Cimperman Shares Vision for Ward 13Plain Press Board of Trustees: What are some of the good things that are happening in the Western portion of your ward? For us, that is Tremont, the Abbey Area, Riverview, and Lakeview -- all in our readership area.
Ward 13 Councilperson Joe Cimperman: I can say that in the first three months in the Near Western part of the ward, there have been -- I was looking in my book the other day -- around 45 block club, safety meetings, Second District Committee meetings, non-profit board meetings in the first three months I've been in office. I've been to almost all of them. The ones that are in my schedules, are generally the ones I go to. I'm amazed at how involved and invested the residents of the Near West Side are. That goes from people who are in Riverview when they have their monthly meeting, to Lakeview, to people -- tonight I have a Holmden Buhrer Block Club meeting in about an hour -- and a the level of discussion varies at each meeting but the intensity of the involvement is the same. We had a meeting of the West 10th/ Literary Block Club where we had
people representing juvenile court come and speak on the issues people felt were germaine to juvenile law, overcrowding, and the judges and how they make their decisions. I can say that I'm the luckiest councilman, to be the councilman in Ward 13. I mean that. I just don't think anybody has this kind of involvement in block clubs. I've talked to some of my fellow councilpeople and I tell them about some of these block clubs where forty people show up and its really exciting to be part of that. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that in Tremont and the Near West Side activism has been a history as long as Cleveland is old. And people have settled there who had ideas and who wanted to influence the way Cleveland progressed. So it is exciting for me to get into it now, to be part of that, because you have the support of so many people who are: block club captains, residents who have been there for ninety years, people who have just moved in, to the different establishments, working class families, single moms, grocery store people, you name it, you just have the wealth of Cleveland's cultural diversity right here on the Near West Side. So, that has been a very positive and exciting part of this job. I'm really lucky to be involved in that.
Board: What are some of the development priorities of the ward?
Cimperman: I have to look at my job, which I look at three different ways. I think first my job is to be a neighborhood advocate, and there are some policy points I'll touch on with that on the Near West Side. A second aspect of my job I see as a chief development officer, aiding the efforts that are happening now. Specifically on the Near West Side, in Tremont, what we see happening with the comeback, if you will, of some of the housing stock. As well as some of the Phoenix Project which is an exciting part of what is happening in Tremont. Third, my job is to be a legislature. I see the first two roles being a chief development officer and a neighborhood advocate really going hand and hand with legislation. I can give you an issue. It is one that is kind of close to me, because the person who is involved is a friend of my family. It happened on the Near East Side. There was an elderly woman who was brutally beaten by a group of people who were looking for pocket change. On a neighborhood advocacy issue, there's a safety issue there. There's was no CB patrol there like we have in Tremont, the block club was somewhat weak. On a chief of development issue, you look at safety as an overall neighborhood attribute, and if people don't feel safe there, they are not going to stay or even come in to move there. Legislatively, how can I address that? Well, it is in the pipeline right now -- stiffen the penalties for crimes against seniors. So, you know, when I come to an issue, I look at it from three different levels of my role as a councilperson.
Specifically, development in the Tremont area, we have things that are happening already with the Sutton Ridge. That is ongoing, and I think Keith (Keith Brown of Progressive Urban Real Estate) is planning on building more houses.
But something I think speaks more because it is ongoing, and it is new, is the Phoenix Project. Which is an idea come about by Tremont West and various neighborhood organizations, block clubs, and some of the people who have lived there for awhile to say we should have housing for people who are moderate income, affordable income, low income where they have homeownership opportunities. Habitat for Humanity has stepped up to the plate. I know Cleveland Housing Network is working closely with Tremont West, as well as, mixing it with market rate housing. Tremont has an option, that few neighborhoods have, where they can almost plan -- well we would like this part of Tremont to be developed in this way -- and it would be great if we could have a mix of socio economics, where some neighborhoods are desperate to get whatever they can. Something I'd like to see continue to develop is Lincoln Park. Tremont is diverse. As much of a strength as that is culturally, religiously, ethnically
and economically, I think that sometimes in Tremont and on the Near West Side we have to be reminded of how much we have in common as well. Lincoln Park I think affords that incredible opportunity. To the direct west you have Church Row -- with different Social Service agencies that work out of St. Augustine's, that work with the different Pilgrim Church ministries. To the direct east you have housing which is beautiful, some of the best in the city. On the north and the south you have vibrant community businesses. I think that Lincoln Park as a symbol in Tremont has always brought people together, but I would like to see something develop in terms of a Friends of Lincoln Park organization. Where you have people actively engaging in activities in Lincoln Park, whether it be chamber music in the summer time or child care opportunities, now with welfare reform that's going to be even more important, especially if you get the kids aclimated to nature and green space, as well as involving the churches and the businesses which are anchors in the neighborhood and too often I think go neglected. The residents have a vested interest, but without the churches and the businesses, some of which have been there forever, Tremont I don't think would be as well developed as it is.
In terms of the Near West Side, on the West 25th Street and development, I'd like to see more active participation on the part of the Riverview and Lakeview CMHA developments. I talked to John Wilbur from Ohio City/Near West, because he is my western most community development coordinator, about different agendas. Riverview needs a library. It needs a computer system. It needs a means by which some of the seniors can get around town -- that circulator RTA -- they're not filling the gap. Lakeview needs recreation facilities. There are a lot of kids who live down there and they have nowhere to play but the streets. It's important for people when they are trying to understand Ward 13, when we look at the map behind us, this ward, economically, is the most disparate. On one end we have the warehouse district which has the highest median income in terms of the greatest ability to spend in the city -- young, professional, single, living on their own downtown. Then you have Lakeview Terrace, right across the bridge, which has a wealth of families who are there, that frankly are living paycheck to paycheck. Some people see that as a dilemma. I don't. The fact that we have downtown in our ward is to me a muscle that needs to be used. Downtown, Euclid Avenue, and East 9th Street have all been developed wonderfully. I'm going to be the first one to say that Cleveland's comeback is evidenced not only in the beauty of downtown but especially in its neighborhoods. But the money that we spent downtown in my opinion needs to be in someway equal or begin to show some reflection in the neighborhoods. How does that happen? When developers come downtown and say we want to rebuild such and such building and we need so many loans and so much grant money from the city, I'm quick to show them my wish list from people like Gail Long at Merrick House, people in the Riverview Terrace -- Doris Capito, who is one of the precinct committee people, Lakeview Terrace -- Alberta Howard and Mary Ford. And you show people there are needs in the ward that go beyond two avenues. I think they are waking up to it. I had a developer, who is going to be getting a sizable loan from the city at a very good interest rate, and I was telling him a little about Riverview and the needs that were present on W. 25Th street. He asked me, "Well what does that have to do with me?"
Board: What was investment he was talking about?
Cimperman: He was talking to be about a building he is rehabbing downtown on Euclid Ave. I said, I'm excited. It is a loan. There are a lot of things, you know the city is going to get its money back. But what about my neighborhood just across the bridge? He asked me, "What does that have to do with me?" Well, it's one ward. And it's the councilperson's role, in my opinion, to show downtown and the corporate muscle that is there, what we need in the neighborhood.
Board: Are you getting that kind of support from the administration? At some point these loans are being granted by the city. So as they are being granted by the city are having that support from the city more or less?
