Nate’s Northcoast Notes • MLK Memorial Concert at Bop Stop • Bootsy Collins featured at AARP awards • Edwin’s Brandon Chrostowski offers cooking classes • ‘Sylvie’s Love’ streaming on Amazon

By NATHAN E. PAIGE

Staff and faculty of the Cleveland Music Settlement will perform
during the MLK Jr. Memorial Concert, Sunday, January 17. 

MLK Memorial Concert Livestream at BOP STOP (January 17)

The Cleveland Music School Settlement’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert will take place virtually this year, livestreamed from the BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Avenue [44113], Sunday, January 17  at 3PM and available for viewing on the BOP STOP’s Facebook page and featuring performances by Settlement faculty and students. The concert is curated by Linda Allen and Matthew Jones. Free, but donations encouraged.

Funkateer Bootsy Collins will be honored at AARP Cincinnati’s 3^rd Annual Living the Dream Awards January 15.

AARP’s 3rd Annual Living the Dream Awards featuring Bootsy Collins (January 15)

One of Ohio’s own Funkateers, Bootsy Collins will be honored at AARP Cincinnati’s 3rd Annual Living the Dream Awards during a virtual ceremony Friday, January 15 at 8PM.  This event highlights the work of the Bootsy Collins Foundation, examines the impact of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution to civil society, the power of music, and AARP’s efforts in helping to disrupt disparities and inequities.  During the event, Collins will be interviewed by Cincinnati radio personality Lincoln Ware. This free event is open to the public, but registration is necessary.  

Edwin’s Vivant @ Home Virtual Cooking Classes (Multiple Dates, January)

Why not start off the new year by enhancing your culinary skills?  Chef Brandon Chrostowski, of Edwins and Edwins Too, is hosting virtual cooking classes throughout the month.  Get professional, hands-on advice on braising, roasting and cake decorating, as well as learning about various wines and cocktails.  Classes are an hour long and cost $20.  Advance registration necessary. Take-home kits can be purchased from Edwins Butcher Shop, 13204 Buckeye Road, the day before the selected event.  

The romantic drama “Sylvie’s Love” is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

‘Sylvie’s Love’ via Amazon Prime (Now Streaming)

The latest release from Amazon Studios is the romantic drama “Sylvie’s Love,” starring Tessa Thompson (“Westworld,” “Creed”) and Nnamdi Asomugha (“Crown Heights”).  Set in 1957, “Sylvie’s Love” tells the story of talented saxophonist Robert (Asomugha) who plays in a jazz quartet he feels is going nowhere. Sylvie (Thompson) aspires to have a career in television, but currently works in her father’s record store while her fiance is abroad fighting in the war.  When Robert takes a part-time job at the record store, their lives are forever changed. Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, the film also stars Aja Naomi King, Erica Gimpel, Lance Reddick and Eva Longoria.

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Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@therealdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

Cleveland in dire need of a mayor with energy and fresh ideas; one candidate has both

Now is the time

Clevelanders will go the polls tomorrow to decide which two men will advance to the November election that will determine the city's next mayor.

Tomorrow's nonpartisan primary takes place in the most dynamic and fluid civic environment this city has seen since the election of Carl Stokes precisely one half-century ago.

In the eyes of some, the primary election will be a referendum on the twelve-year run of Frank Jackson and his administration. He is clearly running on his record, one that has many commendable and noteworthy accomplishments. He steered the city firmly through several tough years of the Great Recession that began in 2008. He has presided over what is slowly becoming a more vibrant downtown. He worked smartly with Republicans to bring their national convention here and helped create the conditions for its smooth execution.

Jackson is seeking an unprecedented fourth four-year term that would make him the longest-running mayor in Cleveland's 221-year-old history. When he announced he would again be a candidate, he said he was running because there was no one else who was both qualified and willing to run.

what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

That claim was untrue. The names on tomorrow's ballot would be very different had the mayor declared his intent to retire. The mayor's decision to run again was essentially a declaration that his leadership is indispensable.

It isn’t.

What's more, the voters know it.

After 12 years, Jackson fatigue is rampant throughout the electorate, and a major reason why he is apt to receive a small slice of tomorrow's vote.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. 

