On E 79 from “Rainbow” Terrace to the Clement Center to the Opportunity Corridor..........

[1]

.........a river runs through it. In the late 1960's and early 1970's greedy unscrupulous real estate developers and REALLY are there ANY other kind slapped down substandard poorly constructed projects from low income housing to minority health centers. Vacant lots abounded in Cleveland in those days back when money was gushing from Uncle Fed. Seeing an opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of poor minorities they partnered with the city of Cleveland and other government entities. It is impossible to trace those culpable because those slime ball developers cashed out long ago. And vanished without a paper trail. Two of these projects, The Metro Health Kenneth Clement Center and Rainbow Terrace low income project based Section 8 housing had much in common. They were built in the early 1970's on vacant land a mile or so from each other on west side of East 79th street, possibly by the same developers riding high on the government financed gravy train. Both projects were also built on slabs with no basements. No basements. Hmmm. Why was that exactly? Could it be the developers knew sumpin and didn't say nuttin. The Clement Center, which was soon grandly renamed The Metro Health Kenneth Clement Center, after a celebrated black Cleveland doctor who died at 54, opened to great fanfare in 1976, touted as THE neighborhood health center. Right on the bus route, with its own bus stop, people flocked to "the clinic" from all over the East Side. Everyone had their doctor at the new Clement Center. And often a social worker too. This included their new neighbors up the street at Rainbow Terrace named after the so called Rainbow Coalition but in reality almost everyone who lived there was black. Rainbow Terrace was originally owned by the city of Cleveland and was a HUD sponsored Section 8 project based goldmine. But it was way WAY off in the cut and had turned into a crime infested jungle. So in 2000 the city of Cleveland "sold" Rainbow Terrace, the deed signed over by Michael White just before he moved/was run out of City Hall to the Greenblatts from Connecticut whose money making Vesta corporation got into the project based Section 8 game early on in the 1970s. All over the country in poor largely black neighborhood the Greenblatts were making it big in the Section 8 hustle. Shortly after Vesta took over Rainbow Terrace, the Clement Center very quietly with NO fanfare closed its doors. And abandoned the neighborhood. Without explanation.  But insiders knew why. Mold was all over the walls, the ground floor filled up with water when it rained. The building, a mere 28 years after its gala opening, was slowly collapsing.

The property sat vacant for 10 years until the Cleveland Clinic yes that's correct bought it for $125,000 from the city and tore it down. And just a month ago they put up a sign. It's available. Step right up all ye developers. 

At the same time "Rainbow" Terrace was also experiencing "water" problems. But the Greenblatts were in Connecticut and West Palm Beach and had lots of powerful friends in EVERY federal Democrat administration so really did they care? Not in the slightest. And for 20 years whenever it rained, and  the water backed up in the kitchen sinks and toilets of the poor black people who lived there along Garden Valley Road and the parking lots turned into dangerous ice skating rinks in the winter, and the furnaces in the units flooded and shut off leaving the residents without heat for days and days, the Greenblatts got their local WHITE senior management to tell the BLACK on site property management to call a plumber. And sometimes they put in new floors the cheap vinyl kind. Or a toilet here and there because 480 units at $1000 apiece PER MONTH, a half a MILLION dollars per month ALL from their favorite Uncle Sam Goldblatt was just too much money to give up. 

But verily it came to pass after several failed HUD inspections about "compliance" issues, and not wanting to pay out $35,000 per year for rental registration or $300,000 every other year JUST for lead clearance never mind the inevitable lead removal for the right to file evictions and back tenant rent was piling up and HUD was asking questions and the "water" problems were getting worse in half the units, the Greenblatts decided throw in the towel. And pass it on for $8.5 Million. But Vesta is STILL paying the on-site social workers at Rainbow Terrace. Hmmmmmm. This is where it gets even murkier. The new owner, Rainbow Terrace 2021 LLC a mysterious shadowy FOREIGN Limited Liability Corporation at 20250 Harper Avenue in Detroit Michigan, has NO Article 3 in their Articles of Incorporation filing documents with the Ohio Secretary of State. In other words no stated purpose, other than being For Profit. Of Course. I have a suggestion. "Purpose of the organization is to fleece the taxpayer through collapsing several buildings at Rainbow Terrace through fake waterproofing with federal tax dollars." The man behind the curtain is likely Frankenstein Carswell of IMS or Gerald Freddie Krueger of American Community Developers in Harper Woods Michigan. But WHOEVER it is has discovered the "water" problems. And with a generous $15 million "grant"from HUD, they have brought in their boys from Michigan because REAL WATERPROOFERS IN OHIO would have refused this job. The Michigan crew set forth to COVER UP the problem by digging trenches with back hoes and "waterproofing" the slab a whole 18 inches down. Instead of the required basement depth of 10 feet. They slapped on some tar and then no gravel, no sewer drain pipe either. Just piled the dirt back in and flattened it down! Because there ARE NO basements it's NOT waterproofing. This is a massive fraud and deliberate AND VERY EXPENSIVE misuse of federal funds, but all those donations (pay offs) to select Democrats will protect them from prosecution. And putting dishwashers and garbage disposalls in the units will make the drainage problems MUCH worse. WITHOUT basements Old Man River will win. EVERYTIME it rains hard. Ask the Clement Center. But in the meantime Freddie Krueger or Frankenstein Carswell will pocket a fortune from the Democrat party, through their buddies at HUD, sanctioning the abuse of yet another generation of poor black folks. Mold, no heat, backed up toilets, ice covered parking lots. It will all continue. Until someone is killed.