Saturday, December 31, 2005

Graffiti Wars

So I get a call from a local businessman, Bill. He owns industrial buildings in Tremont and Ohio City that have been 'tagged' - repeatedly - with graffiti. He has met with new Ward 14 councilman Joe Santiago and he's terribly concerned; and now Bill wants to 'do something' about it.

*Sigh*

I wish I knew the answer to this. I will try to be helpful.

The graffiti in Tremont is mostly tags - little squiggles of semi-readable letters or initials. It's not the super-creative stuff that looks like a Zen master artist crossed with visual hip hop that you see in the Bronx, or maybe along the RTA route in Cleveland...no, this is just words like 'spend' written over and over; some kid saying "I am here"...

...it's found on utility boxes, garage doors (mine included), mailboxes, blank walls...and unfortunately, on occupied, beautiful, unpainted brick buildings, like Bill's, which takes up a whole block, and is now irrepairably damaged.

Paint it over, I tell him. The city no longer has an anti-graffiti program, so it's DIY. ASAP.

He's done that. Five times. What now?

Merrick House sponsors a mural program for teens; it's staffed by Rocky Melendez. Rocky is tall, with heavy metal hair and an easy, tough-guy manner. The kids respect him. Under his supervision they paint and maintain the International Flag murals under the highway overpass in Tremont. I call him up. Yeah, he says, there's some new kid tagging in Tremont. He's not one of ours; our kids don't know him. Must be a busser, the tags run along bus routes. He has no respect, he's an outsider. We'll keep an eye out, he tells me.

I tell Bill to call Marianne Ludwig, owner of Scoops. She and her husband Jon have spent many weekends painting out graffiti. Originally councilman Cimperman purchased paint for them and helped out, but now I think it's just mostly Marianne, Jon, and any of their friends or family 'lucky' enough to be roped in. Call her, I say - she and her husband can tell you exactly what shade of brown to paint a traffic light control box versus the perfect green for an SBC router. Bill is excited that he's not the only one concerned with this issue. But he doesn't want to spend every weekend painting out graffiti.

Bill has called the police, who just don't seem that interested. I can understand - they're short staffed, these kids are hard to catch, there are more serious crimes in the Second District. But we both remember that suburban kid who was caught, fined and sentanced to community service, painting out graffiti - wasn't that in Cleveland Heights?

Clark Metro is installing security cameras - maybe that is the answer. Although I hate to think we are living in Geroge Orwell's '1984.' But it's an avenue to explore. They're expensive.

Some years ago, a book was published that urged city planners, police, politicians and bureaucrats to address small issues quickly to prevent their spread and growth into bigger issues. It was called, "Broken Windows."

But in an era of limited government, limited budgets, and overwhelming problems, who will keep the small problems from growing into bigger ones?

Last summer, I worked with Court Community Service to paint out graffiti, clean up the streets and sidewalks. We worked every saturday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Some days, I'd be driving down Scranton a half hour after the crew had completed work and the area we had cleaned would already be full of trash. It never ends.

Someone once characterized American society as notable for it's "private opulence and public squalor." Some days, it strikes me that we have become the Third World - trash filled vacant lots, boarded up windows, gang graffiti. So I guess the choice is - go out there and clean it up - or turn your eyes from it - or move to a cleaner, wealthier neighborhood.

Private opulence. Public squalor.

Does it have to be one or the other?

Bill tells me he's lost tenants who see the graffiti and flee. His property has lost economic value, and so has the neighborhood. Bill wants to share his frustration, and to look for answers.

Meanwhile, the graffiti blooms like urban flowers in winter.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Haves and Have Nots

During the holidays, and with the usual orgy of consumption of food and gifts, it is hard not to think about inequities, and what we are do to address them. I have heard it said that 'you are heartless if you are not a liberal before 30, and a fool if you are not a conservative after;' however I think that it is possible to be hard- headed and open-hearted at the same time - but it takes some work.

My background and natural inclination is for the arts and humanities - books, music, and art appeal to me - but if it is true that as you get older you begin to integrate opposing sides of your nature, than it is economics and politics that fascinate me now. I had a professor in college who defined politics as 'the art of who gets what - where, when and how much' and because of my job, I get to see this in action. Money to build and rehab houses, to organize, and to provide services, comes from our taxes and flows through the hands of politicians and bureaucrats until it is finally returned to us, the citizens. This process is awkward and often ugly, but if it is transparent, no better way presently exist. Our group consciousness, or a collection of our decisions, will come to reflect our will. And 'we will get the government that we deserve;' a good one, to the extent that we are willing to be an active part of the process.

