North Randall - The Death of a Village

The Plain Dealer has a story about the slowly dying Village of North Randall and the problem of what to do with it.

At one time Randall Mall & Thistledown was pretty much the main attractions in this town. With their slow death, the village appears to be following that same path...

From the PD --

Now most of the big-box stores have shuttered, Thistledown race track struggles to compete with out-of-state tracks, and the once-mighty Randall Park Mall is moribund. A fifth of its area remains a parking lot wasteland.

Now, the village can't afford to police itself and its 850 residents at night.

Its very survival seems to hinge on redeveloping the mall -- or anything.

Without reinvigoration, without taxes to pay off its debt and for its services, the village could cease to exist, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said.

"If things don't happen within the next several months . . . then you have a bigger problem," Jones said. "You have a question of whether North Randall can sustain itself." More...

The surrounding cities are already facing budget crunches, so annexing North Randall into them would obviously increase their current woes. The $50,000 a year, part-time Mayor of North Randall, David Smith, says they will not give up and will continue fighting to stay alive.

The village is already cut down to a bare minimum in staffing, has cut many routine benefits for employees and is being patrolled by the Cuyahoga County Sherrif Dept at night due to a lock of policemen.

Earlier this year the village made the Cuyahoga County Commissioners aware of their poor finances and requested the County Sherrif patrol the village at night. Sheriff McFaul felt as head law enforcement officer for the county, and for the safety of residents, that they were duty bound and morally bound to fullfill this request on a temporary basis.

Many of the elected talking heads can cite this as a reason for regionalism. I would say it is the exact resaon why shared services is good, but the "regionalism concept" is an empty idea that earns sound bytes and will not work. The Village of North Randall has seen this day coming - they did not prepare. That is not the fault of other cities! This exemplifies one of the main problems of regionalism.... how will cities with better finances and services feel when they have to pony up for cities with poor finances and lack of city services.

This shows that while regionalism sounds good - the reality of it doesn't feel so good. You doubt me? Well, lets use the mutant headed Cuyahoga County Commisioner for example --

Hagan the loud-mouth of the push for reform can usually be heard giving the cue card talking points on the so-called benefits of regionalism. When asked to put his money where his mouth is and back it up with action by helping North Randall patrol their streets - Hagan proved to be nothing more than a talking head...

"I have a legal and moral obligation to protect those residents," McFaul said.

Commissioner Tim Hagan said the county is in a financial crisis because of declining revenues and foreclosures and may not be able to increase McFaul's budget. Doing so might spur more cities to seek help, Hagan added."If we open it up to discussion, it could snowball," he said.

So the man who shouts the loudest for reform, Hagan, does nothing when he has a chance too. Lawson-Jones, though not happy, is at least looking for answers and temporarily keeping North Randall residents safe by allowing the Sheriff patrol the streets at night.

And again - why isn't somebody running against Hagan this year?