“This ward is so beat down,” said activist and chef Michelle Jackson in a phone conversation with Scene. “We’ve elected the same councilperson for four decades and nothing has changed.”
Jackson and a small group of female residents living near Shaker Square have formed what they’re calling the People’s District. They want to champion voter education and civic engagement in the hopes of radically improving voter turnout and ultimately unseating Ken Johnson in 2020.
Jackson, who worked for both the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, said she hosted successful voter forums in 2017 in both Ward 4 and Ward 6. At the Ward 4 event, seven of 8 council candidates showed up to speak with voters, Jackson said. “The incumbent [Ken Johnson] was the only no-show.”
“We’re following the money,” she said, noting that the group will likely take aim at Johnson’s usage of Community Development Block Grant dollars and his relationship with the Buckeye Area Development Corporation, a CDC Jackson sneeringly referred to as Councilman Johnson’s “washing machine.”
She said that activists have an additional goal of training the next generation of the Ward’s leaders. Ken Johnson was challenged in 2017 by Gail Sparks, a political newcomer with limited credentials, who nevertheless came within 13 points of unseating Johnson. In Jackson’s precinct, Sparks prevailed.
“I go door to door and I tell my neighbors, ‘Don’t expect Obama to pave your streets,’” she said. “It’s all about the councilman. And we’ve got to agitate.”
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2018.
Buckeye – Shaker Development is a scourge on our community. They manufacture, cultivate, defend, and sustain the blight and status quo that is tearing the community to shreds. They are the poster child for what a CDC should NOT be, show a CDC should NOT act, and the harm a CDC can do on a community.
They arent wrong. BSSDC is the washing machine. But not much you can do about it because the Councilman uses BSSDC and his public works programs to keep the elders (who vote) paid off and in line.
@kenisha —– The Feds need to be called in, plain and simple.
All of these CDCs need to be shut down – federal government has to end the Community Block Grant Program. It is so warped from its original intent. I write about it at Realneo – please just google CDCs and REALNEO.
The crime has definitely increased in Buckeye woodland. Ieft a VM for Kenneth Johnson several days ago with no return call. My house is being vandalized and salvaged with beer bottles and litter and I’m tired of paying my tax dollars for a neighborhood that’s declining. I called the police who says it’s not a police issue. I guess I’ll have to take my concerns to the next level.