That makes sense... the CDC's are undergoing consolidation and evolution in the Ward.. the who is doing what and where is going on and should be ferreted out by then. I would want my Councilman rather close to my CDC so he could, "supervise it." I would also want the Ward Office and a Police Mini Station nearby. If I were a resident of the Ward I would want to take one bus to talk to the cops, the councilman, and the CDC. If one did not give me the right answer, I would walk across the street and get an answer. Brian was the head of a CDC, (and a good one). I think if I were in his shoes, I think I would wait it out too.

A ward office that has regular hours makes sense. In my opinion, though, one of the major flaws with CDC's is that they turn into the fiefdom of the councilman, and fail the neighborhood. The mini-stations failed in terms of being there for the neighborhood too. Cleveland would be better off if residents knew how to use city services, CDC carried out their programs and went home at the end of the day, and council reps actually legislated some meaningful changes in the City rather than rubber stamp that the Mayor sends over.

I would like to see one CDC for each Ward...not 2 or 3 covering different wards or overlapping wards.  One CDC for each ward would make more sense and the entire ward would benefit, not just certain select areas of the wards. 

 Having one CDC per ward does not mean that certain areas won't be neglected. It will be interesting to see where Cummins locates his new ward office, and I hope that he opens one on Clark rather than in a bank building on W. 25th. This would make his office accessible in an area that is crying out for stability. It would be a positive step and there are certainly affordable spaces there.

On the other hand, I am contemplating a petition to amend the Cleveland charter to do away with our current council structure all together since it obviously is not working. We have a mayor, but the legislative branch of council is too weak. We should look at models of other small cities (we aren't a large city anymore, are we?) I find the thought of being a small city, with a different political power structure to be refreshing. Imagine if we did away with wards and all the boundary turf issues that keep us apart and fighting for our share of the bounty while people are homeless and hungry.

Dwebb, I know that having one CDC per each ward would not solve all the problems but it would be a start...at least the councilperson would have more of an interest in how the money was spent if it was in just one ward and not scattered among different wards and different CDC's with many different community agendas.  This way there would be more accountability as to where and how the money was spent.

I don't know much about the workings of small cities so I have no comment about how it could work here in Cleveland.  What did you have in mind?

Of course I don't want to see people go hungry and/or homeless.  But, with Obama's plan to freeze government spending I fear these problems will only get worse unless he can find a way to provide jobs for all unemployed people in the city of Cleveland. 

Meanwhile prices continue to rise...even at the dollar stores and thrift stores.