Norm, your above comment contains a lot of speculation and no sensitivity about people who have recently passed away or been the victim of arson. Without any facts, I see little value in this kind of commentary.
The realneo that I know and like puts a little footwork and inquiry behind its publishing and elevates the conversation above lazy gossip.
If you think something shady is happening, then perhaps submitting a public records request for a death certificate might be a good way to start. Your personal conspiracy theories do not benefit our community unless they are followed up with investigation.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 04:32.
We all expected Ed could be killed for his activism... I warned him many times and we discussed specific concerns - he knew he put his life at risk, being an activist against very powerful and at times murderous forces.
A friend today said I should watch out.
People are killed for such things as speaking against authority, or plans of the rich and powerful... and to eliminate evidence and witnesses... all over the world, all the time.
That I say it in public is just being honest.
I have no idea how thorough an autopsy they did on Ed but now I am curious.
And, as I said, "we'll see about Vinci".
I believe it is a fact that there was an "arson at Cimperman's"
And there are "lots of people connected to them (the above) being taken out by the FBI"
And it is all "unreal", at least in my lifetime.
Where is there speculation or lack of sensitivity in any of that - or conspiracy theory - these are all facts and highly disturbing. There will clearly be lots of investigation into all of this before things are know in any real detail, and the lead for such investigation should be the Plain Dealer, I believe.
Jenita's comments are well taken and can be said on RealNEO. But, if you have lived long enough, you also know that there is a politics of fear that applies almost anywhere, if we let it apply with silence.
We are all free to speculate that the people Norm listed are innocent victims of circumstance, or guilty of knowing too much, or just being in the way, which can be said for any of US in NEO. If saying something can change our collective fate for the better, then it is certainly worth saying it.
I will say this--I had given up hope for any real investigation from the Plain Dealer, but if Jenita has hope (facts are tricky--the PD is our only standard of evalution in NEO), then I will suspend my cynicism until we get a better explanation of seemingly related events, which, in my mind, would include the treatment of Frank Giglio in Tremont.
I believe the words of caution by Jenita are valid.
Wild speculation isn't fact and I believe should be avoided.
The PD itself is linking the death of Vinci in a manner that implies too much and seems more a desire to keep heat applied to Dimora and Russo than to report on someone's death.
You either show some responsibility or no one will believe anything you say or write.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 12:45.
Boy did you hit the nail on the head with this comment... "You either show some responsibility or no one will believe anything you say or write"... the core of the problem at the PD, meaning the core of the problem in this community.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 15:18.
Nor am I qualified to investigate murder, arson or other police matters, nor do I want to. I expect all that to be done by "professionals" in those fields. Here, I believe, we are exposing gaps in how these important matters are addressed and reported in our community - I do not believe that means we adopt responsibility for being the police - or the daily journal (unless paid to do so).
I am qualified to lead investigations into economic strategy and policy, and information technology strategy, which I shall now begin to drive here and report on REALNEO - and I'll certainly invite all other members of the community to help with the investigations and analyses - in preparation for a complete change of local, regional, state and federal leadership under the Obama administration.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 16:28.
What matters most now is getting the $billions being spent here and to be spent here on redeveloping our region in the next eight years OUT OF THE WRONG HANDS and INTO THE RIGHT HANDS.
That requires identifying all the wrong hands in NEO, and any right hands. What we identify here will certainly be taken into account in the transition, and in the new administration.
There are other meaningful ways to get involved in the Obama transition here - helping set the new administration agenda and support the new administration - I plan to write about that here, and I'd love to see other Obama supporting REALNEO members (which is probably most of us) offer some suggestions for how REALNEO members and other concerned citizens may make a most meaningful positive impact on the region by working with the Obama transition team now... it is easier than you think!
Submitted by Henry Senyak on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 19:49.