Cimperman: Well the city, I've learned a lot about municipal finance, and the city presents us the package. The Economic Development Department and the Community Development Department put it all together. The housing, the growth that's happening downtown. Their job as I see it is to either maintain or draw new buisinesses in and I respect that. My job, as councilperson, is to equal it out. That is to concentrate the attention out. And there is a way to do that. I've talked to developers that are going to get assistance from the city and I told them my wish list, and they are very interested in helping out. The problem is that Ward 13 has never done that before. I asked the prior councilpeople who held this position, where is your business directory? "There is none." There is now. 8,000 businesses, that in June are getting the first newsletter from their councilman saying: we're happy you are in the ward, you pay taxes, you use our streets, let's tell you a little about those houses and the people who live here. And it's my goal to use not only downtown, but the industrial corridor to the north of St. Clair, the industrial valley -- we have LTV -- we have the largest job producer in the Ward -- parts of it, to say to them we are asking you to step up to the plate in ways that don't involve abatement to yourselves but rather involve investments in the people that make the city great.
Board: What is on your wish list?
Cimperman: Well, the wish lists that have come back to me so far. From the Near West Side, Riverview has asked for computers and a library. Lakeview has asked for recreation equipment and a refurbishing of the gym. Tremont West is getting me their wish list. I think some of them are going to revolve around beautification of Lincoln Park, or perhaps more assistance for housing for seniors. Merrick House, I think is always looking for assistance for its youth. Maybe something in terms of the summer camp for the youth program. Possibly assistance in basketball or recreation for the kids in the neighborhood. Merrick House is also going to be looking for senior help, with their senior center that
they have just outside of Ward 13, but a lot of my residents just go and use it in Archwood and Denison. I have some personal wishes. I would love to see a scholarship formed for the kids on the Near West Side -- that being Ward 13 residents -- and giving them an opportunity to go to college.
Board: Has Cleveland State stepped up to the plate on that?
Cimperman: Cleveland State has been helping me with research on policy. They are also, interestingly enough, interested in Clark Fields. They want to really refurbish Clark Fields and make it a state of the art facility, of course, so they could use it in the spring and summer for their track and baseball, but also so they could do tutoring programs in the neighborhood for the kids. Monetarily, no, we haven't entered that negotiation, but that's a good suggestion.
Board: My suggestion more along the ends of having them step up to the plate. They have teachers, education students, walking in to recruit. It is a prime opportunity for CSU, as a college in this ward, to actually step up to the plate to recruit high school seniors. To give them a class one day out of a year to recruit from the general high schools in the ward to give them a class as to what CSU offers them. To me it is a no brainer. Something that some people talked about who were at CSU.
Cimperman: Do you have contacts there?
Board: Just some professors who wondered why CSU wasn't doing anything.
Cimperman: It is a great suggestion.
Board: So your linkage with downtown development is actually -- you'd like to do that linkage with social programs etc, that are on the wish list.
Cimperman: Well, I'd like to do it for the neighborhood. Which I think necessarily involves some of the social agencies. I'm not adverse to them putting money into infrastructure or to assisting small businesses. In fact, part of my initial easy list to them was consulting help from some of the downtown coordinators, downtown development people in terms of streetscape. In the Eastern part of my ward, people don't know what streetscape is. They (downtown development people) have the expertise (they've done this before) to walk us through this. I've asked the law firms to give me lawyers for my non-profits, for my seniors, for people who can't afford it for free legal assistance. I've asked some of the members of the accounting firms for help at tax time next year to set up tax clinics for working class families that don't have the money to pay E.F. Hutton or whoever the accountant at large is. So I think that there are a lot of financial resources but also professional and energy resources.
I just noticed though, how, if you look at Cleveland, downtown can be such a vacuum, not only for resources, but for vision and energy. It's my task, if you will, challenge, opportunity, however you look at it -- to say that there is a lot of energy that is going in there, what can we do now for the first echo neighborhoods? -- Which is what Tremont, St. Clair-Superior, North Broadway and the Near West Side are.
Board: You are doing all that informally, right? Do you think there is any possibility of a formal linkage program being put in place?
Cimperman: That's a great question. These are kind of uncharted waters. I think the response by the developer, "What's that got to do with me?", is kind of an indication of the climate of let's get as much as we can. Which you've got to respect, it is not their job to look out for the ward, it's their job to make their business run. But what suggestions could you offer? How would we formalize that? In terms of including it in the economic package?
Board: That's what I was asking, how realistic is that? If that developers reaction is what we see pretty much all of the time and what has been seen over the course of the years.
Cimperman: Well, I'm hopeful. During the campaign, I heard over and over again from downtown people that they wanted to work in the neighborhoods. So I'm hopeful that this is going to build a bridge. Roldo, God bless him, from the Free Times, gives me a hard time about this all the time because he's constantly asking the status of it. I think it goes to the heart of the question. Cleveland has come back, if you will, -- I don't think it ever went anywhere, I think it was always strong and vibrant in the neighborhoods -- the downtown area has comeback, we're perceived nationally as having comeback. Can those resources that have poured forth in a certain part of the city now extend to the other parts. I would love to be able to attach it to loans and to financing for various municipal projects.
Board: That has to come from the city.
Cimperman: Right now, from my minimal research - Cleveland can't sustain that. It is not like a Boston or a San Francisco where you have five people dying for one spot. There are very few developers right now, in my experience, that are capable, let alone able to get things going. I don't want to in any way hurt development whether it be in Tremont, Near West, St. Clair or Downtown, but I want to milk it for the neighborhood. It is tricky to learn that without damaging their goal of moving forward.
Board: In other words, your perception is there is not enough competition for the space, there is also not enough capitalization.
Cimperman: Right and it is still risky. Euclid Avenue is still seen as a risk. Living downtown is still seen as a risk. When that starts to change -- the economics of it -- that is when we will be able to put it in. My goal though. I speak about it very seriously. By this time next year, our council -- I know there are a lot of people on the Near West Side and the West Side that are looking at this -- we will know that budget back and forth. The budget for next year needs to be studied now. You know in terms of where we need to put our resources. There is a lot of hullabaloo a week before the budget is due, the budget is about this thick. It is in the power of the person who presents the budget to get the programs which they feel important to be passed. It is just the nature of the city government. You know -- strong mayor, strong council -- whoever proposes the budget. It is my goal to know the budget. And to know how we set up packages. We have things like Section 108 loans, CDBG float loans, TIFFs that are biforcated where you only use the part of the real estate tax for the parks. All this stuff, I was a social worker two months ago. It is a trick. My goal is by this time next year, the 8,000 businesses will be on line. There will be an idea of where we are going to take this corporate - public bridge. My wish list will be in the pipeline all over the ward. Some of the goals that are simple - like building a library in Riverview, or beautifying Lincoln Park and making it a place where everybody feels welcome, and they want to come and be a community -- will happen. So I have a dream, but I hope. Board: I want to jump in because I have two issues, and you brought them both up. One is linkage and formalizing the linkage. Is it possible to quantify? For instance, in Columbus they have a program for the arts, 1% for arts on contracts. Is there a way for formalize a percentage for neighborhoods that development and so forth there is a certain percentage? I know that people say, we pay taxes, but this is something that would be a voluntary contribution to show good faith, effort that you are putting a percentage back directly into the neighborhoods and not into a pull of funds for the city but for the neighborhoods.
The second issue that I have, that you brought up, is sustainability. My concern is that Cleveland in general will be caught overextended in some way. Right now the economy is doing quite well. I think that any development that is done has to be looked at in terms of sustainability. Eventually we are going to reach a point where people are, I don't even want to jinx it, but people are building too many houses and the price slumps. How do you tie that together with businesses and commercialization I see all over the West Side? Drug stores every five feet. Drug store wars. Eventually there are going to be a lot of empty big box drug stores with heaps of concrete and big parking lots that have destroyed the fabric of the neighborhood in terms of walkability. Those are my two concerns: linkage with development citywide, downtown to neighborhoods -- public and private, and sustainability of both new initiatives in housing and new initiatives in retail and commercial.
