Who is Fact Checker??

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 01/14/2018 - 11:01.

 

 

Those being quoted as sources in this story are major contributors to the city's blight.  Everyone quoted is either a current or former Cleveland councilman.  Jeff Johnson, Jim Rokakis, Gus Frangos, Ed Rybka.  All have poorly-served the city and county in every capacity in which they've held office, even today.  Quoting them as reliable, without knowing their history, is a disservice.

Rokakis and Frangos pushed the third party tax lien sales that wiped out blocks of east side homes in Cleveland, East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights before the foreclosure crisis.  Now they're letting demolition contractors dump on and pollute landbank lands in those same east side neighborhoods where they turned homeowners into renters, and with the council Johnson serves on's blessings..  This was before they all supported Lee Fisher's board-up of over 1000 so-called "drug houses" when he served as attorney general.

Have you ever, Leila, thought to examine the relationship between the officials of GLS Capital, Plymouth Park Investments and the other third party tax lien buyers and the players who wrote and pushed the law in 1998 that allowed these sales to take place in counties with 1 million in population and more?  Have you examined the impacted neighborhoods?  This was supposed to benefit schools? How does creating housing vacancies benefit schools?

The "D" in HUD stands for "Development" not "Demolition."  The same money spent on demolition can be spent to renovate some of the homes, and it's okay with HUD if the homes are sold at cost. If the renovation is $10,000 the house sells for $10,000, the funds are recaptured and then used to renovate and sell other homes the same way.  It creates real afforable home ownership.  That was Eric Brewer's plan as East Cleveland's mayor when he wrote the $2 million NSP grant before leaving office. He also wrote a vacant property registration ordinance that brought in money without taxing residents, and forced real vacant property owners to maintain them or be jailed.

Anything Johnson says about Glenville shouldn't be taken seriously.  He needs to tell his wife to stop posting family pictures of their family home in Twinsburg on Facebook.  He's running for mayor of Cleveland.  He should at least minimally keep up the appearances that he cares about the residents of Cleveland and "their" problem schools while his girls are educated in Twinsburg.

There are answers to the vacant housing problem in Cleveland but the so-called experts quoted in this story don't have them.  The focus of the entire discussion about the resolution of this city's problems with blight and a lack of overall neighborhood development has to change, and so do the people and writers leading the discussion. 

If this newspaper were honest they'd be investigating Rokakis, Frangos, Rybka and their relationship with the late Judge Raymond Pianka and how he abused the housing court to wipe out liens and harass property owners out of their properties for all their special interests.  Johnson, too.  This council is savage in intimidating housing and building inspectors under the mayor's supervision into targeting specific property owners for harassment.  It's unlawful but it's done.  If you want a real story Leila, go through the housing court docket and start talking to property owners who Pianka jailed.

There's more than 150 years of service from all the players quoted and their tenure has only led to worse and not better for Cleveland.  Investigate them, Leila.  Don't uplift them.  Their track records and deeds are so nefarious you'd win a Pulitzer for the newspaper by exposing them.

Posted on What to do with vacant homes is a Cleveland quandary
1/29/2017 12:52 PM
( categories: )

Fact Checker is a very smart person

Submitted by lmcshane on Sat, 01/20/2018 - 11:51.

Just to be clear - I am not Factchecker :)

 Laura McShane to EJB:

"I don't think a person is bad because of tax delinquency - as you know - African American families were kicked out of their homes for minor tax delinquencies through the sale of tax liens. While others , who could pay, did not suffer foreclosure. The piece that everyone in Cuyahoga County overlooks is the different standard for tax collection. Cuyahoga County needs a tax base and that tax base is disproportionately being applied to the folks who do play by the rules. Cuyahoga County plans to raise the percentage of taxes collected for mental health services. This, while all of the taxes already collected are squandered through dispersal to agencies like Ohio Guidestone, Centers for Families etc."

 

Hocus Pocus - put the levy up for renewal EARLY :

 

http://executive.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/Statement-HHS-Levy.aspx

 http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2015/11/cuyahoga_county_voters_will_be_asked_to_renew_health_and_human_services_levy_in_march.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County voters will be asked to approve an eight-year renewal of a health and human services tax on March 15, 2016. 

Cuyahoga County Council voted Tuesday to place the 4.8-mill tax on the ballot. The Fiscal Office determined the renewal tax will generate $133 million a year, officials said. The proposal, which would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $147 a year, would not increase taxes. 

 

The same tax was approved in 2008 and 2012. The proposed renewal will be for eight years, instead of the standard four. Officials said they felt a longer term would decrease the number of times the county would have a proposed tax before voters

 

SEE also:

 

 

 

 Personally, I hope Sweeney goes down in the tide of #metoo #timesup fury. Today is the Women's March downtown. Yesterday, Chris Quinn spoke on Ideastream about the failed Amazon HQ bid. Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland lost because we prop up the careers of people like Martin Sweeney. There is much dead weight at Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland. Cleveland has potential to be an economic powerhouse, but not with the entrenched politics that protect people like Martin Sweeney. We are stuck with Jackson for four more years - but at Cuyahoga County we can and must get rid of Budish. Who is the most likely contender to run against Budish?

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/01/martin_j_sweeney_dogged_by_200.html

Gone Permanently - TG for Internet Archive!

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 01/14/2018 - 12:27.

Rokakis: Bill to let group hold properties on behalf of public

 
Thursday, September 04, 2008
By Tara Quinn tquinn [at] sunnews [dot] com
Parma Sun Post

Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis said there are almost as many foreclosures in the suburbs as there are in the city of Cleveland.

"What was primarily a city problem has worked its way out to the suburbs," he said. "Of the 15,000 that were foreclosed last year, nearly half were in the suburbs."

By now, everyone has heard the term "foreclosure crisis." Some urban suburbs have dozens of vacant homes being broken into and decaying. Other areas haven't experienced those drastic side effects, but still are touched by the crisis in different ways.

Rokakis said, "There are thousands of vacant properties in this county. In the city of Cleveland alone, there are at least 8,800 to 8,900 properties awaiting demolition. There are at least 1,400 in Garfield Heights. There's hundreds in Parma.

"The crisis we face now is there is no money to demolish these houses. There's a little bit here and little bit there, but the amount of money you need to tear down the properties in Cleveland is probably in excess of $100 million. There are suburban demands to do demolition, too, but they don't have the money, either."

Rokakis has proposed a solution with State Rep. Tom Patton, R-18, State Sen. Bob Spada, R-24, and a former member of Cleveland City Council, Gus Frangos. The proposed bill would create a public authority that has the ability to take property and hold it on behalf of the public.

 

"Many of the banks are ready to give us the foreclosed properties," Rokakis said. "The cities don't want them. Where are the cities going to come up with the money to maintain those properties? Where are they going to come up with the money to do demolition? What is the city going to do with them?"

https://web.archive.org/web/20111016082016/http://www.cleveland.com/parmasunpost/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1220542653283580.xml&coll=4&thispage=1

 

Here's where Clevelanddotcom takes you: http://www.cleveland.com/parmasunpost/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1220542653283580.xml&coll=4&thispage=1