TREMONT'S RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC GAIN OR NPI'S RECIPE FOR "BLIGHTLY" PUSHING LOW-IMCOME RESIDENTS OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD?

Submitted by jerleen1 on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 13:25.

 

From: Sammy Catania

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To:

ohiocity [at] yahoogroups [dot] com

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"TREMONT HAS FOUND A RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC GAIN BY COURTING THE UPSCALE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY"..
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The two most critical components of vibrant urban neighborhoods are QUALITY OF PLACE and jobs.

Neighborhoods that thrive in the 21st century will be those that can offer INVITING opportunities to "LIVE WORK AND PLAY"

Cleveland's neighborhoods that have managed to hold onto jobs and that have developed or maintained an attractive sense of place will most certainly have the best chance for growth and sustainability.

Neighborhoods in distress will continue to suffer and decline without a comprehensive plan to leverage distinctive assets.

The Greater University Circle Initiative offers significantly distressed surrounding neighborhoods such as Fairfax, Glenville and Hough the "last best chance" for turning the corner on urban decay by leveraging the considerable
assets nearby.
In addition to offering potential residents unique, engaging quality of place, University Circle's cultural, medical and educational institutions represent the fastest-growing employment base in Northeast Ohio. University Circle institutions have shown themselves to be powerful economic engines with the potential to generate opportunity for all residents and jolt dying neighborhoods back to life.

However, lack of trust, respect, collaboration and understanding can choke off even the most powerful
economic generator.

Cleveland neighborhoods must also recognize that the road to recovery is a long one. Reforming education, replatting communities and building assets take time – and will require broad-scale support.

"Everyone has a stake in this," Johnson says. "It didn't get bad overnight and it's not going to get fixed overnight."

Some institutions have already been at this work for a number of years. For example, the Saint Luke's Foundation has invested heavily in the Mount Pleasant and Buckeye-Shaker neighborhoods, providing leadership and support to help
improve the health and well-being of individuals and families.

This ongoing neighborhood- based outreach program defines "healthy communities" AS THOSE THAT PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, educational excellence and an attractive living environment. Such commitment on the part of key neighborhood stakeholders will be necessary to restore the vitality and social capital of distressed neighborhoods.

Although the revitalization efforts going on in University Circle may provide the best model for retooling Cleveland's neighborhoods to thrive in the 21st century, these efforts also demonstrate the considerable cost and effort
necessary to connect long-distressed neighborhoods to renewed economic opportunity.

Other pockets of current and potential exist throughout the city:

TREMONT HAS FOUND A RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC GAIN BY COURTING THE UP-SCALE RESTAURANT
INDUSTRY

The St. Clair- Superior neighborhood stands to capture significant employment
opportunities and other benefits if the Cleveland-
Cuyahoga County Port Authority relocates to the East 55th Street Marina.

Detroit-Shoreway is building around its arts district.

Each of these illustrate that quality of place, or the potential for it, tends
to be determined by A NEIGHBORHOODS ANCHORING INSTITUTIONS OR AMENITIES... .

THE GRIM REALITY FOR CLEVELAND IS THAT NEIGHBORHOODS LACKING SUCH AMENITIES WILL CONTINUE TO FACE SERIOUS SURVIVAL CHALLENGES

In general, these weak neighborhoods that have no connection to Cleveland's powerful nodes of medical, educational, cultural and industrial establishments DO NOT represent good prospects for reinvestment.

The limited resources of Re-imagining Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County land bank and other renewal efforts would be better spent in neighborhoods with better odds for long-term survival, including job creation and economic impact.

There is no "miracle cure" for the chronic wasting disease threatening Cleveland and its neighborhoods. There is no quick fix.

In fact, Krumholz, Rokakis and Anoliefo see IMPROVING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS THE ONLY REAL CURE FOR ENDING THE CITY'S ONGOING DECLINE.

"If I were king, my answer to Cleveland's problem would be education," Krumholz says. "I wouldn't spend any money on a Med Mart, sports arenas, moving the port, would try to get the people of the city educated.
I would … treat EDUCATION as economic development, which it is."
 

