Kevin Salters interview, 14 October 2025

Abstract

In this 2025 interview, lifelong East Cleveland resident and entrepreneur Mr. Kevin Salters describes his childhood, his family’s move to the city, and the strong sense of community that shaped his youth. He recounts his service in the U.S. Army, his transition into welding, and his eventual shift into property rehabilitation and long-term homeownership in East Cleveland. Salters discusses the development of his rental portfolio, the role of his family in managing properties, and the pride he takes in reinvesting in his own neighborhood. He also reflects on his leadership in organizing 13 years of community block parties, his involvement in local associations, and the cultural importance of the annual Shaw High School Reunion Weekend.

Interviewee

Salters, Kevin (interviewee)

Interviewer

Mays, Nicholas S. (interviewer)

Project

East Cleveland

Date

10-14-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

74 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Kevin Salters interview, 14 October 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 757009.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1406

Related Resources

East Cleveland @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Nick Mays [00:00:00] My name is Dr. Nicholas Mays and today is October 14, 2025. I am here in East Cleveland on Millionaires Row with Mr. Kevin Salter. A lifelong East Clevelander entrepreneur and community leader. Mr. Salter has built a legacy through housing investment, family entrepreneurship and civic engagement, all while preserving the pride, spirit and history of this community. [00:00:28] Today we’ll explore his journey, his love for East Cleveland, and his vision for the city’s future. Welcome, Mr. Salters. Thank you for being with us.

Kevin Salters [00:00:39] Thank you.

Nick Mays [00:00:40] Can you start by telling us your name, age and date of birth?

Kevin Salters [00:00:45] My name is Kevin Salters. I just turned 64 in September […].

Nick Mays [00:00:55] And your date of birth?

Kevin Salters [00:00:56] [1961].

Nick Mays [00:00:58] Thank you. So, Mr. Salters, I want to, I want to begin with early life and your East Cleveland roots. Can you, can you, can you first tell me about your early years in growing up in East Cleveland and how your family came to East Cleveland?

Kevin Salters [00:01:19] Well, we lived over by the Lee Harvard area. I was going to Whitney Young. Then we transferred over here to East Cleveland. My parents had purchased a house up the street and when we moved over, I was still going to school across town. Then we waited for, I think it was like it might have been a mid school year. [00:01:44] We were going to wait till the end, but I ended up transferring over and I went to Kirk Junior High and then from, you know, we.

Nick Mays [00:01:57] So you were born in Cleveland?

Kevin Salters [00:01:59] I was born in Cleveland, moved to East Cleveland in eighth grade and I’ve been here ever since. Pretty. Yeah. What’s here in East Cleveland? I’ve been here in East Cleveland since then, except for my military time. Other than that, I’ve been in East Cleveland all the time.

Nick Mays [00:02:16] Can you, can you talk about your, your early years kind of growing up as you know, you said you were at your eight when you, when you moved to East Cleveland, but if you can recall just growing up as a, as a youth or teenager.

Kevin Salters [00:02:33] Yes. When I moved to East Cleveland, it was nothing like it is now. It was a better city at that time. And I had a lot of friends. You know, we played football every day. We did it all day long. You know, you had to be in when the street light came on. We had picked up a ball. [00:02:49] Every day we got out of school, we’d pick up a football. We’d play, play in wintertime snow. We would play in the backyard, play in the street. You know, we would do a lot of racing. When I was younger, we had raced from light pole to light pole, which was a pretty long distance. [00:03:04] Especially as a child. And we were into bikes. We made our own bikes. We got different parts from other bikes and we put them together. We made them. My father was a body man. He used to work on cars, used to paint them and everything. So we would strip the bikes down, take them to him and he would do a paint job on them and we’ll put them back together. [00:03:24] We had gold chains. We had whatever was new out. We had them up and down the street and we put them together and raced each other. We had a good time. I had an excellent childhood.

Nick Mays [00:03:36] So you live on the same street as an adult. You live on the same street for which you’ve moved when you were a young child with your parents?

Kevin Salters [00:03:47] Yes, I purchased a house a few doors down from where I grew up. Yeah. After I came out to service.

Nick Mays [00:03:56] So can you give us some context or history of Millionaires Row and why is it called Millionaires Row?

Kevin Salters [00:04:03] Well, it’s called Millionaires Row because Rockefeller, he started here in East Cleveland and like Kirk Junior High. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s where he lived. And Forest Hill park was his backyard. He ended up donating that, the park and the school to the city of East Cleveland. And you know, because, I mean, like his backyard was just like a big park, you know, I think they let Cleveland Heights use part of it now at this time. [00:04:30] But when I was, you know, when I was younger, it was mostly all East Cleveland had it all. And it was a real nice park. We used to go up there. You know, you get actually. You could fish in the pond. You know, we used to have picnics up there all the time. [00:04:43] They had the swings, they had everything. It was a really nice park back in the day.

Nick Mays [00:04:49] What did your parents do growing up?

Kevin Salters [00:04:52] My mom worked at Bobby Brooks. She was. She made clothes. You know, she tailored there. My father worked for Chrysler Corporation and then he had his own body shop. You know, he had multiple shops. And he really was into cars, into fast cars, you know, like mg. Back then it was the mg, the Jaguar, you know, he had a lot of cars. [00:05:16] He fixed them up really nice. It reminds me of a time he bought us two cars. He bought me a Nova and he bought my cousin Greg, he bought him a Nova and my father customized them. He painted them. I put a hood scoop on mine and on my bro, on my cousins, he put a bird on the front of it. [00:05:38] Like the Trans Ams. He had a bird on the front of. It was all red. It was candy apple red. Really nice car. Really nice car. Yes.

Nick Mays [00:05:45] Where was your, your dad’s shops? Was it in East Cleveland?

Kevin Salters [00:05:50] No, well, no, it was one out right outside of East Cleveland on Euclid Avenue. But most of them were down like 82nd and Quincy down that way.

Nick Mays [00:05:58] And you say he worked at. For Chrysler?

Kevin Salters [00:06:01] Yes, Chrysler Corporation.

Nick Mays [00:06:03] The Chrysler Corporation. Was that in Cleveland or was that.

Kevin Salters [00:06:06] I think that’s in Youngstown. I think it’s in Youngstown.

Nick Mays [00:06:10] What did you learn from your parents growing up or your father, your mom that still lives with you today?

Kevin Salters [00:06:19] Oh, I learned quite a bit from my parents. One thing with my father, well, one thing I learned was discipline. And my father was. He wasn’t overly strict, but he believed in discipline, he believed in respecting adults. And I learned, I carry that to this day. I taught my children the same way my father taught me how to work on houses, how to work on cars. [00:06:42] You know, I do a lot of that now. I rehab houses for a living pretty much now. And my mom, she was very caring. When we came home from school every day, we always had a meal. She made sure our clothes were decent to go to school. She made sure we had money for lunch. [00:07:01] I mean, they made sure we had our rooms together. And like I said, I had a very nice childhood.

Nick Mays [00:07:10] Outside of your parents, who or what made the biggest impact on you during your school years? Whether it was teachers, neighbors, community figures.

Kevin Salters [00:07:23] Probably some of my football coaches. Some of my football coaches. You know, I had a lot of respect. Coach pledger, I really had a lot of respect for him. He was a really nice guy.

Nick Mays [00:07:33] In what way did he impact?

Kevin Salters [00:07:35] Because when I first started playing like Grandpappy Hill, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with Grandpappy Hill. It’s a huge hill we used to train on in East Cleveland. It’s in Forrest Hill Park. And that hill was rough. It was rough trying to run up and down that hill. And that was part of our training. [00:07:52] And you know, he would talk to us, talk to us as a group and give us inspiration to tackle the hill, get better in our ability to play football, you know.

Nick Mays [00:08:09] What do you remember about East Cleveland during your youth? Whether it was the neighborhood atmosphere, events, traditions, anything that stood out.