If voters act on their anger and despair, which more than 20,000 of them did when they signed petitions protesting the giveaway of tax monies to expand Quicken Loans Arena, here's the real question they should ask before marking their ballots: what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

Cleveland has some glitzy bells and whistles. We’ve got a marvelous Playhouse Square, cool chandelier, captivating pro sports teams, a bevy of world-class institutions, and the incomparable University Circle.

But we are consistently mired at the bottom of every quality of life index, in large measure because we are bamboozled into offering public support for private gain and bragging about our charitable nature. We presume ourselves to be liberal because Democrats are everywhere in office, though liberal policies prevail nowhere. We are stuck in conservative trickle down bootstraps muck.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. That energy comes, believe it or not, from the people. Citizen energy is what propelled Carl Stokes to victory fifty years ago.

Mayor Jackson waves at cars
along MLK Blvd. last month

Frank Jackson may still call the Central neighborhood home, but he has become a captive of downtown interests, isolated from the daily struggles of most citizens. His distance from the city is illustrated by the most iconic image of his campaign: the mayor standing detached at intersections in tailored clothing and waving at passing traffic.

Not by coincidence, Jackson detests the two candidates most identified with the people's energy: city councilmen Zack Reed and Jeff Johnson.

We like Zack. He's the hardest worker on city council, and along with the ageless Mike Polensek, the most impassioned. His report card on the failures of the Jackson administration is by far the most biting of all the candidates' critiques. But Reed's signature issue is safety, and student of government that he proclaims to be notwithstanding, he hasn't the foggiest idea how to pay for any of his proposals.

We like Jeff also. We believe in redemption and second chances. But, sadly, Jeff's time passed long ago. He followed Mike White into city council and then into the State Senate. He should have run to succeed White in 2001 but he was fresh out of federal prison. He got back on track but the train had left.

We think the fourth major candidate in this race is the under the radar Brandon Chrostowski. He's lucky in that his typical male indiscretion occurred early enough in life not to derail him. And he was smart enough to learn from it and find his passion in public service.

Four years ago Brandon started a series of nonprofit entities that most famously includes a French restaurant that offers fancy food with zealous service at high prices. It's become a multi-million dollar operation with impeccable accounting from which he extracts only a modest income.

Brandon Chrostowski at the 2d annual
Northeast Ohio Re-Entry Business Summit on April 21,
an event he founded to provide opportunities for returning citizens. 

But the most important product of his enterprise is not satisfied customers; it is redeemed lives. Edwin's Restaurant and Leadership Institute helps people reclaim their lives. It invests in people who have been convicted of felonies and sent to prison. They learn soft skills and marketable skills in the food service industry, find jobs, become productive members of society, and stay out of jail. Their recidivism rate is under 2%.

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We have attended several mayoral forums and listened carefully to all nine candidates. (Madalone skipped the ones we attended but we tracked him otherwise.) Chrostowski, a white guy, is one of the only two candidates we heard express actual belief in the potential of Cleveland citizens. This is huge in a city with a population that is largely black and brown, disproportionately under-employed, over-policed, poorly educated, ill-housed, malnourished, in bad health, trapped in dangerous environments, with diminished transportation options, and too often denied opportunities because of these circumstances or past conditions.

If you don't believe in the people you profess to be helping, then guess what: whether you are on a public, private or nonprofit payroll, whether you work in the ‘hood, in corporate, or in Congress, you are less than honest in what you do, and the people — be they addicted, infirm, or just stuck at the bottom of the ladder — know it.

A smart truck driver I know likes to remind me of a verse from the Gospel of Luke. It may be the only one he knows, but it should give comfort to those who may be see Brandon’s resume as slight:

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much..." [Luke 16:10].

Chrostowski's campaign has been ground level in message and method. He sensibly would fire Flask and McGrath, who epitomize the indifferent or hostile shadow of public safety in Cleveland lurking behind the police chief. He would establish a series of job training centers around town that would focus on making residents more employable. And his third priority is to address public school performance and to accelerate Cleveland's lagging pace towards becoming a universally savvy tech community.

Chrostowski is not an ordinary politician. He voted for neither Trump nor Clinton. But he has taken an old-fashioned approach to campaigning, crisscrossing the city with a dedicated team targeting likely voters. He tells me he's been in every ward knocking on doors.

Mike White used a similar approach in 1989 to finish a surprising second in the primary and launch his twelve-year mayoralty. It would be good for Cleveland if Chrostowski can follow that route and help to end one.

