CORDRAY: I think part of that is certainly because of the economic tough times and these predators have been very busy and active in going after people.

In addition to threats like identity theft that have been around for years, Cordray says the recession has introduced new scams. For example, some schemes charge job-seekers up front for non-existent help landing something.

Cuyahoga County had the second highest number of complaints in the state, after Franklin County.

Cordray highlighted the numbers at a Tower City kickoff for National Consumer Protection Week. He also unveiled an internet widget called Scam Alert. It’s a little box anyone can add to a website or social networking page.

CORDRAY: People can alert us and the widget will update automatically on people’s websites and Facebook pages and things. So they will have access, without doing anything other than installing it once, to the most up to date data around the state.

Democrat Cordray was elected in 2008 in a special election following the Marc Dann sexual harassment scandal. Cordray hopes to win a full term against Republican Mike DeWine this fall.

12 percent of bus routes are to be reduced, and 185 people will lose their jobs under the 2010 RTA budget. . Kucinich wants RTA to cancel some of the job and service cuts, and restore the Lakewood Circulator – the most popular of the community circulators that were eliminated entirely last year.

RTA says Mr. kucinich is mistaken in believing that there is still stimulus money available for RTA operations. According to spokesman Jerry Masek, RTA was originally awarded $45 million in 2009 for capital improvements, but Congress later allowed strapped transit systems around the country to use a portion of their stimulus to pay expenses. Masek says that money was spent last year to help close a budget hole created by the sinking economy and falling tax revenues.

Voinovich gathered with a group of contractors, union officials, and regional planners - all employers - and solidly behind his efforts to pour federal money into the transportation industry - to enlist their help in ginning up more support.

Voinovich: “This thing has the opportunity to bring us together on something the President could embrace. But I think no one appreciates the impact that transportation industry has on the economy. It’s enormous!

Thousands of Ohioans are impacted by the transportation industry.
One speaker equated transportation workers and their families to a small city; contributing one-point-two million dollars `a day’ to Ohio’s economy. But the transportation industry is in trouble, primarily because of dwindling government funding.

Pat Sink leads the Operating Engineers Union Local 18.

Sink” “Everybody’s so against taxes, but we’ll gladly pay the taxes.... if we have a check to have them deducted from. And sometimes people lose sight of that.”

The engineers union says hours worked in 2009 were off by 1.5 million statewide.

The bill Voinovich wants passed would give local authorities much more say in how their federal transportation dollars are spent. It would stem the expansion push - turning more toward maintenance, mass transit, and high-speed rail.

Voinovich favors raising the gas tax to pay for the measure, rather than adding to the federal deficit. He says `that’ may be the best part of the deal.

ZELLER: That’s more than we could fit in Browns Stadium. In fact, we’d fill up the Q with that number in addition to Browns Stadium with some left over to go over to Progressive Field.

In the same period, Lorain County lost 12% of its jobs. Even Medina County which had been one of the few bright spots in the region, started to slip last year.

Manufacturing has, of course, been particularly hard hit here for years, but the recession has only exacerbated that problem. Roger, a West Sider who called the Sound of Ideas this morning, said that everything was going well for him before the recession: savings, retirement account, and a good job working at the Brookpark auto plant. Now he says, he’s losing his job and has two homes in foreclosure.

ROGER: What people call the American Dream isn’t there anymore. So, we’re going to sell everything we’ve got. And, we’re going to buy a camper and move to Florida. And, that’s where we’re going to live.

What’s really new though is that white collar workers now are making Northeast Ohio’s unemployment lines bulge. Zeller calls it a double whammy.

ZELLER: We went three consecutive quarters last year in Cuyahoga County where we lost more jobs in finance and insurance than we lost in manufacturing.

So, what’s the solution? Many point to job retraining programs, but another guest on the Sound of Ideas, Northeastern University labor economist Andrew Sum, says most retraining programs have a lousy track record. About the only type that really helps, he says, is when the training is directly connected to an employer: like on-the-job apprenticeships. Sum says the government should provide incentives directly to companies to train talented workers.

SUM: In other words, if you retrain me, we will help subsidize my wage for the first 6-9 months of my employment so that training is taking place in a jobs setting. We can reduce income losses by working while being trained, and help these firms pick up part of the excess costs of providing this kind of training.

Sum says many of the current retraining programs are just preparing people for jobs that don’t exist.

SUM: I’ve never seen, Dan, in any postwar recession such a one-sided, lopsided view of who has been affected.

Sum heads the Center for Labor Market Studies at Boston’s Northeastern University. He’s one of the few economists to focus on huge differences within the overall unemployment picture. He says the brunt of the recession has disproportionately affected blue collar workers in manufacturing, transportation and especially construction and that the results have been devastating here in Ohio and across the nation.

SUM: The rate of decline among these men was equivalent to the rate of decline in the great depression of 1929-33.

The hardest-hit blue collar jobs have unemployment rates three to five times as high as white collar professionals.

Tom Fisher knows the blue collar struggles first hand.

He’s a truck driver from Olmsted Township.

On the day I met him, he was pulling into a warehouse parking lot after an overnight trip to upstate NY.

We climbed into the cab of the Truck Fisher drives for a company that makes insulation for commercial buildings.

Commercial real estate ---like residential real estate--- has taken a dive. With less building and rehabbing going on there’s less need for insulation and less need for Fisher.

FISHER: Three years ago, I was working 50-55 hours a week at this one company. And everything over 40 was time and a half, which is good money, very good money for me.

Now he’s lucky to work a couple days a week, working maybe 20 hours. No overtime. He took a second job late at night at the Plain Dealer, helping prepare stacks of papers for delivery. It’s tough work, for not a lot of money. His income fell by $12,000 last year.

FISHER: I live from paycheck to paycheck and when you’re $12,000 less, I’m not paying certain bills. Creditors are not happy. I’m having troubles at the banks trying to get money in on time to pay the bill. And it’s just a vicious circle. I just don’t feel I’m getting anywhere.

And, Fisher knows he’s one of the lucky ones. Like many blue collar workers, he’s underemployed, meaning he works part time but desires full time work. But having some work is better than many of his peers. He knows a lot of independent truck drivers who just went broke.

FISHER: Well, I know two guys personally that just left their trucks right at the truck stop and walked away. Called their wives. The wives came and got them, and just left them and let the banks come get them. Freight on them and everything. They just could not do it anymore.

