Geneva's Neighborhoods and Economic Development: Lessons Learned in Cleveland

In a recent post, we discussed lessons learned from the smaller, rural communities of Prince Edward County (PEC) about the impact of a creative class on local and regional economic development. Insights can also come from the experience of big cities—in this case, Cleveland, Ohio.

Of course, Geneva is not in Canada, not in Ohio (although there is actually another Geneva in Ohio!). But there is no need to dismiss good ideas right off the bat just because other communities may be different from ours. In government, just as in business, decision-makers should take heed of best practices, and big mistakes, from elsewhere so time and money aren’t wasted reinventing the wheel’ or climbing out of a hole.

The PEC post highlighted the value of grassroots arts and tourism promotion, and focused on effective messaging coming from several small groups. With the recently announced merging of the Smith Opera House and Geneva Arts Development Council boards, it seems Geneva will not be following this path. Too bad, but we hope that artists will continue to work to find a voice in promoting their work in Geneva.

Perhaps the much anticipated and long overdue report from consultant Philip Morris will weigh in on a strategy for getting more artists engaged in promotion efforts, but the community has yet to see that report, or a report on the report, even though Phil Beckley promised it to us some months ago.

What interests us most about Cleveland is its neighborhoods. There are three elements of Cleveland’s neighborhood revitalization that-- a recent visit suggested-- seem to be working really well:

1. Establishing neighborhood identities;
2. Maximizing open/public spaces and related programming;
3. Developing and marketing downtown loft housing as an upscale and progressive alternative to suburban sprawl.

Neighborhoods in Cleveland are designated by unique signage, coherent design schemes, and themed festivals.  

Little Italy has distinctive markers (see them here) and hosts the renowned "Feast of the Assumption" festival each August.  You can read more about this neighborhood here.  

The "Warehouse District," as the name suggests, is a series of buildings that used to warehouses that are now home to large, family-friendly lofts.  Their festival, held this past weekend, is meant to showcase the benefits of city living for all ages.

"Ohio City" is a neighborhood on historic buildings, mostly single family homes, that had been largely abandoned in the 1970s.  But now the area is thriving as Cleveland embraced the concept of 'adaptive reuse' and created a mixed-income community that attracted commercial and retail offerings that, in turn, attracted more residents.  You can read about the Ohio City neighborhood and its famous West Side Market here.

The University Heights district is not just home to Case Western Reserve University, but also to museums and eclectic shops and restaurants that make it a multicultural district.

"The Flats," not so much a neighborhood as a revitalized riverfront night life district, offers a variety of restaurants and clubs along the Cuyahoga River.  What had been a declining industrial district is now a revitalized historic district accented by architecturally interested and well-lighted lift bridges.

Amongst all these neighborhoods, are a series of parks and recreation facilities for city residents and visitors alike.  The park system is treated as a system of the whole, hence the “MetroParks” title. People are encouraged to use different parks for different purposes, instead of relying simply on the area closest to their home. You can read more about this program here.

Granted, there are also portions of the city that are not thriving. Several areas, particularly Euclid and the Southeast, have high vacancy rates, little-to-no retail or commercial offerings, and neglected properties. A windshield survey of a main corridor, Rte. 2, showed large, multiple family apartment buildings that had been totally abandoned. Some windows were boarded up, others just broken and open to the elements, overgrown weeds and former industrial sites left to crumble.

What the troubled areas of Cleveland lack is the cohesion of the other neighborhoods. Many of the raw materials are the same: historic properties, former industrial buildings, open space but something is missing. Communities need a purpose and they need to be able to communicate that purpose to the residents (who we hope are involved in defining that purpose) and to people passing through.

When we look at Geneva, we see neighborhoods that have the ability to be defined and marketed in a way that boosts community pride and tourist interest. In marketing terms, this would be called ‘branding.’ One example would be to continue the development of Geneva’s Torrey Park as a Little Italy, long ago proposed by Steve O’Malley, and recognized by an impressive plaque donated by Sons of Italy. Geneva needs a message, something that communicates what people love, need, and want in their residence, their company headquarters, their home base, their vacation destination. We need to communicate that Geneva is a place to live, to labor, and to linger.