Cimperman: The first issue of linkage is going to be an ongoing quest of mine, I really want to see the resources monitarily as well as professional continue to develop our center city but also have some inkling of what is going on in the surrounding neighborhoods. I couldn't agree with you more.
I'm interested to learn more and more about municipal finance. I've been meeting with from banks just to have them explain to me the interest rates in the realty world. About how does this tie in? I've learned about the three ways of making money for a development: cash on cash, net income on return, and another way that is a kind of mix in between the two of them. How, over twenty years, the real estate value factors into that with how many people are buying homes, with a lot of other factors which are somewhat nebulous. But people still make money on them. I think the more black and white I can get on these issues and really about learn how does one actually make the money, I think could be determined how much can we expect in return for the neighborhoods. Councilman Jackson from Ward 5, Councilman Rybka from 12, Nelson, and I, we have these conversations at City Planning and at Community & Economic Development. We are always trying to find that elusive number. How do you figure that weight out? Why is it $200,000 at 4% and not $300,000 at 5%? And that whole thing.
I think the more we ask questions as a Council, we're going to get to the point where we are going to know financing. And we are going to drive some of the engines. It is my job to represent and advocate hard core for my neighborhoods. The more I have that kind of information, the better I'm going to be able to do it. It has just never been done before. Council, as a whole, has never taken on that role of being the policy setter. Or the one that goes to the budget table and says "administration this is a wonderful budget, here is ours, how do they merge?" I mean that kind of thinking is not right now something that happens in city council. Maybe it did five years ago, I don't know. But the people who are there are saying there is a new energy here, and they are feeling very positive about that. In terms of the sustainability, I think that when the market is driven by the people who are invested, whether that be current businesses or people who reside there, you've got a better chance of sustainability versus just plopping down a drug store in the middle of nowhere. Tremont, in my experience, has been asking for a half drug, half hardware store for a long time. They don't necessarily want to knock out St. Theodosius and put up a Rite Aid drive-through. But there might be space available on a current commercial strip where a place like Sheliga Drug Store on the Near East Side, which is an independent, privately owned drug store which employs only people from the neighborhood, and has got a great reputation with seniors and people of all incomes is half hardware, half drug store. They have a hardware store down the street which is a syndicate, and they have a Rite Aid right down he street, and they are doing great. I think, the reason they are doing great is because it is driven by the neighborhood.
Board: What clientele base do they have?
Cimperman: Clientele, in terms of what?
Board: Numbers?
Cimperman: I don't know. But I can tell you they are hiring two more people. They called my office and asked if I had anybody that needed a job.
Board: That is the thing that scared me about both a hardware store and a drug store. One drug store left because the clientele base changed. I listened to the same arguments in Tremont. The thing that scares you -the reality -- the numbers -- when you start looking at the numbers. The thing with Dave's Market, I'm kind of hoping Dave's Supermarket has the ability to withstand the numbers.
Cimperman: Yeah. It is a risk. To the heart of your question. I think the sustainability of the economy within the neighborhood depends upon how much it is driven by the people who live there and are going to stay there.
Board: Can I build on that because of the empowerment zone issue that has been bounced around? The East Side does have an empowerment zone, the West Side doesn't. Empowerment Zone for the West Side with something like a Shore Bank that funds projects other banks won't fund. That builds neighborhood businesses, sustainability, employment for neighbors in small local areas. Where are we on that issue?
Cimperman: It is interesting. Legislation was just passed through Community and Economic Development yesterday for Shore Bank which is doing an incubator in the E. 105 and St. Clair empowerment zone Glenville neighborhood. The discussion with the Shore Bank representative was about an hour long. Not because Council was against it, but because it was such a primer for us. And, how does this happen? It was fascinating. In fact, I called a woman, Diane Swander, right after the meeting, and we are going to have a meeting with the rest of the committee exclusively on that type of investment. Now a lot of the people who are on that committee, Fannie Lewis, Frank Jackson, Joe Jones -- they are from the East Side - Far East Side, Near East Side where either an empowerment zone is already in place and an incubator is much more likely to happen. But then there is Nelson Cintron, Joe Zone and myself who share the western side. It is a matter of, now that Congressman Kucinich is on board, and we have been reading about the possibility of an Empowerment Zone, how can we get it up and running so that if it happens we'll be there. So, I'm excited about it. I'm learning more about it, with the whole issue of incubator and how that can benefit with a
Shore Bank. That's why we are meeting with them now so that when the money drops we are going to be ready to run with it.
Board: What are the realities of an empowerment zone? Kucinich is actually talking about it?
Cimperman: And as far as I know Congressman Stokes is very much in support of it. What I find interesting, is that the East Side Councilpeople are very much in support of it. It is good to see. It is kind of like that whole idea, the rising tide rises all boats. You have these people on the East Side that are saying, "It's working for us, and now we it to happen on the Near West Side and on the West Side." It is going to be, it will be a real binding thing because I think in the initial stages some people felt it split the city apart. The East Side was getting what they got and the West Side didn't get anything. And I think that with the discussion now, there is more of a sense that there is a bridge. That there is going to be development, equal on both sides.
Board: Working at Clark Metro and in Tremont, we hear from the neighbors again "Well the East Side got it, why aren't we getting it?" We are like, really its coming, we don't know when, but we hear. And the excitment on our side, because the people want it, they feel so left out. They feel that Mayor White has abandoned our side of town. They run to the councilpeople -- Helen Smith before Nelson -- how come they got it and we didn't? She's like -- well that area is a more depressed area than our area. Everybody thinks they live in the most depressed area -- and really the West Side is not as depressed as that section of the Empowerment Zone. So we are excited about so I'm glad you guys are...
Cimperman: I grew up in the Empowerment Zone. I grew up on East 74th and St. Clair. So I can speak that economically that area was more in need at the time. But you know it is interesting, I'm starting to see, and I had this conversation with Fannie Lewis, we were talking about the issue of race. I was watching 60 minutes a couple of weeks ago and Toni Morrison was on. She wrote Beloved and all these other great books about growing up an African American woman in America. She made a comment. She said, "I will never trust a white person again." It made me very sad. Because I'm 27 years old, and I'm in this job because I believein the people who put me there -- everybody -- black, Hispanic, and Asian and white. And I thought here is this woman who is speaking from her heart. So I had a conversation with Fannie Lewis (Councilperson, Ward 7), I said, Fannie, I'm just going to ask you a question. I saw this TV situation and Frank Jackson (Councilperson, Ward 5) was there, too. I said, Is this true? Do you feel that way? She said, "Honey, let me tell you something. When I was your age, I couldn't have a friend come over who wasn't from my culture. Today, I'm baby sitting my granddaughter's friends who are Hispanic, who are white, and who comefrom all over the city." It makes me feel good, because here is a woman who knows city history. And she is saying something that I think is true. And we are getting closer to that.
