Granted, our long-beleaguered Cleveland has spunk and resiliency. There’s a belief out there that, as a city, we will continue to repair ourselves. We are resolved: we will no longer be looked down upon and feel inferior to other cities. We simply reject that status.
We boast world-class museums, restaurants and theater. We cheer our winning sports franchises. The Cleveland Orchestra remains globally renowned. We have dedicated teachers working every day to educate and inspire our future leaders. We have stellar institutions of higher learning from Tri-C to Case Western Reserve University to Cleveland State. Most importantly, we are—to borrow a phrase from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—a “world house.”
This churning city is a melting pot of all ethnicities, nationalities and religions. We all live and work amongst one another, even if we don’t always get to know one another. But I believe in Cleveland’s human raw materials and share Robert Kennedy’s vision of American possibility: “Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”
And yet: I remain pained how we tend to be fragmented in Cleveland. We are broken up into adversarial factions: east side, west side, downtown, this neighborhood, that neighborhood. In spite of any renaissance, ours is a city of divided demographics.
We can do better.
The fact is that we are plagued by crime, violence, and fear. The statistics are ominous even as people retreat even further into the confines of their own neighborhoods—further detaching ourselves from one another. Our city leadership, rather than being bold and imaginative, and motivating us to be better, continue to depend upon our isolation in order to retain their power bases. A city permanently divided will simply never rebuild itself.
We can do better.
We need to be more than just a collection of disconnected communities. In Cleveland, one could easily call them enclaves, compartments or boxes. Metropolitan Cleveland is an unhappy series of fragments. Our current leadership rarely encourages us to strive harder to become one unified city. Our local officials wallow in their respective and cozy districts. Their complacency has become our despondency.
We can do better.
It’s ironic that when most people talk about bridges, they are imagined as unifying structures. Sadly, in Cleveland, we have a bridge that still stands as a symbol of separation. So there is little social progress in the city and the bridge may as well be a blockade.
The issue is not just a black and white matter anymore. It’s even more nuanced and dangerous and disconnecting. We are a city of many labels. We remain affixed with the brands of “east-sider” or “west-sider” while carrying all of the convoluted baggage that comes with this bias. And the gap between the inner city and the suburbs is so pronounced that the two regions might as well be in different nations.
While it’s fine to celebrate our neighborhoods enthusiastically, we forget that virtually all of our religious traditions call us to be responsible for one another.
The result of this divided loyalty is that we don’t hold our leaders accountable for their continued mismanagement. So they are not leaders; they are bosses. Make no mistake: these bosses expect you to be separated, divided, and disconnected. So Cleveland remains a weak mosaic rather than a strong melting pot.
We can do better.
Let this be the year we stop our acquiescence. This could certainly be the year in which we do what is required and that is to come together and declare: “We will do better!” Let those words be the catalyst for us finally completing the comeback. The bridge that sits between our dreams and our destiny is action. This city is brimming with the energy it takes to determine its own direction. It’s long past time to unleash the will. It is our time!
We remain here because in our hearts we all understand that Cleveland is not a city you give up on. It’s a city you fight for. But to win, we must do it together.
Brandon E. Chrostowski
Mayoral Candidate 2017
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2017.
Mr. Chrostowski, read this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities
This is very buzzwordy. Which specific bridge is the symbol of division? Why is this focused on the alleged compartmentalization of neighborhoods (a very typical trait of large American cities) and not on fixing poverty, housing, policing, and infant mortality?
And please don’t refer to Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign as “short-lived” ever again.
You can go to Hungarian, Slovenian, Italian, Asian, Indian, middle eastern, and pretty much any ethnic area of Cleveland safely and there are attractions making it worthwhile to visit. But you can’t go to African American areas because of the crime. Not that there aren’t attractions worth going for. The crime is a curse on the African American community and they mostly shoulder the burden. The community accepts crime as a way of life, protects criminals, glamorizes destructive behavior as being cool and looks to outsiders to somehow save them from the low life culture of crime. It’s never going to change until people identify and remove the bad part of their culture. Every culture has is bad components. When immigrants came here, they almost entirely shed the bad parts and aspired to higher standards. Stop defending the bad part of the culture. There is so many wonderful components to the culture to be proud of. Crime, teen parenting, gangs … reject this and attract people to your neighborhood. African Americans can attract stores and restaurants and shops and tourists as soon as people feel they can go safely. Once the safety appears, we can connect the dots between the neighborhoods. Without fear.
I’m not the most eloquent writer and I may not have stated things in the clearest way. I don’t mean any disrespect to anyone. I’d really like to see Cleveland fulfill its potential. I’ve always loved this city and defended its greatness. I see the possibility of Cleveland becoming one of the greatest cities in the nation. We need to connect the dots, one safe neighborhood after another.
Do better?
And what are you proposing as a solution? As a mayoral candidate, you urge Cleveland to do better, but provide no concrete ideas other than eschewing labels like “east-sider/west-sider.” So what, exactly, do you plan to do about it? Spew empty rhetoric that we should “do better” without bothering to elaborate on what that means?
You’re right. There’s fear in this city. There’s crime. The RTA system – public transit – has women being raped at gunpoint at it’s east side stations. There was even a recent murder. Public transit, a veritable symbol of city unification that could help unite the “enclaves” instead incites fear into its potential ridership. You think the recent OSU murder is an isolated incident? Women are being raped at gunpoint here in Cleveland. There are abductions, attempted robberies, murders.
Want to do better? Try beefing up gun control to give the innocent a fighting chance. Try background checks, valid identification, insanity checks, drug testing before selling registered weapons to civilians. Don’t just clean up the inner city, keep it that way. Try working to extend sentences for sexual crimes to life in prison. A recent escape from an inner city correctional facility involved a prisoner who immediately committed rape. Don’t let rapists who have proven themselves to be more monsters than men back in the city to harm more people. Eliminate the cause of fear that keeps the suburbs disparate from the inner city.
Want to do better? Fix the roads that make certain parts of the city an eyesore. Work to end the drug problem. Work towards educational programs that will help youths find purpose and dedication to education, or at the very least learn to respect one another to prevent crime. Work to help the inner city youth be proud of where they come from and inspire them to where they’re going.
Or you know, just write a fluff piece so vague it won’t politically offend anyone urging the city to “do better.” Point out the serious flaws without suggesting any solutions to improve the situation. Try to advance your own political career without any hint of trying to create real change and do real good in Cleveland.
If you want respect as a mayoral candidate, do better.
@4:55 pm comment. How does beefing up gun control help innocents. The criminals steal guns, they don’t get them leagally. When the innocents get guns, the crime will go down.
And waste money on educational programs to give purpose and hope?
You’re spewing out the same liberal bullshit that’s been spread around for years. Wise up you moron.
This is a refreshing outlook on Cleveland! Mr. Chrostowski has brought about real change in peoples lives, as he promised, with his reentry program. I look forward to learning more about how this candidate plans to implement changes and tackle the tough issues that plague our city.
Wow, let’s stop with the naysaying! Brandon has proven that he is committed to helping the underemployed and skill challenged individuals by actually doing something about and creating a model program that works very well. He has gained the respect of great and not so great men all over Cleveland simply by being focused, hard working and committed.
The severe crime problems clearly exist in Cleveland still so why not try a new approach? Brandon’s out of the box thinking and his proven track record is a breath of fresh air! Bring it on Brandon! I welcome your energy and ideas!!
Brandon has proven himself a reliable agent of change in ways that most others don’t even bother. I’m all for supporting candidates who have proven their convictions and integrity with action. I understand those who would prefer if he had been born and raised here, which would refine his outlooks. Still, name someone better!