackle the problems they'd diagnosed. Everything from better early childhood education to a crackdown on police brutality. They pushed for massive job creation, more affirmative action, and an expansion of the social safety net.
But critics saw the Commission as wrongheaded. They blasted Kerner for blaming everyone in society except for the rioters themselves.

Commission members had hoped to spend six more months explaining their report to the public and lobbying for their recommendations, but in the face of all the criticism, LBJ shelved that idea.

BILL MOYERS: Looking back all this time, what did the Kerner Commission get right?

FRED HARRIS: I think well virtually everything was right. And I could add onto that this. I think one of the awfulest thing's that came out of the Reagan presidency and later was the feeling that government can't do anything right. And that-- everything it does is wrong. The truth is that virtually everything we tried worked. We just quit trying it. Or we didn't try it hard enough. And that's what we need to get back

to. We made progress on virtually every aspect of race and poverty-- for about a decade after the Kerner Commission Report. And then, particularly with the advent of the Reagan Administration, and so forth, that progress stopped. And we began to go backwards. There are consequences from our acts, and when we-- cut out a lot of these-- social programs, or the money for them, or cut it down-- we don't emphasize jobs and training, and education, and so forth as we had been doing, there are bad consequences from that.

BILL MOYERS: The Reagan conservatives were quite critical of the Kerner Commission as being unbalanced and simplistic. They say, for example, that you failed to take into consideration that the close correlation between being born out of wedlock, and growing up without a father, and being poor, that your work over the years actually exempts the poor from being responsible for their own condition.

FRED HARRIS: Well, you know, the breakdown in families is just like sort of crime and narcotics and so forth. These are the consequences. They're the handmaidens in the sense of-poverty

FRED HARRIS: I said at the time, there are a lot of people who want to-- punish people for being poor. You know, say, "It's your own fault." We want to punish people for being poor. I said, "I I used to poor myself. And being poor is punishment enough." I think what you need to do is to help people-- up, give 'em a hand up. And recognize the kind of terrible conditions that they're grown up in.

BILL MOYERS: For the last thirty years, Fred Harris has been teaching politics at the University of New Mexico.

FRED HARRIS: Power was diffused and one way it was diffused was to break all these committees down into subcommittees…

BILL MOYERS: But he never lost his commitment to the cause of the Kerner Commission. When he's not in the classroom, he's part of major, ongoing investigation into the issues of race and poverty today.

Harris sits on the board of the Eisenhower Foundation based in Washington D.C. the Foundation was created to continue the Kerner Commission. Its work is to research and support successful programs in the inner cities.

Every few years, Eisenhower publishes an updated set of findings: a report card of how the country is dealing with the key issues raised by Kerner.

Alan Curtis is President of the Eisenhower Foundation.

ALAN CURTIS: The Kerner Commission said, "Look. These problems can be solved. Let's not give up hope. And so, we try to be keepers of the flame of that message. That there is hope. There are solutions. And we remind America every so often, that we still have a long ways to go in fulfilling the prophesies of those commissions and their recommendations.

BILL MOYERS: Alan Curtis and Fred Harris have been holding hearings in Washington, Detroit and Newark to prepare a report on the 40th anniversary of Kerner.

ALAN CURTIS: We want to listen. We're taking testimony. We would encourage you to discuss today not only the solutions, but how to change political will in America so that we can embrace the priorities of the Kerner Commission and we can begin to fulfill America's promise.

BILL MOYERS: In those cities, they heard a striking set of voices

KOMOZI WOODARD: We've gone from an urban crisis in the '60s to an urban catastrophe in the 21st Century. That's what you're looking at when you look at Katrina. That's what you're looking at when you look at gentrification. We are in an urban catastrophe community, we need to be blunt about it because if we use the wrong words, it doesn't wake people up, It puts them to sleep. This is not an ordinary situation and it is a national situation. It is not a Newark situation.

JUNIUS WILLIAMS: Big northeastern cities are home to some of the most concentrated poverty in the country, and that's your new split. That's your new division.

RONALD ANGLIN: We're seeing lives of quiet desperation that we have cordoned off communities in which we allow crime to exist. We allow lots of bad things to exist, and as long as they don't spill over, that's okay.

RICHARD CAMMARERI: I would take issue with one of the premises of the most famous quote in this that we're moving towards two societies. I would respectfully suggest that we never were one society in this country. This country has simply never confronted the issue of race. . Race is, I guess to use a religious term, the original sin of this country.

HEASTER WHEELER: I believe 40 years later, today the conditions here in Southeast Michigan are just as ripe for protest, and demonstration, and possibly all those other negative things as they were 40 years later. You need not look too far to see Jena, Louisiana and all of the other challenges.

