The City of East Cleveland - The Home of John D. Rockefeller

Welcome to the Mayor's Office

About Mayor Eric J. Brewer

Mayor Eric J. Brewer is the 4th elected mayor of the City of East Cleveland and the first Chief Executive Officer to have attended Shaw High School.

Mayor Brewer, a Democrat, defeated three opponents in the October 4, 2005 primary election with 55 percent of the vote, and went on to defeat his Republican opponent in the November 8, 2005 general election with a landslide 85 percent victory. He was sworn-in to a four year term of office beginning on January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2009.

Mayor Brewer wants to transform East Cleveland into the well-respected “First Suburb” it was during the days of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire, when Forest Hills Park was his summer home.

Mayor Brewer envisions a “New” East Cleveland as the best “live-work” community in Northeast Ohio with its superior public transportation system and proximity to the region’s largest employers and cultural institutions along Euclid Avenue. East Cleveland is within minutes of Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, Severance Hall and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Art Museum, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland Clinic Hospitals and major corporate headquarters along the “Euclid Corridor” from the Louis Stokes Rail System at Windermere to Tower City Terminals in downtown Cleveland’s Public Square.

Mayor Brewer sees the city’s historical and affordable housing stock as a prime opportunity for faculty, students and workers along the Euclid Corridor who is confident will want to save on fuel costs as gasoline prices continue to rise. He believes East Cleveland’s easy access to I-90, I-271, I-71 and I-77 within five to 15 minutes in any direction makes it the perfect location for middle and upper income workers looking to live near their jobs. National and international travelers can catch a rapid train in East Cleveland and travel to Hopkins International Airport within 45 minutes, and catch an airplane to any location in the nation or world.

Mayor Brewer plans to focus on reinventing government in East Cleveland and making city hall a more “customer friendly” place for residents and business owners to obtain the services they need from courteous and knowledgeable employees.

His main goal is to take East Cleveland from “poverty to prosperity” during his term in office. Beefing up the city’s service and police departments are vital to his plans, along with eliminating waste and mismanagement, and increasing employee productivity.

To achieve his goals, Mayor Brewer said he has placed the “open for business” sign on City Hall for developers and investors who want to bring market rate housing, higher end retail and commercial office space to his city of 27,000 mostly African American (94 percent) residents.

“There are a lot of people who believe in the comeback of East Cleveland,” Mayor Brewer said. “I want them to know they have an administration whose leadership team has the skill, commitment and intellectual capacity to work with them.”

“We’re prime time players who are ready for the nationals,” said Mayor Brewer.

Mayor Brewer is well-known throughout the Cleveland area for his skill as a newspaper publisher and investigative reporter whose career has focused on uncovering government corruption and providing a voice for citizens and politicians whose stories have typically gone unheard by the mainstream media. Mayor Brewer has published 12 newspapers and worked as a reporter for the Call & Post black weekly, and the now defunct Cleveland Press daily newspaper. He was also Editor-in-Chief of Cleveland Life, a 50,000 circulation urban weekly tabloid. He currently owns Cleveland Challenger.

Mayor Brewer’s career has also led him to serve as Chief of Communications and a Project Planner for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority where he authored the Master Plan for the $20 million renovation of King Kennedy Estates, and as Chief of Staff to the former Mayor of East Cleveland and a Special Assistant to retired Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White.

Mayor Brewer is best known for his role as the organizer of three Guardian Angel safety patrol chapters between 1981 and 1982 where he organized nearly 600 crime fighting volunteers in Cleveland, Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio. His work earned him recognition as the Urban League’s “Young Man of the Year” in 1983, a special citation from former U.S. Rep. Ron Mottl in the Congressional Record, and a mention in the History of Cleveland Volume II. Brewer has also been recognized in Who’s Who in Black Cleveland among African American journalists. He is a U. S. Air Force veteran.

Mayor Brewer was born in Cleveland, Ohio on 75th and Kinsman and is the oldest of Harold and Ann Brewer’s five children. The family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri and to the Samuel Gomper Homes in East Saint Louis, Illinois from 1956 through 1969 before returning to the Cleveland area and locating in East Cleveland. He attended Webster Elementary School in East Saint Louis, Illinois and Assumption Catholic High School with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. Mayor Brewer is the single father of Chase Hale Brewer.

The Mayor's Desk