Unemployment in the transportation sector doubled during the recession. But that’s still not as bad as another sector.

FISHER: A lot of places I go to is construction sites. And some of the big construction companies around here are down from 400 men crews to 8,10, 12 men crews.

That might be an exaggeration but the data does show that unemployment in construction is more than double the national average, triple what it was at the start of the recession. It’s also been especially rough on small firms.

While Tony Skettle does a small job checking wiring at a recently sold home, his wife Kathy manages their company’s finances. They’ve owned Skettle Electric in suburban Cleveland for 25 years, and until now, never really had to cut any staff.

KATHY SKETTLE: A few years ago, we had eight and we’re down to five—actually like 4 and a half. Four full time and one part time. In the history of our company, we’ve only ever laid off one person and that was years ago.

Kathy Skettle is doing what she can to keep some business coming in.

KATHY SKETTLE: I find myself making more offers to customers. Going back and making cold calls. Whereas before, they had to do very little advertising to get customers.

Labor Economist Andrew Sum says there are more than 30 out of work construction workers for every open job.

Since many of these blue collar trades are dominated by men, that’s contributing to the far higher unemployment among men than women during the current downturn,

At the same time, the duration of unemployment is at an all time high—lasting more than 7 months

Meanwhile, white collar professions aren’t doing too badly…relatively speaking. The financial sector’s unemployment rate despite a spike the past two years is under 6%, about half the national average. Again, Andrew Sum.

SUM: The architects of the disaster have not been strongly adversely affected. At the same time, the number of these banks and financial investment firms have been providing hundreds of billions of dollars to individuals, while, at the same time, there’s been hundreds of billions of dollars of losses of wages on the blue collar side.

Sum says Washington lawmakers need to more than just extend the length of unemployment benefits. He says it’s time for a targeted jobs program specifically for the Blue Collar workers.

Christopher: “This is indeed a one time chance in all of our lifetimes. But we need to keep in mind why we got involved with this issue to begin with. We need to focus our county on economic growth. That’s the only answer to almost every key critical question we have in this area.”

Christopher, along with Partnership President Joe Roman talked up some 2 billion dollars in development projects in the pipeline in downtown Cleveland and University Circle, and already largely funded – among them are a new convention center and medical mart, the Flats East Bank project, and a new casino – also courtesy of voters last November.

Joe Roman said despite tough economic times, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are in an enviable financial position.

Roman: “What we have in front of us, between potential savings that we’ve set as a goal for county reform, and new revenues for gaming, is a source for our county of almost 100 million dollars a year of discretionary power. 100 million dollars a year to help us grow this county.”

The GCP is actively campaigning for passage of two levies up for voter approval in May – renewal of Cuyahoga County’s Health and Human Services levy, and renewal of the state’s Third Frontier program, which is credited with creating some 48 thousand jobs in high tech industries but still faces an uphill climb, says Christopher:

Christopher: “As with Health and human Services, we can’t assume with confidence that the program’s success will carry the day as they would in normal economic times. We can’t risk anything, the polling is confirming that a significant campaign push for Issue one is an absolute must.”

The Greater Cleveland Partnership and its small business arm, the Council of Smaller Enterprises, boast more than 16,000 members. Christopher succeeds Henry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Keycorp.

The discounts date back to the 1970s, and many have claimed the company promised they would be permanent. Kucinich chairs the House Domestic policy Subcommittee. The investigation follows vigorous protests by owners of all-electric homes over skyrocketing electric bills this winter.

Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered First Energy to restore the discounts. But who will pay for it is a big question. Commissioner Alan Schreiber has directed the PUCO staff to come up with options for restructuring rates.

Schreiber: “There was an agreement set in ‘09 among all the parties that the company was entitled to a certain level of revenues. To the extent that we pull back with these discounts there’s going to be a shortfall in those revenues. Whether the stockholders pay for it, or whether this shortfall is spread across all others has yet to be determined.”

First Energy says, and Schreiber concurs, that the discounts have been subsidized by other ratepayers. Spokeswoman Ellen Raines says First Energy shouldn’t be expected to serve a portion of its customers at a loss, but that it’s willing to work with the PUCO and others to find a satisfactory solution.

He presented the magazine’s “Governor’s Cup” to Governor Ted Strickland at the sprawling Alcoa complex south of downtown Cleveland.

MARK AREND:
“We’re certainly impressed with all of the measures that the Governor’s Economic Development team is putting in place. It is just somewhat unusual to see one state win three and four times consecutively.”

Ohio won the award for its 381 qualifying projects - fewer than in 2008, but enough to once again edge runners-up Texas and Michigan.

The largest economic contributions cited were the $970 million dollar V&M Star Steel expansion in Youngstown - creating 400 jobs; Sandusky County’s $175 million Whirlpool investment, and Alcoa’s $111 million expansion in Cleveland and Cuyahoga Heights.

The impact of the award and the accompanying ten page spread in the magazine is hard to gauge, but Arend says their readership is primarily leaders of firms looking to invest or expand in the best possible business climate.

State Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel calls ‘that’; an Ohio strength.

LISA PATT-McDANIEL
“In a time when it’s been very difficult for companies to invest, and they’re thinking longer and harder about making those decisions, they are choosing Ohio more often because we are a place of opportunity and innovation.”

The magazine also touted Ohio’s lack of a general tax on corporate profits, the Third Frontier program, and an available work force with advanced educational degrees.

Port Authority Chief Operating Officer Brent Leslie says the agreement with F-M-T is meant to help keep the port—and manufacturers like Mittal Steel—competitive in the down economy.

“What we want to do is lower the company’s cost per ton for each ton that comes across the dock or when they go out and bid on business,” Leslie said. “We’ve done that by reducing their base rental, which is not tied to cargo.”

The Port has similarly altered its agreement with Carmeuse, another major tenant that operates the iron ore dock just west of the Cuyahoga.

Leslie says a recent reduction in staff has resulted in substantial savings for the port, allowing it to reduce rents and still operate in the black. The arrangement is temporary, and rents and fees will begin to return to previous terms as the economy improves.

Ford Motor Company says US sales accelerated 43% in February over the same month last year, and 8,000 of the vans it produces in Avon Lake were sold last month - a 26% increase.

General Motors reported February sales up across the board; with the four brands it plans to keep - Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC - up 32% over a year ago.

Chrysler says it’s sales were up by a small amount; for its Dodge, and Jeep brands too; but are the company’s first year-to-year increases in more than two years....

