Detroit Shoreway, Part Two

Sarah Nemeth [00:00:16] [Intro music by This Moment in Black History] From the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University, this is Cleveland Voices, a podcast about the history of Cleveland neighborhoods as told through the voices of Clevelanders. My name is Sarah Nemeth, a graduate student at Cleveland State University. Thank you for joining us as we explore Clevelanders' sense of place. The audio clips used in this episode are drawn from oral histories conducted since 2002. The showcase clips offer a diverse set of memories and perspectives on different segments of Cleveland's history. Enjoy. If you missed part one of the Detroit Shoreway gentrification series, let us quickly recap our previous discussion. We left Detroit Shoreway in the late 1970s and 1980s in a moment of flux. New neighbors, cultures, ideas, and agendas were filtering into the community. The differing opinions and ideas often incited subtle and sometimes not so subtle neighborhood tension. We ended the last episode with comments made more than a decade ago by City Councilman Matt Zone and Nancilee McCormack of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization. At that time, both felt that the revitalization of Detroit Shoreway would not result in the displacement of lower income community residents. In 2005, Jeff Ramsey, the present executive director of DSCDO, additionally felt this way.

Jeff Ramsey [00:01:59] There is a buzzword in community element these days. It's called creating neighborhoods of choice. We want to be able to offer that choice for low income residents to choose to live here if they want to, and to hopefully ensure that people are not being forced out because they can't afford it.

Sarah Nemeth [00:02:13] Nevertheless, as we will discover in this episode, gentrification is a complicated matter. It exhibits itself in various ways, often unique to a specific place. This is not a discussion, therefore, on whether or not gentrification is good or bad. The gentrification process is too complicated to answer so uncritically. Rather, the following discussion will use Detroit Shoreway as a case study to illuminate how urban neighborhoods redeveloped from places that many people chose to abandon to coveted addresses. [Musical interlude] By the 1980s, Detroit Shoreway was at a breaking point. Actually, most urban neighborhoods at this time faced very uncertain futures. Many longtime residents continued to leave the city for the suburbs and not enough newcomers replaced them to prevent a population decline. In addition, from 1981 to 1982, the nation experienced its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The statistics showed an increase in unemployment and poverty levels skyrocketed. In 2006, Gerald Meyer remarked on the character of Detroit Shoreway during this period of uncertainty,.

Gerald Meyer [00:03:32] During the period of time from, say, late '70s, particularly in early '80s and then again in the '90s, there was a lot of the factories along here that downsized and their original owners moved or relocated or whatever. And in some cases there were replacement tenants who came in fairly quickly, so you didn't have a vacant building, for instance. So if a building's vacant, it tends to become more of an issue to the local neighbors. If the jobs just relocate, you know, and move, that's maybe not quite as much an issue to the local neighbors.

Sarah Nemeth [00:04:10] Disinvestment depopulation, and poverty typified urban neighborhoods. In 2006, Bruce Ferris, owner of Ferris Steakhouse, commented on the difficulty of operating a business next to lower income housing.

Bruce Ferris [00:04:26] I think here the biggest concern you have right now is you've got this government housing that's here and Section 8 housing, and if you don't move that out, you're not going to attract new business. They're doing a lot with Battery Park and I commend them for doing that. And up the street, Cudell has done some work and what have you. But as long as you have, I mean, I would never expand. I mean, there was one time I was gonna buy the place next door and expand the restaurant, put it back room, but as long as you have Section 8 government housing in the area, it's hard to justify doing it. So they've got a big challenge on their hands as long as the housing is what it is over here. You know, until they move that and move it into a different area, it's gonna be hard to bring this back like it used to be. And boy, it used to be strong.

Sarah Nemeth [00:05:12] Crime levels were also at an all time high. The 1980s crack cocaine epidemic previewed a bleak future for the neighborhood. The southwest corner of Detroit Shoreway, encompassing West 65th Street to West 85th Street, south of Madison, experienced an exceptionally rough 1980s and 1990s, as lifelong resident Terry Metter describes.

