Ward 15 Demonstrators Voice Ire at City Hall

Submitted by xielede on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 7:18pm.

Backroom Cleveland City Council deals are slicing and dicing Ward 15, angry demonstrators claimed in front of City Hall Monday.

Meanwhile, efforts to mount legal action against the redistricting plan are moving forward.

Prior to Monday’s City Council meeting, Ward 15 Councilman Brian Cummins announced to some 125 demonstrators that he had been able to head off division of the Old Brooklyn section into three.

“But this is only the beginning. We’re working to keep from splitting neighborhoods entirely,” he told the cheering crowd.

The current proposal for Ward 15, never made public by City Council or its consultants working on the plan, divides the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood in two along West 25th Street. West of that line would merge with Ward 14 while the eastern portion would merge with Ward 13.

The Old Brooklyn section was to be divided into three portions, with the western portion going into Ward 16, the eastern portion into Ward 12 and a smaller central portion merging with Ward 13. Cummins obtained agreement with the consultants to keep that last division out of the proposal.

To date, no one has seen the redistricting proposal for the entire city, which would likely help finalize City Council’s reduction from 21 to 19 members. The secrecy with which the project is being carried out has increased the neighborhood rancor.

“Maintaining the integrity of neighborhoods is not political,” Cummins said. “It is, in fact, a key part of the charter amendment approved by voters last November.”

The demonstration lasted about 90 minutes, growing larger as more Ward 15 residents and supporters showed up carrying signs that read “we are neighbors, not numbers” and “don’t cut up our neighborhoods.”

One sign blamed Council President Martin Sweeney for gerrymandering the new ward alignments to meet his political preferences.

“People are fed up with the status quo politics in this city,” Cummins continued. “They fail to realize we are not only organizing block by block but neighborhood by neighborhood.”

Residents close to the situation said the idea of seeking an injunction to stop the redistricting remains viable.

That action would be based on disenfranchisement criteria, pointing out that the South Hills neighborhood of Old Brooklyn and Ward 12’s Slavic Village neighborhood would be divided by Newburgh Heights.

The leader of our church community garden project

Submitted by Anastasia Pantsios on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 9:54pm.

lives in this ward and he is really angry about this too. He asked me Saturday — our first day of working in the garden this season – what he could do and who he should complain to. I suspect there are a lot more people like him who aren't aware of organized protests but who are angry about this.

It also struck me that at a time when the city is losing population, building neighborhood solidarity is an excellent way of stemming some of the flight, and moves like this will help loosen peoples' ties to the city and drive them out. Coming on top of closing all those Catholic parishes which will certainly contribute to the dissolution of neighborhoods, as well as the push to build a convention center/medical mart we can't afford and don't need, it seems like the institutions in this town are conspiring to destroy it. At best, it's gross negligence on the part of people who claim to be our "leaders."

Ward 15 Protests

Submitted by xielede on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 8:15am.

Protests like that in Ward 15 are organized by neighborhood associateions. Your friend should contact Councilman Cummins' office for a list of those associations closest to him. He should then put his name on their mailing list and phone bank for alerts of these activities and otherwise get involved. Neighborhood associations are full of some wonderful people so who knows, he might meet some new friends.