Robert Ebert is an economics professor at Baldwin Wallace college who studies the automotive industry…

PROFESSOR ROBERT EBERT:
“It’s not surprising that overall sales are up and it does look like there is some crossover from people who might have been buying Toyotas, moving over to Ford and GM.”

The Toyota recall of more than eight million cars could not have been better timed for beleaguered American auto makers he says. It’s top selling Camry model sales were down 20% in February. Ford and Chevrolet leadership openly credited parts of their increases, to Toyota’s temporary shutdown.

But the biggest winner may be the Chevrolet Cobalt, produced solely in Lordstown. 14,000 Cobalts sold last month is 70% better than February ‘09, coming even as the company prepares to shift production, to the new Cruze model.

Ebert says it’s very encouraging news for Northeast Ohio plants which had been struggling; and for the overall economy.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

WORLEY: “It all has to go.”

Penny Worley is president of Penny Worley auctioneers near Cincinnati. That’s one of the three auction houses with contracts from the FDIC to sell off all the leftover bits of failed banks.
WORLEY:“Everything from a 56 foot yacht to high tech conferencing systems, IT equipment, high end furniture.”

Worley and her competitors place these so-called “other assets” online for auction. The proceeds only go a small ways to make up the losses to the FDIC’s fund, but every bit helps.

Much of the furniture and computer equipment goes to small businesses.

But Worley says some have other ideas.

WORLEY: “There was an armored car in Florida that was being bid on by the owner of a strip club who had a clientele of rappers.”

BYERS: “I have a few rapper clients who come into my establishment now.”

Jason Byers is one of the owners of Vegas Showgirls in St. Petersburg.

BYERS: “They thought it was a really great concept to travel around in an armored car limo.”

Byers lost out on the armored car, but he keeps bidding on other stuff.

BYERS: “I’ve bought fireproof filing cabinets. Couches, TV’s. I’ve bought safes, under counter safes, big commercial safes, money counters.”

Those are particularly useful when your business involves a lot of dollar bills.

Byers says more people know about the auctions now. It’s harder to get a real steal. But he still thinks it’s an opportunity.

BYERS: “I’m 45 years old. This is the last time I’ll ever see the banks collapse like they’re doing so I gotta stock up on stuff that either I’m going to use or, if I don’t, I just sell it off to somebody else.”

Banks’ loss; Byers’s gain.

Some city departments even went before council having so drastically slashed their budget requests, that they were given more money, as the committees recognized how reduced staff and added responsibilities could strain certain units.

Council President Martin Sweeney.

MARTIN SWEENEY:
“They have such a discipline with director Dumas, the director of finance, we’re asking them what ‘they’ need, (laughs) cause its’ so tight.”

Sweeney says about the only difference the council and the city administration found on where to spend budget dollars… is a difference you’d notice while driving on the city’s roads.

MARTIN SWEENEY:
“Elimination of the local resurfacing. The administration is saying no resurfacing this year; the council is gonna, probably during reconciliation, talk about intensified crack-sealing maintenance program - to try and get some longevity to our streets.”

Some talks continue today, but Sweeney says there is no rush to talk about the budget during tonight’s council meeting.
Council will see the final budget ‘next’ Monday, then possibly make minor adjustments throughout the month.

The full budget must be approved by the council no later than April 1.

Eislestein: “First and foremost, provide rate relief to these customers and restore the discounts, and then give them time to appropriately and thoroughly focus on possible alternatives that will get them to the best long term solution when it comes to this issue.”

Governor Strickland has been exerting perhaps the most pressure to restore the discounts. Here’s his spokesperson, Amanda Wurst.

Wurst: “The Governor believes that it’s the dead of winter, we’re in the middle of a recession, and rate payers shouldn’t be paying these outragious amounts for electricity.”

But just how outrageous the undiscounted rates are depends on who you ask. First Energy maintains that all-electric homeowners were paying disproportionately low heating bills compared to those hammered by big spikes in natural gas prices several years ago.

Two weeks ago, to assuage angry customers, First Energy filed a proposal that would restore 80 percent of the discount, but then gradually eliminate it over the next several years. That proposal is still in play. Today, the company said it would work with the PUCO to resolve the issue, but any workable solution has to “reflect the cost incurred to serve those customers.”

Paul Bellamy, Director of Cuyahoga County’s Foreclosure Prevention Program, says those states were chosen because they had the highest percentage of mortgages with negative or near-negative equity, where people owe more than the property is worth. Michigan was ranked fourth by that measure, while Ohio ranked only twelfth. But if you look at the actual numbers, rather than percentages, Bellamy says the picture is very different.

Bellamy: “What we found is, because Ohio has more Mortgages than Michigan does, the actual number of families that who are in trouble as a result of negative equity, or being underwater on their mortgages, is very comperable. We’re right up their with Michigan.”

Yesterday, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis took those calculations to Washington, and included them in testimony before a subcommittee chaired by Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich, along with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Lake County Congressman Steve LaTourette and others, hope to convince the Obama administration to rethink its strategy for distributing recovered TARP funding for mortgage relief.

DCB: The most recent estimate for Cuyahoga County is 12,000 children and 15,000 adults --- and that dates back to 2006.

EW: How do they come up with those numbers?

DCB: Some researchers from the National Alliance to End Homelessness pulled those stats out of census data. As you know, the U.S. Census Bureau does a national headcount every ten years, but they still do some surveys in the years in between, but these are estimates…samples… not a complete count. So, the last time they did a sample was 2006 --- before the mortgage meltdown…before a lot more people started losing their homes. The numbers they get from this year’s count could be very different.

EW: But, I understand that may not be an easy thing to do.

DCB: Yes. Census officials and city planners have told me they’re concerned that people may not own up to the fact that they’re “doubled up”. Bob Brown, who heads the Cleveland Planning Commission, puts it this way:

ROBERT BROWN: There are a lot of households that are in temporary situations where they are doubling up with other family members. They and their host may not understand that they need to be counted at that location, and they may be easily missed because the Census worker doesn’t necessarily know that there’s another household here because it seems like a single house --- that’s going to be a real challenge, this time.

EW: I know in past years the Census Bureau has had problems counting the homeless population, but in this case, these are “homeless” people who are… living in homes --- other people’s homes.

DCB: Yeah, and the irony is that, in some cases, a person who lives out on the streets and sleeps in a homeless shelter at night has some advantages over the “doubled-up” person.