Norm, I think you hit a real key point. I do not now anyone long-term, or new resident in Tremont that can complain about holding people accountable. For many years no-one has challenged how Community Development Corporations (CDC's) have spent their allotment of tax money from HUD that the City of Cleveland, or Council persons give them. It has become obvious in Tremont and other communities in Cleveland that these Non-profits are straying away from their social services portion of their Articles of Incorporation. Some of the Boards are ran like for-profit corporations. In the mix of all this the long-term and working poor in the communities suffer.
Sure, you can hire highly educated individuals to push programs and loans to people that either do not qualify or actually do not want to participate (like Frank Giglio). Then these same groups that were actually started to benefit these same people turn them in to the City of Cleveland for code violations.
People have been screaming over five years in Tremont. Can you believe between 80-90% of my long-term neighbors do not have access to a computer, nor do they want to. If you go around the western end of Tremont (Scranton Rd. to West 25th.) these residents will tell you they do not live in Tremont. They actually despise Tremont especially the Hispanic Community. These are the things the power brokers in Tremont (AKA the Beautiful People) do not want you to hear. My neighborhood is not gentrified yet, its close to half Hispanic mixed with close to 30 different European nationalities. We were the one of the local block clubs instrumental over 10 years ago to work with TWDC and Merrick House to get funding to get the flag murals painted on the stanchions underneath the Starkweather Ave overpass heading into the main portion of Tremont. We will not go quietly into the night. As I said on Tremonter, to many a carpetbaggers dismay I cannot wait to see these clipboard communists being chased down the street by my 60 year Greek neighbor lady with a broom, or my Hispanic neighbors with sickles and machetes. People think I am extreme, but I know my neighbors, and I know what they will do. These high end gentrification artists have no clue what they are in for when they go into Ward 14 Tremont. This is why they are staying in Ward 13 and selectively picking and choosing who to make disappear from our community, just like Frank.
Its funny most of these CDC directors make between 70-100K to start. we all need to ask one question, "Show me the Books"
I am loved by my neighbors, but hated by the beautiful people. I an not afraid to go to higher authority to prove a point or to change the system or stop political corruption. Let's have a start by voting in seven new Board members this year to the Board of TWDC on January 29th.
While Henry speaks so very clearly from his area - it is exactly the same here in the Central Tremont section - most of the residents have been here 30-40-50-60 years and even longer - and they are treated like second class citizens - these fine programs are passed out, yet a lot of these people are unbankable or they do not wish to sign on the dotted line that will put their old homes in jeopardy in case next year they can't meet the terms of these good programs and then lose the homes they have put sweat and blood into paying for.
The paint program is thrown out there like a big red balloon - FREE PAINT - that's great - but nobody get's it - if you're old, the knees don't work, you can barely get up and down the front porch steps, how in the hell are you going to get up on a ladder to paint the dam house - and if you're on a $8k annual income, you can't afford to pay someone to do it - so wow!!! the paint is great.
And what about a Corp that paid $1.4m for UGP properties - and is putting $20m + in the rehab and has purchased several other properties for parking - then TWDC takes $10K of model block funds and buys an addition lot UGP Properties and the Flying Monkey for parking - in Central Tremont - but yet they can't find dollars to help those long time residents. BUT THEY GOT FREE PAINT.
There is a lot of anger and a lot more questions - WHERE IS THE MONEY? Everytime the question is asked - you get the same run-about answer - all the model block funds is restricted funds. So it is time for change and it is time for someone to speak up and I am not afraid to do that. I am not afraid to call it like I see it. Just like the Development Director/SII Program Manager position that pays $50k by NPI - Samuel Catania was hired by his friend Chris Garland - a conflict of interest by all means - 60 people applied for that position - but if you back track the events - it is clear the position was going to go to Mr. Catania from the get go All they did was try to make it look good.
Just like the tree lawn and the face in parking on west 7th - as it turns out, TWDC and our good Councilman was right in the middle of approving the plans but they didn't know anything about it - and then when the homeowners stepped out and weren't going to let it happen - the planning commission came out and Myrl Roberts came out - But Councilman Cimperman wouldn't show - then all of a sudden IT WAS A MISTAKE - that wasn't supposed to be part of the parking lot -yet I saw the blueprint - everytime they get caught - the tale changes. Just like Frank's house - Chris Garland said TWDC didn't have anythig to do with that - yet it is right in the Board minutes where they supported it before the Landmarks commission.