Terry Metter [00:05:36] The whole area was kind of generally neglected. A lot of working people or just bad landlords who maybe don't have enough money to take care of their properties. Decent amount of crime, the area kind of, not exactly where I grew up, but maybe a couple of streets over, is called the Crack Triangle in the '90s. So kind of the rougher side of Detroit Shoreway.

Sarah Nemeth [00:05:58] Prostitutes loitered on the neighborhood's main thoroughfares, Detroit and Lorain, so frequently that it seemed they were permanent fixtures of the space. Gloria Aron, a lifelong resident of the southwest corner of Detroit Shoreway, remembers the area's long struggle with prostitution.

Gloria Aron [00:06:17] I live in a neighborhood that both is overrun with drugs and has, at that time, maybe even still is, the highest number of young teenage prostitutes working Lorain Avenue.

Sarah Nemeth [00:06:35] Aron was not the only one that recalls this problem, numerous newspaper articles from the 1980s and 1990s publicized the regularity of prostitution arrests. In 2007, Mary Jane Yuhas, another lifelong resident, described the waning image of the neighborhood.

Mary Jane Yuhas [00:06:54] And on 75th there they had a bar, they had dress shop, they had the dime store, they had a dry cleaner, they had dry cleaners all over the place. And then all of a sudden here comes knocking everything down. So what do got there, you've just got empty buildings there now. What you have Burger King, you got the other one that's for rent, and this other place that's just opened up, that's going to be for rent in no time at all. Look at that other building that Detroit Shoreway bought is empty. All those storefronts. It was Mr Campbell there. There was our other candy store from Watterson School. He had a little delicatessen there, but he had a little penny candy place too for all the kids from Watterson School. He didn't have to worry about anything walking up on Detroit. Now you walk up on Detroit in daylight and you're afraid.

Sarah Nemeth [00:07:32] And Yuhas' discomfort in her surroundings was not atypical. This moment in the area's history was pivotal. Lifelong resident and executive director of Cogswell Hall Diana Cyganovich comments on the neighborhoods in determinable future in the 1980s.

Diana Cyganovich [00:07:51] Actually, when we bought our house in '87 here on Franklin, one of the things I said to my husband was this is either the best decision we've ever made or it's not going to be a good decision because at that point, the neighborhood, still most homes were very low-cost. There was, it was a question of what direction it was going in. I think the Gordon Square Arcade had only been really kind of renovated, maybe for maybe less than ten years, and the Detroit Shoreway Development Organization was relatively young. All of those things I didn't really know then. I know the history more now. So it was kind of a very much a mixed lower working class to some middle income neighborhood.

Sarah Nemeth [00:08:32] Accordingly, in 1985, a Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial asked, "But what is Detroit Shoreway anyway? A street? A nice neighborhood? Something the governor should declare a disaster zone?" Although the writer of the article probably posed these questions for dramatic flair, the questions do make you wonder. What happened that resulted in the questioning if Detroit Shoreway was a neighborhood? How can we tell if a place has outlived its useful life? In the end, what makes a space a neighborhood, and what stops it from being one? In 2006, Anthony Anzalone, a longtime area resident, offered his outlook on neighborhood change.

Anthony Anzalone [00:09:16] It's hard to, say, pinpoint when a change took place. I mean, change takes place on an ongoing basis and for the most part the only thing that changes are people. Places, everything stayed the same. Like I said, where we used to go to play and fly a kite is exactly the same as it was when I was seven years old. To this moment, it's still the same, so most things didn't change at all.

Sarah Nemeth [00:09:42] It may be true that some aspects of a place defy change. For instance, a neighborhood's natural topography generally changes little, and sometimes the built landscape retains much of its essential character. Yet in other ways, change is certain. People and their relationship with the space change continually. And that relationship actually has a lot to do with how people perceive a neighborhood's character. [Musical interlude] Although it would be difficult to deny that Detroit Shoreway deteriorated to some degree, individual perceptions greatly shape the memory of a place. Those perceptions are at the base of nostalgic romanticism for a period of time in a place's life. To the majority's dismay, when revitalization does occur, the result is never an exact replica of the old neighborhood they remember. In short, the actual deterioration of a place and the perceived deterioration are two very different things. During Detroit Shoreway's period of decline, Norm Polonski, owner of the Parkview Nightclub, recalls the reactions he received after purchasing his bar in the neighborhood.

