The Cauldron

Last Friday, Governor Ted Strickland graced CSU with his presence at the ceremonial signing of the Cuyahoga County Land Bank Bill (S.B. 353). County Treasurer Jim Rokakis and the Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan hosted the event, held in the main atrium of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. Scores of political officials attended the gala, among them prominent mayors, senators, and councilmen and women of northeastern Ohio.

The bill, based off of an initiative instituted in Genessee County, Mich., will form a corporation to claim foreclosed properties and give it the power to either rehabilitate them for sale, or to demolish them. The nonprofit plan is hoped to prevent real estate investors from picking up the properties and selling them at large profits. The money to start the bank is planned to be acquired through penalties and interest on delinquent real estate taxes, estimated by Rokakis to be approximately $8 to 9 million annually. The bill has been supported largely across party lines, with little opposition.

Rokakis opened the event with thanks for all who contributed to the writing and passing of the bill, naming Gus Frangos as the "father of the bill." Frangos, a Cleveland lawyer and graduate of Cleveland Marshall, was also instrumental in the writing of H.B. 294, which aids a quicker transfer of abandoned properties to community development operations.

The mood was altogether light, Rokakis joking that while the nation's worst job right now was probably the president, governor of Ohio ran a close second. It was obvious though, that the strangling effect foreclosed properties had on the community was on everyone's mind.

While the crisis of home foreclosure has recently reached an all-time high in fame during this recent election season, its devastating effects have long been known in the communities of South Euclid and Slavic Village.

South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo took the stage, compared in her introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe as "the little woman that started this big war," and vocalized the stress foreclosed properties have on property values, communities and families. While she recognized that it would not be a "cure-all" to the problem, she articulated the help that it would be to areas such as hers, hit hard by the crisis.

Finally, Strickland himself rose to the podium, and humbly commended all of the grassroots organizers and the bipartisan efforts that brought the bill together, saying his only part was to voice support and sign it. The bill, which he called "commonsense legislation," was signed to a great applause. Strickland, who was elected in 2006, faces reelection in 2010.

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