Did Mayor Jackson Really Say That? If So, What Does He Mean?

Submitted by Kevin Cronin on Fri, 08/10/2007 - 14:10.

When the Cleveland population dipped below 500,000, the population basis for many federal grant formula, the ability of the federal partner to help on our urban problems was constrained, as the City became one of only many cities across the country, rather than one of the larger, most impactful cities on its own. So strategies to increase the city population deserve special consideration, yes? Well, perhaps not.

 

However, before leaping with criticism and concern, I'd like to hear about a city immigration strategy from Mayor Jackson. On Thursday, the Mayor joined with Mayors across Northeast Ohio to talk about shared approaches and regionalism at a forum sponsored by the terrific group, cleveland365.com, Professionals in the City Series. There were a lot of positive comments and mutual support, but I was troubled by a a response to an immigration question when Mayor Jackson said we first "need to take care of our own." I know what he said, but before I leap to criticism, I want to know more about what he means. I worry that the comment illustrates a deeply troubling approach to immigration. We need a strategy of supporting growth for the city and the region by embracing immigration and we shouldn't create new conflicts between current residents and more recent arrivals, whether the result of immigration from outside the country or simply outside the region.

Certainly we need to strengthen education and employment opportunities for everyone, but creating new community fault lines will limit our growth potential and limit the availability of federal partnerships under federal grant formula.  Embracing immigration's potential is part of a growth strategy and a natural step, given our multi-cultural history. Immigration helps grow the city, creating new opportunities to infuse new ideas and strategies. While education and job creation should be the cities' highest priority, they are never-ending commitments. To use current needs as an excuse to turn away from strategies for growth or suggest that one must wait for the other, is a false and misleading choice. Support for immigration is a positive, not negative, strategy for growth.

It is numbers game and

It is numbers game and always has been.  The city of Columbus is growing but it played with the numbers to do so.  Funding should be based on density, but should be does not change what is.

 

We are not a nation so immigration is a poor choice of words, getting people to move into the city is more real. 

 

Cleveland: 478,403

East Cleveland: 26,255

 

Does anyone a have calculator?  I do it!  504,658

 

What are the actual funds lost in real dollars, somebody said, “give me one good reason why East Cleveland should merge with Cleveland” There you go sir! 

 

If we were to say as a city that a loss in federal funds to a neighboring city is not our problem, then we could conclude that as just another person that really does not understand economics. 

 

If there is an actual dollar loss amount, gaining it back, it could be relegated to develop East Cleveland, it could have access to those funds and be it own ward.  I believe East Cleveland does not offer a reduction for working outside the city on its income tax.   I believe workers in Cleveland that live in East Cleveland would pay 3% income tax opposed to 2% if they lived and worked in Cleveland.   

 

I am not “out of my cotton picking mind” are you?  I think that two reasons. 

 

Would Uncle Sam consider annexing a city and allowing it to remain semi autonomous cheating?  NO!  They would say population over 500K gives them money.

 

I think we must have had too much exposure to lead; our brains are not working so well.

 

Maybe we should ask PLJ to analysis the tax, is it a death tax Peter?  Does it account for more than .25% of real income?   

 

I apologize but sometimes I feel compelled to say things I do not like to say.

 

Sam Miller said he would attempt to instigate a regional government.  I suggest a meeting with Jackson, Brewer and Lawson-Jones.   I also would bring a calculator.

 

Alternatively, we could hang signs on public housing projects. 

 
Hogar libre para illegal 
 
If you want immigration then set up a web page and advertise the low cost of living in the city and jobs available, but you also need to have access to immigration processing and visas.  That would require immigration attorneys to act as liaisons, they do that already it is not cheap.  You would need to do that in house so to speak, to gain 25,000 people that way would require a significant effort.  
 
 
 
 

 

East Cleveland independence

I'd say the one big thing East Cleveland has going for it is that it is independent. It can be agile and creative in its revival. It has good bones.