Norm Polonski [00:11:07] But he told me I was crazy. Don't do it. We were at the end of nowhere. I mean, I said, well, the cop bar's right down the street. Police fraternal organization for sergeants and under, a block down. And I says, that's there. I always like this place. You know, it's old. Everybody's trying to make things old. You can't make things old. I bought it, but I had to figure out how to get people to come here.

Sarah Nemeth [00:11:28] Today the Parkview Nightclub remains a fixture on Detroit Shoreway's north side, or, as Norm refers to it, the NOD--North of Detroit. The continuing success of the Parkview Nightclub depended on the will and drive of incoming business owners. They found new ways to attract consumers back into the neighborhood and construct an illusion that the place was a destination. After the pioneers took initial investment risks, others followed, as Polonski remembers.

Norm Polonski [00:12:04] I remember when Pete came to the neighborhood, the owner of Stone Mad, put a million dollars in that place. Bought this old dump of a bar and literally bagged the whole building to get rid of the roaches and stuff, redid it into what it is now. Beautiful. When Pete came down here and told me he was coming in the neighborhood, I says, "What the hell are you doing down here?" Because it was early on still, and he goes, "Norm, if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me."

Sarah Nemeth [00:12:29] But not everything could be left up to those pioneering business men and women. In 1979, DSCDO and community investors bought the Gordon Square Arcade, which by this time was only an unstable shell of its former self. Ray Pianka, one of the instrumental actors in the revitalization of the neighborhood, conveyed why the Gordon Square renovation was so important to the community.

Ray Pianka [00:12:57] The more people know about the building, I think the more people will appreciate what an asset it is to the community. It's the bomb shelter for the area. You know, there are bomb shelter signs, I don't know if they're still there. You know, you could fit 200 people in in there and then have these doors that came down. It is a unique neighborhood building. Not every neighborhood, and in fact this is the only one that has a building of this scale and quality, I think.

Sarah Nemeth [00:13:24] The Gordon Square Arcade acted as the neighborhood's anchor during its first life. Through its restoration, Gordon Square became a symbolic ode to the past and promise of a fruitful future. Like downtown's Terminal Tower and Ohio City's West Side Market, the Gordon Square Arcade was envisioned as the regenerated landmark of the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. DSCDO additionally introduced community building initiatives to boost morale and pride. One such initiative aimed to beautify the streets and make Detroit Avenue more pedestrian-friendly. Bernie Rose remembers how integral the streetscape project was to the revitalization effort.

Bernie Rose [00:14:09] This area didn't start changing immensely for the better until Detroit Shoreway and Matt started walking on the streetscape. And when that started in the plans, to me, that just snowballed everything else that's going on around here.

Sarah Nemeth [00:14:30] Rose was not alone in noticing the promise of the streetscape project. Co-owner of the lively community hotspot, Happy Dog, Sean Watterson muses that the streetscape project helped make his decision to invest in the neighborhood easier.

Sean Watterson [00:14:48] Well, we knew when we bought the Happy Dog that the streetscape project was going in and that the Capitol Theater was getting renovated. And at the time there were plans drawn up for Near West Theatre. But it was sort of, you know, if they raise the money, they'll build it. But we did know the streetscape was going in. That's what made us think if we really don't know what the hell we're doing in two years, we'll probably be able to sell it and at least get back what we paid for it.

Sarah Nemeth [00:15:16] In 2005, DSCDO also started purchasing abandoned properties and renovating the structures for new tenants as Jeff Ramsey, current executive director of DSCDO, recollects.

Jeff Ramsey [00:15:32] This is the real deal. This neighborhood was built from 1890 to 1920, so these are the original buildings, and what we're doing is preserving and restoring the character of this neighborhood. So it's not going to be that Legacy Village or Crocker Park. This is the real deal right here.

Sarah Nemeth [00:15:47] A newcomer to the neighborhood, Demetrish Parham, speaks to the benefit of these DSCDO-run apartment buildings.

