PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVENSunday, March 3, 2024; Friends of Cudell Commons Park rally and candlelight vigil, Cudell Commons Park just east of Cudell Recreation Center at Detroit Avenue and West Boulevard: Nikki Hudson, a member of Friends of Cudell Commons Park, speaks of plans to continue advocacy to save the park from becoming a school construction site.

PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Tuesday, March 19, 2024; Cleveland Municipal School District Board Business Meeting, Waverly School: Bob Watson of Friends of Cudell Commons Park urges the Board of Education to “Save Cudell Park”. His sign contains a picture of Frank Cudell who deeded the land to the City of Cleveland with the understanding it would remain a park forever. The City swapped the park for school system properties and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District plans to build a new Marion Seltzer School on land where the park currently sits.

PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Sunday, March 3, 2024; Friends of Cudell Commons Park rally and candlelight vigil, Cudell Commons Park just east of Cudell Recreation Center at Detroit Avenue and West Boulevard: Faouzi Baddour, a member of Friends of Cudell Commons Park, calls for an effort to get the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to work together with residents for a solution that is best for children, so the children can enjoy the park as well as a refurbished school.

by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press April 2024) In the month of March, the Friends of Cudell Commons Park continued their effort to preserve the neighborhood’s public park and keep it from being destroyed to make way for a new Marion C. Seltzer School building.

   Cudell Commons Park sits just east of Cudell Recreation Center at West Boulevard and Detroit Avenue and just north of Marion C. Seltzer School at 1468 W. 98^th Street. Friends of Cudell Commons Park have made it clear to the City of Cleveland and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District that Architect Frank Cudell left the property to the City of Cleveland with the stipulation that it remain a park forever.

   After learning on March 1^st that Judge Ashley Kilbane lifted the temporary restraining order that had prevented the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) from beginning construction of the new school on the park, the group held a rally and candlelight vigil at the park on March 3rd.

   On March 19^th, members of Friends of Cudell Commons Park walked from the park to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Board of Education meeting held at Waverly School at 1805 W. 57^th Street. The group protested outside prior to the meeting, and then went inside where members of the Friends of Cudell Commons Park planned to participate in the public comment portion of the Board of Education meeting.

   Early in the meeting, Cleveland Metropolitan School District Chief Executive Officer Dr. Warren Morgan acknowledged the presence of community members from the Cudell neighborhood and said he was looking forward to listening to the community and hearing about a path forward concerning the future of Marion Seltzer School and the park.

   During the public comment period, Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, spoke to the Board of Education in solidarity with the Cudell community.  She expressed concern that the CMSD had not been in contact with her about the memorial for her son in the park when planning the new school. She urged the CEO and the Board of Education to work together with her and the community on plans for the future of Marian C. Seltzer School.

   Friends of Cudell Commons Park member Jamie Lee Brazier, who says she has lived across the street from the park and Marion C. Seltzer School for 22 years, said:

 I’ve been the eyes that watch over the park when there is danger. I’m the first one to call them. I want you to know, I and my neighbors are not against building a new school. We were told there would be a refurbished school over ten years ago. Then everything went silent. Then about three years ago, Patti Choby (CMSD consultant and founder of the Cobalt Group) and her group said they engaged with us to show us a plan for the new school which wipes out most of the park, at least 22%.

She noted that Friends of Cudell Commons Park proved in court that the CMSD plan would wipe out at least 22% and would mean the loss of 40 legacy trees close to 100 years old.

   Brazier said that instead of talking with neighbors, CMSD decided to go to court which cost the City of Cleveland and the CMSD $486,000 in lawyers’ fees. She also described the land swap between the City of Cleveland and CMSD that occurred during the COVID pandemic which the community was not informed about. She said, that in a hush-hush process, the City of Cleveland swapped Cudell Park, gifted to the City by Frank Cudell to be a park forever, for some CMSD former school sites. Instead of refurbishing the existing school on its footprint, Brazier said, “They are just wiping out the park, setting a school in the middle and putting in some saplings.” Brazier noted that all the new schools have saplings that are dying.

   Friends of Cudell Commons Park member Brent Eysenbach addressing the Board of Education and Dr. Warren Morgan said, “Dr. Morgan I’m happy to hear you are ready to come and meaningfully talk and listen with the community.”

   Eysenbach went on to say, “Over the past several months I have been privileged to receive quite an education from CMSD during my process of my researching the history of the land swap for Cudell Park and the proposed Marion Seltzer School planning.”

   He said the many truths he learned are:

The Friends of Cudell Park want the new school. We also want to preserve the park that is there. Marion Seltzer School and the Cudell Park have co-existed in the same space for 52 years. There is no reason a new school and a preserved park cannot co-exist for our future.

I learned that CMSD’s partner in this project, The City of Cleveland, didn’t follow its own internal protocols when exchanging this land.

   I learned CMSD and the City of Cleveland prioritized commercial development of the old Watterson Lake site rather than prioritizing the children having a swing space.

   I learned that the City of Cleveland did zero public outreach when it disposed of this surplus property. (Surplus property is the City of Cleveland’s words– not mine.)

   I learned the land swap occurred during March of 2021, think back – it was in the middle of COVID when families were fighting to survive before a vaccine was even available to us.

   I learned that CMSD last came to the community in March of 2022, and they presented a plan that was compact, preserved the green space and it also followed the city ordinance which allowed for that land swap, the playfield and sharing parking with the Cudell Recreation Center

   I learned that CMSD’s consultant, the Colbalt Group, during the summer of 2022, switched plans on the community. They made an oversized school and an oversized parking lot. They got rid of the replacement playfield, and they did not share parking as per City ordinance.

Friends of Cudell Commons Park member Faouzi Baddour was next up to speak to the Board of Education and CEO Dr. Warren Morgan. Baddour, a resident of the Cudell neighborhood for over 45 years, said that on May 23, 1981, his family moved to a house on W. 99^th Street only 500 feet from Cudell park. He said at the time, his twins were 23 months old. He said you could see the swing set at Cudell Park from his house and noted the many “firsts” for his children that occurred at Cudell Park – first ride on a swing set, first baseball, first softball, and first swimming. “And guess what?” he continued,

“Their first school was Marion C. Seltzer. So, to me, Marion C. Seltzer is in our heart and our soul, the same as the Cudell Park.”

   Baddour recalled that in 2014, there was a meeting at Marion Seltzer school and the subject was renovating the existing school. They asked me my opinion about the safety of the school. I suggested the entrance be from the park side rather than W. 98^th. He then said that communication about CMSD’s plans for the school ceased. “I didn’t hear anything until July 1, 2023. That’s when I heard there was a land swap”

   Baddour says that is when the community learned that the plans had gone from “renovating the old building, to expansion outside the building, to more expansion outside the building, then to the whole yard to Detroit.”

   Baddour said the proposed plan would cut off the community’s park so people could not walk through it on their way to and from the rapid station or Edgewater Park. Speaking about his passion for both the school and the park, Baddour said:

Marion C. Seltzer and the park, they are twins to me. They are in my soul and in my heart. My kids, they started school at Marion C. Seltzer, they represented Cudell in championships in Indiana, golden gloves, basketball, stuff like that. So, Dr. Morgan, I am asking, let’s build a bridge between us. We don’t want the wall that the Cobalt Group tried to build between us. We want the school. We love the school. We want Marion C. Seltzer to be the best school and we will give anything we need to give. But we need you to stand with us to save the park and save the school – both.