Yesterday, cleveland.com came out with one of the most inexplicably soft editorials I have ever read: Frank Jackson's Legacy: Editorial Board Roundtable.
A sample of what 8 Editorial Board Members had this to say about the 7th Most Dangerous City in America in 2021:
Thomas Suddes - "The Mayor has served with dignity and grace, and for that he deserves the thanks of every Clevelander."
Eric Foster - "Thank you for your service, and fare thee well."
Lisa Garvin - "(Jackson's) dedication - and love - is unquestioned."
7 Democrat and 1 Moderate Republican Board Member could only muster effusive praise for the Democrat Mayor. Me? I was less impressed and took to Facebook to reply to what could only be called cleveland.com propaganda.
"Is this for real? Cleveland continued to bleed for his decade in charge. As for corruption free, HIS GRANDSON SHOT AT POLICE OFFICERS! In 90% of other cities in America he would have been run out of town on a rail. Just because cleveland.com failed to cover his shortfalls doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist. If the editorial board is happy Cleveland didn’t descend into anarchy like Minneapolis or Portland, wow, that’s setting the bar really low. - Fred on Facebook
And now the crux as to why we are here. After I made the comment, I expected some blowback since Mayor Jackson is so universally loved...
I waited....
And waited....
Nothing.
It's like my comment didn't exist. Now cleveland.com eliminated the Comments section on their website, but I had been making snarky comments on their Facebook page. A few weeks ago, I noticed a change at Facebook. Cleveland.com' was screening their Facebook content to Relevant. I went to my super-secret burner account, and, sure enough, my comment was screened out. I reset the settings from Relevant to All and my words popped up.
But who is doing that? Who is searching for content that they don't even know exists?
So I'm back on my own website whining. I'm not some disgruntled employee, a lot of people don't think Mayor Jackson did a good job.
"Cleveland Police morale is at an all-time low." - Jeff Follmer CPPA President
Cleveland lost 20,000 residents between 2010 and 2020, a -5% growth rate.
Cleveland lost over 2,000 residents in the Pandemic Year alone.
Cleveland is the 2nd Poorest Large City in America.
Cleveland has 11 schools on the Worst 100 Schools in America List.
Cleveland has the 6th highest Foreclosure Rate in America....
Under no metric is Cleveland doing well. The whole argument for Mayor Jackson seems to be that he's nice and Cleveland's Not Detroit.
I am genuinely mad as I type. How can a local paper operate with horse blinders?
As for the mayor's grandson, WHO LIVED WITH THE MAYOR, he ended up dying in a hail of bullets in September.
Before I could hit the Publish button on my own article, cleveland.com published a long form love letter to Mayor Jackson, this one from Mark Vosburgh. Vosburgh's best quote? Jackson's "detractors...have selective memories." After Vosburgh listed "re-imagining Public Square" as one of Jackson's accomplishments, steam was coming from my ears. Public Square was a mess for a decade, now its like a blood clot in an artery. Summing up Vosburgh's article, he basically said Cleveland was on the brink of insolvency, now it's solvent.
99.8% of the cities in America are solvent. That should not be counted as a victory.