EW: How so?

DCB: Cyleste Collins, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University did a study on this. She says if you’re in a shelter, there are a lot of services and resources at your disposal.

CYLESTE COLLINS: You’ll have regular meals, they’ll probably make sure that you get to school, they might have job-training, they might have parent classes --- things like that. But, if you’re living on someone’s couch or sleeping on the floor of your friend or some relative, you might be totally invisible to the system.

DCB: For instance, the system doesn’t know about Bryan, a guy who’s living in a doubled-up situation on the west side of Cleveland --- lost his job...got divorced....he and his ex-wife had to sell their house for a lot less than it was originally worth. He’s still trying to adjust to this new reality of living in someone else’s living room. He told me he’s really starting to missing his medical insurance.

BRYAN: Everything costs so much money. I need to go to the dentist, actually. That’s a big one.

DCB: He’s heard that there are probably free or low-cost medical services that he’s eligible for. But, that idea rubs him the wrong way…says it’s a little embarrassing.

BRYAN: I don’t… (sighs)…I don’t like things for free. I don’t know. If it comes down to it, I guess I will.

EW: What’s it like for him to live doubled-up with someone else? Does that get awkward or embarrassing for him?

DCB: He’s not comfortable with the situation.

BRYAN: It’s kind of hard living here --- trust me.

DCB: You see, he’s living with… his ex-wife, Jennifer. It may not be the typical doubled-up situation, but it’s still awkward. But, Jennifer says there have been some benefits.

JENNIFER: It’s…we get along so much better. We’re friends now. I think we lost that in our marriage, and…I think we’re friends --- we’re good friends.

BRYAN: I stay in the front room, she’s upstairs. We don’t ever…I just…try not to think about it. As soon as I can get out, I will. But, I do owe her, I owe her a lot for helping me, because I don’t even know where I would have went.

JENNIFER: Until he gets a job and gets on his feet. I am not going to kick anybody out who doesn’t have a job.

DCB: Bryan’s moving day may be coming soon --- he had a job interview, last week.

BRYAN: I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched.

DCB: If things go smoothly, they’ll only have one more major hurdle --- the kids.

EW: They have children?

DCB: Well, they’re really a couple of dogs, named Dozer and Giggles. Jennifer doesn’t want to think about who gets custody.

JENNIFER: We don’t talk about that. (laughs weakly) It probably all depends on where he goes. I’m sure, starting out, he’s going to have to get an apartment. And then, go from there.

BRYAN: I don’t honestly know --- when I leave --- what we’re going to do.

LMN has long sought the opportunity, initially submitting convention center designs more than a decade ago - long before the medical mart component entered the mix.

MedMart operator MMPI’s Mark Falanga said LMN was not the company he initially thought would be chosen, but that it’s efforts won him over.

MARK FALANGA:
“LMN distinguished themselves amongst the best of the best, and we felt they were a clear winner in this project because there are such strengths that the brought to the particulars of our project here in Cleveland.”

Falanga noted LMN’s experience in designing underground facilities, and its expertise in sustainability. He pointed to LMN’s completion last year of parts of the Vancounver Convention Center, which is drawing rave reviews at the Olympics this month.

Anticipating backlash because LMN is not local, Jeffrey Appelbaum, the attorney hired by Cuyahoga County to guide the project, defended the company as being one of the nation’s elite architects, and stressed that the firms’ cost projections were also the best deal the county was offered - at about 2.5 million dollars.

Applebaum all but promised that while the architect may not be a Cleveland company - it will draw heavily from Cleveland to fill its support needs.

JEFFREY APPLEBAUM:
“There are going to be substantial opportunities to have some if not all of those roles filled by local businesses and local design professionals.”

The medical mart and convention center is still set for a 2013 opening.

“Companies that make glass for truck windshields, they can make glass for solar panels,” Brown said. “If they make gears for trucks they can make gearboxes for wind turbines. But they need help in the transistion, especially because of credit issues right now.”

Brown cites a new study released by the advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio that claims the bill could create up to 52 thousand jobs in Ohio over 10 years. The report was prepared by the The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts.

(Click on the audio above to hear and excerpt of Brown’s conference call with reporters.)

Plusquellic: “Because each city can develop their own plan and then the people can hold them accountable for what way, how they’re spending their money and I think that’s one of the emphasis I would like to place that we beef up those programs that have the most amount of help, the quickest and most effective way because it’s done locally.”

The Senate just passed a smaller jobs bill and money from the first stimulus package is still trickling into Ohio. But it has to pass through federal and then state agencies. Mayor Plusquellic says city officials can spend money faster than Washington or Columbus.

For 90.3, I’m Matt Laslo, Capitol News Connection in Washington.

Behm: “This is the first, I would say, denovo spinout that we’ve supported from scratch. We’ve certainly supported other spinouts as they’ve matured, and certainly case W4estern reserve University spinouts we’ve supported, but as far as taking something from scratch and building a company around it, this is the first time that the hospital’s taken the lead in this activity.”

Behm says there’s still a lot of development work to do before the treatment can be taken to market, and a commercial entity is in the best position to do it.

FTI is located within Akron’s Biomedical Corridor District, and is part of the Akron Global Business Accelerator’s growing cluster of domestic and international life sciences companies.

But by putting all these ideas together, backed by data, the researchers from the Brookings Institution and Greater Ohio, an organization that supports smart growth, hope that lawmakers will make these ideas a reality.

Bruce Katz heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, and he told reporters in a conference call last week that he wants lawmakers to make tough decisions, like creating a commission to reduce the number of school districts.

KATZ: These are the kinds of tough choices we think Ohio needs to make on governance so you can begin to invest in what really matters as you begin to move toward this new economy.

Among those attending the unveiling will be Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher. With 2010 a crucial election year, including a race for governor, this report is clearly timed to try and influence the debate.

Shaenig: First Energy had a very strong marketing program to encourage all-electric homes. We were promised the rate was permanent. First Energy paid this marketing staff. First Energy paid builders like Bob Schmidt th ousands and thousands of dollars to sell all electric homes. We believe that First Energy is guilty of fraud. thousands and thousands aggressive We believe that First Energy is guilty of fraud.

Shaenig says his electric bill has doubled this winter over last - to about 900 dollars a month.

Rich Jordan tells a similar story, and isn’t just upset about monthly bills.

