FutureHeights Annual Meeting draws large crowd for community discussion

About 300 people gathered at the Cedar Lee Theatre to watch "The New Metropolis" and participate in a community discussion at the FutureHeights Annual Meeting on June 21. 

"The New Metropolis" is a two-part documentary that highlights the efforts of two "first suburbs"—Madeira, Ohio and Pennsauken, New Jersey—that are struggling to retain their vitality as they compete for money and population with newer, outer-ring developments. The first part of the film argues that policies allocating federal and state funding for building infrastructure in new suburbs, while not supporting repair of infrastructure in older communities, is damaging in the short term and unsustainable in the long term. The second half explores how a group of concerned citizens are encouraging racial integration and civic involvement in their community.

The community discussion was moderated by Mark Chupp, a visiting assistant professor at CWRU's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, and a member of the FutureHeights Board of Directors. He noted that Cleveland Heights embodies "a different kind of American dream" that values community and walkability.

Chupp also emphasized a need to be "intentional" about diversity. He compared Cleveland Heights's own diverse mix of people to salad dressing: If not shaken, it will separate.

Gail Broughton, the first audience member to offer her voice, said Cleveland Heights shares the "need for regionalism" with the suburbs seen in the movie. Beyond looking for ways to combine community services, Broughton does not think each city in the Cleveland area needs its own major retail development, and, she added, "very few people disagree" about that.

Another attendee, Charles Davis, drew parallels between Cleveland Heights's current problems and the struggles he saw in Warrensville Heights while growing up there. He spoke of a "PR campaign going on against Cleveland Heights," alluding to references in outer-ring suburbs to the supposed decline of this community. Davis said he moved here recently from such a suburb, and people there told him he was making a mistake. Because there is no direct highway access to this area, he said, it's easy for people to hear the rumors and never see the city for themselves.

Asked what keeps him in the CH-UH community, Steve Bennett, former president of the Northeast Ohio City Council Coalition, cited the "quaintness" of the area. "You can walk to things," he said. "You don't have that on the West Side."

Bennett also said proximity to medical care is a big part of the community’s appeal. "It's a 10-minute drive" to a hospital, which is appealing to aging baby boomers. "You don't have that anywhere else."

At the midpoint of the evening, FutureHeights inducted four area merchants into its Innovators Circle. Honored for their longtime commitment to the community were Tom Fello (Tommy's), Steve Presser (Big Fun), Stan Soble (Nela Florist) and Joel Borwick (the former Seitz-Agin Hardware). Later, Megan Johnson, interim director of the Heights Independent Business Alliance, said local businesses that are active in the community have "really kept us together."

"Encouraging spending at local places is one of the best things we can do to keep the Heights strong," Johnson said. "Anytime there's a choice, shop locally."

Cheryl Stevens, Cleveland Heights city council member, was the last to take the microphone, and acknowledged the complexity of the problems the city is facing. "There is no cookie-cutter answer,"she said, adding that the municipal government is making strides to fix them. She cited the hiring of an economic development director, work on a more sustainable zoning code, and the rehabilitation of vacant houses and school buildings as big steps the city has taken since she joined council 18 months ago.

Stephens encouraged attendees to lobby their federal and state officials to change policies that allocate more funding to building infrastructure for new communities than to fixing it in older cities. Her message to the audience: "Don't let them take our money away!”