That is why they are no longer believed, trusted and so much is coming down all at once. It's not about negativity - it's about the-------finally hitting the fan. They can shut down Tremonter, cry and moan all they want but the wheels have started turning - as they say round and round they go and where they stop nobody knows.
We're not just bitchin' - we still appreciate the nice things and are thankful for all the good things we have in our lives - but we want to keep those as well as restore some of what has been lost and to do that we must stand up and fight.
Please see this article--the CDCs are a sham. NPI could shut them down and instead they annoint six of the "functioning" CDCs as especially economically "distressed" areas, worthy of their targeted funding. On top of this gross misuse of federal money(aka your money), we have now annointed our county treasurer to essentially perform housing services and "redevelopment" that would have fallen under the CDCs, if they were functioning in their capacity.
The land bank takes authority completely out of public control--and all the while, we will continue to use our money to fund useless CDCs--mostly run, by the suburban progeny of our "suburban" foundation and "civic leaders"...read-- leadership that makes a total pretense of championing administration free from discrimination based on skin color, income, religion, language, and disability, all the while straining our community infrastructure and resources and local economy to build fake communities as far away from us as possible... Add to this, a land authority with no oversight that will clear land for the "right" developers.
What a joke, Jerleen...my elderly, disabled neighbor applied and was denied. But, they sure as hell took down all of her personal information and filled out a number of forms to make it LOOK like she was being served. She demanded the paperwork back and never got it.
Submitted by Henry Senyak on Thu, 12/25/2008 - 13:20.
It is my understanding CDC's have quota's to get so many applications filled out. This way they meet the criteria the City requests. Then it is a feather in their cap when they go the next year to get funded again. To say its a house of cards yep, or could it be smoke and mirrors to funnel funds to friendly developers that give kick-backs in campaign funding to councilpeople.
We're not just bitchin' - we still appreciate the nice things and are thankful for all the good things we have in our lives - but we want to keep those as well as restore some of what has been lost and to do that we must stand up and fight.
The "nice things" we have are seniors who tutor kids at Denison Elementary, teens who can say "thank you," immigrants working two factory jobs to put their kids through school, disabled individuals who get around on their own and retain some dignity, and men and women who still work with their hands to help a neighbor fix a porch or plant a garden.
Dbra--it is my hope that you are annointed with a job in the Obama administration as it tackles social issues with real social welfare. The system is broken. I don't canonize my neighbors, who sit around collecting federal funds to raise their families at the bare level of human decency, but I also refuse to canonize the people, who come in and milk our social welfare system for every dollar they can take home to their house in the suburb.
Self-reliance should be rewarded, but a community that has found a balance deserves recognition, too. I look at Metrohealth hospital and hope that it finds a way to define itself as a community provider with employees who give back to the community by living here and maintaining the infrastructure within its radius--safety forces, schools, libraries, parks, streets, stores, coffee shops, taverns, pharmacys (not drug store chains), theatres, restaurants...I could enjoy that type of company town.
Submitted by Henry Senyak on Thu, 12/25/2008 - 13:33.
TWDC should be working hand in hand with Metro Hospital to create a program for their employees and new hires to move into Tremont. Especially the Metro-North block club area, Scranton Rd from Clark Ave. to Metro hospital itself. I believe hospitals on the east side will offer incentives to employees that want to relocate into the neighborhood around it. Can you imagine a development plan putting some tax dollars to good use and partially funded by Metro to give like $10,000.00 to a new employee via a work contract that they purchase in the neighborhood and stay employed at Metro for at least five years. This way we have these people spending their dollars in the near west community. I had a lot of friends that work at Metro that grew up with me here. In the day it was called the Southside, not Tremont. All these people live in Strongsville, Brunswick, Medina, etc. You get the point. This would improve the housing stock get rid of the slum-lords, and better our communities of Tremont and Brooklyn Center. This is a far better approach that the Housing police holding a gun to the elderly community and saying paint you house or I will shoot. I personally know several TWDC Board members that really want TWDC to start spending money in Ward 14. The only way this is going to happen is with a new Board, and with leadership at TWDC.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 12/26/2008 - 00:25.
