A flip through the faces of your freshly minted Cuyahoga County Council reveals a fairly representative slice of the county’s demographics: seven white, four black. Eight men, three women. Three Republicans, eight Democrats.
The most noteworthy disparity could be with the Brylcreem and dentures quotient: Four of the 11 councilmembers are more than 60 years old, and the mean age is 51. Only one member is unquestionably under the hill: 36-year-old Julian Rogers.
Rogers recognizes that he represents not only his district, but the entire no-chance-for-Social-Security set. “I’ve been speaking with people about that a lot lately,” he says. “I think that there’s a movement afoot. There are a lot of young leaders that are working quietly about town to change things.”
Rogers faces a unique challenge on council in that his district is the most schizophrenic in the city, a mash-up of blue-blood Cleveland Heights, deep-pocketed Bratenahl, and empty-pocketed East Cleveland.
“I think there are more commonalities than differences,” he says. “Mainly people want good services, they want to live in a safe environment where they can walk their streets, and all the areas in District 10 have had problems in those areas.”
