Visit http://www.tomromito.com Strategic Planning Process - Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office 2014 Engagement process led by Jeffrey Ramsey, Program Director, SCFBC CDO, Gloria Ferris, President, Community Advisory Council, CDO Staff, and members of the Community Advisory Council, with Tom Romito, Facilitator. At Archwood United Church of Christ, 2800 Archwood Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44109 Visit the Brooklyn Centre Strategic Planning Process Flickr Collection at flickr.com/photos/127298038@N03/collections/72157648635055207/

1. Strategic Plan
for the
Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, & Brooklyn Centre
Community Development Office
for 2015-2018
Table of Contents
Inside this strategic plan, you
will find:
The Strategic Planning
Committee………………….2
Introduction………………...3
Our goal, vision, values,
mission, and slogan……...…4
Organizational history and
community profile………….5
Summary of core strategies...6
Action Plan for 2015-2018…8
The new $50 million Max Hayes High School will
open in Fall 2015 at West 65th St. and Clark Ave.
La Villa Hispana is an initiative led by the Hispanic Alliance to
promote the identification of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood as the
largest concentration of Hispanic residents in the State of Ohio.
The CDO will leverage the $500 million
transformation of Metrohealth’s main campus
to spur investment in the surrounding housing
and business district.
1

2. Members of the 2014 SCFBC CDO
Strategic Planning Committee
Community Development Office Staff
Max Balakoff
Tony Bango
Sasha Ottoson-Deal
Loida Feliciano
Adam Gifford
Nanci McCormack
Megan Meister
Jeff Ramsey
David Reuse
Rosanna Santos
Brittany Senger
Maria Soucek
Adam Stalder
Kate Dupuis
Community Advisory Council
Donna Brooks
Salathiel Carter
Gloria Ferris
Maria Figueroa
Alan Forman
Anne Hill
Irene Hitsman
Julie Marini
Amir Merhi
Sara Ross
Kyro Taylor
Ken Wohlgemuth
Rebecca Kempton
Bill Graham
Facilitator
Tom Romito
Cleveland City Council
Tony Brancatelli
Brian Cummins
2
Photo by Betsey Merkel

3. Introduction...
We, the Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office (SCFBC CDO) and
our volunteer grassroots partner, the Community Advisory Council (CAC), believe that our three
neighborhoods are going to get needed services, while retaining and strengthening their identities, by
structuring the CDO to serve the neighborhoods with one strategic plan.
Because each neighborhood is unique, we want a
plan that preserves their individual identities, is
based on what the residents say they need, and does
not burn out residents and CDO employees. We
want our strategic focus to be the priorities of the
residents, because we believe that they have the
power and resources to change their neighborhoods
for the better. The challenge to create a community-
driven model is the reason we developed this
strategic plan.
Tom Romito facilitated strategic planning for
the CDO and CAC (Photo by Betsey Merkel).
John Rivera Resto painted the “It’s Up to Us”
mural on West 25th Street and Clark Avenue.
We have a goal of serving as an effective resource to
improve the quality of live and respond to needs of
our unique neighborhoods. We must overcome a
number of barriers to achieve our goal. We will
break them down by using this strategic plan to
market our priorities to the City and residents. It
will show that we’re focused and that we know what
we want to do. As Amir Merhi, owner of Wireless
Nation on Storer Avenue, said, “Things will go our
way if we work together and follow through.”
The CDO cannot achieve this goal by itself. It is a
community-based organization. The CDO and the
CAC will support residents to work together to
improve the community. The community leaders of
the future will rise from the residents themselves.
This building on Storer Avenue is being
renovated as a tavern and meeting place.
3
Economic development is our primary focus,
which we will accomplish by connecting with
residents and businesses through community
engagement and identifying resources for
financial assistance. We will use the new $50
million Max Hayes High School as a catalyst to
improve the Stockyard neighborhood, and the
$500 million transformation of Metrohealth to
improve the Near West Side. La Villa Hispana
will partner with the Hispanic Alliance to develop
the W. 25th St. and Clark Ave. area.

