As a victim of the results of the years of ineffective leadership in both Cleveland, Ohio and Cuyahoga County and their corruption....I find these wag the dog political websites a joke (SEE BELOW). The REAL PEOPLE who've survived years of excessive abuses by our collusive, self interested, and repulsive leaders who repeatedly violated civil rights, promoted social injustices, and greedily helped their pals reach epic proportions of financial success due to their steering, stonewalling of others, and blackballing the folks who challenged their methodologies...is beyond questionable, obvious, and the people and businesses who've been steered out by their activities deserve to be compensated for their losses and damages.

---you leaders promoted unethical actions that have decimated our city's core people. You rebuilt the locality with your self interested vision that elminated the concept of a "Grassroots" city when you removed block clubs, took away precinct leadership throughout the party system, and you began doing whatever you wanted without directly keeping the people incorporated into your big plans. It's ultimately a gross social injustice to recognize the deliberate, highly motivated, and RICO oriented methodology used to implement your plans. There is NO WAY on earth any of you can claim to be Stupid about the projected results of your wrath....Housing court created by Rokakis for Judge Raymond Pianka to have a place in our world....

You all spent millions of our tax dollars creating bigger government that didn't help us, but created jobs for all your cronies. It's a bureacracy that should be eliminated/reduced. It's a joke. Over 11,000 evictions a year???? Come on. Judge Pianka's salary alone could be used to help those desperate families find their grounding before they are faced with evictions.  All the money for housing court should be redirected towards ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT...but you all ran off half the business investors who were LEGITIMATE and didn't want to deal with your pay to play games. You are the reason for WHITE FLIGHT, not bussing. You all are the core leadership that began this industry of community development that didn't do anything but break the spirit of our citizens and provide BIG paychecks to your pals. What a fricken joke! Looking back on it all, it's amazing to think about all the good people who moved out of here to find places that built up their people, not tore them down.

Absolutely unbelievable. You all gave contracts to your buddies but didn't make concessions to the people who work and live here. You all sold interest in our homes, property, and lives..without giving us due process. You all empowered inflation to occur with our property values with high hopes of building up more and more revenues to keep sustaining your BIG GOVERNMENT PRACTICES....and you imploded our faith in the government. We cannot trust you, we cannot respect you, and we cannot have faith that you all will do right...because we know that you and your pals are all involved in portraying gross games on our lives, in our neighborhoods, and in our futures....It's diabolical to really see the core of your visions and how you wiped out industries that provided jobs, how you failed business owners again and again, and how you all had your hands in the pockets of the ones who chose to stick around here. So few are UNTOUCHED by your corruption that it's disgusting. Those who remain are the few, the proud, and the vulnerable....susceptible to your games at all times. I am extraordinarily amazed by the collusion of it all....

Should've, Could've, Would've.....BUT DIDN'T..... That should be all of your mottos!!!! You deliberately chose to act without regard for the people that didn't measure up to your ideas of gentrification. You all neglected them, abused them, and cornered them... The low income people became your tools towards success...they are the quotas that keep empowering you all...but you learned that early on, didn't you? Now, just look at the results of your games.... Driving the Legal Industry without recourse available to the little people, aren't you proud??? Aren't the people so stupid to have truly believed that they had elected people who cared about them? You all deserve to spend the rest of your lives in jail, to lose all retirements, and to pay back every citizen you have hurt throughout the generations with your lack of "OVERSIGHT" to protect the general public...but of course-we now know that you all were the leaders of the pack... Thanks...Thanks a lot!!!! 

You all allowed you pals in the real estate, banking, mortgage and title company (LAW) industries to benefit for years in heaping droves while you allowed illegal transaction after illegal transaction be filtered through our county without oversight...houses being sold for $100,000 that weren't worth the paper the deals were written on...but who was paying attention? Certainly not our elected officials. Heck, their pals were all benefitting...and down the road, the foreclosures locally would drive yet another profession and industry....foreclosure specialists, not for profits to help those in foreclosure and so on....What an extraordinary perspective to be retained after recognizing your methodologies....comical almost-particularly when you are a victim who's been wronged by these industries....

Great Job Guys! Aren't you proud of your accomplishments? When you answer, don't miss the facts of truth that you miss when you are exploiting your alleged successes such as the land bank..... Rokakis, you suck. Your office could not help families save homes-but learned how to PORTFOLIO THEM.....YOUR people violate the for profit real estate investors by preventing them from participating in everything from tax certificate sales to the land bank which you CONTROL at your leisure...nice.

