The Equitable City
The history of housing and racial injustice in Cleveland was not an accident. As we learned several years ago through Undesign the Redline, an interactive exhibit on economic injustice held at Trinity Commons, the lasting impacts of neighborhood disinvestment continues to tear at the fabric of our city.
Thankfully, there are many in Cleveland who work passionately to disrupt those patterns of disinvestment and to create spaces of community and prosperity, even as the city continues to manage the challenges of mistrust and decline. This takes a vision of what is possible as well as a clear-eyed perspective on the challenges we face.
Few public servants serving today are as committed to rebuilding community and prosperity as Tania Menesse, the President and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP). CNP was a partner with Trinity on Undesign the Redline, and has more recently taken over the redevelopment of Shaker Square on the east side of Cleveland along with the local Community Development Corporation.
Tania is a colleague of mine through Leadership Cleveland, and I am thrilled to kick off this program year by welcoming her as a Trinity Forum guest. We’ll hear about the challenges facing Cleveland’s neighborhoods, but we’ll also learn about the success stories that have been unfolding over the past four decades, laying a foundation for sustained – and perhaps more importantly, equitable – growth in the years to come.
See you on Sunday at 10:10am for this important forum on neighborhood development in the City of Cleveland!
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens