In 2023, Cleveland’s infant mortality rate was 13.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births, more than twice the national rate of 5.6. For Black babies, the rate was even higher at 19.2.

These are not just numbers. They are Cleveland babies.

Our youngest residents are facing some of life’s biggest barriers before they even have a chance to take their first steps.

Today, Cleveland made history as the first city in Ohio, and the first community outside Michigan, to launch Rx Kids, an innovative, evidence-based program that invests directly in families during pregnancy and the earliest months of a child’s life.

We are starting in three Cleveland ZIP codes that face some of our city’s greatest maternal and infant health challenges. Every eligible expectant mother in those communities can receive $1,500 during pregnancy, followed by $500 a month for the first six months of their baby’s life.

Rx Kids is different from many traditional programs because families do not have to prove they are poor enough or at high enough risk to receive support.

If inequity exists at the community level, our solutions should be big enough to reach the whole community.

This program reflects a basic social contract that when a child is born in Cleveland, all of us have a stake in that child’s future.

The money might help pay the rent, buy diapers, put food on the table, get to a doctor’s appointment, or take time away from work.

It is a simple idea backed by strong evidence that when families have greater economic security at one of the most important — and financially vulnerable — times in their lives, children, parents, and communities can do better.

Since launching in Flint, Michigan, in 2024, Rx Kids has grown to more than 60 Michigan communities and served more than 15,000 families. Research is already showing promising results, including increased prenatal care, fewer preterm and low-birthweight births, greater family financial stability, and fewer child maltreatment allegations.

That evidence matters to me.

Cleveland has made tremendous progress in improving the health and well-being of our children, but we also know we have more work to do. Our infant mortality rate remains far too high. And the challenges facing Black women and families in Cleveland are not new. In 2020, Bloomberg CityLab ranked Cleveland the worst place in America for Black women.

Behind that ranking are generations of Black women and families who have carried burdens they should never have had to carry and who deserve better from their city.

We cannot accept those outcomes as inevitable.

As mayor, I believe the government has an obligation to innovate. We must have the courage to find what works and then have the ambition to bring it to more people.

Rx Kids gives us another powerful tool to change outcomes. But it is also a direct investment in Cleveland’s babies.

The City of Cleveland is proud to work alongside philanthropy, healthcare providers and community organizations to bring Rx Kids here.

Our goal is to reach every mom and every baby in our city.

A child’s first months can shape the rest of their life. Parents should not have to choose between paying the rent and preparing for a new baby. And no child’s ZIP code should determine their chance to thrive.

Every baby deserves the support they need from day one.

That is the kind of investment that can change a child’s trajectory, and, ultimately, the trajectory of a city.

While in the UK, I sat down with The Centre for Cities to discuss Cleveland’s second act—and how legacy cities can turn their industrial strengths into broad-based growth by investing in land, talent, education, and housing.

We also discussed the essential role mayors play in building coalitions, putting place before politics, and delivering results for residents.

Honored to be featured in Monocle Magazine alongside my colleagues Mayor Mattie Parker and Mayor Matt Mahan.

As the saying goes, all politics is local, and America’s mayors continue to fight the good fight to move our country forward. And that’s what our work in Cleveland is all about, from jobs and housing to increasing public safety and revitalizing our waterfronts. We will continue to show the nation what’s possible.

Read the full feature in Monocle Magazine.

Having a home is about stability. I know this firsthand from seeing it through the lens of my grandparents.

When they came north to Cleveland from the segregated South, home became more than a place to live. It was where our family gathered, where lifelong memories were made, and where the foundation for a better future was built. Like so many Americans, they believed homeownership could create the kind of wealth and opportunity that gets passed from one generation to the next.

But for far too many in our city and our nation, that dream is being deferred.

During the Great Recession of 2008, Cleveland was ground zero of the foreclosure crisis. Neighborhoods collapsed. Blocks went dark. And generations of wealth were destroyed while entire communities were left to rebuild on their own.

Today, America faces a different housing challenge. Families are struggling to find homes they can afford, while cities wrestle with rising costs, outdated systems, and too little housing supply.

Yet the lesson Cleveland learned remains the same: housing cannot be treated as a singular issue.

Housing is connected to economic opportunity, infrastructure, workforce development, and neighborhood stability. If we want different outcomes, we must redesign the systems that shape development itself.

That is exactly what we are doing in Cleveland.

