Nay Sayers and No Shows

A few weeks ago I wrote about Château Hough, a first-class winery I'd like to see established right in the heart of Ward 7. Farming all kinds of crops on vacant inner-city lots is something I've been advocating for quite a while, and the movement is picking up speed nationally and has a ton of supporters locally. Wine grapes perhaps can be among the crops locally grown.

To push the idea forward I hosted an informal, exploratory meeting a few weeks ago, and it was very well attended by some dedicated foodies and forward-thinkers from all over the city. Michael Loos of the Ohio State Extension Service was insightful and very informative, while my new friend, Giancarlo Callicchia (who owns vineyards in Lake County) set out a grand vision of what can be.

Others, however, were conspicuous by their absence, and still others have characterized the effort as an attempt to open a bar, rather than what it's going to be -- a factory that bottles and ships wines (while employing locals in the process) hopefully all over the country after the facility is up and running a few years.

There’s a saying that the person with the largest Rolodex usually wins, and I have a very large one indeed. I personally emailed and then called development officials from every level of government: City, county, state, and federal to try to drum up support and have them at least send someone to the meeting if they could not personally attend. I know that people have calendars to keep and sometimes are already otherwise committed. And, in fact, I did get a number of emails and return calls from people who said they couldn’t make it, but wanted to be kept in the loop since they wanted to know more about the concept …but those were not from development officials, just other interested parties.

Those are not the people I’m getting ready to talk bad about. I’m talking about the people whose jobs it is to be on top of new development in the area; the ones that, when you run into them, they are very eager to hear about a proposal or new idea, but when you follow up with a call you can never get through to them, and they never bother returning your call.

Guess how many public officials or their representatives came to the meeting? Three: My councilman, TJ Dow; a representative from Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones’ office; and Kim Scott, who is promoting a citywide project to establish summer vegetable gardens. Not one person from any development agency or department bothered to show up or send a representative — and here’s the kicker, to this point no one from any of their offices have even bothered to call to ask how it went, or for an update. Of course, if asked, they’ll lie through their teeth and say they never heard about the project. And I know why they’re not interested..

You see, I wasn’t talking about bringing a new Chevy or Ford plant to town, but guess what? … that ain’t going to happen, no way, no how, no time soon. There will be no thousand-job enterprises created in Cleveland in the near or distant future, but the powers that be evidently didn’t get the memo. They’re still waiting, hat-in-hand, for the next BIG thing. But the next BIG thing is going to be an amalgamation of “small” things. We’re going to have to work our way out of this unemployment mess 10, 20, maybe even 50 jobs at a time. That’s how other areas and regions are attempting to solve their employment problems.

But those small numbers are evidently not big enough for these folks at development departments (populated by people who are getting a steady paycheck for doing little else but sitting on their asses, so they often don’t give a damn if someone else has fallen on hard financial times). As long as they have their sinecures, they really don’t have time to be bothered … is it any wonder that as a region we continue to move backward rather than forward?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take the kind of treatment my proposal received personally, these folks blow off just about everybody. Just ask people you know who’ve tried to engage government development departments or do business in Cleveland and most of them will tell you the exact same thing. So this broadside is not just for me, but also for the hundreds — if not thousands — of others who have also been dissed, but don’t have a print voice as I do.

Elected and civic leaders can try as hard as they might to improve things in the area (and some really are trying), but unless they can get some of their development people to step up their game, to do more, to engage and dialogue with the community, nothing much is going to happen; and the aforementioned statement is proven by the dismal track record we have locally.

But my bad experience is not everyone’s experience; you see. Greater Cleveland is an “insiders” town. If the “right” person is calling, these development clucks answer their phones so fast and kiss so much butt the sound can be heard all the way to Lorain County. Otherwise, what you get from the secretary is “Mr. Big Shot” is in a very important meeting.” Yeah, you know what they do in those “meetings” don’t you? Why, they’re planning the next meeting of course. If their meetings are so damn important, then why does so little get accomplished around the area?

Stay with me a bit longer, I’m almost through venting … but not quite. Let me tell you a true story: One evening, around 9:30, I received a call and the man asked to speak to “Mr. Ferguson.” I informed him that he must have the wrong number, but I thought I recognized the voice, so I said “this is the Frazier residence.”

The elected official (who shall forever remain nameless) then said, “Oh, Mansfield, they wrote the name down wrong, but I always try to return all of calls the same day.” I indeed had left a message at his office around 3 PM. The point is, this guy didn’t even know who the hell it was he was calling, or about what … but it made no difference to him … he returns all of his calls, usually the same day. He treats everyone with respect. Now, I deal with some of the people who work under this guy (in some cases two or three levels under this guy) and it’s almost impossible to get them to ever return a call. So, I guess that’s why he’s the top dude, and why his half-stepping underlings will never be where he’s at politically.

But here’s the kicker, they’ll never figure out why. Even the ones that read this will duck their heads and say to themselves “I know he wasn’t writing about me!” Yes, I writing about you, and you know how you are, don’t you?

Maybe I should start naming some of these clowns in my column. Or, better yet, how about we erect a “WALL OF SHAME” in Tower City, or some other highly visible public place? Then we could mount the photos of all of the empty suits (and dresses, not all of the clucks are men) from around town where everyone could see them and perhaps draw graffiti on their smiling visages..

“Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise,” I’m going to — as the old country boy says — “Getherdone.” Château Hough will come into existence, or I’ll die in the trying. And it’s not because I’m so bright, or have money, or even have determination (which I do have tons of) … no, it’s going to come into existence because the timing is right. And timing in life is everything; it can even overcome lazy, do-nothing government clucks.

But a word of warning: When the place opens, if you’re one of the aforementioned clucks, please don’t show up, ready for a photo-op, as if you actually did something to help — I will have security on duty and they will throw your bum ass out the door.

I hope I didn’t step on too many toes with this article, because I really meant to stomp on some of them — real hard. I’m trying here to put some feet into casts. As the prayer goes, “Dear God, make everyone love me, and those you can’t make love me, make them cripple, so that I may know them by their limp.” Amen.

Now, I do feel so much better with that off my chest.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com

Read Mansfield's book From Behind the Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race, and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate. It is available again in hardcover through the author. Visit him online at http://www.frombehindthewall.com.
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