Comments on: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:19:26 +0000

I like the part about how to know if you’re right for West 6th Street.

By: ContentSlave

ContentSlave — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:15:35 +0000

Looking forward to the Webinar on Monday. Epic rant. Always nice to know under all the bullshit dreams really are achievable barring the amount of determination put forward. Always be closing, always be connecting…just never give up. The World isn’t going to end tomorrow, so why should your passion for your dream?

My only questions is, do people in Cleveland really hate the native comedian who makes the Cleveland Tourism videos on YouTube? Sarcasm at its best lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:13:13 +0000

Ha, I love the “I’m just testing my gravatar” comments. All I know is going to gravatar.com and making sure the pic is associated with the same email address as you’re using to comment. Beyond that….?

By: Justin Harmon

Justin Harmon — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:39:41 +0000

Oh, and this gravatar not showing up is getting ridiculous. WTH?

By: Justin Harmon

Justin Harmon — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:38:53 +0000

Damn,

This really hit me deep. This brings all of my negative feelings about what I am doing which is trying to make a living online and oozzes them to the surface. I have been trying to figure all this out for 3 years. I finally feel like I have it mostly figured out and then I get sidetracked with other everyday life bullshit. Anyway, enough whining. This makes me want to keep going and get refocused on the reasons I am doing this in the first place, which is to not have to worry about being broke as f*&k while working a deadend job that doesn’t mean anything. Oh, I signed up for your webinar! Thanks man

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:39:03 +0000

No, I lost them. To be honest, I’m not the best person to write about the city much because I have a bad taste in my mouth. The city kind of accelerated the whole thing in my case, heaping on lots of ridiculous fines when we could least afford them. For instance, we always cut the grass and maintained our properties (had a service that went out weekly, and yes, they were actually doing it), but we regularly got citations for the grass being too long… so the city crews would cut it and then charge us literally $200 or more. Not an exaggeration. Stuff like that happened all the time, and I’m sure it was because the city was losing so much money itself. I guess I get it, but it would have been better to work WITH the landlords who were trying to keep their properties instead of making it worse. But I guess we were the minority. We held on for a few years before we finally had to let go, whereas I think a lot bailed immediately. But there were a lot of bad apples in the administration too… like the auditor being busted by the FBI or whatever that was.

Not trying to skirt my part in digging my own hole, but they sure didn’t try to help me hang onto anything, as hard and for as long as I tried, to my own peril.

By: Meagen Farrell

Meagen Farrell — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:27:17 +0000

Thanks for your sincere reply and apology. I appreciate it. But seriously, what is going on with those homes and neighborhoods now? Do you still own them? Have you written about them (other than being mad?). I write about living in Cleveland in a more serious proud angtsy vein, as it seems is similar to most writers who focus on the “rust belt” but having a humorous take might be welcome change.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:16:43 +0000

Where’s the like button? Because I like this. It’s funny and real, and it’s awesome… and I like it. I relate, as so many other people do, and I love knowing that you are in a much different place now. I love knowing that you got out of that shit. Gives me hope. Gives lots of people hope.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:18:55 +0000

Do you know about my site at http://thebadassproject.com? It might open your eyes to what’s possible.

Kick some ass out there!

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:59:36 +0000

Meagen… I hear you, really. I think you’ve already made up your mind about me so I don’t expect you to believe me and that’s okay, but the goal was always win-win-win. The neighborhoods were on the decline when we got in, and there was a homebuyer program run by the city (I think it was called “Afford a Home”) where they’d help first time homebuyers with an extremely low-interest loan and write a forgivable 0% second mortgage to cover downpayments. We worked with Key and the city council to try and fix up properties and sell to buyers who used that program. Everyone was supposed to benefit. We fixed houses up beyond the nicest on the street (attic master bedroom suites with jazuzzis were standard; we always installed central A/C and an ADP security system), so the buyer got a really nice house. The neighborhood benefitted because we were clearing up run-down houses that were otherwise going to crap and made them nice. The city benefitted. And yes, we were supposed to benefit when we sold. But it fell apart. The credit crisis hit and none of our buyers were ever approved for loans they deserved, so they couldn’t buy. Sales fell through and everything crashed.

I’m not going to play the victim because it was my decision to invest, but please don’t paint me in with the smash-and-grab investors. We only had a handful, and we worked with people one-on-one to try and take them through city-sponsored credit programs so that they could get these loans. And then the loans went away.

I get that it’s a neighborhood, and we understand that real people live there. I tried to make a win-win go at it, and I failed. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.