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EIGHT candidates file to enter primary against Frank Jackson

Choose your metaphor: politicians and would-be politicians smell blood in the water and are primed to attack a man they perceive to be vulnerable after being the dominant fish in the pond. Or voter discontent with the status quo is so widespread that Minnie Mouse could have secured enough valid signatures. 

Either way, it is clear that Frank Jackson's stewardship as Cleveland's mayor over the past twelve years will be dissected and vivisected mercilessly over the summer leading up to the nonpartisan September primary that will reduce the field to two finalists for the job Jackson would like to retain for a record fourth 4-year term. 

The top two primary finishers will face off November 8.

I write this in transit 30 minutes after the Board of Elections released what is likely to be the most hotly contested mayoral primary since Carl Stokes first ran in 1965. Four candidates have had their petitions validated by the Board so far. They are social entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski, Cleveland  councilman, Jeff Johnson, State Rep. Bill Patmon, and Dyrone Smith, likely the least known candidate in the race. Election officials are checking the petitions of the last minute filers: former East Cleveland mayor Eric J. Brewer; incumbent Jackson; Robert M. Kilo, who previously challenged the mayor; businessman Tony Madalone; and Cleveland councilman Zack Reed.

Fasten your seat belt after you bolt your chair to the floor. The ride to Sept. 12 is likely to contain more than a few twists, turns and loops.

Absentee voting starts August 8, a mere 40 days away, a schedule favoring the best-known and most organized candidates.

Fasten Seatbelt, prepare for Lyft off and Uber-fascinating trip this year

There is so much going on in the civic space right now that it’s hard to know where to focus. Nearly two weeks in, Donald Trump is settling into a pattern of being Donald Trump: he is mercurial to the point of manic, self-referential to the point of obsession. He favors keeping everyone off guard not simply as a way of maintaining a negotiating advantage, but because he is untethered to any deep principles other than “winning”, which he defines as “Heads I win, tails you lose”.

Can his administration, Congress, the American public, the world, any of us, survive four years of being inside the Donald Trump pinball machine? Can we survive four months? That’s not purely a rhetorical question, given that he is rattling sabers in Iran’s direction. It’s hard to think that a Trump administration will ever be normal, but Americans must learn to react to the impulses of this President in a way that does not have us bouncing off the walls every time he pushes our buttons. And eventually we will find a way, first to coexist with the madness, then to contain it, and finally to sequester it, ideally somewhere outside the White House.

Meanwhile, stuff is happening here in Cleveland that demands our attention. Let us remember that the Chief Narcissist won the election not simply because of one campaign, but as a culmination of a series of campaigns and decisions made by ordinary people who at one time felt powerless. They organized themselves and got involved in the political process. After a while they became known as the Tea Party, evoking a call to the American revolutionary spirit. Perhaps we who aspire to a more progressive politics might also find a spark in another proud American tradition, and harness the spirit of the Abolitionists and become champions of freedom and equality.

Locally, a discussion focusing on possibilities of merger and acquisition between Cleveland and its original suburb, East Cleveland, took place Tuesday night on the Case campus. The panelists included Cleveland city councilmen Kevin Kelley and Jeff Johnson, along with East Cleveland councilman Nathaniel Martin. Kelley is president of Cleveland’s council, while Johnson’s heavily gerrymandered ward — which extends from near downtown almost to the city’s far eastern border with Euclid — bumps up against the East Cleveland municipal border in several places. Johnson announced two weeks ago that he is running this year for Cleveland mayor, so it was hard not to consider his every utterance against that backdrop. For the most part he came across as statesmanlike, although there were exchanges with Kelley that were unexpectedly heated. Johnson was honest enough to admit that there are tensions in Cleveland City Hall over the idea of the two cities becoming one. Both he and Kelley tried to be respectful of East Cleveland’s current, if tenuous, autonomy, but Johnson lapsed more than once into an attitude that seemed to say East Cleveland was an out-of-control neighbor whose problems did not stop at the border. He didn’t say East Cleveland had “some bad hombres” but you knew what he meant.

Interestingly, Johnson blamed some of East Cleveland’s distress on Cleveland’s leaders, saying that they had offered no help until acquisition became a topic of discussion. But he himself said there was little that Ohio law permits one municipality to offer in concrete assistance to a neighbor.

