By Bruce Checefsky
When Frank Jackson was elected mayor of Cleveland in 2005 after beating out incumbent Jane Campbell, 99,000 people casted their votes. The population was 448,188, and Cleveland ranked as the 40th largest city in the United States. Sixteen years later, with a population of 376,599, or 17% decline, Cleveland ranks as the 54th largest city in the United States. Voter turnout for the 2021 primary election was only 15% with votes totaling 40,050.
Jackson came to office during a time when Cleveland experienced the highest poverty rate among American cities with populations of 250,000 or more, according to a U. S. Census Bureau analysis. Nearly a third of the city’s population and half of the children qualified as impoverished in 2005, with an estimated 31% of its people living in poverty.
By 2020, nothing changed. Cleveland had the highest poverty rate among large U.S. cities with 30.8% and came in last among large cities in child poverty, with 46.1% of children in the city living in poverty.
“If we have policies or we have institutional behavior in place that restricts people from being able to participate in that prosperity and quality of life, you’re going to have poverty,” Mayor Jackson said in a press conference in September 2020. “So that is why institutionalized things such as inequities, disparities, and racism are major issues that we have to address if we want to eliminate poverty, crime, and other kinds of negative things that are going on socially in the United States and Cleveland in particular.”
Jackson rose to power in Cleveland as a champion of the people, according to some. Jackson had been characterized by stability amid difficult economic times while facing one of the worst economic climates in Cleveland’s history. In 2006-2007, Cleveland was at the epicenter of a national foreclosure crisis. Despite the historic downturn, he managed to avoid service cuts or layoffs in 2009 to win a landslide re-election in November of that year.
In 2012, he had a plan to triple the number of students attending public schools by throwing out union rules governing teacher pay and layoffs. The Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) objected. District officials and CTU representatives negotiated an agreement to a counter-proposal. CTU President David Quolke called the results far from perfect.
The killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 was “the worst time I’ve experienced as mayor,” Jackson said at the time. His legacy could be defined by that moment. Jackson’s role in the consent decree, which requires the Cleveland Division of Police to make a number of fundamental changes to its policies and practices, offered a chance to transform the police department into a standard bearer for law enforcement nationwide.
Jackson ran for an unprecedented fourth four-year term in 2017 on a platform to transform the city’s schools, stop violence in the neighborhoods, and bring constitutional policing to the city. He won 59.6% of the vote overall.
Jackson took his oath of office on Jan. 2, 2018, for a historic fourth term making him the City of Cleveland’s longest tenure as mayor. His greatest achievements as mayor include leveraging public-private partnerships, reforming Cleveland schools and balancing the City budget every year, according to the website clecityhall.com.
In his final State of the City address, a resilient Jackson reached out to thank his staff and supporters.
“There’s so much more to be done, so much more,” he said, “and whatever I have accomplished, I have not done that on my own.”
