Squeezing Balloons

[Bill Call]

This article in the PD about University Circle started me thinking about squeezing balloons.

http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/ ... ng_th.html

The article points out that Cuyahoga County continues to lose population but that hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidized development at University Circle might make that region an island of growth in a slough of despond.

Personally, I think it's like the Lord Of The Manor taking more from the tenants because he just knows that a really fancy ballroom will make the people feel good about themselves.

The people at the PD call it economic development. It feels a little more like:

Droit du seigneur

[Jim O'Bryan]

Droit du seigneur

Bill

I am not sure "Right of The Lord" would be the correct way to put this, I would say it's the dream of a few. It is something I warned every Lakewood mayor about from Tom George to Mayor Summers. The "project" would be referred to as "Greater University Circle Development" and it is a long involved story that I have laid out here before. My knowledge comes from the fact that the driving force in GUCD is the Cleveland Foundation that hired my company AGS Software, Inc. to start a newspaper that would help define the project and the new branding. Basically, Hough, Glenville, Buckeye, Fairfax, Little Italy, East Cleveland into a new community known as Greater University Circle.

What was strange at the time was that University Circle proper was the island. Run by Chris Ronayne, director of University Circle Inc., the Cleveland Foundation found that area to be a little tough as Ronayne is a master of attracting development dollars and has some pretty strong ties to the institutions in the University Circle area, which, as you have so often pointed out is also funded by all of us, the state, the county and University Hospital, Case Western Reserve, and the Cleveland Clinic.

This is where it gets interesting, because as the Cleveland Foundation and one of their big funders the Cleveland Clinic are looking to turn the entire area into the GUC community, so that doctors and health care providers can live in what are now some of the roughest neighborhoods in town, they are attempting to downplay the Circle while gentrifying the entire 3.5 square mile area from Lake Erie, down Martin Luther King Boulevard, and into Little Italy which is the new home of some of the movers and shakers in the Cleveland Foundation.

This is not "Right of the Lord" but social engineering on the highest of high levels. Once again as pointed out in "Slaughter of Cities," developers depend on buying property at the lowest of levels, and turning them around for the highest of profits. In an area like Cleveland, they can buy for pennies on the dollars, but the city of Cleveland, which has become desperate, throws in abatements, loans, grants etc. to give developers a massive bang for the buck to allow it to happen.

Make no mistake it is a war, and when you see names like The Cleveland Foundation appear, you can bet they also appear as part of the puzzle, and have their part in playing "The Lord." While many gleefully squeal at The Cleveland Foundation (CF) money coming in to LakewoodAlive, the Beck and I guess one could say AGS, Inc. to name but three, you can also bet they are there to understand the community and where we fit in their larger picture. So after sitting in countless meetings, and walking the "Greater University Circle" neighborhoods I have a pretty good feel for where it all fits together and how.

Right now billions are being pumped into the poorest neighborhoods which are being redeveloped with brand new spanking homes, that will cost between $200,000 and $2 million dollars. While the message to all is, don't worry we are not running anyone out of the neighborhoods you grew up in-- loans will be available to all who can qualify. AND they will come with great tax-abatements, some for as many as 20 years, which means if you can qualify for a $2 million dollar home, with a 20-year tax abatement you basically just paid $50,000 and will make a fortune upon selling. It also means that as many as 65,000 financially challenged families will be pushed into the inner ring suburbs which are being prepared for their "exodus" with neighborhoods redesigned with homes they can afford and programs from NHS, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

Of course this will create a massive burden on communities like Euclid, Garfield Heights, Parma, and Lakewood as their/our community becomes richer in commercial economic development and much weaker in residential stability and or growth. Which is why I was sounding the warning bell seven years ago.

Of course my attitude did draw a little heat from The Cleveland Foundation and the Cleveland CDCs which are all heavily funded by the largest funding group of their kind in the USA, and maybe the world. It manifested itself in the CF no longer wanting anyone in the neighborhood having a voice in their local media project, and
instead only piping in the words that were provided or approved through the Foundation. As we believe in amplifying the voices of RESIDENTS and businesses, we left the project, and it morphed from the Greater University Circle Observer into (taking a page from author wordsmith Frank Luntz) the "Greater University Neighborhood Voice."

