Production and distribution of City Club forums and ideastream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.. Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland.

Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Friday, January 12th.

And I'm Kristen Baird Adams, president of the City Club Board of Directors.

On behalf of City Club CEO, our amazing board and staff.

We'd like to welcome you to today's forum, which is our annual forum on leadership for the Greater Good.

It's part of our Health Equity and Local Heroes series, the latter of which Spotlights Champions here in Northeast Ohio, whose hard work changes the way we view ourselves and our community.

The Local Hero.

I'm so honored to introduce today does exactly that and so much more.

Tania Menesse president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Greater Cleveland.

As all of you know, is home to a vibrant and diverse developer.

Community development ecosystem.

At its core is Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, which serves the unique role as the only local community development intermediary in the region.

With more than 30 years of experience investing and succeeding in investing and community creative revitalization work.

Its mission to foster equitable revitalization throughout Cleveland's neighborhoods by strengthening the community development system has never been more important, nor has it been more challenging, in part due to the lingering impacts of the global pandemic.

Rising cost of living.

Crime.

Poverty.

And changing demographics of many nearby neighborhoods.

Tania has been at the helm of Cleveland neighborhood Progress, tackling these and many other challenges since 1920 and under her leadership and that of her staff and her board, many of whom are gathered here this afternoon, has been nationally recognized for its best in class practices, including those across nonprofit programing.

We look forward to hearing more about this important work and insights from Tania and the future of our community development ecosystem.

Before joining Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Tania served as the Director of Community Development for the City of Cleveland.

In a role in that role, she launched the Middle Market Neighborhoods Initiative, kicked off the city's ten year housing and investment plan, and led the development of the Van Aken District.

Just a few of the many projects that she led.

She also previously served as the director of economic development for the City of Shaker Heights.

If you have questions for our speaker, you can text them to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And the City Club staff will do its best to work them into the second half of the program.

Members, friends and guests of the City Club of Cleveland, please join us in welcoming Tania Menessee Well, to put my glasses on for this crowd so that forum, you guys really know how to make a girl nervous.

Thank you.

Kristen, I really appreciate that introduction and thank you to the City Club for hosting all of us today.

I want to thank first members of the board of directors, the Village Capital Board of Directors and the new village board of directors.

I couldn't do none of us could do this work without your support.

I also want to thank members of my Cleveland Neighborhood Progress Team who are here and who are listening and who are smart enough to do other things.

How you show up for this work every day really inspires me.

I'd also like to thank all of the elected officials who are joining us today, including members of city council, members of color counties, delegation to the Ohio General Assembly, to all of our elected officials.

We spent so much time working together on these issues already, and I so appreciate your partnership.

Last but not least, I want to thank the CDC leaders, staff and community development partners who are in the room with us today.

This annual forum, as we just heard, is for the greater good, is focused on lifting up and spotlighting those who tirelessly, selflessly and resolutely work to improve our community, region and our nation.

While I might be at the dais, my remarks today are dedicated to the CDC staff and leaders who work every day to improve our community.

Strong cities need strong neighborhoods, and strong neighborhoods need dedicated people like you.

Your work is often difficult and thankless.

Today, I hope you feel seen and heard.

To everyone with us today in person, watching online and tuning in on the radio, it means the world to me that you are here interested in our work and invested in community development.

But maybe I shouldn't take that for granted that you're invest in our work or that you believe that it works at all.

Because let's be honest, there is good reason to not be.

Since 2000, Cleveland's lost more than 100,000 residents by 5000 per year, choosing to leave our city since the Great Recession in 2000, nine homes across entire neighborhoods on the east side of Cleveland have not regained the value they once held.

In many places, Siddiqui's and city leadership are so focused on the immediate needs of residents that long term planning and investment to benefit those residents fell by the wayside.

As a result, to many of our main streets are sleepy pass thrus too many investor losses are scooping up Cleveland homes, believing and I quote that Cleveland's streets are paved with platinum.

In this environment, residents have watched their communities age and deteriorate, battered by an onslaught of forces bigger than them, bigger than their city, and often bigger than even the state or federal government could combat.

They have watched these forces wash out or at the very least limit their ability to build wealth.

They have watched their neighborhoods and businesses leave and their neighborhoods empty out.

They have watched houses fall apart.

And we know that vacant houses leave two vacant lots and vacant lots become nuisance problems.

So who can blame so many Cleveland residents if they have lost faith in their city and in their neighborhoods?

Why should they trust their homes or rise in value when there is a history of redlining and devaluation?

Why trust our schools to educate their children when too many residents themselves never got the quality education promised to them?

Why trust the police to keep them safe when there is a history and a present of distrust and failed safety efforts?

Why trust developers receiving tax abatements when existent?

Residents can't afford their taxes when new buildings rarely cater to current residents.

Why engage with the CDC when you've seen the neighborhood decline under its watch?