 

[ohiocity] A REGIMEN FOR RENEWED VITALITY---excerpts from Policy Bridge Neighborhood Report

Saturday, October 17, 2009 5:32 AM

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restaurants = education?

"If I were king, my answer to Cleveland's problem would be education," Krumholz says. "I wouldn't spend any money on a Med Mart, sports arenas, moving the port, would try to get the people of the city educated. I would … treat EDUCATION as economic development, which it is." Norm Krumholz

Right on, Norm! But how do a wellness center and restaurants equate to education? How does moving over for the highway make a strong neighborhood, Mr. Catania? You're right - gentrification takes time - stop trying to ramrod it. And don't think that transportation experts (?) married to preservation delayers, consultants for the Cleveland Clinic and their "stand by and watch it fall" nonprofit EDs can save Toxic Tremont just because you appoint one of them to your board. You gotta talk to the longtime residents, you gotta thank every art gallery pioneer and stroke them mightily even as the neighborhood grows to an economy beyond their means. Rent controlled flats in Chelsea and the Village in NYC are what kept those neighborhoods cool even as they became swanky options for high end businesses. The people are what make Tremont cool - the longtime residents and the arty pioneers. Move them along and Tremont will be just like any other cookie cutter "new urbanist" hole (only Mittal toxic). Boy - Stealyard Commons has really made Tremont a destination hasn't it! Not.

Somehow I think Mr. Catania has failed to see the wisdom Mr. Krumholz has shared here in a direct manner. He should read Norm's treatise on urban planning - It's called Making Equity Planning Work (not "planning for the rich"). Or maybe he should invite Norm to share his vision for Tremont with him - you know, over coffee at Lucky's or at a table in one of those swanky restaurants.

Also - reimagining Cleveland is an education. Ever think that urban kids might need to know how to grow the food those swanky restaurants will someday be forced to order from local growers when trucking becomes cost prohibitive or we simply want to keep it local (to grow the local economy)? How is urban food production or attemps to clean soil, water and air (regardless of how limited the HUD funds applied to it currently may be) not economic development and education? Education is longterm not a fast buck in your pocket or a halo on your head. A return to urban food production will be a longterm strategy, too. No gardens in Tremont? OK, if you say so Mr. Catania. Hey, maybe you can get a casino! That'll fix it!

Norm Krumholz

 As soon as I read the posting in my OC group, I knew that Krumholz had been taken out of context by Mr. Catania.  It was downhill from there, and I am still trying to figure out why the Tremont West staffer is posting this in the Ohio City yahoo group. Not one of the concerns posted by realneo posters has been addressed by Mr. Catania in his posting. Why? 

Norm Krumholz was framed

The Policy Bridge report quoted by Catania is a disgrace.

Norm Krumholz is forever disgraced by association.

If Norm Krumholz dies tmorrow, this is what he will be remembered for... his soundbites in the establishment's destruction of his own vision for social equity.

But, then, Norm Krumholz has little to be proud of in his town, region, and Cleveland State... he will be measured and remembered by the poor results under his leadership.

As Krumholz once said, "We need 1,000 Ed Hausers"

... and, it seems, not one Krumholz of Clevelqnd State.

Disrupt IT

Well, I did not post my

Well, I did not post my reply on NEO but you all can read it on OhioCity [at] yahoo [dot] com if you like.  I did not quite cover it as expertly as  Susan or Deb have on this site but I think Mr. catania gots the idea.

if you don't mind

If you don't mind, Jerleen, I am copying your reply here as people may have to be a member of the group to read it. It is hard to find this yahoo group.

Re: [ohiocity] A REGIMEN FOR RENEWED VITALITY---excerpts from Policy Bridge Neighborhood Report

 

 
IN THIS RECIPE IS THERE SUSTAINABILITY FOR THE POOR, THE MINORITIES, THE LONG-TIME RESIDENTS OF LESSER ADVANTAGE - AND COMMON SENSE WHEN IT COMES TO CO-EXISTING WITH THE RESIDENTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD?
 
