That's funny that income list was started at $50,000... Gee, maybe one day my income will be that high. It's not even half that right now.  :oops:

Nice article, but c'mon, we need some timelines.

 

 

CMHA plans downsized

Thursday, February 09, 2006

By TOM CORRIGAN

Staff Writer

Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority has scaled down plans for a public housing development atop RTA's West 25th Street station and ditched a plan to build on the muny parking lot across from Burke Lakefront Airport. The plan for a high-rise building atop the RTA station, and for additional units along Columbus Road, was scaled back from 398 to 171 units, said George Phillips, CMHA director.

 

Meanwhile, the plan offered as an alternative by Councilman Joe Cimperman — to build 200 or more units on the muny lot across from the airfield — is no longer in the picture, Phillips said.

 

'We can't really figure out a way to make that site buildable,' he said. 'You've got quite a few challenges over there. It's an interesting idea, but it would pose quite a few problems building on that site.'

 

Phillips and officials from City Architecture, brought aboard last year to fine-tune the West 25th-Columbus Road plan, presented it Tuesday to Regional Transit Authority board members.

 

'The board liked it,' RTA spokesman Jerry Masek said later, adding that additional proposals to build on the site will be sought.

 

The project would be paid for with part of some $8.5 million remaining from a HOPE VI grant awarded to CMHA in 1996. The original grant, for $12.4 million, was for CMHA to build some 420 mixed-income units on the bluff behind Riverview Towers on West 25th Street.

 

But geotechnical studies later showed the hillside was so unstable that it could not be built upon, and CMHA has been trying to find locations to build before the grant deadline runs out.

 

Cimperman, D-13, suggested the parking lot across from Burke as a possible site last year, saying residents near the Columbus Road site feared the plan would create a 'massive wall of housing.' He said residents in the area, known as Duck Island, prefer no more than 40 units. Now, Cimperman said CMHA's latest plan is also unacceptable.

 

'I think there's quite a bit of concern still from the Duck Island community. There's got to be a way to work this out,' he said, adding that he hopes to meet soon with Phillips to reach an agreement before the grant expires in March. 'I'm disappointed it's gotten to this point.'

 

Duck Island is partly in Cimperman's ward, but most of it is in Ward 14, represented by Councilman Joe Santiago, who said he supports CMHA's latest plan.

 

Although still to be finalized, he said, the plan has been made less dense and opened up with four parks to make it more pedestrian-friendly.

 

'They have a beautiful vision of adding trees to the neighborhood; it looks real nice,' he said, adding that one or more community meetings will be scheduled to seek neighborhood approval.

 

 

Staff writer Tom Corrigan? Did it really say that? Tom Corrigan quit Sun Newspapers and moved to Seattle last October! I replaced him on the Cleveland beat...

Seriously Duck Island...they chopped it in half, they're adding parks, and they're NEIGHBORS, not pariahs!

Are these units going to be townhouses/mid-rise, or just one big apartment building? Seems like the latter would defeat the purpose of HOPE VI, since it would look out of place in the neighborhood.

From the sounds of it, they'll be breaking the buildings up and interspersing the structures with open space.  But what do I know?  I'd love to see the latest renderings from City Architecture!

I found this website through the cleveland.com forum and don't remember seeing anything about it over here.

 

http://www.parkworks.org/marketsquaredesign.htm

 

Nice images. I believe my Cleveland counterpart at Sun did an article on this.

in regards to the extravagantly prices townhomes of OhioCity project, it appears that two more (4 of 6) have now sold.  impressive considering a starting price of $450k

And the madness continues... seriously, these people are crazy!

 

CMHA plans don't fly with Duck residents Sewers, traffic are worries

Thursday, February 23, 2006

By David Plata

West Side Sun News

 

People who live and work in the area of Columbus Road remain worried that plans for a Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority development are too congested, even though the plan has been scaled down.

 

The original plan called for 242 units, but has been cut to 171. Of those, 136 would be loft units sold at market rates, and 35 would be so-called affordable rental units.

 

"I'm against it,' said Pat Wisander, who lives on West 18th Street in the Duck Island neighborhood. "The infrastructure will not hold it. We have a bad sewer system as it is. That many more units would be ridiculous.'

 

In addition, she said, the project would bring too much added traffic to the area.

 

The new construction, including market-rate townhouses and low-income apartments, would stretch in five buildings along the west side of Columbus from West 25th Street past Abbey Avenue.

