Sharon Spruill Running for Cleveland City Council in New Ward 3

Sharon Spruill is a born and bred Clevelander — a Buckeye native, a John Hay grad, a longtime employee at both Burten Bell Carr and the Fairfax Development Corporation — and has seen her community and the surrounding neighborhoods suffer nothing but disinvestment and decay for decades.

“I’ve seen it go from sugar to wherever it can go from there negatively,” she told Scene. “When I think about the Buckeye corridor, and all the thriving businesses that used to be there…. Now, when I walk that area or drive through. there’s nothing but trash and closed, boarded-up businesses. There’s been a total disinvestment from Buckeye to Kinsman to Union. It’s so disheartening.”

It’s why she’s running for Cleveland City Council in the new Ward 3, which runs from North Broadway and parts of Slavic Village to Mt. Pleasant and the edge of Shaker Square.

“We can’t do another four years or 30 years of people not trying to do something different,” she said.

Spruill brings experience not only as a longtime resident but as a healthy homes coordinator entrenched in the community, helping homeowners and tenants get the home repairs and safe, stable housing she says are vital to a safe, thriving city.

“Housing is very important to me,” she said. “My parents purchased their home in 1966 and I’m aware that the housing stock in the area is older and a lot of seniors that I’ve spoken to have talked about their journey, how they’re concerned about having a place to age in place. How do you do that with an older stock and being on a fixed income?”

Her campaign will focus on that as well as economic development.

“I want to bring back businesses to the area, not just in Mt. Pleasant but Slavic Village. We have to have strong ownership and entrepreneurship,” she said. “And workforce development. There is a need for the youth and young adults to be able to have a place to work outside of fast food restaurants.”

Incumbent Deborah Gray is running for re-election in the ward.