BlackOpsAmbassador

Look to my previous posts for my opinion on this. Letter to the editor: Cleveland and its merchants push the poor aside Tuesday, December 11, 2007 The Dec. 3 article, "Food for poor moved from Public Square," discusses the downtown food distribution programs forced to move by our city government. However, this article fails to recognize the city of Cleveland's true campaign, which is to hide the poor and criminalize homelessness. The city, with the help of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, has used three strategies toward this end: the Public Square curfew, the anti-panhandling program and the removal of food distributions. These strategies seek to move the homeless from downtown - where they can be seen by business owners and shoppers - to areas that are invisible - under bridges and in city jails. Let us not be tricked by the article and believe the city is moving the food program to give the poor and marginalized more dignity. If the city were interested in giving dignity, it would provide housing - not shelters - with supportive services. The food distributors are being moved to sanitize poverty and remove it from the minds of middle-class consumers and shop owners. Advertisement Chris Knestrick Cleveland Knestrick is a member of the Cleveland Catholic Worker Community.

Yes, its the old B & O Depot. Wasn't it supposed to be an International Heritage Museum? Last I heard I think that organization scraped it's plans.

This study is about as dumb as the one that ranks "dangerous cities." Doesn't use all the data, isn't objective, and leaves some cities completely out of the equation.

The answer to your question is very simple: They wouldn't be allowed to preach their word and convert. These groups for a long time worked with Cosgrove to provide meals indoors but in order to get food you had to listen to the word, and become a born-again. Cosgrove didn't like this, and it stopped. The reason it's come up now as opposed for "10 years" is that there are a lot more groups doing it now. It used to be on Thanksgiving and Christmas, then it became every other day of the week, then 6 days a week in the middle of the lunch hour. Trust me, my window over looks it. That being said, I completely agree about the 24 hour drop in center again. In fact, I think if the center opened up you would take care of the issues at Public Square by itself because these groups are feeding at times between when other feeding sites close and the shelter opens. But that's just my opinion.

I'll support any plan that will get Dick to move away.

I've seen rats on the square especially during this summer in the Northeast Quad when the people providing the food were leaving it on the square and people who are homeless setting up camp in the bushes. Let's not forget too that this was going to happen anyway when the ECTP was started because of having no parking lanes on the Square. If RTA is towing CPD cars and arresting jaywalkers, I'm pretty freakin sure they're going to arrest anyone who blocks the BRT's path. There needs to be a indoor feeding location with proper restrooms and showers, aka a 24/hour drop in center.

The ambassadors report the lights out every day and those reports are sent on to CCP and CEI. After it gets sent to them I think it disappears into the black hole that is Cleveland Public Power.

z

I agree, she's awesome. I wish I had her attitude about my job.

I thought they would be exiting out onto Prospect Avenue? It's my understanding that no bikes are to be in the Avenue at all? But hey if that's change that's great for me and every other bike/transit rider!

I went on the tour, the wait was about 30 minutes because they let in groups of 20 people at a time. It was pretty interesting. They used the tunnels to store uniforms and ammunition after the Civil War had ended. There was also some quarters for a man who used to keep the grounds. The tour guide did point out that at the end of one wall had recently been sealed and that a tunnel led farther to the north but no one had ventured to go through it before that end was sealed. Most people think it runs to Old Stone Church and was used at one time for the underground railroad, to get freed-slaves to the lake. I think piggybacking off the subway tours would be a great idea, although this tour was definitely meant as a Halloween tour because it included many ghost stories.

The brookings institute report did include a wider footprint. My numbers don't include everyone in the justice center.

MyTwoSense, you're right that they should be included, but each CDC claims their own territory. The actual counting of downtown stops at West 10th street because the Flat's Oxbow claims the West Bank. I would assume they will also include the East Bank once the project starts. I was just giving the numbers we give, but you're right to include Stonebridge and Nautica into downtown.

Downtown Cleveland's population is between 9,800 - 10,000 with an average of 95% occupancy in downtown buildings between the Innerbelt and the river, the lake to Carnegie. We can't get any high population unless we start building more, although the rehab of buildings on Euclid Avenue between East 9th & East 14th will bring several hundred more apartments online.

Great job, thanks so much!

I think you're 100% correct on that one. Annexation stopped much earlier in Cleveland than it did in Toledo. Thanks for the insight.

