"WHAT
KIND OF PLACE IS THIS?"
The Housing
Office became the target of dissatisfaction among some Cleveland
blacks, especially those who wanted to move to changing
neighborhoods in Shaker Heights. Winston Richie remembers the
typical reaction: "What kind of place is this? They have enough
blacks; they're trying to keep us out; they've reached their
quota."
One of the
most persistent critics of Shaker Heights' housing policies has
been real estate broker Richard Harvey, former chairman of both the
Cleveland Association of Real Estate Brokers and the area chapter
of the National Organization of Black Real Estate Brokers. His
views of the prointegrationist program are unequivocal:
This
program is offensive to African Americans. Integration maintenance
is to maintain the status quo that existed in Shaker Heights....
When minority population reaches 30 percent African American, it
ignites unfounded fear, which means they [the city] have to put in
place programs that maintain that ratio. They call that integration
maintenance.
To the
distress of many Shaker Heights residents, two black and three
white Housing Office staff members quit in protest in 1978,
charging that the agency pursued a policy that deemphasized service
for blacks in designated neighborhoods. Specifically, they
declared, though black buyers with the means to move into North
Shaker could get some loans through the Moreland Community
Association and the Shaker Communities Development Foundation,
black families were given too little assistance overall.
The walkout
caused some Shaker residents to refocus their attention on the
segregation still in their midst. Census data showed that 69
percent of the blacks in Shaker Heights lived in two census tracts
that were more than 40 percent black; 68 percent of the whites
lived in four tracts that were at least 90 percent white. Some
people suggested that racial disparities among Shaker Heights
neighborhoods would have been even more pronounced had not large
numbers of Cleveland black families begun, in the 1970s, to move to
adjoining Cleveland Heights, also on Cleveland's border, where
modestly priced homes were more plentiful.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS
The first
black families who moved to Cleveland Heights were greeted by a
series of troubling incidents, including a firebombing, so the City
Council acted quickly to avert further incidents. It sent an open
letter to all residents, stating the city's commitment to diversity
and welcoming newcomers of all races and religions. It also
attempted to ease tensions by creating a new position, Commissioner
of Community and Public