Ward 14: Demolished Houses since 2010....Erasing the Blight... Best Community Development Practices...

Demolished: almost an entire street:

Since 1996, I have watched Ward 14 go through dramatic deterioration. In light of the fact that the federal government had allotted millions of dollars in COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUNDS TO WARD 14, I ask the federal government to investigate where exactly those funds were distributed and how much public participation was involved in the distribution and allocation of those funds that were ALLEGEDLY meant to assist the low to moderate income families? I cannot help but to review the Census Bureau Statistics on the local demographic information that would have supported various development projects throughout our community. It appears to have been completely neglected throughout the history of planning and effectuation. The people seem to have been neglected and steered out of their community too. Knowing the people of our ward and realizing that they don't get notified of the majority of the events, planning meetings, and community development forums that are dependent on Public Participation really disgusts me to no end. The leadership abuses it's positions in these arenas and actually prays that public participation is limited because then they can do WHATEVER THEY SO WISH!!! Whenever outspoken citizens attempt to participate and object to "plans", the community development regime simply sends "code enforcers" out to target those people and intimidate them with citations and distract them with city inspectors so that they cannot have time to react to the real meat and potatos of their underhanded plans... So, what's left is a populace who has learned to disengage the regime of local government leadership. There are plenty of angry citizens who don't want to participate because they get abused if they don't agree with the gentrified perspectives and plans for their futures. They cannot get true answers about ongoing development most of the time anyway. It's been a joke for a long time... We were promised different in Ward 14 this round with the new councilman... He attended forums and promised to be a different kind of leader as a democrat. In less than a year after he was elected, he changed his party from a "DEMOCRAT" to a "GREEN PARTY" member... which he devoutly denied during the election. It was politics at it's best... Carpetbagging Brian Cummins won the seat and within several months he deliberately went behind the most engaged citizens' backs and created his own community development office with some more carpet baggers. He sent our funding to an outside community development office with Detroit Shoreway Community Development. He abandoned the rights of countless lifelong residents and he played politics with planning and meetings by failing to provide public notice about such a HUGE part of our lives in the community properly...and after being such a huge supporter of REALNEO where quite a few Ward 14 residents communicate; he failed to post those public meetings on the calendars herein. He cannot play dumb anymore... He knew the plans...no doubt. He had his own ideas and knew that if he could just play politics long enough, that he'd be able to direct and allocate our funding without questions by the citizens at large. He did so and got away with murder. Anyone who has spoke up before and during this process has been faced with underhanded retaliation in one way or another.... Trust me... That's politics in Cleveland....either agree with the regime or take some major heat rounds in your back through whatever means that can be effectuated through code enforcement and city inspectors and maybe even the police... It's such an amazing journey living in Cleveland... And they wonder why certain citizens are cynical? The truth will set us all free... It's like a chess game here in Cleveland... Life is such a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get! But, one thing is for sure...a majority of the targeting I've seen is against low income, elderly, disabled, and most times: caucasian hillbillies....people who stuck their noses where it didn't belong.... I bet if they did a demographic review of the City Housing Court's records of Ward 14...they'd find this to be a fact... And since we've been the minority of Ward 14 since back in the 90's....wouldn't that be an even more unethical consideration....Steering out the minority white folks..... ??? Just my perspective in this matter. (Don't forget...these are the same folks who actually vote by majority in the elections...the ones being steered out!) But don't miss the biggest economic development opportunities in Ward 14 which include DEMOLISHING COUNTLESS HOUSES.... When you drive down a street that you spent most of your childhood and see it eradicated via demolitions; it cuts deep. If you drive down West 34th Street between Sackett and Meyer avenues...You'll see exactly what I mean...It's a ghost town that is almost completely demolished over the last year....and yes, I take it very personally that community development funding was not used to revitalize such a street... it's ugly that this is the only solution that they can come up with...DEMO THE HOUSES.... Countless residents in Ward 14 could be employed renovating these homes across the city... But our leadership doesn't want that type of investment in both the housing and the people to occur... that would actually be a logical idea that helps everyone involved...Instead outsiders get to demo the remnants of Cleveland's housing stock... making way for plans that didn't include proper public participation.......... Demolished: House at Corner of Meyer Avenue and West 34th Street, 44109 Demolished: 3283 West 34th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44109 Demolished: 3277 West 34th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44109