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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

MAPLE HEIGHTS LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO GO

The Ownership-Money Circulation Principle


We all know, or should know, that when money circulates within a community/city, that community or city thrives.


We all know, or should know, that when most residents work in the city where they live, and own businesses in the city where they live, that city is more likely to thrive.



If this is not the case in your city (and it is not the case in Maple Heights), then the leadership needs to go.


If your city (community) leaders are not laser focused on making sure you (and all the residents) personally make money, keep that money, and grow that money, then the leadership needs to go.


If your leaders are not laser focused on making residents owners, and talking ownership constantly, then the leadership needs to go.


What does ownership mean? It means you own your home. It means you own your own business. It means you’re part owner in a co-op and credit unionIt means you have a significant voice in the decisions that are made about the community (city) you live in, and the policies and legislation that are enacted in the city you live in, which also includes total transparency in public information about your city.


 
Your mind must be laser focused on ownership, getting (and staying out) of debt, and achieving financial freedom, and your community/city should be focused on helping you do that

 

If your mayor and members of council are not laser focused on making sure you have ownership, that you keep ownership, that they will do everything within their power to help you maintain ownership, and that they will help protect what you own, then they need to go.


Ask yourself, .. Did my mayor and city council do the above? If not, then they need to go.


Beware:
Any city or community that is deep in debt, and  where the majority of the public employees live outside the city, is devastating to that community. It means that a large chunk of your money is leaving your city when it should be circulating within your city so your community/your city thrives, and you thrive.


© 2012  Elaine Stone

BUILD A CULTURALLY DIVERSE VIBRANT COMMUNITY WHERE EVERYONE IS PROSPEROUS, AND RESIDENTS ENJOY THEIR SURROUNDINGS.


OVER 550 FORECLOSURE FILINGS IN MAPLE HEIGHTS IN 2012

Related:


5 Reasons Co-Ops Are So Awesome, by Jesse Donaldson


UPDATE JULY 31, 2013: Richmond's pioneering eminent-domain threat


UPDATE MAY 2013:  BioCellars - Reviving Cleveland Neighborhoods: Mansfield Frazier at TEDxCLE 2013


2012 International Year of Cooperatives



I give a "pat on the back" to:
Communities First Association Andy Batten  (Plain Dealer article on Batten and Lighthouse Inc)

THE OWNERSHIP- MONEY CIRCULATION PRINCIPLE




Related articles regarding money circulation (something Maple Heights does not do and one reason why this city is in financial trouble):

Black buying power increases, but circulation of dollar within community remains low Nov 30, 2011

'Money is like blood – it needs to circulate for local economies to survive' Feb 20, 2013

Buying Local: How It Boosts the Economy June 11, 2009

Group Economics

Where you spend your money is important | Business Connections July 29, 2013

Black Wall Street

Durham's "Black Wall Street"

Taking Care of Business by Lee Jenkins

Why local money flows matter

New Study: Spending locally generates four times more economic benefit Sept 3, 2012

Know Your Worth: If We Don't Know, We Can't Grow Our Community Sept. 24, 2012

Electric Cooperatives


May 2013:  Chicago Workers Open New Cooperatively Owned Factory Five Years After Factory Occupation

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maple Heights African Americans need to read "BLACK WALL STREET" ...
http://www.blackwallstreet.freeservers.com/The%20Story.htm

Anonymous said...

I think most full time government employees do not live in Maple Heights. That's a huge chunk of money leaving the city.

Anonymous said...

Vote "no" on the levy (city of Maple Heights) and the schools.

Keenan needs his salary reduced. Why does the governor (a public employee) make about $148,000, but Keenan (a public employee) makes around $152,000?

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Seven-Northeast-Ohio-school-leaders-paid-more-than-Gov-Kasich

Maple Heights residents unemployment rate is high, and the number of home foreclosures is high. Recent property assessments were awful.

One wonders how a city with a declining population, which probably means less children, can justify all the money that was put into these new schools. Property owners are "on the hook" (obligated) to pay these bond interest payments no matter what the population numbers are.

Also:
Auxiliary police should do community policing. Most if not all auxiliary police live in Maple Heights, unlike the full time police.

With auxiliary community policing, money stays within the community. Maple Heights residents care about their community more than people who live outside the city.

Anonymous said...

Why didn't Vopat (a department head who lives outside Maple Heights) get talented residents to perform in the "2012 Music in the Park" series (and they would have received the donations)?