Jordan: “You try to sell a house that has an 800 dollar electric bill on it, you’ll never sell that house.”

Many at the hearing blamed the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the Ohio Consumers’ Council, a utility watchdog agency, for not looking out for their interests.

First Energy, under pressure from the OCC, the governor’s office, and some state legislators, has put forth a compromise proposal that would initially restore as much as 80 percent of the discount. But that would be phased out over time, and all-electric rate-payers will see their bills rise substantially each year. That’s fair, says First Energy spokesman Mark Durbin. He says other rate pate payers - those that heat with natural gas and pay a far higher rate per kwh for the electricity they do use - are subsidizing the discount.

Durbin: “And when we’re trying to move all the customers toward more of a standard rate, there are going to be some people who will be affect6ed differently. And again, the filing we made with the Public Utilities Commission is trying to mitigate the somewhat.”

Durbin would not say that eliminating the discount for all electric homeowners would have much positive affect for everyone else.

State Senator Timothy Grendell of Chesterton - acting as a private attorney - has filed a class action lawsuit against First Energy, and is also considering introducing legislation that would restore the old rates. He’s holding another hearing on the matter tonight in Strongsville.

Bill Rice, 90.3

ROBERT REIDY: I’ve got about 280 here. The people who signed these are in favor of immigration reform and they’re calling for these Senators and Congressmen should do everything in their power to make this happen.

Piles of similar postcards are being delivered to all of Northeast Ohio’s Congressional delegation. It’s part of a nationwide ecumenical effort that backs legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in this country and have a legal route to citizenship.

A recent federal report estimates that there are as many as 11 million undocumented immigrants across the U.S. --- about 95,000 in Ohio. Opponents of liberalized immigration say legalizing those already here is a disservice to the millions waiting in in line who’re following immigration rules. Rev. Tracey Lind of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral says she realizes that Congress is currently pre-occupied with a troubled economy and healthcare reform, but…

TRACEY LIND: ...I rank this as just important as economic issues and healthcare and education, because I think it’s part of the fabric of our nation. And it is a part of the economy, and I think we need to not to be the underground economy.

Attempts at immigration reform in 2006 and 2007 failed to gain traction in Congress, and the Obama administration isn’t expected to bring the issue up again until later this year.

The 260,000-square-foot new tech center along South Main Street maintains the company’s 110-year presence in the city. Though it still manufacturers racing tires locally, Firestone merged with Bridgestone in 1988 and moved it’s Rubber City headquarters to Nashville four years later.

More importantly, as Congressman Tim Ryan put it - it helps place a stopper over the so-called Brain Drain.

TIM RYAN
“Young people who have left this community want to come back here, and to see these jobs open up, these high-tech, well-paying jobs open up here, gives these young people an opportunity to come back to where they grew up.”

(Sounds of ground breaking, “1,2,3 - shovels of dirt dumped on carpet)

Shoveling away the frozen earth alongside Ryan were Governor Strickland and Lt. Governor Fisher, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, Summit County Executive Russ Pry, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, and the CEO’s and top executives from both Bridgestone’s Nashville and Tokyo Headquarters.

To Akron, the groundbreaking is tangible proof that this $100 million project is real—that 1,000 jobs have been prevented from leaving town —and as County Executive Pry says—that Akron - has turned the corner.

RUSS PRY:
“The investment that Bridgestone makes shows the rest of the country and the rest of the world… Summit County and Akron is a great place to come and do business.”

Bridgestone hopes workers will be in the building by late 2011.

Karen Ponza, a staffer at the Cleveland Food Bank, says in Northeast Ohio the numbers are nearly as staggering.

KAREN POZNA:
“In the Cleveland Food Bank region we are also seeing a 40% increase in the clients that we serve annually.”

That translates to serving more than 223-thousand people in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Ashland, and Richland counties, and boosts the number of people in need to about 12% of all residents.

Just west of Cuyahoga County the numbers are significantly worse. In Lorain, Erie Huron and Crawford Counties - all served by the Second harvest Food Bank of Northern Ohio - 77 thousand, or 16 percent of all residents, are seeking food assistance - an increase of 134 percent since 2006.

The survey doesn’t provide county-by-county statistics, but both Food Banks determine where increases are greatest by the goods being provided, of their combined total of more than 33 million pounds of food distributed last year.
Karen Pozna.

KAREN POZNA:
“We’re really putting in the effort to research where the need is increasing. We work with First Call for Help where they have increases in calls, trying to make sure that those areas are covered.”

Chief among recipients are 118,000 children whose families received food from area pantries.

Some less populated portions of the state actually fared worse statistically than Northeast Ohio, but the sheer numbers of recipients here is adding impetus to upcoming food drives, across the region.

RTA’s $225 million operating fund is about 21 million dollars less than 2009’s, but that includes ten million dollars in state and federal contributions that so far, have not been approved.

CEO and General Manager Joe Calabrese maintains the bus and route cuts, the jobs lost, and RTA keeping what had once been billed as a `temporary’ fare increase to combat fuel costs… were all made necessary by the slumping economy.

JOE CALABRESE:
“There’s less revenue coming in to the authority. With less revenue coming in, primarily in terms of sales tax because of the recession, we simply can’t spend as much as we wanted to spend, or I think as many of our customers would like us to spend.”

Sales tax makes up about 65% of the RTA budget, but the 2009 revenues were more than $17 million short of 2008’s.

Calabrese hopes an economic rebound will not only place more job-bound passengers on busses and trains, but boost the taxes the authority receives from Cuyahoga County.

To add to its difficulties, the company continues negotiating an expired contract with transportation union workers, while the current contract with the Police Union, expires in less than two weeks.

The reconfigured budget left no room for pay increases to either bargaining unit.

It’s also worth noting that ongoing major RTA projects at several sites around the county are being paid for by stimulus dollars, and will not be impacted by the reduced budget.

The state committed 20 million dollars in federal stimulus funds for road and rail upgrades.

The pipe mill is expected to begin producing toward the end of 2011. Full production is expected to be reached by the end of 2012. Company officials say hiring of additional maintenance workers and specialized production workers will start in about six months. Regular production workers will be brought on later.

V&M Star is considering building a melting shop in the future. State and local officials hope the expansion will attract other finished product companies to locate nearby.

Ida: We are standing near the largest stimulus project in the Great Lakes region to make the point that stimulus money – to the tune of 121 million dollars – is on the way right here. It’ll finance a huge makeover, and it will create hundreds of jobs. It’s just that the money isn’t here yet, and neither are the jobs.

