In late July, Shirley Bell-Wheeler invited her community for a special day at Revolutionary Love Farm in Mt. Pleasant.
That day, Wheeler was presenting certificates to young people who’d been working on the urban farm. She was also dedicating a new playground to the memory of her infant son, who died the year before. Her husband, Jermaine Wheeler, grilled pork chops and hot peppers for whoever happened to stop by. The blackberry bushes were about to burst. Ripe tomatoes and peppers overflowed from a bowl.
Events like these are at the heart of RevLove, as it’s commonly known. The farm started as a way to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood where grocery stores were closing. It turned vacant lots into productive soil using city land bank property, an effort Mayor Justin Bibb encouraged across the city by revamping the Summer Sprout urban gardening program. And it’s become a community hub, a place young people can feel safe on a block that exists in the long shadow of serial killer Anthony Sowell.
Despite this, Bell-Wheeler says that, behind the scenes, she’s been fighting a serious effort to “dismantle” RevLove — a battle she believes is led by City Council Member Deborah Gray, whose ward encompasses the farm.
For the teenagers who work at RevLove, the conflict “exposed them to the reality of how power can be manipulated by people in power in a way that is harmful to their community and harmful to them,” Bell-Wheeler said.
Gray told Signal Cleveland in a phone call earlier this month that she had “no idea of what’s going on with that farm.” When asked if she wanted Bell-Wheeler off the land, Gray said she didn’t know what Bell-Wheeler was talking about.
But city records and emails show that over the past two years there was a significant amount of back-and-forth between city staff about RevLove Farm, including an email that says Gray directed RevLove be ordered to vacate the land.
What’s unclear is the extent to which Gray was responding to issues brought to her attention or had other motives.
Regardless of the nature of the dispute, a spokesperson for the City of Cleveland said it stood behind Bell-Wheeler and her farm. The city’s public health department, which currently runs the Summer Sprout program, “reviewed the matter in its entirety and determined that Revolutionary Love Garden was a great use of these parcels,” wrote Tyler Sinclair, a spokesperson for the City of Cleveland.
He added that Bell-Wheeler “is an upstanding resident and represents the exact type of people we want involved in urban farming. … It’s unfortunate that others may feel differently, but we’re glad that we were able to help her out.”
RevLove Farm runs into road blocks
In the decade since opening the farm, Bell-Wheeler has worked closely with the City of Cleveland. RevLove participates in city-hosted farmers markets, and Cleveland is partnering with the organization to train young people to discuss recent changes to the SNAP program.
At the same time, over the last two years, Bell-Wheeler was booted from the city’s Summer Sprout urban gardening program, which meant losing her lease to city land. Then, a city notice this year accused her of illegally trespassing and instructed her to leave. Both situations tied back to Gray, documents show.
RevLove was able to soldier on through these hiccups. But in September, the city’s animal control department took the farm’s chickens — she didn’t have the required city permit for them. After years of trying to “keep it cute,” Bell-Wheeler decided to speak publicly about what she perceives as Gray’s campaign against her. She suspected her council member complained to animal control in the first place. (City spokespeople say the incident was sparked by an anonymous call about Bell-Wheeler’s dogs running loose. Gray said she had no knowledge of what animal control did with Bell-Wheeler.)
Bell-Wheeler wasn’t exactly sure where the animosity began. But she has two ideas. First, Bell-Wheeler participated in a group that endorsed Gray’s council opponent in 2021. Then, in 2024, the two exchanged words — loudly — at one of Gray’s ward meetings about an upcoming community event at the farm, Bell-Wheeler said.
“Because of that, it’s all of this retaliation,” Bell-Wheeler said.
Signal Cleveland then sought records from the city in an attempt to determine what occurred. Signal Cleveland shared these documents with Gray and asked whether she retaliated due to Bell-Wheeler’s endorsement of another council candidate.
Gray did not respond. A Signal Cleveland reporter approached Gray at a Cleveland City Council meeting Oct. 19 to ask about the situation. Gray walked away.
