News from Cleveland, Ohio

could be much better these days. A fourteen year old student shot up four people yesterday while attending his high school "Success Tech Academy" , in downtown Cleveland .

A small reminder of the chaos that is Cleveland , Ohio today.

After decades of benign neglect , overachieving theiving politicians , and haphazard attempts at urban renewal , Cleveland is on its knees begging for it's very life.

Recent Federal statistics have placed us in the top United States major cities in poverty, foreclosures, as the murder rate is soaring while the population continues to bottom out. Not a very pretty picture.

The president and publisher of the local daily paper of record sits on the board of directors of the second largest employer in the city , so looking for objectivity or on the level reporting on a variety of germane subjects is nill.Journalistic ethics be damned.

Seems that every Cleveland player has an agenda. No, not the citizens of Cleveland mind you, instead their supposed leaders, movers, shakers, politicos, land developers , and the propagandist press and public relations campaigns that serve as an attempt to create a silk purse from the sows ass that this dangerous, moribund Cleveland , Ohio has become.

The citizens of Cleveland are some of the finest people you might imagine, and a brave lot of survivors one and all. My cousin while waiting to land into Cleveland Hopkins airport this past summer overheard two passengers on his flight conversing about the resemblance of Cleveland to Baghdad. A point well taken, and with more than an iota of truth. Thousands of homes and commercial buildings slump and crumble in our neighborhoods. Many citizens live behind fortified doors and windows in constant fear, and are terrorized by gangs of hoodlums when attempting to complete ordinary tasks.

Not many people are found outdoors after dark.

A kindly, older, white-haired gentleman in the Slavic Village area of Clevelands southeast side told me the other day that the only offer he received on his sturdy , well-maintained house was $2500.

Pretty sad.

Work hard all your life, raise children, retire, and find your dwelling is not even worth maintaining. Abandonment of property is common, foreclosure auction signs dot the landscape, and large heaps of evicted citizens belongings are commonplace on sidewalks throughout Cleveland.

As you might imagine it is difficult to imagine much hope in the near term for this city in decline. Those of us that remain soldier on, look for the bright side of events in a microcosm littered with the residue of years of graft and abuse. Alcohol and drug abuse takes its toll on many, prostitution is rampant , and the criminal nature of State sanctioned gambling carves a hole into peoples lives that they can't seem to recover from here in "The best location in the Nation".

Time to attempt to sell a book department. Read about the glory days of this once proud, prosperous , and civic minded city of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1950, the year of publication of William Ganson Rose's CLEVELAND THE MAKING OF A CITY,the population of Cleveland, Ohio was near one million, and his volume does a credible chronological history of events from it's inception to the mid-twentieth century mark.

Look for a close seven game ALCS series between the Tribe and the Boston Red Sox.

Go Tribe!

---