20150612 (urban renewal)

Walking the dog I noticed this new hole. Eventually I remembered the house which had been here. The wrecker is usually contracted to fill in the basement or crawl spaces and plant grass. This is strange to say the least.. 

Catty-corner from the hole was a house I thought certain for doom. The owner owns three adjacent properties and protected his investments by not letting this go to ruin. Not at all a bad little fix though he no longer lives in Ohio City. 

This is the site of what was among the more dilapidated hovels on my block: probably foreclosed, bereft of utilities, occupied by homeless squatters who every few days ripped plywood nailed over the doors for some place to sleep.

Another view of the same site showing it borders on a parking lot once the parking for a YMCA across 32nd.

Zoning Appeals is hearing a neighborhood protest of building 16 townhouses on the site.

There’s many a lot here and about

Where once a house was but now there’s a hole

Can’t say why when they tear down a dump

The city fills in some and others they don’t

A realtor neighbor explained the lot’s not abandoned

They’re already building new sewer lines show 

And the lot is fenced in watch this space

They’ll be back again

For years of reading Taunton’s

Fine Homebuilding I would have

Thought to start with more excavation 

A footer foundation, and such

Location, location, location

My contractor buddy told me

Late last year when I wanted him 

For work on my house

The dance card for construction

Had rapidly filled. Lots long empty 

Have sold, plans for building are filed

Get in line but don’t hold your breath

Last month I volunteered with Habitat

On a house in the Stockyards neighborhood

Which at my first look wasn’t a hovel

Compared to others around. When we 

Stripped the aluminum siding off 

It took on the face of a wreck. Inside 

Had no water gas or electric

You could tell where the copper

Had been. Around it were vacant lots

A few boarded up houses a not unusual scene

In Cleveland since the crash of 2008

When the banks took the bucks 

And homeowners got butkus

The cash may be rushing to Ohio City

But Stockyards isn’t getting a share

Could be the name reminiscent

Of slaughterhouses once abundant there. 

You didn’t want to be downwind 

Of them even on a wintry day. Summers 

You spent in Florida or sold 

Took your loss and moved far away

It’s pleasanter now. Junk yards flourish

As “metal recycling” may look terrible

But smells nowhere as foul as the rendering plants

The people unable to buy elsewhere stay

Still poor still un- or under-employed

I worked the census in 2010 I know

Once every old place was handsome

Painted and grand. Where people had money

And pride they remained repaired roofs

Porches pavement and windows

As jobs disappeared these poor took the hit

If you had kept your place up

Invested in community and schools

The market marked you a sap

Took your equity and ran to where

Profiteers sit in the sun read the Financial Times

Maybe wondering once why people live that way

c. J.S.Manista, 2015