4. Our goal: what we want.
We want to serve as an effective resource to improve
the quality of life and respond to the needs of our
unique neighborhoods.
Our vision: how we see
ourselves.
We see ourselves as a community that works
together, built on mutual respect and empathy.
Our values: our beliefs and
guiding principles.
We have empathy with residents.
We communicate candidly with residents.
People work together.
People have mutual respect.
Our mission: what we do.
Our mission is to work with residents, businesses, and
institutions, to improve people’s lives by finding
solutions to problems in our neighborhoods.
“Three neighborhoods, one community”
Party Rican DJ Services is a mobile music com-
pany and entertainment complex on Fulton Road.
Newark Court in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood
received area beautification through City Repair
when residents painted a mural on fences.
4
This residence on W. 65th St. was repaired by
a Rebuilding Together Cleveland-Cleveland
Browns-SCFBC CDO collaboration in 2012.
These Baldwin-Wallace students maintained a
beautified vacant lot on West 36th Street in the
Brooklyn Centre neighborhood in 2013.

5. A brief history of our Community Development Office
Community development on the
Near West Side of Cleveland has
a storied history. Each of our
three neighborhoods had a CDO
at one time, but dwindling funds
over the years led to their closure.
In July 2010, our three
neighborhoods began to receive
community development services
under a new model. The model
consisted of a contract between
the City and the Detroit Shoreway
CDO. Under the contract, this
organization used its own
infrastructure to create a program
with an office, a staff, and a
Community Advisory Council to
help the community. The new
office and staff, located in the
Lin’s Omni Square at 3167 Fulton
Road, became known as the
SCFBC CDO.
Having established the foundation
for a CDO over the past four
years, we took the time to take
step back in this strategic plan to
look at our accomplishments.
This plot on Vega Road in the
Clark-Fulton neighborhood is
an example of the greenspace
development and vacant land
reutilization that the CDO and
CAC want to foster.
In 2012, the Detroit Shoreway
CDO adopted a strategic plan to
revitalize the Detroit Shoreway
neighborhood. At the same time,
the SCFBC CDO adopted its
own strategic plan and focused
on five core areas for improving
the neighborhoods. They were
increasing community
involvement, improving
buildings and housing through
code enforcement and
rehabilitation, connecting
residents with programs to
assist them with utilities,
supporting commercial
development, and strengthening
the CDO organizationally.
In 2013, the SCFBC CDO
recognized that it was working
with an intensive resident-
driven action plan. Megan
Meister, program director at the
time, and Gloria Ferris,
Community Advisory Council
president, decided that they
wanted a plan that made better
use of the staff and better served
the residents.
A consistent, critical mass of
committed CDO professionals
and CAC members underwent
an extensive strategic planning
process in 2014. Tom Romito,
a volunteer facilitator and
resident of the Clark-Fulton
neighborhood, guided the year-
long process.
Here’s a profile of our community...
The approximate populations of the three neighborhoods are:
Stockyards – 11,000, Clark-Fulton – 6,000, and Brooklyn Centre –
13,000, for a total population of 30,000. The racial breakdown is:
The federal poverty line (according to 2006 data) is $11,670 annual
income for a one-person household, up to $40,180 for an eight-person
household. The breakdown of our residents who live below the
poverty line are: Stockyards 51%, Clark-Fulton 37%, and Brooklyn
Centre 30%. The total service area is __%.
The high school graduation rate by race in the community is: Hispanic
67%, Black 20 %, and White 35%. The total service area is __%
The rate of owner-occupied housing units is: Stockyards 51%, Clark-
Fulton 45%, and Brooklyn Centre 48%. The total service area is __%.
5
This Stockyard mural was a
beautification project done
through City Repair.
Neighborhood %White %Black %Hispanic %Other
Stockyards 60 20 34 19
Clark-Fulton 54 20 47 25
Brooklyn Centre 60 22 32 17
Total Svc Area

