“We can be the Cleveland that young people move back to because there are good jobs, safe streets, good schools, quality grocery stores, good health care… We can and will work toward that goal.” - Mayor Justin Bibb
. But the scaled-back celebration still carried with it the pomp and circumstance of a city marking its next chapter.
“We can be the Cleveland that young people move back to because there are good jobs, safe streets, good schools, quality grocery stores, good health care. We don’t just have to dream about that Cleveland. We can and will work toward that goal every minute of every day,” Bibb said, drawing applause from the crowd.
Included in that promise are safer streets, where families are raised without the fear of violent crime, Bibb said. The city must provide police officers with raises and better technology, while also holding them accountable, and giving residents more of a voice in how policing is conducted.Bibb was joined on stage by his mother, Charlene Nichols, who held the Bible as her son recited the oath of office that was administered by the Ohio Supreme Court’s first Black woman justice, Melody Stewart.
U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, in her remarks, named Bibb as the latest in a long tradition of Cleveland public servants to “put the people of Cleveland first” – in civil rights, in fighting for the poor and in serving with decency and integrity. His predecessors in that tradition, Brown said, include the late Mayor Carl Stokes, Congressman Louis Stokes, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubb Jones, current U.S.