It's a dream refuted by the evidence they have experienced for years, and despite our best endeavors today and decade over decade, businesses and their jobs have left too.

Why would residents trust a city and its neighborhoods when most of those places seem to have lost and have less and less opportunity for them?

We are managing the problems of decline.

The city is managing the problems of decline.

Cities are managing the problems of decline.

Residents are managing the problems of decline.

When a community is in decline, that means the pie is shrinking and everyone is competing for their piece of the pie.

And that indenture engendered a debilitating, dangerous and deadly lack of trust.

It's a distrust that we've inherited that our lives can be better here.

It's a distrust.

I really try to do this in systems which have proven over and over again their formidable power to disadvantage people of color and the poor.

It's a distrust in the city, civic leadership and people like me, like others who live in the suburbs or who don't have the lived and shared experience of those that work critically trying to build trust with.

And it's a complete lack of faith in our collective ability to grow the pie again.

Growing the pie will take time.

Many of you heard me say this before and I'll say it again.

Neighborhood development is not measured in months.

It's not measured in quarters or years.

It's measured in decades.

At least that's how we measured in Cleveland.

We are not New York, where massive amounts of investment can transform neighborhoods full of brownstones and stoops and valleys of glass walled towers.

Just visit Long Island City, Greenpoint or Brooklyn to see what's happening.

We're not Washington, D.C.. We're historically black and brown.

Neighborhoods like Anacostia become wealthy white communities.

In the time it takes a child to graduate from elementary school to middle school and we are not Seattle, Denver or even our sister city to the south, Columbus and all of those places.

Market forces are pushing people out of their homes and their communities.

They are using community in all of those places.

Community development partners are working to preserve affordable homeownership.

They are using community development, finance, institutions and other tools to build affordable and rental housing.

They are working to ensure that today's residents have access to the jobs and amenities that accompany economic development.

The future of community development in these and many other places around the nation is predicated on the fact that the market for housing and commercial real estate is, quote, healthy, in fact so strong that they should be called gentrification.

But that's not the story of community development in Cleveland.

Ours is not the overnight success story.

Ours is the 40 year success story.

Despite all odds.

Let me share two examples that I think will be familiar to many of you.

Long before the newest apartments were built in Battery Park, there was the community led planning process for the revamped Shaw Way, and before that, the METROPARKS took over management of Edgewater Park.

Before that came, the collaboration to save and restore the capital Theater, which was a joint project alongside the construction of Near West Theater and the renovation of Cleveland Public Theater.

Further back came the planning for a narrowed and enhanced Detroit Avenue through Gordon Square, and even further back was the renovation of the commercial corridor to ensure affordable housing over community centered retail at Detroit and West 65th.

At the center of every step was community development meeting the immediate needs of the moment while planning for the distant future.

It would not have happened without mutual trust between residents.

The CDC, between the CDC and local government, between philanthropy and so many others.

Many of the leaders from that decades long work are here.

The Staff and Board of Detroit Shore Community Development, former councilman Matt Stone and leaders from the philanthropic and civic sectors.

The success is their success is a testament to the power of community development.

Similarly, we can talk about the success in Glenville, disinvested and stripped of resources due to the pervasive and insidious impacts of racism.

Following the Civil Rights Movement, Community development leaders envision a grander future by and for this historic black community in Cleveland.

Early community development leaders met the critical life sustaining needs of residents following the Huff riots.

Decades passed and hundreds of affordable housing units were restored, built and provided to residents in need.

Then in 2005?

Yes, 20 years ago, the Four Michaels Foundation identified a small target area for market rate housing and black owned businesses led by the CDC, in close alignment with Councilman Conwell and the city of Cleveland and joined recently by private sector actors.

Projects such as Heritage Lane, Glen Village and the adjacent arts campus and hundreds of newly constructed homes have helped Glenville flourish.

We know that long term vision, steady determination, trust and alignment across the nonprofit, private and public sector can transform neighborhoods.

Whereas Community Development partners in New York and D.C., Seattle, Columbus and other growing cities are managing the challenges of growth.

Ours is a different and far more vexing problem to solve.

Ours is not the challenge of growth or gentrification for the most part.

Ours is the challenge of poverty and how systemic racism has exacerbated that poverty for so many residents.

It seeps into real estate, housing and small business.

It disrupts education, workforce and youth engagement.

It is where environmental justice, public safety and community health overlap to create despair, cities and life outcomes that are unacceptable to all of us.

In a time where your zip code is a better indicator of your life outcomes than your genetic code neighborhood conditions matter.

This is where community development happens.

In that kaleidoscope of factors.

You'll find the complicated beauty of our work.

But in Cleveland, we have a bizarre history of expecting our kids to solve so many of the problems that I just mentioned.

We grow frustrated when these efforts don't go or can't go far enough.

Blame for regional, state and national.

And sometimes even global failures still gets put on the doorstep of these small nonprofits.

