Block Clubs

September Important Current Topics that Tremont Residents need to know

Henry Senyak — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:28:26 -0600

Residents raise concerns about stepped up code enforcement in Tremont
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, September 2008) Residents of Tremont have raised concerns about the fairness of a new effort by a group of Tremont residents to push code enforcement in the neighborhood.

At a Tremont West Development Corporation joint meeting of the Housing, Community Development and Long Range Planning committees on July 10, 2008, Tremont resident John Moss announced that at a series of meetings, a group of neighborhood residents had put together a list of houses with code violations. Moss said the group had worked closely with Assistant Building and Housing Director Ron O’Leary and with Tremont West Development Corporation’s (TWDC) Ward 13 Code Enforcement Officer Katie Hough and TWDC Ward 14 Code Enforcement Officer Robert Rodgers.

Moss distributed a list at the meeting of houses in Ward 13 which the group had turned into the City of Cleveland Building and Housing Department. The list, titled Tremont Property Inspections Summer 2008, included 60 properties in the Ward 13 section of Tremont. Various violations were checked off such as mow lawn, house needs painting and/or gutters down, and roof repair. On some of the properties, the list included the date of July 8th as the date it was turned into the Building and Housing Department.

Moss urged the committee members in attendance to call him with problem properties and he would put them on the list. He said he would forward the information to Tremont West Development Corporation Executive Director Chris Garland and to O’Leary at Building and Housing. Moss said he was taking action because code enforcement was not happening. “I don’t care who does it, but we are going to have code enforcement,” said Moss.

Moss said his group would sit down with TWDC’s code enforcement officers each month before the Housing Committee meeting and go over the lists to see if enforcement was happening and where the process was being held up.

Moss said those being inspected would be followed up by TWDC staff with a list of city programs that can help them fix up their house “so we don’t appear to be draconian.”

A new list was being circulated a week later, this time the list had 77 properties on it. Each property had a name of an inspector on it. Most listed Building and Housing Department Ward 13 Inspector Jose Ramos. A number of the properties had inspection dates listed after Ramos’s name. The dates were either July 14 or July 15. Curiously, a call to Ramos’s City Hall number has a message from Ramos that “I will be out of the office from July 14 to September 14, 2008.” Katie Hough and Ron O’ Leary were reportedly seen doing inspections in the neighborhood, not Jose Ramos.

Residents around the Union Gospel Press Building see stepped up code enforcement and pressure to fix up their houses as related to the new housing going up in the neighborhood. Karen Bessinger of W. 7th Street, who has lived in the neighborhood for 55 years says, “We can’t keep up with them new condominiums, our house was built in 1879. A lot of people are losing jobs.”

While her house hasn’t been cited, Bessinger said they wanted her to participate in the Historic Preservation Program. “They tried to talk me into taking a loan. I don’t want a loan.” Bessinger says she is on fixed income and can’t afford a loan. She said she might put new siding on the house. As for historic preservation, she says, “Whoever has it after us, let them worry about it.”

Bessinger, says her daughter, who also lives in the neighborhood, while not cited, was “told she needs to paint her house.” She said her daughter has replaced some cedar siding in preparation for painting and the city has given her free paint, but can’t get the house painted yet because the person she asked to paint the house is working seven days a week.

David Gamble, also of W. 7, came home from his night shift job dead tired and had gone to sleep about 8 a.m. He said two hours later he woke up to the sound of guy knocking on the door. Ron O’Leary and Katie Hough were at his door to tell him about his housing violations. Gamble said he was pretty gruff with them and later called to apologize. Gamble said he could see where they are coming from. He said he knows he has to do work on his property.

Jerlene Justus of W. 7th Street is concerned that the development in the neighborhood will raise property taxes and push low-income people out. She said one of her neighbors suggested they petition the city for “an abatement so they can’t raise our taxes.” She is also concerned about the hardship that the stepped up code enforcement brings. “Poor people down here can’t afford what is going on.” Citing all the foreclosures in the city she said, “most people can barely keep up with the mortgage.”

She said if Tremont West Development Corporation really wanted to do something, “They should get a bunch of people together and help these people fix their homes.”

Noting one of her neighbors who had been cited, she said, “He never bothers any body. Don’t go picking on someone because you don’t think they don’t live up to your standards or because they can’t afford to fix up their home.” She said if her neighbors who had been cited had the money “they would fix up their homes like everyone else.” She vowed to go to housing court with her neighbors to tell the judge not to fine them. She said with today’s rising cost, the worry of foreclosure and the price of heating and electricity going up, they shouldn’t be pressuring poor people about the condition of their house. She said fining people and pushing them out of their houses would only result in more homelessness.

Justus said if there is a drug house, a meth house, or something dangerous to the neighborhood, do something about it, but people who are not bothering anybody should be left alone.

Roman Dowhaniuk, co-chair of the Scranton Starkweather Block Club in the Ward 14 section of Tremont doesn’t like what he has heard about the code enforcement TWDC is pushing in Ward 13. “Who gave them the authority to do their sweep and to dictate to me what I can and can’t afford to do to my home? I will fix my home to my standards. Not their standards.”