Mike Thomas, a spokesperson for Cleveland City Council, did share emails with Signal Cleveland showing that at least one employee with the city’s department of Community Development identified “concerning conditions and activities” at RevLove in May 2026, after the farm was told to vacate. That included an active burn pit containing “materials that did not appear to be wood,” food distribution onsite and a portable restroom that “emitted a strong odor.”
‘Let’s just start growing food’
Bell-Wheeler and her husband started RevLove in 2017, after the Giant Eagle in Buckeye Plaza closed.
She grew up in the neighborhood. As a kid, her family grew greens, peppers and fruit. When Neighborhood Connections — a group that supports residents’ ideas and efforts with small grants — started having conversations about how to respond to the grocery store’s closure, she joined in.
“It’s not that hard,” she thought. “Let’s just start growing food.”
In 2017, she applied for a permit to garden on one vacant plot of city land in Mt. Pleasant. The farm got approved, and three plywood boxes went in the ground to start.
Over time, the garden grew. It got leases to farm two neighboring city land bank plots. Two more adjacent properties, a corner store and a house, got torn down. Bell-Wheeler was able to buy those lots through the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, which is separate from the city’s land bank.
RevLove added more raised beds, a hoop house, a bee hive, a chicken coop. It gave their produce away at an elementary school and community center in Mt. Pleasant. They began partnering with Youth Opportunities Unlimited, another local nonprofit, to bring high schoolers in to work on the farm. Those young people took food home, too.
Bell-Wheeler got access to the land through Summer Sprout, a city community gardening program that provides free soil testing, seeds, starter plants and more. The program facilitates year-long leases for farmers and gardeners operating on properties in Cleveland’s land bank.
The program worked great for Bell-Wheeler. Until it didn’t.
Summer Sprout access pulled
In March 2024, a staff member with Ohio State University Extension Center, which helps administer the Summer Sprout program, sent a letter to Bell-Wheeler cutting Revolutionary Love Garden’s participation in the program.
The letter said the decision was “the result of a recent incident between your council person and yourself. The Cleveland Land Bank has decided to move forward with the removal process.”
Behind the scenes, leaders with the Summer Sprout program said in emails to city staff that the “heated incident” took place “at a recorded meeting” — but did not specify what occurred, the type of meeting it occurred at, or why it was sufficient to remove Bell-Wheeler from the program.
Bell-Wheeler isn’t entirely sure what incident the Summer Sprout program is referring to. But she has an idea.
In the early months of 2024, Bell-Wheeler began planning a community event at RevLove and needed to speak with Gray to get some of the necessary permits. She’d been trying for a few weeks and running into obstacles, so she decided to attend one of Gray’s ward meetings at Zelma George Recreation Center.
Bell-Wheeler did not have a recording of the event, and Signal Cleveland could not locate one on Gray’s Facebook page or TV20, Cleveland’s government-access and public television station. But Bell-Wheeler remembers it like this: The council member was giving residents the opportunity to talk and ask questions. Bell-Wheeler took the opportunity.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you about a community event that we have coming up. Can we get your support?’” Bell-Wheeler said. “…And her response is like, ‘I don’t really know you. You’re not really in the community.’”
Bell-Wheeler responded that she believed Gray did know who she was, because the council member had visited her farm alongside other city officials. Gray began to speak in a raised voice, Bell-Wheeler said, and Bell-Wheeler spoke loudly to be heard over her.
Bell-Wheeler doesn’t remember exactly what she said, but it could’ve been, “‘Why are you sitting here lying?’” she said. After the meeting, Bell-Wheeler went home, frustrated, and made a post on Facebook of a photo of Gray at her farm, which said “Deborah Gray, are you really going to pretend like you do not know me?”
Bell-Wheeler said she didn’t receive the letter Summer Sprout addressed to her until 2025, after hiring a lawyer.
What she did get in May 2024 was an email from Gray, after Bell-Wheeler put on a pared-back event that featured fitness demonstrations, crafts and other activities.
“I had no idea it was approved because I didn’t sign the block party permit,” Gray wrote in an email to a number of City of Cleveland staffers and Bell-Wheeler. “So, I’m curious which department signed off for this event to happen?”
