Who has the power, money, property and influence it takes to lay claim to the title? Who's the king, the champ, the big kahuna, the grand poobah? Who can stand up and say, ?This is my town?? The Free Times spent months looking for the answer. We asked the movers and shakers, the media analysts and the veteran observers. Almost a hundred nominees were selected, and then winnowed to a few dozen. We ran the numbers on the top prospects, looking at property records, financial data and news archives. All the documents were reviewed, compared and analyzed ? then tossed in the garbage.

If you want to know who really owns a town, just ask around. We posed the question to people on the streets, in restaurants and office lobbies, at malls and coffee shops.

The banks & the good old boys?

?The banks,? says the young man in a good suit, standing in the cavernous Key Bank lobby. He's a banker. He says he knows. ?I see it all the time. I see the books. Your house, your car ? you get to use it, but the banks own it.?

?The lawyers,? says the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic. ?They get a bigger piece all the time for doing nothing, and pretty soon they'll own everything.?

?The doctors,? says the lawyer. ?Look at the Clinic and UH. They're like kingdoms. They own all the other hospitals, they're worth a fortune, and you need them to stay alive.?

?The good old boys,? says one of the few women in the nifty Fifty Club, the super exclusive Insider Group that meets monthly at the Union Club. ?They always have and they always will.?

?LeBron James,? says the kid on a skateboard. ?He got the benjamins, he got the bling-bling. He's da bomb.? And this is a white kid.

?I don't know about downtown, but the gays own Lakewood ,? whispers the owner of a Lakewood restaurant. ?They've got the money and they know how to spend it.?

?In the black community, George Forbes is still the big dog ? don't doubt it,? says a black columnist for a leading local publication. ?Look, the NAACP is a power base. And then there's the law firm. He's rich now. He's got big friends, Jacobs and that bunch. He knows where the bodies are buried and he knows how to play the game.?

?Goddamn Jews own this city,? says the old man sipping espresso at an East Side Arabica. Well, sorry we asked. ?Miller, the Ratners, Wolsteins, Rosenberg ? take a look around. They own everything.?

OK, but who's Rosenberg ?

?I guess the Lerner kid does ? what's his name?? says a construction worker on East 4th Street . ?Al Lerner had $5 or $6 billion dollars and now the kid has it. I hope he's a good guy like his dad.?

?I don't know,? says a weary mother with twin babies in a stroller on Coventry , ?Not me.?

We Own Cleveland ?

That's where she's wrong. When it comes to ownership of real property and real money in the bank, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Cleveland is that lady ? and you.

You own thousands of acres of prime real estate, hundreds of buildings, miles of road. You own stadiums and arenas, airports and courthouses, several hundred schools and a convention center. You hold title to whole fleets of cars and buses, several airplanes and some very nice boats. You own dozens of parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, a magnificent art collection and an arsenal of weapons to protect it all. You are loaded.

The combined local assets of federal, state and local governments are nearly incomprehensible, but they are owned by the people, and that means you.

That's the good news.

The bad news is: You can't cash in your chips. And even if you could, they're not worth anything. The administrators of your vast fortune have had some management problems over the years. Expenses are out of control and they've already borrowed so much on your good name that you're in debt up to your eyeballs.

But don't worry. No one is asking for the money, and for the purposes of these ratings, you don't count.

Neither do government officials. They are also disqualified for this story. Some control vast entities and wield great influence, but they are not true owners, only tenants. Political power is real but fleeting, gone with the winds of November.

The Foundations

Foundations ? and Cleveland is Foundation City ? are excused as well. Of course, the largest here wield profound influence, doling out tens of millions of dollars annually to worthy causes.

The Cleveland Foundation is the prototype for many, not just locally but nationally. It was the first metropolitan foundation in the country and still ranks among the largest, second only to the New York Community Trust. The Jewish Community Federation is right behind, and in recent years, has actually surpassed the Cleveland Foundation in annual giving, writing more than $91 million in checks 2001-02 alone, and about the same last year. It is also emulated by other Jewish federations across North America .