Why?

Because the impacts of those failures are felt at a local and very personal level by our residents.

Friends, I'm calling it like I see it.

I'm an eternal optimist.

As many of you know, my husband likes to joke that my exuberance for life appalls him.

But but I won't sugarcoat the challenges facing our city and for today's purposes, facing our community development ecosystem.

That future depends on our willingness to acknowledge the failures and the shortcomings of our work.

Let's say the quiet part out loud.

Many of you are questioning if the current community development system works.

It doesn't.

It is not meeting the needs of Cleveland's neighborhoods.

It is not accomplishing revitalization across Cleveland's neighborhoods.

It forces tDCS to overcommit and overpromise.

It creates unnecessary tension between tDCS city council members and the city administration.

It fails to count successes.

Instead, running up the tally on failures.

And for too long, cities have been kept on life support.

Some have been given just enough funding to limp along.

And we're still just enough to fail.

Dedicated staff have been burnt out and underpaid.

And even the strongest cliches are one unforeseen challenge away from collapse.

Kids want to succeed.

They are dedicated to building strong, thriving neighborhoods for residents and businesses today and tomorrow.

But the lack of success, too often only measured by a lack of documented community development block grant accomplishments are all indicative.

Are all indicative of greater problems in our system, a system failing to live up to its potential.

That's a failure that SAP needs to own.

We fail to do the hard work and the right work.

We didn't collect data on CDC achievements.

We stopped marketing Cleveland's neighborhoods and amenities.

We focused more on our own accomplishments than helping CDC do their jobs better.

We chased shiny new initiatives and preached the dogma of innovation, but failed to invest more in the consistent daily operations that actually transform neighborhoods.

And as everything in the world got more expensive, we failed to raise more funding for the signature grant program that supported CDC.

It's no wonder why, when I started, just over three years ago, CDC didn't trust S&P.

We were viewed as a funder, not as a partner.

We ran grant programs that pitted Cbdcs against one another, but didn't always invest where they needed help to grow.

We had to break this cycle.

If you looked at our organizational budgets in the past, you'd be hard pressed to tell me that Cbdcs were at the center of our work.

We only had two team members dedicated to supporting Cbdcs.

Instead of being an organization that wrapped our arms around them and committed ourselves to their success and outside of our main CDC grant program, we didn't invest all that much in cities.

It was clear that SAP needed to repair and strengthen its relationship with Cbdcs.

So after a year of planning, we reorganized our team and hired four relationship managers.

Their number one priority has been to build trust with Cbdcs and understand their needs, their challenges and their opportunities.

The trust they have built is simply the single most important accomplishment in the last year and a half.

Our relationship managers could have been viewed as outsiders.

They could have been kept at arm's length.

But CDC leaders and their teams gave us a chance to succeed.

They gave us a bit of trust to do things differently and to center their work in our operations.

Today, I am proud to share that Kdka's have engaged the in peace relationship managers to support organizational restructurings, leadership transitions, conflict resolutions and consulting highly sensitive board governance issues.

Our relationship managers are bringing new resources and partnerships to bear on the cases they serve.

And when Cbdcs have more resources, when they have more partnerships to leverage, they can do more for residents, local businesses and our city.

As I said earlier, if I showed you our old budgets, you couldn't tell me that cbdcs were at the heart of our work.

You know what they say about funding?

Show me your budget and I will tell you what your priorities are.

The majority of our expenses are now focused on Cbdcs.

In fact, more than half of every dollar we spend directly benefits Cbdcs.

Another third is spent on expertize and talent that wraps around them and compliments their teams and their work.

Yeah, they spend the ad.

It seems really basic, but it is very exciting.

The remaining the remaining amount represents our operational and administrative costs because it does cost money to do this work.

And I think as nonprofits we all have to own that cbdcs are our priority and we are doing everything in our power to raise more money, to support them, to support community development, and to move our neighborhoods forward.

When I say move our neighborhoods forward, you need to ask, what do you mean?

And to what end?

Cleveland's neighborhoods should be places that can compete with suburban communities.

Cleveland neighborhoods should be full of amenities so good that an adult, a couple or a family moving to Greater Cleveland will give Cleveland neighborhoods as much consideration as they do.

Rocky River and Lakewood.

Westlake and Strongsville.

Solon and Brecksville.

South Euclid and Shaker Heights.

They should have vibrant main streets and commercial districts because those are the backbone of the walkable 15 minute cities.

They need to be proximate to jobs that pay a living wage and proximate to parks and greenspace.

Be safe and accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.

They should be market ready places for pro Cleveland developers can invest in projects that yield a return that allows them to invest in the next neighborhood project.

They should have housing options for all income strata so that our communities are places where people from different socioeconomic situations can call the same neighborhoods home.

Cleveland neighborhoods should be built for people who want community.

Because of our slower growth.

