East Cleveland Mayor shares bold vision and energy, at the Roundtable

At the 01.24.06 Excellence Roundtable at the City Club, a standing room only group of diverse area citizens came together to discuss the future of East Cleveland with newly elected Mayor Eric Brewer. If Mayor Brewer can deliver on his promise, potential and the opportunities offered in redevelopment of this unique community, he will be a hero in this region and in many respects in the country. I believe everyone left this roundtable expecting this will occur.

 For the past few years I've had the opportunity to work on many regional initiatives supporting redevelopment of East Cleveland. The election of a new mayor initially raised concerns among many community leaders, which was largely driven by lack of familiarity with Brewer and his vision. Meeting with Brewer four times since the election, about various community initiatives, I had the opportunity to become well enough acquainted with Brewer to have very high expectations. I scheduled Brewer for this Roundtable to connect him with other community leaders interested in helping East Cleveland, and to give them each the opportunity to make their own judgements. I encourage attendees to post their thoughts from this Roundtable as comments to this posting.

In summary,  Brewer recognizes East Cleveland as a well located, desirable community suffering from easily identified and resolved problems. A resident of East Cleveland and journalist who has for decades covered social and economic issues in this region, Brewer knows his city well, and shared some relevant history. After 20 years without proactive, effective leadership, management and staff in East Cleveland government, the city has suffered.

But Brewer is already working with such great regional planning and development organizations as Cleveland State University, Kent State University's Urban Design Collaborative, University Circle Incorporated, Colliers, OneCleveland, the Cleveland Foundation and REALNEO, and voices such clarity of vision on current problems and immediate and long-term opportunities, so East Cleveland is set for a major transformation.

Located just 7 miles down from down Public Square on Euclid Avenue - the Euclid Corridor -  within walking distance of University Circle and Case University - the World's Most Powerful Learning Environment - on many of the regions busiest public transportation routes - within 15 minutes of every major highway - East Cleveland is a great location.

Having originally been developed as an upscale neighborhood of Cleveland, the housing and building stock of East Cleveland is unique and exceptional, although in many respects very neglected. The same applies to the city's infrastructure, parks and public spaces. But, in good repair, all of this makes for an exceptional new-urbanist goldmine - property values are already increasing in East Cleveland in realization of this nexus of good fortunes, leadership, regional planning and timing.