Justin Bibb is a son of southeast Cleveland. He’s also the son of a social worker and a first responder. He won the Cleveland mayoral election in 2021 in part because of the mission of Cleveland Can’t Wait, the nonprofit founded by this former KeyBank VP and startup leader to advance economic opportunity and racial equity.
He’s not waiting around to get things done. “We have made some very strategic investments in public safety to turn the tide on crime,” he said in a recent interview, noting that homicides are down by 30% and police pay is up by 25%. The city has also created its first neighborhood safety endowment fund. “No one is going to come to your city if they can’t feel safe and secure,” he said.
On the economic development front, he said he wants to see Cleveland become “the semiconductor supply chain capital of the state. That’s our strategy.”
The federal investments to reinvigorate and change national industrial policy also mean beefing up the number of shovel-ready sites that are ready to go, he says. Which is why he and his city council colleagues directed $50 million of American Rescue Act monies toward a new Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, which already has helped close a deal in one of Cleveland’s historically Black neighborhoods. In April, the Fund worked with Cuyahoga County Land Bank to close its acquisition of the Wellman-Seaver Engineering Company plant and adjoining 10 acres and is in the midst of planning salvage and repurposing at the historic site where ore-loading cranes and some of the nation’s pioneering industrial equipment were invented and manufactured at the turn of the 20th century.
Cleveland has about 4,000 to 5,000 acres of vacant, abandoned or underutilized industrial property, redevelopment of which could help create some 25,000 jobs. So far, the Site Readiness Fund has identified 210 acres to turn into market-ready sites. Which explains why Bibb is leading fundraising to add another $50 million to the Fund’s pool. Partners also include JobsOhio, Team NEO, Cuyahoga County, The Cleveland Foundation, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Fund for Our Economic Future, Ohio Means Jobs and community development corporations across the city.
The program meshes well with Cleveland having been chosen in March by Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of 25 U.S. cities to join Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities, a three-year, $200 million initiative to “leverage historic levels of federal funding to incubate and implement transformative local solutions to build low-carbon, resilient and economically thriving communities” through “transformative solutions in the buildings and transportation sectors.” Bibb says he’s lobbying for more state and federal support for workforce and affordable housing and is working with KeyBank to develop a new housing fund to incentivize developers and close the gap. Meanwhile, an RFQ went out in March for redevelopment proposals for housing as part of the mayor’s Southeast Side Promise initiative.
Bibb says he believes the Site Readiness Fund program will help attract companies to the city’s urban core, as will a $7 billion makeover of Cleveland waterfronts from the banks of the Cuyahoga River to Lake Erie. The “Shore-to-Core-to-Shore” strategy is key to his team’s walk-to-work agenda.