Flanking these benevolent titans are dozens more, many bearing the names of the area's leading corporations and most illustrious families: Gund, Severance, Jennings, Murphy, Mandel, Mandel, Mandel ? yes, the Brothers Mandel are all represented, with each of their three foundations in the top 20.

Collectively, area foundations boast billions in assets and provide the life blood for hundreds of local organizations through annual distributions exceeding $150 million. And yet, the avowed purpose of every single one of these noble institutions is not to acquire money or power, but to give it away. Exempt.

The Top 10

Our ratings are focused on real owners. The institutions, corporations and individuals with the most of what counts ? money, property, facilities, power and influence.

Only a few other rules apply. Individuals must be residents of Greater Cleveland. Institutions or corporations must be locally owned or operated. Ford, GM, Clear Channel, SBC, Dominion, Top's ? all major players in this town, but all are remote-controlled. Ineligible.

Tangible assets are important, of course, but intangibles are factored into the equation as well. Credentials, character, longevity, good will ? they enhance wealth and power or diminish it. Power, like truth, is in the eye of the beholder.

Here are Cleveland 's Top 10, in order, all claiming a piece of the town and all worthy to share the crown.

ST. JOHN's cathedral A symbol of Catholic wealth.

#1 The Catholic Church

All the rest may be bunched as tight as thoroughbreds at the Derby gate, but the blue-ribbon winner rides alone. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is the single most substantial and powerful entity in this area, solely in the crass terms of the material world.

The Catholic Church of Greater Cleveland comprises 234 parishes and an imposing command complex in the center of the city: St. John's Cathedral and chancery. Diocesan property is almost governmental in scope: schools and churches, colleges and universities, seminaries and cemeteries, hospitals , nursing homes, shelters, food centers, and special facilities for children, the elderly and the handicapped.

Bishop Anthony Pilla is flanked by three auxiliary bishops, almost 500 priests, over 1,300 nuns, 1,600 lay employees, thousands of teachers and staff, tens of thousands of part-time volunteers and more than 350,000 parishioners in a community with more than 800,000 Catholics.

How much do they take in every year from the well-worn baskets that pass down every aisle, every hour on every Sunday? God only knows. Not to mention the fundraisers, charity events, school tuitions, hospital bills, cemetery fees, special funds, direct contributions and bingo games. It's a lot, all right, and all tax-exempt. No one but a few church officials have access to the annual grand total, but it doesn't take much faith to believe the number starts with a ?B.?

Combined church operations provide almost a billion dollars worth of services annually. And if they didn't, most of those costs would have to be made up in new taxes. Catholic Charities alone spends $85 million each year to assist 600,000 people, managing 73 different sites, serving 4 million free meals and providing 68,000 free overnights. Catholic schools provide a quality education to more than 64,000 students without public dollars. Catholic hospitals contribute millions every year in medical care for the needy.

And yet, in spite of all the good works and the vast holdings, the diocese faces the most serious crisis in its history, wading through the muck of the pedophilia scandal that threatens the foundation of the church in the Catholic community and beyond. The priests who took obscene advantage of parish children and the administrators who turned a blind eye inflicted deep wounds. The healing process has hardly begun, and there is much penance and reparation still due. Although alarmist predictions of a mass exodus or a steep decline in donations have not materialized, the damage has been severe. The unquestioned faith and trust in the church here may never be fully restored. Still, the church is a mighty fortress. It has weathered storms before. And while its reputation has been tarnished and its power diminished, the Catholic Church endures as the preeminent force in the region.

Can somebody say, ?Amen??

THE AFL-CIO'S JOHN RYAN Wearing the union label and flexing union muscle.

#2 The AFL-CIO

Hundreds of thousands of people are involved with the Catholic Church, but every single person in Greater Cleveland interacts with the AFL-CIO on a daily basis, directly or indirectly.

