Zachary Reed is a councilman is not short on confidence or energy and he's got just enough arrogance to kick failure out of his vocabulary. Growing up on East 139th Street in Mount Pleasant, this dynamic and involved speaker studied Political Science at Golden State University in California and at Cleveland State University, and he remembers when the neighborhood was the place to live. Now it's a scourge among Cleveland since crack cocaine came into the area and destroyed it, and the dream to change it has fostered collaborations with St. Luke's Foundation, the Mount Pleasant Community Council, Murtis Taylor Center, Boys and Girls Club of America, Mt. Haven Baptist Church, and St. Cecelia Church (where music classes from classical piano to Jazz saxophone take place). It's these and other institutions under the leadership of Odelia Robinson and then Mayor Michael R. White that anchored the community, so St. Luke's was encouraged to invest in it. Now Councilman Reed is bringing back the ward to the way it was when he was growing up.

Cool Cleveland: You're concentrating on Kinsman - Why ?
Kinsman is falling apart, but ten to 20,000 people come down Kinsman road everyday. Kinsman, thus Mt. Pleasant is a strategically placed battleground well worth fighting for. Go straight down Chagrin Boulevard and straight down Kinsman and you're there.

So what are you going to do and how are you going to do it?
Mike White was really committed to this project and we got Issue Two monies. Cleveland got 21 million and Mayor White earmarked 11 million of it for Kinsman road. From E. 93rd to E. 154th a new road, curb and new traffic lights will be put in. I strongly suggested that art be implemented into to the project also.

So this is to be the largest road/art project in the City of Cleveland?
We'll hold on that distinction for a few months. The Euclid Corridor comes on in month and will take over that (laughing). The good thing is, designs based on African Mudcloth designs will grace Kinsman from 130th to 154th. And your colleague, Charles Adams came up with that idea instead of just read brick pavers.

Well, we are both part of the City of Cleveland Design Review Board. Charles is the Chair. He is also an artist and part of the Arts Community and is very aware of who has expertise in this area, if not himself. There are several artists and arts organizational representatives involved in the City Hall process. Kay Taber, Keith Brown, Laura Noble and Mark Schwartz are but a few names that folks might recognize.
My conversation with Shaker Heights mayor Judy Roth has been to create a seamless border between Kinsman and Chagrin. Coming down Chagrin and moving onto Kinsman, you know that you've moved into Cleveland. Coming down South Woodland and crossing over Beachwood, Shaker and Cleveland Heights, one just doesn't realize that three municipalities have been traversed.

So that is the first project. What's next? A single street does not a neighborhood make. What about education in the ward and the A.J. Rickoff (Anthony J. Rickoff) dilemma?
The first new school to be built in the city of Cleveland will be A.J. Rickoff. In 1996 we passed a levy in the city of Cleveland for capital improvements to the schools. A.J. Rickoff needed a new roof. With all the patronizing and wasting of money, at the time, the roof was never put on and a huge snowstorm collapsed the roof. They closed it down and condemned the school on 116th and union. The city and school board knew they had to get the kids in a school, so they opened the doors, threw some paint on the walls and moved the kids back in with no significant improvements.

You mentioned it's the 3rd worse school in the Cleveland Municipal School district and that you impressed upon Barbara Byrd Bennett the need to make good on that promise to improve.
If you go to the present day A. J. Rickoff, a sign still stands, "Temporary Home of AJ Rickoff." I told her (Byrd-Bennet) when I was growing up "temporary" meant short, brief, period of time, but it's now been five years. A few years ago when issue 14 passed, Barbara Byrd Bennett, in complete agreement, made A. J. Rickoff the first new school to be built in the city of Cleveland. Reed encouraged Bennett to consider an educational campus instead of building a brand new school only. Barbara and myself had a conversation with Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton of Tri-C and Andy Venable of the Cleveland Public Library, and I suggested having a K-8th grade school and the possibility of a Tri-C satellite there. I said, "we can build a brand new library there and then we will have an educational campus." We all agreed, issue 14 passed, and we began to develop what the school would look like.

I didn't think a library was going there.
Andy Venable passed his issue, and we didn't realize that Andy didn't just want to build a brand new library, he also wanted to build a brand new research library that would compete with the research library in Shaker.

So it won't fit.
Right. This will be a 15,000 square foot library on the Campus of what is now Alexander Hamilton middle school, but we'll take it!

Tell me about the kids' project. There might be a Distance Learning vid-con opportunity for the museum (the Cleveland Museum of Art.)
You're probably talking about St. Luke's Kids' Health 20-20 project. This partnership between St. Luke's Foundation and University Hospital introduces a new concept for treating children up through 10 years old, introducing youth patients to an indoor and outdoor playground. Once parents and doctors confer, the doctors get to see kids under the stress of playing. Doctors wear office cloths as opposed to medical dungarees and talk to kids in an action environment the children feel comfortable in. This 4 million-dollar medical facility will be on 147th and Kinsman, with a huge playground facility on the inside, and a huge playground facility outside. The outdoor one will also be available for the entire community.

