The Observer, November 9, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 10
A Wandering Fool: Struggling city needs help, not policing
A few nights ago, I was roused from a dream by a loud shot. It was followed by a long burst of gunfire, and after a minute, a scream of anger and fear pierced the silence. I looked out of my window into the Village courtyard and saw nothing. Two girls ran from East 117th, under the bridge between Houses 2 and 3, but that was it. The night was silent again.
I've never been terribly scared of this city. I've wandered around the Fine Arts Garden well past sunset, and I fell asleep again that night fairly quickly, but I did think it odd that in walking in and out of Little Italy that same night I had seen at least five UCPD cruisers. It disappoints me that Case sits on the border of such an unhealthy community and our most visible response to it is to protect ourselves from it.
Fairfax, the community directly west of the Case campus, has a population of about 7000 people with an average household income of roughly $18,000, according to the development corporation's website. Glenville, to the north up East 105th, holds about 19,000 people with an average household income of a little over $22,000. To the northwest, the St. Clair-Superior district is home to about 15,000 with incomes of about $18,000 per year.
This city is not well. Downtown is a shadow of its former self. Swathes of this city are accurately called "ghettos." I go on the RTA and listen to people exchanging lists of churches or charities that give people a place to stay overnight. The population of Greater Cleveland is expected to drop below 4 million people before 2010. Cuyahoga County is projected to lose over 50,000 people in the same period. In the city of Cleveland, the poverty rate was estimated to be 32.4 percent in 2005.
The outlook is not hopeless, though. The city is getting better. The death of manufacturing and steel industries hit the city hard, but banking and healthcare have made attempts to step into the gap. In the late 1980s, unemployment in Cleveland was over 12 percent, now down to around 6 percent. Of course, though, where there is high unemployment and very high poverty rates, there will always be crime. When there's no paycheck coming in and no one willing to feed you, you too would be willing to steal or beg for your next meal.
Cleveland needs time to heal itself. It needs time and it needs care, and as when faced with any disease, it's no good to try and cure the symptoms if the infection carries on. One way to solve a crime problem is increased policing. However, more cops will only help if the problem is insufficient police presence. If the problem is rampant unemployment and poverty, then increased policing may aggravate the problem. Omnipresent force and omniscient surveillance may keep the residents of the North Residential Village safe, but what does it say to those living across the street from the Village? It is a resounding rejection. We have demonstrated unequivocally that we will pay good money to ensure that the problems of the community are not the problems of this university.
I cannot in good conscience propose to remove the security presence on this campus, but I am compelled by my conscience to ask what kind of neighbors we are to the residents of East Cleveland.
Wesley Brue is a senior English and theater major.
