Shrinking City Update: Can Cleveland Embrace Immigrants Before It's Too Late?

Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Ed Fitzgerald talk a good game --- on the need to welcome immigrants to help stem progressive depopulation and boost entrepreneurship and homeownership in Cleveland.  

But the reality is that it's a smokescreen.

If they, and their comrades Ronn Richard and Albert Ratner, were really serious about immigration-based economic development in Cleveland, they would at least START to implement some of the initiatives that are being pursued in cities like Detroit, Philly, Dayton, and most recently ....Baltimore.

Check out what Baltimore's Mayor is doing!

"Baltimore is moving ahead with its own agenda: It's courting immigrants in an effort to revitalize its shrinking population. Baltimore was once a major port city and destination for people moving to America. In 1950, nearly a million people lived here. Since then though, Baltimore has become known for high crime rates..

1. and abandoned homes. The city's population has fallen to just half of what it was in the 1960s. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has a plan: She's looking to bring in 10,000 new families over the next decade, focusing on immigrants, a group that has helped other large cities grow. She's hoping new families will boost income and property tax revenue, helping to reignite the city's economy.
   
   Al-Sagheer says he could have moved to another state, but his relatives convinced him to settle just outside of Baltimore.
   
   "They speak about the population, how they treat the new immigrants, the style of the city, how they live in the city, everything," he says. "They told me many good things about living in Baltimore."
   
   That word of mouth is exactly what Rawlings-Blake is counting on to bring people into the city. Her administration is trying to make all immigrants feel safe and welcome. Her boldest move so far is prohibiting police and city officials from ever asking residents about immigration status.
   
   "I don't really think of people as legal or illegal," she says. "Are you productive, or are you not productive? That's really my focus."
   
   The city is spending money on training programs like this one, but Rawlings-Blake says the costs are negligible compared to the revenue new families will generate in taxes.
   
   It's too early to calculate Baltimore's return on investment, but there is another Northeast city that also tried to fight population decline by recruiting immigrants: Philadelphia.
   
   Philadelphia had the same kind of population crash as Baltimore. It peaked in the 1950s, then went into decades of decline. When the city finally grew again in 2010, the bulk of the newcomers were Asian and Hispanic immigrants.
   http://www.npr.org/2012/12/09/166829186/baltimore-says-immigrants-welcome