I understand that 20% or so of the people you represent are senior citizens...
Yes! Some have lived in the ward 50 years. They no longer need or can no longer handle the big houses they are in and they're telling me that they don't want to leave the ward. We are working out details with Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to build on the former Burger King site (at 137th and Union 48) units of senior housing. We have one right now which sits on 110th and Kinsman. It's full! And there's a huge waiting list since its inception. We can rehab the homes they leave to accommodate young people who'd like the space. So, we have a conversation going with our seniors to make that happen.

What about other new housing?
The first new homes built in Ward 3 in over a decade will be on Kinsman from 123rd to 125, they'll be townhouses in the $140K range. The first new county building outside of downtown was opened two years ago on 139th and Kinsman which houses Children and Family Services, Health and Nutrition and Welfare Back to Work; every day 300 county employees come in this area to work. So we will have spent over 50 million dollars on Kinsman Rd from 93rd to 154th street in the next 3-5 years, and I believe the spin-off will hit Union and also 116th. I am naming the major corridors because if you have ever driven around Mt. Pleasant and looked at the housing stock, our housing stock is second to none. I put our housing stock up to Shaker, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Westlake; we have $100,000 and $200,000 homes that are beautiful and situated in a beautiful area. So if we can re-do Kinsman, people will continue to maintain their housing stock and maintain their streets. It's not just a street, it's a gateway and a life-line.

You've collaborated with Yolanda Burke to build a museum about the history of Mt. Pleasant, The Heritage House located at 128th and Kinsman to document the businesses and ethnic groups living in the neighborhood over the last century. As the neighborhood has transitioned from a Jewish and Italian community to a 90-95% African-American community today, you're working with the Jewish Federation to access their archives for this project.
Carl Stokes was the first African-American mayor in the U.S. and Jim Brown lived in Mt. Pleasant. Don King lived there also, so I'd love to see a museum/heritage house collaboration. And another great plan that's hitting is the 114 acre Luke Easter Park, the largest Urban Park in the State of Ohio.

The African-American Family Day Picnic event that takes place there is really great. It pulls vendors from all over the country, and even on a bad event weekend they get 25,000 people.
As you've probably observed, the area handled the crowds nicely. I've taken it over this year, and am bringing in Friday night concerts.

Many of us believe that during the museum expansion there will be a great opportunity to create a different paradigm for how a major cultural organization connects with the community. It is not out of the question, particularly during that period of time to think about a museum satellite or several in the community. For instance, the Teacher Resource Center or the library could have office hours once a week at A.J. Rickoff and help teachers learn about our resources and how to connect with us. Everything is curriculum-based and geared toward Proficiency standards. I am talking beyond programs; I'm talkin' about a new synergistic relationship.
Yes, and I think we should also have this conversation with the library. At this point, there are no conceptual drawings of what it is going to look like, so this is essentially ground floor. We're beginning to transfer the property over to the library; I know the CMA works closely with Case, and just for the record, AJ Rickoff just laid the T-1 line and we are looking at making Kinsman Road a Wi-Fi zone. We are going to be working with Case Western Reserve to make that a reality.

OK. Back to the library, why build a new library with the library that exists on 140th?
Because there is no room whatsoever for expansion there. No parking, no room to go up, nothing. Mr. Venable is talking about the community learning center so it would be great to sit down with him early on. Keep in mind that from 130th to 140th and Kinsman, is what we are calling the resource zone. If this is something you believe in, let's get together with the executive leaders of Mt. Pleasant and work it out. We'll ask "How do we make the art museum an integral part of all the expansion and resources development?

And by extension, University Circle, all the resources there and smaller organizations, also.
Well, let's stay at the table. Here's the timeline: the Kinsman road project starts April 1st. The school project begins this summer, and AJ Rickoff School will be finished June 2005. The senior housing project begins late summer. The plans for the library will start this summer and is expected to be built by 2005. The medical facility would have been constructed by now, however, St. Luke's did a site visit of the neighborhood, and afterward the president opted for building a new facility instead of rehabbing.

It would appear that if anyone can pull resources together and accomplish all the above, this councilman can. It is equally evident that Kinsman's vibrant and solid neighborhood can emerge. Will Mt. Pleasant be able to gentrify? Can it cash in on those qualities that make neighborhoods a true neighborhood? Can it promulgate and capitalize on the very significant African-American culture present? Many think so, and they are betting their bottom dollar on it.

Interview by Cool Cleveland contributor Cavana Faithwalker leftthumbprint@yahoo.com

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