Kevin Salters [00:08:18] Growing up, I remember I had a lot of friends. I remember going over my friends houses. You know, we were really into cars. And when I was 16, like all my buddies, we all had cars. We did a lot of work on them. We used to go to the Drive in, we had our girlfriends. [00:08:35] We’d go to the Drive in every weekend. Yeah, we had a lot of fun like that back then. They came out with these things. They look like on a police car, like the lights on top of a police car and you plug them in your cigarette lighter and they would go just like a police car. [00:08:52] Well, we didn’t know that we were breaking the law, but we would put those in our. Yeah, we did. I guess we did. We would put them on top of our car sometime. Speed down Euclid Avenue and plug them in and watch the cars move out of the way. And I remember one day we stopped. [00:09:08] I mean, we got pulled over by the police. We weren’t doing it at the time, but he saw the lights back there and he said, if you ever caught us doing that, that we were going to get arrested. So we stopped at that point once we realized how serious it really was. And I remember that clearly.

Nick Mays [00:09:25] Can you recall businesses that existed at the time and then also too. It’s a two part question. Businesses in general that existed. This is like, you know, junior high, high school, right? Youth. And then two black businesses in East Cleveland.

Kevin Salters [00:09:48] Well, businesses at that time. We had, actually we had a car dealership here in East Cleveland. We had a bowling alley, we had a movie theater. This was really a thriving city back when I was young. It was like one of the. As far as one of the black cities back then, if I’m not mistaken. [00:10:06] I think they did a special on us on East Cleveland back then on 2020, talking about how it was a black city and we were able to run our own businesses and things of that nature. And I remember a lot of the stores, Vipco. I remember one of them. It was a drive through store. [00:10:21] You know, you can get your beverages, you can get whatever you want. That was the first time I ever seen a drive through store miss doing that. There’s a lot of different. Some of the restaurants were black owned. Pretty much that’s what I really remember.

Nick Mays [00:10:35] What about Peter Pan?

Kevin Salters [00:10:37] Peter Pan? Yeah, Peter Pan. Peter Pan was when you went out, when you went out, you went to the club, you came in at night. Peter Pan was the spot to go. I mean, you got like seven wings and fries for like $3.50. I mean, it was real cheap and the wings were really good. [00:10:54] That place was always packed because that’s where everybody went when the club closed. It was a lot of fun. Cars all in the parking lot. We, we were sad to see it go. We were surprised when it went. We didn’t even know what happened. Like, oh, wow, they’re closing. Peter Pan Yeah, the Donut Hole. [00:11:09] We used to call it the Donut Hole too. Peter Pan, we called it the Donut Hole because they served donuts in there too.

Nick Mays [00:11:15] So it’s a food desert today. But do you recall any supermarkets or.

Kevin Salters [00:11:21] Yeah, we had supermarkets. The latest supermarket we had just closed recently. City of Change, of course, has done a lot of changes, but yeah, back then we had a lot of. It was a bunch of stores. We had a lot of nice restaurants. You know, you can go to. It’s family restaurants. So. [00:11:38] But it’s changed since then.

Nick Mays [00:11:40] What do you remember about the community growing up in terms of, you know, what folks did, or was it working class or middle class? And you know, what, what folks in your neighborhood where they worked at and kind of work they did?

Kevin Salters [00:11:59] I believe it was like middle class. And one thing I do remember seeing, like when you woke up in the morning, almost every car was leaving the driveway. Everybody worked. It was a working class community. I’m not sure what everybody did because I was young at that time. [00:12:17] But like I said, my father did bodywork. He worked at Chrysler also. My mom worked at Bobby Brooks. But everybody did go to work. I did see the people leave and go to work. And that stood. That made me feel like, you know, okay, you know, you need to work, you know, to survive, basically. [00:12:33] You know, you don’t see that nowadays. Like, you know, like, you see it back then where most of the people in the family were working.

Nick Mays [00:12:44] What traditions stood out to you? Did you. Do you. Can you recall, like, having picnics or, you know, street or what we would call black parties? And we’re going to talk about the black parties that, you know, you’re involved with now. But can you recall traditions like that or things like that, like cookouts, parties?

Kevin Salters [00:13:07] Well, back then, when I was younger, I didn’t see any block parties per se in East Cleveland, but I remember when I lived in Warensville, we had block parties. And that was my first introduction to block parties. And they used to bring the ponies and, you know, it was a real nice atmosphere that, you know, it was really nice. [00:13:28] But in East Cleveland, most of the picnics and things that I’ve seen, it was at Forest Hill Park. We always had a picnic at the park. A lot of things went on at the park. That was the place to go.

Nick Mays [00:13:38] Like what? Can you explain? Expand on that?

Kevin Salters [00:13:42] Well, like the Fourth of July, a lot of people would be there at the Fourth of July. You know, we had a good time. It was fireworks, you know. So, yeah, we had a Good time.

Nick Mays [00:13:52] What do you think the park meant? Forest Hill park meant to East Cleveland, and how did they use the space?

Kevin Salters [00:14:01] I think the park meant a lot to East Cleveland because you. You need your nature, you know, and we had. You could see the frogs, you can see the turtles, you see all kind of things like the fish, the ducks, the duck pond. You know, it was a lot of things. And every community should have a park like that, you know, have a park where the children can go, feel safe and have a good time. [00:14:21] Yeah, the park meant a lot. They’re talking about getting it back together now, but, yeah, the park is essential.

Nick Mays [00:14:28] So let’s. Let’s talk about Shaw High School, when you. Did you attend Shaw High School?

Kevin Salters [00:14:36] Yes.

Nick Mays [00:14:36] What year did you graduate?

Kevin Salters [00:14:37] 1980.

Nick Mays [00:14:41] What was those four years in Shaw like? And if you can, you know, recall those four years, what kind of. Were you in sports and how did you occupy your time at Shaw?

Kevin Salters [00:14:56] I loved. I loved East Cleveland. I loved. I loved Shaw High School. We had a good time, you know. You know, everybody got along, you know. Yeah, I played football. I was on the bowling team. You know, it was just my friends. A lot of my friends were into sports and, you know, played different things. [00:15:17] One of my good buddies back then, we had golfing in the school. One of my buddies used to golf. The kids were. You know, it wasn’t any bullying like you have nowadays. It was just everybody got along. It was a good atmosphere. I enjoyed going to school. You know, I had plenty of friends. [00:15:34] I don’t know anyone that got bullied. And like. Like the torment they go through today. It was none of that. It was a peaceful atmosphere.

Nick Mays [00:15:43] What does. And we’ll talk about the Shaw reunion as. As well. But what did. What did Shaw. What does Shaw mean to you today in connection with your own lived experience?

Kevin Salters [00:16:00] Well, what Shaw means to me is that Shaw means to me. Shaw. I feel like Shaw is what I am now. The reason why I am like I am now, because I learned a lot at Shaw. We had very good teachers. East Cleveland gets a bad rap, but back then, East Cleveland was a beautiful school. [00:16:19] And the teachers, they were very helpful if you needed the extra help or anything of that nature. I learned a lot from Shaw. My children learned a lot from Shaw. And that’s why I still live in this community. I want to see it come back to how it was. And I mean, Shaw, East Cleveland made me what I am today. [00:16:37] Shaw High School made me what I am today.

Nick Mays [00:16:42] Hold that for me. I want to see. I wanted to what did you. I wanted it to come back to East Cleveland. Wanted to come back to what it was. I want to hold that for the end and actually unpack that. And then, “D” note for me, East Cleveland, 2020. As a researcher slash detective, I’m gonna find that.

Production Assistant [00:17:10] I do have another question. Which show was it where they did, like, a recap?

Nick Mays [00:17:16] 2020.

Production Assistant [00:17:17] East Cleveland. 2020.

Nick Mays The show is called 2020.

Production Assistant That’s what it’s called.

Nick Mays [00:17:22] Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to watch it. It was a news cash show called 2020. Like, 2020. Yeah, that’s why I asked David to hold it.

Nick Mays [00:17:34] Yeah, you’re probably gonna do the same thing. Great minds thinking like it. Like.

