Zeddie Coley keeps a poster of President Obama on his living room wall. Coley is a retired science teacher in the East Cleveland schools, and he鈥檚 lived in Cleveland鈥檚 Lee-Harvard neighborhood in Ward 1 for more than 50 years.
This year, he鈥檚 supporting Hillary Clinton.
鈥淵ou have to have a person running for president who has experience dealing with world leaders,鈥� Coley says. 鈥淢r. Trump doesn鈥檛 have that qualification or experience.鈥�
For Clinton鈥檚 campaign, the question isn鈥檛 whether she鈥檒l lose Ward 1 votes to Donald Trump, but whether her campaign can galvanize supporters to show up at the polls in the big numbers she needs.
Leading Cleveland in Presidential Voter Turnout
In 2012, Ward 1 boasted the highest voter turnout rate in Cleveland, and President Obama won nearly 99 percent of the vote.
鈥淚鈥檓 from Georgia, and where I grew up in Georgia, blacks were not able to vote at all,鈥� says Coley, who鈥檚 83 years old. 鈥淨uite a few people living in this community have come from the same background that I came from in the South鈥o having the opportunity, having the privilege to be able to vote means an awful lot to us.鈥�
Winning a race in Ward 1 requires on-the-ground organization, says Andre White, who works as campaign manager for the local councilman, Terrell Pruitt.
鈥淵ou got to go door-to-door, you have to get on the phone, you have call individuals and you have to get your message out there,鈥� White says.
A line of campaign signs flutters in White鈥檚 yard, promoting local issues and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
鈥淭his is a Democratic ward, and they have all traditionally went with Democrats,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey have supported Obama, and they want to continue the legacy for Obama through Hillary.鈥�
An acquaintance drives past, stopping at an intersection nearby. White yells out to him.
鈥淗ey! Issue 32! 108!鈥� he shouts.
Clinton鈥檚 Appeal in Ward 1
Zeddie Coley says he doesn鈥檛 support Clinton鈥檚 use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State. But there鈥檚 plenty that he holds against Donald Trump, too鈥攕uch as the way Trump talks about women and his questioning of President Obama鈥檚 citizenship.
鈥淚 think it was just probably a streak of prejudice in his own thinking that he wanted to do that, Obama being a person of African-American descent and what-have-you,鈥� Coley says.
Residents here say there鈥檚 plenty they like about Clinton, from her experience in government to her time working with the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund. Gloria Jean Pinkney, the president of the Ward 1 Democratic club, says there鈥檚 something else appealing, too.
鈥淪he鈥檚 a woman,鈥� Pinkney says. 鈥淎nd she鈥檚 a mother. And she knows how to manage things. Because it鈥檚 hard being a woman, a mother, working.鈥�
Rejecting Trump
Most Republican candidates would have trouble finding many votes here. Donald Trump鈥檚 rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims may have dug the hole deeper.
鈥淎merica, it鈥檚 had a model or at least says it鈥檚 open to everybody, it鈥檚 the melting pot, we should live up to that and be tolerant of everyone,鈥� says Janet Williams, a local Democratic precinct committeeperson.
Williams is hardly convinced by Trump鈥檚 pitch to African-American voters, in which he recites a litany of ills and asks, 鈥淲hat do you have to lose?鈥�
鈥淭he first time I heard that, my mouth fell open,鈥� Williams says, laughing. 鈥淚 think that took a lot of nerve for him to say that.鈥�
She and others describe Trump鈥檚 overtures to black voters as out of touch, saying his description of African-American communities don鈥檛 sound like Lee-Harvard.
鈥淚t鈥檚 insulting. I understand we see things on TV, and the murder rate in certain cities has gone up,鈥� says Charles Patton, a Cleveland judge and former city councilman from the area. 鈥淏ut we live here every day. And Mr. Trump lives in Trump Tower on the top floor.鈥�
Issues Lost in the Campaign Din
Many here say the controversy of this campaign season has obscured important issues. Charles Patton, a former city councilman from the area, lists off a few.
鈥淚s some more money going to come to the cities to help them with some things they need to take care of, youths needing jobs?鈥� Patton says. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going to happen with healthcare? It needs to be tweaked.鈥�
Janet Williams adds the future of Medicare and Social Security to that list. And Zeddie Coley wants more attention paid to an issue close to home in Cleveland: police.
鈥淚 think something should be done about the number of blacks that are being killed by policemen,鈥� Coley says. 鈥淪omething can be done about that.鈥�
A Historic Neighborhood Recovering from the Crash
Lee-Harvard isn鈥檛 wealthy鈥攂ut it鈥檚 doing better than the city average in Cleveland.
The poverty rate is 24.7 percent, and the median household income is $33,0000 a year, . Almost a quarter of residents are 65 or older, and many households receive Social Security.
鈥淲e have a very growing senior citizens population,鈥� says Elaine Gohlstin, the CEO of the Harvard Community Services Center. 鈥淎nd so one of our greatest concerns is what鈥檚 going to happen if they can鈥檛 live in the house and the children don鈥檛 want the house.鈥�
Many black Clevelanders who were shut out of the suburbs moved to the Lee-Harvard area in the 1950s and 鈥�60s, according to Todd Michney, a University of Toledo professor who documents the neighborhood鈥檚 history in the book Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland.
鈥淥utlying city neighborhoods, starting with places like Glenville and Mount Pleasant, and then becoming Lee-Harvard, were important because those were places where African-Americans could achieve this lifestyle and suburban dream, even if it wasn鈥檛 a separate municipality,鈥� Michney says.
Lee-Harvard escaped the worst of the financial crisis, which left other Cleveland neighborhoods riddled with vacant homes. Still, the area wasn鈥檛 completely unscathed.
鈥淓ight years ago we didn鈥檛 have as many empty houses,鈥� Pinkney says. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 like, they have been fixing up the houses and putting them up for sale. So, you know, it鈥檚 coming back.鈥�
