On moving and moving on

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 08/03/2006 - 10:29.

It is summertime and hot, and Cleveland feels it. As REALNEO has been feeling too hot for comfort, as well, it is time for a cooling down period this August. Over the next few months, the team supporting REALNEO is creating an organization for moving forward with our social network, and our lives, so we'll all be posting as we may... please feel free to post as well.

In the middle of remodelling REALNEO, Evelyn and I are moving across town, from Shaker Heights to Ohio City, so our lives and time are especially disorganized - we're not as focused on what is happening around NEO as around our new corner and basement. One thing I can say, from this usual moving ordeal, is it is a real feat to find a cool place to rent that is reasonable and in a relatively appealing neighborhood in Cleveland. We drove around neighborhoods we like, looking for signs, and we looked in Plugged in Cleveland, Craig's List, the PD, Free Times and Scene and the pickings are slim, and finding a place is a real challenge.

Based on recent experience, I would suggest groups of property owners with independent rental property need to work together with neighborhood groups to better market what is for rent in Cleveland - we were open to a wide area of town and relatively flexible in what we would pay so the biggest problem we had was finding out what is for rent... too many places to look, and all hard to find. I can only imagine how challenging this is for people moving here from out of town - I can now see why Craig's List is so successful. If everyone uses one system, at least people know where to go - here, you have to just look everywhere, and that doesn't work well at all.

News from the new neighborhood, once we get settled in.

My advice for families looking for a home in Cleveland

Last Friday, while having a garage sale, I met a young couple who were moving to Cleveland from out of state. The husband had been accepted to Case dentil school. Neither one of them knew much about Cleveland and I could see they were over whelmed with the prospect of trying to find a rental. They were concerned with things like safety -- they were loking for a safe neighborhood but also a lead free home (the wife was expecting). I gave them a tour of my house, so that they could see the layout of a typical Shaker Heights double. I also offer them some advice about things I learned the hard way. I told them that "Shaker Certified" does not mean your home is safe, and definitely not lead free. I also advised them to check the sexual predator registry for the zip code where they are thinking of renting. I found out a few days ago that there are two sexual predators living on our street, one, a convicted rapist lives directly across the street. I probably would not have chosen this house had I known.