Priorities
Mohammad Faraj is running to improve the everyday lives of every resident. He’s running on a commitment that local government should be accessible, dependable, and reliable.
And so he has five Priorities: Accessible City Services, Dependable Infrastructure, Reliable Public Safety, Flexible Development, & Sustainable Small Business. For Ward 7 residents, that includes public transportation that connects people to opportunity, lead-free homes and clean air that support fulfilling lives, and affordable housing & strong unions that prevent desperation.
But Mohammad ultimately describes his call-to-action as being based on the shared need for all residents to feel heard, seen, and valued.
Accessible City Services
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Neighbors of the new Ward 7 recognize that the city councilor is the elected representative of closest proximity to the community, & therefore must remain physically & emotionally connected to those he is serving. As the city councilor, Mohammad’s accessibility to the people is crucial for his ability to understand the problems that need solutions. Mohammad intends to designate reliable office hours, host regular town halls designed to reach the Ward’s most disenfranchised, & fight to protect & enhance public comment.
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According to the American Public Transportation Association, every dollar invested in transit generates $5 in economic activity. But the reality is public transportation is a civil infrastructure project that demands investment from the entire city, the state government, and ideally – but unlikely – the federal government. There are immediate policy changes Mohammad can support once elected to city council, including advocating for a rider-centered budget, but supporting public transportation in the new Ward 7 demands consistent & strategic advocacy at the state level, which Mohammad intends to help lead.
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Consumer data protection is one of the most urgent challenges facing local governments today, especially in Cleveland where multiple cyberattacks have already occurred just in the past year. Our 21st century world runs on data, which means the city’s administration must adopt a proactive plan to protect residents & critical infrastructure from these threats. Bureaucracy & technology aren’t often considered compatible, but that doesn’t mean our city’s government shouldn’t prioritize having the best practices in place to navigate these threats against our residents’ data.
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Lead poisoning is so severe in Cleveland that it is limiting multiple generations’ potential. According to the city’s Public Health Department, Cleveland has the most kids with high lead levels as compared to similar cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, & Akron. Though every neighborhood within the new Ward 7 has children testing positive for lead poisoning, the highest rates are in our Detroit-Shoreway community. From Mohammad’s conversations with residents, advocates, & affected families, this entire process – from prevention to testing to treatment – is far too fragmented & far too complicated. We cannot afford for our children to continue to be poisoned while we work through the bureaucracy of it all. We must act with urgency driven by an accurate & comprehensive vision.
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Clean, fresh air is unfortunately not a given in Cleveland, & that includes the neighborhoods of the new Ward 7. According to the American Lung Association’s 2025 State of the Air report, Cleveland ranks the ninth-worst metro area for year-round particle air pollution. A commitment to clean air from the city council demands attention to pollution, city planning, & the city’s tree canopy—just to name a few.
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The new Ward 7 includes the freshwater shores of Lake Erie & the roaring economic activity of the Cuyahoga River—two natural assets enjoyed not only by local residents but people all over the region. While the city’s current administration works through its relationship with the Cleveland Browns over whether they’ll stay on the lakefront, Mohammad is committed to ensuring the planning & development of a revitalized waterfront is what remains prioritized, rather than hundreds-of-millions of taxpayers’ funds going to corporate subsidies.
Dependable Infrastructure
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Access to housing continues to be one of the most effective policy commitments that helps deter crime, & it is imperative that we expand our understanding of what does & doesn’t keep our communities safe. In Ward 7, residents are hurting from the reality of rising rent to vastly unaffordable homes to rapidly increasing property taxes to ignored public housing. To address all four of these challenges requires enforcement legislation that lessens the harm that negligent property owners can create in our local market, a commitment to ensuring heavily subsidized projects have negotiated relevant & tangible community benefits, & aggressive lobbying at the state level to ensure Cleveland doesn’t continue to feel the brunt of an ineffective state legislature. A market that creates housing instability, for our children and our seniors, is one of the greatest threats to Cleveland’s public safety.
