A very good read.  I started noticing the shift at Reserve Square about 3 years ago.  The Chesterfield really is turning into "Little Mumbai"!

 

International students breathe life into a dark stretch of downtown

By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer

December 26, 2009, 12:05AM

 

"It's excellent," he said of his East 12th Street neighborhood. "We've got the Indian food nearby. We've got campus minutes away. We've got good transportation to anywhere. I can honestly say we live in one of the best environments in Cleveland."

 

 

[Ashok Patel] and his wife, Ami, opened the grocery in a vacant storefront earlier this year after moving to Cleveland from London, England, where Ashok Patel was a Hindu priest at the famed Swaminarayan Neasden temple.

 

"I fell in love with this country," he said. "We saw an opportunity here and we invested."

 

 

"I think downtown is the best place to be for the international student," said Sowmya Narala, 23, who came from Hyderabad, India, to study engineering.

 

Her roommate, Sireeshe Rayadurgam, marvels at RTA's HealthLine, which motors her up Euclid Avenue to school and back.

 

"The transportation system is the best," she said. "Five minutes and there's a bus."

 

READ AT http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/international_students_breath.html

Personally this is great for the city on so many levels.  Youth, vitality, sense of community, work ethic, all being pumped into a neighborhood all within a relative short period of time.  (like I said, I first started noticing the shift about 3 years ago).  International students are a great demographic to help raise the downtown population, one that many of us may not have considered as making much of an impact.

 

Now on the touchy issues.  Is there a way to fix Parkview Apartments?  I know it has recently undergone $16 million in renovations and a shift in ownership; however, this hasn't seemed to help.  There have been two very highly publicized murders coming from residents there, which "sububanites" or the media have had a field day with "what's wrong with Downtown" and is even referenced in this article the poster child as examples of downtown being shady, dark, and unsafe.  Like I've said before, I've personally had criminal encounters here.  But then begs the question, what can be done?  Can we have a city ordinance banning Section 8 housing with what is considered Downtown? (I think there are only one or two other properties Downtown...somewhere on Prospect is considered "senior housing"..Winston Manor maybe?)  Can CSU buy the property??  Can an Indian business man buy the property? ;)  Can there be stricter regulations on who they let rent in the building?  Although I personally have nothing against Section 8 housing, Cleveland has too much to gain from having this property stay as it is.  There has to be something that can be done and there is WAY too much potential for the future of this part of Downtown.

 

Also, in my pipedream, I would move the Greyhound Station and redo the whole block in collaboration with CSU somehow (maybe housing and a northend College Town?).  Now where to move the station?  I have no expertise on making that judgement call, but I'm sure there are plenty of areas that could benefit.

 

Lastly, I've been overseas now for awhile, and I work beside many foreign workers--daily.    They hail mostly from Nepal, Philipines, India, and Sri Lanka.  I estimate that 90% of them would kill to live and work in America...but it's too expensive to get there, too difficult (paperwork, laws, don't know how...), they don't know anyone, and that I am so lucky that I get to live in America.  My point of saying this is that if these communities form, there is a high possibility of them growing...and to who knows how fast or big.  Asiatown, for example, has it's roots planted and it has been growing over the past 5 years.  Now if the city only knew how to market itself better and had an immigration office, but that's a whole other discussion (hey we have a thread for that somewhere!)

 

All in all...I LOVE this article.

"International students, many from India, are creating a student enclave in a lonely part of downtown and filling a nighttime void with bright young voices."

 

new immigration in the cleve? what? ha. thx for this heartening article.

 

it sez csu's international student population is only about 1000 students, but good news is it is vibrant and growing (by 16% since 2005). surely that will continue, heck it may even jump dramatically with collegetown more built out. carry on csu.

 

^^ I think a majority of them are here on student visas...not quite immigrants

I think that the energy which is brought here by those from India and other places can help with the formation of an Indian neighborhood on the edge of CSU.  Of course this will be over time, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more people from India move into this section of downtown.  Word of mouth is the best form of promotion for the city, and as long as these students keep coming to Cleveland State, I would expect greater interest in this section of downtown to those from India.  We might see more than just college students move to this section of downtown- with the students telling those back home how great the city is, more individuals and families could be drawn to the city. This may help change the local perception of Cleveland as well, with the addition of more Indian services within the city.

 

The influx of Indian students was something I noticed these past couple of semesters at CSU.  This article just goes to show how important CSU is to the current and future growth of downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.  All in all, this is great for the city.

I enjoy living by other students being a student myself and having a lot of Indian friends at Case; however, I must say, the students around here don't get out much.....  It would be so much better if they contributed to streetlife, restaurant life, and nightlife instead of being homebodies.

In reference to the section 8 housing...a multi-million dollar renovation for section 8 in a prime space for downtown--not the wisest use, indeed. One cannot deny the percentage of negative associations--even if just a small infraction---sets off shock waves of fear. Not good.