 

The final building, on a ravine north of Abbey, would rise above a below-grade parking structure and nearly reach to the Lorain Carnegie Hope Memorial Bridge. The buildings would be put up along Regional Transit Authority tracks and near the West 25th Street Rapid Station.

 

The project would be paid for with part of some $8.5 million remaining in a HOPE VI grant awarded to CMHA in 1996 to build mixed-income housing as a replacement for Riverview Towers on West 25th Street.

 

CMHA last year requested an extension on the grant deadline, but the request was denied by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Now, CMHA faces possible fines when the deadline expires March 22.

 

George Phillips, CMHA director, was not immediately available. But Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes most of the Duck Island neighborhood, noted the project has missed numerous deadlines, but said he believes Phillips is doing a good job to get it back on track.

 

Last year, noting the neighborhood opposition, Cimperman suggested that 200 or more units could be built instead on the municipal parking lot across from Burke Lakefront Airport. He said the site is large enough that existing uses - parking, tailgating during Browns games and neighborhood festivals - could be preserved.

 

In a Sun News story two weeks ago, Phillips ruled out the site, saying it is too difficult to build on.

 

Cimperman said this week he didn't know how CMHA could arrive at that decision so quickly, and that he still believes housing development should happen on the lakefront, even if not part of the CMHA plan.

 

Larry Cooper, owner of Morgan Services Inc., an industrial laundry company at 2013 Columbus, also said he objects to CMHA's downsized plan.

 

"I'm absolutely against it,' Cooper said.

 

Cooper said the building proposed north of Abbey Avenue will be directly across from his business. In the last few years, he said, he bought out two homeowners who complained about the noise from his laundry, and to expand the business.

 

"They're talking about putting a seven-story housing unit directly across the street from my laundry,' he said, adding that he fears the new residents also will complain about the noise.

 

While most of Duck Island is in Ward 13, most of the project area is in Ward 14, represented by Councilman Joe Santiago.

 

Santiago noted the revised plan, by City Architecture, is far less dense and includes park areas to make it pedestrian-friendly.

 

"It's not going to be like a huge Riverview apartment building,' he said. "It's going to be scaled to match the neighborhood.'

I do think that the owner of Morgan Services has a point but the residents are making much ado about nothing. God forbid their little slice of urban meadow heaven be developed. Yes, let's preserve the beautiful ambiance of such lovely places like the Abbey Market  :roll:

Morgan services is out of place with the neighborhood, thats why people bitch about the noise. It is a industrial building in the middle of a residential area. So long as the building they build dosent looks heavily "instiutionalized" it will be okay. People are just bitching because it means change in their neighborhood. Residents are throwing out speculated "facts" like "infrastructure problems", without being any type of engineer, to block the development. Guess what? If the sewers fail the city fixes them, if anything this type of development will force the city to upgrade infrastructure in the area.

 

Change is inevidable in the area as Ohio city and Tremont get filled out, its simply a matter of connectivity between the two.

The Duck Island Block Club policy on housing is that they want a 2 lot to 1 house ratio for all future housing.  They are rabidly anti-urban.  The long time block club president has something like 6 lots consolidated for a fenced in yard for her little ranch style house.

^ Yeah, I just checked that out for myself. VINCI, ROSEMARY owns like almost all of w 18th street to herself. I really hate home owner associations and block clubs, treating neighborhoods like their own little fifedoms. The only way the can accomplish their little goal is buying up land really.

It is interesting how they strive not to be urban yet they are located in such an urban area.  Why live there in the first place? 

^ I think their dream is for Cleveland to die completely.  This area was never a hotbed of residential due to industrial uses and pollution, and it is not as if these are historic properties on acres of land. 

I encourage you to write letters to the editor of the Sun and PD, especially if you are Cleveland residents and, moreso, if you are a resident of Ohio City.

Unfortunately the most effective way to present a argument would be to show photos of the glorious neighborhood itself (Abbey Market, the homes which resemble Appalachian squalor that I haven't seen since I left Appalachia, etc.), which you couldn't really do in a letter to the editor.

smackem,  i don't think you should direct your anger at block clubs as they hold many fragile neighborhoods together and offer a sense of neighborhood security that little else can provide

Sure block club provide sense of securty and neighborhood community, I'm on board with that. But this one (duck island block club) has an agenda to limit who and who cannot live there. Don't embrace new residential development and include people to the community, but rather keep them out.  Rosemary Vinci (head of this duck island block club) is also president of http://www.tremontwestdevelopment.com/ which seems to have some clout in the greater tremont neighborhood.