Eric: Yeah they’re clearly not working on it yet. Do we know when work will start?

Ida: Well the project is still in the design phase, and they plan to start swinging hammers at the end of this year and that’s pretty typical of Stimulus money…less than half of it has been spent so far, and projects that are funded are just getting started.

Eric: Well, some people are clearly better off….those who actually can point to stimulus spending and say…that’s the reason I got my job. You went looking for examples of that…

Ida: Yeah I looked around on internet tracking sites and on foot…well, by car anyway…around North East Ohio to get a good sense of what some of the $1.7 billion dollars that Ohio has been spent has gone to so far. I talked to close to 30 people, including folks at NEON Health Services on Hough Road. They provide healthcare regardless of how much the patient can pay, even if they’re uninsured.//

NEON Health Services’ Hough Road facility in Cleveland got about 2.5 million dollars from the Stimulus Bill. They used part of that to extend their hours; in fact they doubled them. And to do that, they hired about 6 people.

Hairston: I was unemployed for 4 or 5 months.

That’s John Hairston. He’s one of the more than 24,000 Ohioans reported on the government website recovery.gov, to have a job created or saved by the Stimulus Bill He was hired at NEON last fall as a physician’s assistant, and he says he loves his job.

Hairston: I’m grateful I’m truly grateful, I’m not unemployed anymore so…

The rest of that $ 2.5 million is going to some renovations and construction at NEON Health Services, but that money hasn’t been spent yet.

The story is the same elsewhere though; The Cleveland Clinic is using most of its 20 million dollars of stimulus money to fund research projects. Dr. Paul DiCorleto is the chair of the Lerner Research Institute at the Clinic; he estimates this will create between 50 and 100 jobs when all the money is spent.

DiCorleto: 38 different projects are being funded through this mechanism, which vary from projects on vaccines for breast cancer all the way to Parkinson’s disease, so it’s really a broad spectrum of projects.

Case Western Reserve University has more than 150 different projects that are being paid for …at least in part…with stimulus money. At a lab in the school of nursing, the focus is on figuring out how to accommodate people with disabilities so they can participate in research trials.

Some of it’s going to graduate student Brian Wodlinger.

Durand: A little bit.
Woodlinger: Some, yeah.

Something like 200 people at Case are being paid with the help of the Stimulus Bill. Wodlinger is working with lead researcher Dominique Durand. They’re trying to figure out get the nervous system to control and move artificial limbs. Sounds a lot like science fiction, but Durand hopes that his work will be used in practice in the next decade. Durand got about $150,000 dollars for his project, which helps pay for part of the equipment and salaries in his lab.

Durand: This supplemental money from the economic recovery package is incredibly helpful but it’s a small amount and it’s limited in time.

Since the Stimulus grants often come as a bundle, mixed in with other funding sources, it’s not always that easy to tell where the money came from, or what it’s going to. Ron Cole is a spokesperson for Youngstown State University, which has received over 7.7 million stimulus dollars.

Cole: It’s really hard to say exactly what we would have done if we had been faced with that sort of situation but I think it’s fair to say that reductions in personnel could have been one of the items on the table at one point.

One of the most puzzling and frustrating aspects of stimulus funding is how little it has helped the construction trades. Ohio will be getting $774 million dollars for infrastructure improvements but again not a lot of that’s been spent yet. Instead of working, many construction workers find themselves idle or killing time doing things like taking safety classes at their union offices.

Tim Sternisa is one of the students at the laborers’ union safety training. He’s been a construction worker for 23 years, and he says his story is pretty typical of most construction workers.

Sternisa: Past year’s been really slow with the economy being down. There hasn’t been much work coming through with the contractor I’m currently with now, so it’s been a lot of unemployment.

Things have been rough at the executive level too. Kurt Knapp is VP of Heavy Industrials at Great Lakes Construction based in Hinckley, Ohio. Knapp says although they’ve worked on several Stimulus funded projects, the last year has meant layoffs.

Knapp: Upwards of 25% of our industry find themselves unemployed.

Like the Federal building downtown, which won’t see any shovels in the ground for another year, the Ohio Department of Transportation says many of their Stimulus funded projects are just now getting under way. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration and Congress are considering a new jobs bill. Whether the accomplishments of the last one will help passage…. or hurt….is hard to tell…but it is clear that the overall jobs picture isn’t better this year than last.

Dorband: “Getting food from a distance that’s within in our minds let’s say 100 miles from where it’s produced is becoming very attractive in today’s marketplace.”

Dorband sees the former Lorain Ford plant, which has already been partially re-purposed - as well-suited and easily adaptable. There’s plenty of space - out of five and a half million square feet, only about a million are currently in use - and all the necessary systems like heating and electrical are already in place.

As for the fish farm itself, the plan calls for a fully self contained and self-sustaining facility. Tanks housing the fish would have water circulating through them to carry away the waste - the fish feces - which would would be used to fertilize hydroponic plant material in a second tank. That plant material would be composted to raise worms, which in turn would be used to feed the fish. No pollution, no need to deplete wild fish stocks for feed, and - if the system is designed right - no need for extensive use of antibiotics.

Dorband says this kind of state-of-the-art food production for local consumption already has a track record. He describes one facility already up and running in Milwaukee.

Dorband: “For about five years now a two-and-a-half acre urban agriculture production facility - most of which is aquaculture based - is producing enough food to feed 50 thousand people in a two-and-a-half acre site. And there are a number of those kinds of projects initiating around the country. So we’re kind of excited to be at the front end of something that we think can have really dramatic growth in a really short time frame.”

Dorband says the only thing standing in the way of his company’s project is financing.

Soroka: What our best customers told us is that when they need good financial advice it’s too hard for them to make it in between 9 to 5. They need more convenient hours more days a week.

Bill Mahnic thinks there’s more to this story. He’s a Banking and Finance professor at Case Western Reserve University, and he says this goes back to PNC’s takeover of National City Bank more than a year ago. While that is water under the bridge, the changes for the customers are just now rolling out.

Mahnic: PNC has already notified National City Customers, I’m one of them, that I’m going to get a new ATM card, that my checking account number’s going to change, I may have to change my pin code to access my ATM so when you have changes in operating platforms it impacts consumers. Now most consumers don’t like change.