I wish I had a good answer for you. I'm not a native Clevelander and I love the city, I live downtown so am I East, West, or Central? :-D I have to say though, the media in this community (not you KJP) is more down on this city than most others I've lived in. If you're a suburbanite who hasn't been to Cleveland since 1990, you would think Cleveland was a pretty horrible place if you got all your news from 19 Action. I grew up near Toledo and all of the media oulets there were generally more positive, even television. That's my stab at it.

This sounds absolutely horrible. I used to have a lot of respect for Coral, after they bought Shaker Square and took over the Staler Arms Building, but lately they've been losing that respect with housing developments in Crocker Park and now this crap in Solon. Way to contribute to sprawl!

Now that I've had time to sit on this, I know that this is probably a typical case and they did their job. What I have a problem with is Jackson declaring his vision to make Cleveland a city of choice. Well how can it be a city of choice if they keep releasing the people causing the quality of life issues that we keep complaining about. On top of that, the city can't even keep the lights on in downtown. We've got rolling black outs. That's a bigger safety concern to me than anything else. Last night, not one light was on between Superior and East 9th on Prospect. Last week the entire warehouse district was dark from 8 PM until past 3 AM. Why do I pay my taxes if they can't even keep the lights on?

There was a guy pick pocketing women in front of my building yesterday on West 9th, and he was arrested. CPD let him go today because it wasn't a violent crime and the jail is overcrowded. CPD is worthless. You want a jail, its called Lake Erie, throw them in there. Although as an enviromentalist I would be upset about the rising bacteria level. Sorry, I always write on here as soon as I get the news.

I'll pay it if they promise to actually do some community policing instead of sitting at Starbucks on West 6th for an hour at a time on their motorcycles.

I just got an email from the group that was on public square on Sunday trying to do a letter to the Editor campaign against the curfew. I don't agree with Megan, and I have radically different opinions on the curfew (need it), but I do respect her. I think anyone who agrees with the curfew should write a letter also. I've posted it below: Friends, I'm sure many of you have already seen the headline in today's Metro section about our protest of Public Square's curfew ordinance on Sunday night. If not, you can read it online here: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/118829095717580.xml&coll=2. I have also attached the text of the article below. The story implies that the curfew ordinance is exactly what's needed to prevent the kind of violence we experienced on Sunday night - and ignores the effectiveness of community presence and nonviolent action to defuse violence at every level - including the streets. I encourage you, if you can, to write to the editor today with your comments. Undoubtedly those who disagree with us will be sending in piles of letters to say so - let's make sure our voice is represented in the dialogue. The PD article described us as "peaceful protesters" - but in the context of the article, our peacefulness is cast in the light of passive, fearful people who call the police at the first sign of trouble... rather than people who are actively involved with nonviolent resistance to violence, at every level, street to world. This isn't the first time most of us have experienced violence on the streets - or defused it. We had a dozen well-trained nonviolent peacekeepers in attendance at our protest, and it was these people's quick thinking and nonviolent tactics that defused the situation and prevented something much worse from happening. We called 911 in order to get medical care for the man who was hurt; by the time police arrived we had already successfully broken up the fight. It was peacekeepers' direct intervention - using nonviolent conflict resolution techniques that we have been trained to use - that kept two men from killing each other on Sunday night. Even the police thanked us for stepping in nonviolently. Nonviolence, though, doesn't make for a good headline news story. Can you help make it part of the story by writing to the editor today? To submit a letter by e-mail, please fill out the form at http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/lettertoeditor.ssf or send an e-mail directly to [email protected]. Letters may also be mailed to Letters to the Editor, The Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland 44114, or sent by fax to 216-999-6209. Your letter must include your full name and contact information for verification purposes. Concise letters are more likely to be published. Thanks for all you do, thank you for being present on Sunday night, thank you for your commitment to nonviolence and your love of justice. A new world is on its way - we are creating it. Peace and love, Megan Wilson Catholic Worker Community

I'll call her

She won't get off this idea of "ignoring" the homeless. How at all is this campaign designed to ignore the homeless. Over the past year DCA has hired a social worker, gotten seven people off downtown streets into supportive housing. Can't she admit that she's wrong! There's no ignoring about it.

Yeah it does, Connie, it means not being a schmuck and dolling out money to people who take advantage of you and giving it to agencies who can truly help the homeless. DUH!! I'm canceling my subscription to the PD.