Michael Hardy Will Challenge Danny Kelly for Ward 11 Council Seat

Michael Hardy, in undated photo, is running his second race for Ward 11’s council seat this November. Credit: Contributed

When Michael Hardy first ran for Ward 11’s seat on City Council back in the summer of 2021, he championed values that he believed would garner him a win: having a transparent government, improving safety, ending the cash bail system, and being a visible, responsive representative to constituents.

His argument was that then-councilman Brian Mooney was “unseen and unknown” in Ward 11, and residents would do better by having someone engaged with them sitting on council.

His argument now isn’t any different, though his opponent is.

“Basically, I live in the ward. I know what the ward needs,” he told Scene. “There’s sensitivities that I have about the ward, and you’re only going to have these sensitivities when you live in the ward.”

A substitute teacher for CMSD and current ward leader for the Cuyahoga County Central Committee, Hardy is planning his second bid for Council in a race against Danny Kelly. After Mooney vacated his post to take a judge seat on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Kelly was appointed Ward 11’s representative, in January.

Kelly, though a west sider since the early 2000s, currently lives in neighboring Ward 16, Hardy says. (Though just outside Ward 16.) Facts that, in Hardy’s mind, matter when politics are concrete.

And that advocacy could be dire. In 2025, City Council is likely to discuss redistricting Cleveland’s 17 wards down to just 15, following the recent Census count. Ward 11, just like any other ward, could be disintegrated and split.

“Who’s going to advocate on our behalf more?” Hardy said. “Someone who lives in the ward or someone who doesn’t? What message are we sending?”

In November 2021, after entering the race that July, Hardy faced Mooney, a West Park resident, with a sort of quiet ambition to leverage both his years observing the needs of Cleveland’s school system and a growing political backing. Both Dennis Kucinich and Jay Westbrook wrote glowing testimonials. The Plain Dealer endorsed him.

Hardy came up 264 votes short. “But I was able to garner a lot of attention,” he recalled. “A lot of support.”

Growing up on Guardian Blvd., on the very southern tip of Ward 11, Hardy went to John Marshall High School, then studied communication and Spanish at Cleveland State University. He’d eventually use his masters in education at CSU to find jobs as a teacher, counselor, adjunct professor, substitute and Boy Scout leader in the subsequent two decades.

In 2002, Hardy scored a job teaching pre-kindergarten and adults in a language school in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He had also spent years teaching in a similar position in South Korea, from 1996 to 1998. Both experiences gave Hardy, returning to Cleveland when was 37, a new lease on the city’s deficiencies. “I came back here from the outside looking in,” he said.

Ward 11 today, which encompasses parts of Edgewater, Cudell, West Boulevard, Jefferson and Bellaire-Puritas, is one of the far west side’s most populated (at 26,564) and most diverse. It’s about half white, 17 percent Hispanic and 25 percent Black. A growing Arabic community is centered around the West Town Village and Holyland markets.

As for Hardy’s citywide perspective, development and safety are two of his topmost concerns if elected a freshman councilperson. He said he supports Mayor Bibb’s upcoming police forum, following the Warehouse District mass shooting, yet would want to expand it for more resident and officer input.

In Ward 11, Hardy aims to see streetlights fixed, businesses filling vacancies on Lorain Ave., roads paved where they’ve been broken for too long.

Even on Guardian Blvd., where Hardy still lives today in the same house he grew up in. Which, like Hardy says, signifies why he believes he’s the best man for the job.

“Ward 11’s at a crossroads, this is not something to be played with,” Hardy said. “This is a critical time.”

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