Money would have circulated within the city.

Why was a city employee who does not live in Maple Heights, allowed to make money with dance classes held at the Maple Heights senior center? Are residents allowed to do the same?

Why are millions of dollars flowing out of the city (to contractors, public employees, etc who don't live in Maple Heights) and residents are given bingo night, movie night, plaques and awards, and crumbs off the table?

Anonymous said...

Watch out ... these leaders and the police are going to retaliate. Somebody needs to watch out for the residents when they go into retaliating mode.

Anonymous said...

What happened to that recreation center that was discussed in 2008 in relation to that new school over there near Rockside?
Maple Heights residents could have been employed.
Keenan says he open to ideas to expand community usage of these schools. Use for a recreation center Mr. Keenan and hire locals (and those locals should reflect the racial demographics, which seems to be a problem this leadership has).

Anonymous said...

The police should help pay for their salary by enforcing ordinances (like noise and speeding). They shouldn't do it to retaliate because of this article. I've heard the police go to folks homes (esp. folks who critize them or the leadership) on a routine matter late at night (that needs to stop or have the FBI step in)

Anonymous said...

I've never realized so many of these public employees in Maple Heights (school system and local) live outside the city. It's should be against the law, or there needs to be a resolution or something that says 70% of public employees (esp. high salaried, full time) should reside in the city. That should be true of any city. The racial demographics should be respected esp. with high unemployment numbers among certain racial groups.

Anonymous said...

The local chambers of commerce are a joke.

BiPolObsessed said...

When Maple Heights did a Jim Crow on its residents in district 5 (taking away their right to vote for their own representative), they were violating the ownership principle.

When they took 80% of that special fund money from Maple Heights residents by the railroad that looked like it helped a lot of people who did not live here, they violated the ownership principle.

Anonymous said...

If this administration moves in the direction of ownership, remember it wasn't their idea. They probably just want to get re-elected. These people are not creative and they are not innovators.


New progressives are demonized by both political parties. New progressives don't believe in welfare.

Only a new progressive can pull off a strategy so every resident benefits.

You see what this administration has done so far. They've saddled us with debt and outsourcing. The population has declined, and high numbers of homes are in foreclosure even with the influx of monies from county, and federal.

This administration's feeble attempts at bringing businesses to Maple Heights fail because they don't know what it takes to make sure every resident achieves financial freedom.

Anyone who can take money (I didn't say handouts) from Maple Heights senior citizens and give that money to people, many who don't live in Maple Heights, needs to be replaced.

Anonymous said...

Republicans would never embrace the "Ownership Money Circulation Principle" because the focus is on ownership for all residents and not just a few. Ownership in co-ops and embracing credit unions and not banks is encouraged and celebrated. Ownership in non-profit community hospitals and clinics, where residents have access to free services, is celebrated. The Ownership-Money Circulation Principle is a New Progressive principle.

Anonymous said...

When the financial clock strikes zero – Half of Americans pass away with nearly zero wealth. The middle class has contracted by ten percent in the last 40 years.

read at:

http://www.mybudget360.com/financial-clock-strikes-zero-half-of-americans-die-broke-middle-class-falling/

Anonymous said...

The Ownership Money-Circulation principle seems to be the answer. No political party is willing to go this route.

The facts:
"When the financial clock strikes zero – Half of Americans pass away with nearly zero wealth. The middle class has contracted by ten percent in the last 40 years."

"A recent study demonstrates the precarious financial position many Americans find their lives in. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that nearly half of Americans pass away penniless. The exact figures were sobering stating that many of these Americans end up with no financial assets including home wealth and typically rely heavily on Social Security. This study points out a couple of important items regarding the state of the economy for many families. Many simply cannot save and end up relying on external funding. The system is witnessing heavy strain on these sources at a time when government spending is off the charts for bailouts and other targeted spending. Yet the typical American is still ending up in a financially precarious state. In the last four decades the middle class has contracted by ten percent. What does it say about the economy when half of the inhabitants of the wealthiest country pass away with almost no wealth?

Yet the upper-income group also increased during this time and income inequality is at its highest level ever. This is another statistic that demonstrates the growing disparity in the low wage capitalism economy that is emerging. The fact that 46 million Americans are on food stamps is startling. So the data on the study is fascinating showing that half of the country will reach the end of their lives with little to their name:


“(NBER) We find that a substantial fraction of persons die with virtually no financial assets – 46.1 percent with less than $10,000 – and many of these households also have no housing wealth and rely almost entirely on Social Security benefits for support.”

