From The Metro Desk Of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black newspapers.

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Democratic Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Ken Lanc (pictured)i kicked off his campaign for mayor in hopes of unseating popular two term Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson before a crowd of some 150 supporters at the Embassy Suites in Independence on Tuesday evening. (Editor's Note: Lanci will distribute food and other goods to residents on Imperial Ave in Cleveland with Community Activists Art McKoy and others at 5 pm on Tuesday, June 25. Imperial Ave. is infamous internationally and across the country where 11 Black women were found murdered on the street on the city's largely Black east side in the home of since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, who sits on death row waiting for the Ohio Supreme Court to here his appeal. For more information on this event contact Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc. at 216-253-4070).

In addition to political strategist  Larry Rush, others at the campaign kickoff include Carl Stokes Brigade President James Barrett,  who is a former city of Cleveland safety director, and local area community activists Art McKoy, Ada Averyhart, Amy Hurd, Willie Stokes, Denise Taylor, Brett Jackson, Al Porter, and Donna Walker Brown, among a group of other community activists.

Lanci took on Jackson in his campaign speech Tuesday saying that unemployment in the city has gone from 27 percent when Jackson took office in 2006 to 34 percent now, and that the public schools that the mayor controls under state law met three of the State Board of Education Standards in 2006 and none currently under Jackson. He said that the city's crime rate has more than doubled in recent years and that the quality of life for residents under the Jackson administration has dwindled.

Cleveland Urban News.Com, Copyright 2012