One of the unhappy consequences of Cleveland City Council’s consolidation from 17 wards down to 15 was that it forced some valued council members into the same ward.
Nowhere is that more unfortunate than in reconfigured Ward 10, where voters will have to choose between two stalwart public servants: Anthony T. Hairston, the Ward 10 incumbent, and Mike D. Polensek, now of Ward 8, whose Collinwood residence is becoming part of the new Ward 10.
Polensek, 75, has been elected to council 12 times, beginning in 1978. Hairston, 39, first appeared in our pages at age 15, when he told a Plain Dealer reporter he wanted to run for council when he was older. He was as good as his word, serving first on Cuyahoga County Council beginning in 2014, and then earning election to the first of two City Council terms in 2017…