Abstract

Efty Simakis shares her memories of growing up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Simakis, a Greek immigrant who moved to Tremont at the age of four, discusses her experiences living in the projects, the strong sense of community, and the diverse population that inhabited the area during her childhood. She reflects on the challenges her family faced as immigrants, the influence of the Greek community, and her personal journey through education and work. The interview also touches on significant historical events, such as the construction of the Inner Belt and the election of Carl Stokes, and how these events impacted the community.

Interviewee

Simakis, Efty (interviewee)

Interviewer

Schloss, Robin (interviewer)

Project

Tremont History Project

Date

11-4-2003

Document Type

Oral History

Transcript

Robin Schloss: Testing, Testing, one, two, three. Hey, this is Robin Schloss and I’m here with Efty – how do you pronounce your last name?

Efty Simakis: Simakis

Robin Schloss: I’m with the Tremont Oral History Project, its approximately 3:25 in the afternoon, this is a Tuesday – November 3rd? – 4th? – I’m going to interview her now, ask her some questions about the Tremont Oral History Project. We’re doing this at the Cleveland State Public Library, and so, here we go. Um, what is your name and can you spell it for me?

Efty Simakis: My name is Efty, E-f-t-y, my middle initial is R, Rauchaus, that’s my maiden name, Simakis is my last name. S-i-m-a-k-i-s.

Robin Schloss: Um, Efty, what are some of your early childhood memories?

Efty Simakis: Of Tremont, we’re talking about?

Robin Schloss: Right.

Efty Simakis: Well, I actually moved to Tremont when I was four years old, um, I have very distinct memories of Tremont, uh, because, I guess it was the kind of place that just makes impressions on you because there are so many people around us. Uh, I have come from Greece, and when I moved to Tremont, uh, we had my three sisters and myself, that had all been born in Greece. And then, when we moved to Tremont, we had brought – my brother had been born, um, on Prospect Avenue, where we first moved to. So now there were five children living in this, uh, place, Projects is where we lived in Tremont, and uh, in this home, my twin brothers were born. My brothers Alex and Andy. So that’s where the memories are very strong for me, maybe because, um, my brothers were born there, so we did spend some very important years of my life there, so, I have some very vivid memories – just so many neighbors, playing with so many children, and, um, so many different types of people that were there, that were living in the projects in those days.

Robin Schloss: Um, what are your memories of the projects? What were they like? Um, what was the neighborhood like? Was it friendly and safe? Because I think a lot of people kind of negative connotations when they, um, think of the projects nowadays. But can you tell me about your experience?

Efty Simakis: The projects were much different then they are today. The projects in those years, there were a variety of different people living there, now, we, like I said, we came from Greece, we of course were very, uh, not have very much money, uh my father was trying to (support) seven children on his income with a factory job. But, uh, there were many people there who were up and coming. I remember some, um, the father was in medical school, one in particular I remember. There were some, um, there was one single mother I remember actually – no, there were single mothers, that’s for sure. That’s when I do remember there was welfare, even we at the time, we were getting some sort of welfare. So there plenty of families who were in that situation, and even the medical students, they were on welfare as well. That’s why they lived in the projects. They were safe, extremely safe, a lot of children, and it was a very community based feeling. Um, I still have kept up with people from the projects, and you have to realize now, I left over forty-five years ago. And in fact, to be honest with you, I got a telephone call just last week from someone from the projects who lived across the street from us, and her father, was a sculptor, and uh, I remember when they moved up and out. They made it, you know, they were getting out of the projects and moved into a suburb. And then I was too young to understand what that meant, but it was extremely safe, and uh, very much family oriented, and uh, there was a real closeness there, the community, you know, family.

Robin Schloss: There was camaraderie there? And there was a lot uh, there was a lot of immigrants that moved into there because you guys didn’t have a lot of money, so it was kind of uh, like a transition? Transitioning place? Like you would live in the projects, and then hopefully move out onto something nicer?

