An experienced community development worker with a background in community organizing has been tapped as the new executive director of St. Clair Superior Development Corporation [SCSDC].

Jeremy Taylor has spent nearly six years serving as the director of community involvement for Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation, formerly known as Detroit Shoreway CDC. He was studious about learning the best practices of successful CDCs in hopes of one day directing an eastside development organization.

Taylor, 35, told The Real Deal that his focus as the new kid on the block would be on building trust and relationships with and between neighborhoods in the agency’s somewhat sprawling catchment area. St. Clair-Superior turf is generally considered bounded on the west by East 30 St. The southern boundary is generally Payne Ave. to East 55^th, where it slants north to Superior Ave. all the way to its eastern boundary at East 79 St. And of course the north boundary has a hard stop at Lake Erie.

Taylor expresses passion about the potential for Cleveland's east side. He envisions accessible and connected neighborhoods where residents and business owners are “engaged and empowered”.

The area has promise given its easy proximity to downtown, the revived Midtown district to the south, the undeveloped lakefront on the north, among other attributes. But its housing stock is among the city’s oldest and most modest, and there are weirdly scattered remnants of the city’s industrial past strewn about. And it has been a bit of a political orphan in this century, without a councilperson willing to adopt the agency as his own, with ward lines seemingly drawn redrawn each decade without regard to preserving or reforging the community’s identity. [It’s probably about to happen again.]

But a look at the stripped-down agency’s recently reconstituted board suggests that a renaissance may be at hand. Some deep-pocketed entities concerned with the area’s future as the northern neighbor of Cleveland’s revived Midtown corridor have taken seats on the board. Here is a short list of some board members depicted on St. Clair-Superior’s website:

• Mike White. The former Cleveland mayor [1990-2002] is still a Cleveland power player, though he lives in Newcomerstown, a place most St. Clair Superior residents have likely never heard of. His affiliation is listed as vice president of the Midtown-based Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, a principal player in the city’s institutional mix.
• James Bailey. Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of PNC Financial Services, he looks to be the money man in this array of board talent.
• Chris Luken, a Baker & Hostetler LLP whose law practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, real estate development and debt finance.
• Leon Wilson. His day job as Chief of Digital Innovation & Chief Information Officer at the Cleveland Foundation puts him at the nexus of the city’s future.

While the board clearly contains substantial local area residential talent and input with longstanding area ties, including Johnny Wu, co-founder of the city’s Asian Festival [Cleveland’s Chinatown is rooted in a southwestern pocket of St. Clair-Superior], it would seem in particular that the highlighted institutional quartet beefs up SCSDC in ways that reflect both the area’s needs and its strategic importance in the wake of Midtown’s resurgence. Indeed, this could be seen as one of many residual effects of the Cleveland Foundation’s relocation of its headquarters to Midtown, immediately south of St. Clair-Superior.

Taylor will have the strength of this squad at his back as he seeks to lead the community’s rebirth. He’s been a St. Clair-Superior resident since buying a house there last year; before then he had lived in the adjacent Hough area and was  an occasional contributor to the Cleveland Observer. His family has lived in the heart of the city for the past 17 years and, like him, has been active in the community. Jeremy is the first and current president of the Hough Community Land Trust as well as a board member of both Bike Cleveland and Neighborhood Solutions, Inc.

Taylor is a graduate of Central State University, where he majored in political science. A history buff, he has enjoys writing on the topic for the Cleveland Observer. Other pastimes include bicycling on city streets, golfing, exploring the Cleveland Metroparks, and reading.

The new director, whose first day on the job was October 18, may have less time to indulge some of his hobbies in his new role. St. Clair Superior plans to roll out its brand new community strategic plan in January.

Taylor will be formally introduced to the community at a Zoom event set for Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 6p. Visit the agency’s website for details when they become available.

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