ReportWire

Tag: News Feature

  • Cleveland Police Say No Arrests Made After Playhouse Square Drifter Incident

    Cleveland Police Say No Arrests Made After Playhouse Square Drifter Incident

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Cleveland Remembrance Page/IG

    A screenshot from a video showing the Playhouse Square Drifter incident over Memorial Day Weekend.

    No arrests have yet been made after a crew of drivers managed to ruthlessly drift around a circle of fire underneath Playhouse Square’s GE Chandelier for at least a minute on Sunday morning, Cleveland Police said.

    In a short press conference over Zoom, Sgt. Freddy Diaz, a CPD spokesperson, said that police need Cleveland’s help providing names for those involved in a string of defiant drifting events, two of which were recorded on video and uploaded to social media this weekend.

    A 15-second video posted on the Cleveland Remembrance Project’s Instagram page shows about a dozen cars blasting loud music and blocking the intersection of East 14th and Euclid Avenue.

    Though no one was injured, both during the ring-of-fire display in Playhouse Square and after cruisers showed up, many observing Clevelanders lambasted CPD for not preventing or curtailing the ballsy event in the first place.

    “Literally out Bibb’s front window and not an officer in sight … strange,” Eric Shebestak said on Twitter/X.

    “Where were the police? Why did it take so long for them to get to the scene?,” Matthew Lubbeck wrote. “What a total embarrassment for the city of Cleveland.”

    click to enlarge Sgt. Freddy Diaz said on Tuesday that CPD is still looking for the drifters. - Cleveland Police

    Cleveland Police

    Sgt. Freddy Diaz said on Tuesday that CPD is still looking for the drifters.

    Diaz reiterated that CPD did show up before any injuries or lasting vandalism occurred. (As of Tuesday, skid marks and fire burns were still slightly visible.)

    “Obviously this is something of a concern for law enforcement and for the community,” Diaz told media. “These types of acts are dangerous, and we don’t condone [them].”

    “And we will enforce the laws that are applicable in those situations.”

    Social media is littered with videos of mostly teenagers engaging in joyriding and easy car thefts, especially during the rise of Kia Boyz phenomena, teens that take advantage of a technical flaw in most Kias and Hyandais. Diaz said he couldn’t confirm whether the Playhouse Square Drifters were in fact teenagers.

    But irritation from Clevelanders revolves around, it seems, an increasing tension between Mayor Justin Bibb’s promise of an “all-of-government” approach to handling summer crime and repeated reports of dangerous activity around the city. Many see the drifters as a bad harbinger of a typical summer increase in crime.

    Bibb’s idea is to concentrate hired officer enforcement in highly-specific areas prone to violent and nonviolent crime.

    “We know, based on research, that approximately 4% of geography accounts for nearly half of all crime. We are taking a targeted, data-driven approach to narrow in on neighborhoods across the city that have historically been affected by violence during the summer months,” Bibb wrote in a press release.

    “Our comprehensive strategy goes beyond just law enforcement,” he added, “as various departments will be prioritizing the delivery of city services in these hotspots—which will be combined with our violence prevention efforts—with the goal of creating a ripple effect in reducing crime citywide.”

    Over the weekend, four men were shot in an incident near East 14th and St. Clair Ave, Channel 19 reported. And in April, News 5 reported, two men were shot after an apparent argument outside the Frozen Daiquiri Bar’s new location near East 7th and Bolivar Road.

    And, in the most insane happenstance of ballsy crime, one man opened fire around 3 p.m. on April 30 on the northern edge of East 4th St, WKYC reported. The two men were apparently arguing about sports, when one man smacked the other. One pulled out a gun and fired. A bystander at the Corner Alley was grazed in the hand.

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Study Aiming to Revamp Arcade as ