Wednesday, May 31, 2006

clevelands hottest new neighborhood?

at the coffee shop on fairmount circle by jcu, looking for a free rag to read, i notice a white, laminated stack of cardboard flyers with "clevelands hottest new neighborhood" printed horizontally, with photos of the insides of homes-and the houses are very good looking.

i think to myself "hmm, i wonder where this is?" and flip the card over. the housing section is called "the cloisters" and said to be located in the "warszawa historic district" i am shocked to find out that they are calling the area on fleet avenue between 65th and 55th "the hottest neighborhood", but understand now why all the pictures where taken inside the home and only one tight shot of the outside. then the card continues on, calling the housing affordable first, then stating prices range from $150,000-$200,000.

i am an intimate of this neighborhood. it is in slavic village, and a matter of blocks from where shakira johnson was found. this space, where i worked daycare (corner of fleet and broadway), giving breakfast to many children who hadnt eaten since the afternoon snack i had provided my class the day before. here is where they build georgeus houses and call it "cloistered"?! (forgive my spelling)

i am tired of this city.

song of the day: ohio- the pretenders

2 comments:

Tim Ferris said...

Let's not forget that these "cloistered" dwellings designed to lure non-indigenous types are also tax-abated and don't pay their fair share. Meanwhile, because of their higher comparable values, they raise the average price of all tax-paying properties around them.

Who wins? Banks, moving blocks of money. Developers/builders, keeping busy and selling new products. Elected officials, creating the appearance they are doing something, anything. The nonprofits, who get a cut of all this development. New residents, getting taxes abated.

Who loses? Current residents, paying taxes for the new residents. The community, paying subsidies to get the development off the ground. Legitimate charities, with the "community development" nonprofits skimming a charitable dollar for the developers and the banks.

Bus, as you've begun pointing out, the biggest casualty in all this is the truth.

molly said...

thanks for commenting tim. george over at brewed fresh daily has picked this up as well, and there is a pretty good conversation going on over there if you want to join it. these are really good points

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