ABSTRACT

Kevin McDermott, a 52-year-old lawyer and resident of Shaker Heights was randomly attacked in front of his house and nearly killed by six teenagers. The attack of a resident in the suburb of Shaker Heights prompted many residents to organize and hold neighborhood meetings about the changing socioeconomic dynamics in their suburb. Maag (2008) observed that:

Cleveland has grown steadily poorer over the last five decades. Many people in the surrounding area believe that Shaker Heights will eventually be overwhelmed by Cleveland residents, many of them African-Americans, trying to escape the city’s high crime rate and struggling schools. They wonder why residents of Shaker Heights have not moved to more distant – and safer – suburbs. “So move,” Dick Feagler, a columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote after the attack. “But do it like we all have – like the whole three-county area has – don’t call it racism. Call it reality.”