Gloria Ferris

When I was a kid there was this song called “High Hopes”. We sang it in choir; we played it in band. I think it was a Frank Sinatra song. Anyway, I think a bunch of my neighbors and me felt like that little ant on Saturday. We got up early and tackled the trash on Denison Avenue. We stopped at about one o’clock when we just didn’t have much gumption any more, but we surveyed our work of mowing, weedwhacking, edging and trash picking and we felt a sense of accomplishment.

And then, this OOPS! happened or was it an OOPS! A few months ago our councilman put out a list of houses that had been condemned in our neighborhood and put on the city’s demolition list. He asked for input to set priorities. High on our list of our priorities is a burn out on West 38th street that has been there waiting for demolition for eighteen months. The house was on the list when the moritorium for lack of money was instituted. Turns out that now that there is money, it is necessary to start from square one.

Low on EVERYONE’s list was a double on Riverside Avenue. The house looked pretty rough from the outside, but the inside had original woodwork and beautiful hardwood floors. We wanted very much to see someone buy this house and lovingly restore it to its rightful place as a beautiful example of turn of the centruy architecture. Three weeks ago, we heard that it happened. A man who owned other property in the neighborhood bought it out of foreclosure. Our councilman called the proper city officials to tell them that the house had been purchased and that it should be taken off the demolition list. His assistant also sent a follow-up email.

Saturday the house was demolished. Not the burnout, but the one purchased. Tim and I happened to drive by as the demolition was taking place. We insisted there must be some mistake. They insisted they had all the proper paperwork, and the city inspectiors had just left the scene. It turns out we were both right. A terrible mistake had happened, and they indeed did have the proper paperwork. The demolition company won the bid on Wednesday. They were told by the city to get all proper permits as soon as possible and see that the house came down.

A month ago, a demolition in our neighborhood made the news because a house in an historic district had been demolished without being taken through the review process demanded when a house is in an historic district. We were told that an investigation would be made on how this happened so that it wouldn’t happen again. We have never heard any results from that “investigation”. Now, we have another house demolished across the street from the historic district. But, we continue to wait for a burned out house one house removed from the historic district to be torn down. So here is what we have in the first settlement West of the Cuyahoga River. A vacant lot within the historic district, another vacant lot across the street from the historic district, and a burned out shell one house away from the historic district and, the loss of a bridge which was the last of its kind in America due to neglect and lack of maintenance for thirty years.
So these are my questions for the City of Cleveland. How historic do you consider Brooklyn Centre? How commited are you to preserving our part of the rich heritage of this city’s growth? How historic do you think we look to the outside world? What is our guarantee that you will not continue to attack us? What do you intend to do to make sure that this “mistakes” stop happening? And why, should any of us continue to trust you?

Today, I don’t feel like the ant that pulled down the rubber tree plants. I feel more like the ant whose home is destroyed by the little child stomping on the ant hill not knowing that it is someone’s home.