Gloria Ferris

Just arrived home from our first Meet The Bloggers interview held at Gypsy Beans and Baking Company located at 6425 Detroit Avenue.  What a welcoming and warm place!  Although its been open just about three weeks, it has such a homey atmosphere you would think that its always been there just waiting for you to discover it.  I know better.  When I first moved to Cleveland, I lived just around the corner on Franklin Boulevard so I know that it was a Leader Drugstore in the 1970s and if memory serves me right I think it had always been a pharmacy.  Someone with a longer history in Cleveland than me can correct me if I am all wrong on that fact.

But then back to this conversation with an old friend.  We had a a great conversation with County Treasurer Jim Rokakis.  He is not old; he will always be younger than me, but he has been a friend since 1978.  So, he is in that sense “old”. Jim Rokakis was my councilman in 1983 when he introduced me to the “notorious” Tim Ferris who later became my husband. Jim’s wife, Laurie, had the most incredible baby shower for me before our daughter was born.  So yeah, there is a soft spot for this couple, but it does not alter the fact that we should be very thankful that Cleveland and the county has this man as an elected official.

Jim is articulate and passionate about the people who live in Cleveland.  Although he represents the county, he remembers his roots in Cleveland and works to make things better for the least of us while helping others attract wealth to our region as a whole.  He is a thoughtful, intelligent public servant that wants to see the city where he grew up prosper and survive tough times and benefit from new and innovative ideas.

It has been a long time since I sat at a table with him and discussed problems and solutions.  Jim is a doer, not just a talker, but what a conversationalist.  He loves conversation, and he has a great sense of humor, but he also takes action.  He works with others to make things better for us all.  Listen to our podcast with him on Meet The Bloggers as soon as George can get it posted, and judge for yourself.  Want another reason to be thankful here in Cleveland?  We have Jim Rokakis looking out and working for us.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Cleveland, developing community, education, growing an economy, quality of life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.