East 105th: We Don't Blow Developers Here

The Hospital is now accessible for the doctors and nurses that live in western/southern suburbs so they can get to work easier and see less poors than ever! We are not NIMBYs here but we must ask ourselves what happened to an area to end up gentrified. Let's take a look at the evidence. The two neighborhoods that encompass this area are Fairfax and Kinsman. Let's take a look at the evidence.

The above shows the neighborhood of Kinsman pre-Opportunity Corridor. This was after they tore out the streetcar line that got you the whole way into Downtown Cleveland. There are a ton of local manufacturing jobs that were lost post WWII. Fairfax peaked at 23,000+ residents in during the war and today has recovered to ~6,500. The renewal projects are not working. How did a neighborhood of single family homes end up abandoned or demolished since WWII? Disinvestment and a city whose elite look out only for themselves. There is a CDC that has been active in the area since the 1990s; Burton Bell, and Carr Development. They have made profit from the area, but the population not returning to even half of the previous peak in 30 years may indicate the system of CDCs are not remotely efficient.

These neighborhoods continue to lose population so that each new individual they attract from a higher socio-economic class better impacts the median income of the area. Now the numbers show the area is getting wealthier and the CDCs get to make more money. It's a win-win! We are able to make this determination because, again, the CDCs have sold us the idea that we can attract more people to help the tax base. The issue is that they omit the displacement that must occur before they are able to make enough profit to justify further development. That is a pretty shitty concept from the perspective of current residents. Here is what the above neighborhood looks like today:

Notice all the empty and vacent lots where many family homes once stood.

We may need to look into community grocery storage and distributing vouchers that distributes 100% of the food weekly. What if we provided trades education to the community so they can build their own housing. All homes are owned by the trade organizations. The concerns of a growing "Labor Aristocracy" will need mitigated by ensuring people outside of the trade organizations have access to housing and groceries. Citizen organizations cannot leave behind the enfeebled, unwell, and old.