WHO WOULD WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH SUCH A CORRUPT COUNTY???? ONLY CORRUPT FOLKS AND ROKAKIS-YOU ARE NOT INNOCENT OF THE DEVASTATION THAT HAS BEEN CAUSED IN OUR COUNTY...I PRAY THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE BROUGHT TO YOUR KNEES.... YOU SMELL LIKE A DOG BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN RUNNING WITH THEM FOR GENERATIONS... NOW WE HAVE A GHOST TOWN!!! WONDERFUL.... FULL OF CLUB CLEVELAND BOYS' CLUB RESULTS... MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL! ROT IN HELL YOU CORRUPT PUNKS! (I DON'T GUESS TELLING YOU THIS ONLINE IS GOING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER TODAY!) 

After realizing that Mr. James Rokakis has been a part of the machine that devastated Cuyahoga County over the past 30 years- I find it in poor taste that he exploits the results of his tenure in our community without ackowledging the underlying demise that recklessly led to a tsunami in the first place. (His political website is linked herein.) 

I guess after 30 years of public service- he can now use that "experience" as something of significance to "TEACH FUTURE GENERATIONS" how to destroy more communities at large as a "PROFESSOR"! (His Oberlin College Visiting Assistant Professor Page is linked herein.) 

And to beat all, they have made a film about his "life story" in Cleveland...extraordinary! 

Who Are We?

Hometown Productions is a brand new independent film production company based in Ohio. Garden Avenue is the first project we are developing. Inspired by a true story, it’s a‘Rocky’ type film set in the world of local Cleveland politics—and what better city than Cleveland to make it in—a blue collar town for a blue collar story where the longshot actually wins for a change.

The founders of the company, John P. Vourlis and James Rokakis, have a wealth of experience in the film industry and the world of local politics, both of which are key to the success of this enterprise. We are both very passionate about this project. We’re also incredibly lucky to have Ron Underwood (who made the films ‘Tremors’ and ‘City Slickers’ among others) on board as our director.

You can follow our progress here, or on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GardenAvenueMovie or on our website at www.gardenavenuethemovie.com.

What’s the Story?

At the tender age of 22, Jimmy Petrakis, the son of Greek immigrants and just graduated from college, witnesses firsthand the callous, uncaring, banal, matter-of-fact racism of his neighborhood’s city councilman, Eddie Kawalski. Shocked into action, our hero decides to run for the local council seat held by the 20 year incumbent Kawalski.

His family thinks he can’t be serious, his father thinks he should be open to taking money for favors if he wins, and his best friend and soon to be campaign manager, Dave Katz, thinks he should go to law school and forget this whole crazy idea. The incumbent Eddie thinks he's a joke. No one takes Jim seriously. Even he thinks he’s jumped in the deep end and he’s going to drown in this election--ending any hopes of a political career before it even begins.

Despite his own real self-doubts, Jim joins the fray and struggles to maintain his idealism against an opponent who will stoop to anything to win. Buoyed by the belief that he can make a difference--that he must make a difference--Jim fights to win the election, knowing that if he fails the neighborhood he grew up in, the place he loved and called home, will turn into a cesspool of crime, poverty and urban decay.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent—and the guilty—but the places and events that occurred in that tumultuous, chaotic, wickedly funny, and sometimes heart-breaking summer of 1977 are all very real.

Through triumphs and failures, both personal and public, we watch a young man grow from a naïve, idealistic, 22 year old into a savvy, effective, successful politician, on the roller-coaster ride that is down-and-dirty local politics. We follow our hero on the campaign trail right up to the nail-biting election, where against all odds he triumphs, becoming the youngest city council member in the history of Cleveland.

***

Garden Avenue is inspired by the true story of James Rokakis, Cleveland City Council member from 1977 to 1996.

What Are We Doing Here?

We’re looking to raise $12,500 in development funds by election day, November 2nd, (this is a movie about an election, after all!) to kickstart Garden Avenue. With this seed money, which we will use carefully and wisely, we'll be able to pay for the initial film development costs that we’ve budgeted. This seed money will also help us gain entree to larger funding sources by demonstrating a grass roots commitment to this project. The more we’re able to raise, the better we will look to the strategic investors we’ll be meeting with to fund our movie. So help us out in whatever way you can! A list of incentives and rewards for making a pledge are listed on the right hand side of this page. Please take a look and pledge whatever you can. And spread the word, tell everyone you know! Be an important part of getting this movie made! Thank you!

Project location: Cleveland, OH