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.