Dowhaniuk says of TWDC, “They treat life long residents of Tremont poorly, as if we are a liability, while treating newer residents with open arms.” Dowhaniuk cites discrimination in allocation of city resources to events. He said when he asked for a port-a-potty for a recent block club party, a last minute message was relayed to him that one was not available. He noted that the arts events in Lincoln Park always are given plenty of port-a-potties, and wanted equal treatment for his block club’s event.

Dowhaniuk said his concerns about TWDC are “all about fairness.” He noted the Scranton Starkweather Block Club, with many life long residents of the neighborhood, had been slighted a number of times by TWDC. He said, “We were promised a vote on the long term planning document and got that shoved down our throat.” He noted he was cut off from speaking when he asked for a public vote on the document at the annual meeting of TWDC.

Nina Swerdlow, who serves with Dowhaniuk as co-chair of the block club, says of the TWDC sponsored meetings, “There is never any open discussion anymore.” Several members of the block club at the picnic wondered why they hadn’t been consulted about the decision to step up code enforcement.

Block Club member Henry Senyak noted the unfairness in representation on the TWDC Board of Trustees, noting 13 of 15 board members live in Ward 13, while almost half of the residents in Tremont live in Ward 14.

Dowhaniuk said the block club is thinking of bringing up as an agenda item at its next meeting a discussion of its future relationship with TWDC.

http://plainpress.org/html/stories/2008-09/residentscodeenforcementtremont.htm

Auburn Block Club Meeting

Adam Harvey — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:56:33 -0600

Start: 2007-04-12 19:00

End: 2007-04-12 20:00

The Auburn Block Club is having its monthly meeting at Pilgrim Church. Representatives from Progressive Urban Real Estate will be present to discuss proposed additions to the Clarence Court Townhomes on Brayton and Fruit.

Lynn Friedel of TWDC will be around to talk about Home Repair Loan Programs

Genevieve Volpe of West Side Community House will be present to discuss foster parenting opportunities.

General discussion on annual spring clean-up and Show Your Stuff neighborhood Yard Sale.

January 2007 PTVV Block Club Meeting

Adam Harvey — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:16:54 -0700

Start: 2007-01-09 19:00

End: 2007-01-09 20:00

Where: Lucky's Cafe

Who:
• Tremont residents running for TWDC board

What:
• Block Club Chair elections
• Grant application and security cameras

January 2007 Auburn Block Club Meeting

Adam Harvey — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:14:52 -0700

Start: 2007-01-11 19:00

End: 2007-01-11 20:00

Where: Pilgrim Church

Who:
• Richard Carlisle on Steelyard Commons
• People running for TWDC board

What:
• Grant Funding opportunities

Gayborhood

Tremonter — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:23:06 -0600

If you're interested in forming a gay and lesbian residents' association to promote living in Tremont please contact Eric at 216.233.1511 or Scott at 216.241.2196. Straight folks is welcome too!

Tremont residents staffed a booth about Tremont in the last two Cleveland LGBT Pride Fests.

Heh. "Gayborhood".

Auburn Block Club Holiday Meeting

Tremonter — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 19:30:06 -0700

Auburn Block Club Meeting & Holiday Party
Thursday, December 8
7:00 PM
Pilgrim Church (West 14th and Starkweather)
Please bring a dish to share!
Beverages provided.

Auburn Block Club September Roundup

Tremonter — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 20:21:16 -0600

The meeting ran a bit longer than usual last evening as we were in the sanctuary of Pilgrim Church. Which, while quite pretty and with beautiful stained glass and woodwork, is still a strange place to bring up fornication in back alleys and the usefulness of retaining walls.

ODOT showed up to talk about the Innerbelt plan, and talked mostly about changes to downtown Cleveland while skimming over the impact to our neighborhood. After some cross-examination by my fellow block clubbers, it was determined that 5 houses, 1 on West 15th street and 4 on Fairfield will be "acquired" to broaden the innerbelt. Also, it appears that the cold storage building is another casualty. It was also explicitly stated that ODOT has yet to "personally talk" with any of the homeowners. Craig Hebebrand sent me the most recent high resolution PDF of the project, and the buildings to be acquired are highlighted in yellow. It is a large file, 13.9MB, and you can download it here. [Innerbelt PDF]

Nancy Owad also stopped by to show us her plan for Grumpy's which is hopefully going to reopen around year's end. It will have lots more seating than the old place and will be open breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late nights on weekends, as well as the usual weekend brunch.

There was pizza from Big Guy's and Miss Machrye made her tasty rosettes.

[Update: I forgot to mention, James Draper's campaign manager stopped by to hand out some information and give us a brief rundown of Draper's platform. Tremonter encourages you to vote for the candidate of your choice in the upcoming election.]

Auburn Block Club September Meeting

Tremonter — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 01:20:02 -0600

After a month off, the Auburn Block Club is having its September meeting this Thursday, September 8, at 7:00pm in Pilgrim Church. Doug Hebebrand of ODOT will be a guest speaker as well as Kathy Owad of the soon to be reopened Grumpy's. As always there will be pizza, pop and a 50/50 raffle.

If any other block clubs want to send me information on their meetings and agendas I'll be happy to post it here.