The front page of the August 14, 1970 edition of the Journal included the photo above of the house at 1872 E. 30th Street being demolished.
As the article written by Staff Writer Pam Robinson noted, “This is the house where Mrs. Maria Feliciano brought up her children.
“They came to Lorain in 1957 from Puerto Rico and it was the first home in the United States for the tiny widow and her family of six, ranging then in age from five to twenty.
“Mrs. Feliciano’s children grew up in the Puerto Rican neighborhood. Her oldest children married and moved away to other parts of Lorain.
“She and her son, Anibal, now reside in a bright pink house two blocks away from their first home.
“Yesterday, as the bulldozer destroyed her home of 13 years, her mind was filled with memories of her home and her first years in this country. Her children grew up in the hone demolished by urban renewal.”
****
I wrote about this particular South Lorain urban renewal project before. Back here, I posted a 1969 Journal article (in two parts) in which several past and present residents of East 30th Street were asked how they felt about the urban renewal project that was going to displace many of them.
4 comments:
I don't know about anybody else,but it looks like the city should still be doing some urban renewal in south Lorain.I mean just look at 28th St.There are alot of scroungey looking dilapidated buildings still standing.Pearl Rd anyone?Misc houses all up and down East 30th St.East 31st.Etc.I wouldn't walk around there after dark,you may just end up raped and killed.The city didn't do enough back then.But then they'll tear down a perfectly good school like Southview High.Makes you wonder where their priorities are.
That’s a very good point. But there has to be a better way than what Lorain is doing now, which is just knocking down an eyesore building here, a run-down house there and then patting itself on the back for a job well done. There needs to be a plan, instead of just creating new vacant lots. But how do you get a developer on board (and government financing) to help transform a whole bad neighborhood or area, without displacing residents? I don’t have the answer, but I’m sure the city has people on its payroll who should.
Lorain could learn a lot from Cleveland, believe it or not. I’ve watched the west side near the Ohio City area experience incredible improvements that were unimaginable 30 years ago, with all sorts of new housing and stores in what were previously awful, crime-filled areas. It’s impressive what has been accomplished. But it takes developers willing to take risks, and people with creative ideas to make it happen.
But Ohio City still has robberies and crime.Why just this past June there were 2 women who were robbed behind Planet Fitness in Ohio City.Back in February of this year 3 teens attacked and robbed a man and knocked him unconscious in Ohio City.Etc.Because it's still a bad place to live in.You have nice refurbished hi rise condos right next to a section 8 fellow neighbor....They see people have nice stuff.They don't have anything nice.So they figure that they'll just take what they don't have.Mostly teens,but still....criminal activity.The only way to clean up a run down part of town is to buy everybody out.Every parcel.Every building.Every vacant lot.The whole neighborhood would have to be cleared out.It's practically impossible to do for what it's worth in the end.Ohio City is one of the last places I'd live in if I were new to Cleveland.
Hey.. Just because someone has section 8 doesnt mean they dont have nice things...
Post a Comment