We have an opportunity to plan for mixed income.

Mixed use neighborhoods.

We can ensure that we have a range of housing types that meet the needs and the pocketbooks of those across the income strata.

We can preserve what's left of our historic main streets and work with property owners and kdka's to ensure that rents stay manageable for local community oriented businesses.

That will help us retain the culture and the character of our neighborhoods to get to the point where all or most of Cleveland's neighborhoods are like this.

We need Kdka's Kdka's that can help residents solve today's problems while shepherding a long term vision for the neighborhood.

Kdka's that help foster mutual appreciation and connection between people of different backgrounds, like the new homeowners of a $600,000 house and a low income long term resident living in the same neighborhood.

Cities that can help attract new businesses to main streets.

And cities that can help commercial property owners rehab their buildings and their storefronts.

Cities that can connect residents to the resources they need to rehab, to rehab and repair their homes and cities.

Who know when an issue it's outside of their scope.

And so they bring in partners to do the work with and for residents.

City issues should be the connectors and the conveners in our neighborhoods.

Their work should improve the quality of life for residents, and it should prepare the neighb So what are we doing with cities to ensure that they can do this work in Cleveland's neighborhoods?

First, we reoriented our entire approach and staffing to center crises in our work.

As I mentioned before, we hired four relationship managers to build trust with tDCS and become an integral part of their teams.

We also repositioned our subject matter experts in fields from economic development to real estate, from workforce to greenspace and sustainability, so that CDOs can leverage them to get projects done.

Then we spent the last 18 months defining the work of tDCS with the leadership and staff of tDCS and many of the community development partners in this room.

And we built an assessment tool to evaluate how well Kdka's do that work and where they need additional support to do the work better.

Today we are on the cusp of finishing our first annual evaluation, utilizing this methodology.

This task is a significant first step towards transparency that celebrates strength and honestly calls to question failures and gaps.

With this new data in hand, we will be able to more intentionally deploy the limited resources that company has.

And we can share this information with government and our philanthropic partners so they can invest in ways that fill the gaps that tDCS have.

Our next major task is to build the capacity of cbdcs boards of directors.

We ask so much from these community leaders and neighborhood residents who volunteer their time to serve on these boards.

Unlike many of us in this room that are familiar with nonprofit governance, so many of these residents are serving for the first time, and they're coming from a place of passion and concern for their communities.

We owe it to them to provide the training and support they need to be successful.

This is so critical as where there are strong CDC boards, they're strong suspect.

I can never say that word.

Succession planning and smooth leadership transitions.

And boy, have we had a lot of leadership transitions in Cleveland in the last two years.

It's a testament to what a great training ground CDCR are that so many staff find their way into important leadership roles in the nonprofit, civic, private and government sectors.

But that's why we need to rebuild the pipeline for community development at its greatest.

The Cleveland Community Development ecosystem was strong because of graduates coming out of the Levine College of Urban Affairs and Casey's Mandell School of Applied Sciences.

I'm excited to reinvigorate that pipeline of talent and to partner with Tri-C going forward.

But let's also explore how other sectors from government to health care, from corporate to education, can lend their talent and their leadership to growing this pipeline.

And while we work on growing the pipeline and the pool of talent, we also need to retain and invest and create more opportunities for existing staff who want to build a career in community development.

Because without talented, passionate and well-compensated staff at tDCS, there is no future for community development on behalf of Cleveland progress, I own our failures and our shortcomings, past and present.

I can say that we've tried with great successes and yes, with an equal number of failures.

And as the CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and the former director of community development for the city of Cleveland.

I can also say that community development corporations, once our powerhouses of innovation and talent, they've been knocked down, dragged out, and they're hanging on the ropes.

But they are still fighters in the ring.

If there's a future for community development, it will be forged in our failures and fueled by a vision of the future that believes that we can enlarge the pie for all, not fight over the scraps.

It can be stronger because we can own up to our shortcomings.

It should be wiser because we can be honest about the past, and it will be a powerful force for good.

But it won't be enough.

It won't be enough because we are simultaneously rebuilding the CDC network while we're working with the broken system that we've inherited.

It won't be enough because that broken system exists in a moment when more is being asked of all of us.

Because more federal aid has become available through the American Rescue Plan, through the Inflation Reduction Act, and through the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, than at any point in our lifetime.

It's a moment when our leaders at the Ohio State House have have a vested interest in housing and our work in middle neighborhoods.

It's a moment when we have a mayor elected on the promise of revitalizing the Southside and delivering that with leadership, with urgency and community centered action.

This moment demands more from all of us.

It needs our housing partners at CAA and CMHC, Eden and Enterprise to continue building and financing new affordable housing across our city.

It needs philanthropy who need to invest more like they did in the 1990 and early 2000.

Nothing about this work has gotten easier or less expensive.

Let's apply the lessons of the last 40 years of community development and commit ourselves to new to this work.

