What is sustainability for Cleveland? Recently Major Frank Jackson lead an acclaimed three-day “Sustainability Summit,” which brought together 700 excited business people, students and environmental activities in feel good optimism while the Jackson-lead city government slogs along to Cleveland’s oblivion as usual.
Over $200 million in tax money was invested in building a state-of-the-art bus rapid transit line on Euclid Avenue. According to the Plain Dealer (July 2nd, 2009: “The $200 million transportation renovation of the Euclid corridor has piqued investors' interest in Midtown.”), this investment has excited private developers in returning to Euclid Avenue. Unfortunately the economic downturn has temporarily hampered large scale private investment just about every where including on Euclid Avenue.
Instead of waiting to catch a really big taxpaying fish the City of Cleveland has agreed with the Ohio Department of Mental Health to place a regional mental hospital, reputed to include a ward for the criminal insane, on the largest developable property, (according to Cleveland State University adjunct faculty executive-in-residence Tom Bier), along the newly revived Euclid Avenue, what was called a century ago the “Showplace of America.”
While this hospital will have hundreds of income tax paying jobs, like all public hospitals it will not pay a dime in real estate taxes. Accompanying the mental hospital proposal is a proposed nearby pair of subsidized housing projects for homeless and low income people. While the housing is likely to pay real estate taxes the combination of large mental hospital and housing for the homeless is not likely to attract private business such as research companies that will increase property values (and increase real estate taxes) to settle on Cleveland’s main thoroughfare.
Through a small study kindly conducted at my request by the Cuyahoga County Treasurer’s office there are currently at least 12 properties on Euclid Avenue, some large, that are now tax exempt between E. 46th and E. 86th Streets. This does not include the mammoth tax exempt properties of the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University with are further east along Euclid. At the least these institutions could serve as a catalyst for real estate tax paying private investment along Euclid.
I don’t have a problem with institutions working for the public good not paying real estate taxes. I don’t have a problem placing a mental hospital in the city, especially if it is in a neighborhood where there are services for patient families, which the E. 55th Street and Euclid Avenue site does not have. I don’t have a problem with mixed low and high income housing. This is being done elsewhere and a little bit in Cleveland’s warehouse district.
I have a problem seeing the opportunity for private development provided by a multimillion dollar investment paid with tax dollars to revive our town’s main thoroughfare damaged by continuing to place large land uses that are likely to depress property taxes of surrounding property. Instead of bringing catalysis for development and helping put real estate taxes along Euclid Avenue on an upswing, the City of Cleveland chose an unsustainable tax destroying approach for our “Showplace of America.”