Cleveland’s Ward 11 swings from Old Brooklyn north to Edgewater Park. It is home to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

Nikki Hudson is running unopposed in the Nov. 4 election after Andrew Fontanarosa dropped out of the race.

Share a bit about your previous experience in elected office, government or community work.

I am a grassroots community leader and have lived in the Cudell neighborhood for over 20 years. I hold a Bachelor of Business Administration from Kent State University, majoring in accounting, and a Juris Doctor from CSU College of Law.

In 2002, I started a business with my husband at the West Side Market selling freshly squeezed juices and smoothies and gained over a decade of experience as a small business owner in the city of Cleveland.

I served on the board of Cudell Improvement, and subsequently Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation following their merger, from 2020 until I resigned to run for office. I also chair my neighborhood’s block club, the Edgewater Parke Neighbors, and led multiple efforts to improve our neighborhood, including convincing the city to install a crosswalk across Lake Avenue, saving neighborhood orchard trees from being destroyed, as well as planting 8,000 daffodil bulbs along the railroad hillside on Desmond Avenue. I led the fight to take away the liquor license of a corner store associated with many years of criminal activity, testifying twice before the Ohio Division of Liquor Control, making two trips to Columbus for this effort. I was a leader in the effort to save Cudell Park and served on the steering committee tasked with designing the new Marion C. Seltzer Elementary School and presently serve on the steering committee for the redesign of Cudell Park. 

Through my proud involvement with Coalition for a Better Cleveland, I lead efforts to confront major civic challenges, including opposing the proposed gas station next to Cudell Park and holding Cleveland City Council accountable for its flawed redistricting process.

What are the three most important issues facing the ward you want to represent?

Among many, the new Ward 11 faces three core challenges. The first is safety, including both street crime and the need for safer conditions for cyclists and pedestrians. The second is the risk of displacement due to increasing rents and property taxes. The third is environmental harm, including lead exposure, tree canopy loss, and the ongoing sewage overflows into Lake Erie.

Council members have money set aside money from casino taxes and other sources to spend on neighborhood projects. How would you spend your share?

A large portion of the casino revenue that my office would receive would be spent on hiring a full-time housing specialist to track and follow up on abandoned and other problem properties in the new Ward 11. Current Councilmember Jenny Spencer started this process by hiring neighborhood advocate Heather Lazar, who has accumulated a problem property database of over 240 properties that she tracks through various city departments, like the Building & Housing Department and Cleveland’s Municipal Housing Court, making sure that irresponsible owners and landlords are held accountable. This is a vital position and one I intend on continuing to fund if elected to City Council.

I would also spend this money on maintaining newly planted neighborhood trees during their establishment period and on implementing additional traffic calming measures to stretch the resources the city is already allocating towards neighborhood speed tables and other efforts.

As a council member, how would you gather input and feedback from residents you represent?

A key focus area of my campaign is finding ways to bring community members together, including by helping to create and promote neighborhood block clubs, community groups, and merchants’ associations in the new Ward 11, and strengthening connections among organizations like these on a citywide level, so that local groups can build their own networks, learn from one another, and share best practices. I would like to promote connections like these so that neighborhood partners can act as eyes on the ground, helping inform my policy making decisions. I also plan to keep an office at Estabrook Recreation Center and have regular office hours so that residents can come speak to me locally without having to travel downtown to City Hall.

Affordable housing is a critical issue for Clevelanders. How do you define affordable? And what specific plans or ideas do you have to create more housing that working class Clevelanders can afford to rent or buy?

HUD defines affordable housing as a situation where the occupant pays no more than 30 percent of their gross income for housing, ensuring that households have enough money for other necessities. I think that is a good standard to go by, even though such housing is increasingly difficult to find in today’s trend of rising costs.

If elected to City Council, I would push to eliminate minimum building and lot size requirements in Cleveland to allow for building smaller, starter homes, legalize accessory dwelling units citywide to encourage backyard cottages, promote multi-family housing options, and encourage the construction of lease purchase homes that allow residents who might not be able to purchase a home through traditional routes to invest in their community and build equity as the neighborhood grows.

I would also like to introduce, as part of tax abatement reform, a tax abatement program for landlords who agree to keep rents below a set threshold, encouraging reasonable monthly rent amounts in a way that benefits tenants as well as small, mom-and-pop landlords. I would also push for community benefits agreements that require developers to set aside affordable units in construction projects and/or contribute to affordable housing when receiving public subsidies.

Clevelanders list public safety among their top concerns. The city has taken many approaches to prevent and respond to violence and make neighborhoods safer. How would you tackle this issue? Where should Cleveland City Council push for more investment?

Safety comes from strong communities, not simply enforcement. A just system prioritizes violence prevention, crisis response, and community trust, while empowering neighborhood groups to be partners in public safety. In addition, active collaboration is needed between Police, City departments, and Council in order to develop strategic responses to crime hotspots as they arise. If elected to City Council, I would provide resources and support to empower neighborhood groups to shape the future of their communities by partnering with CDCs and other organizations to strengthen and expand block clubs and other grassroots resident groups Ward-wide. I will strongly encourage collaboration between these groups and the police, because Community Policing should be both the goal of the Cleveland Police Department as well as a citywide priority to help build trust within city neighborhoods. I will also work with violence prevention and outreach groups like New Era Cleveland and Thrive for Change to target areas with significant gun violence, human trafficking, drug overdoses, and other serious problems. And I will push for the passage of Tanisha’s Law by Cleveland City Council, which involves sending unarmed behavioral health clinicians to some emergency calls, instead of armed police officers.

​​Should there be term limits for Cleveland City Council members?