Production Assistant [00:17:46] That would be a good transition to see what the city was like.

Nick Mays [00:17:51] And now and have a visual.

Production Assistant [00:17:53] Yeah, visual.

Nick Mays [00:17:54] Have a visual, for sure.

Nick Mays [00:17:57] So note that for me. And then I want to get back to his. His expression of saying, like, you know, I want the. The city to get back to what he used to be. So. Okay, Before. Okay, so we’re going to transition out from. From the. Your youth days or kind of growing up in East Cleveland. [00:18:23] Before I do that, I want to ask you one more question, not as an adult, but as a young person. And it could be anywhere from, you know, when you moved here to even after high school. Do you remember any key moments when you first felt proud to call East Cleveland home?

Kevin Salters [00:18:46] Yeah, well, my cousins would come over because East Cleveland back then was a very nice neighborhood. So we used to come over. The streets were clean. It was trees all around. You know, I just really, really felt proud of being in the city because they said, you know, it’s like upper class to me. [00:19:03] You know, it was. It was really a suburb at that time.

Nick Mays [00:19:08] Okay, so we’re going to transition. Mr. Salters, thank you. A lot of good stuff here to, you know, building a life and career in East Cleveland. First question is you’ve built a career as an entrepreneur and property owner. You know what? Oops. Before we even get there, can you talk about what you did immediately after graduating from Shaw High School?

Kevin Salters [00:19:40] After graduating from Shaw High School, I went to Dyke College and I went to Lakeland College for a while. And then after that, I wanted to change. I wanted to, you know, go somewhere. I wanted to do something different. So I joined the service.

Nick Mays [00:19:52] At that time, did you graduate from those colleges?

Kevin Salters [00:19:56] No, I did not.

Nick Mays [00:19:57] So you joined the service. How long did you do?

Kevin Salters [00:20:00] I did three years in Army, I was in the 82nd Airborne. I was a paratrooper at the time.

Nick Mays [00:20:06] Wow. What do you remember about that experience? I’m not asking you about not war, just experience of being in that unit.

Kevin Salters [00:20:14] It was nice.

Nick Mays [00:20:15] They make movies about that unit.

Kevin Salters [00:20:18] It was really nice. I mean, we did a lot of special type training. You know, we were in the field a lot. We did some things, I mean, you know, but it was really nice Jumping out of airplanes. That was something different. My father was a paratrooper also. And it’s funny because I didn’t join the service and go to be a paratrooper, because my father was. [00:20:37] It just happened that way. When I joined the service, my permanent station was supposed to be in Louisiana, I think. And a buddy of mine was already in the service. He was like. It was Fort Pope they wanted me to go to. And he was like, salters, you don’t want to go there. [00:20:52] It’s swamp country. There’s nothing to do. Man, you got to get out of that. You got to find a way out of that. So when I was in AIT, which is school training, an airborne recruiter came, and I saw him with his beret on, his boots, they were shiny. The blouse, boots, the pants went over the boots. [00:21:09] And I really loved the uniform. He had the beret on, burgundy beret, maroon beret. And I was like, man, I’d like to do that. Saw his airborne patch and so I asked him, what do you have to do to get in? And he was like, that’s what I’m here for, to do some recruiting. [00:21:25] I got all the guys that I was real cool with. All of us went as a buddy system. We all went together, and that’s how I got an 82nd Airborne.

Nick Mays [00:21:34] What was the training like?

Kevin Salters [00:21:36] It was intense. The training was very intense. Yeah, you know, we were in the field a lot. We cooked from the land. We caught rabbits. We cooked food in ammo cans. I mean, you know, it was different.

Nick Mays [00:21:52] How do you trade to jump out of airplanes? One, and then. And then follow that up with your first time jumping off of an airplane.

Kevin Salters [00:22:03] So you go to a school called Fort Benning. It’s in Georgia. Fort Benning, Georgia. You go to a school there and they teach you how to jump out of airplane. They have a mock tower. It’s a 35 foot Mach tower. You jump out and they show you how to position your hands and all of that. [00:22:19] And then you jump off this big platform, probably about as tall as the garage. And then they show you. It’s called the plf parachute landing fall. And they show you how to hit your feet on the ground, roll over so you don’t hurt yourself. And my first jump. I remember my first jump. [00:22:35] Oh, my God. So when they teach you the training in there, it’s like you have to pull your right. If you’re about to collide with someone, each person pull their right riser, which will turn you away. So my very first jump, this guy, he’s coming right into me. I’m like, pull your riser. [00:22:52] Pull your riser. I’m pulling my riser. He’s not pulling his riser. So they teach you if you’re gonna collide with somebody, spread eagle. You spread your legs. You spread your arms just like this. You go into their chute. You don’t go crazy. You go in and just stay like that. You’ll come back out. [00:23:06] So I knew, and what I was afraid of, the bottom chute will steal my air from my chute, which would make me spiral down. So that’s what I was afraid of. I remember when I was going into that parachute, I was saying, I love you, mom. Love you, dad. I thought this was the end. [00:23:24] I remember clearly saying that when I was in the air, I was like, love you, mom. Love you, dad. And I went in and then came out and pulled my riser and went away from him my very first jump. But it didn’t shake me to the point where I didn’t want to do it again. [00:23:38] But it was something. It was really something.

Nick Mays [00:23:41] What year did you go into the service?

Kevin Salters [00:23:43] I went into service in 82. 1982. I came out in 1985.

Nick Mays [00:23:50] So you’ve built a career as an entrepreneur and a property owner right here in east Cleveland. How did that begin?

Kevin Salters [00:24:01] Well, like I said, my father used to work on houses, and he taught me how to work on houses a lot. And so when my father passed, I bought this house, and I was working on it, and I just remember things that he showed me. And I remember doing some ceramic tile. And my sister, her boyfriend, they owned a bar, and he was like, oh, they need a new countertop at their bar. [00:24:27] Well, I never did work for anybody. I just did it for myself. So I was nervous. She was like, they want to know if you would build the bar, you know, do their countertop for them. And I was like, well, I’ve never done that for anybody. I’m not going to charge them, because I didn’t know what I was going to do. [00:24:41] But I did a good job on it. And after that, I felt like, okay, I think I can do this. And then I started, you know, I decided to, you know, I started doing more projects. More projects. Then I left my job and decided to try to make a living out of it.

Nick Mays [00:24:59] When you say you left your job, what?

Kevin Salters [00:25:01] I worked at a place called Mayfran International. I was a welder, and I used to build steel belt conveyors for, like, Ford, Chrysler, all those places. And I was like, you know, my family, most of my family is entrepreneurs. So I come from a family of entrepreneurs. And it never felt right working for someone anyway. [00:25:19] You know, I never really liked it. So that’s when I decided to make my transition into my own business.

Nick Mays [00:25:25] How many jobs have you had coming out of the service before becoming an entrepreneur?

Kevin Salters [00:25:33] Well, I had a lot of jobs. I had.

Nick Mays [00:25:36] What professions or careers where you would.

Kevin Salters [00:25:40] Well, really the career was the welding job at Mayfran International. I went to school for welding, graduated, and they found me a job at this place called Mayfran. And that was probably the longest job I had. I worked there for 13 years. I had some jobs in between there. When I first got off the service, you know, I actually worked in restaurants for a long time. [00:26:02] I was a cook, and I worked in restaurants for a long time. And my brother and I were talking, and my father. And my father came to my brother and I was like, hey, you guys want to start a business? And we were like, doing what they said. How about a welding shop? [00:26:16] So my brother and I went to school together to start a welding shop. It was called Salter Certified Welding. And we did open up a shop over on Miles. And after my father passed, you know, we end up getting rid of the shop. But I still did a lot of welding on my own. [00:26:35] And I made a lot of equipment for. I made like. I did a lot of welding for people. I used to fix cars. I made wood burning stoves. I’ve done. I made weightlifting equipment. I used to make weightlifting equipment for the YMCAs in Cleveland. I used to weld them, build them, the squat racks, everything. [00:26:52] I did the upholstery, all of it, from start to finish.

