ENDORSEMENT: Justin Bibb for Mayor

 

There’s a narrative you often hear in political contests that “young blood,” “new voices,” even “an outsider” are desirable because they’ll bring fresh ideas and “change.” There’s much to be said for that. But there’s a lot to be said for the experience, skills, relationships and institutional memory that a newcomer doesn’t have.

That said, it’s essential to look at what direction you need to go. Cleveland needs a lot of change. It’s not on the right track and just in need a little energy boost. It’s mired in poverty, violence, desperation, old ideas and stasis, with Mayor Jackson’s last term a case study in going nowhere — neither backwards nor forwards. City council president Kevin Kelley has been an accomplice to that.

His opponent to be Cleveland’s next mayor is Justin Bibb — a fresh, shiny, young face who says a lot of the right things. But he’s never had the chance to demonstrate if he can or would accomplish those things within the framework of City Hall. Anyone who says they know what kind of mayor Bibb would be is, in our opinion, projecting their hopes onto something of a blank slate.

But we know what kind of mayor Kelley would be: one who eagerly takes calls from people named “Dolan,” “Gilbert” and “Haslem” and has the Greater Cleveland Partnership on speed dial, but shuts out ordinary citizens. We recall his reaction to activist organizing group Greater Cleveland Congregation’s 2017 demand that if Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was going to be gifted with a princely sum to upgrade what’s now called Rocket Mortgage Arena, an equal sum should be dedicated to the needs of Cleveland’s struggling citizens. Kelley was in the forefront of derailing their efforts, which were met with obfuscation, blackmail, and lies that the group wanted to starve the sports teams and see them leave town. Kelley engineered the rejection of their petitions when they tried to get it on the ballot.

Kelley has a track record and it’s not one of rolling up his sleeves and addressing why Cleveland is America’s poorest big city or the one with the least social and economic mobility for black women, with infant mortality rates in some minority neighborhoods that rival those in third-world countries. We have a violence crisis; we have an opioid crisis. But, like too many of our civic “leaders,” Kelley’s gone along with the focus on showering goodies on gentrifying, white near-west side neighborhoods, while Glenville and Mount Pleasant and South Collinwood continue to decay.

One of the less encouraging aspects of Bibb’s campaign is that most of his support is coming from exactly those young, white, engaged and affluent voters on the near west side. That doesn’t mean his main loyalty will necessarily be to them although it might. But Kelley’s constituency is the wealthy and powerful and we’ve already seen that his focus is on the big-ticket projects that put more money in their pockets. Bibb has at least talked about a different approach.

One of the more encouraging aspects of Bibb’s campaign is his promise to let some air into City Hall. We’re not talking about spiffy technology and fancy new systems, but responsiveness and cutting red tape. It’s long been virtually impossible to get simple information from City Hall, with all inquiries routed through the mayor’s communication office – and too often vanished there. We’d love to see a small business office that served as a one-stop shop for music venues, restaurants, bakeries, art galleries, boutiques and other small businesses, which have often been told by one department they needed a certain permit only to be told by an inspector they should have gone to another department to get a different permit. It sounds like Bibb’s thinking is along this line.

In a contest between someone who’s already shown that he cares primarily for those on top and someone who might be over his head but who also might reach out to the right people and bring some fresh air and energy to city hall, it’s not even a close choice. While we don’t think, as some of his followers imply, that Bibb walks on water, he could — we hope — pleasantly surprise us. Kelley has no surprises up his sleeve.

Post categories:

• Politics
• ---- SHARE this POST ----