Demetrish Parham [00:15:56] I want to say, because that's what I think I was told, but as far as where I'm staying and the people that's in Detroit Shoreway area, I heard they wasn't going to go up on no rent because they wanted the old people, the family people, the people that was the core of Detroit Shoreway to stay here. So they are not going to run this out, so I don't care what they put down there. I ain't going nowhere.

Sarah Nemeth [00:16:21] From the new investment, a halo effect became noticeable. The revitalization on the main thoroughfares started to spill onto side streets. Again, we hear from Bernie Rose as she comments on the streetscape initiative and the revitalization it spurred.

Bernie Rose [00:16:39] So it's had the snowball effect all the way down the road in places that were empty and sat empty and didn't have anything going on to where these people were encouraged, and I'm sure by Detroit Shoreway, encouraged to take a chance and come into this neighborhood and put their business into it and their money into it and to make this whole area just, you know, livable.

Sarah Nemeth [00:17:07] Some outsiders sensed the change brewing in the neighborhood managed through DSCDO and community and investor efforts. Soon a younger, more creative group of middle-class suburbanites saw past the city's potholes and smoggy corona over the skyline and joined the ongoing back-to-the-city movement. The housing prices were still low enough that prospective first-time homeowners and renters could afford to live close to the central city and maintain a rewarding lifestyle. Again, we hear from Norm Polonski as he remarks on the first new wave of residents that helped stimulate Detroit Shoreway's revitalization.

Norm Polonski [00:17:50] This neighborhood is kind of funny. Tremont became Tremont because all the artists moved in because it was cheap. And that was a Polish neighborhood, too. And people came after the artists came. And this neighborhood changed in spite of that. I mean, we didn't have that many artists, but 78th Street Studios with all those artists in there and this and that. But we have in this neighborhood what nobody has. We have the theaters.

Sarah Nemeth [00:18:17] The opening of the Near West Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre and the reopening of the iconic Capitol Theater in the Gordon Square Arcade brought an influx of theatrical artists to the neighborhood, which gave Detroit Shoreway a unique spin to advance its neighborhood brand. In 2006, Gerald Meyer, a member of the community, cites how Detroit Shoreway used its drts District to lure people back to the neighborhood.

Gerald Meyer [00:18:47] Absolutely, their efforts, it's difficult because the trapping patterns have changed. And frankly, you've got to think about how can you change the uses so that the main efforts now are around creating an arts district and a theater district along Detroit, building off the success of Cleveland Public Theatre.

Sarah Nemeth [00:19:04] In addition, the area thrived on the new kind of diversity that residents a decade or so prior had deplored. Again, we hear from Ray Pianka, who in 2005 expressed that the neighborhood started to embrace racial and ethnic diversity.

Ray Pianka [00:19:22] When I was growing up, there weren't any African Americans living in the immediate community. A few Hispanics were moving into the area. But it didn't have strength of racial diversity. It had a strength of diversity, of some cultural diversity--Romanian, Irish, Appalachian--but it didn't have the strength of the racial diversity, which it does now, and in the area that strength, I think, shows in some of the developments that are going on in the community. And there isn't a lot of stress and strain in the community this day, even though it has been integrated to a large degree.

Sarah Nemeth [00:19:59] The decisions made by DSCDO, business investors, grassroot groups, and new residents set Detroit Shoreway on a path to recovery. In doing so, they reinvented the image of the place, which spurred community members to interact with the space differently. The decisions these groups and individuals made laid the foundation for Detroit Shoreway to become the trendy place that it is today. In his 1979 influential study, Neighborhood Renewal, Phillip L. Clay tied the process of gentrification to American urban neighborhoods. Although Clay's study is dated, his insight is instructive. "Such renovations, business investment, and newfound racial and ethnic acceptance," he writes, "showed the emergence of confidence that inspires people to speak more positively about neighborhoods, and positive talk over the long run may revive a positive perception about the neighborhood. This perception then sets in motion another self-fulfilling prophecy for renewal rather than decline." [Musical interlude] By the early 2000s, Detroit Shoreway was no longer what most would call skid row. Jeff Moreau, owner of Sweet Moses on Detroit Avenue, describes the activity going on in the neighborhood from 2009 to 2012.