The Housing Innovation District is not just a housing policy. It is a neighborhood-focused strategy designed to modernize how city government supports growth, reduces barriers to development, and ensures residents benefit from the investment happening around them.

We are starting in neighborhoods that have waited too long for that investment to arrive.

For generations, Black neighborhoods like Hough, Central, and St. Clair-Superior have carried Cleveland forward while being systematically denied the investment they deserved. Through redlining, discriminatory lending practices, and decades of public and private disinvestment, wealth was extracted from these communities instead of being built from within.

These outcomes were not accidental. They were the result of policy choices.

The Housing Innovation District begins with a simple belief: neighborhoods that were intentionally excluded from opportunity should be first in line to benefit from it.

The housing crisis is not only about supply. It is about whether local governments are willing to change the systems that determine how growth happens.

For Cleveland, that begins with modernizing the rules that govern growth. Through form-based code, we will make it easier to build housing that fits neighborhood character while supporting walkable streets, mixed-use corridors, and the kind of density that strengthens communities rather than disrupts them.

Just as importantly, building housing must become faster and less expensive. By reducing permitting costs and introducing pre-approved housing plans, we are removing barriers that too often delay projects before they ever break ground.

Housing growth should also be paired with infrastructure investment. Through a targeted tax increment financing district, future growth will help fund streets, sidewalks, utilities, parks, and public spaces.

We are also embracing innovation in how we build housing. By pairing modular construction with targeted rehabilitation and storefront improvements, we are jump-starting the market to support scalability.

Together, these tools are designed to do more than increase our housing stock. They are designed to build stronger neighborhoods.

And this effort is not happening in isolation.

Across this corridor, more than $368 million in transformational projects are already underway, including community hubs, mobility improvements, neighborhood infrastructure investments, and lakefront development.

At the center is the newly unveiled Cleveland Midline, a 350-acre business park and greenway projected to support more than 2,500 good-paying jobs while reconnecting neighborhoods that were historically cut off from opportunity.

Cleveland is one of the only cities in the country intentionally connecting an ambitious housing policy to an industrial policy.

We are building a future where new housing, new jobs, and new investment move together. And where the residents who kept faith in these neighborhoods can benefit from the growth they helped make possible.

I know these blocks because I’ve walked them. I’ve knocked on doors and attended church with the families who stayed in these neighborhoods when others left.

They don’t need just another plan; they need results. The Housing Innovation District is being built to do just that.

Our city knows the cost of a broken housing system. That’s why we’re determined to help build a better one.

Across the country, downtowns are emptying out. In Cleveland, we’re filling ours back up.

Office vacancies are up. Work patterns have changed. Foot traffic isn’t what it once was. And in many cities, the response has been to wait and see how the market settles.

In Cleveland, we’re not waiting.

From day one, my administration recognized that these challenges weren’t temporary. They required a coordinated, intentional response. That’s why I launched a focused 90-day action plan earlier this year to stabilize Downtown Cleveland and position it for long-term growth.

This is execution, not theory.

In the first 45 days, I brought together more than 50 public, private, and civic partners, including developers, lenders, employers, and institutions, who collectively dedicated 350+ hours to identifying problems and advancing solutions.

Together, we’ve assessed our major office buildings, engaged property owners and tenants, and begun direct intervention where it’s needed most. That means real conversations with employers deciding whether to stay, and real interventions in buildings at risk of going dark.

Now, the next 45 days are about delivering results.

We are doubling down on tenant retention with a more proactive, hands-on approach. That includes direct outreach to companies at risk of leaving, a concierge-style process to move deals faster, and new tools to support smaller tenants, like a tenant improvement “TI bank” to help finance buildouts and create move-in-ready spaces.

We’ve also launched a “Welcome Wagon” to support and promote new and expanding businesses Downtown, because growth doesn’t just come from big deals, it comes from building momentum one tenant at a time.

At the same time, we are taking decisive action on buildings. We are advancing partnerships with high-quality developers, focusing investment on our strongest assets, and directly intervening in distressed properties. That includes establishing a “Rocket Docket” to speed up court proceedings tied to troubled buildings, because we cannot afford to have key properties stuck in limbo.

And we are restoring energy to our streets. We’re working with employers to drive return-to-office efforts, improving safety and cleanliness, and activating Downtown through small businesses, retail, and events, especially as we head into the summer months.

Because Downtown is not in decline. It’s in transition.

And cities that succeed in this moment will be the ones that confront that transition head-on.