You got a problem with that, buddy?

Beyond the 130,000 active members, the fruits of their labors sustain all of our lives, constant as air. Teachers teach our children; the police and firefighters protect us; state, county and municipal workers administrate public programs; postal workers deliver our mail.

Machinists make our appliances, delivered by teamsters in vehicles made by autoworkers, used in homes and offices built by construction tradesmen.

Cleveland 's union heritage runs deep. Today, in an independent era, it remains one of the metropolitan bastions of union commitment and fierce loyalty. Cleveland is a union town.

?Statistically, we have about double the union density of the average American city,? says AFL-CIO executive secretary John Ryan. ?That is why we are officially recognized as one of the top union cities in America .?

The AFL-CIO is not just a force for collective bargaining; it is a central clearinghouse for the evolving philosophies and strategies of labor. There is power in numbers, and the Cleveland AFL-CIO knows how to use it. They can put full battalions of union soldiers in the streets or on the phones in any election, for any candidate or issue.

?The real power we have is all the affiliated unions and volunteers,? says Ryan. ?We don't pay people. When we get involved, it's always a volunteer effort. We have an alphabet of solidarity?1,500 people going door-to-door ?70,000 phone calls in support of an issue ? it's all free.?

At the helm for seven years, Ryan has stepped forward as an activist, ready and willing to invoke the union sanction in matter large and small, but not as compliant as past AFL-CIO leaders when it comes to party lines. Ryan balked at the county's health & human services levy last spring, withholding support even as the rebel S. E. I. U. (Service Employees) led opposition to the measure. Democrat leaders pleaded; Ryan stood firm.

?We can help sell a package or program, and we can help insure that it is worker-friendly,? he explains. ?On the HHS levy , we had issues with the worker-friendly aspect. We worked it out.?

The AFL-CIO team finally came on board in the last weeks of the campaign and helped insure passage. ?We have influence far beyond union members,? says Ryan. ?Do we speak for all the workers and retired workers and all their families? Absolutely.?

As Cleveland attempts yet another comeback, the AFL-CIO will inevitably play a key role. Cooperative unions can pave the way for contractors, developers, business and industry. Does that mean concessions are in the works? Again, Ryan is unequivocal.

?No, that's not what we're about,? he says. ?Look, wages are higher here. People are much more likely to have pensions and benefits and health care. That's not a bad thing; that's a good thing. You can always find somebody somewhere to do something cheaper. We have to work with companies, make sure they get value, but we have to make sure people have a voice in where they work, and they get value, too.?

And what about the future? Will Cleveland rally again? Will the AFL-CIO remain a critical influence as the local business and labor landscape evolves?

?I'm cautiously optimistic but frustrated,? says Ryan. ?We have to play offense and defense. We have to make whatever contribution we can and we have to protect the rights that workers already have.?

Yes, Cleveland can come back again, and it's going to be wearing a union label.

#3 The Plain Dealer

TOWER CITY Forest City's crown jewel in Cleveland.

The Plain Dealer has no official authority, only a voice, but that voice is the strongest and most consistent in the city's two-century history. It began publishing a generation before the Civil War and has survived every conflict since. It has seen 54 mayors come and go, helped elect many and hastened the departure of a few. It watched Cleveland 's population grow from a paltry 16,000 to almost a million, and fall back again by half.

The Plain Dealer remains Cleveland 's first and foremost town crier, the daily record of what happened, who did it and why it matters. In spite of eroding circulation and an onslaught of competition in the Age of Information, it remains Cleveland 's King of All Media.

The Plain Dealer 's voice is hardly its only asset. The gleaming complex downtown on Superior Avenue is the heart of the operation, while the massive Tiedeman Road printing plant is the muscle, churning out millions of pages of newsprint daily.

