Strategic Plan for the

Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office

for 2015-2018

Table of Contents Inside this strategic plan, you will find: The Strategic Planning Committee………………….2 Introduction………………...3 Our goal, vision, values, mission, and slogan……...…4 Organizational history and community profile………….5 Summary of core strategies...6 Action Plan for 2015-2018…8

The new $50 million Max Hayes High School will open in Fall 2015 at West 65th St. and Clark Ave.

La Villa Hispana is an initiative led by the Hispanic Alliance to promote the identification of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood as the largest concentration of Hispanic residents in the State of Ohio.

The CDO will leverage the $500 million transformation of Metrohealth’s main campus to spur investment in the surrounding housing and business district.

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Members of the 2014 SCFBC CDO Strategic Planning Committee

Community Development Office Staff

Max Balakoff

Tony Bango

Sasha Ottoson-Deal

Loida Feliciano

Adam Gifford

Nanci McCormack

Megan Meister

Jeff Ramsey

David Reuse

Rosanna Santos

Brittany Senger

Maria Soucek

Adam Stalder

Kate Dupuis

Community Advisory Council

Donna Brooks

Salathiel Carter

Gloria Ferris

Maria Figueroa

Alan Forman

Anne Hill

Irene Hitsman

Julie Marini

Amir Merhi

Sara Ross

Kyro Taylor

Ken Wohlgemuth

Rebecca Kempton

Bill Graham

Facilitator

Tom Romito

Cleveland City Council

Tony Brancatelli

Brian Cummins

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Photo by Betsey Merkel

Introduction... We, the Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office (SCFBC CDO) and our volunteer grassroots partner, the Community Advisory Council (CAC), believe that our three neighborhoods are going to get needed services, while retaining and strengthening their identities, by structuring the CDO to serve the neighborhoods with one strategic plan.

Because each neighborhood is unique, we want a plan that preserves their individual identities, is based on what the residents say they need, and does not burn out residents and CDO employees. We want our strategic focus to be the priorities of the residents, because we believe that they have the power and resources to change their neighborhoods for the better. The challenge to create a community-driven model is the reason we developed this strategic plan.

Tom Romito facilitated strategic planning for the CDO and CAC (Photo by Betsey Merkel).

John Rivera Resto painted the “It’s Up to Us” mural on West 25th Street and Clark Avenue.

We have a goal of serving as an effective resource to improve the quality of live and respond to needs of our unique neighborhoods. We must overcome a number of barriers to achieve our goal. We will break them down by using this strategic plan to market our priorities to the City and residents. It will show that we’re focused and that we know what we want to do. As Amir Merhi, owner of Wireless Nation on Storer Avenue, said, “Things will go our way if we work together and follow through.” The CDO cannot achieve this goal by itself. It is a community-based organization. The CDO and the CAC will support residents to work together to improve the community. The community leaders of the future will rise from the residents themselves.

This building on Storer Avenue is being renovated as a tavern and meeting place.

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Economic development is our primary focus, which we will accomplish by connecting with residents and businesses through community engagement and identifying resources for financial assistance. We will use the new $50 million Max Hayes High School as a catalyst to improve the Stockyard neighborhood, and the $500 million transformation of Metrohealth to improve the Near West Side. La Villa Hispana will partner with the Hispanic Alliance to develop the W. 25th St. and Clark Ave. area.

Our goal: what we want. We want to serve as an effective resource to improve the quality of life and respond to the needs of our unique neighborhoods.

Our vision: how we see ourselves. We see ourselves as a community that works together, built on mutual respect and empathy.

Our values: our beliefs and guiding principles. We have empathy with residents. We communicate candidly with residents. People work together. People have mutual respect.

Our mission: what we do. Our mission is to work with residents, businesses, and institutions, to improve people’s lives by finding solutions to problems in our neighborhoods.

“Three neighborhoods, one community”

Party Rican DJ Services is a mobile music com-pany and entertainment complex on Fulton Road.

Newark Court in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood received area beautification through City Repair when residents painted a mural on fences.

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This residence on W. 65th St. was repaired by a Rebuilding Together Cleveland-Cleveland Browns-SCFBC CDO collaboration in 2012.

These Baldwin-Wallace students maintained a beautified vacant lot on West 36th Street in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood in 2013.

A brief history of our Community Development Office

Community development on the Near West Side of Cleveland has a storied history. Each of our three neighborhoods had a CDO at one time, but dwindling funds over the years led to their closure. In July 2010, our three neighborhoods began to receive community development services under a new model. The model consisted of a contract between the City and the Detroit Shoreway CDO. Under the contract, this organization used its own infrastructure to create a program with an office, a staff, and a Community Advisory Council to help the community. The new office and staff, located in the Lin’s Omni Square at 3167 Fulton Road, became known as the SCFBC CDO. Having established the foundation for a CDO over the past four

years, we took the time to take step back in this strategic plan to look at our accomplishments.

This plot on Vega Road in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood is an example of the greenspace development and vacant land reutilization that the CDO and CAC want to foster. In 2012, the Detroit Shoreway CDO adopted a strategic plan to revitalize the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. At the same time,

the SCFBC CDO adopted its own strategic plan and focused on five core areas for improving the neighborhoods. They were increasing community involvement, improving buildings and housing through code enforcement and rehabilitation, connecting residents with programs to assist them with utilities, supporting commercial development, and strengthening the CDO organizationally. In 2013, the SCFBC CDO recognized that it was working with an intensive resident-driven action plan. Megan Meister, program director at the time, and Gloria Ferris, Community Advisory Council president, decided that they wanted a plan that made better use of the staff and better served the residents. A consistent, critical mass of committed CDO professionals and CAC members underwent an extensive strategic planning process in 2014. Tom Romito, a volunteer facilitator and resident of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, guided the year-long process.

