Cleveland was what we called “stuck back.” The story here is quite similar to that of other parts of the industrial Midwest: a heavy reliance on manufacturing led to vulnerability in the 1980s and 1990s; suburban sprawl and jurisdictional fragmentation fueled a lack of regional collaboration to recover; and all this was sprinkled with a big dose of racial segregation and political conflict. Cleveland itself was actually host to a new wave of equity and advocacy planning in this period but there was little spill-over to the region and the central city continued to decline. The 2000s brought a new regional approach, most prominently in the form of a philanthropic effort, the Fund for Our Economic Future, but also through an effort of inner-ring suburban mayors. This is a region making a conscious effort to reverse its past trajectory and strive for higher ground; it has recently picked itself up (albeit just barely) from the bottom but it still has a long way to go to over- come a deep history of regional division.
Thank you to everyone in Cleveland who generously shared their time, ideas and insights with us:
Harriet Applegate, Executive Secretary
North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor
Jenelle Dame, Lead Community Organizer
James Jones, Director of Foreclosure Prevention
Samantha Pierce, Staff Director
Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP)
Amy Hanauer, Founder and Executive Director
Zach Schiller, Research Director
Policy Matters Ohio
Ned Hill, Dean
Maxine Goodman
Norm Krumholz, Professor
Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Robert Kleidman, Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, Cleveland State University
Christine Mayer, Vice Chair
Brad Whitehead, President
Fund for Our Economic Future
Randy McShepard
Policy Bridge, RPM International, Inc.
Joseph Roman, CEO
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Honorable Jay Westbrook, Council Member
Cleveland City Council
Just Growth 