Mahnic says former customers of Amtrust Bank, soon to be New York Community Bank, will probably be getting similar notifications near the end of this summer. Some of those customers might also be attracted by Huntington’s expanded hours, though Huntington says changes at other banks had nothing to do with its decision. This is a big move for the bank - it meant hiring 150 new employees and investing millions of dollars. Analysts say other banks probably won’t follow suit any time soon - at least not until it’s clear the risk paid off for Huntington.

A 2nd report… also from the state department of jobs and family services, looked at data for the last two years and that turned up an attention getting result. The number of jobs lost across Cuyahoga County’s suburbs for the first time since the recession began, are far outpacing jobs losses in the city of Cleveland.

Economic analyst George Zeller says the historic drop of manufacturing jobs ‘had been’ concentrated inside the city. But now…

GEORGE ZELLER:
“The figures are hitting firms that are located out in the suburbs, and even `harder’ than they did in the city for the last two years - that’s startling!”

Cuyahoga suburbs lost more than 35-thousand jobs between 2007-2009, 6 times more than Cleveland.
And the cuts struck some crucial industries.

ZELLER:
“Manufacturing going way down and also finance and insurance going way down at same time, has ended up having effects that are not just in the inner city, they’re all over the county.”

Jobs were also down by as much as 30% in Utilities, Information, Construction, and the Retail sector.
Among the few bright spots; were small employment increases in select industries.

ZELLER:
“The most notable example of that is in health care and social assistance. The health services jobs, in the city `and’ in the suburbs, actually grew.”

Oh yes. One more sector showed job growth in the county. The federal government.

The two officials fielded listener questions on The Sound of Ideas, yesterday, and one point of contention arose over the extent to which the public will be involved in the planning process. While emphasizing the importance of public input, Zanotti said that some meetings would have to be private due to sheer logistics.

MARTIN ZANOTTI:It’s not practical to expect every single meeting can be open to media questions and those things. Reports will be made, the information will be made public, but there are going to be times times where people actually need to sit in a room of five or six people and just be able to do some work.

When it was suggested that perhaps an unobtrusive web camera could be set-up to broadcast such proceedings on the internet, Zanotti didn’t totally dismiss the idea, but noted that some of those meetings will involve sensitive issues, such as the elimination of some county jobs and that it would be important to maintain some level of privacy for those affected. Former county commissioner and state lawmaker Tim McCormack has a different take.

TIM McCORMACK: If you’re conducting the public’s business, then the meeting should be open.

McCormack was on the Judiciary committee that wrote Ohio’s Sunshine law for public meetings, and while acknowledging that there may be some exceptions when it comes to people’s privacy, he says there’s a larger issue of regaining the public’s trust in government, across the board.

TIM McCORMACK: The roughest days may be ahead of us, in terms of federal government action, and the erosion of confidence is ahead of us in even a more significant way. So, now is the time to draw just the opposite by restoring some confidence.

These days, she’s working just twenty hours a week at a staffing agency in Brunswick, OH called The Reserves Network.

It’s not an ideal situation, but her new bosses Kent McNickle and Marilyn Szendrey definitely appreciate her help.

McNICKLE: “We can take advantage of her expertise.”
SZENDREY: “She’s educated, she’s skilled.”
McNICKLE: “Quite an asset to us right now in her role.”

Giguere ended up here after she lost her job at an auto parts producer at the height of the recession.

GIGUERE: “On tax day, April 15, I was downsized…”

As an HR person, she knew what to expect.

GIGUERE: “That I’d probably be asked to leave right away, and it’s just very shocking, very very shocking.”

So she gathered her things and called her connections at The Reserves Network, which had been her client.

GIGUERE: “They knew I was looking and Marilyn said I’ll watch for any opportunity and we’ll look for any opportunity to have you work in our office. “

It took a few months, but the agency found her a part time gig. She now helps the team place temp workers. But it’s really an entry-level position. And, a huge drop in income.

GIGUERE: “Oh, it’s enormous. Not even 50%.”

That puts Pam Giguere among the nearly nine million Americans who are underemployed. They’re still working, but only part time.

SUM: “Not only do they receive this large cutback in hours, but we also find these individuals also take a large cut in pay. So their hourly wage also falls.”

Andrew Sum is a labor economist at Northeastern University in Boston. He says underemployment has more than doubled in the last two years, a bigger rise than at any time since World War II.

SUM: “This is far greater than any of the previous 5 recessions in the US. So this problem has become extraordinarily intense.”

Sum says there are two kinds of underemployment. Employees still working at the same company, but with their hours drastically cut back. Or, those like Pam Giguere. They were laid off and could only get part time work.

SUM: “That group is the one that typically undergoes the large wage decline.”

It’s much harder to track other kinds of underemployment such as people working below their skill sets, or those who were laid off and then work on contract or individual projects. According to a survey by the online job board CareerBuilder last August, 64 percent of seekers applied for jobs below the level of their last employment. Many were told they’re overqualified.

But experts say finding some work, even if it’s beneath you, can help long term.

STITT: “There’s a lot of that kind of thing going on.”

Debra Stitt is a recruiter in Cleveland.

STITT: “People are really taking a step back, saying, OK, you know, ten years ago I did that. I can do that again.”

With so many people both out of work and underemployed, Stitt says companies can be harsh.

STITT: “I have employers who say ‘don’t send me anyone who’s unemployed. Don’t want to talk to them.’ Right or wrong, that’s the thinking, because they think good employees aren’t laid off.”

Pam Giguere holds out hope that continuing to work in her field, even for low pay, will help make her more attractive to potential employers.

GIGUERE: “The good thing is that I know it all takes time. I know they’re overwhelmed with resumes. And if people apply online, people without skills apply for your jobs, and it’s very overwhelming. And, it does take time. And it is disheartening.”

After all those years in HR, she knows how it works on both sides.

The increase came largely from Lorain County homeowners simply not paying property taxes, and then being foreclosed on by the county. Foreclosures due to tax delinquency were four times greater that those resulting from mortgage defaults.

Lorain County Clerk of Courts Ron Nabakowski believes this is a new phenomenon stemming from mortgage walkaways.

Mike Schramm of CASE Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences agrees. He says his research in Cuyahoga County points to increased numbers of walkaway homeowners. And, he suspects BANKS are ALSO walking away rather than foreclosing.

MIKE SCHRAMM:
..and the reason could be, and i stress could be… banks making decisions to not file on delinquent mortgages in the neighborhood in which foreclosed properties are in essence worthless.”

