Johnson is the first established city politician to throw his hat in the ring. Six other residents have pulled petitions to run, including Ja’Ovvoni Garrison. In today’s announcement, Johnson reiterated his message (often delivered at council meetings and disseminated via, again, Youtube) that City Hall has maintained too fixed a gaze on downtown — to the detriment of people living everywhere else.
“It’s all about, for me, the neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “City Hall has forgotten what’s going on in the majority of neighborhoods in our community.”
Mayor Frank Jackson has not yet announced whether he’ll run, but the scuttlebutt among political observers is that it’s inevitable. Think of it as inertia, if nothing else. We’ll let you know when he drops the news, though don’t expect a video.
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2017.
There are no leaders in the city of Cleveland…..follow the money trail inside City Hall and you’ll locate the mayor and council members feeding at the same trough.