An order to vacate
During the summer of 2025, Bell-Wheeler operated RevLove without a lease to the city land. The Summer Sprout program was struggling with its own contract issues at the time. Even after she was removed from the program, Bell-Wheeler remembers getting supplies and receiving emails.
But in April of 2026, another letter showed up on her doorstep. This time, it was more dire. The city accused her of trespassing illegally on the city land where her farm was set up. She needed to remove her equipment, hoop house, animals and all other objects from the lots within 14 days — even reseeding the land, if necessary. The city would clear it themselves, then charge her, if she didn’t comply.
At the time, Bell-Wheeler and her lawyer made some calls to learn more about the notice. She doesn’t remember who they spoke with, but the message they took away was, “It was probably a mistake.” As the summer passed, and no one came to clear the land, Bell-Wheeler thought that explanation seemed likely.
But emails Signal Cleveland uncovered show that the effort to force Bell-Wheeler off the land was no mistake.
The letter Bell-Wheeler received was dated April 29. On April 28, a staff person within the city’s Department of Community Development emailed the manager of the city’s land bank, asking the agency to issue RevLove Farm a 15-day notice to vacate.
“This matter was originally brought to the Land Bank’s attention in 2024, and it appears there has been no follow-up to date,” the staffperson, Mia Buffington, wrote. “This request is being made at the direction of Councilwoman Deborah Gray, and no action has been taken thus far.”
In a separate email, Buffington stated, “We would like the parcels to remain in the Summer Sprout inventory; however, we are in the process of replacing the current garden leader.”
Losing her chickens
Like the two summers before, Bell-Wheeler farmed throughout 2026 without issue.
But a run-in with animal control in September broke her luck. Her dogs, which lived in kennels on the farm, got loose. An anonymous caller alerted animal control, who saw the chickens on the property when bringing the dogs back.
Bell-Wheeler told the animal control officers that the chickens lived on city property, so officers reached out to the land bank to see whether a lease was in place, Sinclair wrote in an email. There wasn’t, which meant she didn’t have a permit for the chickens, either. Animal Control gave Bell-Wheeler 24 hours to move the chickens. A day later, animal control took them in.
At that point, the officers had “no detailed knowledge of the history between Ms. Bell-Wheeler and the councilperson nor were they aware of any ongoing dispute,” wrote Sinclair. He added that animal control officers didn’t speak with “the councilperson” at any point.
But Bell-Wheeler said after her chickens were taken, she spoke with an animal control officer who knew about Gray’s issues with the farm. The officer told Bell-Wheeler that her councilperson wanted her “off the land,” Bell-Wheeler said.
Bell-Wheeler had been able to set aside what she called the “drama” of the prior years. But the teenagers working at RevLove built the chicken coop. They helped raise the chicks into hens. They harvested the eggs. Now, they saw the chickens had been lost.
“What it taught them was less about the chickens, but more about how you can be doing something positive and good for your community and still face barriers,” Bell-Wheeler said. “ … The barriers can be people within your own community that are supposed to support you.”
RevLove hopes to buy city land — but it must get approved by councilmember
After her chickens got taken, Bell-Wheeler began posting on social media and calling city staff she knew, such as Dr. David Margolius, the director of the city’s public health department.
Margolius soon spoke with animal control staff, according to case documents, stating that he and the directors of the land bank had an understanding that Bell-Wheeler could farm the property and have chickens.
Three city departments — public health, community development and animal control — then collaborated to offer Bell-Wheeler a new license agreement outside of Summer Sprout that would allow her to stay on the land and keep her chickens.
But Bell-Wheeler worries the battle is not over. Her new city lease will expire next October. So when she saw the recent news that the Cleveland land bank had opened for applications, she jumped at it. She submitted an application to buy the three properties she farms on.
There’s a few challenges, though. One is that every application to the city’s land bank is submitted to the ward’s councilperson for review, according to the land bank’s application site. If a councilperson objects to an application, it will be closed, the website reads.
“So I’m hoping, you know. We’re gonna try it,” Bell-Wheeler said. “I might get shut down by my councilperson. But at least she’s gonna have to document that.”
When asked about the future of the land, a spokesperson for the city wrote that, “We would also hope, after all of this, that the councilperson would not interfere anymore.”