Schramm says banks’ reluctance to file has falsely stabilized inner city foreclosure numbers - and makes the suburban, and outlying county spikes, far more noticeable.

TeGreene: “We had an appraisal that the properties were worth 24 million dollars, so we think the county got a good deal and the county thinks we got a good deal. But that’s what negotiation is all about.”

The contract gives the county the ability to back out of the deal should plans for the facility change.

Now, there’s just one more parcel the county needs for the medical mart - the Sportsman’s restaurant that sits between the two other properties. County Administrator Jim McCafferty says talks with the owner have been reopened.

Bill Rice, 90.3.

For instance, Dike 14, is a nature preserve created out of dredging material from the river.

But in two years, the Army Corps is expected to run out of space at its current locations, so it’s looking for a new place to dump. All this comes as the Port is considering moving to a location just north of E 55th street, making way for a planned mixed use development on the waterfront downtown. Bob Brown is Cleveland’s planning director.

BROWN: The idea is that since the Army Corps has to build a new land mass in the lake anyway-they have to do it to keep the river open-why not make double use of that and have it serve its main purpose, and also, potentially, become the new home for the port of Cleveland.

In other words, where they put dredged up earth in the next couple of years, will dictate a lot about the location, size, and shape of a new port over the long term. The Port plans to create a task force out of the summit to help make some of these decisions.

Despite the seeming finality of the decision, Dallas Sells, the Ohio Director of the Workers United Union - an affiliate of SEIU - says he doesn’t accept it.

Sells: “We are not going to give up. We’re going to fight. We think we can change this decision.”

Hugo Boss purchased the plant in 1995 from the 150-year-old Joseph & Feiss Co. Its most upscale suits retail for more than a thousand dollars. Sells argues that the company is profitable and growing, and the union is waging a PR campaign against the move.

Sells: “We want to get the message out about how Hugo Boss is dealing with the situation in Cleveland Ohio, and dealing with workers who have been here for 40 years - some of them - have raised their children, have sent them to college, and are now throwing them out on the street. We think that’s an untenable position just fort the the sake of what is really an insignificant amount of money.”

Ohio Senator Sherrod brown met with union workers Monday in a session that excluded media. Brown says he’s exploring every possible avenue to keep the factory open, including trying to find a company willing to buy the plant. But he’s not optimistic, and says it’s another example of the United States letting its industrial base move out of the country.

Brown: “American goods are very good quality, competitively priced, but companies can make more sometimes when they’re paying abysmally low wages abroad. That policy’s got to change in this country.”

President Obama has also said as much - as recently as during last week’s State of the Union address. But there’s been virtually no movement in Congress to pass any punitive tax measures to keep jobs from moving offshore, and even if there was, foreign-owned companies would probably not lose much.

Meanwhile, Hugo Boss appears steadfast in its decision. In a written statement Monday it said it’s reaching out to the union to offer support to displaced workers when the plant closes.

Calderwood was walking his dog last Monday afternoon when he heard a loud noise behind him. The blast almost knocked him off his feet.

Calderwood: So I got about half a block away, the neighbor down the street grabbed my dog and says check on your house, give me your dog. I come down here and I was still about 5 houses down and I looked and my porch is gone. So I thought my house blew up.

Had he been home at the time, Calderwood would not have survived the blast. He says the house next door sat unoccupied for 3 years now, and recently looters have been coming around to empty it of any remaining furniture or piping. And then there was that gas smell many of the neighbors say they complained about, including Calderwood.

Calderwood: I smell gas right now!

Fire crews and Dominion East Ohio gas are still investigating the cause of the explosion. We tried several times to talk with EZ Access, the owner of the house, but they never returned phone calls. A local lawyer who represents them said he is not ready to comment at this time.

EZ Access owns about 80 other properties in Cuyahoga County. Records from the County Recorders office show they buy some from individuals, others they purchase in bulk for about $500 dollars a piece from other similar investment companies, or often from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Then EZ Access turns around and sells the houses to investors in California, often managing to get as much as 20-thousand dollars a piece. As part of the deal, they promise to renovate the houses so they can be resold at a good profit by the new buyer. One of those buyers was David Barnes.

Barnes: In my opinion EZ Access- they’re crooks. They didn’t do anything that they – the promised a whole lot and they didn’t deliver very much.

Barnes is from California too, where he went to several meetings by EZ Access and was convinced to buy 2 homes in Cleveland and 2 more in Detroit for 22-thousand dollars each. He’s been spending a lot of time in Ohio lately, cleaning up those houses because EZ Access never did.

Barnes: They claimed they would put them in livable and marketable condition and they rarely if ever did anything like that. The two properties that I own here in Cleveland they got them close but there were still repairs that I had to end up getting out of pocket myself.

Barnes just finished putting a new roof on his house on West 105th street. Cleveland Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka says absentee landlords used to live in the suburbs of the cities where they rented out houses, but these days they often live out of state or even out of country. Pianka says this kind of detached ownership lends itself to disregard for the neighborhood and criminal conduct.

Pianka: The illegality comes in if they fail to disclose code violations, if they fail to file with the city the disclosure, and if they fail to repair the code violations that they’ve received notice of.

County Treasurer Jim Rokakis says he sees this sort of thing all the time.

Rokakis: There are dozens of companies like EZ Access. We estimate, and these are studies done by the folks and NEO CANDO and NPI that at least 80 % of properties that have been foreclosed, we’re talking thousands, have already been dumped by the major players to companies that buy these props in bulk.

And many of these long-distance landlords don’t pay their taxes on time.

Rokakis: The unpaid taxes on these totals millions of dollars and we’re going after these companies not just EZ Access but others to collect these back taxes.

From a review of records from the Cuyahoga County Auditors office, EZ Access owes almost $250 thousand dollars in back taxes on their various properties here.

The January 25th explosion has heightened the anxiety of others in Northeast Ohio living near abandoned, unkempt homes, especially those near the West 83rd street area, like Anthony Zarzour.

Zarzour: I live like 15-20 houses up, and I still felt it. But I have 2 abandoned houses that are across from me and I’m worried about those two – about people getting into those.

Zarzour wonders too if more of these houses area a safety hazard, and whether anyone will find out in time to prevent another tragedy. Good questions.

**ideastream ’s Jack Helbig and Mhari Saito helped out with this story.

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