 

Like I said, they Rosemary Vinci, is using her blockclub to push an agenda of keeping "poor" people out. I concur with MayDays coment, its not a very great area to start with, and these new structures would be vast improvement to what is allready there.

^But isn't the market rate to affordable unit ratio something like 3:1 ?

Controversy thickens for Ohio City housing

Friday, March 03, 2006

Angela D. Chatman

Plain Dealer Reporter

Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago has entered the debate over the mix of affordable and market-rate housing in Ohio City.

 

The newly elected councilman, whose Ward 14 includes part of Ohio City, has said he has threatened to withhold some of his Community Development Block Grant money to the Ohio City Near West Development Corp.

 

Santiago said his constituents south of Lorain Avenue say the group's board does not represent the entire neighborhood. They say it favors market-rate housing over affordable housing and housing for the poor. The residents fear they will be priced out of the neighborhood.

 

Officials of the development group disagree, saying their focus is on housing for people of all economic backgrounds in the near West Side neighborhood...

 

 

more at:  http://www.cleveland.com

Wouldn't the people in that neighborhood want to get priced out?  I think that means the value of their home goes up.  I don't know, call me crazy but I would rather have a nice developement go in next door versus housing projects....but thats just me. 

No one wants to get priced out.  Yes, if values go up, they can expect improved amenities, properties and services...and who wouldn't want those things?  But with the mixture of owners to renters (30%-70%, respectively) in Ohio City, the lower-income folks stand to lose from rising rents.

 

I agree that homeownership is a worthy objective to shoot for.  Cleveland needs more of this and that it can be done for all income groups at the same time.  However, as this particular story relates to the HOPE VI project, if the site at 41st and Lorain could put the entire plan in jeopardy, then I think OCNW needs to concede it.  They can definitely push for a mixture of incomes on the site, but it's been on the table since last year and it would be a little unfair (in my opinion) for them to take it off the table entirely at this point. 

 

I get the feeling that this project is just going to run out of time and we're going to blow a huge opportunity here in Cleveland.

  I don't understand why the riverbend site can't be made buildable?  Is it cost that prohibits it, or is it just plain not able to be done.  It just seems like such a waste of prie space that overlooks downtown.  There HAS to be a way make that land usable I would think.

Yes, it can, but at great expense. The problem is the hillside rock formations beneath the soil are shale, which isn't stable. The most common solution is to dig and pour concrete caissons down 200 feet or so to bedrock.

JDD,

 

The banks won't loan the money for construction on the hillside. They feel that its too risky.

The figure I remember -- and if you search backwards in this thread you'll probably find it -- is that it would cost $20 million just to stabilize the hillside. That expenditure is not justified by the current Cleveland real estate market. Maybe some day.

 

In the meantime, the hill's lack of stability might help get some of those horrendous low-rise structures on the east side of W. 25th, near the Detroit-Superior Bridge, demolished (of course the current tenants would need to be sensitively relocated). One plan OCNW has for the site is a park, which I think would be beautiful (gorgeous skyline views, interesting topography, potential trails to the river, etc.).

^considering that, I wish that the hill was a little more unstable.  It would be great if those towers were not there.  It could make for an amazing park.  I would imagine that developers would line up to build 5+ story condos on the west side of W.25th. Imagine the possibilities.

^Even if we could just knock down the low rises and put a park there, you could put a lot of housing on the West side of the street and help to bridge Market Square to the Flats and downtown.

  That area has so much potential!  It's too bad that it would cost so much to stabilize that land...it has great acess from above or below, great views too!  I also think that the Northern end of West 25th has much potentila as well....from the lake on down to Bridge Ave.  If only they could get rid of the crappy projects (what a genious idea...projects on lakefront property!) and other one story buildings, then redevelope the area.  I guess it becomes difficult as to where to put people that are already living in the subsidized housing now.  Maybe they could relocate to Crocker Park?!?!  lol  Seriously though, that area from the river up to 25th needs to be looked at...as well as the peninsula.  WAY too much undeveloped land that close to downtown.

Wim, I doubt Riverview Tower will ever come down. It just houses so many people. But I don't mind it as much as the hovels -- I don't know what else to call them -- that make for quite a depressing streetscape north of the tower on the east side of W. 25th.

