I attended this City Club program - discussion avoided all mention of  the "investment" strategy of disinvestment in Cuyahoga County (especially in African-American zipcodes-Think Opportunity Corridor) and failure to follow up on flipping and sale of tax liens that disproportionately affected African-Americans who lost their homes.  

A lot of mea culpa talk about historical zoning, covenants etc. but no discussion on any effort that will result in building a tax base and building services in all CLE neighborhoods -- and now all of Cuyahoga County - as predominantly African-American Maple Heights is in fiscal emergency due loss of tax revenue to foreclosures and vacant properties. 

https://www.cityclub.org/events/history-matters-understanding-the-role-of-policy-race-38-real-estate-in-cuyahoga-county

http://cuyahogaplacematters.com/new-events/

http://www.newsnet5.com/money/consumer/troubleshooter/cleveland-city-council-too-many-dangerous-homes-not-enough-code-enforcement

All kind of ironic since - Brian Cummins and Joe Cimperman - are proposing restrictive covenant for the "DREAM" neighborhood!

I also spoke afterward with Planning Director Freddie Collier, who seems hesitant to do anything about Tim Donovan on the Board of Zoning Appeals.  I described to him the attempt by Brian Cummins and SCFCDO to get variance for tax delinquent Sam Khaleq.   My contention would be that NO ONE in tax arrears should get a variance - as Cummins was trying to do for Khaleq.  It's also important that Board of Zoning appointees are current in their own taxes and that anyone coming before BOZA is current with their taxes.  I emphasized to Freddie Collier that ANY public employee should be current in their taxes and he noted that there are probably MANY public employees who collect a paycheck c/o taxpayers, but who fail to pay their taxes.  (TJ Dow being one of them).

Shouldn't it be a job requirement of all public employees to be current w/their taxes?   Am I the only person outraged by fact that Tim Donovan continues on Board of Zoning Appeals and that South Euclid Law Director also gets away with non-payment of taxes?  Then, again, there is always our illustrious Land Bank Director Gus Frangos and his LLCs.  No one seems to care!

http://realneo.us/content/cuyahoga-county-land-bank-president-gus-frangos-con-artist-forges-documents-obtain-2nd-mortg

http://realneo.us/content/cuyahoga-county-con-artist-gus-frangos-president-county-land-bank-adds-more-fuel-foreclosure

And - stay tuned for "Villa Hispana" (mentioned at this event) - project backed by Stark Group (not Hispanic) - here's how much buy-in achieved by Hispanic Alliance:
 

https://www.crowdrise.com/LaVillaHispana

And see the outline for "Dream" neighborhood here:

http://www.behnkeassoc.com/FTP/download/1415/CACPConceptsandRecommendations2-12-15.pdf

 The likely sponsor from inception is private development entity having solid experience working at the scale of a La Villa Hispana neighborhood, as well as familiar with the complexities of mixed‐use development. It is recommended that the private developer partner with one or more local non‐profit developers, early on, so as to establish both good will within the community, as well as to leverage the strengths of each development entity

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The company announced in January that it plans to transform its corporate structure, in a move that will help Forest City keep its tax burden low. The $8.8 billion real estate business, which maintains headquarters at Terminal Tower, expects to transform from a C-Corp into a REIT on Jan. 1, 2016.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/02/forest_city_enterprises_looks.html#incart_more_business

realneo.us/content/more-new-math-slavic-village

http://realneo.us/content/councilman-versus-bagman#comment-35129

I don't think CLE's media handlers expected this reaction to Dan Mouthrop's "Is Cleveland Racist?" article at Politico 

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/cleveland-segregation-115320.html

 Interesting - interaction with Dan Mouthrop at FB over Blaine Griffin telling off well-known immigration attorney Richard Herman with "Screw You" -

Richard Herman elaborates:

Griffin, the head of Frank Jackson's Community Relations board, which is charged with addressing race relations in the city, should be leading the charge to unite and re-build neighborhoods. Instead, as one of the political arms of Jackson (much like Valerie McCall),. he is focused on doing public relations for Jackson and protecting the political brand. As the Director of jackson's re-election campaigns, and as Co-Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, should we be surprised?

http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2015/03/director_of_towpath_trail_orga.html

In response, I posted this comment this morning 3/26 8:50 a.m. and it has immediately been deleted 

Northeast Ohio needs the towpath development - and Tim should continue to raise funds through grants at Canalway, but he needs to pay back his taxes and he needs to immediately be removed from the Board of Zoning Appeals. As BOZA member, he will have to recuse himself from any decisions regarding the West 25th Corridor - Federal Scenic Byway - funds his organization helps to manage through Canalway Partners.

If the City of Cleveland thinks residents are not watching this - see REALNEO. There have already been attempts to play shady deals with a historic firehouse and the owners of the Masonic Building 3804 West 25th are also NOT paying their taxes - close to $27,000 unpaid. NEOMG can delete my comments here, but they will still be posted at REALNEO.