Where is the issue, as I see it now? Its poor people. Poor people, I don't care what culture you are, are is some ways forgotten, disenfranchised, whatever word you want to use. We are starting to see that in a lot of different ways. Welfare reform, which doesn't take the person's dignity into account. The issue that we don't have enough jobs for the city, yet we are going to take all these people off the rolls. That's why I'm excited, especially in Tremont, there is a real balance there between, I think, people who are from every economic spectrum. And some of the development that is being pushed now is for people who are working class. The Phoenix project with Habitat For Humanity, is a good project. And it is for people who aren't able to live on Millionaire's
Row, but deserve the right to live in the city and enjoy a great and an upcoming neighborhood. So, it is interesting how Fannie was making the point that the issue is turning from race to class and how in her time she is starting to see the cultures getting along more. So I'm learning a lot from my senior councilpeople.
Board: You have a number of Community Development Corporations (CDCs) within this ward -- seventeen. How do you differentiate the dollar amounts? How do you play with that whole thing?
Cimperman: I inherited seventeen development corporations. By the end of the year, there will definitely be a merger in Broadway because Slavic Village Broadway Association is merging with Broadway Area Housing Coalition. The commercial and the residential interest are going to be one. Tremont has one CDC. Broadway will have one CDC. St. Clair-Superior will have one CDC. Right now they have four unofficially, three officially funded by the city. A lot of my CDCs -- I have Flats-Oxbow, which is industry based, which gets no money from me; St. Vincent Quadrangle which gets no money from me; and Historic Warehouse which gets no money from me. They get money from the city. So out of the seventeen, ten of them directly get money from the councilperson. Ohio City Near West gets money from me. I'm looking at the economics of it right now to see who's doing what -- to judge on the geographic area, as well as, the state of the neighborhood and what is being done.
Board: Will these individuals have a certain criterion that they would have to meet?
Cimperman: They do. Starting this summer, I've instituted a survey that is going out to all the residences within the specific neighborhoods asking them twenty questions. And there will be a way they can mail it back to me. Saying -- Do you know your development corporation? Does your development corporation work for you? If so, what are the programs that work? What do you need in your neighborhood? Are you aware of these programs that the city provides? If you could have $2,000 to work on your street, what would be your project of interest? The point, I'm trying to make with the development corporations is that while they have been accountable for the last four years, I'm asking them for a higher level of accountability. That's being met with some resistance. I
think people are a little bit wary about funding. It is in no way an attempt to scare people, but really an attempt to tighten the belt. I'm worried, with Congress cutting HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) the way it has, that my discretionary dollars are going to continue to shrink. I want to be in a position where our CDCs are as efficient and as accountable to the neighborhoods as possible. We are lucky that we've got $300,000 this year, which is the same level we got last year. I don'tthink it is going to be that next year. I know it is not going to be like that in two years. Ultimately, I'd love my CDCs to be up and running on their own in terms of their own private fundraising. That's a wish for eight years. But, my goal is to really have the neighborhood to direct the CDC. I think it is a good opportunity to do that. I feel that the residents in the neighborhood want that. I ran on a platform of accountability. When I go to a neighborhood meeting and ask them about their local development corporation and they tell me they have called four times and have never gotten a phone call back -- we've got to reassess where we are. I'm fortunate. My neighborhood CDCs, I think are going a good job, I really do. I question the amount of some of my CDCs in the downtown region. I've got quite a few of them. But they don't take money from Ward 13, they get it from the mayor's pot. So, what I see as a way to make sure they are accountable, I've asked all of my CDCs to a few things for me. They are now going on a year-to-year contract. They are not going any more two years. They have to be assessed every year, and the survey is going to be a big part of that. I've asked every one of my CDCs to have two residents on the board. Some of my CDCs, like Tremont West, has like ninety percent resident based. Broadway Area Housing is the same way, the same in St. Clair. Some of my CDCs in the middle of my ward
have none. Have business people who live in Solon, which is great, but if you are working in the neighborhood and if the neighborhood residents are going to be effected by your business, there needs to be some guidance. So I asked each one of them, in order to secure funding for next year, to amend their by-laws and to include two residents. It is a slow process to try to get the groups to become a little bit more neighborhood conscious. Some of them are doing great, some of them are doing adequate, some of them are doing poor. When you have
seventeen of them you really have a range.
Board: Joe, what is the process and what kind of resources do you have to address complaints and have organizations or individuals to reach you? What is in place?
Cimperman: I made a campaign pledge that I would get back to people within a day or two. I can tell you now that our phone calls are averaging,about 70 or 75 a day. My assistant Angie (Tremont resident Angie Stach) is generally the first line of defense. She is there 9-5 in the office, taking the calls and processing them through the bureaucracy of City Hall. Generally what happens, is she gets the case going, then I'll get it midstream to see if the person is satisfied with the progress, is their any more information they want to give me that maybe they didn't give Angie. Then a follow-up phone call to see if it was done. We have logged over 2,000 phone calls, and I've returned over 2,000 phone calls, in the first three months. I'm noticing that the number of people who are calling is increasing. I'm beginning to believe that is because they know they are going to get a call back. What does that mean to me? That means we are going to have tighter block clubs, we are going to have safer streets because people are getting more and more involved. So many people are saying to me, thank you for calling me back. If they call me at home, I call them at home. If they call me at the office, I'll call them at home. I send the message out, I work for you. For not only for the 3,200 people who voted, but for the 25,000 residents. I take it very seriously when somebody calls me and says, "It is not that important, I have a problem with the restaurant next door that has a health code inspection, give me a call next week if you have time." I get on that. Because, I want them to call me again and again. It is a relationship that I hope to build on.
Tremont is pretty well covered with block clubs. The West 25th area has the good resident councils at Lakeview and Riverview. But I have vast tracks of land on St. Clair and Superior that have never had a block club meeting and that needs to change.
The resources that are available to me? I have a phone at the office and my house, and a computer. A pledge to work however many hours to get back to the people I need to get back to. We are working on a system where it goes right from the computer to a department. You should know, the technology at City Hall is unbelievably slow. E-mail, forget it, they don't have it. There are so many people now who are computer conscious and savvy now in the neighborhoods that will work well with E-mail. But I can't get another phone line. I'm told that the analog phone that I have wouldn't match a digital which I need. We have to get up to speed. City Hall needs to do that technologically, but in the mean time it is the same old telephone thing. What I like to do, some of my more serious complaints -- by that I mean people who aren't just calling about the pigeons on Public Square -- but people who are calling about a drug concern on their street, or a house that is caving in on itself and they are afraid the children are going to get hurt. I go there on the weekends, and I check it out. It gives me a chance to check out the infrastructure and the rest of the housing stock. It gives people a sense that if they call me and it is important, and it always is, I'm going to be there. So, I'm learning to balance the Saturday out with going to neighborhood to neighborhood. The trick, in Ward 13, is to equally serve all five neighborhoods. It can be done. I'm just kind-of figuring out how to do that.
Board: Speaking of the five neighborhoods. We've been bringing up Riverview. Partly because you can see it right out our window here. What do you see as the future of Riverview? As little as a year ago, there was a plan to actually dismantle the low rises of Riverview. Then there was a study done recently, from what I understand, that the hillside is actually sliding. That was in the Flats-Oxbow newsletter.
Cimperman: It is. $15 million dollars to recover.
Board: Just to be able to use it as green space.
Cimperman: Just o stabilize.
Board: But right now there is a residential component living there. They are saying they would need to stabilize it for a park. They would definitely need to stabilize it for new housing. What needs to be done now for Riverview existing residents? What is the plan for Riverview?