Merging with Cleveland and its tangled web of politics would cripple East Cleveland and put it very low in the pecking order of who gets what. Cleveland would be the only beneficiary of a merger, and that merger would only give Cleveland another ward to deny services to. Having lived in this town since 1983, I am convinced that the denial of services, such as safety, is intentional and calculated. Calculated to what end? "Planned abandonment" and its concomitant benefits to the banks and the developers.

planned abandonment: a primer

http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/programs/hpd/pdf/hpd_1101_metzger.pdf

At this link is a primer on planned abandonment, to get you up to speed. As you'll see, it's been around since the 1930s. You will begin to see why it is in the banks' and the local governments' best interests to deny services, such as safety, to certain areas.

To many poor people and a

To many poor people and a bunch of run down homes,  the city is not aggressively demolishing homes, I see the same abandoned homes year after year. 

 

If your area is or has some homes demolished, then it is because your area is at risk and not too far gone.  You should be able to get a list from your city council representative, or even a list of foreclosures, you could get them cheap and renovate them.   What is the process to get tax abatement, what gets abatements?   The Cleveland housing network gets it on renovations.  You could buy them, restore them, and then sell them as lease to own, and then you could be a bank.    I think the best scenario would to get abatement, and hold the title as a bank. 

 

Mortgage Banking License

 

LP2 laws in Ohio

 

Small business loan application

 

Tax abatement

 

There are some homes in your area selling for cheap, if you really have vision of your area, then this would be the model to act on. 

 

At some point they should, become I should.   

 
 

I lived in cleveland and was

I lived in cleveland and was nevered denied service, what service? 

 

East Cleveland does it get access to federal grants? 

 

Will developers build in the city?  They will if you pay them to.

 

I would not recomend east cleveland merge with Cleveland, it should be part of a larger regional governemt.  It would be part of a larger region, with access to more resources. 

 

in ohio it is 11,000 per capita in government spending, regional government would have to be able to have control of all of that spending, to many players.  The federal government wants to empower the local government, nobody can figure out how.  I can; stop leap froging the money around.  

 

You want to beat the banks, then stop using them except for interest generating accounts live modestly and save.   Pay cash. 

 

I think people that play keep up with the Jones are fools, the whole series of event that will unfold will prove it, the banks are now running 30:1 loans to trusts.   They can not stop lending or they collapse.  Some have no captital, they just take it from the central bank and loan it out, need an equity loan we will lend you 120% of your value, no down payement no problem, bad credit no problem either.  You are qualified for a 300K home! 

 

it is not a conspiracy, it is greed and ignornance.  lets see amercians are not just bad at geography, they know nothing about finance, seriosuly you are better off renting, do the math take out the calculator. 

 

the smartest people are sitting at home, selling drugs and collecting general assitance. Time is money, lots of free time.    

 

 

  

regional government

I understand, it is not a wandering logic, more about multiple thoughts addressed simultaneously. I have an analytical mind, but I also have poor writing skills well, not poor actually only good.  I do not write as I speak. I am not a writer.  I am a thinker.

I have a very broad knowledge base; I have a great understanding of processes and the systems that they are inherent within, it is natural for me to look beyond to analysis. 

 

I know that if a city defines a system that is unique and well thought out, if it part of a regional initiative then it gets attention.  A regional system of government would move the city to the seventh largest in the nation.  If the system was well defined and well thought out it capitalizes on the attention.  It can become a role model an example of what and how to do it.  That being creating a more efficient system. 

 

Cuyahoga has 50 unique zip codes, and 500,000 parcels of land. 

 

Central government (the county)

Regional sections (five regions)

District (50 zip codes)

Parcels (500,000)   

 

One standard system and dispersion of administration of those functional processes, in tiers through regions into district, all defined as a transaction.  Some being per capita spending or direct investment.    However, the system would have accountancy detailed at a district level.     The sum of all taxes dispersed across districts, detailed processes that are happening in different areas but all under the same system.  Database application software a distributed process.  Business use this all the time headquarters and regional or branch offices.  