MAUREEN TAYLOR: On my way here, there are people on corners, standing up with signs, say, "Will work for food." But we're in here, talking about what's the problem?

JOSEPHINE HUYGHE: You want to know what's going on? It's somebody say, "It's the same old, same old." With the continuation of white flight that started in the '50s has been compounded by the exodus of the middle and upper class blacks as Detroit experienced a 'brain drain'.

DR. HERBERT SMITHERMAN: In 1970, the infant mortality rate, that is our babies dying before age of one, was about 65 percent higher in the black community than in the white community. Currently, it's 205 percent higher in the black community than in the white community.

GEORGE GALSTER: The City of Detroit constitutes 85 percent black residents, only nine percent white residents. The poverty rate -- white, it's only 5.9 percent, blacks: 24 percent. The median family income -- for whites, over $65,000, for blacks, only $37,000. We could go on and on, but, it's very clear that there are these measurable distinctions between blacks and whites in metro Detroit.

REV. KEVIN TURMAN: The young people of my congregation and my community are as industrious as you will find anywhere. They are as innovative and as intelligent as any that you will find anywhere. But unfortunately, they have a number of challenges that have been un-addressed, because the recommendations of the Kerner Commission were ignored or dismissed.

ROY LEVY WILLIAMS: The one industry which has flourished is the prison industry. And, yes, it has become an industry. During the last 15 years, this state has been averaging one brand new prison a year

GLENDA MCGADNEY: We have got to get serious about what's going on and what our government is allowing to happen to us, and how we're losing our rights every single day. And all this money that's being spent for the war, we need to pray about that. Because it should not be going to Iraq. It should be right here in our cities, in our neighborhood.

DR. HERBERT SMITHERMAN: When we had 9/11, we were arguing about Social Security reform. Where are we gonna find the money for it? And within 48 hours after 9/11, we found $40 billion for New York City, a billion dollars an hour. When we want to do something as a country, we do it. This is not about can we do. This is about a will. This is about do we want to do. When you start saying I'm gonna have cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, cuts to housing in urban development, no subsidies to mass transit, eliminate funding for job training, cut school lunch programs for inner city children, eliminate school loan programs for minority students, repeal after-school programs. What I'm saying is this is about public policy. This is about resource implementation.

KARL GREGORY: The 1968 Kerner Commission conclusion that racism is deeply embedded in the American society is still true. Racism is still as American as apple pie in this area. The existing huge disparities by race could not exist without racism.

BILL MOYERS: The Eisenhower Foundation has now issued their preliminary report and it echoed the testimony they heard across the country:
While noting that certain things have improved - such as the dramatic growth of the black middle class - the foundation nonetheless concludes that "America has, for the most part, failed to meet the Kerner Commission's goals of less poverty, inequality, racial injustice and crime."

Among the troubling facts:
Thirty seven million Americans live in poverty today. But African-Americans are three times as likely to be at the very bottom of the scale, living in what's known as 'deep poverty'
Median non-white families have just one-fifth the wealth of white families
And…over the last 20 years, three times as many African-American men go to prison as go to college

ALAN CURTIS: Many people today-- Americans have short memories, of course-- don't realize, for example, that the sentence for a minority person is longer than a sentence for a white person going to prison. Minorities are more likely to get the death sentence than white. The sentences for crack cocaine, used disproportionately by minorities, are longer than the sentences for powdered cocaine, used disproportionately by whites. And so, there is still this endemic, institutional racism in America that people forget about. And I think they need to be reminded about that.

BILL MOYERS: The Eisenhower Foundation's full report will be released later this year.

BILL MOYERS: Fred, you've been teaching democracy down there at the University of New Mexico for 30 years. Your textbook on democracy is used in universities all over the country. Why can't democracy deal with these persistent, chronic realities that the Kerner Commission described and you here 40 years later are restating?

FRED HARRIS: Well I think first of all-- people don't really realize that conditions are so bad for so many people in poverty and-- and for African-Americans, and for Hispanics. I think a lot of people say, well, didn't we do all that? And I think if people knew these conditions and that's what we ought to do on the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Report is to get people to see that these problems of race and poverty are still with us. Also, I think we need to approach this on a basis of that we're all in this together. Somebody said we may not have all come over on the same boat but we're all in the same boat now.

And here's the interesting thing. Every poll that's taken shows that two-thirds of Americans think America's on the wrong footing. They're headed in the wrong direction. And there's overwhelming support for example this: do you think we ought to spend more on-- in prevention-- by putting money in education and training and jobs, instead of police and prisons.

