Posted on 09/24/2016 12:05:39 PM PDT by Hojczyk
In East Cleveland, City Council members had long balked at the idea of dissolving their city. But with no viable solution short of an economic miracle in sight, they agreed last month to pursue annexation without the list of demands —
"Without a revenue stream, I don't know how we would exist," said Thomas Wheeler, president of East Cleveland City Council. He and mayor Gary Norton agreed their city is out of options and needs money now.
East Cleveland has millions in unpaid bills and hasn't been able to borrow money on the municipal credit market for years. The city can barely make payroll even after deep cuts in its workforce. Wheeler said only five firefighters were available to respond to a recent house fire.
East Cleveland residents tired of crumbling streets, abandoned buildings and anxious waits for emergency services appear ready to be absorbed by Cleveland in the hope they will receive basic city services long in short supply.
"They don't fix anything around here," Robert Occhionero said.
Occhionero said residents on Savannah Avenue have been filling potholes as best they can to avoid being awakened by the sound of vehicles rattling through them.
Nearby, abandoned homes line the street that Morris Glenn and Anthony Donner call home. Donner cuts the grass on one of the vacant lots across Northfield Avenue because the city doesn't. Donner said he also clears storm sewer grates to try stopping their street from turning into a riverbed during heavy rains.
The men said East Cleveland has become so dangerous that people have armed themselves, knowing it could be a long wait for police. Call 911, they said, and there's a chance you'll be put on hold.
"Nobody wants to live here," Glenn said. "I'm only here by necessity."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Old Ben’s home turf back in the day.
A big, “unhealthy turd” takes on another smaller “unhealthy turd” and they both continue to spin around the bowl for a few more revolutions.
Struggling rural small towns in the south have been unincorporating, disbanding their police and fire departments and turning utilities where they exist over to private companies. The county takes over police duties and volunteer fire departments handle fires.
Don’t think this would work in a declining, indebted city with a larger population and a major crime problem, though.
This is what Japan did in the 2000s, massive town mergers.
i grew up in Cleveland Heights in the 70’s and east Cleveland was bad THEN.
I’m curious how Cleveland could possibly benefit from taking on East Cleveland via annexation? As described its a money pit with severely diminished tax revenues.
Is Dennis “The Boy Blunder” Kucinich still available to help out?
East Cleveland should file for bankruptcy. Only after the proceedings have proceeded should Cleveland even consider a merger.
Cleveland wants more Democrats, gibmedats, and EBT voters to help their 25% income tax increase approved. East Cleveland needs a teet and it looks like Cleveland needs more dependents so as to better drain the few productive people it has left.
2banana’s Rule:
Long term democrat rule + public unions + free sh*t army = misery, ruin and bankruptcy
Cleveland itself isn’t exactly on the ball maintaining it’s own infrastructure - outside of the areas destined for viewing by the Conventioneers this summer.
Taking on a city with even worse infrastructure doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.
Like the EU we are failing because of our failed policies and ideology so lets band together and eventually fail together, misery loves company
East Cleveland wasn’t as bad as east Cleveland.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, either. When you have an urbanized area with two municipalities that border each other, it's hard to make the case that you need separate municipal governments, separate departments, separate school systems, etc. If anything, that's just an enormous waste of taxpayer money.
East Cleveland is 93% African American in the last Census.
Without that duplication, how are we going to get twice as many government employees on the payroll?
Propose a law to allow the Tea Party to run bankrupt cities. :-)
Cleveland has been losing population—it had over 900,000 people in 1950 and has under 400,000 now. This will put it over 400,000 at least momentarily, and the residents of East Cleveland will now live in a city with a Major League Baseball team (which most of them may not care about) as well as an NBA team.
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