Big dailies are most often personified by their editors-in-chief, and Doug Clifton has surely put his mark on the PD . Even its critics concede the paper is more professional, responsive and approachable than it was in the dreary years of the David Hall regime. Behind the personality is the power, and that remains in the hands of president/publisher/CEO Alex Machaskee, who has held the reins since 1990.

The two PD leaders represent the paper's split personality. While Clifton keeps a low social profile and avoids being influenced by political and business factions, Machaskee is an unabashed activist, a ubiquitous presence at community board meetings and VIP gatherings. Clifton is all journalism. Machaskee is all over the place.

With reporters assigned to the city, the region, the state, the nation and the world, the Plain Dealer has it all covered, except for a single void. It is the oldest major newspaper in the nation without a Pulitzer Prize in its trophy case. So the paper is left to console itself with a balance sheet that has reflected prize-winning achievement in ad revenue, year after year. One reason why the hands-on Newhouse family has been largely hands-off with the PD is basic economics: the Cleveland paper is a cash cow, churning out millions in milk money for the family.

How many millions?

?I don't know,? says a senior editor, ?There are probably only two people in the building who do know, and they never say.?

The Newhouse empire is a private corporation, so financial data is not disclosed, but the family is estimated to be worth about $10 billion. It is difficult to even hazard a guess at Plain Dealer profits, but based on ad rates, ad pages and circulation, it is fair to estimate that gross profits exceed a million dollars every week, although it may have stumbled some in the current economy.

With the biggest bankroll in local media and an endurance record that laps all other media combined, it looks like the PD will be here for at least another 160 years.

#4 Ratners/ Sam Miller/Forest City

They have a big company, but it's not the biggest in the town. They've got serious money, but they're not the richest in town. But when it comes to power players in Cleveland , they're the best.

Every city has its legendary families. Cleveland 's history includes some of the most storied names of the genre ? Rockefeller, Severance, Hanna. The Ratner-Miller-Forest City alliance joined that illustrious roster two generations ago, and remains the leading family-business force in Cleveland today.

Municipal symbols are important, the totemic icons of America . Terminal Tower is the crown jewel of Cleveland , symbol of the city, its status reinforced by the grand Tower City renovation and expansion. Forest City owns the whole joint. And that's just Cleveland . Forest City owns buildings and land across the region. They have shopping malls, offices, hotels, apartment complexes, a forest of lumber and thousands of acres of raw land all over North America . Technically, Forest City Enterprises is a public company now, but the Ratner family owns some 60% of the stock. They can do what they want.

Sam Miller joined the family when he married Ruth Ratner more than 50 years ago. They divorced years later, but the Ratner-Miller bond remained intact. Today Sam Miller and Albert Ratner are co-chairmen of the board of Forest City and virtual co-chairmen of the Cleveland Power Structure.

Does the Forest City steamroller own Cleveland ? ?Oh no, not us,? says the modest Sam Miller, ?We haven't done anything in 15 years.?

Virtually everyone else at the highest levels of Cleveland 's power structure begs to differ. Many of those in politics can often be seen at Forest City 's Tower City offices, begging for money or support.

?If you want to get somewhere in this town, if you want to be in politics here, if you need help on a venture in Greater Cleveland, you better talk to Al or Sam,? says a prominent corporate CEO. ?End of story.?

#5 (Tie) National City Bank/ Key Bank

KEY CEO Henry Meyer III.

It is only fitting that the city's two largest banks share honors and rank. They are virtually identical in terms of size, stature and influence. Cleveland 's banks are much like twins. Very, very big twins.

Both are among the largest financial institutions in the nation. Both have tens of thousands of employees. Both control billions of dollars in real estate and property throughout NE Ohio alone. Both boast more than $100 billion in assets. How much is that? Try this: If they distributed all those assets equally among local citizens, every household in the county would get more than a million dollars.

And they've got cash. Capital power in its purest form. The mighty dollar. Legal tender. Moola. Bread. Greenbacks. Benjamins. Between Key and National City , they handle most of the money in this region, sooner or later. They keep some too. National City made $2 billion dollars in profits last year. Key was close behind.