Cleveland is well-positioned to do exactly that. Over the past decade, we’ve seen real momentum Downtown, including population growth and a wave of adaptive reuse that has transformed historic office buildings and warehouses into housing and mixed-use spaces. As recently highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Cleveland has emerged as a national example of how cities can repurpose older buildings to meet modern demand, bringing new residents, new energy, and new purpose to Downtown.

We have that foundation; we just need to build on it.

What we’re doing now is about protecting that progress and accelerating what comes next.

While many cities are still studying the problem, Cleveland is already executing solutions. We’re aligning the public and private sectors, removing barriers to investment, and moving with speed to stabilize our core.

Because when Downtown Cleveland is strong, the entire city benefits.

This is about jobs. It’s about small businesses. It’s about confidence in our future.

And it’s about proving that cities like Cleveland don’t have to wait for change; we can lead it.

That’s exactly what we intend to do

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Last Thursday was supposed to start with ceremony — a second-term swearing-in alongside former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and a public outline of our governing vision. Instead, Cleveland got a snowstorm.

And in many ways, that felt right.

Because leadership isn’t about pageantry. It’s about purpose. That morning, purpose meant being out with our snow crews and making sure the job our residents were counting on got done.

It was a fitting way to begin our second term.

Nearly four years ago — just 11 days into the job — another snowstorm brought the city to a standstill. It exposed how outdated systems and broken processes were holding Cleveland back. Not just in snow removal, but across City Hall.

That moment helped define our first term: fixing what was broken and laying a stronger foundation for a more modern, safer, and more prosperous Cleveland.

That work wasn’t easy. We governed through headwinds that tested both our systems and our spirit — the first global pandemic in more than a century, historic levels of violence, and no shortage of skepticism about whether Cleveland could really turn the page. Some even questioned whether a young Black mayor with no political experience could lead this city beyond the status quo.

We didn’t shy away from those challenges. We faced them head-on — and proved that Cleveland is capable of real, lasting change.

That’s what our governing agenda in the Cleveland Era is all about: delivering for people and reminding ourselves that more is possible.

Cleveland has always known how to turn vision into power. Long before anyone ever said, “Silicon Valley,” this city was already doing the work — building systems, building wealth, and building the backbone of the modern American economy. This is where John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil showed the world what scale really meant.

Not just hustle, but discipline.

Not just innovation, but ownership.

Cleveland understood then — as we must now — that ideas matter, but infrastructure, coordination, and control of the value chain are what change history. We weren’t just part of the industrial revolution; we helped engineer it.

The Cleveland Era is about reclaiming that mindset. It’s about remembering that this city has always been ahead of its time — and now we are setting the pace once again.

With that foundation in place, our second term is about acceleration. Moving faster. Thinking bigger. Delivering results at a scale that matches Cleveland’s ambitions.

Our governing agenda for the Cleveland Era is built around three core priorities. They will guide how we lead, how we govern, and how we deliver for the people of this city over the next four years.

Safety: A Promise We Owe Each Other

Public safety always has been, and always will be, priority one. It is foundational to everything else.

In our first term, we rejected the false choice between accountability and compassion. We rebuilt public safety from the ground up. We expanded community policing. We strengthened our partnerships at every level.

Those efforts mattered, and they saved lives. But we also know that safety is not a destination. It’s a daily commitment that must evolve with the realities on the ground.

In the Cleveland Era, safety means being relentless about outcomes. It means using data to deploy smarter resources, supporting officers and first responders with modern tools and training, and continuing to invest upstream in prevention, youth opportunity, and neighborhood stability.

A safe city is not one that simply reacts to crisis. It builds trust, reduces harm, and gives every resident confidence that their government has their back.

Affordability & Economic Opportunity: A City Where Working People Can Get Ahead

Cleveland cannot be a city of choice if it is not affordable, and it cannot be a city of opportunity if prosperity is limited to too few people or places.

Across the country, families are being squeezed by rising costs and stagnant wages. Cleveland is not immune. That is why affordability and economic opportunity are not side issues in our agenda; they are central to it.

In our first term, we focused on stabilizing neighborhoods, expanding access to homeownership, investing in workforce pipelines, and supporting small businesses. We did this because we believe growth only matters if it’s shared.

In our second term, we will build on that work by accelerating housing production, connecting long-time residents to vibrant pathways, and connecting Clevelanders to the jobs and industries shaping the future — from advanced manufacturing to healthcare and technology.