Jeff Moreau [00:21:43] I first started looking at the building in 2009, started construction in 2010, opened in 2011, and in the meantime, in that time, the streetscape renovation had been completed, the Capitol Theater opened up, a few more businesses started opening, so things were really starting to... You could tell there was this momentum that was happening, but it was still a little bit like what is going on? Like I had faith in it. I kind of saw what I could do and I was really excited. But I remember I had contractors working on my building who just thought I was nuts. Like they could not understand what I was doing, investing this money and putting this in into a building in this neighborhood. They couldn't see it.

Sarah Nemeth [00:22:27] As indicated, during the 1980s and 1990s and continuing into the 2000s, Detroit Shoreway was in a sense reborn. Now it is essential to explore what gentrification means and think about how this process fits with the revitalization of Detroit Shoreway. After reading numerous contemporary articles on gentrification, it seems that there is hardly a consensus on what gentrification means, and rightly so. The definition of gentrification has expanded to include much more than it once did. According to one group of scholars, the term was originally used to describe the process of transforming a working class or vacant area of the central city into a middle-class, residential, and/or commercial use. A classic example of gentrification would be what Diana Cyganovich, Detroit Shoreway resident, describes next.

Diana Cyganovich [00:23:26] Definitely today there's people with more resources living in the neighborhood, in the immediate neighborhood, than it was at that time.

Sarah Nemeth [00:23:34] But today, gentrification has transformed into an umbrella term applicable to far more than the process of social class appropriation of space. Scholars have begun dissecting the gentrification process and have discovered that it is an economic, cultural, political, and institutional phenomenon. The complexity of the process propels the debate on whether or not gentrification is taking place in Detroit Shoreway and similar urban neighborhoods. Terry Metter, lifelong resident, remarks on the complexity of the process.

Terry Metter [00:24:14] Nobody should have to live in a house that's basically falling in like a few these houses are condemned and will be demolished because they're in such bad shape. Nobody should be living and in those types of conditions. But then again, you know, we also, as a neighborhood and as a society, have to make sure that these folks can find somewhere that is safe and dignified. And as much as I want the neighborhood to get better, I don't want it to get better at the expense of working-class people who look a lot more like my family being pushed out.

Sarah Nemeth [00:24:49] You may be thinking the neighborhood is developing, coming back to life, busy again. It is everything that an urban community would want, and you would be right. Even more encouraging, the neighborhood has more room to grow and develop as business owner Sean Watterson comments.

Sean Watterson [00:25:09] Having property tax dollars and income tax dollars and money being spent in the city will be good for the city as a whole. We're not like San Francisco in that every square inch of the city has been bought up and everybody run out. There is a lot of room. It's just in specific neighborhoods where the development is concentrated.

Sarah Nemeth [00:25:35] So if we aren't in any danger of becoming another San Francisco with its tech driven rash of evictions and radical housing cost escalations anytime soon, what is the big deal? The glaring problem of gentrification, even when it does not present itself on the scale of the Bay Area, is that it displaces lower-income residents, often segregating them to a less desirable section of the city. Pastor Dean van Farowe of the Calvary Reformed Church describes the different sections of Detroit Shoreway.

Pastor Dean van Farowe [00:26:13] Detroit Shoreway is kind of made up of, in a sense, two or three communities. What I call North of Detroit tends to be a higher income community. It's the area near Gordon Square Arts District, so there is a lot of money coming into that area, businesses, the theater district itself, the theaters themselves, and then all the restaurants that come around with that. So that's kind of like one community. Then you have our community here, which is the Eco-Village community tends to be folks interested in, you know, the earth and sustainability. And what I found is pretty connected to both that richer, if you will, community North of Detroit. And then the third would be south of Madison between Madison and Lorain, tends to be lower income, tends to be in poverty.

Sarah Nemeth [00:27:08] Although DSCDO has made sure that there is lower-income housing dispersed throughout the neighborhood, the majority is concentrated on the southwest corner, as lifelong resident Gloria Aron explains.