The heavy reliance on Social Security is telling. As our national debt reaches nearly $16 trillion the costs for items like Medicare and Social Security are set to soar. Keep in mind this is coming at a time when young Americans, those that are largely paying into the system to keep funds flowing, are much less affluent than their parents.

Low wage and temp work

The number of Americans in low wage jobs is increasingly high. We are seeing that the days of any sort of job security are out the window. Many are now contending in a fast paced economy where little protection is offered to frontline workers while the select few with big wallets can protect their wealth via political bailouts.

The notion of the Horatio Alger story is largely a giant dream, sort of like hitting the lottery. Most Americans think that a little bit of hard work and sweat will make you into a millionaire. A recent study shows some data on this mobility in our country:


“(Pew Research) Americans raised at the top and bottom of the income ladder are likely to remain there themselves as adults. Forty-three percent of those who start in the bottom are stuck there as adults, and 70 percent remain below the middle quintile. Only 4 percent of adults raised in the bottom make it all the way to the top, showing that the “rags-to-riches” story is more often found in Hollywood than in reality.”

This tells you that many will continue to rely on things like Social Security once they reach retirement and this number is not going down:"

http://www.mybudget360.com/financial-clock-strikes-zero-half-of-americans-die-broke-middle-class-falling/


Anonymous said...

WATCH:

http://billmoyers.com/segment/bernie-sanders-on-the-independent-in-politics/

Anonymous said...

I understand that the mayor recently stated that if you stick with him, Maple Heights will recover or something like that.

Well, sorry ... this man has been in office for over 4 years and far too many people have lost their homes (and continue to lose their homes), and many have lost their jobs while this administration continues to outsource jobs to non residents. The value of their homes has declined to an almost unbelievable %age.

In addition, they also go about the business of non-transparency. Important questions still go unanswered.

This administration still has not lived up to the affirmative action agreements signed in 1977, and it even looks like things are going backwards in regards to race relations.

This leadership needs to go. I believe you've financially devastated this commmunity because you have a basic lack of understanding of how to create a vibrant, healthy community.

Anonymous said...

One more thing:

What Ms. Vopat did was insulting to the African American community (and is not sound fiscal policy), and what's worse, the mayor with his splash parties was (as far as I'm concerned) insulting to the African American community.

They get away with this garbage becuase people are not engaged in what goes on in their community, probably because they don't feel they are taken seriously or are really an integral part of Maple Heights.

I believe the mayor and his cronies have created an environment where African Americans have very little say in the running of government. It's disgusting, insulting, economically ridiculous and they need to go.

I believe this leadership has no idea how to circulate money within this community to make it vibrant and healthy; and if they say they do (and it is quite evident they don't), why aren't they doing it?

Anonymous said...

I saw a comment that said most of the auxiliary police live in Maple Heights. Not sure if that's true. Don't know if true now, but in 2011, most Maple Heights auxiliary police did not live in Maple Heights.

Anonymous said...

Read: [Maple Heights Mayor Jeffrey Lansky offers epic rant against FirstEnergy that obscures complaints about street lights and poor service: Mark Naymik]

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2013/03/maple_heights_mayor_jeffrey_la.html


I am extremely embarrassed by our mayor's behavior, but this is the kind of behavior that residents, members of council, and others have had to endure for years.


He needs to step down from office.


The victims of Sandy had to deal with weeks and months from Sandy's devastation (and are probably still dealing with it), while some of us only had to deal with 3 days of electrical outage ... yet our mayor rants against First Energy for that and street lights.


The problems in this city are so immense, including systemic racism. We need a rational mayor, and I really question if we have one.

Anonymous said...

These people just don't get it. & they keep on outsourcing ... There needs to be an investigation.

And what the hell are u waiting for black people in Maple Heights. The foundation is crumbling and u do nothing to save your community.

You need fresh blood .. people who know how to revive a city.

This is your reality:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/03/utility_list_shows_more_than_1.html

Anonymous said...

Excellent article regarding residency requirements.

Cleveland residency requirement's effect on city neighborhoods may be softened by poor housing market

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/cleveland_residency_requiremen.html

It's the lawyers and courts who are helping destroy our neighborhoods.
What the hell do they know about urban planning and economics. THEY KNOW NOTHING!