The following is a response to Cleveland.com's editorial "Slavic Village is battling back against the foreclosure crisis"

During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together I worked to promote community organizing in Slavic Village to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner. During that time, Slavic Village {Ward 12} was represented by current City of Cleveland Director of Building and Housing Edward W. Rybka and the former Broadway Area Housing Coalition nka Slavic Village Development headed then by current Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli. Needless to say, it did not take long for our organization to clash with the former Councilman's housing group. Their primary objective was to build and rehabilitate housing without any real regard for the other issues affecting the residents and business owners. Ms. Kitteredge illustrates this by clearly stating "rehabbed homes are sold using attractive financing...for families with ruined credit." As expected, her article mentions nothing about improving the quality of life for the people who have lived and worked there all their lives. What about them? Don't they count too?

Just as with other unscrupulous investors Slavic Village Development took the worst houses and put people {white and black} in them who had no ability {or desire} to pay. In fact, once they completed their first rehabilitation on any given street that house soon became a haven for various social malcontents. Once the "single apple spoiled the barrel" the remaining law-abiding residents moved thus adding further to the catastrophe. Now Ms. Kitteredge wants us to believe that Slavic Village is "moving from the epicenter of foreclosure to the epicenter of recovery" where, in fact, the organization she heads is the one that contributed most to the present crisis. Perhaps these "state, local and national funders" need to investigate why Slavic Village has the most foreclosures? who benefited financially? and who has the power to cover it up? Let's start peeling back the onion.

Submitted by Joe Bialek from Cleveland