I don't think most of the CDC''s are in the neighborhood development "business" - they are in the developer development business. Very different strategies. Where there are no developers ready to act, they inventory. They area around MetroHealth seems in Inventory stage. Tremont is in develop the developers stage. All the SIIs are develop the developer projects - in places with high political or eonomic payback to someone/thing... e.g. the Clinic...
Who are the developers being developed and what are the places/people with high political and economic payback in each of the SII zones? They are the ones making the money, paid by taxpayers, diverting public resources from those in actual need, and away from strategies with actual social value.
but frankly, he is scaring the crap out of me... or maybe I should say, deflating the hope. What is very scary - we are experiencing the largest transfer of wealth this country has ever seen.
Did you know the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has so far allocated $7 TRILLion in programs and loans and there is absolutely no knowledge of where it is going? Bloomberg News filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for the details of TARP and they have all gone ignored. There is no transparency whatsoever, and absolutely no accountability. Obama's cabinet appointments and secretary nominees leave me no hope that this will be retified - certainly Geithner, the man who wrote TARP, will not.
I'm trying to be hopeful, but as time moves on, I do doubt the administration will bring about real change in social welfare. But - I would love to be wrong and will certainly reman open for it.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 12/26/2008 - 00:09.
Obama's cabinet is as weak as the pool of "leaders" he has to draw from, and the policies being enacted today are still of the Bush Admin, so I'm not going to hold them against him.
Where I expect Obama to excel is in raw intelligence, which has been missing from the Wit-less House my whole lifetime (over 40 years).
Imagine living in a nation where the chief executive is actually intelligent. We got it. Now, let's be intelligent with him - I believe he is very inclusove.
But I also must say he had numerous other choices for his cabinet and secretaries that he did not make. If you follow The Nation, DemocracyNow! et al they have been giving this thorough coverage. It seems Obama has been selecting right of centrist individuals. Certainly Hilary Clinton, Robert Gates and James Jones are all hawks. Geithner is a follower of Rubin and Greenspan. His ties with Citicorp go way back - that in itself should have triggered his ethics to recuse himself from the engineering of TARP. but, ethics being nothing but a nostalgic phrase from bygone eras.... Or i dont know - maybe I'm too young (its nice to be considered too young once in awhile!) to know it was never really anything more than an abstract concept.
I do think Obama is brilliant, and his wife is certainly amazing. I do have to say I stopped activist enthusiasm for him when he distanced himself from his Reverend, but I did vote for him and I never voted for Clinton. Clinton single handedly evicerated urban cdc structures and funding, basically handed them over to the power brokers of each city. He continued the economic slide of the middle and working classes. He down right lied to the gay community to get elected.
My mother-in-law was having fits because I teasingly told her (and never told her I was only teasing!) I was voting for McCain so as to bring on the revolution sooner! She was constantly lecturing me and leaving obama stickers all over our house when she visited!
Being responsible to yourself gets met with attacks of "why you should be doing more for others."
Those who are self-reliant do not have do-gooder fund-raisers to save our homes. No those same do-gooders attack and bad-mouth the self-reliant, as if they know or care at all about our lives.
Sorry to be bah-humbugging on Christmas but this past 6 months in Tremont seems like much drama and little result . .save for do-gooders patting themsleves on the back. Dying for the cause. Bashing people they know nothing about.
And in that process assisting all those "evils" they claim to be calling out to be accountable.
Have a good one and Merry Christmas to you lmcshane and all the other self-reliants who are not silently suffering - BUT actually getting the real work done.