For the record, East Cleveland has been in a state of fiscal emergency for about 22 of the past 30 years, including roughly the past six. Most observers see this as largely the result of structural forces that have walloped the suburb, eviscerating its tax base, attended by a drop in its population from a high of over 40,000 to its current roughly 17,000 inhabitants. The problems are daunting on every level, but the City has been able to address none of them successfully because its toxic political culture keeps its public officials at each other’s throats all day long. Unhappy East Cleveland residents have forced the city to hold three recall elections since 2015; two months ago, the recall effort finally bore fruit when both the mayor and the council president were voted from office.

The leadership struggle continues however, and there is presently pending in the Eighth District appellate court a writ of mandamus that contests the legitimacy of the two newest council members.

At present the push to merge has no public champion in either city, so it’s a dead issue unless effective leadership arises, and that must happen, as both Kelley and Johnson noted, in East Cleveland first. Don’t hold your breath, but if you like the nitty gritty of seeing your local public debate from the warmth of your home, or the convenience of your mobile device, you can watch the proceedings in their entirety here or right here, in our previous post.

Meanwhile, the casual announcement on Monday night that Frank Jackson has decided to seek a fourth term has unleashed a flurry of responses that will make this year’s mayoral campaign the most fascinating one since at least the 1989 race that elevated Mike White into the mayor’s seat for the first of his unprecedented twelve years in office over three terms. Jackson, elected in 2005, has equaled that mark and now wants to break it.

He likely won’t have the cakewalk of his prior reelection campaigns. Johnson knows city politics at least as well as Jackson and has the ability to challenge the mayor on a number of issues where the latter has some vulnerability, including for starters, the police department, the minimum wage campaign, neighborhood stagnation, and public transportation policy.

If it were merely a contest between those two, the race might be interesting, assuming Johnson can raise the requisite funds to be competitive. He puts that amount at around $500,000 and thinks he can get it. Frank will have at least twice that much.

But what has suddenly made this race fascinating are two other candidates who announced mid-week. One is former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, who announced his candidacy on Facebook. You can read his opening salvo against Frank Jackson here, but if you eschew vulgarity, you may want to wait a few days until I can summarize it for you.

Brewer’s entry into the race had been bruited about for some time, with many wondering whether he would actually get in the race.  This week’s second announcement was a total surprise to most people. Brandon Chrostowski is running for mayor. His is certainly not a household name. He is a political newcomer better known in philanthropic circles than political ones. He founded and has run a growing operation in the Shaker Square area that provides opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons to re-enter society in a meaningful, healthy ways. In brief, he runs a training center that teaches people all levels from wait staff to top chef, the ins and outs of restaurant industry. They get practical experience working at a top-notch restaurant, EDWINS, tied to the training institute, and typically move on to other top restaurants in Cleveland.

The practical approach to problem-solving evidenced by Chrostowski’s enterprise has extended over just the last two years to establishing nearby residential centers for workers as well as a retail establishment. Chrostowski told me in a brief get-acquainted interview that he has thought long and hard about Cleveland’s issues and thinks his practical approach could work wonders for the city. He would also make neighborhood development a key part of his campaign.

Some other well-known politicians are known to be mulling entry into the race. Ward 2 councilman Zack Reed has promised a decision in the next several weeks. Term-limited state representative Bill Patmon is already in the race according to some reports; he had success eight years as a last-second filer in his state race, but that will approach will likely confer him no advantage if this race.

Whether Reed, Patmon or anybody else tosses a hat into the ring, it seems certain that the quartet of Jackson, Johnson, Brewer and Chrostowski guarantees the most exciting race in at least a generation. More importantly, the peculiar makeup of the race holds the promise that this will be a race about issues and ideas, of performance records as well as personalities. If that’s the case, the election may prove transformative.

How surprising after what we endured the past two years on the national scene! How appropriate this of all years, when the community is celebrating all year the careers of the Stokes brothers. It was 50 years ago, in 1967, when Carl Stokes became the first black person to be elected mayor of a major American city. The following year, older brother Louis was elected Ohio’s first black Congressman. 

Those two elections changed Cleveland a far better place politically and civically in countless ways. But the city has not enjoyed a robust political culture in many decades. The unique blend of veteran politicians, transplants, and newcomers among those already in this year’s race will make, we are certain, this year’s contest exciting on many levels from start to finish.

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