Community

Where will a sense of place, a sense of community come from in the 21st century?
From my personal experiences a sense of community can be found at Major-League sporting events, churches, parades, cultural institutions, ethnic festivals, and certain civic events and festivals in the suburbs.

Please comment below where you find and wish to find a sense of community and/or civic pride in your life.

We face many critical public social challenges as we try to move our region forward: Safety, education, social equity, distribution of goods and services, adapting to a new economy, a racial divide, cuts in services, etc.

One of the many reasons Cleveland struggles is the clear racial divide that still exists. Most of the east side of Cleveland, including suburbs such as East Cleveland and Euclid, have a strong black population. We need to find a way to ease tensions that still exist between the white and black demographics in our region.

When compared to Rustbelt cities such as Pittsburgh and Buffalo, which are now being ranked highly in "Livability" rankings, Cleveland has a stark difference in its demographics. Buffalo is 39 % african american and Pittsburgh is 27% african american. Cleveland is about 55% black with an increasing ratio as the population decreases more quickly amongst the white population. When you have a population as racially divided, poor and unequal like Cleveland's it becomes much harder to "turn things around."


It's well documented how poor Cleveland is, how "unsafe" we are, and how poor our education system is.

How do we fix these problems?

Sure we need to improve the K-12 system, pre-school education, and vastly increase the number of students who graduate and attend college. Sure we can put more money into our safety forces and increase coverage downtown. And yes, we could somehow magically turn our economy around over night.

But these issues still remain. And we still have an adult population with little education, no specialized skills, reliant on welfare and social services, with little access to sports leagues and programs for kids and adults alike, no elderly programs, and no places for the communities to come together to learn, discuss issues, hold councils, propose ideas, and grow closer. Poor communities don't have internet, computer access, satellite TV access, pools, gym memberships, after school tutoring, clubs, intramural sports, or a way to participate in government.

Take a step back and think about our professional sports teams. Everyone is a Browns fan. why? Because they supposedly represent our city. "Why is he saying supposedly? They're the 'Cleveland' Browns." Well, the majority of fans live in the suburbs, and the majority of the residents in Cleveland have no financial access to attend the games, let alone go to bars and pay to see the Cavs, Indians, and Browns in action.  There's an inequity here.

Yes, the capitalistic market we live in deems that those with the most money get the things with the shortest supply and the highest demand. However, crowds at our sporting events, our concerts, are mostly white. This issue is similar to affordable housing. Shouldn't every resident have access to the fruits of the city?

Pope Paul the VI proclaimed, "If you want peace, work for justice."

If we want social issues in our city to be resolved in order to move forward, we need a new focus on the community, and providing services to those who deserve a second chance to succeed in life. Those who cannot afford to pay for courses at Tri-C with time or capital. If every citizen has access to similar things, the gap will be lessened, equality will surge, and a sense of community will grow once the divisiveness is cut back.

If anything that I said makes sense, you're probably wondering what I'm getting at. Does he mean the sports teams should let poor people into games for free? How do we solve all of these issues with one solution?

Answer to #1 is NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. We just need to provide public spaces with television access to the games, a place where people from a neighborhood can congregate safely and come together to support a common "civic pride" and stay away from loitering and criminal activities.

This magical place, the purpose of this blog post, is a COMMUNITY CENTER.

Colleges have them in their "Student  Centers" and cities already have them in their "Recreation Centers."

My proposal is that we focus foremost on places with free community services for health, wellness, education, and community. Let's put our best foot forward and encourage homegrown celebrities (Drew Carey, Halle Berry, Kid Cudi), local corporations, and national chains to pitch in and provide Clevelanders with new facilities and technological resources through donations and sponsoring fundraisers.  Work with church congregations, community development corporations, councilmen, etc. to make these happen and procure the funds.

Make Cleveland a national case study for how to turn the inner city around by providing the poor with resources to stay active, busy, healthy, educated, and create a mobile workforce. This is NOT WELFARE. This isn't giving out money, free healthcare, free food, etc. This is an investment in the social life and post-secondary education of a population mostly riddled with poverty and odds against them to succeed. None of these services are necessarily required for a government to provide, but once the facilities are complete, the only civic expenses would be in salaries.

Here's the idea:
1. Replace or revamp every "recreation center" in Cleveland.
2. Rename them ". . . Community Center," so that it becomes not just a place for physical activities and services but also for community activities in new gathering spaces.
3. Ideally, each center has a central common area with tables, chairs, restrooms, locker room access, stairs, an elevator to the second floor if there is one, and a private, locally owned food stand. Attatched to this common space are a gymnasium with a stage, a community room able to seat 150 with tables & chairs (also with the TV's with access to sports networks, news, and weather channels (as controlled by center personnel) and couches near the tv for smaller viewing groups. Also on the first floor would be an ampitheater that goes below ground, able to seat about 200 equipped with a projector, for workshops educational activities, speakers, etc. as well as locker rooms with access to the pool. On the second floor would be 3-4 classrooms, a weight room, and computer lab.
This "Community Center has a design with four entrances with a glass ceiling down each walkway to the center atrium area. each corner has a facility. I can send a design to anyone interested.
This center would be staffed by 2 police workers or safety personnel, lifeguards and pool manager, Center manager, events manager, technical director, and 3-4 maintenance personnel.
Each center would host CDC meetings, certain church gatherings as needed, intramural sports leagues for all age groups, tutoring programs with local college and high school students, opportunities for a drama program, a computer lab with free basic training, and would attract community speakers, monthly "state of the council" addresses by the councilman, free training sections in subjects as taught by professional volunteers, access to sports games on tv, activities for the elderly, and perhaps weekly farmers markets.

I'm a visionary. Honestly, I'm quite nuts and get caught up in these huge ideas.
But I believe an investment in these facilities will be hugely beneficial to communities by providing access to various educational, civic, and recreational activities all in one place. It would raise property values and make the city of Cleveland a city with much better access amongst its neighborhoods, creating a place to go where people would be proud to gather, exchange ideas, and help each other out.

A focus on community is critical whether or not I ever get moving on plans like this. An investment this large, if feasible, would vastly improve equality, decrease crime, and provide a greater chance for our students to succeed in and out of school

This is how I see it.

I hope I could get you to see it a bit too

-Ken