He said the ordinances (some of them already passed, some of them pending, some of them new) were in keeping with statements he’s made in the past about measuring a city’s success by the extent to which all people get to “participate in prosperity.”
“This legislative agenda is about the future of Cleveland,” Jackson said, in an introduction. “And in that future are neighborhoods and the people of Cleveland… All of this is about how do we move this city forward, move this city into the future.”
As the election season heats up — Cleveland’s primaries will be held on Sep. 12 — Jackson’s mayoral challengers contend that the so-called “Healthy Neighborhoods” initiative is a political ploy, presented in reaction to a recurring accusation against him: that he has encouraged downtown development at the expense of Cleveland’s struggling neighborhoods. Jackson refuted that idea, over the weekend, by arguing that the Quicken Loans arena renovation was “an investment in Cleveland’s neighborhoods.”
The agenda, politically motivated or not, is a much more rational refutation. Jackson said he planned to introduce the package in full on Monday. (A summary of the legislation can be found here):
The collection of ordinances allocate funding from a $25 million pot of funds from a $100 million bond issuance two years ago and from revenue received through the income tax increase passed last year. Jackson thanked Cleveland voters for their support of Issue 32 more than once during his remarks.
The ordinances focus primarily on economic development and violence reduction.
On the economic development side, one ordinance would create mixed-use developments in targeted neighborhoods. Another would allocate funding for home rehabilitation. Another would authorize the Economic Development director to provide funds to help encourage entrepreneurship and retail in neighborhoods “where the traditional development model might not have worked.” Jackson also said that the city would partner with Habitat for Humanity to build 25 new homes.
On the violence reduction side, Jackson announced ordinances to accept funding for a Safe Routes to School program, to add money to a “hospital-based violence interruption program” (which would be overseen by the Cleveland Peacemakers) and to partner with Case Western for youth violence data tracking.
Jackson also announced the allocation of $17.9 million from the increased tax revenue for the rehabilitation, renovation and/or replacement of portions of rec centers across the city.
Here is the press conference in its entirety.
Councilman and Mayoral challenger Zack Reed was dumbfounded when he heard the remarks, he said, because the new “agenda” felt carbon-copied from his own.
“He literally took stuff from my website,” Reed professed. “He’s never talked about midnight basketball. Never.” (Jackson said the city was considering expanding its night basketball program to include more locations.)
“And now he wants to rehab houses? All he ever wanted to do was demo demo demo,” Reed said. (Jackson also announced that the city would be contributing $5 million to an existing $5 million fund from other sources for demolitions.)
Reed said he read both the legislative summary and the account in Cleveland.com this morning and discovered that he and the Mayor now seem to have very similar ideas.
“The only difference is, he’s had 12 years to implement his plan. We’ve had three weeks to put this together. All we want is four years.” Reed reiterated his campaign slogan, that Jackson has neither the leadership nor the vision to lead Cleveland into the future. But he added two new qualities to the list of Jackson’s deficiencies. Said Reed, “He doesn’t have the energy or the imagination either.”
Jeff Johnson also found the remarks disingenuous. Where Reed has made violence-reduction (via jobs) the central theme of his campaign, Johnson has hammered ‘Neighborhoods’ as his marquee buzzword.
“I think it’s totally disrespectful, in the 12th year of his term, for [Jackson] to come out as this champion of neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “My reaction is this is clearly an election year effort to come off as something that he has proven not to be.”
Johnson said it’s telling that Jackson waited for an election year to hire an an “anti-violence person” (Duane Deskins) and to allocate the $25 million that’s just been sitting around, untouched.
“It’s not a coincidence,” Johnson said. “And it’s just not sincere. This is a man I do not recognize. This is Frank Jackson the candidate, not Frank Jackson the Mayor.”
Johnson conceded that some of the ordinances were good ideas, though he argued Jackson was attempting to take credit for existing ideas, the Safe Route to Schools plan, for example, which has been citizen-led for years (and expanded lately in response to the murder of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze). He said that Jackson has successfully communicated important ideas about neighborhood development as well — “his new [communications] team must be working overtimes,” — but that the ideas weren’t the problem.
“With this administration,” said Johnson, “the problem has always been going from ideas to implementation.”
This article appears in May 3-9, 2017.
Here’s my thing: First, this bond was issued for a purpose. The money was not spent. Generally, you can’t issue a bond for one thing (say, construction) and then use the money for something else (park maintenance). It’s illegal. So how come the city can get away with this?
Second, the city engaged in some radical budget cuts the last two years. Why wasn’t this money used by Jackson? Why didn’t the council know the money was sitting around??
I’m all for improving the lives of residents. I’m all against bad government.
This is the clown Frank that wants 4 more years. It took this moron 12-years to figure out that there is a serious violence problem in Cleveland. It took this mush mouth 12-years to figure out that kids need a safe route to school. It took this mental limited dummy to recognize that abandoned crumbling homes are a problem. Really!
Does mush mouth Frank really think that the majority of the Cleveland voters are more stupid that he is and will give him 4-more years. I hope that the voters recognize that this man has out lived his usefulness as mayor.
This is the same man that promoted piss poor performers within his administration, specifically McGraff and Flask. This is the same man that retained the chief of CMSD and his ill lackluster performance cost CMSD $8.5M in rebates. This is the man that has more special assistants than there are council representatives. This is the same damn jack ass that stated it would be more difficult on landlords to abate the lead problems within their properties than to be more concerned about the children residing in them.
This is the same clown that stood before the voters and stated that passing the school levy would greatly improve test scores and literacy levels. Again, he lied. This fool is throwing residents a bone by street sweeping streets twice a year. This clown stands still silent and mute as the water department pushes bills out of the door that are grossly wrong. This is the same man that ignored the Ohio Attorney General words regarding the police department because he used the term systemic. This is the same man that ignores the facts in front of his face. The police monitor had to go to federal court and present the sad facts that the police department is incapable of accomplishing improvements. The police department that this clown is ultimately responsible cannot even complete forms for equipment, nor has it completed paper work and investigations regarding public abuse issues.
This is the man that has only fired the previous health director a year ago for not addressing the lead problem, but yet he lauds the current health director for doing nothing and while making the problem worse.
As intelligent voters, ignore your pastors. They for some reason stand and support this fool. It’s time for a change. Send this clown home.
What is Zack Reed’s position on shutting down the roving packs of dirt-bikers? And how does he feel about the city’s plan to piss away two million smackers on a dirt-bike park that nobody will ever use?
Chuckles the Clown
Mayor Fuckbrain Jackass-son needs to throw in the towel and go home to tell at kids to get off his own and he’s keeping the ball.. he’s unpleasant in the extreme as a human being and my dead cats’ corpse would be a more effective politician than this imbicile.