Cimperman: I have three developments in my ward that are CMHA led: Riverview, Valley View, and Lakeview. I have quite a few more that are HUD driven: St. Clair Place -- pieces of it, St. Andrew's, Park View, and Carter Manor as well. So getting a grip on how federal policy is impacting local people is tough. CMHA has been -- I don't want to say it is difficult to access the leadership -- but I'm meeting with people from CMHA next week. I ran into them downtown at a meeting and I said I placed a few phone calls and I think it is important that we get together. We are going to talk about that. In terms of the tower. I'm told by the engineers that did the same survey for the hill that Riverview Towers is safe right now. Will it be safe, if the hill continues to erode? Probably not. Will Transitional Housing which is right on the bluff there -- you
know the old Sleepy Hollow whatever Hotel. Will that be safe in ten years? Probably not. The question I have is ,where is the money going to come from? To stabilize that hill, if we are going to pay $15 million dollars, or however much to stabilize it. And then we are going to turn it over for high income housing, I have to ask the question, "Is that something the public dime should be used for?" I have nothing against beautiful housing for everybody, but at the same time, when you have people who are living in Valley View in substandard housing in fear because they don't know if a drive-by is going to get them or what is
going to happen. I would rather invest my money in getting people out of CMHA projects and into homes that they can own and operate and live in versus stabilizing the hillside whether it be for a park or for a group of people that I think should probably afford to fix it themselves. I mean $15 million dollars is huge just to stabilize the hill. It is really sad when you think about it because the streets that were there when it was the old Irish neighborhood are still on some old city maps and there is a real sense of history there. But when you drive on Franklin, you'd think you are in the middle of an earthquake. I mean the crack in the road is so huge and the city will just keep patching it. But that is the real question, where is the money going to come from. And eventually what is it going to be used for? Right now, the city can't afford to do anything about that hill other than keeping people from falling off of it. Frankly, it is really sad.
Board: So your plans for transition for Riverview are up in the air?
Cimperman: Yeah. I want to talk to the leadership at CMHA and people in the building and see what they say. They put a lot of money into Riverview. I mean they have really rehabilitated the lobby.
Board: On the hill?
Cimperman: The low-rises seem to be going the way of Valley View. Where we will patch a hole if we need to, then we'll move on after that. I don't know what CMHA's mission is for that, I'd like to learn that. But I'm concerned that Lakeview, Valley View and Riverview -- you know if you go inside of them -- they are decent enough housing, but I think we can be doing more for people.
Board: Priorities, it seems...
Cimperman: Even the simple things, like changing a light in that neighborhood, or patching a hole, or paving the streets to further the quality of life in that area.
Board: You mentioned that money could be better spent by giving housing and home ownership opportunities to people who live in there.
Cimperman: I do. I guess we look at the sixties and the fifties when high rise housing was the vogue. But then you look at a city policy like Toronto where they have mixed housing all over the city. You don't have projects. You don't have a part of town that is deemed bad because poor people live there. They are scattered. You get a sense that it is more like the world. My neighbors, when I grew up, were on one side wealthy and on the other side they had less economic resources. I think I had a very balanced neighborhood. There were African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Croatians, and Slovenians and there was a sense that this was a community. Whereas when you put people in a building and you say this
is where you are going to live. Personally, even though I'm not a public policy expert, I think there is a better way for people to live.
Board: Two questions about that. Number one: When as an alternative to large public housing projects, I live on a street with Section 8 Housing, and clearly that doesn't work too well either unless it is extremely well monitored. Habitat For Humanity has a model where there is ownership, where people buy into whatever it is through work or through whatever form. They feel pride in ownership and that. Also with kids, I'm thinking of two models, Habitat for Housing and City Year for Youth. City Year brings together kids from very disparate income levels and backgrounds and they all work together on a highly disciplined basis to outreach to the community and they end up with money for college. All good things. I know that programs like that are expensive to run and administer, it is a lot easier to just throw money at people and build a house. Or throw money into a youth program that doesn't do much. But something like that again is sustainable. My question is, how can we use those as a model, or build them up or fund them? I know funding for those will also be decreasing from the federal government.
Cimperman: It will. While they are decreasing the funding for that, we are also decreasing the number of Section 8 certificates that are going out,and we are also decreasing the number of apartments that are going to be Section 8 worthy. Or people are going to be able to use them. It is fearful that people are not getting any wealthier, or their ability to buy a home isn't getting any greater and the ability of the government to help people in that position is shrinking. So, you know, it is a dilemma. It is a housing crisis that I think is really going to hit us in ten years. I want to do everything I can to support Habitat for Humanity and the Cleveland Housing Network. Well they are not perfect, they have a system whereby they really try to help people get off the ground. Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful model because people actually are invested in the building of it. Cleveland Housing Network, I have some issue in that they are building more and more and I want to see the maintenance of the ones they currently have. There is new leadership there, Rob Curry, and I think he is going to do a great job with that. That is a big issue in city council, that we are biting off more than we can chew. And the bottom-line, we're not serving the people that live there when we can't fix the leaky faucet because we are too busy with new construction. Let's do it right.
I don't know what is going to happen in ten years. I sound like a broken record in city council, because every economic development project that come up I bring up Welfare Reform. How does this impact welfare reform? What are we going to do with the lack of dollars that people are going to have and with the poverty and despair that is going to be on the street? You know, we are waiting for the county. We've got 24 or 25 months, a little over two years. The thing that is kind of encouraging to me though was yesterday was kind of a big day at City Hall. There was a program that provides child care, that makes a profit, but provides an important service at a competitive rate for working moms and there was a child care facility that we were doing a city loan for. We weren't doing it for the next BP tower, we were not doing it Riverboat Casino, we were doing it child care. And I said to the director, Chris Warren, I gave him high kudos, I said I look to your leadership for more of this. Because this is what we are going to need, economically viable, but also socially responsible. I think when the city puts its thinking cap on like that we can do something. But my fear is that the need is going to be greater than the ability to meet it and we are going to be in trouble. We are going to be in trouble if we don't start addressing it now. I started a study of the hunger centers in my ward. Where do people go to get food? Not only a hot meal, but also bagged groceries. Where are jobs available? Part of this 8,000 business network that I'm construing in my head is to say to them I need a job bulletin board. So that when residents of Ward 13 are going to be off the roles and need an apprenticeship or need something that makes the paychecks meet, can you provide work? If so, let's have a center right here in the ward office that you can come to and say we need five people to do labor for twenty days and I can match it with people who need the jobs. So, if the city is not going to do welfare reform, and the county is waiting to do Welfare Reform, I'm not going to wait for my ward. My ward will have a Welfare Reform Plan a year before we go into full swing. Because I do not want to be in a position when that day comes and the alarm bell rings and people start calling, not saying "I need my streets repaved", but saying "my children are starving" or "my elderly aunt can't afford to keep us in the house anymore." I want to start to looking at it pro-actively, like that. So we will see. I'm on
a few boards that are helpful. Northcoast Food Rescue is good. I work with the Tremont Residents Services Corporation. But I hope to be leaning on my LDCs (Local Development Corporations) too to be looking to them for leadership. You know, what are your assessments of the social needs of the neighborhood? You know, the things that bind this community together. So there is a lot of work ahead of us here in Ward 13.
Board: It is interesting you mentioned Toronto. I had a chance to visit a public private housing project in Toronto. They had a public school and a Catholic school sharing the same building. They had high income and low income units in the same project and the high income units paid extra rent that would go to subsidizing the playground which was available to the whole facility. Something like this Hope VI, and I don't know if it is going to happen now with the hill sliding down, do you see the possibility of income sharing and resource sharing within that Riverview facility.