When one actually does the real work they do not have time for fanfares, fund-raisers, glad handing or back-slapping. Too much to do . .no time for posting either . .just taking a breather on a day when much is closed.
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Perhaps they shouldn't have cremated Ed...
Someone said they thought Ed was murdered and I thought it was a long shot, but to see this.
Does anyone know about poison and if you can make people die the way Ed died... and we'll see about Vinci...
And then there is the arson at Cimperman's...
And lots of people connected to them being taken out by the FBI...
Unreal
Disrupt IT
more facts please
Norm, your above comment contains a lot of speculation and no sensitivity about people who have recently passed away or been the victim of arson. Without any facts, I see little value in this kind of commentary.
The realneo that I know and like puts a little footwork and inquiry behind its publishing and elevates the conversation above lazy gossip.
If you think something shady is happening, then perhaps submitting a public records request for a death certificate might be a good way to start. Your personal conspiracy theories do not benefit our community unless they are followed up with investigation.
I believe the person that said that about Ed was a relative...
We all expected Ed could be killed for his activism... I warned him many times and we discussed specific concerns - he knew he put his life at risk, being an activist against very powerful and at times murderous forces.
A friend today said I should watch out.
People are killed for such things as speaking against authority, or plans of the rich and powerful... and to eliminate evidence and witnesses... all over the world, all the time.
That I say it in public is just being honest.
I have no idea how thorough an autopsy they did on Ed but now I am curious.
And, as I said, "we'll see about Vinci".
I believe it is a fact that there was an "arson at Cimperman's"
And there are "lots of people connected to them (the above) being taken out by the FBI"
And it is all "unreal", at least in my lifetime.
Where is there speculation or lack of sensitivity in any of that - or conspiracy theory - these are all facts and highly disturbing. There will clearly be lots of investigation into all of this before things are know in any real detail, and the lead for such investigation should be the Plain Dealer, I believe.
Disrupt IT
Politics of fear
Jenita's comments are well taken and can be said on RealNEO. But, if you have lived long enough, you also know that there is a politics of fear that applies almost anywhere, if we let it apply with silence.
We are all free to speculate that the people Norm listed are innocent victims of circumstance, or guilty of knowing too much, or just being in the way, which can be said for any of US in NEO. If saying something can change our collective fate for the better, then it is certainly worth saying it.
I will say this--I had given up hope for any real investigation from the Plain Dealer, but if Jenita has hope (facts are tricky--the PD is our only standard of evalution in NEO), then I will suspend my cynicism until we get a better explanation of seemingly related events, which, in my mind, would include the treatment of Frank Giglio in Tremont.
Recording. reporting
A segment from the Diane Rehm show on the old and new media contributing to investigative journalism is very relevent. It is available at the http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/ which is doing an admirable job of documenting questionable dealings there. Including providing many of the presentations on youtube - Ed would be pleased.
We need to collect, validate, and share information - instead of just preaching to the choir we need the choir to get many voices to join in.
I believe the words of
I believe the words of caution by Jenita are valid.
Wild speculation isn't fact and I believe should be avoided.
The PD itself is linking the death of Vinci in a manner that implies too much and seems more a desire to keep heat applied to Dimora and Russo than to report on someone's death.
You either show some responsibility or no one will believe anything you say or write.
I don't know what to believe around here, anymore
Boy did you hit the nail on the head with this comment... "You either show some responsibility or no one will believe anything you say or write"... the core of the problem at the PD, meaning the core of the problem in this community.
Disrupt IT
I'm not qualified to lead criminal investigations
Nor am I qualified to investigate murder, arson or other police matters, nor do I want to. I expect all that to be done by "professionals" in those fields. Here, I believe, we are exposing gaps in how these important matters are addressed and reported in our community - I do not believe that means we adopt responsibility for being the police - or the daily journal (unless paid to do so).
