By Mansfield Frazier
The meeting called by the ad hoc grassroots organization Clevelanders for Transportation Equity drew full houses to the University Circle United Methodist Church, located at E. 107 Street at Chester Avenue, on both a Saturday and a Sunday earlier this month to discuss the proposed Opportunity Corridor.
While there was no unanimity of opinion among the attendees in regards to the project, there was an unmistakable feeling of skepticism in the air … and for good reason. When community activists anywhere in the country go up against the triumvirate of government, mega-institutions and the establishment, it’s always an unequal David versus Goliath battle — akin to a Little League team taking on the New York Yankees. It’s almost a forgone conclusion as to who’s going to win.
However, it doesn’t have to be a zero sum game, where one side wins at the expense of the other; if good faith negotiations take place the result can be win-win.
But for that to occur the playing field has to be leveled (to the greatest degree possible) for fair negotiations to take place. Local experts from the fields of urban planning, law, and environmental studies need to step into the fray pro bono on the side of the residents. Not in an attempt to derail the project — but to make an effort to ensure the best possible and most fair outcome for those living in the targeted area. However, it’ll be very interesting indeed to see if such public spiritedness occurs on the part of local professionals, who have tended to be standoffish in situations where only the welfare of minorities are at stake.
The reason I-490 terminated (was stopped) at E. 55th Street near Francis Avenue (where it’s now being proposed that the Opportunity Corridor pick up and become a six-lane boulevard through a part of the Eastside so desolate it’s known as The Forgotten Triangle, (on its journey to the heart of University Circle) years ago was because the proposed freeway would cut a swath through middleclass communities and take out the beautiful community asset of the Shaker Lakes.
However, the residents of the communities that would have been affected had enough clout to stop the project dead in its tracks. That certainly won’t be the case with the currently proposed road since the residents are virtually powerless, and let’s face it, there are no gems to protect in this part of town.
While I’m more inclined than not to say let University Circle et al have their boulevard (that will shave a whopping five minutes off the commute time for folks coming in from the Southwest suburbs), my real concern is that all of the “benefits” for the local residents that are currently being touted will, over time, vanish into thin air, just like the exhaust fumes from the tailpipes of all of the additional traffic the project will create.
There’s a long history of overblown, grandiose promises being made when large scale projects that need public buy-in are being proposed: The Rock Hall, Progressive Field, the Browns stadium just to name a few. All were touted as “saviors,” and in a city that continues to lose jobs as other areas of the country recover, the folks making such promises know that desperate people will grasp at any straw offered. Indeed, it was recently revealed that the casinos are producing only half the tax revenues they were supposed to put into the public till.
Could the Opportunity Corridor result in amassing enough parcels of adjacent land to attract businesses? Sure. Will there be a sustained effort to attract such new businesses once the road is built? That’s iffy, and something that’s even iffier is … even if such businesses are established, does it automatically follow that the jobs created will go — in any substantial part — to neighborhood residents?
That’s where the Community Benefits Agreement comes into play. It’s supposed to assure that some benefits will accrue to the residents of the affected neighborhoods. But the problem is that the agreement is only a memorandum of understanding, in other words, the old “good faith effort” which historically has yielded little in terms of actual results — or jobs — in the past.
Greater Cleveland — and indeed all of Northeast Ohio — has an absolutely horrible track record when it comes to inclusiveness and fair play … especially in the construction industry. If that weren’t an absolute fact there would not have been any need for the much ballyhooed signing of the Community Benefits pact a few months ago. By virtue of its signing, an admission was made that fairness has not prevailed when development occurs hereabouts. The jury is still out in regards to the institutions that signed on living up to their end of the bargain.
Can anyone honestly blame the black community for being skeptical of promises made by the establishment, given the long track record of broken ones?
But there is potentially hope for a good outcome for the residents of the neighborhoods the Opportunity Corridor will cut through like a knife. The powerful U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has weighed in on the project with some initial questions. Does this mean that agency will use its power to assure a good outcome? Not necessarily. Among the scariest phrases in the English language is: “I’m from the government, I’m here to help.”
But the EPA has proven that, if it’s so inspired, it has the power to alter outcomes; indeed, it has the clout to change the course of rivers. Recall that a huge project was once derailed by this agency because of the negative impact it would have had on a tiny species of fish known as the snail darter.
However, to spur that agency into action requires the intervention of some folks who can speak the language of government environmentalists and health experts. Complicated environmental impact studies have to be done, and neighborhood activists — no matter how well meaning or impassioned — don’t possess the requisite skill sets to make their case with bureaucrats, not at this level. It’s going to take some pro bono help from professionals who have expertise in these areas if a decent outcome is going to result.
The real question is, are the poor black residents of Cleveland’s Eastside worth as much to the world as the lowly snail darter? We shall see, won’t we?
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.