Global Cleveland Turns 10 | Albert Ratner

As the Co-Chairman Emeritus of Forest City Enterprises, Mr. Ratner was the visionary founder, philanthropist, and primary architect of Global Cleveland, an initiative launched to attract, welcome, and integrate immigrants, refugees, and international students to revitalize and diversify the city. In his own words, Mr. Ratner shares his reflections on how Global Cleveland was born, boosting the regional economy, Cleveland workforce, and immigrant community.

About thirteen years ago, as I was looking over some data about successful cities, it seemed to me that among the most successful cities were the cities that had a larger number of immigrants than most of the cities in the country. As I looked at it, what I realized was that Cleveland which had had about 20% of its population made up of people born outside of this country, was down to about 5%. And so I started looking around to see if it was possible to put an organization together that could help us deal with the opportunity of bringing people to Northeast Ohio so that we could grow and have a better and more diverse community.

The birth of Global Cleveland was because the Cleveland Foundation, The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, the Tamar and Milton Maltz Foundation, and the Audrey and Albert Ratner Foundation put money together to start a fledgling organization to look at the opportunities that lie in bringing in and helping immigrants of all races, colors, nationalities to Northeast Ohio. Looking back at the ten years of Global Cleveland, you have far exceeded all of our expectations. And there is only one way of judging this, and that is asking how has it helped Cleveland and its immigrant population grow to make us a much better city. On all measures, on all accounts, you have done a wonderful, wonderful job. Congratulations on the first ten. May you have many, many decades more.