I’ve held off on going public on this issue for well over two years, but in light of recent events I can’t hold off any longer. I was praying that my councilman TJ Dow wasn’t guilty of felony stupidity as some suspected he is, but obviously I was wrong.
PD reporter Mark Naymik recently posted an article that details how Dow is blocking progress in Ward 7 for his own selfish purposes. The article states, in excruciating detail, how a proposed $100 million development is being held up by Dow, who apparently wants to virtually shake down — maybe extort is a better word — Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic and others.
The issue is this: CWRU and Cleveland Clinic are building a new medical/dental school on the south side of Chester at 95th Street. On the north side of Chester a new apartment building, Innova, has already been built to house students that will attend the new school.
Behind the apartment building is vacant land that Case wants to build a new dental clinic on. But Dow wants a shiny new office for himself, so he’s demanding that everyone involved in the project — from the developers to the builders to the eventual tenants — to kick in to finance what he calls a “resource center” for residents.
Indeed, he says that residents of the ward are “demanding” the resource center be built, in spite of the fact that there are social service agencies all over Ward 7 that already provide similar services. At last count there were over 800 such documented services available for residents of Hough.
But Dow really never makes these demands himself. These are supposedly the “demands” of his “advisory council,” a group of rubber-stamp buffoons who are willing to run the risk of a federal indictment right along with Dow. Most of the council (or members of their immediate families) is somehow financially indebted to Dow. Nonetheless he thinks that using them as a front will somehow shield him from wrongdoing — something that only proves that he’s delusional.
What Dow is attempting to do is make Case and the Clinic into the big bad wolves — white folks who want to take something from the poor black folks of Ward 7 without recompense. He then frames himself as the hero that is valiantly representing the interests of the residents of the ward, which is total nonsense.
This simply won’t fly, and here’s why.
For a couple of years now, Dow has been blocking the nonprofit my wife and I operate at every turn. Our vineyard, BioCellar and proposed winery projects create real jobs by repurposing vacant buildings and land. Over the last five years — in spite of Dow’s efforts to block us — we’ve been able to hire, train and move on to better jobs over 50 individuals, some of who reside in the community, and others who are coming out of prison and residing at a nearby halfway house. Twenty-three of the folks we’ve mentored have gone on to stabilize their lives, obtain full-time jobs and have become productive members of society.
Why then would Dow want to block our efforts? I can only surmise that it’s because of something that happened during his reelection campaign when he sent a “representative” to my door I wouldn’t play ball. Now anyone can take that previous statement anyway they choose to take it.
Let me explain how Dow plays his deceitful little games. When I virtually begged him to sign off on the transfer of some land so that we could advance our job-creating project — I even offered to wash his car or cut his grass — he said the “community doesn’t approve of it.”
And Dow had the gall to say this in spite of the fact that we had collected signatures on petitions in support of our efforts from virtually every resident of the neighborhood surrounding our project. Even some of his diehard supporters signed.
His fallback position, when confronted with the petitions was, “We have to hold another community meeting” — one that he never convenes in spite of repeated requests. In that way he can go back down to City Hall and say, “The residents don’t want this project.” This is the exact same ruse he is using to stall the Case/Clinic project.
He accomplishes this by using his front “advisory board,” and then plays the race/class card in the neighborhood. He frames it as “rich white people are trying to take something from us in Hough,” when in reality, all these institutions are doing is attempting to make Cleveland in general, and Hough (Ward 7) in particular, a better and healthier place.
There’s a way for both Ward 7 and the large institutions that are located on our doorstep to both win. Other councilmen in adjacent wards have proven this time and time again. But successfully engaging in these kinds of negotiations are beyond Dow’s skill set and abilities, and the troubling thing is, he’s not at all interested in allowing professionals from the community assist in this process.
There will be more to come on this issue, I assure you.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: TJ Dow Is Twisting the Truth”
Mary Jane Miller
I see what you have done in the Hough area and it is a beautiful contribution. Thank you!