Their respective chairmen and presidents have enough similarities to qualify for the annual festival in Twinsburg. National City 's chairman and CEO is David Daberko. Bill McDonald is president. At Key, Henry Meyer III is Chairman/CEO and Pat Auletta president. All four have been at their respective banks more than 30 years. All four have MBAs (Harvard, Case and John Carroll). All four are pillars of the community. One or more are board members for Greater Cleveland Tomorrow, University Hospital , Case, Cleveland Roundtable, University Circle , Weatherhead School , United Way , ideastream, University School , the Museum of Natural History , Cleveland Clinic, Baldwin-Wallace, the Union Club, Harvest for Hunger, the Catholic Diocese and JCU. Among them, they cover the community waterfront.

But the real power of the banks is green power. Aggressive lending and financing strategies mean money for local businesses, developers and entrepreneurs. Tight fiscal policies diminish chances for growth and discourage start-ups. Since the dominant days of Cleveland Trust, leading local banks have had a sternly conservative local lending policy. If National City and Key take a more amenable, growth-oriented approach, it could jump-start the entire region's economy.

They say they already have. Under a city program started under Mike White, the leading banks and eight others have formally committed to ?investments? in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. Those commitments have grown to hundreds of million each year. But neither the banks nor the city will allow public access to the contract details, hiding them under a ?trade secrets? umbrella.

Truth is, there is little indication of a significant change in the fiscal rules at either National City or Key. Without that, each bank will continue to be a powerful presence in the community, but not of the community, lofty financial giants with Cleveland addresses whose primary interests lie elsewhere.

Too bad. They could be Cleveland 's twin angels.

#7 The Cleveland Clinic

Everybody knows the Cleveland Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world. It is also one of the largest medical institutions anywhere and, as a business operation, it is certainly, well, healthy. Founded in 1921, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation incorporates clinical work, hospital care, research and education under a non-profit structure that is, well, profitable.

When Dr. Floyd Loop took over as CEO in 1990, the Cleveland Clinic was a distinguished hospital that posted more than $700 million in annual billings. Today, the Clinic ranks among the world's elite medical centers, generating more than $3 billion in revenue. It is the largest private employer in the region, with 26,000 personnel at the main campus, eleven affiliate hospitals throughout Northeast Ohio and numerous outpatient and specialty care centers, plus Cleveland Clinic Florida .

The Clinic is a medical city within the city: 1,000 full-time physicians, 100 medical specialties, 1,000,000 outpatient visits and 50,000 admissions every year. Cleveland is a melting pot, and so is the Clinic, with patients from 50 states and 80 countries. And this year, classes begin at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University .

The value of the Clinic to Cleveland and the import of its role in Cleveland 's future can hardly be overestimated. As the region struggles to evolve from an industrial titan into a multi-faceted service and business center, the Clinic provides the cornerstone of all things medical.

Cleveland needs drawing cards and the Clinic is the biggest and best we have.

#8 Peter B. Lewis

PETER B. LEWIS Billionaire-philanthropist screwball.

The highest-ranking solo player on our list is one of America 's leading philanthropists, a peerless patron of the arts, a feisty political activist, a billionaire and ? in his own words ? a screwball. In this town, screwballs are a dime a dozen, but billionaire-philanthropist screwballs are hard to find.

Welcome, Peter B. Lewis.

Princeton , his alma mater, asked him for some money, so he gave $55 million for a genomics research center on top of the mountain of cash he had already bestowed. At $116 million and counting, he holds the all-time record for Princetonian largess. He gave $50 million to the Guggenheim Museum in New York , and then pledged a couple hundred million more if they decide to build a new one.

Lewis has given more than a few bucks to Case, including about $30 million so he could have his friend, heralded architect Frank O. Geary, design a cute little building that was way overpriced to begin with and ran over budget by 60 percent. Peter B. Lewis laughed.

