We held a meet the candidates event last night.
The entire conversation can be seen here:
The people on the stage were Tara Samples running for re-election of Ward 5. Tammy Cummings running for Ward 7 and then Pastor Gregory Harrison who is running for mayor of Akron.
All 3 people are truly impressive and deserve our vote. I would like to write a post about each of them. I'm not sure if I'll have time or not.
But the post that I feel most passionate about and feel truly needs to be urgently told is that Pastor Gregory Harrison NEEDS to be our next mayor in Akron Ohio.
You can listen to what he has to say starting about about 30 minutes in the video above.
At about 33:42 in the video he says it: "There is a Plantation Mentality in Akron."
"We are held hostage in bonds."
We are slaves to the rich and powerful.
I've never thought about it that way. But he is so right. It gets right to the fact of the matter.
We have been enslaved by corporate money.
$750,000 was raised by rich people in Akron to make Dan Horrigan our mayor in 2015.
And now he is slowly but surely entrenching himself to be our next 3 decade king. And it's all done by money.
I am telling you this as an absolute fact of the matter: There are politicians in Akron that care about the people. And there are politicians that care about big business.
It doesn't take a political science professor to observe this reality.
Dan Horrigan is for big business. Pastor Gregory Harrison is for the people.
That's the statement that says it all.
If you believe in trickle down economics. If you believe that the most important people in Akron are big businesses. If you believe "blue ribbon panels" from out of town know best how to run our city. Then vote for Dan Horrigan.
If you believe that politicians are supposed to be true to the people that elect them. If you believe Akron has serious problems such as poverty, gun violence, addiction, racial inequality. If you believe our streets and snow plowing and sewers have been completely mismanaged. Then vote for Pastor Gregory Harrison.
This isn't just some little pet project of mine that I hope you might find mildly interesting. This is serious shit!
Will Stancil, research fellow at the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota, said the Cleveland-Akron region ranks second in the nation in poverty concentration. Only Detroit, where entire neighborhoods have been abandoned, ranked lower.
From here: Akron itself has even greater problems than the Cleveland region as a whole, Stancil said. Left unchecked, you can get something akin to total neighborhood collapse — you can see cleared-out city blocks in Detroit where this has happened.
Our planning director, Jason Segedy, agrees: The trend line is that low income population is increasing, Segedy said. I think the trend in Akron and cities like it is that middle income people have been moving to the suburbs. You have people of slightly greater means moving from the city.
The Dan Horrigan plan is to get more white middle class people to come back to Akron.
But I'm here to tell you, and Will Stancil's research confirms it: "a strong school system is vital."
The Ohio Department of Education gives the Akron School System an overall score of D. Here is the break down of the various areas they look at:
Meanwhile:
And on top of that, our tax rate is high.
You can look at all the property tax rates from the Summit County Fiscal Office here.
But I'll pull a few numbers out for you:
The headline is easy to write: Akron: Worse schools. Higher taxes.
I'm sorry to say: but if you think Buffy and Winston are going to bring their white fluffy dog and 2 kids, Jaden and Dakota, to Akron from Hudson you are smoking some of that pot laced with Fentanyl that is what Akron drug dealers are selling these days.
And do you know what we're going to do as voters of Akron? We're going to elect the guy that is just carrying on the exact same agenda that got us into this mess when we elected the last guy into office over and over again for nearly 3 decades.
We truly have developed a slave mentality. Our slave master is a good master. He knows best. He isn't beating us. He isn't whipping us. He's a good slave master. That's how we are thinking right now. We are zombies that must wake up. We must shake off this belief that we can't have better. We must take our city back from the rich corporations.
You have a candidate that knows the real problems. You have a candidate that has been a police officer and is now a minister. You have a candidate that has spent his life in the neighborhoods that are most in need of help. Shoot! You have a candidate that is going to Stark State right now to learn video media. You have a candidate that is smart, energizing and actually cares about your needs.
That candidate is named Pastor Gregory Harrison.
Vote for Pastor Gregory Harrison for Mayor on May 7, 2019.
This is the most important election you are going to have an opportunity to participate in for the next 4 years.
You think national politics is where it's at. But it's not. All politics is local.
If you don't want to watch Akron just continue to decline and fall into bankruptcy because we have nearly $1 billion in debt then you MUST MUST MUST go vote this coming Tuesday, May 7 2019.
I don't know how to make this any more important and urgent.
Do not believe that we don't have a voice. Do not believe that we can't make change happen. Do not believe that your vote doesn't matter. Your vote is ALL THAT MATTERS.
You are the change we need to see in Akron. You can do this.
Please vote on Tuesday May 7, 2019.
Paid For By The People for Sage Lewis