Efty Simakis: Now for us, it was like that. And I’m trying to think, it’s hard to remember if there were a lot of people that were in transition, and I think, it was probably a mix. But I do remember, like one family that we were really close to, was an Italian family, definitely, they were not going to get in any better circumstances, until the children finished high school and moved out on their own. Uh, a lot of families were in that situation, that, uh, they were pretty much strapped and were going to stay in that situation until their kids were a little older. Um, it wasn’t like, I don’t want to make it sound like everybody there was on there way up, because that was not true at all. Um, many people did stay in that, uh, situation they were in, strapped for money, for probably years to come. They still – it wasn’t the way I want to stay it is now. Everybody seemed to have food for, um, you know, the necessities, I don’t really remember children not having nice clothes, or not having food to eat, that didn’t seem to be a problem at all. And people did also work, they were able to – because I do remember one mother, actually was a barmaid at a bar near the owners, and she had two small children, but no husband, and uh, yeah, there was a such a variety. But I do remember a lot of the families did have two parents, ‘cuz that was definitely true, but then there were very many that didn’t, you know. I remember the Italian family and the other family, who the mother I realized was an alcoholic, and that so unheard of, we didn’t know what that was. It was all talked about in hushed tones. You had a variety of different situations happening there, but it was definitely, um, not, you know, um, dire poverty type of situation. You know, and it was very well kept up, and everybody had nice – pretty nice furniture, and I remember that, I don’t remember going into any homes – cuz I did notice things like that as a child, I could even in my mind remember some homes, I thought, well this is really nice. They had a better TV, or nice couches, so there were people that were getting along fine.

Robin Schloss: Um, when did your parents move to Tremont? And why did they choose Tremont, and um, maybe not, um, another suburb in Cleveland? What attracted them to Tremont?

Efty Simakis: Well, when my father came to the US, in 1951, and left four daughters and a wife back in Greece, he came to America, his sister brought him. And he did whatever jobs he could, washing dishes, and then got a job in a factory, so his objective was just to make enough money to send for us to make passage on the ship to come over, which we did in 1954. But, uh, after that, when my father and mother, of course I believe it was fourteen months after we came from Greece, my mother gave birth to three children, Jimmy and then the twins. So needless to say, there was very little money, and um, that’s when the Greek community showed us that we were eligible for what was then, and still is, welfare. And, we were probably, I am sure, directed from my relatives, cuz they knew that was available to people in our situation, and so we moved to the Projects in 1955. And then, um, we lived there, to be honest with you, it’s funny because I don’t remember exactly when we left, I would have to kind of calculate, because I know I went to kindergarten, and first grade in Tremont, and um, I must have gone to second and part of third – and then we moved. So I had, uh, we had uh, left in about 1958, and um, when we left Tremont, that’s because my sister, my older sister, was able to get a job after high school and help my father get a home. But, definitely we lived in the projects, because of our situation. We had no financial means to go anywhere else.

Robin Schloss: Um, what languages did you and your parents speak? Did you learn Greek? That’s a pretty complex language, having studied it from being an English major.

Efty Simakis: Well, of course now when we came in 1954, my sisters and I only spoke Greek. My parents never became fluent in the English language and until they passed away, which was in the eighties and nineties, my parents basically did not speak English. Uh, so, we children actually learned it, English, just from the neighborhood children and from television. But, when we came, we did not speak one word of English, and that just came from time. But, as I said, my parents never did master any of the language; I mean they barely got through.

Robin Schloss: Um, where did you parents, like you said, your father worked, um, in a factory? Did your Mom just stay home and raise the kids?

Efty Simakis: Uh, definitely. My father worked for, uh, then it was called National Screw Company, and that’s where he worked, and uh, that’s how he supported us. And my mother never could work out of the home, because she had seven children, and there was enough for her to do in those days just staying home. Um, my mother never even tried to get a job outside of the home until after we left the projects. But, she, just had such a, a, she was such a sensitive kind of person; she just couldn’t work, so she never really did bring any money into the home. The only way we were able to get out of the projects and out of Tremont was from my sister Cynthia, like I said, was able to, uh, finish high school and get a job with Cleveland Trust Company as a teller and make some money to put it aside for a down payment, and that’s how we got out.

Robin Schloss: Um, where did, where did you work? Um, what kind of jobs did you have? Growing up, or now, or in past times?