 

Currently there are 71 separate municipal governments with Cuyahoga County; this replaced with 56 regional government administrations.   One central, five regional and 50 districts administrations all operating under one budget and one system.   

 

One tax rate one taxation system, funding five regions, funding ten districts, the consolidations of city halls into regional administration centers, then have district offices in each zip code.  Taxes and spending would slice up into parcels or per capita by zip code (districts), they would considered either donors or recipients,  higher income communities compared to lower income.  A data driven system with simple already established unchanging boundaries, non-partisan, regions would be continuous zip codes in groupings of ten.  The results would be five medium size governments, one region of around 400,000 surounded by four regions of around 225,000 each.  They would have a council of ten that was part of a council of fifty that being each district would have its own council representative and vote on all regional issues.  All allocated budgets based on equal dispersion of resources.  However, the key to success would be that the larger regional government agenda would be to get control of state and federal funds entering the regions.  

 

Consolidation is not that difficult often in the onset nothing changes except the source of the payroll check.  That requires a centralized process first regionally then across the region as a whole. 

Actually, all it takes is a county vote, and then its implemented.  Those that would fight it would be existing politician more concerned about themselves than the greater good. 

 

In Cleveland, it is not a racial issue, because many zip codes would have majorities and those would hold council seats and have influence over their distinct regions. A majority is the highest population, groups that feel they have specific needs can address those needs and the greater council can address them.    Government employees could be required to live in the district or region or just the county based on the tier the actually location of the position they represent.   

 

All regional government agencies would be inclusive, no separate agencies all funds or spending would go through a central administration and insure all transactions are recorded, even state and federal. 

 

We today have a very awkward fragmented system, a more standard system that has functional levels that align with sources of revenue of other larger government agencies.  Regional HUD federal HUD, regional department of transportation and ODOT, regional EPA and federal EPA.   

 

No need to fear change if change is defined, this would bring about lots of attention. 

 

Is the county about to build a new administration building?  Alternatively, are they about to build a central regional government office?   

 

Logic says that if this is not appealing to you then that is do to your own limitations and self-serving interests.

 

We can define it and we can put it on the ballot, we can define it to the point that most would embrace it. 

 
 

County Map

 

I prefer zip codes from a process advantage, in databases the term is to query, total tax revenue by a variable, a zip code is always there.  In addition, such services, as trash removal and street clean are not that different from mail delivery.  The postal regions have logical divisions, based on continuous roads.  The also usually have relatively consistent demographics, but each would be unique and most are already identifiable neighborhoods or cities.  

 

I know that investors look at demographic as a city ranks low as a region Cuyahoga is only marginally different than other cities, it is considered the second largest city in Ohio yet it is the largest as a region 7th largest in the nation.  I never think that bigger is better, but many decision these days are done at a glance.  We can improve the number and attempt to improve the quality of life, why would anyone have trouble with that. 

 

It is the twenty first century and we still think in race and gender?  We need a fair and accountable system, one that shows that efforts made produced results. 

 

Look close, Cleveland and the county has a disputed health care system it actually has primarily three.  If a group of very bright people were able to see clearly were all the funds come from the path they take, they could devise a system of insurance and rating system, it could apply Medicaid and Medicare funds to supplement the low wages. One of the systems already does it, the counties.  We can have a 100% accessible system we are ahead of the game; we have a distributed system of clinical services.  If we can get regional employers out of paying health care then employees select there own, then pricing get subsidized through state and federal funds.  If we require regional insurers then the money stays local.  Combining into a regional government includes a regional county hospital. 

The sum of all the operating cost of all health care facility is the real cost of health care.  

The sum of all insurance premiums must cover that amount; it should carry balances in surplus.

In closed system as cold be for the region, it could collect premiums locally and subsidize those with Medicaid and Medicare.  Any outside patients reduce the cost to the local insurance providers; revenue from outside of the region helps covers operating costs.  Many health care costs are fixed and do not go up as patients are treated.   If one out of ten patients are from outside the region then one tenth of the revenue is not coming out of a local insurer, if the system of insurance is local and the system of clinical care in national or even international, then the visiting patients reduce local health care insurance premiums. The key is to have local insurance providers, 100% participation, and regulated prices subsidized through federal and state funds.   