1.  How many minorities do these "award winning" up-scale restaurants/ bars/nightclubs in Tremont employ?
 
2..  Do these up-scale job providing restaurants/ bars/nightclubs provide benefits, i.e. health insurance, vacation pay for their employees?
 
3.  How many of these "award winning" up-scale restaruants/ bars/nightclubs offer to assist in or provide educational programs for their employees from this neighborhood which by the way is more than 50% at or below the poverty level according to the TWDC's own  SII Plan? 
 
4. In this recipe for Tremont, how many of these up-scale restaurants/ bars/nightclubs are currently non-compliant with illegally permitted patios, advertising illigally permitted live entertainment, posting illegally permitted valet zones?
 
5.  How many of these up-scale establishments are allowing/permitting their valets to charge patrons for valet parking their vehicles on public streets robbing homeowners of their much needed parking spots?
 
6.  Mr. Catania, how many of these up-scale restaurant/bars/ nightclubs blast their speakers,  well in to the night, from their patios which are within feet of residential homes and disrupt the peace and quiet of families that must rely on a decent night's sleep in order to carry out their job performances?
 
7.  How many of these up-scale restaurants/ bars/nightclubs have no consideration for the fact that there are elderly, chronically ill, children, students and even terminally ill residents that live only a few feet away from some of their blasting entertainment?
 
8.  What exactly do these up-scale restaurants/ bars/nightclubs contribute back to the neighborhood besides garbage, noise, patrons up and down the streets with open containers, disrespecting residental properties, parking on sidewalks, blocking intersections, driveways, bus stops?  Taxes? - they are paid into a general fund.  Road repair?  Only a short strip on Professor IN FRONT OF THE BUSINESSES WAS REPAVED. 
 
9.  While many of the poor hard working families are fighting off the economic decline and barely keeping their nose above water, Mr. Catania, have you come up with a recipe for helping them to sustain after being kept up until 2:30am, by the noise, drunks, etc, and having to get up at 4:00 - 5:00am - six and seven days a week to go to work?  
 
How do you expect students to do well in school when they can't study for the sound system blarring from a business owner's patio two doors down or across the street? 
 
10.  Has Tremont found the recipe for success or Mr. Catania has NPI found the recipe for taking over another community and "blightly" running out the lesser advantage residents?

 

Tremont got Anthrax... we get coal power plants

Same Cleveland Foundation master plans... same master planners... You get fancy restaurants... we get a coal power plants... who is most screwed by the Cleveland Foundation in Cleveland? East Cleveland!

Thank Anthrax Ronn!

Disrupt IT

margins and all

never mind.

Rick Nagin is needed as the

Rick Nagin is needed as the next councilman of Ward 14 if we want to see something done for the people instead of to enhance business interests at the expense of the people. 

I bet the server in some of

I bet the server in some of those places pull $500 clear week easy.

Bravo, jerleen

 Bravo, jerleen! well stated, well put.

but don't expect accolades over at the OC list - I sense a plethora of self-interested narrow visioned scaredy cats over there... just the type catania likes to wank it to.

just say moda

 that is something  that the ohio city group would understand. moda was on the commercial strip and the noise carried over to the residential area. then say envy.

thanks for the early morning laugh, Debbie!

 Envy Lounge was the issue I worked on- Santiago was a real ass on that one....

understood, why do you think

understood, why do you think he keeps putting the "smooth bluze" crap out on OC.  He's only beating his chest over there anyway. 

I agree.

 I have spent more time with Rick lately working on his campaign with him, and having fun. He has no hidden agenda, and his supporters are just regular residents from all across the racial, ethnic, and economic spectrum. They are so happy to be a part of this and the focus is on what needs to be done, and never bashing the other guy. They would rather go out and talk to neighbors about what they want than setting in a meeting where a person is talking to them from the top down. Rick knows so many people from his years of block club work, and crime and vice work. He also has worked with seniors to get bad trees trimmed on taken down, and has the department of aging on speed dial. He knows how to hook people up with the right city services. He is going to be good in this council position. The enthusiasm is growing, and we are enjoying what we are doing. Rick never makes us feel stupid when we don't know something.