Nick Mays [00:26:57] Very interesting. Fascinating. So how was. Take us back to doing the work for your. Your sister and her. Her boyfriend. How did you do. How did you do in that project? And then walk us through what you started doing after.

Kevin Salters [00:27:17] Okay, well, I did a pretty good job on that project. It was. Had a curve in it, and I was wondering if I could do the curves, you know. You know, like the Curves on the countertop. And they still have it there now. They still. I went there not long ago, and it’s still there. [00:27:29] And this was many years ago, and I did a pretty good job. And that gave me the confidence of, you know, now I think I can do anything in a house. I mean, I do fireplaces, I do anything inside a house. I can pretty much do. I do kitchens, I do bathrooms, I do open concepts. [00:27:48] You know, I do just about anything in a house now. Cab, kitchen, cabinets, all of it. I could do just about any of it.

Nick Mays [00:27:56] When did you create. When did you establish your own company after the first job that you did?

Kevin Salters [00:28:04] It was a few years after. What I did was when I left my job, I pulled down my 401k. Everybody was telling me, man, don’t pull on your 401k. That’s your retirement money. I’m like, man, I don’t trust Social Security. I’m gonna do it on my own. I said, my homes that I purchased would be my retirement. [00:28:23] That’s how I’ll survive. So I bought houses, and in East Cleveland, that might have been around. What year was that? That might have been around. I’m not sure. Could have been around 80 something. I decided to buy some houses, and I bought them real cheap. I bought them like $500, a thousand dollars anyhow. [00:28:45] End up I had like 15 of them at one time. And I took them one by one, started in the inside and just redid the whole house. All the plumbing, the electrical. I just did the whole thing till I got each house up and running. So I ended up selling half of them at this time. [00:29:02] I have like, maybe like about eight, seven or eight of them, and they’re all rented out. I’m currently working on one that’s not rented out, and I’ll probably have that one finished in a couple of months and. But yeah, I really loved it. I really love working on houses. You know, I just. [00:29:21] Because I’m very creative and I really like going in there and doing different things, you know.

Nick Mays [00:29:27] Do you work alone or do you have a staff?

Kevin Salters [00:29:32] Well, my company, CAD Properties, is my rental properties. But also I have another company that I work with my uncle, and I work with my uncle Carl and a friend of mine, Val Easley. We work together. It’s called ES wiring and construction. That’s what I. That’s my day job. That’s what I do every day to get up and do that job. [00:29:51] As a matter of fact, I was working today before I had the interview with you, and so that’s what I do for a living. But I’m trying for this to be my last year and go out on my own and just flip a couple of houses a year and just travel and live off my rental properties because now I’m ready to retire.

Nick Mays [00:30:10] Can you talk about what it means to invest in your own community?

Kevin Salters [00:30:16] Yes, what it means to invest in my own community. I tell you, if I had the money that LeBron James have or any of those athletes, I would do in Cleveland what he did in Akron, and I would do in East Cleveland what he did in Akron. Because East Cleveland, East Cleveland really is a gold mine. [00:30:34] This city is really a nice city, people. It’s a hidden gem. It’s a diamond in the rough, you know, and if I had the money and was able to put things back together like our civic center, and do certain things in this community and train some of these young men how to be men, I would love to do that. [00:30:52] That’s my dream and that’s what I’m still working on at this day and time. I’m trying to get to that point and maybe I could reach out to some people like that to come, you know, help come back to this community as a black community and build this community back to what it used to be.

Nick Mays [00:31:10] Is there a pride that you have in investing in East Cleveland through your entrepreneurship of buying homes and redoing it and redeveloping homes and renting it out?

Kevin Salters [00:31:24] Yeah, because I feel like every house that I put back together, that’s a plus for East Cleveland. And getting someone to move in that house, that’s bringing more tax dollars to the city. I think it helps bring this city back together as a whole. A lot of my friends still ask me, like salters, you can move anywhere. [00:31:40] Why do you stay in East Cleveland? I don’t understand that. Why do you stay in East Cleveland? Because it’s the pride. It’s a black community. This is where I want to be. And I know it can still be number one again. I know it could be on top.

Nick Mays [00:31:52] How have your children become part of your work and your entrepreneurship? And what values are you passing or do you hope to pass through the family business?

Kevin Salters [00:32:06] Well, it took a while for my children to get on board with me. They never were against me, but I wanted them to get involved in the housing like I was. But they had their own things they wanted to do, which is understandable. One of my daughters is a dispatcher. The other one is a nurse. [00:32:22] And my son in law, which is like my son, he Works for Forest City. He’s an excellent guy. I mean, I mean, I just. I love that guy. I gotta say this, that I remember when they met, they came home from school one day, my oldest daughter was at home, and I’m like, where’s Janae? [00:32:44] I asked Lashay, where’s Janae? And she was looking kind of funny. I said, where’s Janay? She said, I was serious. And so she said, well, she’s over her friend’s house. Well, I wouldn’t allow my daughters to date. I was like, take me over there right now. And I remember going over there and I went off. [00:33:00] I had to talk with his parents, and I didn’t want them seeing each other. And my wife ended up talking to me is like, kevin, look, you gotta just. What if he comes over here? What if they date anyway? They end up getting married. And I’m telling you, if I could sit down right now and write down on a piece of paper what kind of son in law I want compared to him, I would have got it wrong. [00:33:21] He’s that good. He’s an excellent guy, man. I mean, I love him. He’s an excellent guy. But I finally got them to get on board, and my daughter Devon, I mean, my son in law Devon, my daughter Janae, they’re married, so they manage my properties now, which takes a load off of me. [00:33:42] And they’re way better than what I was, you know, they collect the rent, they make sure. They let me know what needs to be repaired. I’ll go do the repairs or he’ll do the repairs. So I finally got them on board, so I will have something to leave them because this community is changing. [00:33:58] And with eight houses, that’s an excellent start for them. And hopefully I live much longer. By the time I’m gone, I really hope to have them in shape, where my grandchildren will be okay. Everybody will be okay.

Nick Mays [00:34:10] What do you think are some of the biggest challenges and rewards, Challenges and rewards of working to revitalize East Cleveland from within, as you were doing?

Kevin Salters [00:34:23] Well, some of the challenges are it’s harder to get properties than what it used to be. It’s harder to get properties and even some parts of the neighborhood, and, you know, there’s still some things that I don’t like, and it might be harder to get people to move in certain neighborhoods, but some of the rewards are the ones that did work, you know, like some of the ones that I purchased and some of the ones that I’m looking at now, I do believe we can put them together. [00:34:48] I do believe people will move in there. As a matter of fact, right around the corner, next street over, Farmington, this street over here, we just had some people move in. Now, you know, in one of the houses over there wasn’t one of mine. But I’m saying there’s other people that’s into bringing this city back. [00:35:03] And I think we take one house at a time. You know, East Cleveland will come back, and I think that’s a huge reward.

Nick Mays [00:35:10] We’ll get to that. But I want to pause for a second and take a moment to allow you to discuss your family dynamic. When you were talking about your daughters and your family, your face just lit up. So talk about your family. Introduce us to your family.

Kevin Salters [00:35:30] Well, I have a daughter named Lashay. I have a daughter named Janae. My wife always wanted two children, so she got what she wanted. She got it, the two children. I actually didn’t want any children when I was young. I wanted my wife to. I wanted to get married. I wanted to travel and just enjoy, you know, life. [00:35:49] But, you know, we have a very, very close family. Very close, even with my nieces. So we spend a lot of time together. We every, like, we used to have Sunday dinners where everybody come over to my house and we have dinner every Sunday. We haven’t done it as much lately as we used to, but we do it all the time. [00:36:12] Every birthday, I don’t care. Like, I’m 64. I just had a birthday party. Everybody comes here. It’s something simple. My favorite meal is baked chicken and rice with cream of mushroom soup. Something as simple as that. But everybody know what I like. My daughters, they come, they know, they put everything together. You know, they have the cake and we always. [00:36:32] We’re a close knit family, very close knit. We look out for each other. If any one of us needs something, we’re always there for each other. And I’m so proud of my daughters because they all have an excellent education, they got good jobs. And now even my oldest daughter, Lashay, she’s looking at investing in property now. [00:36:50] She wants to purchase some properties. I actually got to finish something I’m doing at her house because she wants to rent it out and get another house and she wants to start flipping houses.