Economic opportunity in the Cleveland Era is about dignity. It’s about ensuring that people who work hard can stay, build, and thrive here.

A Modern City Hall: A Government That Works for the People

Too often, residents experience government as slow, confusing, or inaccessible. That erodes trust, and it holds cities back.

From day one, we’ve been clear: City Hall must work better if Cleveland is going to move forward. That’s why our first term focused on modernizing systems, improving service delivery, and changing a culture that had grown too comfortable with “this is how it’s always been done.”

We’ve made progress, but modernization is not a one-time project. It’s an ongoing commitment.

In the Cleveland Era, a modern City Hall means faster permits, clearer communication, and a government that meets people where they are. It means using technology to improve transparency and accountability because that is what residents deserve.

When City Hall works, progress follows.

The Cleveland Era: Our Moment to Lead

We are entering our second term at a moment of national uncertainty — economic anxiety, political division, and skepticism about whether government can still deliver.

The Cleveland Era is our answer to those headwinds — both past and present. It is a commitment to keep building even when the winds shift, and to keep believing even when the noise gets loud.

The storm may have changed how our second term began. But it didn’t change our purpose.

Cleveland’s moment is here. And a shared belief in this work will propel us forward.

As 2025 comes to a close, so does my first term serving the city I love. Over the past four years, Clevelanders have entrusted me with the responsibility of leading through moments of hope, hardship, progress, and pain. That trust is something I carry with me every single day.

Leadership has a way of teaching you quickly and often humbles you just as fast. The lessons don’t always come from policy wins or ribbon cuttings, but from moments that test your values, your empathy, and your resolve. As I reflect on this chapter, four lessons have shaped me most and will continue to guide how I lead, listen, and serve Cleveland in the years ahead.

Lesson 1: Empathy Is the Real Currency of Leadership

New Year’s Eve 2021 was meant to be a moment of pause — a chance to celebrate my election with friends and family and reflect on what lay ahead as I prepared to take office just days later.

Instead, it became an urgent reality check.

Minutes after sitting down for dinner, my phone rang. It was around 7:30 p.m. A Cleveland police officer, Shane Bartek, had been shot during an attempted robbery in West Park. No matter your role — family member, chief of police, or mayor — it is the call no one ever wants to receive. As we rushed to the hospital, I wasn’t just processing the facts. I was confronting the weight of what this moment demanded of me as both a leader and a human being.

What do you say to a family whose world has just been shattered? How do you find the strength to console parents, partners, and children in the rawest moment of grief? How do you show up for a department that has just lost one of its own to a brazen, senseless act of violence?

By the time I arrived at the hospital, Officer Bartek was pronounced dead. The grief of his family and loved ones was overwhelming — a moment that left an indelible mark on me and one I will never forget.

That night stripped away any remaining illusions I had about leadership. I learned that people aren’t looking for perfect words or polished speeches. They’re looking for presence, honesty, and someone willing to sit with them in their pain.

Today, empathy cannot be a nice-to-have. It must be our north star. Trust is built through human connection, and without trust, government cannot work.

This is a truth I’ve carried with me since taking the oath of office and one I remain committed to as I continue to serve Cleveland.

Lesson 2: You Can’t Build Trust If You Fail to Listen

Cleveland Can’t Wait. That was our campaign slogan in 2021.

To me, it captured the urgency our city desperately needed at the time. We were behind. Our technology was outdated. In too many ways, we were trying to solve 21^st-century problems with 20^th-century thinking.

I came into office with a deep sense of urgency to act. To deliver. To show results quickly. That focus turned into something close to an obsession, much to the chagrin of my cabinet.

In business, “move fast and break things” is often celebrated. In government, as we’ve seen time and again, that mindset can backfire, sometimes with serious consequences. I learned that lesson the hard way over something that seemed simple on paper: leaf pickup.

In Cleveland, only one-third of residents receive leaf pickup, based on the city’s forestry footprint. In practice, that meant one side of a street might get service while the other didn’t. At the same time, we were struggling with staffing shortages in Public Works as we headed into winter.

I felt boxed in. Keep a program that felt inequitable and hard to staff — or eliminate it and ask residents to bag their own leaves. I did what I thought any responsible executive would do: weighed the pros and cons and decided to eliminate the program.

Then came “Leafgate.”

Calls and emails flooded City Hall. City Council rightly demanded accountability. Residents were pissed off, angry, and frustrated. And they were right.

I made the decision in a vacuum. In my rush to act, I failed to listen. And when leaders skip that step, trust erodes.