Gloria Aron [00:27:24] And that doesn't mean that over on Herman and Tillman and some of those streets that aren't low-income people, but primarily this neighborhood right around here from 85th down the road is probably more of the lower income people.

Sarah Nemeth [00:27:45] Demetrish Parham, a relatively new resident to Detroit Shoreway, describes the southwest corner from the perspective of someone that lives in the more developed section of the community.

Demetrish Parham [00:27:58] You notice a big difference, but they're trying, because I see they put that new Hispanic restaurant on the corner of, I believe it's 83rd or 73rd and Madison. So I think they're cleaning it up over there but it's not Detroit Shoreway. There you gotta hold your pocketbook.

Sarah Nemeth [00:28:19] Interestingly, Parham asserts that those that live in this area are not really part of Detroit Shoreway. Concurrently, Terry Metter, resident of the southwest corner, claims that the folks that live there also don't think that they are part of the community.

Terry Metter [00:28:38] I don't get a sense that there's maybe one way or the other of like Detroit Shoreway's engagement with them, but I do think that people kind of in my area here Detroit Shoreway don't think that that's them, you know, because we're we're pretty removed from it.

Sarah Nemeth [00:28:53] Moneeke Davis, also a resident of the southwest corner and a DSCDO board member, further relates the stark differences between her section and the rest of Detroit Shoreway.

Moneeke Davis [00:29:06] I live in a part of Detroit Shoreway that's west of 65th, which doesn't have a lot of investment that's happening. I mean, it's very noticeable that it's not a lot of investment. So I was one of those people who be like, It just doesn't make any sense! They don't do anything over here! You know, I was bitter for a while because I just couldn't understand why the children didn't have play areas. Why we didn't have adequate green space. Why, you know, just, I had so many questions.

Sarah Nemeth [00:29:36] The elusive hints of gentrification are not limited, however, to the segregation of lower-income residents to the southwest corner of Detroit Shoreway. Less obvious signs of gentrification present themselves through certain residents' relationship with the neighborhood's commercial hub. A new variety of stores, eateries, and entertainment venues now line Detroit Avenue. Again, we hear from Jeff Moreau of Sweet Moses as he describes Detroit Shoreway's revived commercial thoroughfare from a business owner's perspective.

Jeff Moreau [00:30:14] Now it's funny because I have people who tell me that they feel like I was kind of on the forefront of it, and I feel like so much of the tough groundwork was laid before I ever got here. So I think it's funny when people refer to me as being one of the pioneers here, when I feel like, you know, Gypsy and Lux and Capitol Theater and what Detroit Shoreway did and the Cleveland Public Theatre and Near West Theatre and Matt Zone with the commitment to the streets, all of that stuff was... The foundation was really there. I just happened to get in on it as an early adopter.

Sarah Nemeth [00:30:53] Likewise, Demetrish Parham describes a Sunday afternoon in Detroit Shoreway from a resident's perspective.

Demetrish Parham [00:31:02] This is just perfect for me because on Sundays you can see, even though I don't go in Happy Dog's, they take the kids in there every Sunday. It's like a brunch. They got the place across the walk from Spice's. There's always a brunch in it, like stuff they wouldn't have had there. So it's a privilege still for me and people probably be saying, She just lying. No I ain't, because if I'd known this was here way back in, you know, the day, probably would've been over here a long time ago.

Sarah Nemeth [00:31:38] But are all residents of the neighborhood able to take part in the activity? Again, we hear from Bernie Rose that believes there is a strain between lower income residents and the newly revived Detroit Avenue. She explains.

Bernie Rose [00:31:54] A lot of the people who live in this neighborhood and have lived here are not your upper income people. They're lower income, middle income, and they do the best they can. If I'm going to go out to eat, I'm going to go someplace where I can get two dinners for 20 dollars instead of paying 20 dollars for one dinner to eat at one of these places. It bothers me that I can't support my neighborhood businesses.

Sarah Nemeth [00:32:24] Terry Metter seconds her opinion.

Terry Metter [00:32:27] I don't see a whole lot of people that look like my neighbors in these businesses. So I would say no. I think for a lot of people, the cost at the bars and restaurants is a lot for what their income is. So if I'm making minimum wage, probably not going to go down and buy a six or seven dollar beer, have a six pack at home or something, you know, it's not necessarily approachable for a lot of my immediate neighbors.