He loves Cleveland and basketball. He loves football and modern art. He loves traveling the world and smoking dope. OK. He said he was a screwball and he wasn't kidding.

Lewis was arrested in New Zealand in 2000, shortly after he arrived to watch qualifying rounds of the America's Cup race. Small amounts of hashish (47 grams) and marijuana (45 grams) were found in his luggage at the Auckland airport. Because of a pleasantly capitalistic loophole in New Zealand law, the crisis was abated. Lewis freely admitted to possession and promptly paid an enormous fine, which excused him from any further liability and even elicited a warm-hearted welcome from authorities. ?Enjoy the fresh air,? beamed Judge David Harvey. Case dismissed.

And Cleveland? He was born and raised here, and has a soft spot for his hometown. He keeps his Progressive Insurance corporate HQ here, owns a good-sized piece of the East Side and has done a lot for a multitude of local causes and institutions. He could do a lot more, but he has never been afforded inclusion in the ruling Good Old Boys Club.

And sometimes the locals just piss him off, so he turns off the water for a while. After doling out tens of millions to area institutions and charities, he got a little irritated at Case Western Reserve University two years ago and put the checkbook back in the drawer, declaring a personal moratorium on local philanthropy. It was probably the first time in history a single individual put an entire major university on suspension. CWRU shaped up, got a new president, re-aligned the board of trustees, changed its name to Case, and worked its way back into Lewis's good graces. In November, he ended his financial protest with an announcement and a $100,000 check for the Cuyahoga Community College scholarship fund.

Lewis is not exactly a rags-to-riches story, more riches-to-billions. His father, Joseph, co-founded Progressive Insurance in 1937 with partner Jack Green. It was a healthy little company when young Peter joined the staff as an underwriter trainee in 1955. It reached $15 million in annual sales in 1965, the year he took over as CEO. The young screwball didn't screw up too badly. Over the next 35 years, his innovations and leadership made Progressive one of the world's leading underwriters, with more than $8 billion in annual premiums and 50,000 employees and sales reps across the nation.

Today, Lewis is the largest stockholder, with more than $1.5 billion in company holdings, and he doesn't even work there anymore. He retired as CEO in 2002, retaining his title as chairman of the board.

Peter Lewis likes to spend money. Last year, he threw a tent party ? not in his yard, but on his yacht, the 255-foot Lone Ranger, one of the largest, most luxurious private watercraft in the world, with enough deck space for hundreds of guests to hobnob under the big top.

And he says he wants to spend most of what he has by giving it away to worthy causes and charities, as fast as he can. He says he's not a young man anymore. At 69, he's worried he might not accomplish his goal before cashing in his own life insurance policy. He needs help. Any volunteers?

#9 Jones, Day

Look out ? here come the lawyers!

Take a look at this client list: IBM, AOL-TimeWarner, General Motors and RJR Nabisco. And that's just a sample. More than half of all Fortune 500 companies have their number on speed dial. They are the Suits, the Hired Guns, the Mouthpieces, the quintessential Blue Chip Law Firm.

They are Jones, Day.

They have more than 1,800 top-of-the-line attorneys practicing top-of-the-line law in courtrooms from New York to L.A. and New Delhi to London. And the marching orders for this legal army come from the glass fortress in Cleveland ? Jones, Day's North Point headquarters looming above the lake on East 9th Street.

Their official numbers are only respectable on this list. About 4,000 employees worldwide, less than 500 in Cleveland. An estimated $600 million in billing volume. But what they charge in fees is a tiny fraction of the business and government activity they influence. Tens of billions of dollars in contracts. Hundreds of billions in investments. And billions more in claims and lawsuits.

