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The Washington Afro-American, March 15, 2008 - March 21, 2008

Cleveland: A picture of Americas urban crisis

By Zenitha Prince Washington Bureau Chief CLEVELAND (March 1, 2008)The streets of Glenville tell this citys story. The carcasses of once stately houses are now bare, empty and boarded up. At 2 p.m., when others are at work or in school, young men in hooded jackets populate the seedy corner stores, weathering subfreezing temperatures. A local newspaper headlines screams: City Policeman Shot by a 19year-old Male. These are the issues inner city Ohioans expect state and presidential candidates to address, said State Rep. Eugene Miller during a driving tour Saturday of his district, which is the second poorest in the state. In all too many instances, their expectations go unmet. Were dealing with quality life issues jobs, educational issues, housing, crime, Miller explained. The last two out of three years, Cleveland has been labeled the poorest city in the nation. Some activists say the Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and Barack Obama, DIll., missed an opportunity to speak to inner-city concerns during the recent debate at Cleveland State University. One of the things that was missing from the debates was discussion around the urban agenda, said Kasey Greer, executive director, Heights Community Congress. There was just this expectation that theyre here and well finally be able to delve into these topics but they didnt. No urban issue is hotter or more timely than foreclosures, which has devoured communities across the nation as a result of the spike in predatory, subprime loans. I deal with so many people in the inner city, suburbs and the outer burbs and they are all dealing with this issue, Greer said. White folks are upset about losing their houses and so are Black folks; were all in the same boat. Miller said people in his community have been dealing with this concern for years. rium on home foreclosures, she said in a speech Tuesday in Zanesville. Lets figure out a way to keep people in their homes, instead of having Mexico, Clevelanders lost their jobs. With the loss of jobs came not only an increase in home foreclosures but also an

We cant find jobs but we can find guns

vacant houses in neighborhoods that will decrease property values for everybody. Obama showed that he, too, is aware of the crisis. Speaking Saturday in a town-hall style gathering of about 1,300 people in Parma Heights, Obama said he would offer $10 billion in bonds to first-time home buyers and to existing home owners facing foreclosure. He said he would also create a $10 billion prevention fund. Ive seen the toll this crisis has taken, the senator said. increase in crime, said Larry Rush, 63, a struggling small business owner. We cant find jobs but we can find guns, Rush said, referring to the story about the youth who shot the police officer the day before. Were taking out our frustration on each other. Both Obama and Clinton have mentioned their intention to retool the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to ensure that American jobs arent shipped overseas.

Cleveland has the sixth highest rate of foreclosures in the country. Its one of the many urban issues candidates will have to address.
Photos by Zenitha Prince

State Rep. Eugene Miller, District 10, points to one of the many homes that have been foreclosed in his Cleveland district, the second poorest in Ohio. Many of the foreclosed houses are often abandoned, stripped of any valuables and sometimes have to be torn down. Weve been having this problem for years but no one paid it attention until it came to $300,000 homes. So, now its a crisis, Miller said. Ohio ranks among the leading states in foreclosure rates, which have quintupled since 1995, according to Policy Matter Ohio, a nonprofit organization that researches and analyzes economic issues affecting low- and moderateincome families. In 2006, there were 79,072 new foreclosure filings, an increase of more than 15,000 or 23.6 percent from 2005; most of those were in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland. Ohio is at the epicenter of the housing foreclosure crisis in America, said researcher David Rothstein, testifying before a Cleveland City Council hearing on foreclosures. Greater Cleveland is being devastated by foreclosures, abandonment, and predatory mortgage lending. State Rep. Miller said abandoned houses are also encouraging illegal activity and are depleting property values and tax revenues, Miller added. You walk up and down all these different streets, there are some beautiful homes, nice homes, he said, pointing to some decades-old, three-story houses. But if the house is worth $150 [thousand] and it is foreclosed, by the time the family leaves and people strip it, it will be worth zero dollars the house may be looking abandoned from the outside but inside there is illegal activity going on. Hillary Clinton tried to connect with Ohioans upset with the depleted housing stock. We should have a morato-

That crisis is partly driven by unemployment. Cleveland, once a draw to impoverished Southern families because of its booming manufacturing industry, has sunk into a recession. My mother and father came from Atlanta to Cleveland because it was known as the best location in the nation, said Jacquelyn Rush, a 6th grade teacher at Chambers Elementary School in Shaker Heights. Look at us now. Ohio has lost nearly 21 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the 2001 recession started, according to a Policy Matters Ohio report. Cleveland used to be a huge manufacturing city but the majority of the manufacturers have left the urban areas, theyre gone, said Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell, who represents a majority-Black, lowerincome ward. And when those companies moved to

Miller says he likes Clintons plan to create jobs from the investment in renewable energy sources, which will be particularly important to Ohio because of its proximity to Lake Erie. I believe we could create at least 5 million green collar jobs with clean renewable energy that would put Ohioans to work starting soon, Clinton said in her Zanesville address. Obama was scheduled to discuss a similar green jobs plan in Nelsonville on Sunday. Conwell says what stands out for him about Obamas employment policies, is his plan for ex-felons. We have a huge influx of African-American males coming back from prison who are less likely to be hired, Conwell explained. He wants to put them in job training centers across the country to equip them for work. I can tell thats from his community organizing days Thats a great urban agenda.

Ferraro: Obama only winning because hes Black

Continued from A5 people view her as a divisive and polarizing force. The best way to address those concerns is to not allow divisiveness and negativity to flourish among your supporters, he said. And this is an opportunity for her to address that. Jan Schakowsky, an Obama supporter and Illinois congresswoman, said Democrats should not tear each other down, and instead focus on defeating John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting. I respect every persons right to promote his or her candidate, but any and all remarks that diminish Senator Obamas candidacy because of his race are completely out of line, Schakowsky said on the conference call. Ferraro also said Obama has it easy because of a very sexist media. I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obamas campaign to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against, she said. For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. Its been a very sexist media. Some just dont like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign. Last week, a former adviser to Obama resigned after calling Clinton a monster. Associated Press Writer Peter Jackson in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

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