50 years after riot, can Hough benefit from growth edging in around it? (photos)

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

on July 24, 2016 at 5:01 AM, updated July 24, 2016 at 5:05 AM

 

Could Hough be the city's next big neighborhood success story?

 

That may sound like an improbable question about a community whose name is still synonymous with race riots in the summer of 1966 that left four dead and 30 injured.

 

But the reality is that Hough has many ingredients for a dramatic rebirth.

 

MORE, INCLUDING MANY EMBEDDED STORIES:

http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2016/07/50_years_after_riot_can_hough.html

 

The history before the Hough Riot is worth remembering too....

 

The Origins of Hough

Monday, July 11, 2016 at 6:00 am

 

July 18th marks the 50th anniversary of the Hough Riots, or the Hough Rebellion, as some now refer to it.  This week, ideastream looks at the circumstances and history around those events five decades ago, but also at what Hough is today and where it's headed.

 

The east side Cleveland neighborhood is bound by Superior Avenue to the north, East 55th Street to the west, Euclid to the south and 105th to the east.

 

We'll hear voices of residents who live there now… and from people who lived through those historic days.  We also wanted to hear about the origins of the Hough area. 

 

That's where we start our series, "Hough: Before and Beyond '66," as ideastream's Katherine Boyd speaks with Columbia University Senior Lecturer Howard Williams, who's currently writing a history of Hough. He says the neighborhood's earliest records go back to 1799 when Oliver and Eliza Hough settled in the area and carved out a farm.

 

MORE:

http://www.ideastream.org/news/the-origins-of-hough

From the article, there were plans for an entertainment district around League Park, the site of considerable investment already.  TJ Dow opposes even studying this idea on the grounds that the area needs to be "strictly residential" because current residents say so. 

 

At this rate, the answer is no-- Hough will not benefit at all from the growth around it, because Hough refuses to be an urban neighborhood.  There can be no success on the path that Fannie Lewis and TJ Dow have chosen.  Hough will never be a suburb and it needs to stop trying to become one.

^ That part was very frustrating to read. The only things they seem proud of are the McMansions built in the 80s-90s, like the one profiled on E86 and Chester that according to google maps at least, takes up NINE separate parcels. Instead, they should be focusing on the townhouses that are literally across the street as a way that can both keep the areas residential (not my preference), and bring back a meaningful number of people.

I've put a lot of thought into this and still don't have a solution.  I think everyone would be better off if Hough were built up as it was before the riots.  The people who live there now disagree.  Hough's bias against urbanity seems like holdover resentment from the riot days, when density and mixed-use were forced on blacks as whites went the opposite direction.  From that perspective, the planning concepts I support for could be seen as tools of oppression.  And it's not like they weren't tied in with it. 

 

But at the same time, the classic urban form has seen continuous and near-universal use.  It doesn't need to involve exclusivity or coercion, and often doesn't.  But here it did.  Things are starting to balance out, maybe, as money moves downtown and poverty moves outward.  Arguably, that setup could worsen poverty.  But at least it offers choices for everyone.  Ultimately the city can't afford for Hough to keep struggling on as an attempt at Solon.  For fifty years we've tried that, when do we move on?  How do we move on?

I do agree there is a huge hold over of those feelings from the time of the riots. As also noted in the article, the greatest driver for potential growth in Hough are people who don't hold those types of feelings or hold the stigma for the area. They're either coming in from outside the region, or they're too young to properly know the history behind the riots. While I see that as a good thing for the future of the area, it also leads to turning into a classic case of gentrification, of pushing out the people still there by turning the neighborhood into something they don't particularly like. Luckily I think that's a remote possibility due to the huge amount of vacant land.

 

There is a middle ground that can be reached though. Denser commercial development along Chester akin to Innova, and smaller scale around League Park, which I've always thought of as the Public Square of the neighborhood, still leaves plenty of land available for single family homes. Linwood Ave between 55th and 65th is a great example of new construction which doesn't involve single houses taking up whole blocks.

Hough would benefit greatly from the Clinic opening up to the neighborhood more, and the development of a proper business district, as has kind of been intimated. I think we'll see Glenville spillover before we see any major headways in Hough. Along Rockefeller Park is probably the best place to start, but convincing the neighborhood that there is intrinsic value to being in a critical urban location between the region's two largest employment centers is actually a good thing is probably the most important step to take. Hough's a great opportunity for the residents of the neighborhood to really take ownership of the place and its history and shape it into something good without the sinister hand of "gentrification" creeping into the mix.

Couple of things:

1.) As a neighborhood of majority black residents at its core the lack of trust from outside institutions doesn't surprise me. As a black man myself black people have been shafted and tricked so many times in the past by various organizations and institutions that hearing about more interest and plans probably has them skeptical due to the past. This is especially true if the majority of the residents voicing their opinion are older, specifically the age group that dealt with the older race tensions. Until they can be convinced truly of the benefits of change they won't budge.

 

2.) A lot of these people are lifelong residents of Hough. They are aware of the effects of what essentially in their eyes is gentrification of a neighborhood, their neighborhood. The idea of gentrification means they will be pushed out of their neighborhood, something they refuse to allow. I assure you as a lifelong resident of an impoverished neighborhood that is their mindset.

 

These developers or institutions need to circumvent TJ Dow and actually talk and explain to the residents their plan and the benefits. As well as reassure them that they will not be pushed out.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

 

 

These developers or institutions need to circumvent TJ Dow and actually talk and explain to the residents their plan and the benefits. As well as reassure them that they will not be pushed out.

 

I live in Washington DC, which, although it's not much talked about, is no longer a majority-black city. Essentially every neighborhood in the city (if you know the area - even Trinidad, once considered utterly hopeless) has been gentrified to some extent. The process has not gone unopposed; but the trick seems to have been to make sure that current residents who wish to remain participate in the benefits through property ownership and don't just get shoved aside.  I'd like to see Councilman Dow work on that approach instead of just obstructing.

Here's an interesting, data-heavy article:

http://teachingcleveland.org/hough-building-and-tension-by-luke-ondish/

 

To continue our discussion of the over-crowding and other conditions that led to the Hough Riots....

 

1 hour ago, CleveFan said:

Manhattan currently has 70,000 per square mile, so I doubt 76,000 is accurate. 

 

You are correct. The population of Hough, in total, at its peak in the mid-1960s was 76,000. Hough was and is a 2-square-mile area. The population of Hough rose from 66,000 in 1950, to 72,000 in 1960, peaking at an estimated 76,000 in 1965 before dropping to 45,000 in 1970. Today it has only 16,000 people.

 

The legacy of Hough before the riots was its severe overcrowding, few jobs and many of its residents having nowhere else to go. Some of Hough's large homes became rooming houses during the Great Depression. That went into overdrive after 1950 through block-busting and redlining. Now imagine nearly every room in every house and every apartment building in this 1949 photo having a family with multiple children in it.

 

^ it would be great to still have the building density in Hough without the overcrowding within housing units.

 

That historic photo always frustrated me because it cuts off the little hollywood neighborhood at the bottom. that was thee peak density hough neighborhood.

3 hours ago, mrnyc said:

That historic photo always frustrated me because it cuts off the little hollywood neighborhood at the bottom. that was thee peak density hough neighborhood.

 

Here's another one of my other favorite views. This one is looking northeast toward the intersection of East 79th and Hough. This is from Aug. 27, 1957....

 

 

i came across this today hunting for other historical photos.   From the post-riot 60's.  

Edited July 3, 20204 yr by Cleburger