A Dialogue with Building and Housing Director Ed Rybka and Community Development Director Darryl Rush

Wednesday,
 

May 11, 2011 - Saint Rocco’s - 6:00 PM

www.stroccocleveland.org 

This is your chance to talk to the officials

About the Foreclosed, Abandoned and

Boarded-up Houses in our community.

If you live in the Stockyard, Clark Fulton, Brooklyn Centre area and  are concerned about your neighborhood, you need to attend this meeting.

For more information call:
Stockyard, Clark-Fulton & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office

 3167 Fulton Road, Suite 303, Cleveland, Ohio 44109

Tel (216) 961-9073 / Fax (216) 961-9387

Location

Cleveland , OH 44109

Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"

DIVIDE & CONQUER.... Families divided and dispersed...Oh where shall I go? They are all over the place now....but mostly they are in our hearts and go with us whereever we go....So...oh...where will we go next? 

St. Rocco's on Fulton..."A" attended 2nd grade there, got baptized there last year, and also completed her first communion there.... We go to church there too... I love that church for some odd ball reason...Maybe all those years as a child when I went with my friend's family...I don't know...but I love that church deep in my heart...

Blessed Sacrament at Fulton & Trowbridge (CLOSED)....was turned into a PEP School for awhile...but they closed it last year....

Walton Elementary at Fulton & Walton (Same as always....) 

Sackett Elementary is now the BOYS & GIRLS CLUB

St. Boniface on Denison (Still there and I believe it merged with Metro Catholic)

St. Procops on W. 41st(Closed and now home to felons).

Lutheran Elementary on W. 43rd...i don't know about here other than when 2nd District has their Christmas Party for the Community citizens and Santa visits. 

Gilbert Elementary on 58th is now CLOSED.

Clark Elementary at 54th..... next to the burned/demo'd Weineman's lot.... still open & the same.

Milford on 46th (DEMO'd & REPLACED WITH OVERPRICED HOUSES>>>)

Thomas Jefferson J. H.....wow...totally demo'd and rebuilt and home to a totally new method...think it's considered the INT'l school and is supposed to be a place for immigrant kids to excel and integrate into America.  

====Do you remember when kids filled the streets at 3:30 p.m?  Yes, and I am glad that where I live, we see it daily....but it is still very guarded and protected...Kids today NEVER get to walk home without a parent or adult (at least not mine...)... We are lucky to have at least 6 cross guards near her school, a very proactive and dedicated School Parent Organization and a network of parents who can communicate with teachers and kids regularly. A sense of community can be established with grass roots efforts like the "walking school bus" and various other interactive opportunities with the school...but it's still a challenge.... No grandmas or grandpas around to make parenting easy and her dad died...so, it's really hard sometimes...but we do fairly well. Since most of our family has moved up and out in the world, we have survived and thrived in our own ways. Priceless adventures to the parks, zoo, and beach have been quite fulfilling.

Most of the schools are gone now.  (Heck, our govt was steering out families for a really specific reason...hahha)

The people left....with their kids....

They followed jobs and opportunity for themselves and their kids...and many kept their City of Cleveland jobs and moved to the burbs too.

Unsafe schools and failing schools....Some, yes...but read about "LOUISA MAY ALCOTT" where she goes...it is EXCEPTIONAL in Cleveland....I love the principal and the staff and the sense of community that they build with the parents. I went back after 2nd Grade at the Parochial School... and don't regret it.

Unsafe streets. (TOTALLY AGREED!!!!) 

Who's left? Lots of lonely individuals looking for love in all the wrong places? (Smiles...includes all demographics...just joking...) 

Why should any young parent stay? It's up to the individuals to decide this in their own time and terms.... A sense of community is significant no matter where anyone goes in the world... without it, I cannot imagine calling anywhere "home"...

Can someone tell me?  I have studied foreign languages most of my life. I used to truly love this melting pot and getting to practice my language skills around this cool city. I used to really love learning various cultures too and enjoying their festivals. The museums, the metroparks, the lake, and the idea of having a sense of community here was fulfilling for a long time.... Yet, realizing that those things are slipping away, the young families moved away, the old families have remnants of their elders living around town and demising daily with countless funerals hitting in countless directions....and most importantly...that it's a "Choice" to live in this city which means either eating crap, joining the corruption, or leaving it all behind and only returning for dissociated visists...