I am qualified to lead investigations into economic strategy and policy, and information technology strategy, which I shall now begin to drive here and report on REALNEO - and I'll certainly invite all other members of the community to help with the investigations and analyses - in preparation for a complete change of local, regional, state and federal leadership under the Obama administration.
Disrupt IT
What matters most now... KMaCK... are you out there?
What matters most now is getting the $billions being spent here and to be spent here on redeveloping our region in the next eight years OUT OF THE WRONG HANDS and INTO THE RIGHT HANDS.
That requires identifying all the wrong hands in NEO, and any right hands. What we identify here will certainly be taken into account in the transition, and in the new administration.
There are other meaningful ways to get involved in the Obama transition here - helping set the new administration agenda and support the new administration - I plan to write about that here, and I'd love to see other Obama supporting REALNEO members (which is probably most of us) offer some suggestions for how REALNEO members and other concerned citizens may make a most meaningful positive impact on the region by working with the Obama transition team now... it is easier than you think!
KMaCK... you must be up on this?!?!?
Disrupt IT
thanks roldo yes i think
thanks roldo
yes i think that regardless of what truth that may exist which we are likely to never really know . . . .
Rosemary's death is simply being postured to cause speculation . . . and boy is the speculating going on.
Merry Christmas
http://clevelandmob.com/
HUD Dollar Trafficking
While Henry speaks so very
While Henry speaks so very clearly from his area - it is exactly the same here in the Central Tremont section - most of the residents have been here 30-40-50-60 years and even longer - and they are treated like second class citizens - these fine programs are passed out, yet a lot of these people are unbankable or they do not wish to sign on the dotted line that will put their old homes in jeopardy in case next year they can't meet the terms of these good programs and then lose the homes they have put sweat and blood into paying for.
The paint program is thrown out there like a big red balloon - FREE PAINT - that's great - but nobody get's it - if you're old, the knees don't work, you can barely get up and down the front porch steps, how in the hell are you going to get up on a ladder to paint the dam house - and if you're on a $8k annual income, you can't afford to pay someone to do it - so wow!!! the paint is great.
And what about a Corp that paid $1.4m for UGP properties - and is putting $20m + in the rehab and has purchased several other properties for parking - then TWDC takes $10K of model block funds and buys an addition lot UGP Properties and the Flying Monkey for parking - in Central Tremont - but yet they can't find dollars to help those long time residents. BUT THEY GOT FREE PAINT.
There is a lot of anger and a lot more questions - WHERE IS THE MONEY? Everytime the question is asked - you get the same run-about answer - all the model block funds is restricted funds. So it is time for change and it is time for someone to speak up and I am not afraid to do that. I am not afraid to call it like I see it. Just like the Development Director/SII Program Manager position that pays $50k by NPI - Samuel Catania was hired by his friend Chris Garland - a conflict of interest by all means - 60 people applied for that position - but if you back track the events - it is clear the position was going to go to Mr. Catania from the get go All they did was try to make it look good.
Just like the tree lawn and the face in parking on west 7th - as it turns out, TWDC and our good Councilman was right in the middle of approving the plans but they didn't know anything about it - and then when the homeowners stepped out and weren't going to let it happen - the planning commission came out and Myrl Roberts came out - But Councilman Cimperman wouldn't show - then all of a sudden IT WAS A MISTAKE - that wasn't supposed to be part of the parking lot -yet I saw the blueprint - everytime they get caught - the tale changes. Just like Frank's house - Chris Garland said TWDC didn't have anythig to do with that - yet it is right in the Board minutes where they supported it before the Landmarks commission.
That is why they are no longer believed, trusted and so much is coming down all at once. It's not about negativity - it's about the-------finally hitting the fan. They can shut down Tremonter, cry and moan all they want but the wheels have started turning - as they say round and round they go and where they stop nobody knows.
We're not just bitchin' - we still appreciate the nice things and are thankful for all the good things we have in our lives - but we want to keep those as well as restore some of what has been lost and to do that we must stand up and fight.