Efty Simakis: Well, when I was thirteen years old, my brother in law, my sister Cynthia, my oldest, got married, she got married relatively young. She was only twenty when she got married, or twenty-one on her honeymoon. Her husband opened up restaurants, so ever since – I think I was fourteen years old when I started working for him, if not, even thirteen. And I work all day Saturday and all day Sunday, and that’s how, um, I’ve always been able to support myself in terms of buying my own clothes, and, uh, I never, ever asked my parents for money. In fact, I think when I was sixteen years old, I bought my parents furniture, because they were really not able to do anything like that. So I’ve always worked for my, uh, own, money, spending money. And then when I was um, eighteen, I finished high school, again, we didn’t really have money so I worked really hard for a year, saved some money, went to a community college for two years, and then, uh, through the help of my brother in law, and uh, some grants, I did go to O.U. and that’s where I finished. And then after that, I got married, and when I came back all I did was really waitress, because after I finished college, I went to live in Greece for a year, and then I went back to Greece for a few months, and right after that, I got married. So, the only real job I had was the Ohio Bell job, as a service representative, then I worked as a waitress, and then I got married.

Robin Schloss: Your parents must have been very proud. Were you the first, um, first in your family to have graduated with a degree, or did your brothers and sisters go and get one?

Efty Simakis: Well, that is, um, we are one of the amazing Greek families I think, and other Greek families always marvel at us, because my parents of course came from not even a high school education in Greece, and then, um, my sister Cynthia finished high school. Then my sister Mary finished high school. My sister Sophia finished, then I finished. Um, my sister Cynthia got her job at Cleveland Trust and got married. She was extremely bright, but that was the way she, you know, uh, college wasn’t exactly the way it is now, but my sister Mary went and worked at Ohio Bell, and then after she was there for five years, she realized she wanted to go to college, so she probably started college a little after I did, if I’m not mistaken. She went right through whereas I started and stopped because of finances. So, my sister Mary finished college, and my sister Sophia, um, also finished college, so all four – three of us, out of the four daughters - finished. And then, my brothers finished, and my two brothers are attorneys. And, uh, they all went on, all six out of seven did finish college.

Robin Schloss: That’s good. Your parents must have been very proud. Um, when you were growing up, did you work with your neighbors at all? Or did your parents work with your neighbors?

Efty Simakis: In what way?

Robin Schloss: Um, like when you went to work, um, did your father ever say, I worked with so and so in the projects, and we kind of had uh, uh, a camaraderie, or no, not really?

Efty Simakis: Uh, no. First of all, my parents really never fit in because they did not speak English. So they were not part of that community. We were the ones, we were like the conduit for the neighborhood for them, and I do remember, like I said, this one Italian family, the woman just died, Lucy Ogglidimato, the woman just died about a year ago. And, she was close to my mom, she tried hard to teach my mom English, but she would bring pizza over to the house, she always made her own dough and her own sauce, and uh, she would bring pizza over. So, um, I’m trying to remember, there were a couple of other Greek families, but they didn’t exactly live all that closely. And my mother was always so homebound, because of her situation, and if anything, the other Greek women, they would take us, there were a group of them, three or four of them, and they would take the bus to our home in the projects. And they would be uh, laden with bags of candy and cookies. And for us that was so amazing because we were very, very – my father could barely make a living to keep us fed, it was not easy – so, uh, whenever he did bring his paycheck, that was like, the big deal, because we could go get pop and my Mother would make Duncan Heinz cake. But, you know, when I think back, we really, really were what you would call, uh, relatively poor, I mean really, we were. But, uh, we didn’t know it. (laughing) You know, um, my brother Jimmy, its amazing, my brother Jimmy, he actually is, um, Treasurer for the County, Cuyahoga County, the youngest elected, uh, councilmen in Cleveland, and he – he has memories of not having things, and um, you know, like I said before, we – I just don’t remember that much, but it seemed to stick in his mind, you know, that we didn’t have things like other children. And that just – I just remember coming home from school, my sisters would be listening to Bandstand, and there were so many teenagers in the neighborhood, and I would just look up to them, the way they would dress, even though I was young, I would still notice they were something I could look up to. And – it just seems like yesterday, really. And, uh, all those years. I remember being happy, but as far as my parents being part of the community, they were really not part of the community. My father worked, came home, and uh, we’d go to the coffee house and his friends were the Greeks, and I think people then, the ethnics did stick with ethnics. They really did not mesh into society; they kind of kept to themselves.

Robin Schloss: Um, do you remember where children played? Did they play in Lincoln Park? Was there, like, a basketball court in the Projects?

