View full sizeInvestigators are no longer a common sight at the Imperial Avenue home of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell, but neighbors report that large rates are.CLEVELAND, Ohio — With the cops and TV satellite trucks long gone, things have returned to normal on Imperial Avenue.
The spent shell casings that often litter the street and sidewalks around Ray's Sausage Co. are one sign of the normalcy. So is the open drug trafficking, prostitution, and flagrant disregard for traffic laws.
But if you really want to understand just how much Imperial Avenue has gotten back to the business of being an abandoned inner-city street, the kind of street that easily played host to a prolific killer, you should see the view from Ray's Sausage third-floor window.
The window next to the water cooler, the window that overlooks Anthony Sowell's boarded and abandoned house, is a window into criminal abandonment and despair.
It's a window that helps explain why it still smells like dead people on Imperial Avenue whenever it rains.
First, you notice the fence. It is an impressive 14-foot fence that surrounds the house and backyard where authorities unearthed the remains of 11 women last October and November.
The gleaming fence itself is a cruel joke. It's a reminder that we do an exceptionally fine job protecting crime scenes – and an exceptionally awful job of protecting vulnerable women.
Then you notice the ground.
The earth containing the shallow graves must have been nutrient rich, because over the summer, weeds and brush the size of small, ragged trees sprouted, and large rats took notice.
"I get so disgusted every time I look over there and realize just how disrespectful they are being to the living and to the dead," said Leslie Cash, the chief financial officer of the meat packing company, which has been an anchor of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood street for 58 years.
View full sizeRay's Sausage Co. is next door to Anthony Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland."First the city ignored the smell and the bodies over there. Now they are ignoring the rats," she said, pointing angrily at the mound of trash that still covers the balcony of Sowell's house.
But that's not all that gets Leslie's blood racing, or the hearts of Renee and Raymond Cash Jr., the siblings who inherited the company from their father.
They are frustrated, they say, because the city has not helped them. An accused serial killer used their shop as a scapegoat for the stench of decomposing bodies on his land. And their business has taken a hit.
"It's not just the jokes and the nasty things people say about the company. And it's not just the money we spent trying to figure out where the odor was coming from. It's the fact that the city said they would assist us in a move away from this spot," said Ray Cash Jr., who was born on the day his father started the company in 1952.
The company, which was constantly inspected and once cited by the USDA for failure to control "odors and vapors," spent slightly more than $20,000 between late 2005 and the summer of 2009 replacing the facility's grease trap and internal plumbing. It's spent several thousand more on bleach, industrial sprays, incense and candles.
But in the end, it was paying for the stench of someone else's treachery. And its owners would like – and they deserve – help with a fresh start.
"We're not asking the city to give us anything," said Renee Cash, "but we would like a little help."
The company has already identified five acres of land in a industrial park in the nearby Lee Harvard Seville-Miles neighborhood. They've had some discussion with the city's department of Economic Development, but so far the talks haven't yielded much fruit.
"I saw Mayor Jackson at a town hall meeting this summer and he was talking about small businesses being the backbone of this community and how much he wanted to help them."
"I believe him. But we're still waiting on him to help us," Renee Cash said with a wry smile that barely concealed her frustration.
I also believe the Jackson administration is committed to the attraction and retention of small business in Cleveland. Under the leadership of Tracey A. Nichols the department of Economic Development is showing signs of becoming an effective engine of growth. Hopefully, Ray's Sausage will soon be assisted for the additional business burdens it was forced to bear. It only seems fair.
In the meantime, the pest-infested urban jungle that has sprouted in Sowell's backyard needs to be cut down.
No one bothered saving the women who died there.
Can't we at least clean up the land?