It is because a hospital does not loose money when it treats a person it looses money when a doctor or nurse is not treating patient.  That is why you always have to wait.  Local insurance providers, committed to the region regulated and subsidized.             

 

Education, and safety are all distributed services, based on the size and population each would get funds equally, since Cleveland is I believe nine zip codes then one other zip code would be included in it as a central region it would be flanked by four other regions with ten zip codes.  That would not make it part of Cleveland it would be a district in its own but regionally administered with nine adjacent continuous districts.  Some shifting would take place since cites are and do span multiple zip codes.  The best thing is that it would define itself; there would be little deliberations about boundaries they would be continuous zip codes as they exist.  Again, five regions with 10 district each. 

 

Once the regions are geographically defined, a regional administration sites established and all administration transferred. Northwest, Southwest, Central, Northeast, Southeast, the central region would have a regional office and the central administration office. 

 

It is all about a standard system that disperses resources it eliminates redundancy.  The ultimate objective is more accountability of the better allocation of funds and the results. 

 

Has anyone else taken the concept of regional government beyond yes or no besides me?   Me and the PD? 

 
Lets get in on the ballot!  It is a democracy correct!          

each Cleveland councilperson...

...might do better for constituents in a regional format. A councilperson could, should, and would have equal standing with the mayor of East Cleveland, or the mayor of Pepper Pike, or of Garfield Heights, based perhaps on number of constituents served. The size of a ward is, to my way of thinking, amenable to obtaining the efficiency of a small town. Many services can be regionalized, and some can be ward-based, up close and personal. Looking back to the self-sustaining communities promoted around the time of the Arts and Crafts Movement would be a way to begin thinking about the sub-units of the regional government.

The centralized hierarchical "leadership" model is going by the boards, with the able assistance of Frank Jackson and JimmyTimmy; lateral models, networks interconnected, are emerging. This whole culture, and its structures, are due to flip soon. I hear rumblings.

Regional Government,

GDP is artificially inflated, government spending.  (That is a rumble)

 

Banks are changing the rules, then finding out the penalties, as if they have a conscious, they do not.  They have to keep writing loans, they change the criteria and inflate the value.  We all know what happened, we are looking at it.

 

They cannot fully control the market, they cannot, the prices will fall and they need to. If they attempt to cheat their way out of it then it will get worse. 

 

So in 2008 the Dems will come in, they will spend to keep the GDP up, they have to if it falls then it gets labeled recession and consumer confidence goes down the tube. 

 

If they pull out of the war the GDP will plummet and I am predicting home values to depreciate by 15-25%.   The foreclosures usually depreciate more than that they are part of the market, they will affect value overall. 

 

However, they will do all they can to hide a recession including major spending, I hope it will not be on health care, but it looks like the stage is set for that.   The thing is that the republicans may sink the ship from the sidelines, they can.  They can prevent the spending they did so much of and the GDP will fall. 

 

Then the idiots all might get in line, cut budgets reduce spending tighten belts?  Alternatively, will they?  Most CEO'S know how the system works they may not play into it?  

 

It is complex we all know that, do not hope for a complete collapse, there is no need to hit rock bottom, in fact look at the majority of the world it is at the bottom and can never really get off it.   Marginal improvement over time, make for greater gains a collapse is all lost ground.  The concept of falling to the bottom and then rising to the top is misconception, it rarely happens. 

 

The big picture is a well defined efficient regional government as a component of a larger government.    The fed is hungry for a model that allows them to empower a region.  They are all aware that the current system is very inefficient, some would enjoy change and other are just going with what exists.  