Of course the "hovels" aren't very attractive.  But as we saw from the demo that took place in the latter half of the 90s on the site that currently features a FENCED IN open space (come on, you don't think people want to use that for a dog park/ball field/etc???), re-housing these residents is not so easy.  Hundreds of CMHA residents were displaced and told that they would have the option to return to the exact same site when the new housing was built.  It's 10 years later and there's no housing and now it's all being built off-site. 

 

The low-rise buildings currently to the north of the site belong to Transitional Housing, Inc.  I would think that if a private developer had the confidence in the location to build something significant there, they would be able to offer them a nice profit for their land that would enable THI to move their housing and services somewhere comparable and build nicer facilities (much needed) with more capacity.  Most of the social service agencies that they connect to are in the urban core, though, so it would definitely have be somewhere close in on the near-west or east sides.

 

That leaves the properties on the west side of 25th.  These are apparently stable, engineering-wise, but are occupied by many parking lots (Lutheran, et al) and unsightly industrial space.  If the market was as kicking as we assume it could be, these would likewise be developed.  We know that OCNW is advocating for more market rate housing in the neighborhood, but the private market is just biding its time.  It's still a neighborhood in transition and things will happen, but it'll be a lot slower with things like Riverview being held up for a decade or more.

Not directly linked to the Riverview project, but definitely a related issue... the full article speaks to some of the issues that are arising with the clash of market forces and public sector service provision in the Ohio City area.

 

From the March Plain Press http://www.nhlink.net/plainpress/march2006/news/01-UCAP-famloc.php

 

Low Income residents fight welfare office relocation

by Tim Walters

 

Late in January, members of United Clevelanders against Poverty (UCAP) were surprised and dismayed to learn that Cuyahoga County was planning to move the Ohio City Neighborhood Family Service Center from its current location at W. 25th and Lorain Avenue.  This center provides a variety of services to the community, including Ohio Works First, food stamps, child support and a career center.  The new site would at Fulton Parkway and Memphis Avenue.

 

UCAP immediately scheduled a community meeting at the May Dugan Center that over 80 residents of the Near West Side attended. Elsie Caraballo, director of the Ohio City Neighborhood Family Center, came and informed all that the move was being proposed as the W. 25th and Lorain location was considered poorly organized and in need of renovation.  Only two replies were received after the County put out requests for proposals for a renovated site. These were for the current Ohio City Location and Fulton Parkway. The reason Fulton Parkway was being considered is that the rent there would be almost one million dollars a year less than the cost of the Ohio City location.

I think this is a sign that the OC is truly, once and for all, gentrifying -- for better or worse. Just a few months ago West Side Community House moved, now Neighborhood Family Center may go too. The location of these services in the neighborhood is a large part of what keeps it feeling economically diverse. (Of course, there are still lots of other services around, so that won't be changing completely anytime soon.)

 

Anyone up for a discussion of whether this is a good or bad thing? On the one hand, the utopian vision of Ohio City being open to all appeals to my idealistic side. On the other, I think Cleveland needs some higher-income -- i.e. gentrified -- neighborhoods if it is to survive (cribbing a little from grad school friends here who may or may not want to take credit). And since there's plenty of affordable housing in the city, I don't worry about people getting displaced too far afield, if at all. In fact, I would guess most of the users of these services don't even live in Ohio City. That was part of why WSCH moved to 93rd and Lorain -- to be closer to its constituency. At any rate, a very interesting topic for discussion...

it is a very interesting topic and one that may demand its own thread, but like you said, these are just two facilities that are moving elsewhere.  CMHA, the Social Security Office, Riverview Towers and their attached clinic, several low-income health care providers (in the building on 25th & Lorain), soup kitchens, drop-in centers, etc. have a foothold in the neighborhood for a number of reasons...atop which are the concentration of low-income residents and the easy access to the neighborhood via public transit without paying Downtown rents. 

 

While parts of Ohio City are quickly becoming some of the more expensive places to live and rent space outside of Downtown, the Near West Side is definitely not the most expensive place to live in Cleveland.  We have our more middle class neighborhoods, like Old Brooklyn, Kamms Corners, Lee-Miles, and Puritas-Longmead that have had more stability over the years, but places like Tremont and Ohio City - where "gentrification" is most often cited - are still neighborhoods in transition.  They have been for most of their histories. 