Nick Mays [00:37:00] Is everyone Shaw graduates?

Kevin Salters [00:37:02] Everyone is Shaw graduates. Even my wife.

Nick Mays [00:37:07] Is there a house or a project that holds special meaning for you?

Kevin Salters [00:37:12] Yeah, I have a house down the street that I rent to. I rent it out now, but I used to rent it to college students and then I rent it to traveling nurses and I really like that house because I went in there, I furnished the whole house. I put everything in there. [00:37:28] And even right now I rented out furnished. I just recently rented it out. But I made the dining room table. I made a lot of things in that house, and I really did a nice job in that house. And that’s one of them that I really love. And it’s one I’m doing now on Forest Hill that I’m really putting more into than I did that house. [00:37:47] And this is really going to be a nice house. That’s a seven bedroom. The one I’m doing now is a nine bedroom. So.

Nick Mays [00:37:54] And how many. How many homes do you own?

Kevin Salters [00:37:56] Eight.

Nick Mays [00:37:57] Eight?

Kevin Salters [00:37:57] Yes. Including mine is nine.

Nick Mays [00:37:59] You rent those?

Kevin Salters [00:38:00] Eight? Yes.

Nick Mays [00:38:03] Do you. Do you purchase homes, redevelop and sell homes? Do you do that?

Kevin Salters [00:38:09] I’ve done that a couple of times. I’ve done like two of those. That’s what I’m really about to transition into now. You know, after I finish this one up here, I’m going to rent it out. And that’s probably due to traveling nurses or doctors. And then after that, I’m just gonna try to do. [00:38:24] Like I say, I’m trying to retire, but I want to stay busy. So I’ll probably do like two a year, maybe three, and that’ll be enough.

Nick Mays [00:38:32] So I want to transition. Before I transition, do you guys need anything?

Production Assistant [00:38:36] No. we’re good.

Nick Mays [00:38:37] Okay, You’re good. So I want to transition now. Talk about your work in community engagement and leadership. You. You’ve helped to. You founded and organized community block parties that bring people together in East Cleveland or in your neighborhood, your specific respective neighborhood or community. Can you describe the block party and what inspired you?

Kevin Salters [00:39:07] Yes, our block parties are wonderful that we used to have. We did it for like 13 years straight. So my daughter. The way it started. My daughter was graduating from school. I think it was in 1984. No, I’m sorry, 1990. I can’t even remember the exact date it started, but she was graduating from high school and she wanted to have a party and she was like, daddy, can we just have one on the whole street? [00:39:31] We just blocked the street off. And I’m like, let me see if I can get a permit for that. So they were able to give me a permit for that. So we blocked the street off. We had tables out front and we fed everybody that came. We had music and one of my friends djed. [00:39:46] So after that, you know, it was really considered a block party sort of speak, you know. So after that we were like, oh, you know, we should do this again. And somehow we end up deciding to do it on the 4th of July. So the following year, we did it on the 4th of July. [00:40:03] And it was a huge turnout, and everybody really enjoyed themselves. You know, we hired the dj, and every year it got better and better. I remember one time we had ponies come. I used to always have ponies or something. Come ponies. The ponies came. I was in a motorcycle club called the Urban Knights, and I had some of my buddies come and they did tricks in the street on their motorcycles. [00:40:30] We had the Cleveland Fire Department used to come to East Cleveland and teach the children how to get out of a fire with this thing. It’s called the smoke house. And they fill it with smoke. Smoke. And show them how to get out of the house. We did that. We had the dance contest. [00:40:46] We had. We played games out in the street. We had the egg toss. We had the balloon race. We had all kind of games. We played like a Lady came with reptiles. And, you know, we had all of those. We had snakes. I had a bunch of snakes and lizards and things like that, too. [00:41:02] I mean, it was like. It really brought our community together. And what made me really start taking it to that level is because when I was in Warensville as a child, I remember having block parties there, and they had the ponies come, and they did things like that. And I’m like, why can’t we have it in our community? [00:41:23] So. And I paid for a lot of the extra things like that. Mr. Cockfield was a big part of our block party also. He was a big help with the block party. And so we started doing fireworks at the end. And, I mean, these guys got so good. Turay and Major and all of them, they got so good at the end, it looked like downtown. [00:41:45] And we had our. Everything so organized. We had people where they were back far enough. They had a certain section where they let the fireworks go so no one would get injured. And it was really. I mean, my cousin’s come to me this day and like, Kevin, you gotta start the block parties again. [00:42:00] You gotta bring that back. You gotta bring that back. But my children, they got older and they wanted to do certain things because our weekend. For 13 years, we were here every 4th of July, and they wanted. You know, you get older, you want to travel, and they want to do different things. [00:42:14] So we don’t do it anymore. But it just. It might have stopped maybe, like, it might have been only be, like, three or four years since we Stopped.

Nick Mays [00:42:21] How many years did you [do it].

Kevin Salters [00:42:22] We did it for, like, 13 years. 13 to 14 years straight. No incidents, no fights. So that’s why people can’t tell me that you can’t do something in a community. Like, people try to talk about East Cleveland, what you can and cannot do in East Cleveland. We never, ever had an incident. Anybody was welcome. [00:42:41] And everybody who came, we made sure we fed them, and, you know, they left. They could participate in the games, whatever, whether you lived here on this street or not. We let everybody come. Every fireman that came, everybody that put on shows for us. We had magicians come. We had balloon guys come. [00:42:59] We used to do funnel cakes. Everybody came. We made sure they ate. They left with a plate, you know, so it really brought this community together. When people were running for office, they would always come to our block party because they had a chance to meet everybody, you know, say who they are. [00:43:14] It was really nice. It was really nice. I really loved that. And my grandchildren loved it. And they, you know, they hated that we stopped doing it. Also, my grandchildren really loved it. All the children, because that was the opportunity where they can get on their bikes, ride in the street, didn’t have to worry about any cars. [00:43:30] If you ever would, if you had ever come to one of our block parties, it’s amazing. I’m telling you, the street was full. Full of people.

Nick Mays [00:43:37] How many grandchildren do you have?

Kevin Salters [00:43:38] I have five grandchildren.

Nick Mays [00:43:43] What would you say is the. Is the legacy of the block party or the legacy or what it meant to you? But also, what do you think, after a while, the black party meant to the community?

Kevin Salters [00:44:04] Well, to the community, I think it was. It meant to show them that we can. We have pride in East Cleveland. There’s things that we can still do in East Cleveland. And, you know, like I said, no violence. You can still make things happen. And, you know, that’s what I think it means to the community for a minute. [00:44:22] Me, it means that I’m really glad we did that block party, because I think about how a block party affected me. So I think about some of the young children around here who I really. I might not even know some of them. Some of them I do know, and even my grandchildren, because when we started doing our block parties, I thought about it when I did it in Warensville on Landbury, and like I said, they had the ponies and everything. [00:44:45] Why can’t we bring that to a black community? And that’s why I wanted to take it to that level. So I hope that some of the children around here it could be years later. They can be 40 years old, 30 years old, whatever, and think about that and where they live. And if they’re definitely in a black community especially, they can decide to do something like that and pull the street together and maybe do something else and show that we can do positive things.

Nick Mays [00:45:11] Talk about your service on the Shaw Alumni Committee and how long you’ve been on the committee.

