A Resident-led Vision for Revitalization in Cleveland’s St. Clair Superior Neighborhood

In Cleveland’s St. Clair Superior neighborhood, located between Downtown and Glenville, stretching north from Superior Avenue to Lake Erie, community revitalization doesn’t begin with blueprints; it begins with relationships. Thanks to strategic support from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, those relationships are helping shape a vibrant future for the east-side Cleveland neighborhood.

Just ask Naijal Hawkins, a boomerang resident, muralist, business owner, and local connector whose tattoo shop, Red Lion, doubles as a creative hub where neighbors collaborate. Hawkins knows his neighborhood well. He suggests purchasing meat from Kocian’s Meats, incense from Mr. Lucky’s, smoothies from KaféLA, and lunch at Siam Café, Shay’s Diner or Annie B & Earl’s Place. For essentials, he suggests Sheliga drugstore and Sutton hardware around the corner.

“We spent a year walking up and down St. Clair and Superior, introducing ourselves to local business owners and building relationships,” says Hawkins, who organizes art-inspired community events with his partners: Kenneth Cody (Imago Dai creativity lab), Jon Tucker (Thieveland skate shop), and Harold Stallworth (co-owner of 4030 Studios).

And now these connections have grown into a collective voice and influence, as the community is poised for transformative growth and investment, catalyzed by significant grants and leadership support from the Mandel Foundation. Hawkins and Tucker are both active members of the St. Clair Superior Business Collective, a group formed in 2023 in response to enthusiastic participation from local businesses during the community listening phase of the Foundation’s revitalization initiative.

Sharie Renee, also a member of the Business Collective, is a longtime resident and owner of Cosmic Bobbins, a custom apparel and embroidery business. “It’s really exciting to finally see St. Clair Superior be elevated in this way,” she said, describing how St. Clair Superior has always had a strong business community which has been long overlooked. Her family has owned and operated the Golub Funeral Home on Superior Avenue for 81 years, and now her business is right next door. Decades ago, Renee’s grandfather received a neighborhood beautification award from then-Mayor Michael White, a point of great pride for the Croatian-born entrepreneur. “Now I’m trying to carry on my family’s legacy and to have Michael White at the helm of this development is really powerful,” said Renee.

We absolutely need economic development and business investors, but the community’s voice will always be the most important one to us.

White, who is now a Senior Advisor and Program Director for the Mandel Foundation, has spent his career planting seeds and nurturing relationships in the east side neighborhoods where he and the Mandel brothers grew up, decades apart. “We absolutely need economic development and business investors, but the community’s voice will always be the most important one to us,” said White. He also leads the Mandel Foundation’s Neighborhood Leadership Development Program (NLDP) and Community Development Corporation Leadership Program (CDCLP), designed to empower passionate community leaders, preparing them to fill key roles in Greater Cleveland. Hawkins, Cody, and Tucker are all members of NLDP’s eighteenth cohort, which has been a full-circle moment for the business owners who grew up in the city. Hawkins began at the age of twelve as a graffiti artist, and each time someone invested in him it paid dividends. Now they are positioning themselves to advocate for youth in the same way.

Other important partners in the Mandel Foundation’s investment strategy include St. Clair Superior Development Corporation (SCSDC), Strategy Design Partners, LAND Studio, Cleveland Metroparks, Enterprise Community Partners, and Western Reserve Land Conservancy – all members of a Lakefront Working Group that meets regularly to align projects and prioritize infrastructure, housing and economic development initiatives.

Terri Hamilton-Brown, executive director at SCSDC, reaffirms the group’s commitment to community-centered investment, offering the example of the planning process they undertook in conjunction with the Mandel Foundation’s $8 million Cleveland Metroparks grant for the renovation and management of Gordon Park South, a 48-acre greenspace connecting St. Clair Superior residential areas and the business corridor to nearby access of Lake Erie. “For most of 2024, we held a series of meetings with nearly 300 residents, including youth and families, to discuss Gordon Park South,” garnering 1,450 comments and ideas that informed three concept plans for the park. “We also delivered regular updates to residents and stakeholders throughout the year and hosted a coffee and conversation event with Metroparks CEO, Brian Zimmerman.”

Following this extensive planning process, park renovations are set to begin in the Fall of 2025, said Hamilton-Brown, describing the Foundation’s collective investments along the lakefront as transformative for the community. These include $10 million toward the Mandel Community Trail, a recreational trail connecting east side neighborhoods with the lakefront and downtown, and $3 million for the Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center at the East 55th Marina. All projects are designed to expand lakefront recreational opportunities for residents in the adjacent neighborhoods.

With the help of LAND studio, the community revitalization initiative began with a “One Community, Many Cultures” campaign, including street pole banners featuring photographs of residents, including Hawkins. The banners are a visible testament to the neighborhood’s cultural richness. “They are ambassadors of the St. Clair Superior neighborhood and their unique communities,” said Hamilton-Brown, which includes a strong contingent of Eastern European, Asian, and African American communities.

Which brings us back again to Naijal Hawkins, who shared that when his home caught fire a couple of years ago, it was members of the Asian community who offered him a place to live, rent-free, while his family recovered from the tragedy. A powerful reminder that while economic development is the backbone of community revitalization, it’s people who make a neighborhood the kind of place you want to call home.

Photography by Kenneth Cody, Imago Dei