The person on the other end of the phone line talking to Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell suddenly hears sirens and commotion in the background.
“We are having an emergency — I’ll call you back in five minutes,” says Blackwell, rushing out of her office and into the hall to address the situation.
She does and is back in the time she promised. She says she stayed until everything was under control. Maple Heights is Blackwell’s city, and she guides it with intelligence, a steady hand and heart of gold.
Blackwell is the 16th mayor of Maple Heights, incorporated as a village in 1915 and a city in 1932. She is the first woman and African American mayor of the suburb, with its 23,700 people. This is the second year of her second term, which began in 2016.
Blackwell considers the Herculean effort of leading the city out of fiscal emergency to be (so far) her proudest moment as mayor. Maple Heights was staring at a $2.79 million debt and facing bankruptcy when Blackwell took the mayor’s seat. Her background as a commercial property tax analyst and other career experience provided expertise.
“Getting out of that was what I came to do,” says Blackwell, who called for accountability when writing municipal purchase orders and protecting the city’s general fund.
Blackwell knocked on the doors of the 25 biggest employers in the city telling them she needed them and would do whatever she could to help them stay and expand. Last year, Sherwood Food Distributors created a number of new jobs, and GOJO Industries invested $25 million to open a facility in the community. GOJO Industries has committed to hiring 100 employees. The city also welcomed 10 new small businesses.
Blackwell is also focusing on diversifying the housing stock of Maple Heights. She hopes to attract more new home construction and housing styles that differ from the bungalows that were built post World War II.
“If we are going to attract new residents from a variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds, we need housing that meets their needs today,” says Blackwell.
This year, Blackwell has also zeroed in on helping her residents (about 74% of whom are African American) obtain “environmental justice” by improving the outdoor opportunities that are important to everyone’s health and well-being.
Born near Selma, Alabama, to a family of sharecroppers, Blackwell was part of the end of the Great Migration of people who moved north for job and educational opportunities, ending in the early 1970s. She arrived in Cleveland at age 2 and initially lived in the Glenville neighborhood. She has lived in Maple Heights since 1997.
“You know what your God-given gifts are,” says Blackwell. “Leadership and compassion always came easy to me. I don’t have to go out of the country to help people. I can embrace a life of purpose right here.”