After hearing directly from residents and members of City Council, we reversed course. And when we did, I said something that mattered just as much as the policy itself: I heard you.

That’s the lesson I carry forward now. Action matters — but listening must come first.

Lesson 3: Results Matter More than Ideology

On July 9, 2023, nine people were shot in Cleveland’s Warehouse District. I got the call around 3 a.m., and at that moment, all I could think about was nine lives hanging in the balance. By the grace of God, no one died — but that didn’t lessen the crisis facing our city or the weight I felt as mayor.

The shooting came at the height of a perfect storm. Violent crime was rising. We were experiencing a record number of homicides. Hundreds of officers were leaving the police force. Residents, business leaders, and members of City Council were openly questioning whether my administration could keep Clevelanders safe. And just a year and a half into a new administration, our efforts to reverse those trends hadn’t yet materialized.

Like any leader at that moment, I had to confront hard questions. I’ll never forget being interviewed by Russ Mitchell when he asked me plainly: Are your policies failing?

It was a gut punch because in many ways, it felt true. I internalized the blame and began to question whether I was even up for the job. But leadership doesn’t allow you the luxury of retreat.

People didn’t elect me to protect an ideology. They elected me to take responsibility, to step into the arena, and to fix what’s broken. Residents don’t want excuses. They want results.

That’s when the lesson became clear: public safety doesn’t improve through purity tests. It improves through coalitions.

I pushed my team to build uncommon partnerships and accepted that we couldn’t solve this alone. We reached across the aisle to work with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on a multi-level partnership to coordinate the Ohio State Highway Patrol, U.S. Attorney, F.B.I, and U.S. Marshals to conduct quarterly violent crime reduction details.

We convened a public safety summit with police union leadership and negotiated a 34% pay increase, the largest in modern Cleveland history, to stabilize and rebuild the force. And we deployed targeted hot-spot patrols and expanded intelligence-led policing to focus resources where violence was most concentrated.

None of these steps were ideologically pure. All of them were necessary.

Progress only comes when leaders are willing to build broad coalitions, especially with people they don’t always agree with, to deliver results for the people they serve.

Lesson 4: Take A Big Swing – Even If It’s Daunting

Renowned architect Daniel Burnham, who helped shape downtown Cleveland in the early 20th century, famously said, “Make no little plans.” It’s a quote I’ve held close during my time as mayor, because cities that play it safe rarely change their trajectory.

That spirit guided our administration as we took on a challenge every mayor before me has wrestled with for more than a century: how to make Cleveland a true two-waterfront city and reconnect our people to the lake and the river that define us.

For generations, our waterways were cut off from residents because of intentional segregation and fragmented development decisions. Addressing that history required bold action, including the use of a tool that peer cities across Ohio and the country have relied on for years: Tax Increment Financing districts.

The Shore-to-Core-to-Shore TIF was designed to solve that coordination failure by creating one unified financial framework — linking the lake, the downtown core, and the river into one shared vision. If done right, it would unlock several billion in private investment and generate hundreds of millions in reinvestment for the city, all without raising taxes.

The criticism came quickly. Some argued our priorities were out of balance, that we were choosing downtown over neighborhoods. Others warned that the TIF would divert resources from schools and basic services, or that it would simply benefit wealthy developers.

But leadership isn’t about avoiding criticism. It’s about deciding whether fear of failure will dictate your future.

Because we took a big swing — and brought community partners along — we secured more than $150 million in federal and state funding for the lakefront in just two years, helping catalyze nearly $1 billion in total lakefront investment. On the riverfront, we attracted a nearly $4 billion commitment, transforming long-underutilized land into a new engine for jobs, housing, and public access.

Today, Cleveland is on the global map — not for decline, but for possibility. Taking a big swing, even when it’s daunting, is never easy. It requires a disciplined kind of hope. But this is the moment our city is in. We don’t need smaller dreams. We need the courage to aim higher, think longer, and move forward — even when it feels uncomfortable.

That’s how cities change. And that’s how we can change the country.

As I look back on these lessons, I’m reminded that leadership is never about accolades or recognition; it’s about service, humility, and the people you are entrusted to lead.

The work isn’t finished, and the challenges ahead will test all of us in new ways. But these four lessons on empathy, listening, resilience, and accountability will continue to guide me, shaping how I show up for Cleveland. The next chapter begins with the same commitment: to lead with heart, listen with care, and always put Cleveland first.