Distressed neighborhood
Please see this article--the CDCs are a sham. NPI could shut them down and instead they annoint six of the "functioning" CDCs as especially economically "distressed" areas, worthy of their targeted funding. On top of this gross misuse of federal money(aka your money), we have now annointed our county treasurer to essentially perform housing services and "redevelopment" that would have fallen under the CDCs, if they were functioning in their capacity.
The land bank takes authority completely out of public control--and all the while, we will continue to use our money to fund useless CDCs--mostly run, by the suburban progeny of our "suburban" foundation and "civic leaders"...read-- leadership that makes a total pretense of championing administration free from discrimination based on skin color, income, religion, language, and disability, all the while straining our community infrastructure and resources and local economy to build fake communities as far away from us as possible... Add to this, a land authority with no oversight that will clear land for the "right" developers.
This is the RealNEO...
-
-
FREE paint
What a joke, Jerleen...my elderly, disabled neighbor applied and was denied. But, they sure as hell took down all of her personal information and filled out a number of forms to make it LOOK like she was being served. She demanded the paperwork back and never got it.
It is my understanding CDC's
It is my understanding CDC's have quota's to get so many applications filled out. This way they meet the criteria the City requests. Then it is a feather in their cap when they go the next year to get funded again. To say its a house of cards yep, or could it be smoke and mirrors to funnel funds to friendly developers that give kick-backs in campaign funding to councilpeople.
Something inside
We're not just bitchin' - we still appreciate the nice things and are thankful for all the good things we have in our lives - but we want to keep those as well as restore some of what has been lost and to do that we must stand up and fight.
The "nice things" we have are seniors who tutor kids at Denison Elementary, teens who can say "thank you," immigrants working two factory jobs to put their kids through school, disabled individuals who get around on their own and retain some dignity, and men and women who still work with their hands to help a neighbor fix a porch or plant a garden.
Thank you to all of the exiled REAL "Tremonters," who have the courage to stand up and fight.
Social Welfare
Dbra--it is my hope that you are annointed with a job in the Obama administration as it tackles social issues with real social welfare. The system is broken. I don't canonize my neighbors, who sit around collecting federal funds to raise their families at the bare level of human decency, but I also refuse to canonize the people, who come in and milk our social welfare system for every dollar they can take home to their house in the suburb.
Self-reliance should be rewarded, but a community that has found a balance deserves recognition, too. I look at Metrohealth hospital and hope that it finds a way to define itself as a community provider with employees who give back to the community by living here and maintaining the infrastructure within its radius--safety forces, schools, libraries, parks, streets, stores, coffee shops, taverns, pharmacys (not drug store chains), theatres, restaurants...I could enjoy that type of company town.
This is were TWDC is missing the boat
TWDC should be working hand in hand with Metro Hospital to create a program for their employees and new hires to move into Tremont. Especially the Metro-North block club area, Scranton Rd from Clark Ave. to Metro hospital itself. I believe hospitals on the east side will offer incentives to employees that want to relocate into the neighborhood around it. Can you imagine a development plan putting some tax dollars to good use and partially funded by Metro to give like $10,000.00 to a new employee via a work contract that they purchase in the neighborhood and stay employed at Metro for at least five years. This way we have these people spending their dollars in the near west community. I had a lot of friends that work at Metro that grew up with me here. In the day it was called the Southside, not Tremont. All these people live in Strongsville, Brunswick, Medina, etc. You get the point. This would improve the housing stock get rid of the slum-lords, and better our communities of Tremont and Brooklyn Center. This is a far better approach that the Housing police holding a gun to the elderly community and saying paint you house or I will shoot. I personally know several TWDC Board members that really want TWDC to start spending money in Ward 14. The only way this is going to happen is with a new Board, and with leadership at TWDC.
Exactly what Laura has been posting for years...
I don't think most of the CDC''s are in the neighborhood development "business" - they are in the developer development business. Very different strategies. Where there are no developers ready to act, they inventory. They area around MetroHealth seems in Inventory stage. Tremont is in develop the developers stage. All the SIIs are develop the developer projects - in places with high political or eonomic payback to someone/thing... e.g. the Clinic...