Cimperman: I do. My hesitancy is that there are plenty of places to live for people who have money. But there are scarce few for people who are either low income or no income. I want to make sure that the people, who are elderly or disabled or for some reason are not able to hold down a six figure job, have housing. At the same time you are right, how do we get away from that model of just clumping a group of people together and just saying you stay there? I think it is a complex matter. I would personally like to see that kind of socio-economic integration happen in the neighborhood. I would like to see that happen all over the city. I think it is starting to happen in the Near East Side, where you have people of wealth moving into traditionally poor areas. I think in Tremont you are going to get working class and low income people housing in a neighborhood which has some of the finest restaurants in the city and the first art walk.
Board: Cleveland's tendency has been to subsidize wealthy people as they move in and in affect it takes dollars away from our school system and from resources needed to build things like playgrounds at every school. Cleveland used to have a running playground program at every school in the school. In the summer they had baseball teams that were coached by high school kids. We don't have that any more. The kinds of things that were in place in the 1950s in Cleveland are not here so we've slid backwards.
Cimperman: In some ways, I think in some ways we have progressed. Point well made that we are not providing as much to our neighborhoods as we used to. I would hope that as a city we are more aware of some of the things that tore us apart in the 50s. And even it we are not capably dealing with the poverty issue right now I would hope that there is an alertness more so that is happening and maybe more of a sense of responsibility. That ties into my whole idea of linkage. That the corporations in this city have fared pretty well and I'd like to see some of that returned back to the neighborhoods.
Board: Speaking of linkage, particularly in your ward you have massive opportunities with the amount of abatements and UDAGs (Urban Development Action Grants) that have gone downtown. The Voinovich Administration got more UDAGs than any city in the country because he was a Republican under Republican administrations. But recently, I believe it was a UDAG that was forgiven, Forest City moved their headquarters downtown -- $5 million dollars. There was so much talk about how this money was going to be recycled into neighborhood businesses. How do we take these kind of resources and monitor them as a city council and get serious about saying these dollars are coming directly from our school systems or from our neighborhoods and who is watching the store? What is city council doing down there?
Cimperman: That is a good question. Part of what I've seen happen with the recent city finance packages that have come through community and economic development, I think that the administration, or the economic development department is more aware now than ever of the school issue. There is something that is on the table now to help fund the restoration of the Colonial and Euclid Arcade, the public spaces, to restore that to its historical integrity. And they are asking for a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) but interestingly enough it is bifurcated. The money, the revenue stream that is supposed to go to the school system is protected, it continues. But the money that goes to the parks and the port is where they are using that pool for the interest on the construction. Well, I asked that question, do you think that it is just, is it moral to do that? And it was an interesting economic response. The answer I was given was, if we continue to allow buildings like the Colonial and Euclid Arcade and the entire of Euclid Avenue to continue to deteriorate, real estate property wise the parks and the libraries will in 20 years be getting far less than if we re-channel the money now, stabilize it, and increase the property value. That was an interesting economic argument. What they are saying is that we are going to take a hit for fifteen or twenty years, but then we are going to see our investment realized. Why did that happen? I think because of the scrutiny of the school system. That is very complicated financing. It would be a hell of a lot easier to give abatement. Or say, ah the schools they just got a 13.1 mill levy or whatever. So I think there is a consciousness on their part. I think there is a consciousness with this child care facility, that an economic loan came through for. But it is going to take an united City Council to continue and really forge an idea that there has to be some formal linkage. And you know what, it is going to happen in deals that come across the table and are rejected, and it is going to happen in amendments that are made. There is going to be some real pull and take in the next six to eight months as Euclid Avenue hopes to be developed and everything else. I'm not an obstructionist, but I'm certainly not a person who is going to look the other way when my neighborhoods need to get things and they are not getting it because there are different parts of the city that are being developed. So how that is going to play out I don't know. Will it be a heavenly meeting between the administration and council saying we are going to work in this formal amendment that is going to see to it that such and such neighborhood is served by this loan package? Personally, right now in my ward I'm trying to do that by coming up with my wish lists. At the same time that the economic proposal comes across the table, my wish list goes to the other side. It just says I've got seniors who need a garden, I've got kids at Merrick House that need a decent playground. I've got people who are living in the Payne-Sterling neighborhood that have a less than capable recreation center -- it is junk. And I have a neighborhood called St. Clair, that has a falling facade. It is a beautiful neighborhood, that is culturally rich and diverse, that very little attention is going there. So the ways in which I can address that on my level I think will eventually bloom to what I hope will be a city-wide policy. I mean but it is going to be slow.
Board: More specifically, as a councilperson have you seen a UDAG payback list or a job check per UDAG?
Cimperman: Good question. I actually was in the middle of a heated -- you guys should have been at the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting yesterday. It was like a drama, it had everything it was like the Titanic of committee meetings but it ended a lot better.
Board: We'll go to the next one.
Cimperman: Ok. It won't be as fun though. But the question was raised about the money we are putting into an incubator in Glenville. Because some of it came from a Section 108 loan, which basically promised future CDBG money. That is a pretty risky investment. The question was brought up about a UDAG. The Windsor hotel, just paid their three million dollar UDAG on Monday. Part of that money is going into the incubator in Glenville. I think part of it was structured for the loan arrangement with the child care facility in Union Miles. So it is interesting how that is being reinvested. It is going to be council's responsibility to monitor that though.
Board: Is there a forum set up for that. In other words, as you are saying is their any discussion of setting up a forum for the monitoring process?
Cimperman: There is. I'll tell you on my part I am doing everything I can to get up to speed with municipal finance. Meeting with people at Cleveland State, talking with people in the banking industry, and I know that with various people in Community and Economic Development there is talk about coming up with a formula. So that when the administration proposes an economic plan, factored into that formula will be how much of it affects the surrounding area, the wards throughout the city.
Board: Council successfully carved out some money from the recent budget to support programs to combat AIDS. Where are the dollars actually going to come from?
Cimperman: The mini-station money has already been recovered. The whole thing has been recovered. There is room in the budget where the mayor maybe has a little bit more room in certain respects and the council has a little bit more room. All the money that was allocated for spending for people with AIDS, there is no harm that is going to come to the mini-stations and the third party social service agencies aren't going to see a cut. So, that's council setting policy. That is history. That hasn't happened in years. So it is going to be interesting.
Board: It is good policy and not rampageous policy. I still have a personal question about the dog thing. I wonder about implementation. One can actually make a statement that is political. But then again, when you are just slapping a law, it is not going to have any effect.
Board: In terms of Urban Sprawl. How can that be addressed by the city of Cleveland now with the inner ring suburbs, and the outer suburbs? I know certain cities like Portland have joined together with suburbs and said look we just can't continue expanding because if the central city folds, you fold too. What is being done in Cleveland?
Cimperman: Right now, the whole discussion of urban sprawl is centered around the widening of I-71. City Council is putting a pretty heavy push on the state legislature not to approve the funds for that. We've gotten to a point now though where it is almost a battle. Where the critical mass in the suburbs has reached a point where they have the votes and the money, and they can demand things like this widening. It almost calls for people to come to a sense of reason. I can have my Geauga tag on my car and go to Jacobs Field but not only am I hurting the inner city, but I'm also hitting farmer Joe because my new condo development is going to knock out five more acres of agricultural in the state of Ohio. It has come to a point that you are seeing coalition being built between the rural farmers and the inner city coalition builders. Has it come to that in Cleveland? I know it has in other cities. But it is a problem we are going to continue to have if we continue to fund these developments and roads
that go further eastward and westward.
