This column often discusses reader engagement – our continuing conversation with you on our various platforms – and this week I give you the king of engagement:
Tom Bier.
Tom has just published a book, which you can download for free at tinyurl.com/100opeds, containing an astounding 100 op-eds that he has published in The Plain Dealer across nearly half a century. It’s a number that is difficult to fathom. Tom’s so good at exploring rich topics that we have never turned down something he offered.
His book, “The Way We Are: 100 Plain Dealer Op-eds,” is an illuminating history lesson, with a concentration on how Cleveland could thrive and co-exist with the suburbs. He’s a bit of a geek about planning, but his op-eds are anything but nerdy.
He began writing the pieces when I was in 10th grade, so reading the book gave me insights into what was happening long before I focused on Cleveland. For example, we all know today what a jewel Playhouse Square is, but in the 1970s, it was largely shuttered and deteriorating. One of Tom’s earliest pieces talked about how a proposed restoration could fall apart if corporate leaders did not get behind it. His column was the clarion call for the city’s business elite to step up, and it’s interesting to read that 1981 perspective in 2024. The book is loaded with perspective.
A few weeks ago, some people who long have known Tom – who retired in 2003 as director of the Center for Housing Research and Policy at Cleveland State University -- got together to celebrate his book.
The hosts, at their Pepper Pike home, were Susan and Rick Taft. Susan is retired from Kent State University, where she taught and researched nursing, and today she is dedicated to the effort to end gerrymandering in Ohio. Rick is a former Pepper Pike councilman with one of the rarest of political pedigrees. He is the great-grandson of the only man to serve as U.S. president and chief justice of the Supreme Court. (The New Yorker recently published a terrific story about William Howard Taft.) He is also the son of Seth Taft, who narrowly lost the Cleveland mayor’s race to Carl Stokes, the first Black mayor of a major American city. Rick wrote the foreword to Tom’s book.
Guest included Jim Rokakis, the former Cuyahoga County treasurer who revolutionized the approach to city revitalization by creating the land bank. Rokakis ranks as one of the best public servants in county history, and you could make a case that he epitomizes why the old form of county government is superior to what we replaced it with a dozen years ago.
Also at the party was columnist Brent Larkin, retired director of The Plain Dealer’s editorial page. Brent is a walking, talking encyclopedia of Ohio and Northeast Ohio history, with an unparalleled understanding of what makes the state tick. Elizabeth Sullivan, who replaced Brent as our director of opinion content, also joined the gathering -- another journalist who has a deep understanding of the politics and Cleveland history. She and Brent get the credit for accepting the bulk of Tom’s op-eds over the years.
Steve Litt was there, too. Steve is unique in American journalism, with expertise as an art critic and on planning and transportation issues. He’s as much of a geek about planning as Tom is, and you can imagine the many conversations they’ve had over the years about the topics of Tom’s op eds and Steve’s stories and columns.
My wife, Kathy, and I were invited, as well. Kathy is a special education teacher, with all the skills needed for that patience-requiring profession, so she fits in with any crowd. The outlier in this group was me. I can’t remember the last time I was the youngest person in a room. Everyone at this gathering, including Tom and his wife Dorothy, had a gaze that goes back 50 years or more. The conversation that evening covered the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and beyond, but I didn’t arrive in Cleveland until 1996. I did not have what they share, the intimate knowledge of the region’s history. I was there solely to represent our newsroom as its current leader.
It was a privilege to listen to their stories, and to hear their reverence for Tom. Susan Taft asked each of those present to talk about what Tom has meant to them, and I wish I had a recording of the tributes.
Tom deserves the recognition. The effort he invested in his op-eds was public service. He worked to make the region a better place. Just consider the summaries he put in the book for some of the pieces:
Cleveland’s recovery depends on the return of skills that went to the suburbs. (1980)
What we excel at in this town is squandering assets, so why not sell them? (1984)
2% of my gross income goes to pay for shoddy City Hall service (1987)
Cleveland’s decline began on May 21, 1900; what happened? (2000)
State government boosts rural development but washes its hands of consequent urban decline (2004)
Cleveland is DYING! It has been for 50 years. (2008)
Either we pull together and make our future or shrivel and watch our children go elsewhere (2011)
Location made Cleveland and location might remake it (2019)
Tom’s op-eds were grist for many conversations over the years in in government halls and across dining room tables. Sparking discussion is why we publish op-eds, but our Forum section does its job only if we receive quality submissions, like those from Tom. For decades, our opinion platforms have been where the community gathers to consider alternate viewpoints and debate. It is Northeast Ohio’s public square. There is no other place where so many can participate in the conversation.
And no one outside our newsroom has done more to spark that conversation than Tom. It’s what makes him the king of engagement.
Download his book. It’s well worth your time. And, it’s free at http://tinyurl.com/100opeds
I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com
Thanks for reading