Efty Simakis: That was wonderful, because the Projects, uh, there were long buildings, and in the front of the building, you weren’t really allowed to play there apparently because I don’t ever remember playing there much. It was always a nice lawn, and in the back, there were the yards, and of course, everybody had a small yard, and I mean, I can’t tell you, um, the memories I have of playing in those days, uh, we would make tents, make mud- pies, uh, then, at the end of the, uh, complex there was a place where they were swings, and to this day, I can still hear those swings, the creaking of the swings, it seems like – I can just hear it. And, uh, we always had children to play with. Also, they had a community center, which was right there, and I, uh, took tap dancing. And I still have my little outfit. I can’t even imagine that we bought them, because we were so short of cash. I’m assuming they provided our costumes, but, I remember that, that we, uh, we did have friends and we – everything was played in the community, right there.

Robin Schloss: Um, how did teenagers go on dates? Can you describe what a date was like when you were a teenager in Tremont?

Efty Simakis: No, I left relatively young. And again, you have to realize being Greek, we weren’t allowed to date, there was no such thing.

Robin Schloss: It was pretty strict?

Efty Simakis: It was very, very strict. Very strict. You weren’t allowed to date at all. I do remember – I just remember my sister wearing these, uh, striped tights, skirts, and T-straps that were called then, black patent leather shoes, leather shoes, and the girls would fix up their hair and tease their – they didn’t tease it then, they were wearing ponytails. And I remember the aura of the boys and the girls and the guys, uh, the tight jeans on the boys, and the rolled up t-shirts with the cigarettes in them. It seems like again, I can see it in my mind’s eye. But, as far as dating goes, it – those days, when we were there, we didn’t really date, and, um, because – I was only about eight when we left. My sister was eleven or twelve, and she had a lot of friends, and, um, I get emotional at this point because one of her very close friends died just a couple years ago. And like I said, those friendships were formed in the Projects, and they never were lost. Jerry Ogglidimato went on to become a hairdresser on E.R., Dallas, um, you know, Starship Gallatica, he made it. He was one who made it. But he never forgot his roots, and he was always to us – we always talked about the projects. He and Sophia and Pat and Margaret, the four of them I remember, went to um, um, the Gene Carroll show, which I don’t know if people remember, but they sang, and they couldn’t wait, they were shooed up there to be called in, to perform. Of course they never were called back, but I – I just remember how excited they were, and how they talked about it, and one of the pictures of Sophia my sister had, in her house, is from Tremont, where they’re all out in the yard, three of them, Pat, and Sophia, and Jerry.

Robin Schloss: Where did you go shopping in Tremont? What was that like back then? You didn’t have Giant Eagle, or Tops, or Heinens, it was probably kind of like a mom and pop shop I imagine?

Efty Simakis: Oh, now I remember. OK, we did have a little grocery store that had the bare necessities – the milk, and the bread, and in fact Sophia and I couldn’t wait to pass up everyday to go to school. If we were lucky enough we could pull a penny out of our penny loafers, find a penny at home, to buy candy. But, my father, um, actually, every Saturday, he would go to the West Side Market by bus. And I remember, I was too young to go, but my sister Sophia just hated going there, because it was hard – you had to take a bus, than be laden down with bags, and uh, I remember that. My father, that was his joy, just to go to the West Side Market and come back with all the fruits and vegetables, the meats – You know it’s a good question, because I’m sure we couldn’t buy meats for the whole two week period till his next paycheck. We didn’t have – we weren’t – we didn’t use a freezer much. My mother never learned how to use a freezer much, cuz it was new to us. So, it’s a good question, but I don’t remember a grocery store in that area at all, except for the little pop store like you said.

Robin Schloss: Uh, where did you go to Church and what language was Mass said in?

Efty Simakis: Uh, now, in the Tremont area, of course, it was all nationalities, different nationalities. We belonged to the Enunciation, which is right there on the corner of West fourteenth and, um, Fairfield. And of course the language there was only Greek. Now it’s American, but then it was only Greek, and uh, we could walk. Basically, we walked everywhere, because my father did not have a car. So we walked everywhere.

Robin Schloss: What are some of the social places you or your parents often visited when you were in Tremont? You mentioned the West Side Market, um, is there anything else, um, any movie theaters down there, or, you know - ? Tell me about it.

Efty Simakis: Well we had no movie theaters. Uh, in fact, I remember when I was going to move out of the projects, I was so excited because there was a movie theater down the street from my home over here on Garden Avenue off of twenty-fifth. And I remember, the product, telling my friends there was a movie theater I could walk to – there was a pizza store at the end of my street, because they did not have things like that in Tremont. And, uh, as far as social events went, my father went to the coffee club, which is across the street from the Church, and that was it, it was just the men. There was no social activity for the children, besides the community center, and my sisters didn’t belong to that. I don’t remember why, or know why. I was the only one who was really part of that center. I would go and take dance lessons, and we would have parties. My sisters, um, basically just had their friends, I’m assuming from we had Greek school, and it was also social, because it met three nights a week, and you would see all the kids that were your age, and that you got hung with, and so, that was our social life, our Greek community, that was it for us.

