The Plain Dealer buried this article that reported the 20% increase in Cleveland's poverty rate over the last 10 years:
http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/in ... ed_na.htmlCities are not competing for just any residents they are competing for residents who pay taxes and have some disposable income. For the last 20 years virtually all of the development money has gone downtown to subsidize sports, hotels, restaurants and apartment buildings.
The *STATED goal was to increase job growth, decrease poverty, increase economic activity and stabilize population.
The policy failed in every area. You would think that the obvious failure of those policies would lead to some discussion about the future focus of government investment. Maybe that's why the PD buried the story.
I'm more than a little disappointed that the two County Executive candidates have refused to challenge that strategy. I've given up hope that any elected official in Lakewood would publically challenge that policy.
A well maintained house in Lakewood sells quickly for very near the asking price. There is a demand for housing in this community. It's a little surprising because of all of the subsidies available to areas like Downtown, Gordon Square and Crocker Park.
How long can that success continue when ALL of our regional institutions are supporting policies that undermine cities like Lakewood?
When will the bubble pop?
*(Since I like a good conspiracy theory: What if that wasn't the goal? What if the goal was to loot the treasury?)