What Cleveland needs (Lorain, Lakeview: high crime, YMCA, schools)

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Random suggestions (please take with as many grains of salt as you like):

1. Focus on getting higher paying jobs and industries to move or develop in Cleveland;
2. Focus on developing the transportation infrastructure so that it is easy and safe for people to get around by foot, bike, bus, rail, or car;
3. Step up law enforcement efforts in a profound way, and engage everyone to make Cleveland more safe (both in perception and reality)... think Singapore (OK that's a bit extreme), or New York under Giuliani;
4. Blow up part of the freeway in order to take advantage of the region's best resource, Lake Erie (I like the green efforts that groups like "Green City, Blue Lake" are doing right now, by the way);
5. Improve planning and zoning laws to help create more walkable communities (developers will hate this at first but eventually they'll see the logic - and profit - of it);
6. Start a regionwide effort to encourage and promote a more educated population (as in higher %age of college graduates) - getting college grads to move here, encouraging college grads to stay, increasing opportunities for people to go back and finish their degree.
7. Get your tax rates down, as low as possible - especially business taxes, especially for businesses that bring in higher wage employees (since this always spins off several other local jobs on top of it).
8. Stop trying to bring in more tourist attractions and convention centers that are boondoggles that create few high wage jobs. If all the stuff you have already doesn't lure the tourists, nothing will. Instead, either lower taxes or make Cleveland an even better place for locals to live, work, and play.
9. Find multiple niches, encourage small business, but don't try to be all things to all people. Charlotte did well to become the "banking capital of the South", but now they are really starting to suffer, big time, because of the financial crisis. Healthcare is a great niche; manufacturing... ehh, not so much, but that doesn't mean you should give up on it (especially with the weak dollar).
10. Stop worrying about the perception issues, whether or not the sports teams win a championship or LeBron stays, where the city ranks in all of those dumb "Best Cities" lists... just work together to make Cleveland a great place to live, and whatever happens, happens.

[Chef Boyardee]

Our Elites believe that Free Trade and Multiculturalism are here to stay. They believe that these things are legitimate, right, moral, praiseworthy and they shout about it in lavish words of praise. They couldn't be more wrong.

Americans have had it with Free Trade and Multiculturalism. Our Elites sound less and less confident talking about it. The writing is on the wall: it isn't just factory workers losing their jobs, it is the "educated," and "professionals" that Free Trade will put out of work. (an accountant in India will do the work of an accountant in Cleveland for 1/10th of the pay). Clevelanders will never be able to compete with places like India, until it becomes a place like India. That is, until starvation, disease and extreme poverty become "the norm." Thankfully, we aren't there yet! However, that is the direction we are heading.

Remember, "Multiculturalism" is, in large part, a scheme to bring in cheap labor. Sure, Feminists like it, because it takes the pressure off of women to have kids. However, their resolve appears to be softening. (lol, was that a pun?)

[Chef Boyardee]

Free Trade and Multiculturalism are Ideologies. Ideologies are not revelations from God; they are beliefs born from the speculation of men. Thus, it is not surprising when they are wrong. However, men are proud and don't like to admit it when they are wrong. That trait is called, Hubris. Hubris drives sins like Greed. When somebody steals a dollar from their boss, that's called Greed. Greed is usually that stupid; it will destroy itself for a petty and short term gain.

[eddie1261]

The FIRST thing Cleveland needs is to get the human garbage off the street so it is safe enough to walk around where the restaurants and such are. You can not walk from the club to the car without some dirty scumbag asking you for money and sometimes getting violent when you tell them to buzz off. It worked in NYC when Guiliani got the homeless out of downtown. It should work here too.

[BelieveInCleve]

One of the problems is that Cleveland doesnt attract wealthier people in the central city, and ultimately, the entire area. The City of Cleveland isnt exactly the kind of place where you can do upscale things and have tea parties and then leave your car door unlocked the whole time your here. Cleveland is a very lower class city right now and upper class people wouldnt exactly feel welcome in most areas. Pretty much every business in the city now caters to the inner city and is mostly for that, very comparable to Detroits current situation.

Wealthier people will be attracted by what they like: a good business district with upscale shops, a wealthier crowd and low crime. All of this with a lot of things being in walking distance, how many places around Cleveland are like that? I dont think anywhere in the central city, and barely anywhere in the suburbs. Cleveland has lot of things to fix, and this just being one of them.

[Chef Boyardee]

Lots of people used to live in working class neighborhoods where they could leave the doors to their houses unlocked, let alone their cars.

[Kasey77]

Cleveland needs people who want to stay there and not move out of the city or the suburbs.
I am telling you guys, with the global warming and the water shortages, Cleveland someday will be a cashh cow!

[Chef Boyardee]

It does seem reasonable to conclude that Cleveland needs less Council members, because the city has shrunk.

[saba2r]

Why do people think that a city needs the wealthy to make it better? During Cleveland's golden age, it was the middle class that made it great. People (of all races, Chef) worked hard to provide for their families. The goal wasn't to be rich but to live a decent American life.

[BelieveInCleve]

Originally Posted by saba2r

Why do people think that a city needs the wealthy to make it better? During Cleveland's golden age, it was the middle class that made it great. People (of all races, Chef) worked hard to provide for their families. The goal wasn't to be rich but to live a decent American life.

Everybody wants to be rich these days....nobody wants to me lower or middle class. Im sure it was like that back in the day too but that especially goes for today.