Kevin Salters [00:45:19] Well, I haven’t been on the community. On the Shaw High community long. On alumni long, maybe two years. And last year or this year was a little rough for me. I missed a lot of the meetings because my mom passed this year. And so I was dealing with, you know, taking care of her and doing certain things. [00:45:38] So my frame of mind wasn’t quite like it should have been to be involved in that. But also this was the year that was my class reunion. So I was on that alumni also. And that was a lot of fun. We had our meetings, we put the things together. You know, we decided what we were going to do for our reunion, and it turned out real nice. [00:45:57] We had a really good time. Everybody enjoyed it, and it was nice seeing people come and, you know, we hadn’t seen in a long time. So. Yeah.

Nick Mays [00:46:05] What does the. What does the committee, the Shaw Alumni Committee do? What kind of work do they do?

Kevin Salters [00:46:13] Well, the Shaw High, like, you know, we have our Shaw High weekend and we save money and we give out grants and awards, Grants and things of that nature to Shaw High students just moving on. Some of them need assistance and maybe in their books or things of that nature. So we give out grants and they make sure that everything go pretty smooth up there in the park. [00:46:36] You know, they take care of all of that, make sure the vendors have what they need and help put the whole system together for that Shaw High weekend.

Nick Mays [00:46:48] Is there a service component to the committee or do they give back in ways.

Kevin Salters [00:46:59] Yeah, yeah, they get back ways like in the scholarship, you know, help me with the scholarships and things of that nature. And we’re also. We’re working with a guy named Mark, Mark Price, and it’s my cousin, actually, and we’re putting together an endowment where we would be able to do a lot more with the alumni. [00:47:22] So we’re working on that. That’s something that we’re doing now, we’re currently working on. So we’re putting all of that together to see how we can really help this community and, you know, things that East Cleveland may need or the students that Shaw High may need. We really focus on the Shaw High students making sure. [00:47:38] That they have what they need.

Nick Mays [00:47:40] But as of right now, with some of the proceeds, it goes to scholarships.

Kevin Salters [00:47:44] Yes, yes, definitely.

Nick Mays [00:47:48] Well, before I go to my next question, can you talk about the. The history of the Shaw reunion weekend events and what. What makes it such a special event and. And why it has become what I call an entity? Like a holiday.

Kevin Salters [00:48:12] For East Cleveland.

Nick Mays [00:48:13] Yeah.

Kevin Salters [00:48:14] Yeah. So a guy named Danny Barnes started that. And when he first did it, he. It was super nice. I mean, our first one, to me, was the best. He put it together. He had the old highlighters. You know, it was like cheerleaders. And we had a parade down Euclid Avenue. We had the parade. [00:48:36] The first night was like a meet and greet. We had a meet and greet, and we ended up having our meet and greet at. At Cleveland Stadium, the Brown Stadium. That was super nice. That was so nice. It was so nice. Was it the Brown stadium or was it. It was at the stadium. [00:48:52] I know it’s at the stadium, but it was. We had a really nice time. Then we had our parade. I remember I got my motorcycle. Some of the motorcycle guys in my club that they drive in the parade, I used my cousin’s BMW convertible. And, you know, we had people riding in that, actually, Wayne Dawson rode in it, you know, in the parade. [00:49:14] And we. We had our picnic that first year. We had our picnic in Euclid. And I don’t know why we did that when we had Forest Hill Park. But anyway, they ended up putting us out of there. And so we went up to Forest Hill park after that. We’re like. We don’t even know why we even did that. [00:49:33] We started having it at Forest Hill Park. It has turned into something really special. All the schools, they’re not like us. All of them try to do it. They can’t duplicate it. We cannot be duplicated. We are such a close knit family in East Cleveland. You know, we have one high school, we have one junior high school. [00:49:55] So everybody really know each other. It’s like Shaw is a love that I don’t think you’ll ever get anywhere else. And I know people have tried to duplicate this in other places, tried to do our Shaw High weekend. I mean, we’ve been doing it forever. The last couple of years, the last two years, we had a little bit of violence. [00:50:16] And it wasn’t East Cleveland people. It was outsiders coming in, trying to destroy what we made, what Danny Barnes started. And last year, we made sure all of that got shut down. They shut all the bars down. It wasn’t because it used to be you can go out that night, you have a good time and everything. [00:50:32] But, you know, outsiders came in and tried to ruin what we had. So we shut it down last year and shut the city down last year when the park was over. Because the Shaw High weekend really only goes up to 7 o’ clock Sunday. After that, it’s a Something else different, you know, when they’re going to the bars and doing things of that nature. [00:50:50] But the Shaw High weekend is from Thursday to Sunday. And I mean, it’s just. I mean, you have to be around to see it. When you’re up at the park on a Sunday when everybody’s coming, they haven’t seen each other in a long time. The camaraderie is great. You know, everybody’s barbecuing. They have the band come up there. [00:51:08] You know, we have police up there. They walk around. It’s really a nice atmosphere. There’s no fighting. No, I mean, no violence. It’s really, really nice. As a matter of fact, last year I had my game truck up there, and that was really nice. You know, the kids got to play in the game truck. [00:51:25] Mm. So it’s called let’s play Mobile Gaming. And they had a good time. You know, we didn’t charge them. We rent the truck out, but we didn’t charge them. We just gave it to the, you know, kids because a lot of them don’t get a chance to see things like that. And so I thought this was a good chance we can give back to this community. [00:51:45] You know, all of us graduated from Shaw, so they had a really good time.

Nick Mays [00:51:49] And [even] those that don’t graduate from Shaw, I mean, Right. East Cleveland really comes out. Not everyone is Shaw graduates.

Kevin Salters [00:51:56] Right.

Nick Mays [00:51:57] But for that weekend, they’re there. And for that weekend, they’re all graduates. And I spoke to some of those people because I did attend this year. And so I could really appreciate what you said, and I had to see it for myself. I heard it and. And then, you know, on Sunday, I went to the. The event. [00:52:13] I. I stayed there for a couple of hours. That’s why I met Mr. Mr. Barnes. And it was phenomenal. It was. It was intergenerational. It was love, it was spirited, it was pride. Music, culture, blackness, Entrepreneurship.

Kevin Salters [00:52:33] Yeah, all of that.

Nick Mays [00:52:34] Cars.

Kevin Salters [00:52:35] right.

Nick Mays [00:52:36] Motorcycles. So you. You have a motorcycle club?

Kevin Salters [00:52:42] Yes, Urban Nights. I’m in a motorcycle club called the Urban Nights. I haven’t done a lot of riding like I used to to. And the club isn’t as big as it used to be. But it’s still around, and our Akan chapter is more active than the Cleveland chapter, and. But. Yeah.

Nick Mays [00:53:01] I see. And then you’re also on the Millionaires row Neighborhood Association.

Kevin Salters [00:53:07] Yes.

Nick Mays [00:53:08] Talk about your involvement and what. What drives your, or talk about the work you do and what drives your involvement in these community spaces.

Kevin Salters [00:53:19] Well, Millionaires Row Association Che started. Actually, she lives right behind me in this house right here. She started the Millionaires Row organization, and we want to make sure that we kind of keep things in this area like it should be more authentic. You know, we try to keep it together because there’s a lot of changes that happen in East Cleveland right now, and we’re not so happy about all the changes that are making, so we’re making sure this area stays like it is.

Nick Mays [00:53:53] When did the organization form and how long you’ve been on there?

Kevin Salters [00:53:57] I’m gonna say it formed like, maybe. I want to say, like, maybe four years ago. Four or five years ago. And I’ve been on it the whole time. Pretty much the whole time. I wasn’t as active as I am now. I’m more active now than I was when it first started.

Nick Mays [00:54:16] You’ve mentioned that cooking and bringing people together over food is something you love. And you. You mentioned it a couple times. Not only did you mention it, you said it with, you know, so much passion the last time we spoke. Can you talk about your love for food? Food and cooking and bringing people together and how’s House, and how is it tied into your larger philosophy about community and connection?