While the title makes everyone feel fuzzy and friendly, the fact is the neighborhood has lost their voice-- to be more accurate, the different neighborhoods have lost their different voices (Little Italy, Hough, Glenville etc, all different neighborhoods) and soon will lose their homes and their identities. As with many of the current trends, the way you do it is by killing the voice of the people by putting fuzzy-named media projects controlled by "gatekeepers" to spoon feed you "news" that makes you smile and keeps your mind off of the truth and reality of where you are going.

While many think I have been obsessed with this for far too long, the war is on, and Lakewood and individual citizens are both the target, and very soon the dumping ground, as the "Lord" works to devalue our property and prepares us for redevelopment in 20 or so years down the road, if the entire region hasn't become a ghost town by then. After all, these are the people that have controlled and bankrolled the "Cleveland Renaissance" that saw Cleveland go from a population high of 914,808 to the current level of less than 375,000. It is one of the very real things that brought Ken Warren and I together in the earliest days of our friendship and this project. The only way to buck the trend is by giving the people their voices, and a place to discuss what is happening in their city, county, state and country. The fourth estate gatekeepers are bought and sold, but while the people might be fooled one-on-one, with collective unedited voices, we at least stand a chance. This is also why the original, the real Visionary Alignment for Lakewood, was created around a 50-year plan to keep Lakewood the best and most significantly different city in the region.

Let's be honest, if the region is in decline and any area is growing it is at the expense of the other communities.

What worries me, as a resident of Lakewood, is are we going to buck the trend and keep our city whole, or are we going to give into those playing monopoly with our lives with just as much concern for our actual lives as you would have for the game piece on your board at home?


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[Bill Call]

Droit du seigneur

While many think I have been obsessed with this for far too long, the war is on, and Lakewood and individual citizens are both the target, and very soon the dumping ground,

I had in mind a more graphic metaphor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_du_seigneur

The social engineers behind this particular scheme believe that the Cleveland Clinic is the key to a revitalized City. They are wrong. The Clinic and University Hospital systems are the General Motors of the health care industry. They grow by cannibalizing existing physician practices not by adding value. They get less revenue from outside the State than they once did and that trend will continue.

When they destroy the local practice and empty the local office building they are not growing the wealth they are redistributing it.

I'm sure that Mayors in Lakewood and Parma and other cities understand this yet they remain silent.

When Mental Health Services started its homeless resettlement plan I thought there might be some discussion about the practice in the local media. No one was interested. I guess that shows that discussions like this, while a good form of therapy, are a waste of time.

Since I have time to waste and need a great deal of therapy I think I'll just keep it up.

Your response was one of the best ever. You must have had a lot of practice or be very annoyed.

[Bill Call]

One picture is worth a thousand words:

[img]

Le_droit_du_Seigneur_by_Vasiliy_Polenov.jpg

[/img]

Vasily Polenov: Le droit du Seigneur (1874).
A Victorian artist's painting of an old man bringing his young daughters to their feudal lord.

[Jim O'Bryan]

One picture is worth a thousand words:

[img]

Le_droit_du_Seigneur_by_Vasiliy_Polenov.jpg

[/img]

Vasily Polenov: Le droit du Seigneur (1874).
A Victorian artist's painting of an old man bringing his young daughters to their feudal lord.

Bill

Here is the problem in a nutshell, maybe you will agree maybe you will not.

You have a group(s) that depend on public dollars for their very survival. Non-profits, the
only way they exist is through donations or fundraisers. They believe wither through ego,
education or outright BS, they have the "keys" to the future of place name or cause here.
They have to raise funds just to keep their jobs, then they can raise money to find people
to help them do their jobs. They have to have dreams and visions in place, but still need
dollars and cents to survive and pay their bills. So you can ask Jim and Bill for $50, $100,
$10,000 whatever or you can get millions and millions from Casinos, Hospitals, etc.

To keep the flow of money coming in you start to tailor programs to keep them interested
and to also serve their best interests, and the next thing you know, you are building
medical mart, and GUC/Hospital City and displacing tens of thousands of people that truly
need your help but cannot pay your salary. What do you do? Mother Theresa died broke.
The directors of these groups have ZERO interest in dying broke.

Bill, the very real fact, and Lakewood better understand this, is they are ready to spend
$6 Billion or more in this dream project. Not even counting tax abatements, and other
social engineering project they are working on.

How does Lakewood compete with this?

I always find it hard to blame those that fund this, as rarely if ever did they come up with
the great idea, to fleece them of more money. Let's be honest, they care very little for
the communities they operate in, and merely take part to be a good neighbor.

FWIW

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