Robin Schloss: What are your memories of Lincoln Park? Um, do you have any memories of that in particular?

Efty Simakis: Now Lincoln Park – really, the only memories I have – I don’t, for some reason, have memories of swimming there. Maybe I was too young, and my parents did not want us to go there, it’s funny because I don’t remember Lincoln Park and swimming there. So I have a feeling we didn’t do that, um, I did go to Merrick House, and we had some things happening there where they had crafts. Again, I don’t really remember what I did there, but I do remember I went to Merrick. But again, for some reason, my sisters did not become involved in the different activities in the neighborhood. I think it was their age that just geared for smaller children. I do not remember uh, Mary or Cynthia for sure, being any part of anything there, like I was.

Robin Schloss: Um, are or were you married, and did you marry someone from the neighborhood?

Efty Simakis: I am married, and I married a Greek, but he was not from the neighborhood. He actually grew up on Payne Avenue, uh, and that’s where he was born, on Payne Avenue and fortieth, so, we still have some property there. Um, but I did marry somebody Greek, which meant more then anything to my parents.

Robin Schloss: Uh, where were you married?

Efty Simakis: I was married at a Greek Church, the, uh [pause] St. Demetrius’ Church, uh, in Rocky River.

Robin Schloss: Did you have a reception and where was it?

Efty Simakis: It was at the St. Demetrius’ Church, they have a big hall.

Robin Schloss: Um, do you have any recollections about what it was like when Carl Stokes was elected the mayor of Cleveland in 1967? Do you have anything to say about that, in comparison to his brother, Lewis Stokes?

Efty Simakis: I will give you a little story, which I think is kind of sad, but kind of cute. Uh, my mother and father, of course, never had run into anyone who was Afro-American black from Greece, needless to say, and my father was prejudiced. But, it was amazing how we didn’t pick up on it – probably because my mother was so unprejudiced – to her, she never talked about it, but we knew that she was so tolerant and intolerant of what was happening in the South, because I remember those days, talking to her and telling her about what was going on. Even to me now, its incredible how recent that was. But I do remember that my brother Jimmy, my brother Jimmy is very, very bright, and um, he went to um, school in East Denison on Denison Avenue, and they were gonna have some – gonna have – one child was going to represent Stokes, and one was going to represent whoever was running against him. My brother was going to represent Stokes, and when my father found out, he got livid, because my father worked for the county at the time, and he was certain that it was going to be held against him. And he told my brother Jimmy that he could not do that. And, uh, uh, I have to talk to my brother Jimmy about it, but I know that’s true. My brother Jim did not go to school that day, because my father just refused to let him be the representative for Stokes, taking his point of view. He seemed to think that was going to taint his, uh, chances of staying with the county. But like I said, my father came from another country, and really had no clue what was going on in a lot of ways (laughter). But that’s the only thing I remember about the election at all.

Robin Schloss: Um, what are some of your memories of the Construction of the Inner Belt Project? Do you know anything about that?

Efty Simakis: I do have memories of the Inner Belt Project, because, um, that’s another sad story. I, unfortunately, had a friend who went to Tremont – no, she went to East Dennison with me, and she had two brothers who were killed during that project because when they were doing seventy-one, and they had mounded the dirt up there, uh, down by Forest Hill, where the uh, cemetery is, her brothers were playing there. The one I knew, cuz we walked back, from um, Lincoln High together – he was in junior high and so was I, and we walked back together to our neighborhood, off of twenty-fifth. And the other one was with my brother Jimmy, he was in the same class with him, and uh, it’s a very sad story, but they died during the building of seventy-one. The Inner Belt Project I remember again because there was a Greek, uh, young boy whose sis – uh, wife, I remember he married, her name was Rhonda, and I don’t remember her last name, she went to Lincoln High. The man, his father was killed during that project. He fell off the bridge that was part of that Inner Belt.

Robin Schloss: So, it, uh, ripped apart families, just, you know, just because there was construction and people weren’t being maybe as careful as they should have been?