6. Here are our core strategies!
Core Strategy #1: Connect businesses to financial resources
and facilitate joint ventures, programs, and events.
Big-box retail and highway construction decimated family
businesses in our neighborhood retail district. Vacant
businesses provide opportunities for new and family-owned
start-ups. We can generate incentives by serving as a link
between businesses and the City, but we want to get the
businesses to network together to help themselves. For this
reason, we chose this business-centered approach to be a core
strategy.
Core Strategy #2: Improve quality of life and
increase community involvement by getting
resident and businesses to work together on
safety, health, housing, and vacant land re-use
and rehabilitation issues.
There are many reasons why we should get
residents and businesses involved in their
neighborhoods. Increasing middle income-level
rehabbed houses will attract young people to move
into the community, raise their families, and stay
here. We especially want to encourage low-
income residents to stay and become effective
voices. People will stay here if they perceive it is
safe. We must address code enforcement by
focusing on absentee landlords, such as through
the use of additional inspectors. We, the CDO,
want to create a procedure for vacant land re-use
and rehabilitation with resident and business input,
to include the guidelines of the City and City
Council. Because the lack of education, jobs, and
housing causes health disparities in this
community, a focus on safety, health, and housing
must be a core strategy.
Core Strategy #3: Strengthen the CDO in order to
raise the awareness of the community about the
model of our organization.
We have a broad service area, and our challenge is
to listen all 30,000 of our residents. In order to do
this, we have to identify and cultivate people who
are leaders to bring forth what people want. We
will do this through community meetings, social
activities, and projects. Based on this input, we
need to create a concise and informative message
to the community about the priorities of the
residents and our connection to them. The
SCFBC CDO has no brand or niche to
distinguish itself, and its name is unwieldy.
However, we can create a new name and find
our niche by focusing on the priorities of the
residents. We also want to continue to build
trustworthiness between our residents and CDO
staff, whereby residents know that the CDO will
deliver on their promises. Lastly, we want to
create a governance structure for the CDO,
CAC, residents, and businesses that advocates
for the interests of the three neighborhoods.
Now that we are committed to putting our
community on the map, strengthening the CDO
becomes a core strategy.
Core Strategy #4: Create brands for the three
neighborhoods by marketing their identities
and improving the gateways.
Brands or niches are the ways neighborhoods
distinguish themselves from each other and
other communities. They do this by identifying
authentic, sustainable amenities they each have.
These include parks, businesses, streetscapes,
bike lanes, transportation, pedestrians, and
visitors. Our neighborhoods have historical and
cultural assets to attract new home owners and
businesses. Together, they make for a
walkable, liveable community. Like the CDO,
our neighborhoods lack such brands or niches.
Our neighborhoods can become a premier
community for people to live in if the gateway
intersections are vibrant with these amenities.
It’s time for branding to become a core strategy.
6
Businesses working with each other
can strengthen our community.

7. 7
Here are some of our accomplishments working with residents to build an active and engaged community.

8. CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING
OBJECTIVES
INITIAL ACTIONS WHO START
DATE
#1: Connect businesses to
financial resources and
facilitate joint ventures,
programs, and events.
Collaborate with
businesses to connect with
residents about community
events/concerns.
Encourage businesses to
do joint marketing.
Encourage businesses to
form a merchants’
association.
Develop incentives for
businesses to come into
the community and stay
here.
8
SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018

9. CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING
OBJECTIVES
INITIAL ACTIONS WHO START
DATE
#2: Improve quality of
life and increase
community involvement
by getting resident and
businesses to work
together on safety,
health, housing, and
vacant land re-use and
rehabilitation issues.
Involve stakeholders to
coordinate our services in
safety hot spots.
Market resident-driven
activities.
Expand high-speed
internet access to low
income residents.
Hold forums to engage
community members with
specific knowledge
concerning these issues.
Create opportunities for
recreation for children.
9
SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

10. CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING
OBJECTIVES
INITIAL ACTIONS WHO START
DATE
#3: Strengthen the CDO
in order to raise the
awareness of the
community about the
model of our
organization.
Create a structure for the
CDO, CAC, residents, and
businesses that advocates
for the interest of the three
neighborhoods.
Ensure that the agendas of
our elected officials are
aligned with the needs of
the residents.
Create signage that
announces the CDO’s
existence.
10
SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

11. CORE STRATEGIES SUPPORTING
OBJECTIVES
INITIAL ACTIONS WHO START
DATE
#4: Create brands for
the three neighborhoods
by marketing their
identities and improving
the gateways.
Identify, develop, and
recognize community
ambassadors to increase
our capacity to find ways
to address issues of
concern.
Develop green spaces on
vacant land in order to
reduce crime and increase
the cleanliness of the
neighborhoods, such as
street and alley clean-up.
Create a name that
distinguishes the
community.
Use our niche to clarify
who we are and what we
do.
11
SCFBD CDO ACTION PLAN FOR 2015-2018, Continued

12. 12