 

I don't see the base of options and services being threatened for the lowest income groups anytime soon, but when you look at more moderate incomes...the working poor...that's where you start to see the impact.  As it stands, though, the OC is still one of the most economically mixed neighborhoods in the city.  In my opinion, it's going to take quite some time for that to change significantly. 

 

Of course, if anyone has data/evidence to show that I'm full of BS, please share it!

Funny you should mention the county's Neighborhood Family Services Center in Ohio City.... I just finished writing an article about its relocation to Old Brooklyn, which will happen Oct. 1. I didn't realize it occupied five floors of the old bank building at West 25th and Lorain. That's going to be a substantial tenant loss for that building -- and a loss of about 300 jobs to the neighborhood. But Ohio City's loss will be Old Brooklyn's gain.

I'm curious about the rest of that building.  According to Ed Small, the developer of the Environmental Center, Market Square (the one that burned) and the building that houses US Bank and the Film Society, there is an interesting niche market in the OC for smaller office tenants who are willing to pay Downtown rents.  I get the feeling that the big building on the corner of W. 25th and Lorain isn't going to attract these tenants without a serious rehab, but it's worth thinking about for the owner. 

????  I am so confused about this project.  Will we end up sending the money back to Washington?  Good god, I hope not.

 

CMHA drops plans for rentals

Thursday, March 09, 2006

By David Plata

West Side Sun News

Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority has scrapped plans to build 12 affordable rental units at West 41st Street and Lorain Avenue and instead will rehab a dozen boarded-up houses on scattered sites south of Lorain.

 

Councilman Joe Santiago said George Phillips, CMHA director, decided to rehab 12 rental units on scattered sites after Ohio City Near West Development Corp., the local nonprofit group and owner of the West 41st and Lorain site, turned down the plan.

 

The board discussed it and they do not support affordable rental units on the corner of West 41st and Lorain, Santiago said.

 

Anthony Fossaceca, OCNW board president, said the board suggested the site be developed with seven market-rate and five affordable rental units, but that CMHA wanted all 12 to be subsidized. He said CMHA turned down a compromise of six market-rate and six rental units.

 

They withdrew their offer, he said. CMHA took it off the table. They left us high and dry.

 

Phillips did not return calls Monday and Tuesday.

 

Fossaceca said he applauded Santiago's suggestion for CMHA to rehab 12 scattered sites as affordable rental units.

 

Santiago, D-14, said the houses to be rehabbed are between West 25th and West 48th Street south of Lorain. He said Phillips suggested rehabbing the properties.

 

I agreed that would be a great opportunity to help start rebuilding of that neighborhood that is so blighted, Santiago said. We have over 68 boarded-up homes in that area. Prostitution, drug-dealing, safety concerns, graffiti and blight are big problems in that area.

 

Santiago also said the OCNW board objected to plans to build 59 market-rate units and 12 affordable rental units at West 28th Street and Church Avenue, now the site of CMHA's offices. Plans are to start demolition once CMHA moves to the area of East 79th Street and Kinsman Avenue.

 

I feel the (OCNW) board is not representing the entire community and what the community feels affordability is in the community, Santiago said.

 

Fossaceca noted that CMHA owns most of the site.

 

But he said the OCNW board, believing the area has a high concentration of subsidized public housing _ with CMHA's Lakeview Terrace to the north and Riverview Towers just to the south _ asked for a higher mix of market-rate units.

 

We thought it would be way too concentrated in that area, he said.

 

The work would be paid with some $8.5 million remaining in a HOPE VI grant, awarded in 1996, to build some 420 units of mixed-income housing as a replacement for Riverview Towers. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development last year turned down an extension of the grant deadline, which looms March 22.

 

Meanwhile, opponents of the Columbus Road component of CMHA's plan, which calls for a 171-unit mixed-income development in five buildings, have started a petition drive against that part of the plan.

 

Pat Wisander, who lives on West 18th Street, said she had herself collected about 140 signatures.

 

We have close to 160 signatures against it, she said. Most of it is merchants at the West Side Market and residents in the area.

 

Wisander and others have complained the Columbus Road project will bring too much added traffic and that the sewer and water systems won't be able to handle the increase.

 

Santiago said added traffic will not be a problem and that CMHA will upgrade the sewers as needed.

