The discussion occurred prior to a City Club Forum tackling regional economic development issues, which was billed, at least initially, as a follow-up to lawyer Jon Pinney’s “Dead Last” City Club talk in June.
Guests at the morning session forcefully declared that they are impatient with Cleveland’s leaders, whom they regard as aging and territorial and resistant to change.
City Club CEO Dan Moulthrop asked attendees to log on to a live chat and polling software. That software was developed by Remesh, a startup that relocated from Cleveland to New York City because of a lack of local tech talent. The chat allowed respondents to suggest answers to questions Moulthrop posed and vote on the answers anonymously and in real-time.
The technology’s strengths include providing tons of immediate data, and allowing people in multiple locations to participate. Its weaknesses include sucking energy and volume out of a live discussion. People became a lot more engaged with their devices than with each other.
But Moulthrop posed some good, albeit general, questions. Below are the top 11 answers on questions about Cleveland’s greatest civic strengths and weaknesses. The responses to Cleveland’s civic weaknesses are especially striking because virtually all of them have to do with poor leadership.
If these are any indication — garnered from the audience of 80, most of whom were under the age of 44, and about a quarter of whom were black — a day of reckoning may be on the horizon for our crop of “old and not smart” dudes in charge.
Q: What’s the most significant strength of our civic culture?
- Engagement and passion of those involved.
- People care deeply about Cleveland, more so than in other cities.
- Philanthropic generosity.
- Diversity.
- Strong work ethic.
- We have a rising set of young leaders.
- Lots of institutions doing good work.
- Willingness to engage.
- Our commitment to self-improvement.
- Variety of institutions.
- Diverse cultural backgrounds!
- Lack of collaborative, inclusive leadership.
- Old Boys Club.
- It’s an insiders club.
- Lack of power in diverse communities.
- Old and not smart leaders.
- Lack of inclusion.
- Lack of change in leadership.
- Leaders won’t step aside and let new voices take the role.
- Silos and territorialism.
- No actual action that engages populations most affected.
- Apathy among wealthy and powerful.
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2018.
Well, is this any big surprise? When the sheeple voters of Cleveland vote Taxin Jackson into office time and time again, and all these other thieves such as Armand Budish, who just raised everyones property valuations by double, triple and quadruple! And dont forget the failed CMSD that squanders billions of dollars every year to six figure salary administrators and the construction of million dollar, brand new schools for a declining population. Where is the outrage for those that actually have to pay for this nonsense year after year and ma$$ive levy after ma$$ive levy. Its time to vote these crooks out of office now!
You won’t get growth when a huge portion of the budget goes to social services. Also the taxes are way to high, in Cleveland and Cuyahoga county. For a place that doesn’t have the best schools, highest real estate values or a winning football team, why are the taxes so damn high!? There’s only one reason for this and if we don’t change it we will end up like Detroit or Baltimore: It’s run by democrats…
I’d love to see Frank Jackson do a Reddit AMA…
As a property owner in Cuyahoga County, the recent property re-evaluations are completely arbitrary and the time and costs to counter the increase is a burden on the people who can least afford it or pay the the increase every 6 months (now applied retroactive for 2018!). No. YOU prove it. I consider it as taking advantage of a supposed better economy that has barely started trickling down to the people who deserve better jobs, income growth, reliable municipal services and upward mobility. Will it fix all the streets, services and infrastructure problems in the cities and County? Or continue to line the pockets of career politicians, their staffs and friends in the cronyism-as-usual dysfunction of local government politics. I will remember this at the polls EVERY election. It IS time for real change in Cuyahoga County. Wait for ACTUAL economic results and positive economic valuations before sticking it to the people, many of which are barely getting by even 10 years after the financial collapse of 2008 which hurt them after but did not help them prior. Walk every street and knock on doors and LISTEN in your constituency instead of staring out of cushy air-conditioned government “temples” deciding what’s “best” for us from on high. Please. Now. 🙁
The Men Behind The Curtain (and they ARE overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly white) will spend not one second listening, because they speak and listen only to one another…The status quo is the status quo because it very handsomely benefits them…They LIKE their power…They LIKE their money…They LIKE their stranglehold on the political process…And they believe that power is never given; it’s only taken, and ain’t nobody gonna take it from them, as long as they hang together and control the institutional, political, civic, and philanthropic levers…And for all the highly-justified criticism of the oligarchs’ essential arrogance, casual corruption, and lack of any ideas beyond rent-seeking, the critics will NEVER take any meaningful action, since they fear the personal and professional cost of moving against the status quo…Shameful, but very, very Cleveland…
“not smart leaders”. Well, they’re exactly as smart (and self-centered) as those who elect them, and they’re exactly what the electorate is looking for. The city is akin to the country: folks don’t ask “what will you do for us”, they ask “what will you do for ME”. Not “how will you make the city/state/country a better place”, but instead “how will you improve my little grain of sand”. The myopic questions are also the easiest to hear answers to.