Nuisance Parties or Nuisance Councilors?

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and time certainly flies when we’re on air with Ted Baker. This month’s interview began with a topic that we ran out of time for during our last appearance—the nuisance party ordinance. Augustine explained why she had been labeled the ‘party pooper’ councilor and clarified some details of the ordinance that had led some people to object to it at the last regular Council meeting.

Baker then turned our attention to the recent post on the ‘proffer agreement’ between the former city manager and the NYS Attorney General. He wanted details and we explained that we don’t have the details—that’s the point! This agreement was made when we were both on council yet, as Capraro stated, we were unaware that it existed. It’s not for a failure to ask questions (we think it’s safe to say that we always ask the tough questions) but instead indicates a climate on Council that prevented answers from being given. With some new faces in city government now, we are optimistic that we won’t see a similar situation occur, but our point in raising the issue is to ensure that the systems are in place to make City Council accountable to the city residents, in exercising its oversight of financial and personnel matters.

When asking questions is seen as a bigger nuisance than public urination, we know things are topsy turvy! But we hope the City’s on course to turn itself around. For more on this interview, or to listen to our past appearances, visit the NoStringsGeneva Radio Archive.

What Was John Edwards Thinking?Plausible Deniability Revisited

What was John Edwards thinking when he sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, despite having had an extra-marital affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006? Everyone agrees that if Edwards had won the nomination, the affair would have eventually come out, and his candidacy and his party’s ambitions would have been dashed.

Political America believes that SEX IS TRUTH, that the rock bottom truth about a politician’s sexuality is the rock bottom truth about him or her (although we can’t, off hand recall any hers) as a person, literally, their character-- who they really are.

So, if Edwards cheated on his wife, who, as a cancer patient, was doubly vulnerable and doubly sympathetic, and therefore doubly violated, and lied about it to the American people—as they say-- then he is unfit for office and belongs in the dustbin of history. He’s not a man of his word. He lost his self-control. He was a hypocrite. After all, he had campaigned against lies, greed, and power, on behalf of a needy and unprotected other America. Unfit to be president. Even if Bill Clinton had survived 'right wing conspiratorial' efforts to remove him from the presidency on essentially the same grounds.

Edwards told ABC news that he “didn’t think anyone would ever know about it,” that his campaigning success had led him to believe “you could do whatever you want,” and get away with it, that he was a narcissist. In other words, that he had arrived at a point of radical self-love where virtually the entire world appeared as a reflection of himself. It is more likely that a pre-existing narcissism drove him to his candidacy than the other way around, but, either way, his grandiosity in the course of campaigning got the best of him.

Strange thing is, the tabloids were on to him long ago, and had confronted him about his fling with Hunter. He denied it, and that worked, for a while. There was, then, plausible deniability.

The term, plausible deniability, dates to the Church Committee of the 1970s, and the Watergate era. According to Wikipedia, plausible deniability refers to the situation or context surrounding the events that can help the responsible parties avoid blame for what they've done

Sometimes, higher ups responsible for any wrong doing deny any knowledge of an action they had, in fact, ordered; they then go on to blame the very subordinates they had ordered to carry it out. Their denial of any wrong doing is plausible if people think it is reasonable that the higher up would not have known about an act, let alone would have had it carried out on their behalf. It can also mean there’s just not much evidence left behind and so the responsible party enjoys the benefit of the doubt.

We believe, though, that in politics and government, sometimes the actions of the responsible party are so outrageous that the average, trusting citizen would not believe it possible that such an act would have been committed, and so, in that sense, any denial is plausible.

We believe that’s what was sheltering Edwards and protecting him—for a while. Who would believe that a man of his ambition, who had professed an array of virtues centered on empathy for victims, with a highly sympathetic figure in his wife on stage with him, would have ever been sleeping around with another woman? Not many. Only the persistence of inquiring minds brought about the truth. And there’s a lesson there.