Who are the developers being developed and what are the places/people with high political and economic payback in each of the SII zones? They are the ones making the money, paid by taxpayers, diverting public resources from those in actual need, and away from strategies with actual social value.
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I'd like to Hope in Obama
but frankly, he is scaring the crap out of me... or maybe I should say, deflating the hope. What is very scary - we are experiencing the largest transfer of wealth this country has ever seen.
Did you know the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has so far allocated $7 TRILLion in programs and loans and there is absolutely no knowledge of where it is going? Bloomberg News filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for the details of TARP and they have all gone ignored. There is no transparency whatsoever, and absolutely no accountability. Obama's cabinet appointments and secretary nominees leave me no hope that this will be retified - certainly Geithner, the man who wrote TARP, will not.
I'm trying to be hopeful, but as time moves on, I do doubt the administration will bring about real change in social welfare. But - I would love to be wrong and will certainly reman open for it.
I think Obama is smarter than we expect
Obama's cabinet is as weak as the pool of "leaders" he has to draw from, and the policies being enacted today are still of the Bush Admin, so I'm not going to hold them against him.
Where I expect Obama to excel is in raw intelligence, which has been missing from the Wit-less House my whole lifetime (over 40 years).
Imagine living in a nation where the chief executive is actually intelligent. We got it. Now, let's be intelligent with him - I believe he is very inclusove.
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this is my shred of hope, Norm
exactly it!
But I also must say he had numerous other choices for his cabinet and secretaries that he did not make. If you follow The Nation, DemocracyNow! et al they have been giving this thorough coverage. It seems Obama has been selecting right of centrist individuals. Certainly Hilary Clinton, Robert Gates and James Jones are all hawks. Geithner is a follower of Rubin and Greenspan. His ties with Citicorp go way back - that in itself should have triggered his ethics to recuse himself from the engineering of TARP. but, ethics being nothing but a nostalgic phrase from bygone eras.... Or i dont know - maybe I'm too young (its nice to be considered too young once in awhile!) to know it was never really anything more than an abstract concept.
I do think Obama is brilliant, and his wife is certainly amazing. I do have to say I stopped activist enthusiasm for him when he distanced himself from his Reverend, but I did vote for him and I never voted for Clinton. Clinton single handedly evicerated urban cdc structures and funding, basically handed them over to the power brokers of each city. He continued the economic slide of the middle and working classes. He down right lied to the gay community to get elected.
My mother-in-law was having fits because I teasingly told her (and never told her I was only teasing!) I was voting for McCain so as to bring on the revolution sooner! She was constantly lecturing me and leaving obama stickers all over our house when she visited!
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Self-reliance
is the good deed that gets punished.
Being responsible to yourself gets met with attacks of "why you should be doing more for others."
Those who are self-reliant do not have do-gooder fund-raisers to save our homes. No those same do-gooders attack and bad-mouth the self-reliant, as if they know or care at all about our lives.
Sorry to be bah-humbugging on Christmas but this past 6 months in Tremont seems like much drama and little result . .save for do-gooders patting themsleves on the back. Dying for the cause. Bashing people they know nothing about.
And in that process assisting all those "evils" they claim to be calling out to be accountable.
Have a good one and Merry Christmas to you lmcshane and all the other self-reliants who are not silently suffering - BUT actually getting the real work done.
When one actually does the real work they do not have time for fanfares, fund-raisers, glad handing or back-slapping. Too much to do . .no time for posting either . .just taking a breather on a day when much is closed.
Michael Connell
I would not have known about his death and the Ohio connection, if not for a patron
Here's your link dbra--click on disable rich text. Highlight text or image for link, then insert the relevant url:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/22/republican_it_specialist_dies_in_plane
Sounds evil...
With a history like his, I'd say God took him out... but it could be the Republicans cleaning out their own wild cards.
Another embarassment for Ohio IT leadership.
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