So...time will tell. The economy dumped on a lot of folks....

If God's willing and the creek don't rise (Lake in my case)....we'll get where we are going and supposed to be sooner or later! Smiles....

But...the burbs are just full of so many superficial folks too...what's the big difference...better schools-not always...., more illicit drugs, better cars, bigger debt lists, and more pseudo smiles than can be counted....? What a world we live in.... Life is such a box of chocolates.....

I love my REALNEO family, though....

Laura McShane is a librarian and she's always got cool books to read the kids.

Lily Miller is an educated hillbilly who works for a living while always making time for her community people.

Guy Templeton Black is a minister...and he's got so much energy to share.

Norm Roulet is really concerned about the quality of life we breath through pollution and our environment.

Jeff Buster is always cheering everyone on like our very own cheerleader.

Jerleen is a writer for the Plain Press and community organizer for the OSS group.

We have a few antagonists amidst us...but at the end of the day, we all unite to disrupt corruption....and that is totally awesome in my opinion...and fulfilling beyond words. I guess we are all just "crazy" but at least we have found a sense of community herein...Smiles. We meet for coffee, go to events, support eachother when in need, learn from eachother, and find friendship amongst one another. We enjoy all kinds of stuff together...live hillbilly bands, belly dancers, court rooms, rallies, protests, fundraisers, parks, lunches, and we share lots of support for fun, family, and festive moments... and the bad too...

Today, I am personally aware of a half dozen funerals.... I am sad inside for the losses of people around our community. I went to one this evening...Life is simply too short to allow all the challenges destroy us or prevent us from being real with the life with have....One of my dear friends is in a coma-fighting for her life....and I am praying for them all...

But at the end of the day, tickling my child's belly button, watching her play Candyland with the kids next door, or hearing her enchanting laugh, or listening to her sing songs loud and proud....are things that no amount of earnings can buy...

She's amazing....come visit and meet her.

Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"

Residents are asking residents without rides to the meeting to call Kate Dupuis--see and print out flyer attached:

http://realneo.us/system/files/A_Dialog_rk-2.doc

meeting with YOUR HOUSING COMPLANTS IN WRITING....

If you are attending this meeting to discuss complaints for houses around you, then here is how to save yourself some time...and start the paperwork trail.... Remember to sign your name so that the homeowner's know who submitted the complaints when they get mad at the Code Enforcers & City Inspectors (who need your complaints to do their jobs...)

Look, if you know a homeowner who may qualify for some of the grants like SHAP (Senior Housing Assistance or CASH grants...) then let's coordinate those programs effectively before we send qualifying homeowners into housing court over little gutter problems.... But, if you want to take action on questionable houses...then here's the form you submit to B&H for the inspectors to make citations, warn homeowners that they need to react, and then send them into court with Judge Pianka for the CRIMINAL HOUSING  COURT CASE that follows the tickets...in which homeowners will get cited fines, jail time, or other avenues of reproach as the Judge sees fit.

Instead of sending the low income there...how can we as a community recover our community? 

Block Clubs?

Neighborhood Watch?

Helping Seniors Mow Lawns & Do Repairs?

Community Service (Court Ordered)?

Youth Service? 

Collaborating with REAL ESTATE INVESTORS TO BUY & INVEST INTO HOMES IN OUR COMMUNITY & then turn them around for low income families for REALISTIC PRICES that don't put families into foreclosure? (If a family of 4 earns $18k a year; then how much house would be realistic for them to afford with Principle, Interest, Taxes, Insurance, Water, Sewer, Trash, and repairs plus utilities...plus still live a decent life in their community without struggling?) Would it be too much to ask Real Estate Investors to commit to rehabbing houses, getting the city to give them tax abatements, and to provide houses for sale where the PITIWST Payments would not exceed $300-500/month? Houses are cheaper than ever before right now in our community....would it be so impossible? NO...but greed would have to be reduced from speculators and boundaries would have to be implemented in advance by the collaborators...

Will upload and attach the form....

Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"