It needs the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the Metroparks Land Studio and other partners in Green space and planning.

Because in too many neighborhoods we have lost the canopies that once earned the nickname the Forest City.

To our partners at financial institutions and banks, we especially need you.

Nothing happens without your financing.

To developers, we need you more than ever.

There's not a single neighborhood that doesn't need you to our region's corporate leaders.

I am so grateful for those of you who are today, and I wish more of your peers were here because research shows that the majority of millennials and Gen Z choose where to live before they choose where to work, especially in a time of remote and hybrid work.

If you want to attract a talent pipeline, you need places that will attract them.

Your offices aren't enough.

We need a vibrant downtown and engaging neighborhoods as we talk about leaders.

I want to talk about our elected officials, too.

To the members of our state House delegation with us today.

Thank you.

You launched our new Middle Neighborhoods initiative.

You inspired Cleveland City Council to follow suit and we won't let you down.

This work can be useful and other community.

You represent especially inner ring suburbs.

But that's just the beginning.

We can innovate and we can elevate community development to magnify its impact across the state.

Let's do that together for community development.

To Mayor Bibb and his team, you've certainly had your share of work cut out for you.

Kdka's se never were meant to backfill municipal services, but for decades they have.

As you work to modernize the city and its processes, it's important for the city to deliver on public services that sort of kdka's can focus on neighborhood development and community engagement.

Your proposal for the new tax increment financing to advance the core to shore vision for lakefront and riverfront development is what we need in this moment.

This is a good idea and it will attract more investment that will generate more revenue for important public investments like schools and health and human services.

Let's make sure that the revenue generated from this proposal also supports investments in parks and greenspace across all of Cleveland's neighborhoods.

And finally, to leaders from Cleveland City Council, we need you.

You and your predecessors have been kdka's closest partners, largest funders, their biggest detractors, and their best allies.

You've challenged them to do better, and you've called them out when they weren't doing enough.

Recently, you've championed unprecedented investments in Cleveland's middle neighborhoods, building on and then doubling down on your work and your colleagues at the State House.

Today, Cleveland's neighborhoods need you in all of these capacities tenfold.

Legislate a new way for cities to work with the city.

The current system is slow suffocation.

Council President Griffin, Majority Leader McCormick and Chairman Henderson.

We've already started down this path with you, and now it's your moment to breathe life into this work.

And to everyone else.

I haven't called out yet.

I'm looking at you.

It's now your turn to sweat.

Cleveland cities and Community Development Partners need you.

They need you at community cleanups.

They need you working with their teams on real estate deals and at block club meetings.

They need you on their boards and they need you at their annual meetings.

It's time to figure out what else you can give.

Whether it's time, talent or treasure.

Strong cities are built on strong neighborhoods.

Strong neighborhoods are built on strong communities.

When you walk out of here this afternoon, you better be asking yourself, what am I going to do next?

To help us build strong communities in Cleveland.

Thank you again for joining us today.

Trust me when I say this trust is the foundation of our work.

When we build trust with each other, we build strength.

We need to be strong to make Cleveland better.

So trust me when I tell you that I am optimistic that we can grow the pie for everyone.

We can rebuild urban neighborhoods.

We can protect and improve the lives of residents.

And welcome new neighbors into our communities.

Let's invest in that trust and let's build the community development ecosystem that Cleveland deserves.

Thank you.

Looking forward to your question.

We're about to begin the audience Q&A.

We're about to begin the audience Q&A.

I'm Kristen Bird Adams, president of the City Club Board of Directors.

We are joined today by Tanya magnus, president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, talking about the challenges of equitable neighborhood revitalization and the future of our communities community development ecosystem.

We welcome questions from everybody but city club members, guests, students and those.

Joining us via our live stream at City Club dot org or our live radio broadcast at 89.7 WKSU Ideastream Public Media.

If you'd like to text a question, please do so.

23305415794.

That's 3305415794.

May we have our first question, please?

Good afternoon, Tanya.

Thank you for your commitment and dedication to Cleveland's neighborhoods.

On the heels of yesterday's state Senate committee hearings on housing held at the Cleveland Foundation, we heard from local housing advocates plead for policy change.

State funding and awareness.

To summarize yesterday's passionate testimony, what is the call to action you'll share on this platform today for our corporate partners, philanthropists and policymakers who are here?

Thank you for that question.

And for all of you who were there for that ten, 12 hours.

Thank you, Representative Senator Smith, for sitting through all of that.

It was quite a day.

I think I'm going to steal Kevin Nowak's part of his testimony from C.H.

and when he said we need an and all strategy for housing.

There isn't one thing we need.

We need to be sure that we are ensuring that our unhoused are well taken care of.

To the fact that we need new housing opportunities for people throughout Cleveland and literally everything in between.

When I talk about the fact in my remarks that we are not at a place of growth, the hardest thing for our communities right now is there isn't a market for housing.

