CLEVELAND — It’s been 10 years since Cassell Silver moved into the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland. In that time, he’s seen a lot of neighbors come and go.
“Nobody stays too long except the people who have been homeowners for over 10 years,” he told News 5. Cassell does a lot of work on his house, calling it a work in progress. But he said it’s a challenge to maintain the homes in this neighborhood.
“You got a lot of the empty fields and the conditions during summer and the winter, you know, trying to keep the pests out,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult in the neighborhood because there’s too many vacant lots.” Silver hopes a citywide review of 170,000 land parcels across Cleveland will bring some much-needed change to his quiet street.
“Maybe we can get some of the abandoned ones up out of here, and they can probably put some new homes in here for more people to move in, make the community better,” he said.
City leaders and the Western Reserve Land Conversancy announced the new initiative Friday morning, starting the assessment process in Slavic Village. Assessors will figure out which homes need improvements, which need to be torn down, and which pose a lead hazard.
“For far too long many neighborhoods haven’t had the access to capital, the access to resources that they need to truly make sure that all of our neighborhoods are safe, secure, and resilient,” Mayor Justin Bibb said.
Each assessment starts when the assessor enters a picture into a database. Then they’re prompted to go through a series of questions about the condition of the windows, the driveway, and the paint. It all goes into the database in real-time. The Conservancy says that will allow them to take any necessary follow-up action as quickly as possible.
“By triaging all the city parcels at once we can target scarce resources in the most strategic way possible,” said Bibb. The Conservancy called this project tax-neutral, saying they raised private funding for the venture.
And it’s a welcome sight to residents like Silver. He knows the community has strong bones.
“The neighbors are great. Everybody looks out for each other,” he said. With a little help from the city, he has hope that he’ll see some positive change, maybe even some more families to play with his kids.
Because he’s in this for the long haul.
“I love it here,” he said.
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