In Cleveland, Foreclosures Decimate Neighborhoods

[ckramer]

Source: npr

In Cleveland's Slavic Village, a neighborhood on the southeast side of the city, "termites" have decimated a house once occupied by a couple.

The intruders haven't chewed through the wood or even destroyed the carpets. These termites, as Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli calls them, are vandals who've stripped the recently foreclosed house of its fixtures, plumbing pipes, windows and wiring.

"It's a very lucrative business. These aren't just necessarily somebody trying to get a fix or a crack head. These are professionals who come in to strip these houses," Brancatelli says. "We saw people in vans with high-powered equipment."

Vandalized homes are just one aspect of the fallout from the national subprime mortgage meltdown that has hit the Ohio city particularly hard. Since 2000, Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland, has recorded 80,000 foreclosures — the most per capita in the country. Nearly 19 percent of those foreclosures occurred last year, according to city statistics.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90745303

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Tough time!

And these people voted for Bush in 2000 !

[strategery blunder]

1. Cleveland voted Bush in 2000?

Ummm...ya right. You're confusing one city with the entire state. Time to put away that broad brush.

[Dr.Phool]

2. Not in Cuyahoga County!

Solid Democratic.

[WCGreen]

3. The people in the city of Cleveland are overwhelming democrat.

A few precincts here and there may have gone to Bush, but I can't see any ward even coming close to going for Bush.

Before you make a statement, you ought to check it out.

I live here in the Cleveland area and know where the votes are for the Dem's and the GOP.

And there are precious few votes for Bush in Slavic Village.

So I did a little searching.

In 2004, Ward 12, which is where Slavic Village is, went for Kerry 4693 to Bush 1087.

In 2000, Ward 12 went Gore 3135 to Bush 1038.

So I guess that blows your theory about Slavic Village being to blame for their own mess because they voted for Bush.

[ohio2007]

8. Slavic village WAS a Kucinich neighborhood

The ethnic population moved, ran away scared stiff. Now it's just another hood where landlords bodies are found wrapped in rugs under the back steps in winter.



dunno if this will work but type in the browser 6335 fleet ave ohio 44109 at this link;
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-syn-gm&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=map
and take a stroll through the village summer shows a different side along Fleet Ave during the day time.....

[Lorien]

12. Was there ever a time that Cleveland voted Repug?

I kind of doubt it. It's an East Coast city that somehow ended up in the Midwest. I lived there for a while and had family there for over a century; it's always been a well educated and ethnically diverse city with plenty of union members-certainly NOT a place that "deserves" ill fortune because of a handful of crooked thugs who stole 2004 for Bush. I hear the same crap about the town I live in now; Orlando. It's pretty blue, as the population is young and fairly diverse. Orlando went for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004, yet many DUers believe that I and every other Democrat need to be drown by the rising seas or blown off the face of the earth by a massive hurricane because a few thugs stole the election in 2000 AGAINST the will of the people! It's always amazing to see that Pat Robertson mentality here among our own!

[Berry Cool]

4. Please. Cleveland didn't vote for Bush in 2000 OR 2004.

Cuyahoga County is as blue as they come.

Sorry, can't pin your karma theories on us with this one. Move along.

[still_one]

10. Agreed, but Ohio as a whole hasn't faired very well under the bush administration

or for that matter the republican politicans

Obviously, 2006 saw a statewide shift back toward Democrats

I certainly hope the state realizes that mccain is nothing more than an extension of bush

[ckramer]

5. Sorry I really meant Ohio went Bush

Anyway, what's up with all these foreclosing democrats?

[Lorien]

13. Ohio didn't go for Bush. It was stolen, just like Florida. n/t

[OhioChick]

14. Agreed. n/t

[Kolesar]

6. Foreclosure problems in Slavic Village predate the "sub prime mortgage problem" ... eom

[4dsc]

7. What, no neighborhood watch??

You'd think someone would call the police if they saw some big trucks pull up to a house and start removing all the fixtures and windows..

[Festivito]

9. Houses now owned by companies and law firms.

Trucks pull up to check the new holdings. Another pulls up to cut the lawn. Midday, while most of us work, they others pull up to enter through a window the prior people just happened to leave open ON EACH HOUSE THEY WORK.

[OhioChick]

11. "And these people voted for Bush in 2000 !"

Yeah, right. The bluest area in Ohio. :eyes:

[jaysunb]

15. This area probably did go for Bush

But their problem is the loss of industry, not subprime loans.