There isn't a strong enough market to finance repair loans, rehab loans, new housing, infill housing.

And so we do need government subsidy and support in order to move a housing agenda forward.

But I think our mistake often is, is that, one, sacrificing the other right there is not affordable there's not enough affordable, repaired housing in our communities.

But at the same time, we desperately need to build a market that will work for new housing in our communities as well.

I Councilman.

You let me tell you, you put together a plan.

Glen Village, $15 million project.

Fisher House, $15 million project.

Surrogate.

Harper, $3.2 million project.

We just cut the ribbon.

Davis.

Another $17 million project.

72 houses built through your plan.

And it's right next to University Circle.

And I just cut a deal with Cleveland Housing Network the other day with Kevin.

52 houses will be built.

In addition to that is from your plan.

So I thank you and I want to thank you on behalf of my residents.

And I'm so happy you cut the blight down by building houses.

Place matters.

It's a great deal.

One of my residents is here left when we start building over there.

But me.

How much?

Brown.

You were part of the plan and I forgot to mention your name.

Terry Brown.

But I am so, so happy that we're building and building in Glenville from that plan.

And you just have to visit you and you execute very, very well.

So I appreciate people that execute on the plan and you hit your milestones.

So on behalf of the Glenville community, thank you very, very much.

Well, I'm going to I'm going to if I can.

Respond very briefly, I very appreciate that the councilman.

But that plan was the plan of yours, of the communities that for Marcus helped lead that Brianna Perry here really helped make happen.

And it does give me one chance to say one more thing about housing that I didn't before, is that as we're talking about and I alluded to it a couple times in my comments about middle neighborhoods housing, that is kind of our next step of creating a market, right, is that these are areas in our our city where we have strong neighborhoods that are starting to tip in the other direction.

Collinwood where Councilman Atlantic is for Danny Kelly, is where actually we have the whole like middle neighborhoods table here, the Lee Harvard neighborhood where we have the opportunity now to begin to create a market where home renovation, where focusing on main streets can really make a difference in making a neighborhood healthy.

And I didn't get a chance to say that in the last housing piece.

So thank you.

All right.

We have a text question.

Do you view regionalism as a governance philosophy that can aid Cleveland neighborhoods?

Are you optimistic that regional policy strategies can be implemented to the benefit of Cleveland neighborhoods?

It's a really good question.

So I think most of you know, and it's really wonderful to see the table of my old colleagues from the city of Shaker Heights in the back.

And, you know, I'm very much a regional person.

I really believe that we are stronger when we work together.

I think that some of the most exciting things I'm seeing happening right now in the city of Cleveland is great cooperation of, for example, along the road between the city of Cleveland and the city of Shaker Heights, between Collinwood and Euclid on that border as well.

And so I don't think that we do well in just in the way that I said that the way cities have competed, of course, you want your neighborhood to do well, but ultimately you want the city of Cleveland to do well.

In a similar way, we all want our local communities to do well, but we really can't do that.

We tend today, right?

This pie is not growing in the region.

I think we have opportunities to grow that pie, but not when we have the zero sum game.

And unfortunately we play the zero sum game most in economic development.

And so am I optimistic?

I generally am, but not in this room right now.

Right.

Because as long our tax structure is as such, where I have to bring businesses in to my community in order for my community to succeed and where I need to fund my school district.

Right.

We we're not creating an environment that really allows for growth in the region as a whole.

And what we've encouraged is sprawl, because it's much easier to do development as we go further out than it is to rehab and rebuild our communities.

And again, really great credit.

Mayor Bibb and to city council for the $50 million sites fund that's going to talk about rebuilding our community.

But that's what we need to be doing.

We need to be looking at what's the kind of reinvestment we need to do in greater Cleveland so that we bring jobs and opportunities into our region, not do what we do today.

And that does that would take tremendous cooperation that we haven't seen.

But maybe with our new county executive and a new group of leaders.

And in greater Cleveland, we'll see that.

Hello.

I'm Amanda.

Cool.

My pronouns are she her?

I'm the executive director of Plexus, LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

You talk a lot about belonging neighborhoods, vibrant communities, talent acquisition and retention for us in the queer community, we know that people are leaving Ohio and Cleveland because it's not safe for us to be here because discrimination against our community has been sanctioned.

Where can certainly trying to make the case, the business case, the talent case, that discrimination is not good for Ohio.

So we're always open for ideas of how we can collaborate with our chambers of commerce.

And then my question is, the CDC, is there a role and a place for advocacy to align with communities like ours that are experiencing that discrimination?

And how can Plexus better show up to be in that conversation with you all would be the other part.

Wow.

That's a really, really good question.

And I have to admit, I don't know that I have really an answer for you in this moment.

What I will say is that generally you have that sense of belonging and you have that sense of safety where people know you.