From my essentially romantic view of the world, based on my love for art and books, it came as a shock to realize that there is an entirely different way of seeing the world - of looking at it for what it can yield, rather than for what it represents. In other words, where one person sees a tree, another sees lumber. Or rather, they see the profit, because the lumber is a means to an end. The trees themselves are unimportant to the capitalist; to the romantic, they represent life, beauty, growth or any number of things that we envision.

At its best, community development reflects both of these realities - seeing the world with compassion and beauty, yet with an understanding of monetary value.

Conservatives love to talk about the 'invisible hand' of the economy, and they have a high regard for leaving this 'force' uninhibited, (I wish they had a similar regard for the 'invisible hand' of nature!) Our job in community development is to interfere - to build and rehab houses and businesses in neighborhoods that the economy, the 'invisible hand' has left behind. If we are good, we will reveal value where others had failed to see it, and create new markets - if we are bad, we will waste money on a project for which there is no demand. It takes a combination of head and heart to see the vision and the reality.

I think this combination of head and heart is what is needed to be a good steward - neither unfettered greed nor starry-eyed idealism. It is tough to get at the right combination, but I believe it is possible when we are honest and open and refrain from demonizing the opposition.

The right loves to criticize the left for being soft and unrealistic. While I embrace the word Liberal, I agree with the critics. To take a phrase from the right, I would suggest that 'compassionate conservatism' is just what we need - taking these words literally and not for the deceptive buzzwords they have become. We must be conservative with our resources, whether they are historic buildings, people, or wealth - while at the same time being compassionate for those who have as well as for those who do not. It may be trite, but it is important to remember that we are all in this together, and to work for the common good takes just the right combination of head and heart.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

What is a community development corporation anyway?

Well, I certainly didn't know until I was over 30. I grew up in suburban Cleveland - the kind of place that is eerily quiet most of the day, with kids at soccer practice, or inside watching TV. We knew our neighbors, but we certainly didn't organize around any issues with them. Of course, there were issues - just hidden away. In the city, it's different. Kids are outside all summer, riding bikes in the street, playing football. And their parents too, tend to be out - sitting on the front stoop or the porch, laughing, talking, whatever. The issues are out there too - poverty, racism, pollution, teen moms, drugs. Not much is hidden away. And neighbors in the city do tend to get to know each other better, even if they don't like one another, this is the way that it is.

I understand that Community Development Corporations, or CDCs, as they are known, were started in the 1960s in part through the efforts of President Kennedy and his brother, Bobby. First in the inner cities, spreading then to less poor sections of town, downtowns, and inner ring suburbs, these organizations thrived and may have peaked, for now, in the late 1990s. They are officially charities, sanctioned by the IRS as 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations. Their purpose is simple - to eliminate slum and blight conditions, to distribute educational information on health, safety and community organizing, and to alleviate the burdens of government. Their first functions where to organize around issues - scrappy, grassroots organizing to tear down a blighted property, clean up a park, or chase away a drug dealer. They were funded to do this through Community Development Block Grants, federal dollars that flow through the local government and into the community. Based upon early successes, and with access to capital, CDCs started to take on bigger projects, to become 'developers of last resort.' This can be clearly seen in Cleveland where many CDCs own significant chunks of real estate, both commercial property or apartment buildings. Funding organizations, called 'intermediaries,' have been set up by private foundations in many cities to assist CDCs with their work. In Cleveland, we have the Cleveland Foundation, which set up Neighborhood Progress Incorporated to directly fund and assist CDCs with these efforts. There are others - LISC, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation; and CNDC, the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition, which is an umbrella organization to support and advocate for CDCs. In most neighborhoods, the local city council member is a supporter and funder of the work that CDCs do.