 

They say that 20% can see the big picture, and 80% cannot see it or even be bothered considering it.   If you get the 20% involved in change good things happen, if the 80% run things nothing changes and some actually do nothing but create there own gains.  If you ask the 80 to look at the big picture, you can tell if they are or are not by the length and depth of the knowledge.  They work best applied to tasks and not to change, and many will get stuck on one aspect and not see anything else. 

 

I call or a unique regional government a distributed system, with tiers what is common for all and then what is unique to a smaller part, ZIP standard for “zone improvement plan” My zone is 44120 what is yours?   

 

I would like to replace RITA with RTS; all taxes would go through it and then go back to the correct place.  It would be a parcel-based system; the streamlining comes in when you only need a zip code to separate funds by districts.  

 

All cities, wards, neighborhoods become zones/districts they would use zip codes.  I call this bottom up analysis some may call it root analysis.  Many people would like to see something but very few look at the process that would support the action.

 

I describe a distributed regional government that is process driven.  

 

This would produce a plethora of quick data, for example 44111, the sum of all taxes collected, categorized by type, property, income, business and even sales potentially. 

 

Number of parcels by type, all this is nothing more than a few manipulations of an existing data base, but the key fields need to exist parcel and zip.  These two fields never change.

 

I realize it may seem boring to some, but the details always are, we never get the details we just get the conflict, the sides of the debate.   That is my friend’s duality, and yes, it is a sign of change.  The polarization and then the conflicts, they can become very heated.

 

In reality, a transition from the current system to a regional government would be painful for some and unnoticed by others. 

 

I am sure that the good people of Columbus will get some pain having to change all their literature that describes them as the largest city. 

 

These things are subjective, most of what needs addressing is functional and really just makes thing more accountable, which is what we all want. 

 

As far as East Cleveland, it is 44112 and that would improve its demographics that and its size would be slightly larger, at a district level, it acquires assets.   This shifting does not really have to alarm people but it would.     The shifting is more for accounting purposes at first; care to talk about taking all the tax rates and then averaging them and then reapplying them at that average.  No more work city resident city even though that information would exist in the data, since where you work is a parcel and were you live as well. 

 

I would not change school district at first, but dispersion of funds would be equitable.  Through and over time it may be wise to align schools with district, but to me I think the 5-region approach could be used for school districts since high schools are usually not immediately close to residences.  Since many poor communities have had many schools upgraded, I not sure the inner city would be too much of burden, financially.  However, the unions getting them to combine that would be a trick.  I would suggest freezing the highest paid and then increasing the lowest to meet them at a marginal rate.  Considering that, consolidation would save on administration cost, that might all balance out.  Eliminating many district heads, those are the fun ones to cut!  What is it in costs one admin can equal three teachers.  

 

You could have one representative in each district, and they would simply monitor a much wealthier system. 

 

I would suggest the good people at NORDIS empower the parcel maps with relative zip codes and tax rates as they are and then what they could be, during that process they will draw a conclusion that having all the data in one set would be very powerful, as a tool.

 

I think Phil Star and what is mentors name, I call him Krumhole, write books and play with (I want to say them selves) data and call for a community centric world, I say chop chop connect the dots.   They build on ten-year-old census data, get real, empower a real-time data driven system.   Actually NORDIS has some interesting people working for them, some may actually understand what I present.      

 

The results could produce lower taxes for everyone overall, it requires analysis. 

 

This all points out a digital divide a government that is about 10 to 15 years behind in the use of technology. 

 

Again, a data driven application based software, if government operated like business then it would become very efficient, but it cannot shrink to much, it feeds the economy.  I just would like to make it smarter.  

 
Look 11,000 per capita in taxes spent and 1.3 million people that’s $14,300,000,000 annually, do we have clue were it goes?          

Revisit 2007 post - when does EC+CLE happen? Before RNC?

 

BTW - harassment of residents on near west side for "code violations" is gearing up - here's who is harassing local residents near WC Reed Field "HOGAR"  Brian Cummin's fake pet CDC:

 

Stockyard,Clark-Fulton & Brooklyn Centre at 3167 Fulton Rd Kris Harsh, Housing department 216-961-9073 x208