Part of the reason why I think we're such strong advocates of mixed income, mixed, mixed neighborhoods of all kinds is it's very hard to demonize to other people when you know them, when they're your neighbors, when they're your friends, when you go to the rec center with them, when you go to the library, when you, you know, whatever it may be, all of a sudden that person who you thought, you know, you didn't understand or you feared is someone who your children are playing with.

Right.

And so I think why I feel like so many of the issues that we have in our country today are because we live among just people like us and neighborhoods and mixed income communities.

They're uncomfortable a lot of the time.

Right.

We it's why community development is so important.

It's a lot of the vehicle through which people get to know each other that sort of break down those silos, set facilitation that helps people get to know each other.

And I do think, you know, inherently people have a hard time being sort of horrible to people that they know.

And so, yeah, it's kind of a really basic, not that helpful response, but I'm going to really think about it.

Yeah, this is a historic amount of money coming down in our lifetime, particularly for housing.

I recently heard Mayor Bibb and the lieutenant governor of Ohio as well say that in regards to Cleveland organizations in development, if we want to approach the state for funding, particularly federal funding that's flowing down through the state that we really want to present a united front, that we're going to be much stronger in getting those asks if we can not compete with each other, but come with a sort unified vision.

And so I guess my question to you and really to all of us in the room is how do we do that with the limited capacities that we have at CDC and the fact that the pie is only so big?

How do we come together and have a unified front for the betterment of all of Cleveland?

Yeah, well, no, I love that question.

And I think that's so much of what John and Ali, who is with his family oversees right now and so many other CDC executive director, said when I started is we need advocacy for the CDC system.

And I'm going to call out Ed Stockhausen on my team who's here today, who's really built that advocacy muscle for us and built the relationships at the State House, with Cleveland City Council, with the county and others, because again, they need to hear what the issues are in neighborhoods.

More often than not, it's not that people aren't interested in supporting our work.

They don't know the work.

Right.

And we need to build bridges where people understand that the issues that you're seeing in Cleveland's neighborhoods are the same issues you're seeing in most for suburbs and are definitely the issues you're seeing in small communities where you have a main street and a handful of of neighbors around it.

It's the same struggle.

Now, I think the more global question you're asking, though, is, yeah, I think we're better if in Cleveland, Greater Cleveland, we start showing up more and more aligned.

And I'm really about the leadership in our community right now that is much more interested in sending a mission, a message to the state House that they can understand, right when Columbus and Cincinnati show up, they show up pretty aligned.

And again, I'm really excited about the leadership from Mayor Bibbs office, from city council, from County and county council that is more looking at, okay, what are our regional priorities, Greater Cleveland Partnership and others, and really asking us to think about that greater good.

I thought a lot about whether I wanted to say something about the mayor's tiff proposal today.

And the reason why I decided to is because I think it is really important for to think about the long game.

So think about the long term vision that we're looking for our communities.

And when we have a lakefront and a riverfront that just sort of languishes and that most of us can't access, we as a community know that our downtown is a neighborhood and we need to all understand that and then also say, let's make sure that we're developing the rest of the city.

It has to become an and it really, you know, when it's a zero sum game where none of us are going to are going to win.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

I lived 11 years a block from Shaker Square in Cleveland, and I grew up in Cleveland.

And some landlords are destroying our neighborhoods.

I just want to do a quick shout out to Councilperson Deborah Gray, who literally held my hand as I dealt with the deterioration of where I was living and Councilperson Blake Griffin.

In five years and five years, I wrote my check to seven different management companies.

Slum Landlord was in New York, so, you know, it was rodents challenged me from my apartment and I gave it to them so seriously.

I moved to Beachwood because I couldn't stand it anymore.

So my question to you is, what is the role of the CDC?

I know City Council's doing a lot of work, but do CDC have a role in dealing with some landlords?

Yeah.

So I think one of the things we always say is that cities are typically the ones who best understand what's going on, on the ground, their other neighbor based, neighborhood based organizations also.

Right.

Who have that understanding.

It's often where cities are.

The conveners.

They're often the ones who sort of help bring the issue to a forefront when we're our best.

Right.

I mean, I think that a major role for CBCs is to bring those issues to the city.

And so Director Martin, who is really pushing for with Councilman Gray and I feel like the Shaker Square area we're really thankful is like the test bed to enforce a lot of what we haven't enforced in the city of Cleveland in the past.

Right.

It's very difficult.

It's very expensive.

It's really great to see our public health director here as well, Director David Margolis, because we really see the beginnings of sending a message to slum landlords out of town.

Landlords, because we have some here that the city of Cleveland's not going to tolerate you not taking care of your properties.

Now, I think the flip side of that is the real challenge of bringing resources, because as we went through and did the research around LED abatement, what we found is so many of our smaller landlords, it wasn't an unwillingness to do the work.

They really didn't have the resources to do the work.