Kevin Salters [00:54:46] Well, like I said, I was a cook in a few restaurants. TGI Fridays, Charlie’s Crab in Detroit. I know it’s called Fairlane Charlie’s, so I worked in a lot of the bigger restaurants, and I just enjoyed cooking, you know, And I feel like when we’re doing our block parties and we’re doing picnics and we’re doing things like that. [00:55:06] Food always brings people together, you know, So I work the grill. I have no problem. I’ll cook chicken. My brother, he works the grill, too. He loves to cook. So, you know, I just feel like the food bring people together, you know, so. And especially when it’s free, you know, and we just have a good time. [00:55:27] We can sit around, talk, you know, just have a good time. That’s why I like doing it.

Nick Mays [00:55:35] Okay, so we’re gonna pivot here, and. And let me just make sure that I’m not missing anything. Some of my questions. You beat me to it, which is a good thing, right? Let’s okay. Okay. So we’re gonna pivot now and talk about East Cleveland and change and revitalization. And. And you spoke to some extent about that. [00:56:08] So you’re witnessing a lot of change in East Cleveland over the years. How would you. How would you describe the changes in East Cleveland? This could be the last couple of. Of. Of decades, right? You, You, You. You moved to one in. Into one East Cleveland. But you can make an argument that over the years, it became a different East Cleveland. How would you describe that? Evolution, good and bad.

Kevin Salters [00:56:45] Okay. Like I said, when I first moved here, East Cleveland was great. It was a really nice city. It was a thriving city. It changed. When I went to the service and I came back, there was a little change in the city. I could see where it was starting to go down. I feel like East Cleveland went to the bottom, to the far down as it could go. [00:57:03] And I feel like now it’s on the rise, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with it on the rise. But they’ve got a new community, a new part of East Cleveland that they’re working on now. It’s called Circle East. I’m not a big fan of Circle East. Circle east is okay, but they’re building houses that, from my understanding, starting at 399,000, most people in East Cleveland are not going to be able. [00:57:28] The majority of people in East Cleveland are not going to be able to afford that house. Those houses, I really feel like they’re doing that for Cleveland Clinic, University Circle, University Hospital, all of that, because that’s right there. That’s why it’s called Circle east, because of University Circle. And they’re trying to tie that in, and they’re taking away the name of East Cleveland. [00:57:48] If they were going to build something like that down there, I feel like it should be called East Cleveland. It’s in East Cleveland. That’s all part of East Cleveland. That’s actually one part of Millionaires Road. To tell the truth, from there on back, they only. They’re calling Circle leaves from Lakeview down to the west side of this street right here, which is called Farmington. [00:58:10] So all the houses on this side over here are considered Circle East. My house is considered Circle part of Circle East. But I think it’s a form of gentrification that they’re doing, and they’re doing it real slick. Like they wouldn’t allow us to buy property in East Cleveland, but yet. And still they were taking property and they were keeping it, and they accumulated a lot of property. [00:58:32] On that end of East Cleveland, on that part of those last, those first maybe five streets, they accumulated a lot of property. And so now that’s where they’re doing the building. East Cleveland, there needed to be a change in East Cleveland, but it needed to be affordable housing. If you were doing it for the city of East Cleveland, I think they have a different agenda. [00:58:52] I don’t think it’s for the people technically in East Cleveland. I think it’s for the powers that be. I think it’s for them, you know, to make money. And we’re going to get phased out. Some of us are going to get phased out, you know, just because we won’t be able to afford that. [00:59:08] I think it’s a plan that, you know, I think they’ll start taking some of these houses from some people. I think they’ll start enforcing housing violations and that’ll be another form of getting us out of here. And I just think it’s going to change and I don’t like it. I don’t like what’s happening.

Nick Mays [00:59:27] In general, do you support the idea of external revitalization efforts of external partners coming into the Cleveland Group?

Kevin Salters [00:59:35] Yes, yes, I do. Like I said, I just don’t like the way that they’re doing it because they’re not making it affordable for people in East Cleveland. They’re not making it affordable for middle class. They’re not, you know, it’s just, I mean, 399,000, a lot of people are not going to be able to afford those houses. [00:59:48] They’re just not. And so that’s the part I don’t like. They could have made houses that were more affordable. They still could have. I mean, you know, I think they could have, but I think they catering to a different crowd.

Nick Mays [01:00:03] What do you want to see for, for in revitalization? What is responsible revitalization efforts for you?

Kevin Salters [01:00:14] Well, I think there’s a lot of things for this city that has to happen. I think we need a better police force. And if they really wanted things to stop, they, they know where to patrol, they know what to do, they know how to stop things that’s happening in East Cleveland. And I think that’s what they could do. [01:00:29] I think that they should build affordable housings, houses that, you know, the middle class can purchase. And they still, when they’re building the new communities, they still, they can have extra police force maybe to come through there just to make sure and just take it one section at a time. Of East Cleveland, it’s only a 3 by 3 mile radius city. [01:00:52] So it’s not that big, so it’s not that hard to do. And I think if they really wanted to do something for East Clevelanders, that’s what they would do, you know, and it’s just they’re doing things and not reaching out to the people in East Cleveland. Like they got their university, university, I mean, circle lease signs up and you know, they got them down at the corner of my street, you know, and it’s got them just going down Euclid Avenue. [01:01:17] It’s just a lot of things that they’re doing. I don’t think we’re going to get the same treatment that they’re getting down there. And if they were trying to do something and they saying, okay, we’re doing it for the city, for the betterment of the city. Now I’m not sure, but I heard they’re giving tax abatements down there. [01:01:32] And if they are giving tax abatements, I think that all of us that have been here in East Cleveland, especially in millionaires row, because this is where it’s happening, I think they should give us the same tax abatements. I think they got a 10 year tax abatement or they should freeze our taxes where they are now and shouldn’t raise our taxes until they decide that the new development is going to start paying taxes. [01:01:55] Then maybe, and even still at that point, it shouldn’t be as high as what theirs are. You know, I just, I think of some things that could be done that they could do, but I don’t know if it will be done.

Nick Mays [01:02:08] Maybe you responded to this question, but I’ll ask it anyways. How can progress, in your view, how can progress happen without displacing the people who sustained this community or East Cleveland?

Kevin Salters [01:02:26] They should have had, to me, they should have had input from the people to live in East Cleveland. They should have had meetings with us where we can come and let them know what we want. It just feels like to me the powers that be always want to give us what they think we should have, not what we want, not what we technically want. [01:02:48] You know, we might not want what they’re trying to give us. And I believe if they would have did affordable housing there, they could have had families in East Cleveland who may have just wanted to move in a better part of East Cleveland, purchase some of those homes. I just don’t believe a lot of East Clevelanders are going to be purchasing those homes. [01:03:05] I just don’t.

Nick Mays [01:03:09] Okay, let me see. You stole some of my question, which is good. Which Is good. So now I’m like, okay, which ones? Let me see. Then maybe you can use these, these, these questions. So I’ll ask what you’ve expressed mixed feelings about some redevelopment projects like Circle East. Can you share your perspective on revitalization? [01:03:43] What concerns you and what gives you hope? He responded, he answered that, that question. Okay. And then I asked the other ones. Okay, good. Over. Yes. Okay. So the only one I didn’t ask in, in this segment. And then we’re wrapping up here the couple of minutes. What are some, in your view, what are some of the biggest misconceptions you think outsiders have about East Cleveland and the people who live here?

