About Nikki Hudson for Cleveland
Nikki Hudson is a grassroots community leader who has lived in the Cudell neighborhood with her family for over 20 years. Nikki grew up in Columbus and moved to northeast Ohio first to attend Kent State University, majoring in Accounting, and eventually CSU College of Law. While in law school, Nikki worked as a bartender at Johnny Mango in Ohio City where she met her husband, Joe. After graduation, having learned that a legal career would not be a good fit, Nikki and Joe started a business at the West Side Market selling freshly squeezed juice and smoothies. After 5 years they sold their business and started a family. Nikki worked from home until her daughter started kindergarten, when she took a job with local artist Phyllis Seltzer as a personal assistant and estate manager. Having a flexible schedule allowed her to take care of her young children as well as maintain a very active role in the community.
Nikki has served on the Board of Cudell Improvement and later Northwest Neighborhoods, Community Development Corporations, since 2020. During that same time, Nikki chaired her neighborhood’s block club, the Edgewater Parke Neighbors, and has led multiple efforts to improve the neighborhood. This includes convincing the City to install a crosswalk across Lake Avenue, saving neighborhood orchard trees from being destroyed, as well as planting 8000 daffodil bulbs along the railroad hillside on Desmond Avenue. Nikki and her neighbors also successfully fought to take away the liquor license of a neighborhood store associated with many years of criminal activity, creating a safer and stronger neighborhood for everyone.
This past year, Nikki has been a neighborhood leader in the effort to Save Cudell Park and served on the steering committee tasked with coming up with a new design for Marion-Seltzer Elementary School. Nikki is also a proud member of Coalition for a Better Cleveland and has been outspoken on key issues, including opposition to the proposed gas station next to Cudell Park and Cleveland City Council’s flawed redistricting process.
Nikki is committed to working with others to get the best results not just for the neighborhood where she lives, but for the City as a whole.