Gloria Ferris

“Rebuilt neighborhoods should be designed for people with a mix of incomes.”  We have neighborhoods with people with a mix   of incomes. I lifted this quote, from this article on Cleveland.Com. We do not need to be rebuilt.  What we need is safety and education.  Although the Put It On The Ballot Campaign was to do just that–put the sales tax issue before the voters–many people who signed thought we were opponents of the tax, thanks to the levelheaded reporting of the Plain Dealer constantly calling us opponents. Many of the people who signed the petition said that if the sales tax increase would be earmarked for safety and education they would not be signing it.  I don’t agree with that statement because I think we should vote on any and all tax issues, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

How is it that so many everyday people know what we need in this community, but so few “leaders” do.  Is it because they are so disconnected from the people they “serve” that they haven’t a clue?  Many people say that I have a myopic Jimmy Stewart view of the world but I think that every small community interconnects with the next small community and so on and so on kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.  I believe I was proven right by comments and observations by others during the recent Put It On The Ballot campaign.

So here is my take from my perspective “one woman’s view from a place by the zoo in the city”.  We don’t need to be rebuilt,  we don’t need to be designed, and we already have a mix of incomes.  If the assessment was truly one house at a time, why would we be talking about “rebuilt neighborhoods”?  Sounds like there is a bit more implied than what is stated.  Our neighborhood does have a design–the bulk of it was built at the turn of the century in 1906 with some structures much older. Why rearrange what makes us unique, what makes us sustainable, what makes us viable in the future? 

Safety and education is what will stabilize our neighborhood.  The preception of being safe is huge in whether a neighborhood like mine can maintain its mix of incomes and attract others to buy into “the small town feel” of Brooklyn Centre.  The other aspect of stabilitly that needs to be enhanced is education.  Many people buy in our neighborhood, rehab an older home, have children, and move when those children reach school age.

I believe it is necessary to “read between the lines” of this article to try to determine just what is being said.  After reading, ask this question “who will benefit more from the rebuilding of neighborhoods”?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am and is filed under Cleveland, developing community, growing an economy, quality of life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.