The Cleveland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been notified about the stolen yard signs.  So if I were YOU I wouldn't even think about stealing any yard signs.  There are severe criminal penalties if YOU get caught because someone just happened to set up a surveillance camera to film YOU stealing them.   If convicted, there is a mandatory prison term.

I could not agree more.  Most poor people {regardless of race color or creed} are law-abiding citizens.  In fact, I would argue that more criminals are at the top of our society.  It wasn't poor people that created this economic mess.   The Cleveland Development Corporations screen applicants much more now than before but it is the callous disregard for law-abiding, tax-paying life-long residents that are victimized because some eggheaded councilman and his development group decide THEY know what is best for the community and you don't dare raise an objection to their plans.

I think your making generalization about people that make generalizations.

Within poverty is crime, as poverty increases crime does as well. That being robbery and theft, then drug use and related sales, they become cottage industries. A way to make money and a way to find an escape.

Mayor Jackson addressed that once in a meeting of regional mayors, he believes we have more commerce at that level in the city then any other. It was not well received, the point lost, some could not separate it from advocacy, he was not advocating it….it is what it is.

We do not offer housing at prices that people can afford, we offer subsidization to meet prices they cannot afford.

We did something wrong because we now have a very high level of economic infeasibility in our economy.

Some of the projects in the city, some of the homes that were funded to be built or rehabbed were sold with sub prime loans. They falsified the qualifications and terms and the people that procured these, some of them are actually in jail. The people that got the homes, call them what you like, I would leave it as victims, not very intelligent or then again maybe crafty? To get the home for a while, hey its nice and better than renting.

It’s hard to imagine being like that, selling and buying without a conscious, but it happened.

So that rehab in Slavic Village, we do not even know if it was in the market? Do we know if the amount of capital that went into it, that being the total cost was an amount that enough people could have or would have bought under legitimate conditions?

Maybe and then maybe not?

I have seen rehabilitated homes for sale in the city that were asking $189,000. I new when I saw them something was wrong. The cost was beyond the market and even the value, what caused it I wondered? Then I would see them sell and see people in the home that you would question, as to do they or do they not look like they have that much money. Then other times it would be the typical “Urban Homesteader” both to me were unsettling.

We all could buy a home in the city, fix it up, the homes do not cost that much. The CDC’s did it, they came with ideas and no real understanding. Then the contractors ripped them off, then they add in there fees and all of sudden the price is $189,000.00 for a home that was just on the market for less than $65,000.00.

I tried to talk to these people, these kids I would say, they are often sarcastic punks and very defensive. I would say you need to get control of your costs, get rid of the dead weight and staff up on people that actually do real work. Thats construction workers, that’s laborers, thats not what they do.

A small amount of seed money and then going through house by house as they come on the market. I am not sure what these people did, but occasionally I would call a property owner and they would pretty much tell me to fuck off. It was as if they had been asked to sell before, I would wonder as I’m not the person that asked you before and who was that, the CDC?

Then every time I made an inquiry on a property they would come along and buy it, then systematically screw it up. Bad designs, poor quality and of course ridiculously over priced.

It is annoying to see a historic building get meticulously restored and then rented to low income…I have to wonder if they appreciate it? Maybe some do…but from my experience they sometimes often times trash the place.

There are people with low incomes that are clean, neat and honest, you can’t tell by looking at them they do not have much capital. Those are the victims and they usually do not ask for anything, except a fucking break!