 

This is such a nice building too...  You'd think it would have been one that could be a showcase residence because of its character. The incident/s there have actually deterred me from seeking it out for window art displays. Lots of loitering too...

 

But surely a world influence here could be the ticket for breathing in new interest. These people see opportunity that many here who have grown complacent or who sit on their laurels do not see.

I enjoy living by other students being a student myself and having a lot of Indian friends at Case; however, I must say, the students around here don't get out much.....  It would be so much better if they contributed to streetlife, restaurant life, and nightlife instead of being homebodies.

 

I think this is a situation of "build and they will come". College students have very little disposable income so they hang out on the street and take in the city.  Adding to its vibrancy.  Ive said it before, make Payne the major focus & of condos, apartments and street level retail for CSU.  More apartments on Prospect and then make Carneige a minor focus CSU and the community.

I enjoy living by other students being a student myself and having a lot of Indian friends at Case; however, I must say, the students around here don't get out much..... It would be so much better if they contributed to streetlife, restaurant life, and nightlife instead of being homebodies.

 

I think this is a situation of "build and they will come". College students have very little disposable income so they hang out on the street and take in the city. Adding to its vibrancy. Ive said it before, make Payne the major focus & of condos, apartments and street level retail for CSU. More apartments on Prospect and then make Carneige a minor focus CSU and the community.

 

Following that argument then, more places need to be built to fulfill needs and wants of international students, just like that convenience store (which, by the way, I never knew it catered to international crowds, and now I totally need to go there).  From my experience at Case (and this isn't all-encompassing I'm sure, just rather representative), the international students who stay within a group of friends in their own culture don't get out much.  Those that befriend American students as well as students of other nationalities are much more social with respect to leaving their or their friends' apartments/homes.  I'm not sure of the exact dynamics at CSU, but I can tell you for sure that the hundreds if not thousands of graduate students living in Reserve Square and The Chesterfield never show their faces on the streets but to walk to class.  I wish I were joking, but I'm not.  Somehow we need to get these students out of their apartments.

I enjoy living by other students being a student myself and having a lot of Indian friends at Case; however, I must say, the students around here don't get out much.....  It would be so much better if they contributed to streetlife, restaurant life, and nightlife instead of being homebodies.

 

I think this is a situation of "build and they will come". College students have very little disposable income so they hang out on the street and take in the city.  Adding to its vibrancy.  Ive said it before, make Payne the major focus & of condos, apartments and street level retail for CSU.  More apartments on Prospect and then make Carneige a minor focus CSU and the community.

 

Following that argument then, more places need to be built to fulfill needs and wants of international students, just like that convenience store (which, by the way, I never knew it catered to international crowds, and now I totally need to go there).  From my experience at Case (and this isn't all-encompassing I'm sure, just rather representative), the international students who stay within a group of friends in their own culture don't get out much.  Those that befriend American students as well as students of other nationalities are much more social with respect to leaving their or their friends' apartments/homes.  I'm not sure of the exact dynamics at CSU, but I can tell you for sure that the hundreds if not thousands of graduate students living in Reserve Square and The Chesterfield never show their faces on the streets but to walk to class.  I wish I were joking, but I'm not.  Somehow we need to get these students out of their apartments.

 

Sweetie I believe you.

Help me with my memory, but didn't the current influx of people from India basically begin when the Cleveland school system went to India to hire teachers.  I think they hired about  50 teachers 7 or 8 years ago.  Since then it seems that the influx of Indian immigrants has be exploding!  This is great for Cleveland and the surrounding area. By population, India is the second largest country in the world and is doing everything right to improve its economic position in the world.  To have a strong link with India can only positive for the area.

^I don't think the school's recruitment drive has much to do with this.  There has long been a fast growing South Asian professional community (immigrants) and student community (temporary residents).  What's new here is the growth in South Asian enrollment at CSU specifically and the concentration of South Asian students in a couple downtown buildings.  It would be great if this concentration downtown helped lure some more South Asian dining/food options downtown.

bump!

 

Given that FEB is now encouraging wealthy immigrants to invest in return for US residence, and we already have a budding immigrant community here on E12th, what can we do as a community to help link these two developments?  I've recently become more aware of Cleveland's old settlement houses, like Merrick House in Tremont, which helped immigrants transition into American life.  To me that seems like more than just a "welcome center," and it seems like downtown needs one pronto. 

^^I've already emailed a number of people (mostly Jewish Federation) about asking for contacts to help Cleveland set up the immigration welcome center in Playhouse Square--still no reply. 

 

Does anyone know a name I could contact?  Is anyone heading this up??

 

Oh, and in regards to E.12, I've heard that the population is still on the rise.

Not that I know of.  I'm trying to get DCA involved, as well as CSU itself.