The Tremont West Development Corporation was chartered in 1978 - set up by Merrick House, among others, to assist in eliminating an arson problem which was rampant in the neighborhoood. Over the years, we have worked to organize and staff block clubs, which currently number ten; we have managed affordable housing in partnership with the Cleveland Housing Network, currently over 300 units in Tremont, and also in Clark Metro and Ohio City; we have assisted 30 businesses with significant, historic renovations of commercial property; and we have partnered with for-profit developers to assist them in building market-rate homes, which currently stands at over 150 units priced from $140,000 to over $500,000, with another 150 units on the planning board (including the massive renovation of Valley View Housing Estates). Increasingly, we are also 'fiscal agent' or financial manager of funds for organizations like the Art Walk, ReStore Tremont, and the Tremont History Committee - independent groups that need assistance, much like block clubs do.

So, have we been successful? As a staff member, I would like to think so. Tremont is certainly one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Cleveland - partly due to our efforts, and partly, maybe mostly, due to the risks taken by entrepreneurs who have started bars, restaurants and galleries in the neighborhood, and people who have renovated property to live in, or to sell or rent. But - poverty persists in Tremont, as does some crime, though much less than before and comparable with the better neighborhoods in Cleveland and in its suburbs. It is no longer the 'bad old South Side.' But it is still an incomplete task, with perils of gentrification on the one hand, and stalling development and disinvestment on the other. Neighborhoods are always changing, and there will always be unwelcome challenges as well as unseen opportunities.

Tremont West is a public organization in that our meetings are open, our bylaws and master planning are achieved in cooperation with an elected board of directors and with guidence from the block clubs and area business and property owners. Becoming a member of TWDC is as easy as attending a public meeting and signing in.

However, CDCs are sometimes the target for people's anxieties and anger. Those who feel the neighborhood is changing too fast, or not enough, or into something they don't like, can and sometimes do, blame the CDC. Because we work in cooperation (and sometimes in opposition to) the city government and local council people, we can become a target for tensions between government and constituent.

Challenges for CDC exist too, because federal funding for efforts are ever shrinking, and likely to shrink still more. Therefore organizations must start to do more fundraising, and charge fees for some services, which is always controversial.

I find myself, sometimes, on the defensive with neighborhood critics. After all, I live in this neighborhood too - I started as a volunteer in my block club, ran for and was elected to the board, and happened into a job at Tremont West when I found myself unemployed. No one will ever, nor should ever, get rich working for a CDC. But I love my job and think that I am good at it after 7 years, and I get rankled when people think either that me or the organization I work for are either all-powerful and against the little guy, or alternatively weak, stupid and worthless (and oh yes, I have heard both, especially because I do live in the neighborhood!) I must say, however, that our critics keep us honest; keep us trying harder; and keep us humble. I used to have a teacher who said that if you want to sharpen your tools you need to get the resistance and roughness of a sharpening stone, or of criticism, to do it.

But still I say - if you don't like what we do, help us do it - join your block club, run for the board, protest at city hall. In the city, there is just too much to do to stay inside all day. And that is the beauty and the ugliness of it - keepin' it real, I guess.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Take a Bite of Tremont

Yesterday I worked with Tom and Joy Harlor, owners of Tremont's popular caterer and boutique deli, Take a Bite. As part of my job, I have wanted to volunteer to work a three-hour shift with area merchants to get a feel for their day-to-day business operations, and Tom and Joy were the first who agreed to my request. When I walked in this morning, Tom told me to wash up - as long as it would take me to sing a verse of 'Happy Birthday' (which I declined to sing out loud). He threw me an apron and a dishrag and, noting my bald head, told me I wouldn't need a cap. Joy directed me to start by slicing tomatoes - "We'll see how you do here as a warm up," Tom said with a nearly concealed wink. A brief introduction to my coworkers, already busy with their tasks, and I jumped in.

Three hours later, I had made 170 puff pastries (with help from their talented pastry chef), sliced and stacked trays of sandwiches (harder than it looks), wrapped trays of fresh baked goods, and done innumerable loads of dishes in the triple sink. What I didn't do was even more important - no accidental knife cuts, no burned hands, no dropped food, and I pretty much avoided aggravating my busy, temporary co-workers - or they were gracious enough not to show it. I avoided the cash register completely because my ignorance here could cost the business money, but I had a first hand view of the line forming on the other side of the counter.

What I learned: running a small business in Tremont is hard work - competative and busy, with long, long hours. The food business is unforgiving. A family run business means you really have to like your coworkers, because you'll go home with them at the end of the day.

And oh yeah - I learned that it's one thing to love to cook, and a whole other thing to make a living at it.

I look forward to working more shifts around Tremont, and I will post them here.