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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's four-term Black mayor, announced Thursday that he will not seek reelection this year to an unprecedented fifth term as Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones, in an unrelated announcement, joined the crowded race of Jackson's wannabe successors.

The 57th mayor of the largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people and the longest serving mayor in Cleveland history, Jackson, 74, was elected to city council in Ward 5 in 1989 and went on to become the city council president before he won the mayor-ship in 2005 over then incumbent mayor Jane Campbell.

"I'm moving on with understating that this is a relay race, not a sprint. The race is not over and we are not yet a great city. Your job—this is your job—to be to ensure that the runner in the next leg of this race runs hard and he runs true," Jackson said during a virtual town hall on Thursday.

The mayor said his accomplishments include getting the city through a 2008 recession and keeping it afloat in general and through a pandemic, and leading campaigns to pass two levies for Cleveland schools, which are controlled by the mayor per state law.

And he spoke on the still pending consent decree for police reforms instituted behind several excessive force killings of Black people, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014.

His critics say crime is at an all time high, the public schools are under par, and inner city neighborhoods have taken a back seat to downtown developments.

Councilman Jones, who was elected to his first four-year term on city council in 2017 after defeating then incumbent T.J. Dow, is among those who hope to replace Jackson as mayor and said Thursday that he is eager to turn the city around, if he is elected mayor.

“We are not the mistake on the lake and we have to change the way we view the city,"  Jones said in announcing his bid for mayor at a press conference on Thursday.

A Morehouse graduate and Black east side councilman, Jones said that if he is elected mayor he will work to improve the relationship between city residents and City Hall.

Jones is the fifth high profile candidate to announce a run for mayor, including  state Sen Sandra Williams, City Council President Kevin Kelley, former councilman Zack Reed, and newcomer Justin Bibb.

Like Jackson, all of them are Democrats as are all-17 members of city council, and all are Black, except Kelley, a west side councilman.

Views on Jackson's announcement that he will not seek election to a fifth term varied with some glad to see him leave and others disappointed that he is going.

Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin, who was Jackson's director of the Community Relations Board, described his ally and friend as "a great mayor."

Questions that linger are why Jackson, the city's third Black mayor, did not simultaneously endorse Council President Kelley, who is White and his ally, when he announced he will not be running for mayor, and whether the city will celebrate a Black or White mayor when voters make their decision later this year relative to the non-partisan race.

City Council seats are also up for grabs this year, which means that Jones is foregoing  a reelection bid for city council to run for mayor.