GOP will see Cleveland in flux
Rust Belt city is in state of transition: Although there are obvious signs of recovery, the process is not complete
Cleveland “is on parallel, almost paradoxical tracks. We are getting worse, and we are getting better.” Richey Piiparinen, Cleveland State University professor
Delegates to the Republican National Convention may be shocked by what they find in the old Rust Belt city — a vibrant and growing downtown and several nearby neighborhoods stocked with hip dining options and trendy night spots.
It is not the vision of Cleveland most people have in their heads, but it is also not a complete picture of the city, which still has some of the highest concentrations of poverty in the nation and faces crushing budget shortfalls.
The city is riding a wave of good feeling after the Cleveland Cavaliers captured the first professional sports title for the city in half a century, and the Cleveland Indians started the second half of the baseball season in first place.
Though they boost the city’s psyche, those victories have not changed some underlying economic challenges.
Cleveland “is on parallel, almost paradoxical tracks,” said Cleveland State University professor Richey Piiparinen. “We are getting worse, and we are getting better.”
On the one hand, Cleveland has seen vibrant growth in the downtown area and several close neighborhoods.
Former mayor Jane Campbell said that when she was elected in 2001, she decided “to invest in building a downtown that was a place to live as well as a place to work.”
At the time, there were about 7,000 people living downtown, and now about 15,000 people live there. The residential occupancy rate is over 90%.
Downtown has had an infusion of cash in preparation for the convention, including a $50 million renovation of Public Square, the historic plaza at the heart of the city. The city has established a thriving health care corridor, anchored by Case Western Reserve University and the world-class medical care of the Cleveland Clinic.
Convention-goers will be able to quench their thirst at the newly renovated Flats, a riverfront nightlife district that was for years the home to seedy beersoaked bars and strip clubs.
Other neighborhoods have seen none of that investment.
“We have now said, ‘If it is attached to the (Republican National Convention), we are going to get it done,’ ” said Zach Reed, a City Council member from a largely black district on the Southeast side, but “you go back to our neighborhood, we might as well be on the damn moon.”
A report in March from the Brookings Institution demonstrated the city’s troubles outside the booming downtown. The report concluded that 28% of Cleveland-area residents live in areas of “concentrated poverty,” meaning nearly half of their neighbors live below the poverty line — the ninth-highest total in the nation.
“What you are seeing is this archipelago of economic activity that doesn’t necessarily spread everywhere,” said Jim Russell, Piiparinen’s colleague at CSU’s Center for Population Dynamics.
The model for Cleveland is nearby Pittsburgh, another Rust Belt city that has seen a dramatic economic rebirth based mostly on health care and university research.
Cleveland “has got a long way to go even to catch up to Pittsburgh,” Russell said.
The city faces a fiscal crisis. Democratic Mayor Frank Jack- son proposed raising the city’s income tax rate for the first time since 1981, from 2% to 2.5%. The city faces a budget shortfall in part because of a decision by Republican Gov. John Kasich to cut a statewide fund that paid for local government services.
The city reached a deal with the Justice Department for an overhaul of the Police Department’s use-of-force procedures that the city said will cost $45 million to implement over five years. That deal came after 12year old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by police in November 2014.
Rice’s family received a $6 million settlement from the city.
Reed said the city needs “an infusion of cash,” and he hopes for a public-private partnership to pay for projects in neighborhoods that have been passed over.
“Tax breaks and trickle-down aren’t going to help those people in our neighborhoods,” Reed said. “They need real investment.”