EAST CLEVELAND Makeshift memorial threatened

Almost 900 victims ofviolence are remembered on the wall.
EAST CLEVELAND (AP) -- Anti-violence activists are trying to save a line of boarded-up storefronts that was turned into a shrine for children and young adults from Cuyahoga County slain since 1990.
The names listed on white-painted plywood total nearly 900.
Survivors/Victims of Tragedy and Black on Black Crime Inc. had the city's permission to erect the memorial last year.
Though they knew a buyer might come along and demolish or renovate the two-story building, the threat seemed remote.
But prospective buyers have shown interest, and supporters are trying to save what is known as the "Memorial Wall" and "Wall of Sorrows."
The city, which holds the deed, is asking just under $28,000 for the building and an adjacent lot. The anti-violence groups have $400.
The wall exudes a powerful symbolism. The building is stark and gritty, like the rough-edged neighborhood. Laid over it is a sad beauty formed by a mural, photographs, dried flowers, poems and handwritten messages left for the departed.
Meaning for mothers
"I'm going to get emotional," Judy Martin of Euclid said recently as she stood outside the building. "It's hard to describe what people feel when they put the pictures of their children up there, what it means to them."
Three pictures of her son, Christopher, are on the wall. May 23 will mark the 10th anniversary of the day he was shot to death by a carjacker. He was 23.
"I was talking to some of the other mothers the other day," said Martin, a legal secretary. "We wish it was a dream. We keep thinking they're going to be coming back."
In 1997, Martin founded Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, through which she campaigns against violence.
Most of the victims whose names are on the wall were stabbed, shot or beaten. Some were victims of vehicular homicide.
A painting of 11-year-old Shakira Johnson, whose body was found in a vacant lot in Cleveland in October, claimed a center position on the wall after the high-profile disappearance and slaying.
Anti-violence groups would like to see the building turned into a museum for their cause or an activity center for children.