Sarah Nemeth [00:32:58] Currently in Detroit Shoreway, there is a chasm between lower income residents and the neighborhood's commercial center. The commingling of all residents within the commercial hub is crucial to the development of a strong, cooperatively spirited community. As the neighborhood becomes too trendy, it walks a line between playground and neighborhood. To keep a neighborhood grounded and preserve its distinct character, which aroused investment interest in the first place, residents need to have a sense of common ground. [Musical interlude] Perhaps the most unnerving element of gentrification is that it highlights the inequality of development that has always existed underneath the cooperatively spirited veneer of urban neighborhoods. It is easy to blame CDCs for not doing more to preserve low income housing. Alternatively, Moneeke Davis rebuts that DSCDO pays less attention to the southwest corner of Detroit Shoreway.

Moneeke Davis [00:34:20] Yes, I totally agree that we could do more, but it's not as intentional as we may think.

Sarah Nemeth [00:34:27] Jeff Moreau further complements Davis's statement, adding that redevelopment cannot be forced.

Jeff Moreau [00:34:35] But there is, I mean, there's always been a little bit of that, the marketing, the attention that's being paid to Gordon Square because that's where the businesses are. But, you know, they're maybe the section where, you know, the housing stock isn't as good or that the stores are still closed. They're getting ignored. And then you've got... So I think you always hear about that. My feeling has always been you can't force it to happen.

Sarah Nemeth [00:35:05] If not blaming the CDCs for not ensuring that a neighborhood redevelops evenly, some also blame the middle- and upper-class investors, also referred to as gentrifiers, that transformed Detroit Shoreway from a Rust Belt working-class neighborhood into the trendy hotspot it is today. In 2007, Mary Jo Mazzarella resident and business owner described Detroit Shoreway new ambience.

Mary Jo Mazzarella [00:35:35] In our neighborhood, it's like when you're walking north of Detroit on 67th and 69th and all down to the... It's like a beach cottage community. Just the feeling of the breeze off the lake and I just think that couple that with the arts, the theater district, it'll just be a place where people want to come to like a Greenwich Village of Cleveland. I forsee that it could really take off.

Sarah Nemeth [00:36:08] It is easy to paint gentrifiers as the villains of this story. The common narrative is that they swooped in from the suburbs and stole a space that was already in use. The gentrifiers redeveloped the space into a place that only they would be able to enjoy. As Mazzarella remarked, Detroit Shoreway started to resemble Greenwich Village, complete with high-priced cafés and French theater troupes. But does placing blame on the local CDCs or middle- and upper-class investors really get us closer to figuring out how to combat gentrification? Again, we hear from Moneeke Davis as she reminds us of the importance of getting to the root of the problem.

Moneeke Davis [00:36:57] Especially when you already have a feeling about a community or you feel like you've been overlooked, and you don't really understand it from all perspectives, it's hard for people to see past the trees. You know, all they see is trees. They don't realize that they're standing in this forest and it's really larger than what they think. You know, all they see are what's in front of them.

Sarah Nemeth [00:37:21] There must be something wrong in the structure of urban neighborhoods that allows for gentrification to happen. In other words, if urban neighborhoods were products of a structure that championed social equality, perhaps gentrification would not be such a widespread contemporary problem. By understanding the history of how a neighborhood developed that is experiencing to some degree gentrification, we can show that the system is to blame. Not necessarily the CDCs or the gentrifiers. Rather, gentrification is the product of a defective social system. The nation will continue to experience gentrification in its urban neighborhoods until the larger issue of growing social inequality is addressed. Thank you for following along as we traced the development of Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. We hope that you now have a greater understanding of the dynamic nature of urban neighborhoods. And we hope that you will be able to critically evaluate your own relationship to place and space. The views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Cleveland State University. The full interviews of the Clevelanders that you heard today can be listened to at clevelandvoices.org. [musical outro by This Moment in Black History] For more general information about the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities and our other projects, please visit us at csudigitalhumanities.org. [music fades out]