Board: Because it is a question of taxes, resources and abatements. Now the outer suburbs are offering abatements of their own. Which has been going on for a long time. But there needs to be a really broad strategy for the whole region. Everybody -- city, suburbs -- everybody is on board. Long term.
Cimperman: I agree. And that is a discussion that needs to be happen on a city wide basis. You hear people like Joe Jones (Ward 1 City Councilman) say in a lot of ways his ward is like the nearest eastern suburb. Mike Dolan (Ward 21) says he is competing with Lakewood; Mike Polensek (Ward 11) with Euclid. It is really interesting even within city council to see how that issue plays out.
Board: Getting back to something more local. Actually I appreciate the urban sprawl discussion, particularly from where I sit. But as someone who lives in Tremont and works in Tremont you a lot of more micro politics that occur in Ward 13. I mean they occur everywhere throughout the city, but they spontaneously seem to combust occasionally in Tremont. There are so many issues that are continuously evolving. How do you deal with the interpersonal situations with so many issues? I don't know how to phrase this correctly.
Cimperman: I hear what you are saying. There are many bright, intelligent, and efficient community activists in Tremont. I think that in Tremont it seems to -- either it is something in the water, or I don't know maybe the coffee. People really have a sensibility about their neighborhood. I have a block club meeting I'm going to be going to in a couple of minutes, at Holmden/Buhrer/Rally where they have engaged a local factory in the discussion of why are you here and what are you going to do for my street. You don't have that in many parts of the city. How do I deal with that? I guarantee every person who calls me an ear, and that I will honestly listen to them and hear them out and if I can, address the issue. If the issue involves something that I can take care of quickly. Something that a call to the city or attention that needs to be given, I can do that. If it is a more serious issue, like people calling one another to question the motives or the viability of a certain project, we will have to sit down and talk. My survey was an initial response I had when I was elected because of the whole issue of accountability. What I am seeing happen now in Tremont, as well as my other neighborhoods, people are saying, "Now I have a means of expressing my concern. If I like something that is going on with my local development corporation this is my opportunity to voice it. And if I think there are ways to
better tune the violin, this is how I'm going to do it." I am very much a process oriented person. The neighborhood has taken years to evolve. There are a
lot of good things that are happening. It is my goal to see that progress continue. But you know there are people who call me. This happened yesterday. One person called me screaming about a group. Then the next person called me screaming about the exact opposite group. And it was all within five minutes. It was funny because I was asking my assistant Angie, "Did you know what that was about?" She said, "Well, it sounded like you were talking to the same person but you were saying different names." I said that is good, because what I should be telling people is the same message. If you are invested in Tremont's rejuvenation and progress we have a commonality. If you are invested in it to separate it or to in some ways hurt the neighborhood's progress I can't really take part in what you are talking about. But you know it is like energy -- it can be used for things that are positive in nature and things that are negative
in nature. The thing I have to combat city is this deep cynicism. I mean there is a deep cynicism out there. I would argue that some of the things I have just heard in the last half day have thrown me for people thinking there is no hope.There is a feeling there I think of anger, some of despair, and it is my goal as councilperson to give people a vent for that. Whether that is their block club, whether it is something like Friends of Lincoln Park, I want people to use their energy for things that build up our community. It is idealist and perhaps Pollyannish but I really think if people are given the opportunity they will do the right thing.
Board: Do you see an opportunity for more consensus building specifically in the Tremont area?
Cimperman: I do. And Lincoln Park is going to be the key to that. There are neighbors and residents who use that park, perhaps who don't speak to each other right now. I think that park is going to be a tool to build that neighborhood up, frankly.
Board: Who don't speak to each other deliberately because of their personal politics? Or people who don't mix?
Cimperman: A little bit of both. It is an exciting place to be councilman right now. I can say that.
Board: Things like this have flared up frequently over time in Tremont, and I'm sure in other places as well. Wherever there are politics, wherever there is a pot of things -- resources that are distributed. Can there be some formal request for mediation from time to time?
Cimperman: You know we have a living room in Tremont that is filled with many tables. There needs to be one table. There needs to be one place where people sit down and say I am Susie so and so, and I have a concern because I am a business owner, resident, both, person who passes through. I am a deacon at such and such church. I have these issues. In Tremont, right now, we have a lot of tables. A lot of people. And those tables don't connect.
Board: And people wanting to make more tables.
Cimperman: They do. And I understand the importance of people expressing their individuality, but everybody at the table has to be accountable to everybody else. I take it seriously that when people call me they expect a call back within twenty-four hours. Well I relay that, not only to my CDCs, but to my residents. If I have a resident who calls me and complains about a safety issue. My first question is "Well, are you going to the next block club meeting, or have you been to the last one? Here I have the calendar."
You don't get off easy. If we are going to build up Ward 13 again, like it's the power that it needs to be and should be and a resource for the people that live there. People who call me to crank and to complain, we're going to have a conversation. Because, I'm investing my life. It is something I've chosen to do and it is my passion for the next four years. All I'm asking is that you attend and share your wisdom at a block club.
When I call you within twenty four hours and I call you again to make sure it is followed up. And in four weeks I call you to make sure the problem hasn't come back again. I think the least you can do to the neighbors you share is to attend the block club meeting or to voice your concerns. So while that accountability was something that voted me in. It is something that I hold my LDC apparent to, and also people who are now my daily callers. I'm very frank with them. I'm not being smart. It is just that your neighborhood will only increase in strength by the amount of people you get to your local block club meeting. When the police in the Third, Fourth, and Second District see that you have forty people and you are calling Juvenile Court Judges in to task. That gets around. That gets around City Hall, that gets around the Justice Department. That gets around when people say to them selves we need to pay attention to this area. So you know if I can build that culture up, where people have that kind of civic responsibility, and they already do, but to kind of double it, it will be a good day.
Board: Most of the block club people that I come in contact with are older, ethnic, and have lived in the neighborhood for a long time. In other words, we need to bring support to other levels -- renters, people who feel more disenfranchised.
Cimperman: I agree with you and I think the key to that is hard core community organizing. Broadway Area Housing has that right now, Tremont West has good organizing, Merrick House has good organizing. I've seen some really positive things happen from that organizing. Duck Island has had its first block club meeting in ten years. First Block Club meeting! The people of W. 20TH and W. 19TH, the forgotten village of Duck Island, now they come to a block club meeting at St. Wendelins every month and say "What about our playground, councilmen? What about this street that you two share? And Nelson and I are very committed to that. Throughout the campaign people said are you going to remember
us? Are we going to see you? I think some people see us now more than they did in the campaign, because if they attend the block club meetings then they get access. I think when people have access, you build up trust and accountability in a relationship. So that in three years when I have a problem on a street and I know Mr. McGrievy and Ms Kowalski and Tom Jones who have been block club members, I can call them and say "Listen, you guys, I need your advice." And suddenly the plate tectonics of a city which for years and years shifted apart -- we start to see things coming closer together. I saw that the other day in Tremont when there was the group that was talking to the business at the end of the street. "What are you going to do for us? Why are you invading our neighborhood?" People who are Appalachian, people who are Puerto Rican, African Americans, Polish people and a business. And the business person saying this is what I'm going to do to provide a more decent living for this part of the neighborhood. These are the taxes I'm going to bring in, these are how many people I'm going to hire from your streets. Suddenly the tension in the room kind of shifted. It was almost like magic. You felt the issue of community getting closer and closer. People saying you know what, this is a neighborhood where we can all work together. Moments are rare like that. I told my fellow councilpeople about it, and they said freeze it in your mind. Because you see things like that happen and you know the idea of a city is working. And I'm excited about that, and I think there are going to be a lot more moments like that in the next four years than there is not.
