Mayor White Urges Action

Convocation: Speaker Tied to Oberlin Students

At 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday Mayor of Cleveland Michael White began the evening¹s 2000 convocation. The Mayor's original speech titled ³Evil Always Triumphs² was quickly modified and retitled: ³Evil Always Triumphs...When Good People Do Nothing.² Intended as a motivational speech directed at the incoming class, White¹s visit became controversial.

In his speech the Mayor spoke of ³enunciation versus operationalizing.² The ability to declare the will to do a good deed, he said, is different from the actual enactment and he urged students that ³you can decide at any moment to do something good.² At Oberlin, like in Cleveland, the mayor faced criticism, even with the College¹s strong political affiliations to the Mayor and his office.

White then implored the audience to not be ³a looker or a waiter.² This metaphor is one he adopted from his own college days when a shopkeeper asked students to stay or leave, but not to loiter. The mayor advised students who were sort of ³looking and waiting² in their daily lives to take action, whether on a community or international level.

He commented that action, once taken, will ³become very personal even though it starts in a very public sphere.² White has been embroiled in controversy resulting from his convictions and commitments.

Twelve years ago he may have been asking himself the same question he asked the audience at Finney Chapel: ³Do you have the will to stand up?² It was back in 1989 that Michael R. White came to Oberlin to introduce himself as the opponent of Tim Hagan, who was also campaigning for Mayor.

White gained the support of several Oberlin students at the time who decided to work his campaign that summer for four hard-working months. Among these students, who became known as the Oberlin Connection, he rose from being

recognized by three percent of voters to what has become three terms in office.

This vital link to Oberlin did not go unnoticed Tuesday night. The Mayor honored his debt to these 7 students: Jon Silverman Œ89, Elizabeth Camacho Œ89, Bruce Diamond Œ90, Tamara Cofman-Wittes Œ91, Michelle Milner-Flores

Œ89, Sean Walsh (transferred) and Chris Carmody Œ89 by giving a philanthropic donation of $7,000 to Oberlin College.

Each student has a scholarship fund in his or her name. Carmody, who attended convocation, admitted that he has not agreed with all of the mayor's decisions over the years, but that for the most part he believes White has worked with all economic classes. White has been criticized for his large tax abatements to big corporations, one of the the main issues facing downtown Cleveland. In White's favor, Carmody explained that the Mayor has stuck his neck out against big business: ³White dragged every bank in the area into negotiations, creating a pool of over $7 billion dollars for neighborhood housing and small business loans.

He did this by threatening to block the merger of Society and Ameritrust by showing they had discriminated against city residents-- probably not the most popular tactic with big business in Cleveland, and not particularly sexy, but unbelievably important to neighborhood development.²

A major concern has been the cosmetic revamping of downtown Cleveland. In an effort to attract more tourism and to make Cleveland a cultural center, the Brown's stadium has been built, the area around the Flats improved, and Cleveland maintains a world class symphony. However, these changes have put money in the hands of corporations. Corporations who many felt were getting more money then the surrounding low-income neighborhoods.

On top of this, the Mayor's office started to endorse laws that gave corporate leaders huge tax abatements. As junior Sasha Yurgionas points out, ³As we argue whether the Brown's stadium overruns $100 million or more, we don't have to guess who created the policy: Mayor White.²

This is the man who announced at convocation that ³it is not the size, but the very act of the undertaking that make our society a little better.²

Mayor White traveled to Columbus with former county commissioner Tim Hagan to lobby laws to make these huge tax abatements legal.

White has spent $63 million in parks and recreation, more than any term of office before him in the last 204 years. He has created middle-income subsidized housing in some of Cleveland's poorest areas. And he has taken on one of the most difficult projects held before him: the reformation of Cleveland's public schools.

The Cleveland public school system has deteriorated over the last 30 years, with a string of superintendents unable to improve the ghastly mathematics and reading comprehension scores. Although Michael White is always up for a challenge, even he grudgingly took on the project to reverse the failing public school system. Still, he optimistically responded to an Obie question, stating that he has faith in the new Board of Education leader from New York as well as the rest of the board.

White went on to say that it made no difference how many Ph.D. certified teachers were put into classrooms. The problem with the Cleveland school system was rooted in leaders who sacrificed the betterment of children for an easier route for themselves. In order to rectify the problem White has had to fire school board members who have had long-standing histories in Cleveland.

Peter Ojbuji, Assistant Director of the Center for Service and Learning at Oberlin College, thinks ³[White] chose to attack what he considered the biggest issues first. I disliked the fact that he paid so much attention to downtown and not to the neighborhoods, but now there is an aggressive agenda to develop the housing in the neighborhoods and provide recreational services for the youth.²

The Mayor is a controversial figure who with a strident attitude and strong conviction has managed to displease many. Still, it seems that he has stuck his neck out for all classes of citizens. A Glenville raised boy himself, the Mayor seems intent upon fixing his hometown.

When Carmody campaigned for White in 1989 he says they worked with him because ³[they] were impressed by White's interest in being Mayor to be Mayor rather than using the position as a stepping stone.² Whether the results have been dominantly good is difficult to say.