On a desolate corner of East 140th RIGHT off Interstate 90, $23.5 million of your tax dollars have been handed over to Vesta's Arthur Greensplat, a multimillionare resident of West Hartford, Connecticut, to build a publicly funded housing project. Let the festivities begin! But in THIS Vesta project, the rent is not subsidized by Uncle Sambo. The residents will have to pay dearly out of their OWN pockets to be strip searched and drug tested for the privilege of forking over between $858 and $1020 for a tiny one or 2 bedroom apartment RIGHT ACROSS from American Marine Express aka Intermodal Facilities Group or City Rose Ltd. WHATEVER it is called, a city rose by any other name and all that, it is a monstrous noisy dirty trucking and intermodal shipping and outdoor storage facility stretching several city blocks. Not EXACTLY the best neighbors for a PROMISED quiet life in a "parklike setting". AND in addition to the exorbitant rent, the tenants will ALSO be required to pay for ALL utilities including ELECTRIC BASEBOARD heat, which is always outrageously expensive, but will be EVEN MORE SO in the 30 historik skool units, as the windows have been nailed shut. Permanently. WITH NO STORM windows!

But let's not worry about troublesome details like THAT right now when the night is young. On May 11, for ONLY $10,000, YOU and 7 of your dearest friends can sit at a table drinking boxed wine and experience an unparalled opportunity to rub elbows with the creme de la creme of Cleveland's NEW royalty, the "non" profit executives and overpaid city of Cleveland directors and managers who are collecting fat pay checks courtesy of the impoverished taxpayer, and are bleeding Cleveland dry, while contributing NOTHING to the economy. ALL of the usual suspects will be turning out to celebrate the Grifter in Chief, Arthur Greensplat and his very FIRST visit to Cleveland! 

Artie, resident of 27 The Crossways a 5351 square foot home in West Hartford Connecticut valued at $1.383,000, has made his substantial fortune by very savvy donations/bribes to the Demonrat party over the last 40 years. The payoff for him has been YUUUUGE, a never ending stream of contracts from his politican pals in the Demonrat party AND powerful members of the administrative state in DC where millions and millions of dollar$$$$$ in HUD subsidies have been most generously "awarded" to his firm VESTA. And at 76 he continues to rake in the federal tax dollar$$$$ to enrich himself and his friends and family NONE of whom live in Ohio.

So let's just sit back and CEL-E-BRATE his half century of scamming the taxpayer. It's GENIUS! For Artie's BIG NIGHT at The Longfellow, all the elite scum of Cleveland will be in attendance. Is that Ton-ya Moneys$, the failed director of Community Development, who moved up to Nayboorhood (lack of)Progress chatting with Sally Hemmings the directorette of Building and Housing who is benefitting from cuts to the police budget by expanding her OWN gestapo to take down small landlords?  The Grand Dame of Scam Kathleen Crowsfeet, all decked out in a muu muu, who recently handed out $10,000 to the "managers" of the crumbling Scofield Mansion which is falling to the ground, is holding court with young aspiring Grads with master's in public planning looking for a spot at the trough. She is celebrating 65 years of receiving a bloated paycheck for doing nothing constructive for the city of Cleveland. Beta Males abound including Cleveland's very OWN 15 minute man Justine Bibb.  And his boytoy Bradley Daveford. AND Cleveland's very own JEFFREY EPSTEIN who occupies one of the MANY newly created positions as one of Justine's OVERPAID bodyguards/advisors who is representing developers in pushing the 15 minute city scam behind the scenes, while his ACTUAL responsibilites are DELIBERATELY vague and unclear. Fired former Director of CHN Crime Partners, Roberta Curry skulks on the sidelines, forgotten and ignored by Those Who Matter, hoping to make new contacts for his hapless Lead Testing enterprise, sneaking out to have a smoke every 5 minutes. His replacement, attorney Kevin No-wit, avoids Roberta like the plague, as he is desperately trying to legitimize his OWN position at CHN Crime Partners with an initiative in, OF ALL PLACES, LORAIN COUNTY, because Roberta left him with a squabbling hen house of mouthy gals where no one can close the deal on the lease "purchase" properties where less than 10% of the future "homeowners" are ACTUALLY interested in purchasing.

As Cleveland circles the drain, its new elite step across the mud to enjoy an Evening with Arthur, it is worth remembering Cleveland USED to be somebody. It WAS a contender. Long ago BEFORE Cleveland was a welfare dependent wasteland, laser focused on bicycle lanes, quackzines for reluctant black folks, "green" energy, a golf course and 15 minute cities, while ignoring massive decay and problems like piles of trash, vacant lots, crime including car theft rings made up of teenagers, failed public education, drugs and unemployment, it was ACTUALLY a shining light of industrial might and philanthropy. And had a proud working class.

NOW it has been reduced to a pathetic shadow of its former glory, a desperate panhandler for federal funds and strict "code enforcer." And NO ONE has benefited MORE from the largess of Uncle FED than Arthur Greensplat who JUST unloaded his Section 8 project based lead filled mold covered swamp, where the ground floor basementless apartment filled  with sewer water EVERYTIME it rained of 480 units on Carson Avenue last June for $8 million, after 20 years. Arthur NEVER FILED the costly MANDATORY rental registration or did lead testing.  SOMEHOW though he was NEVER CITED by the private police force at Building and Housing and HUD ALWAYS came through with those 480 monthly rent checks minus the $25 per unit tenant payment.  $858 for a one bedroom apartment, $1025 for a 2 bedroom and $1428 for a THREE bedroom all but $25 per unit was paid PROMPTLY by our benevolent 30 trillion dollars in debt federal government.

Rental registration and lead clearance RULES are for LITTLE struggling landlords but exemptions from the rules are ALWAYS granted to splendiferous out of town gazillionaires like Artie. "Let them eat lead dust." Artie was overheard to say about his mostly poor black tenants. Now in his twilight years he wants to do something completely different with YOUR tax dollars. His carefully crafted 16 page application addresses ALL eventualities except lack of interest by potential tenants, as it is unlikely to find many takers at the bloated rent for these tiny nondescript OVERPRICED units sandwiched between the freeway and an OUTDOOR industrial monster truck depot, storage and repair facility, where giant semi trucks roar by at all hours of the night and day.