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Walking the neighborhood & knocking on doors allows Mohammad to experience every block, street, corner, & intersection in the new Ward 7. This also means Mohammad directly witnesses the reckless speeding down streets with young families, the danger of the neighborhood’s low visibility areas, & the challenges of navigating broken sidewalks. How we build & maintain our neighborhoods is a matter of public safety that has to be addressed in our rapidly growing Ward, & Mohammad looks forward to working with the administration & local groups to ensure pedestrian well-being remains a priority.
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Organizing at the community level is valued by nearly everyone in the new Ward 7, & Mohammad believes that type of enriched organizing is essential to building coalitions of power in Cleveland. After the redistricting process earlier this year that both eliminated 2 wards & regrouped neighborhoods into newly drawn wards, there is a new identity to the Ward that should be celebrated. As city councilor, Mohammad promises to respect & nurture the Ward’s various Block Clubs & organizing groups.
Reliable Public Safety
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The ability to pursue a TIF is codified in state law, & both the city & county have made it clear that TIFs are part of the region’s larger development strategy. These are two very real facts that admittedly limit an individual councilor’s ability to outright prevent or stop TIFs from originating, but Mohammad believes the role a community-invested councilor can play here lies in the government’s ability to accept, alter, or amend the proposed contracts. After knocking on over 3,000 doors & counting, Mohammad firmly believes we are not negotiating the best deals out of these agreements, & Mohammad thinks it is because we are not fully engaged on all the fronts available to advocate for the interests of the public.
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Cleveland has a long history of utilizing Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) to ensure the city continues a culture of economic development that is committed to supporting labor & promoting a diverse workforce with far-reaching benefits. The recent improvements made with the city’s Community Benefits Ordinance seek to establish a clear & transparent process developers can adhere to when receiving $250,000 or more in public incentives while also ensuring their development decisions result in tangible benefits for the surrounding community. As city councilor, Mohammad’s committed to supporting proactive, creative, & mutually beneficial Community Benefits negotiations.
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Cleveland was built, is built, & runs on a commitment to labor, & that’s a legacy Mohammad intends to honor & uphold. As residents know, the new Ward 7 has been the site for some of the city’s most private & public investment, & the residents want that development built by hard-working Clevelanders who can then start families here, send their children to schools here, & visit our many local treasures. As councilor, Mohammad can play a positive role in supporting the many unions & workforce development programs that provide pathways for success in Cleveland’s thriving labor community.
Flexible Development
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Bureaucracy is confusing. And while our dedicated public servants work hard to ensure they can serve a city of close to 400,000 people, our experience with the government improves when elected leaders act proactively rather than reactively. The councilor has an important role to play in helping bridge any gap in understanding or communication between small businesses & the administration or even small businesses & the residents of the community. Mohammad operates from the belief that conflict doesn’t have to be negative if we prioritize outreach & continuous relationship-building.
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A strong local small business economy plays an essential role in contributing to a community’s well-being & safety. Several neighborhoods within the new Ward 7 have attracted the eyes of national chains, many of which build their business models on undercutting workers & extracting value from communities. In order to compete against national chains’ seemingly never-ending access to capital, Mohammad hopes to work with the new Ward 7’s current & prospective small business owners & community-centered lenders to ensure financial empowerment.
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Empowering small businesses to ensure a fair & competitive local economy driven more by local sales, as opposed to national investors, requires several options of support. One that comes up repeatedly is the idea of financial incentives for businesses who clearly value their workers & the relationships they have with their customers & neighboring residents. Many cities have explored financial incentives for small businesses with high employee retention rates as a way to offset increasing costs so the businesses don’t end up passing along those rising costs to their customers. Businesses that are successful at attracting & more specifically retaining employees demonstrate a commitment to a positive local economy that the city should want to incentivize.