Kevin Salters [01:04:17] I think one of the biggest misconceptions is they think when you come in East Cleveland, something’s gonna happen to you. You’re gonna get shot, you’re gonna get robbed. Something of that nature is gonna happen. East Cleveland people are not walking around waiting for a stranger to come into East Cleveland so we can rob them or shoot them or anything like that. [01:04:33] Most of the things that happen in East Cleveland are not people that it doesn’t happen from. People that live in East Cleveland, most of the things that happen is from outsiders. They come in here, they feel like they can come to the city when they want to dump. When they want to dump trash, they’re doing clean out somewhere. [01:04:49] They want to come here, they feel like they can dump. They want to come here and sell drugs. They feel like it’s an open market. When they come here, they feel like there’s certain things they can do. And all of East Cleveland is not like that. It’s just certain areas just like that, like it is in any city. [01:05:04] But for whatever reason, East Cleveland get the biggest. I mean, everybody talks about our city like it’s the worst. They talk about our chuck holes. Now. I drive all over the city, It’s a lot of chuck hoes. And granted, East Cleveland does have some chuck holes, but we’re on a. We’re starting to fix all of that. [01:05:19] They don’t know about programs that’s happening right now in East Cleveland. Over on Hayden, where they’re doing that whole street, they’re doing East Cleveland, we got grants now to take care of all of that. People don’t understand that East Cleveland is a diamond in the rough. And those that want to move out right now and feel like, hey, man, forget East Cleveland, they’re making a huge mistake. [01:05:41] I saw it. I already knew that it could come back. That’s why I purchased the houses that I did so now, right now, the houses that I purchased are right here in the new development that they’re doing. So the property value on my houses will go up, and those houses are selling for 399,000. [01:06:00] Those houses can’t touch one of my houses as far as the quality, how it’s built, and the material they used back then. The stones on the outside of my houses, you can’t even find them anymore, you know? So it’s just a big misconception. And if anybody living in East Cleveland, own a home in East Cleveland, needs to hold on to their home and fix their home up and wait for the city to turn around, because then they’ll have something. [01:06:25] You can’t go downtown. You can’t go towards. You can’t go west. Trying to build in the city of Cleveland. There’s nothing down there. Downtown is all taken up. You’ll be lucky if you find a lot. All that area is all taken up. You have to come through East Cleveland. East Cleveland, if you go to Windermere, you can catch a rapid on Windermere and make it to the airport. [01:06:44] Where can you do that at? It’s one shot, straight shot to the airport. I mean, it’s just. The transportation is perfect here. Go straight down Euclid. You’re downtown. I mean, this is the best place to be. It’s a diamond in the rough. And once they get out of. Get us out of here. [01:06:59] When I say us, I mean black people. They’re not letting us back in. That’s how I feel.

Nick Mays [01:07:05] What does. What does getting East Cleveland. You brought this back. You brought this up earlier, and I wanted to take a moment now to kind of unpack that. What does getting East Cleveland back to. How did he say? Oh, what does getting East Cleveland back to what it once was. What does that mean to you? [01:07:30] What does that mean?

Kevin Salters [01:07:32] That means to me that we can show. Okay, they let us go to the bottom of the barrel because they let this. It was. This was organized. They let this happen. They didn’t bring the police force in like they should have. They didn’t take care of the city like they should have. They didn’t give us resources that we should have had. [01:07:48] They let this go to the bottom of the barrel. So for us to come back and withstand all of that, it means a lot to me. That shows you. That just shows me how black people as a whole have always survived the roughest things. That is. There’s always bad things thrown at us. [01:08:03] But for us to come back and those that stay Here, and we build this city back and keep it black, then that means a whole lot to me. That shows that, you know, we had the pride and we stuck it out. We stuck out. Stuck it out.

Nick Mays [01:08:15] More specifically, what was it that. That. And you’re not the only one, residents, existing residents, prior residents, who express that. Get East Cleveland back to what it once was. What was it that it was?

Kevin Salters [01:08:32] Well, it was a thriving city. Like I said. We used to have a bowling alley here in the city. We had a skating rink. We had nice restaurants. You felt safe taking your family out. You know, let’s get some of those things back in here. You know, let’s get some of the things. [01:08:45] You know, you going. You go in Parma, you go to some of the areas and you drive through, you’re like, oh, look at all the stores. You got a Home Depot here. You got this, you got Lowe’s, you got. I mean, it’s a lot of land here in East Cleveland. They can build things on, you know, and do things for this city, bring tax dollars back into this city. [01:09:01] So that’s the way I’d like to see it, a thriving community. You can drive down and you can go. I have a family restaurant. You can go in and feel comfortable eating and, you know, you can take your family in there. You can walk down the street with your family, and, you know, you can take them walk from here to Forest Hill park and walk through the park, and you have a nice park. [01:09:20] That’s what I’d like to see. And like I said, if I had the funds to do that, I would help bring this city back.

Nick Mays [01:09:29] So we’re gonna pivot to our wrap up questions and a lot of really good stuff. Thank you. Mr. Salters, you said you intended to stay and, quote, die in East Cleveland, unquote. What keeps you so deeply rooted here?

Kevin Salters [01:09:46] Because a lot of things, a lot of experiences I had here were great, and it’s black owned, black ran. Although we need to get some things together. We need to get some things together in our house that, you know. And when I say our house, I’m talking about the government in East Cleveland. [01:10:04] We need to get some things together so we can stop doing things to each other that shouldn’t be done and look out for the people in the city. When I say that I want to die here because I have a lot of pride for this city. I told my family, they already know if I was the past. [01:10:21] I want. If it was in the summertime, I want a funeral. I want to. I don’t Want a funeral, traditional funeral. I don’t want anybody to see me. They can have a picture up there if they want, but I want it at Forest Hill park by the pond. And I want a dj. [01:10:36] I want to party. I want to cook out. I want them to barbecue. I want them to have a good time and just say, hey, this is what Kevin like. I want it like a block party. That’s what I want. If it’s in the winter time, I want them to rent a hall and do the same thing. [01:10:51] I want to party. I don’t want anybody wearing black. I don’t want any sad songs. I want. I want everybody to be happy and just say, hey, this is how he liked it.

Nick Mays [01:11:00] Mr. Salters, you are East Cleveland through and through, sir.

Kevin Salters [01:11:03] Yes.

Nick Mays [01:11:06] What message would you want to leave for your children and just the next generation in general of East Clevelanders about pride, service, belonging, or just in general?

Kevin Salters [01:11:20] Well, with my children, I want them to remember that how I hung in here. Put these houses together, hold on to these houses, never sell them, keep them as rental. You know, like I say, the city is going to change. So they’ll really probably be able to rent them out to college students, traveling nurses. [01:11:40] It’ll make good money, and then that’ll take care. I want to build generational wealth, and I believe that’s what I’m starting to do. My family hold on to the houses in the city. Like I said, there’s nowhere else they can go. They gotta come through here, keep what we have, hold onto our land. [01:11:55] Land is everything, you know. So we got our 40 acres and a mule. So, you know, that’s how I feel. I want my family to hold onto it and thrive from it. Like I said, I’m trying to build a generational wealth. And if they can find houses in East Cleveland, keep it going, purchase the house, fix them up, make them really nice for families. [01:12:16] Don’t just give them anything because they used to just giving us anything. Make it really nice. Make it something that you would want to live in, not just because it’s rental.

Nick Mays [01:12:32] When people look back at your life and your work and your service, what do you hope they’ll say about Kevin Salter and your contribution to East Cleveland?

Kevin Salters [01:12:43] I hope they look back and say he really had a lot of pride in East Cleveland. Wherever he went, he always stuck up for his city. Any city that I go in, I don’t care if I go in parts of Cleveland, Lee Harvard area. Wherever I go, they ask me where I’m from. [01:12:58] I said proudly, East Cleveland. And I hope that people really understand, you know, that and the pride that I have for this city, you know, just. I really believe in this city.

Nick Mays [01:13:09] And finally, when you look around Millionaires Road today, what do you hope this neighborhood in the city will look like in 10 or 20 years from now?

Kevin Salters [01:13:19] In 10 or 20 years from now? I hope it’s predominantly black. I hope somehow we hung in there, we showed them that we could do it. I hope we can walk up and down our streets and enjoy ourselves. There’s no crime. And, you know, a lot of these empty storefronts, we. If we tear them down and build something new, make it really nice. [01:13:40] I hope it’s grocery stores. I hope it’s things that, you know, we really feel proud for. And be proud to be an East Clevelander and be glad to tell people you’re from East Cleveland. That’s what I hope.

Nick Mays [01:13:52] Mr. Salter, Thank you. I appreciate your engagement.

Kevin Salters [01:13:55] Thank you.

Nick Mays [01:13:56] Good stuff.

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