Why it will be hard to make Cleveland great again: Adrienne Arsenault

Donald Trump's unavoidable "Make America great again" slogan is an awfully enticing thing to keep saying in Cleveland, the city where he came to claim the Republican Party nomination for U.S. president.

It's a place where the ghosts of its former glory peek out past the weeds consuming entire blocks of now-abandoned buildings.

So, to be great again would suit Cleveland just fine.

But just what, asks Cleveland demographer Richey Piiparinen, does a sentence like that mean for a place like this.

"They're not talking about jobs, they're talking about identity politics. I haven't heard anything about what are we going to do about the real hard core," he said.

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"What are we going to do with a lot of folks from Cleveland who have been dislocated from manufacturing and industry?"

'Ruin porn'

When we asked Piiparinen where best to meet in the city, he suggested the skeleton of an old tool-and-die factory.

The shadows cast from sunbursts through the decaying roof and broken windows make the place curiously beautiful.

He calls it "ruin porn" and Cleveland is full of it. Occasionally old structures get new lives. But that doesn't happen nearly often enough.

Once, in the early 20th century, when steel and manufacturing were king, this city flush with money and mansions had the sixth largest economy in the United States.

But the economy shifted and over the decades Cleveland shed half its population, was called the poorest city in the land a decade ago and still tries to shake off the label of "the mistake on the lake."

All is not entirely lost. There is a burgeoning new economy in the health-care industry in Cleveland; the downtown core is starting to draw millennials.

And the city's mood surged on June 22 this year when the Cavaliers won the NBA championships and paraded through downtown.

Cleveland needed the lift on that day in particular. Forty-seven years ago to that day, the CuyahogaRiver was so thick with pollution it burst into flames. Cleveland has been trying to erase that badge of dishonour for a long time.

But Piiparinen says it's too easy to declare that Cleveland is back because the new growth isn't helping all here, particularly not those in the poorer black neighbourhoods of the city's east side.

Despair endures

They are in decline while other neighbourhoods are in the rise.

"It's those economies that haven't reattached into the knowledge economy," he says, that he is most worried about.

And he is certain the economic displacement feeds the despair and violence those communities endure.

"Repurpose lives," not just buildings, he says, that would make America great again.

In one of those embattled neighbourhoods, there is a small pagoda that for nearly 18 months has been stalled in grief.

It still overflows with toys and cards in memory of a 12-year-old gunned down here by police.

They had received a report of a minor playing with what the caller thought was a toy gun. It was. But within two seconds of arriving on scene, police had shot Tamir Rice. He died a few hours later.

So to ask the question what would "make America great again" here is to get repeated calls for a higher minimum wage.

Clevelanders share their vision of America

8 years ago

Duration 1:01

Four Cleveland residents riff on Donald Trump's mantra, "Make America Great Again," and tell CBC's Adrienne Arsenault what would make their lives better.

But asking the question also earns some headshaking and stares.

One of the longest and hardest stares comes from Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother.

"He was still watching Curious George and Big Red Dog and Comfy Couch. He was only 12 for five months," she said, still stunned that this happened to a child.

Rice vowed not to go anywhere near the Republican convention this week. She said it wastoo risky. For the record, she isn't much interested in the Democratic one either.

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But for Donald Trump, she has a question.

"What is your plan to make America great again? What is your plan?I'd like to see it. I'm sure it's not going to be what I want," she said.

And what is it she wants?

"We need to start opening a dialogue about racism and police brutality."

As for that single word "again" in Trump's slogan, Rice has an issue.

"It was never great," she said. "How can it be great when we were still in poverty and oppressed for many, many years?"

'Something is wrong'

Rice said she is an utterly changed woman, and how could she not be.

In November of 2014, she was at home making lasagna for her four kids when she got that knock on the door.

Her grief forced her, she says, to educate herself about just how acute the economic and social problems are in the United States.

The more she learned about the state of relations with police, the more it shocked even her. She confesses before that day, she was just living her life and worrying about her own family.

"Something is wrong in America," she said.

It certainly is in her city of Cleveland, where the fractures are growing and the future is far from clear.

It may have had the good fortune of the brief boost of hosting the Republican convention.

But the convention is over and the concept of how to make this place great again is aquestion left unanswered.

Making Cleveland great again

8 years ago

Duration 3:38

Adrienne Arsenault asks people in Cleveland if they think they have a shot at being great again.