I described the city's once glory as being the "Beverly Hills" of the North Coast. Just like Alexandria, Virginia was 6.5 miles from D.C., East Cleveland was the same distance from downtown Cleveland. In 45 minutes by light rail any East Cleveland resident can hop a rapid and travel to the airport, get on an airplane and go anywhere in the world.

Residents live within 5 minutes of two world class hospitals, a university, museums and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. This was before University Circle built up all that "stacked up" shit to keep from crossing under the bridge.

One of the things I liked about Rockefeller is that he was an abolitionist and required the same from Standard Oil's board members. He and his son, John, Jr., invested over $65 million to educate the Descendants of Slaves through their "General Education Department."

The deal for Spellman College was cut at Forest Hill Park and is named after his wife, Cettie's, family. Martin Luther King, Jr's grandmother and mother attended Spelman. I'd often say had the world's greatest East Cleveland resident not invested in Spellman there'd be no MLK because his female nurturers would not have had the education that nurtured them to lead him to greatness. Think of all the contributions of the graduates of Spellman and their offspring that would not have occurred without an East Cleveland resident's investment. This is just a sample of what I'd shared with developers, investors and anyone who'd listen about the city.

East Cleveland's charter was one of the earliest in the state. So other charter cities modeled their charters after it. There's a Supreme Court of the United States case captioned Frisbie Co. v. East Cleveland 1918 which set a national standard that vendors doing business with the government won't get paid if they participated in violating laws with elected officials. The case says they should know better. Frisbie built water and sewer lines along Doan and Hayden when the city was a township around 1904. When it became a village in

Another U.S. Supreme Court case, Moore v. East Cleveland. 1974, established that cities could not enact ordinances to determine the composition of families who lived there. Inez Moore was a grandmother who took in her son and two grandsons. The grandson's weren't brothers but cousins, so they didn't fit the East Cleveland ordinances model of a family. East Cleveland's housing ordinances were racist. Most criminaliz Moore's case set up challenges against other racist housing ordinances against the nation.

One of East Cleveland's residents and former school board member, attorney Harold Burton, was Cleveland's law director and later mayor before he campaigned for the U.S. Senate and was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. He'd been an NAACP member. Yes. He buffered the views of KKK member and SCOTUS Chief Justice Hugo Black and got him to change his mutha fuckin' mind to go against racial segregation in public schools, in admitting blacks to law schools and in stopping all white private Democratic clubs from existing to control local politics to disenfranchise black Republicans and white Republicans.

Yeah. The Descendants of Slaves were once Republicans and proud of that shit. I think Rockefeller is turning all over in his grave because the Descendants of Slaves he believed should be liberated now embrace the pro-slavery Democratic and KKK party. The racist deed restrictions that existed in cities like Shaker Heights that said no home sales to African Americans, Jews, Italians of low-descent and Catholics were also "opinioned out" by Burton. He's actually my favorite Cleveland mayor from an historical perspective. To you relatives of Jesse Owens, he welcomed him back from his "fuck you" visit to Germany where he dogged out the "master race" in front of Adolf Hitler. To you descendants of Norman Minor, he's the mayor who gave him the job as the city's first black assistant prosecuting attorney. East Cleveland ... again.

You remember another SCOTUS case, Brown v. Topeka Kansas Board of Education that ended segregation in schools? That was Burton's "majority" opinion. East Cleveland was all up in the house on that decision.

When you appreciate the history of a place and the contributions of its citizens you have a different feel for it. At Lake Park Tower had the Rockefeller's still lived in the city and the building existed we'd have been next door neighbors. When I looked over the city from the 19th floor I understood Rockefeller's perspective from the top of the hill overlooking Euclid Avenue and Lake Erie. I actually stood at the top of the hill where his 41 room mansion existed to get his front yard perspective. Y'all call it "Sled Hill."

It was the highest elevation point in the city. Stand there and you'll see Lake Erie and the buildings downtown. Standard Oil's headquarters at Superior and West 6th Street across from the Anthony Celebrezze State Office Tower was once the tallest building in the city before Tower City was built. Rockefeller could see his offices from his front yard.

The railroad lines that travel through the city were built by the Rockefellers and that family inspired men like Burton. They inspired and helped women like Sophia Packard build Spelman. Often as mayor I would ask myself what would Mr. Rockefeller want for his city if he were alive and were communicating.

The Rockefeller home in Forest HIlls was their summer residence from 1878 to 1914. February 1st was "tax day" in Cuyahoga County. Because his wife got sick and they had to stay past that date the county's tax commissioner saw a payday and hit the Rockefeller's with taxes on everything. East Cleveland was fucked out of it's highest tax paying resident then like it was fucked out of Huron Hospital by Cleveland Clinic and James Rokakis' 3rd party tax lien sales. That single event began the city's decline.

What did the Rockefeller's do? Well, let's just say the house burned down in 1917 and so did the riding stable. The riding stable remnants are still off to the right of the trail as you approach from the Euclid Avenue side.

The Rockefeller's didn't return to Cleveland and moved everything to New York. They invested into New York what could have supported East Cleveland and Cleveland ... forever. One small-minded political idiot drove them out.

If it's any consolation to the East Cleveland residents who are looking for someone to blame over the city's demise than blame the idiot politician who fucked with the Rockefeller's.

And folk, look. Just because I've served and express political interests doesn't mean I'm looking for another office to seek. I have no interests in returning to East Cleveland or even seeking the mayor's job in Cleveland again. I'm not living my life for "that" future.

I'm a writer who's written about the folk in this town off and on since 1978 for other newspapers and my own. There's some stuff I know some of you don't that I think you should know; so I share it when it hits me. I started my first newspaper in East Cleveland in 1979 to share information with the city's residents. I'm sharing information today. Don't take it anywhere else.

The only city official I know is Nate Martin. I don't know the rest of them, personally. All I write about is what they're doing because there's information people should know in a way that's not being shared with them by reporters who don't have my insights or depth of experiences. Use it if you want. Ignore if it you want. The choice is yours.

I also see why the Rockefeller's kept returning for 38 years and burned the place down as they left. East Cleveland, as a place, is like a fucking addiction. I understand the symbolism of burning away an addictive attraction.

One day there'll be no more words coming from me about you folk in East Cleveland or anywhere else. After 40 years of watching new generations of people repeat the dumb shit of past generations it gets a little old.