 

Overwhelmingly people say, yes. Do you think that we ought to have a social net-- so-- just to catch people falling out and to give them another chance? Oh, yes, they strongly believe in that. What about healthcare? We got 46 million people without health insurance. And yet overwhelmingly Americans say, yes, I think we ought to have-- healthcare even if-- everybody-- universal healthcare even if it costs us more money. So the public is way ahead of the politicians I think.
And I just think that, as I said, it's in our own interests, and everybody's interests to try to do something about it. We can do it.

 

National Cityscapes Conference traverses urban environments through humanities' lens
http://blog.case.edu/case-news/2008/03/26/cityscapes

[Web Note: Pastor Allen attended part of this conference.]

The three-day National Cityscape Conference, sponsored by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art, will examine our urban environment, past and present, through the lens of the humanities, asking what contributions the arts, culture, and society have made to the formation of cities.

The free, public conference, March 27-29, launches with an exhibition by conceptual artist Carl Pope, who has turned a public conversation about Clevelanders' dreams and anxieties for their city into a poster installation called The Mind of Cleveland that will extend out into the city through billboards and kiosk posters. Viewing begins on Thursday, March 27, at the Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Blvd., with a preview at 4 p.m., followed by a keynote talk at 5 p.m. by New York University visual culture professor Nicholas Mirzoeff on "Days of Race: Democracy and Black Reconstruction in the Work of Carl Pope." The preview and talk are followed by the official opening and reception at 6 p.m. in CIA's Reinberger Galleries.

The Cityscape conference continues on Friday, March 28, at CIA with sessions from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., devoted to "Creating and Performing Community," "Contested Space and Social Divisions" and "Organizing the City."

The Saturday sessions on March 29, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., move to Case Western Reserve University's Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations Building, 11402 Bellflower Rd. Sessions will address "Knowing, Remembering and Imagining the City," "Representation and Urban Spaces" and "Marketing the City."

A reception and talk by public artist Lee Quinones closes the conference at 4:30 p.m. with an overview of "The Lincoln-West High School Mural Project," about the experience of working with local high school students on the art project.

The Cityscape conference dovetails with Case Western Reserve's 2008 Humanities Week celebration, March 24-29, dedicated to the theme of Cityscape. Highlights of the week include a film series at Cinematheque and lectures by visiting scholar Alison Isenberg from Rutgers University. The featured keynote speaker for Humanities Week is Norman Krumholtz, winner of the 2007 Cleveland Arts Prize for his lifetime work in urban planning. His talk, also free and open to the public, takes place at 4:30 p.m. in Amasa Stone Chapel, 10940 Euclid Ave.

Funding to the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities for Humanities Week comes from a major grant from the Presidential Initiative Fund for the Humanities through the generosity of the Cleveland Foundation and a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. Additional support for these various activities is from Clear Channel, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimpeman (Ward 13) and Progressive Arts Alliance.

Although the event is free and open to the public, registration is required by visiting http://bakernord.org, where a full list of events and speakers is also available for the conference and Humanities Week 2008.
For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

The Mind Of Cleveland Art Exhibition
The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) jointly commissioned conceptual artist Carl Pope to create a public art work project “The Mind of Cleveland.” This exhibit will premier in conjunction with the National Cityscapes Conference from March 27-30, 2008. The conference explores the intersections between the urban environment, humanities and the community.

“The Mind of Cleveland” is a public conversation in billboard/poster form, a conceptual town meeting where everyone has the opportunity to be heard publicly. The project employs modes of communication common in urban spaces, such as billboards, letterpress posters and the Internet. With the use of public signage, the thoughts, feelings and wishes of Cleveland residents are displayed.
Responses to the question, “What do you think about Cleveland?” will be collected by this website and displayed on billboards and letterpress posters. Ideas circulating in the public sphere can represent the unspoken thoughts of thousands of people. And those collective thoughts have the potential to inspire dialogue and communal action.
In addition to the billboard campaign, there will be a gallery exhibition featuring letterpress posters containing quotes from the Cleveland community. Copies of the posters will be given away to the general public upon request. To learn more about the billboard campaign and gallery exhibition, click here.http://www.themindofcleveland.com/billboards_exhibition.html

Pope believes we are living in a time in which individuals and small groups can exert tremendous influence on the world. His artistic practice is rooted in a belief that outer change is born within the imagination, inspiring the individual to become a catalyst to effect transformation in the world. The goal of “The Mind of Cleveland” is to inspire civic pride and cooperation during this critical point in the city’s history. Now seems to be the perfect time to pose these questions.