Here’s a profile of our community... The approximate populations of the three neighborhoods are: Stockyards – 11,000, Clark-Fulton – 6,000, and Brooklyn Centre – 13,000, for a total population of 30,000. The racial breakdown is:

The federal poverty line (according to 2006 data) is $11,670 annual income for a one-person household, up to $40,180 for an eight-person household. The breakdown of our residents who live below the poverty line are: Stockyards 51%, Clark-Fulton 37%, and Brooklyn Centre 30%. The total service area is __%. The high school graduation rate by race in the community is: Hispanic 67%, Black 20 %, and White 35%. The total service area is __% The rate of owner-occupied housing units is: Stockyards 51%, Clark-Fulton 45%, and Brooklyn Centre 48%. The total service area is __%.

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This Stockyard mural was a beautification project done through City Repair.

Neighborhood %White %Black %Hispanic %Other

Stockyards 60 20 34 19

Clark-Fulton 54 20 47 25

Brooklyn Centre 60 22 32 17

Total Svc Area

Here are our core strategies!

Core Strategy #1: Connect businesses to financial resources and facilitate joint ventures, programs, and events. Big-box retail and highway construction decimated family businesses in our neighborhood retail district. Vacant businesses provide opportunities for new and family-owned start-ups. We can generate incentives by serving as a link between businesses and the City, but we want to get the businesses to network together to help themselves. For this reason, we chose this business-centered approach to be a core strategy.

Core Strategy #2: Improve quality of life and increase community involvement by getting resident and businesses to work together on safety, health, housing, and vacant land re-use and rehabilitation issues. There are many reasons why we should get residents and businesses involved in their neighborhoods. Increasing middle income-level rehabbed houses will attract young people to move into the community, raise their families, and stay here. We especially want to encourage low-income residents to stay and become effective voices. People will stay here if they perceive it is safe. We must address code enforcement by focusing on absentee landlords, such as through the use of additional inspectors. We, the CDO, want to create a procedure for vacant land re-use and rehabilitation with resident and business input, to include the guidelines of the City and City Council. Because the lack of education, jobs, and housing causes health disparities in this community, a focus on safety, health, and housing must be a core strategy. Core Strategy #3: Strengthen the CDO in order to raise the awareness of the community about the model of our organization. We have a broad service area, and our challenge is to listen all 30,000 of our residents. In order to do this, we have to identify and cultivate people who are leaders to bring forth what people want. We will do this through community meetings, social activities, and projects. Based on this input, we need to create a concise and informative message

to the community about the priorities of the residents and our connection to them. The SCFBC CDO has no brand or niche to distinguish itself, and its name is unwieldy. However, we can create a new name and find our niche by focusing on the priorities of the residents. We also want to continue to build trustworthiness between our residents and CDO staff, whereby residents know that the CDO will deliver on their promises. Lastly, we want to create a governance structure for the CDO, CAC, residents, and businesses that advocates for the interests of the three neighborhoods. Now that we are committed to putting our community on the map, strengthening the CDO becomes a core strategy. Core Strategy #4: Create brands for the three neighborhoods by marketing their identities and improving the gateways. Brands or niches are the ways neighborhoods distinguish themselves from each other and other communities. They do this by identifying authentic, sustainable amenities they each have. These include parks, businesses, streetscapes, bike lanes, transportation, pedestrians, and visitors. Our neighborhoods have historical and cultural assets to attract new home owners and businesses. Together, they make for a walkable, liveable community. Like the CDO, our neighborhoods lack such brands or niches. Our neighborhoods can become a premier community for people to live in if the gateway intersections are vibrant with these amenities. It’s time for branding to become a core strategy.

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Businesses working with each other can strengthen our community.

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Here are some of our accomplishments working with residents to build an active and engaged community.

CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

INITIAL ACTIONS

WHO

START DATE

#1: Connect businesses to financial resources and facilitate joint ventures, programs, and events.

Collaborate with businesses to connect with residents about community events/concerns.

Encourage businesses to do joint marketing.

Encourage businesses to form a merchants’ association.

Develop incentives for businesses to come into the community and stay here.

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SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018

CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

INITIAL ACTIONS

WHO

START DATE

#2: Improve quality of life and increase community involvement by getting resident and businesses to work together on safety, health, housing, and vacant land re-use and rehabilitation issues.

Involve stakeholders to coordinate our services in safety hot spots.

Market resident-driven activities.

Expand high-speed internet access to low income residents.

Hold forums to engage community members with specific knowledge concerning these issues.

Create opportunities for recreation for children.

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SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

INITIAL ACTIONS

WHO

START DATE

#3: Strengthen the CDO in order to raise the awareness of the community about the model of our organization.

Create a structure for the CDO, CAC, residents, and businesses that advocates for the interest of the three neighborhoods.

Ensure that the agendas of our elected officials are aligned with the needs of the residents.

Create signage that announces the CDO’s existence.

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SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

INITIAL ACTIONS

WHO

START DATE

#4: Create brands for the three neighborhoods by marketing their identities and improving the gateways.

Identify, develop, and recognize community ambassadors to increase our capacity to find ways to address issues of concern.

Develop green spaces on vacant land in order to reduce crime and increase the cleanliness of the neighborhoods, such as street and alley clean-up.

Create a name that distinguishes the community.

Use our niche to clarify who we are and what we do.

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SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

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