What is the extent of Jones, Day's influence in its hometown? Pretty much whatever they want it to be. Currently, the firm takes a high middle road, active in local civic and business affairs, but maintaining a restrained, low-key power presence. The firm contributes millions locally, through corporate and personal donations. An even more valuable gift is their precious time, usually billed out at hundreds per hour. Senior partners can be found on virtually all of the area's important non-profit boards. The policy of lending out firm attorneys to serve as advisors and facilitators, pro bono, has helped pave the way for many major local projects and improvements, from Gateway to the Rock Hall.

But there are clouds on the Jones, Day horizon. The firm's new managing partner, Stephen Brogan, is not from Cleveland and has sent an ominous message by not moving here, continuing to work from his Washington, D.C., office. And the firm's PR publications and websites no longer identify Cleveland as Jones, Day's world headquarters. It is simply listed among the many office locations around the world.

How now, Jones Day?

#10 LeBron James

LEBRON JAMES The Chosen One.

The last name on our short list is the most unlikely. He is still a teenager, born in Akron in 1984, the fatherless son of a struggling mother. There is no reasonable explanation for what has become of LeBron James. His mother, Gloria, is not quite five-foot-five, and no one in her family was ever known as particularly athletic. His biological father was an ex-con named McClelland, who left Gloria before LeBron was born. He was a player, but not in sports.

Gloria gave LeBron a $2 miniature basketball set when he was barely old enough to walk. It proved to be an excellent investment. LeBron played with it for hours every day. Today, the little hoop-and-ball would fetch a fortune on eBay.

A feature player in LeBron's life story was Frank Walker, the coach of his peewee football team. He was the first to notice LeBron's remarkable athleticism. It was hard to miss. LeBron scored 19 touchdowns in six games. Walker kept tabs on his young phenom after the season, hoping he would stay on the right track. He was dismayed to learn that LeBron was hardly ever in school, spoke to Gloria, learned of her problems, and opened his heart and his home to help.

With Gloria's blessing, LeBron moved in with the Walker family, lived there for years and attended school on a regular basis. He became best friends with Frank, Jr. and an inseparable group of classmates ? Dru, Willie and Sian. They became the Fab Four of Akron grade school basketball, the core of a team that would challenge for the National AAU title in '97 and finish one basket short of winning it all in '99.

The Fab Four made a pact to stay together in high school, choosing St. Vincent-St. Mary's. On December 3, 1999, LeBron debuted at guard for the SVSM varsity basketball team, wearing number 23 as a tribute to his idol, Michael Jordan. He scored the first time he had his hands on the ball and never looked back.

The Chosen One was born that night in Akron. The next season, he was the talk of Ohio sports. By his junior year, the whole world was watching. The LeBron Phenomenon reached critical mass last year, when the SVSM games were moved to Akron's Rhodes Arena, ESPN covered the games and USA Today posted team scores and LeBron's stats. College recruiters, regular visitors in his sophomore year, stopped coming to games. This kid had a one-way ticket to the NBA.

It was a forgone conclusion that he would go #1 in the NBA draft. Another miracle occurred when the Cavaliers, among the most lackluster teams in basketball, won the lottery ? the right to choose the Chosen One.

It seemed to happen overnight, and it did. A $40 million contract with the Cavs, a $90 million pact with Nike, another $25 million in short-term endorsements, a new mansion in the country, a Hummer, a Mercedes and more shoes than Imelda Marcos. And Gloria isn't struggling any more.

LeBron has money, fur coats and fancy cars, but that's not the reason for his inclusion on the list of Who Owns Cleveland. He has flashed startling skills on the court in his first season as a pro, but that's not the reason either. LeBron James has something else ? poise and presence beyond his years and a comfort level in the hot zone that surprises and impresses even jaded observers of the star scene. The kid is laying claim to the title of ?Mr. Cleveland? with the ease of a layup.

For a city in desperate need of someone to put a brighter face on its image and boost its market value, LeBron scores a triple-double. As our most visible representative and ambassador of good will, he has the potential to bring a lot more to Cleveland than an NBA trophy.

Go, LeBron.