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- Slavic Village is a former predominantly Central and Eastern European neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. It encompasses two ethnic subneighborhoods, the largely Czech Karlin and the old Polish Warszawa. Warszawa was the primary area of settlement for the city's Polish immigrants who arrived in the 1880s. The lives of these immigrants were centered around their parish, St. Stanislaus Church at East 65th Street and Forman Avenue and the thriving Polish commercial center along Fleet Avenue and East 71st Street. The population of Poles and other Eastern Europeans in the neighborhood peaked from about 1920 to 1940 and began to decline during the mass suburbanization the city suffered during the 1950s and 1960s. On November 28, 1980, Warszawa was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Warszawa Neighborhood District. An attempt to revitalize the neighborhood was undertaken with the organization of Neighborhood Ventures, Inc. , in 1977. With Teddy and Donna Sliwinski, along with architect Kaszimier Wieclaw, the area began to come alive once again. In order to attract people of various eastern European descent, the name of the region was changed to "Slavic Village". The nonprofit Slavic Village Assn. was organized in 1978 to preserve residential and commercial buildings through its sponsorship of the annual Slavic Village Harvest Festival, which in its 17th year (1993) was drawing 100,000 people. Between 1987 and 1990, the Slavic Village Assn. merged with the Broadway Development Corporation as the Slavic Village Broadway Development Corporation to coordinate community-based revitalization activities in the Broadway neighborhood. The Slavic Village Broadway Development Corporation is now known as just Slavic Village Development, and cites an "investment of $160 million over the past 22 years to improve Slavic Village. " More recently, Slavic Village has seen difficult times. The zip code that includes the neighborhood, 44105, recorded more home foreclosures than any other zip code in the country during the second quarter of 2007, causing the national media to declare the neighborhood the center of the 2007 foreclosure crisis. The neighborhood saw an increase in property crime, violent crime, and prostitution during 2007, attributed to youth gangs and drug dealers taking advantage of the high number of home foreclosures. The City's plan to eliminate the 3rd police district, which includes Slavic Village, had been an issue of concern for some residents, as voiced by local councilman Anthony Brancatelli. In May 2008, the former 3rd District Police headquarters closed and Slavic Village policing responsibility was redrawn between the 3rd and 5th Police Districts, increasing the number of police cars on the street. Subsequently, Councilman Brancatelli stated he was satisfied with the resulting improved police response time and police presence. In July 2008, Slavic Village was one of six neighborhoods of the Neighborhood Strategic Investment Initiatives featured locally in an audio discussion titled "Conversations in Slavic Village" held by the Case Western Reserve Studies Symposium. Stakeholders discussed how neighborhoods are vital to the livable city. Speakers cited specific events occurring in direct counterexample to the increased crime reported in the media in 2007. Representatives included a savings and loan association official, steel mill corporate social responsibility manager, public art coordinator, community development corporation director, and local metropark, youth organization, and cultural center directors.
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