Efty Simakis: Right. And of course, then, I have to tell you, that definitely what happened was – I must have been at the – I already finished school at that point, what am I saying? No, no, no. The Inner Belt at the time – I was in high school, but definitely, that’s when a lot of people moved out of the Tremont area, because they were given money for their homes, and uh, uh, were actually able to get out and move to the suburbs.

Robin Schloss: Um, can you describe what it was like when some of the other bridges were built, um, the Abbey Road Bridge, the Clark Road Bridge? Um, do you anything, um, about the construction of those bridges in particular?

Efty Simakis: Now those I would have no clue about at all. Yeah.

Robin Schloss: Um, how would you say – have you visited Tremont lately? Just maybe in the past couple years, maybe in ninety-nine, to see in comparison to when you grew up there?

Efty Simakis: No, no, I have not been back there at all, but I do have a sister in-law who has been teaching there for many, many years at the Tremont School there on Scranton. Are we talking about Tremont?

Robin Schloss: Yeah, Tremont.

Efty Simakis: No, no, I will tell you – no. Scratch all that, I was thinking of Lincoln High. My sister actually, when she was substitute teaching a couple years ago, she did go to Tremont. I have not been back there for many, many, many years, very many years. But like I said, my sister taught there, and that was an experience, it was a pretty good experience, because some schools she did not like subbing in, but Tremont was not that bad at all. She didn’t mind there, and I do know of a young woman who’s teaching there, she’s in her thirties, who, uh, Sandy, and she never seems to be negative about it, which is a good sign.

Robin Schloss: Have they expressed how its changed in terms of minorities, are more minorities there, more African-American or Hispanic-Americans as opposed to mostly Caucasians? Did they talk anything about that?

Efty Simakis: Well, I can’t really talk, uh, specifically to Tremont, that I know, because I can’t tell you. I do know that my sister being in the Cleveland Public School system for the past six years, this is only her second year as a full time teacher, been subbing all these years, I know the mix was depending on the neighborhood, uh, it was a lot of Hispanics, and um, if I’m not mistaken, around fourteenth, when she taught around there, there was mostly

Hispanics. And again, you couldn’t quote me on that, but it seems like they were mostly Hispanics and Afro-Americans and very few Caucasians, very few.

Robin Schloss: Now when did you move out of the Tremont area, what year? And, um, when you moved out, did you go ever go back, even going back twenty years ago? What was that like?

Efty Simakis: I’m trying to be realistic about this. My sister Cynthia was born in forty one, and if you add eighteen years, you get forty one, fifty one, so I would say about 1959 we might have moved out of the projects. As far as going back, I never – I did go back, but very little. I remember when Jerry was a hairdresser and he lived, uh, in the Projects, we would take him home, and that was really rarely. So I did not go back, I had no connections to the Projects in any way. I had friends, though, they lived on Starkweather, in Tremont, and lived there – I think her parents left in 1960, 1970 – so Ann did live there. But I did go back to visit Ann, you know, at her home, and that was about it.

Robin Schloss: Any last comments about Tremont? Do you see um, more as a working class community, do you think its evolved any? Do you have any insight into that?

Efty Simakis: Do you mean what’s happening today?

Robin Schloss: Do you think its more working class? Because there’s a lot of restaurants moving in there, like Lolas, Theory, and you know, you have the nice condominiums going in there – do you think it’s changing the dynamic, changing more from, um, maybe the lower middle class to the upper middle class? Do you see that at all?

Efty Simakis: Well, I see that, with all the new condominiums going up there. It shocks me every time I go by, uh, what’s happening over there, but definitely, its changing, and it’s a real question in my mind as to what’s going to happen? Because its still in Congress, if you look at the price of the homes there, of the new homes, and to be honest with you, I haven’t gone there, and buy property there, but I can’t imagine the property is cheap anymore, so I don’t understand why anyone there in low income staying – I don’t see how they can afford it, when it’s only a matter of a very short time that it will skyrocket. And to be honest with you, I own a pastry shop, I wholesale pastries, and one of my good accounts is at the University Inn, for years and years, and I also used to deliver to Fat Cat’s, and I’ve done Civilization, the coffee house, for forever, which is across from the, uh, park. So I’m still tied to the area in, uh, uh, uh, and one of the Churches there, even though I’m not a member of that one, I still consider it my church.

Robin Schloss: Alright, well thank you very much. And I think that’s about it. Thank you.

Efty Simakis: Thank you.

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