Yes.

Council members act as resident service representatives, legislators and guardians of city spending. Which of these roles matter to you most and why?

It is vital that Council members respond to and act on behalf of residents because the City can be an overbearing bureaucracy, where unfortunately the voices of residents often go unheard. If we legislate effectively and spend taxpayer money wisely, we help to ensure that the city bureaucracy is working as well as possible so that constituent service calls aren’t as necessary.  This is an important goal but will take time to achieve. Being a voice for the people is the reason I’m running for City Council and therefore serving them is what matters most to me, but doing so in a way that capitalizes on all of the roles of a City Councilperson.

Please share any other information you think is important for us to know about you and your campaign.

I am not a politician and have never run for office before. Because of the state of our City, State, and Country, I felt a calling to step outside of my comfort zone and run for office. As a grassroots organizer and new candidate, I plan on approaching the job of City Councilperson with the public service aspect at the front of my mind, focusing on what I can do to be a good steward of public dollars, improving the day-to-day lives of all of the residents of Cleveland, regardless of politics, identity, or economic status.

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Andrew Fontanarosa dropped out of the race.

Share a bit about your previous experience in elected office, government or community work.

I’m new to politics but not to Cleveland. I have been a resident of Cleveland since 2012, with all of the accompanying Cleveland resident experiences, and I am running for council to put the resident experience at the center of every council decision.

What are the three most important issues facing the ward you want to represent?

Unfortunately, I think the most important issues facing every ward—and the city of Cleveland as a whole—are the legislative decisions being made at state and federal levels. A unified and well-functioning city government that fulfills the city’s mission statement—to inspire confidence by delivering reliable, efficient city services and creating the conditions for all members of our community to thrive—is the best counteraction to those decisions. 

Likewise, I think the next two most-important issues also are not unique to Ward 11. Like their neighbors across the city, residents in Ward 11 want services delivered that meet their needs promptly, efficiently, and equitably, and they want to feel safe in their home and community.

Council members have money set aside money from casino taxes and other sources to spend on neighborhood projects. How would you spend your share?

I think casino money set aside for council members to be spent on their ward should be spent with broad resident input, so I don’t think I should declare in advance how I would spend Ward 11’s share. My personal tendency is to spend public monies for the broadest-possible public good, such as improvements to community spaces like public parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, and other city-owned buildings. Many of those community spaces are shared by residents across wards, especially now under new ward boundary lines, so I also think there is real opportunity for council members to work together on casino tax-funded projects, and if Ward 11 residents support those projects, I would work to do so.

As a council member, how would you gather input and feedback from residents you represent?

Realistically, most residents are not able to attend council or ward meetings, at least regularly, so I think you have to bring council to your ward. In addition to the usual ward communications, meetings, and office hours, all of which I would host, I would also conduct regular ward walks, so that I am speaking to residents in their own neighborhoods in front of their own homes, hearing and seeing the issues they identify live. That way, in council and other city forums, I can speak to those issues intelligently with personal perspective.

Affordable housing is a critical issue for Clevelanders. How do you define affordable? And what specific plans or ideas do you have to create more housing that working class Clevelanders can afford to rent or buy?

I think the general definition of affordable housing—housing that you pay no more than 30% of your gross income toward housing costs, including utilities—is reasonable, as long as you also include that the housing must be safe for its residents. First, I think we have to ensure that all existing affordable housing programs, incentives, and tools—public, private, and public-private—are known to residents and being used to their maximum efficiency, especially those programs that make housing safer like Cleveland’s lead-safe housing initiatives. Even still, that’s likely not enough to solve affordable housing, so we should also reevaluate our existing incentives. For example, I think we should consider everything from further reform of our current abatement program all the way to direct subsidy, and to inform that consideration, we should look to other communities. The issue of affordable housing is not unique to Cleveland. It impacts communities nationwide, and many of them are trying new incentives and programs to address the issue. We should learn from those communities, use their experience to inform our efforts, and enact those programs and innovations that have shown higher rates of success.

Clevelanders list public safety among their top concerns. The city has taken many approaches to prevent and respond to violence and make neighborhoods safer. How would you tackle this issue? Where should Cleveland City Council push for more investment?

I think more investment period is the answer to start. More police officers, especially in community and proactive policing roles, more mental health and crisis interventionists, and more or updated technology that helps ensure public trust in their safety forces like body and dashboard cameras. Residents want our public safety officers to respond when they call, and the best way to ensure that they do is to have ample officers available when they call.

​​Should there be term limits for Cleveland City Council members?

No.

Council members act as resident service representatives, legislators and guardians of city spending. Which of these roles matter to you most and why?

They matter to me equally because I don’t think a council member can choose between those roles. Constituents entrust you to do all three, and you have to do all three in order to be effective at scale and long-lasting. I am running for council because I believe I can help improve the resident experience, but it won’t be enough just to be an excellent resident service representative. To make resident experience improvements long-lasting, my council colleagues and I should pass legislation that codifies and guides improvements in the services delivered by the city to its residents, and we have to do so in a fiscally responsible manner.

Please share any other information you think is important for us to know about you and your campaign.

I will represent Ward 11 to the best of my ability, but I also promise never to take a selfish or myopic view of my ward. I will never lose sight that we are one part of a greater whole. What’s best for Ward 11 should also be what’s best for Cleveland. Council should never treat an issue raised in one ward as unique to that ward. Rather, we should approach every issue with the assumption that residents in other wards are likely experiencing the same or similar issues, and council, as a body representing the city as a whole, should work to address those issues at scale.

Candidate answers were edited for clarity. We took out responses that were off topic or included comments about opponents.