 

Most of the OCNW service area is in the Ohio City area of Ward 13, represented not by Santiago but by Councilman Joe Cimperman.

 

Asked about Santiago's comments, Cimperman said he doesn't want to lose the HOPE VI money.

 

We have to make this work, he said. I don't know what the final mix will be. But one way or another, we have to figure out how to preserve this money. I don't want to see this money go back to Washington.

 

Most of it is merchants at the West Side Market and residents in the area. Why does it seem that the west side market merchants are anti development?

good question.

 

also, these units are not replacing "Riverview Towers," as the article stated.  They're replacing the units that surrounded the towers. 

 

i'm starting to get a little peeved at OCNW as well.  it seems that these issues are popping up a little late in the discussion.  unless they were brought up earlier and not publicized. 

 

i also agree with Santiago that the rehabilitation of 12 homes south of Lorain between 25th and 48th will be a big plus.  i recently walked a large part of that neighborhood and was very surprised at how many boarded up and burnt out houses there were.  turing about a fifth of these blighted properties into assets will be a great boost for that part of the neighborhood.

I like the idea of making the affordable housing scattered site as well.  That will allow it to blend into the neighborhood better and result in less stigmatization.

I love the idea of rehab instead of new construction. That's great.

 

Also, I agree with OCNW that more subsidized units at the CMHA office site would be a bad idea because it would increase concentration. Also, why are we talking about demolishing anything? Those are cool old buildings. Build the new units on some of the parking lots in the neighborhood.

 

The Duck Island people need to just move to North Royalton.

the duck island people may not stop until there is pasture land under the bridges.  more room to put the cows and goats out.  i just hope they sell their feta cheese at the market.

^  :-D

It's still unclear from this article whether the Duck Island proposal is going forward. I guess we can assume it is?

 

Housing agency trims size of proposed development

Friday, March 10, 2006

Angela D. Chatman

Plain Dealer Reporter

Public housing officials unveiled the latest version of a development plan for Cleveland's near West Side to the mixed reaction of a crowd as diverse as the neighborhoods involved.

 

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's plan for the Riverview HOPE VI project now calls for 267 housing units -- down from the 384 envisioned last fall. The plan includes 186 market-rate and for-sale units and 81 lower cost -- called affordable -- rental units on scattered sites in Ohio City and Tremont.

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has given the authority until March 22 to obtain control of all of the sites...

 

 

more at:  http://www.cleveland.com

so, which ones do they still have issues with in gaining site control?  I would imagine that if they don't have this wrapped up by now, chances are very slim that they'll have it done in two weeks...

^Hard to say. The article doesn't say for certain that there are any site-control issues at this time. OCNW withdrew the 41st and Lorain site, but that plan has been replaced by a rehab proposal.

 

For all we know, they're right on track to meet the deadline. I just wish the reporter would confirm that. Maybe (probably) CMHA is being cagey.

On the subject of OCNW's role in the community:

 

The following passage is from an insightful article in Shelterforce, the publication of the National Housing Institute.  The source issue is January/February, 2004, which can be accessed online at http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/133/gentrify.html.

 

Steve Meachem of City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston recently framed the issue this way: “We’ve succeeded in turning around neighborhoods and now we need to figure out what we do to ensure that our success doesn’t destroy the communities we work in.” Based on my experience in the Allston Brighton and Fenway neighborhoods of Boston, I believe there are important reasons to encourage and support the activities of CDCs in gentrifying neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with active CDCs give low-income residents a chance to benefit from the rising tide instead of drowning in it. To be effective in this environment, CDCs must not only work to preserve and develop affordable housing but also organize residents and assist with employment, training and asset-building strategies. Although many CDCs in different areas engage in these activities, they take on different dimensions in gentrifying neighborhoods.

The following are a few shots that I took recently (MLK Day and yesterday) of the proposed location for the 171 units of housing in 5 buildings along Columbus Road between Lorain Avenue and West 25th Street that have been so controversial with the Duck Islanders...

 

Looking southwest from the platform of the West 25th Street rapid station:

Another, wider view:

From above on Abbey Avenue, looking the same direction:

The sidewalk that would run along the largest portion of the development, towards West 25th:

A wider view of the same spot:

Looking northeast from Columbus and Abbey:

From the upper platform of the rapid station, looking at the smaller block of Columbus that would be developed:

 

How is it that developing this otherwise wasted land would have a negative impact on the community?