And so cities are often really important to kind of raising that issue, helping to bring resources and help small landlords, especially to figure out how to get the resources they need to make improvements.

But there is no question that we say two things.

Often in communities, there's very little that wouldn't be solved by if all of our residents were working and living at a living wage.

Right.

Because then they would be able to do.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because as I said in my in my talk, so many of our issues are really issues of poverty and lack of resources.

But when people have the resources and they're not putting those resources in there, few who are better than our kdka's to raise that voice.

Right.

We look at it that the theses raise the voices of residents and then it's our job and cities and the counties to really ensure that that enforcement happens.

All right.

We have another text question.

This one is, if you can please respond to the word on the street that, quote, many cbdcs have been corrupt and now represent the power elite.

They are a branch of the government.

Yeah, no, I'm actually really glad that that question gets asked because I mean, and again, I always have a hard time with the conspiratorial nature of all of this.

I mean, listen, CDC, people who work at CDC, they come to this work because they absolutely love people.

They love community.

They love residents.

They love small businesses.

They love green space.

Let me tell you, they're not gotten compensated like they should.

So they're certainly not here for their enrichment.

If that's the case.

But I do want to take the question seriously.

And I said a different way.

Right.

Again, that's us against us.

US against them conversation.

It just really hurts us.

Right.

We really need to have an environment where.

Yes, no question.

City departments, the city, Cleveland, the county, others, they're setting a vision for where they want to see the community go.

Council people are very involved in that.

Cities are often really helping to develop neighborhood plans with all of those constituents to move things forward.

But then your city is also your best bet to speak truth to power, right?

When things are not getting done the way they should, when they the way the planning and zoning isn't getting done the way they should, the best way to get that message back to City Hall.

Ray and I worked at Seale.

It's just it's really hard.

You're there every day trying to get the work done and you are not connected enough with local residents.

And so you need that CDC to connect you with local residents.

So I would really say to the person who texted, we need the partnership.

We need the honest partnership and we need to build a disagree.

And we need to be able to go through tough moments in communities where inherently because these are the places we love and the places we live, we are going to disagree.

And then we need to move past that and move on to the next thorny issue that's going to come up or wonderful that's going to come up.

We have another text question how our communities being supported to improve and grow the child care businesses as well as attract new high quality child care center in-home providers.

Okay.

So I'm probably least equipped to answer that question other than the fact that I mean, I think we've all lived this right when we talk about creating environments, especially on our main streets, in our neighborhoods where child care centers can be, where they can be safe, we know that there's always a lot of partnerships in our neighborhoods to renovate and create places where there can be good child care.

But this is a much bigger issue.

And I feel like now I want to talk about the state house and policy and our federal government and things that are way out of my league here.

But the fact is, is that if we are talking about putting people back to work, we are conti talking about the fact that in our communities we don't have enough people for the jobs.

Well, let me tell you, since the pandemic, we are leaving significant parts of our workforce at home because we are not providing good child care.

So I can say that that's a significant lobbying effort that I think we all need to get involved in.

I think we probably, from a zoning perspective, need to make it easier to have home child care throughout our communities.

But I will say that I probably can't do that question justice the way I want to.

Thank you, Tanya, and thanks to all of you for joining us here today at the City Club for our first forum of 2024 in our beautiful new home here in Playhouse Square, which was made possible by our guardians for Trees for Free Speech campaign, which you can learn more about at City Club dot org.

Today's forum was part of our local Heroes Heroes series in partnership with Citizens Bank and Dominion Energy, as well as our Health Equity series in partnership with the St Luke's Foundation.

It was also part of the City Club's annual Forum on Leadership for the Greater Good, which is made possible by a generous gift to the City Club's endowment from an anonymous family foundation.

This family, we're so grateful for champions free speech and is committed to lifting up and spotlighting those who tirelessly and selflessly work to improve our community, region and just like you.

Tanya, thanks so much for being with us today again.

We also would like to welcome guests at tables hosted by Citizens Bank, the city of Shaker Heights, Cleveland City Council, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

Cuyahoga County Community College.

Cuyahoga County Land Bank.

Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Marcus Foundation.

Huntington Bank.

Midtown Cleveland.

Near West Partners.

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District PNC St Luke's Foundation Slavic Village Development The Legal Aid Society Society Invest in Real Estate Advisory Services and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Our apologies if we missed anyone.

Thank you all once again for being here today.

Up next here at the City Club on Friday, January 12th, managing partner at the Cleveland consulting firm Larry Klee, consulting firm Larry's Purnell, who will be joined by Price's presidential task force president Michael Bastian, to talk about the pathways to true economic inclusion and opportunity.

You can learn more about this forum and others as well as access our archives at City Club Dawg.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you once again to Tanya minus and thank you.

Members, friends and guests of the City Club.

I'm Kristen Baird Adams and this forum is now adjourned.

For information on.

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