Board: You mentioned power in Ward 13. What is your relationship to the Ward Club, and the ward club, what is their relationship to the county party.
Cimperman: That's a great question. The Ward Club traditionally has been the vehicle by which people were elected. I did not have the support of the Ward Club in this past election. I had the support of some members, but by in large the Ward Club supports the incumbent. The Ward Club in Ward 13 is a great one. It has people in it who are I think, proven time and again community activists and are vested in the neighborhood. What it lacks is a true cultural representation of the neighborhood. We have not one Hispanic member. We don't have one Asian member. Yet, I have the largest Asian population of any ward in the city of Cleveland, and the largest Hispanic population on the east side of the Cuyahoga. Our African American population in the Ward Club is too low. And the fact of the matter is I think a lot of the people in the Ward Club are getting ready to retire. I personally have contacted twenty nine people to run for precinct committee slots who are family people, business people who live in the ward -- because it is important for me that those precinct people, which are our representatives as Ward 13 be representative. I don't have as many cultures as I want, we are getting closer. I think by this time in four years we're going to have the good healthy balance that we need. It is tricky for me to speak about the Ward Club because frankly put, there is still a kind of a questioning about the other.I didn't know the Ward Club very well. In my campaign I ran an outsiders race. And the Ward Club didn't know me. So we are really getting to know each otherright now.
The importance that Ward 13 plays in the county, simply, is that we have 35 precinct votes. So, if somebody is running, say, for County Prosecutor in the next six months, when Stephanie Tubbs Jones steps down, if she does win -- the Ward Clubs will vote for that person countywide. So you figure however many votes you have county wide, a million or however many, it comes down to 750 or 800 peoples votes. So a Ward, like Ward 13 that can deliver 35 votes to one candidate, can really show its strength. How? More attention perhaps. Perhaps the person who is elected will have a greater sense of what Ward 13 is all about. Perhaps they will be more engaged in the block clubs that are happening there. So, it is part of yesteryear's Democratic machine, but I really think it can be part of next year's Democratic power as well -- especially the Ward Club. I have a Ward Leader, his name is Oliver McDaniel. He is an African American. He's great. He is an activist, 78 years old. The guy goes to City Hall. Applauds when he needs to, and yells when he has to. I would really like to see that kind of spirit in the Ward Club continue.
Board: When is the election?
Cimperman: May 5th is when the precinct people are voted in. Right after that, on the third Thursday, we have our officers' elections. Typically, the Councilperson is the president and there is a Ward Leader. It is a separate entity. I'm looking forward to it. We have a lot of good people that are involved who can not only new parts of a ward club, but also the mentors for the new people.
Board: You mentioned trying to get something like WIRE-Net (West Side Industrial Retention and Expansion Network). Job creation, as you know, is a big factor with the poverty rate in your ward, especially in the Near West Side of the ward you still have a very low income population for the most part. Any progress or any inroads?
Cimperman: Yes the LADCO group, the Lakeside Area Development Corporation, which is my northern, industrial based LDC. I have been in pretty active discussions with them, I talk to their director almost every other day. I'm really trying to build up an idea of how many jobs are available there. It is a natural for something like an EIRE-Net, (East Side Industrial Retention and Expansion Network.) In my Tremont area, there is talk about light industry in the industrial valley, the W. 3RD, Quigley Area. That would be perfect for people who are living in the W. 5TH, 6TH & 7TH areas. To work there, to walk to work literally. Job creation is very important, I'm lucky because a lot of economic development in the city is centered either in Ward 13 or just outside of it. We have Glenville, you have great things happening in Ohio City, just South of me in Slavic Village there are a lot of good things happening that I think Ward 13 residents could take advantage of. But, ideally I would like to see a job network specifically for Ward 13 residents. In the campaign, I had an idea, it was called Ward 13 First. Where the people in the neighborhoods would shop in the neighborhood stores. You would spend your money in Ward 13, but make it known that you were doing that. Almost in a sense of really building up a sense of commerce and pride in the Ward. Somebody called me Monroe, because I'm being isolationist. But at the same time why shouldn't people who live in Riverview work downtown and have good jobs? Why shouldn't people who live in Tremont who are good folk, working class stock, have jobs in the northern industrial area of St. Clair or in the W. 3Rd Quigley area?
So what I am doing now as part of this linkage is not only to say what are the resources you can invest professionally and economically, but what kind of jobs can you provide? How sustainable are they? Do they have good health benefits? Is this corporation a good one for my ward; and, if so, how can I use it for the people who live here? Those trucks use my infrastructure. They potentially contaminate the air. they certainly use the water supply. Residents who are directly around it are most impacted, why shouldn't they benefit economically?
Board: Speaking of that, how do you deal with the differences of opinion within your ward of people who may want industrial development and others who want to have a view of the industrial valley but don't want any of the truck traffic or the pollution that comes with it?
Cimperman: Very delicately. That is how you deal with it. Very delicately. It would be wonderful if we had a million Hallmark Stores, where you just stacked cards and got paid $15 an hour with incredible health benefits. It is a tough balance. It is a tougher balance especially in my St. Clair neighborhood, because the industry is creeping in from Midtown from the South and LADCO from the north. People on some of the streets feel squeezed. Parking is an issue, noise is an issue. They feel their residential interests are being sacrificed at the expense of the commercial and industrial interests. I have to ask the question, what is the best good for this area? How many people are you actually employing from my neighborhood? What are you giving back in terms of tax relief to some of the people or the sense of an anchor? What are you solidifying in a block that maybe was vacant? It is something that I think has to be dealt with on a block to block basis. It is always important to ask the residents. So many of the developments that have happened, especially in the St.Clair part of my ward, nobody asked the residents. So now they are stuck with it. They could have had a healthy partner in development if they would have only said to the residents: "This is what we are thinking about, assist us?" Instead of saying, "This is what we are going to impose on you, deal with it."
Board: Do you have some specific goals that within the next four years, some things that you would like to see particularly in this part of your ward?
Cimperman: I would. I would like to see a vision for my Riverview and Lakeview neighborhoods. I would like to see Habitat for Humanity having built at least seven homes in the Tremont neighborhood with more on the way. I would like to see an accountability on the part of Cleveland Housing Network in assisting them to make it possible for people who are low income to not only own a home to also keep it up and maintain the strong housing stock in Tremont. I would like to see a Friends of Lincoln Park where people come and enjoy each others company regardless of the socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. I would like to see a sense of vision that comes from downtown in terms of how we are going to start investing in the echo neighborhoods of my W. 25TH Street, of my Tremont, and of my Duck Island. I would basically like to see people feeling that they know me personally as a councilperson. They feel that they can trust me and they know that I am always going to refer to them when it comes to vision and development.
Board: Anything you would like to add?
Cimperman: I just want to make this point. You can turn this off if you want to or not. I greatly respect the Plain Press. When I was a social worker at the West Side Catholic Center everybody read it. It was a great means of disseminating community news. I think some of the issues you guys touch on, specifically Metro Health and public health, some of the things with housing, I commend. When you do your Service Guide -- what is going on in the neighborhood, I want to have that in my Near East Side, it is wonderful. I think this paper, and the board I know directs it, is part of what brings that plate tectonic closer together. So I'm appreciative, and I saw Tim Melena (Councilman Ward 17) about twenty minutes before I came here and he said if you ever want to interview him he would be very interested.