Ralph J. Perk

In 1976 the mayor of Cleveland was Ralph Joseph Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) who once famously set his own hair on fire.

Mayor Perk banned Playboy magazine from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He also banished chewing gum from the facility. He spearheaded a major expansion of the airport, and the creation of the Regional Transit Authority (RTA.)

The Mayor's wife, Lucille Perk, turned down a dinner invitation from First Lady Pat Nixon because it was her bowling night.

Ralph J. Perk won the Republican nomination for Mayor in 1971 against George Voinovich, and upon his election became the first Republican mayor of Cleveland in 30 years. Perk served three two-year terms before losing to Kucinich in 1977.

Perk ran for Senate in 1974 but lost to John Glenn, who then held the seat for a quarter century.

He declared May 6, 1974 as Jesse Owens Day.

He presided over the dedication of Aviation High School on Sept. 1, 1974.

Ralph J. Perk was against women's reproductive freedom, handgun restrictions, and draft amnesty. Perk was also for Nixon before he was against him.

Amusingly, for his 62nd birthday political fundraiser party on January 17, 1976 the theme is the musical Hair. (Get it?)

Perk also appointed Richard Eberling to chair a committee to redecorate City Hall. Eberling was soon convicted of petty thievery, and later of murder. Eberling is also the prime suspect, according to the son of Sam Sheppard, as the true murderer Marilyn Sheppard.


Have you seen the video?
Perk Plaza, named for the mayor, sits at the corner of East 12th and Chester, across the street from the always exciting Reserve Square apartments. It's plain, concrete-slab walls, hiding large parts of the part from street view, are a typical example of late 70s design and short-sightedness and after a fatal shooting in early 2009, plans were quickly made to finally give the place a renovation.


Perk Plaza at Chester Commons was officially reopened at a ribbon-ccuting ceremony on November 21, 2011.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Cleveland Memory Project

Cleveland Is A Warm, Fuzzy Place (book)

Written by David Cockley, Cleveland Is A Warm, Fuzzy Place is a children's book first published in 1977 by Corinthian Press (Shaker Heights, Ohio.) It tells the story of a stuffed bear named who notices his girl is missing, and leaves the safety of their home to find her.

His adventures take him all over Greater Cleveland, an all-encompassing journey and yet left enough ground not covered to inspire a second book called Cleveland Is A Wild, Woolly Place.

I had this book as a kid, maybe a little long in the tooth for it (it was published when I was nine, for goodness sakes) but it did intrigue my imagination, especially the idea of taking a stuffed animal and taking photographs of it in unusual places.

(Some day I will tell the strange story of one-time Clevelander Dare Wright, from whom we got the idea for our daughter's middle name.)

My mother must have given this book away when I was a teenager, it has lived out its usefulness and someone else could use it. I recently bought both the first and second volumes from Loganberry Books in the hopes of sharing it with my kids. This was not a happy bedtime.

Anachronisms in Warm, Fuzzy Place alone include such one-time facts such as:

Cleveland is famous for making the steel that's used to make cars and boats and buildings.

Cleveland makes more machines, more car parts and more paint than any other city in the country.

Cleveland is one of the few cities with teams in all major sports, including the Cavaliers in basketball, the Barons in hockey, the Nets in tennis and the Cobras in soccer.

Cleveland Browns, the most consistently successful team in pro football history.

Benjamin was invited to visit the Cleveland schools, which are among the best in the country.

Randall Park Mall, the largest indoor shopping mall in the United States.

Everybody sigh.

My favorite part, though, is where he meets the mayor, who is only referred to as "The Mayor." However, in the first and second editions we see the 31 year-old Mayor's face:

In editions printed after 1979, he is only seen from behind walking away from Benjamin, holding the already-received certificate - as though the photographer just missed the shot.

Mr. Cockley has also written plays for children like The Homework Conspiracy and Kids' Countryand is an Instructor of Marketing at the University of Akron College of Business.

I feel somewhat betrayed to find Mr. Cockley has also written a book called Columbus is a Can-Do Kind of Place.

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis John Kucinich
(born October 8, 1946)
Someone tried to kill Dennis, y'all.

Before communicating with space aliens and marrying a supernaturally hot, young British woman, Dennis Kucinich (six-time U.S. Representative from Ohio's 10th Congressional District - he represents my Dad, which I think is hilarious) was once the boy Mayor of Cleveland.

In 1977 he was elected - at the age of 31 - to the office, and his tenure was distinguished, as Carter's was, for not giving away enough of the store to get everyone out of the terrible hole that was the late 1970s. In particular he was excoriated for not selling Cleveland's publicly owned electrical utility to its main, private competitor to get the city out of debt, a debt which had been routinely forgiven by its main bond-holder, Cleveland Trust. Making his stand for the little people public earned the wrath of Cleveland Trust, which suddenly demanded all debts repaid, plunging the city into default.

Cleveland was not the first major American city (following the Depression) to go into default - that honor belongs to New York City. But as we all know, NYC going into debt would have been a major embarrassment and they were bailed out by the federal government. Cleveland was already an embarrassment, and was so allowed to fall.

Rumor has it that "a hit man from Maryland" (did he have bushy hair?) was sent to kill Kucinich for reasons which are not made clear in Wikipedia, nor why, just because there were a (failed) attempt to recall him out of office that such a hit would be called off. But it was reported that way in the Free Times a few years ago, and we all know where that kind of investigative journalism got them.

The former Muni Light, now Cleveland Public Power, continues to provide electricity at reasonable rates to the people of Cleveland, and Kucinich, after a decade or so of soul-searching, was vindicated for his efforts and is now the political powerhouse we all know and love to watch on Jon Stewart.

Dennis Kucinich was the last Cleveland mayor to serve a two-year term, which was extended to a four-year term during the tenure of George Voinovich.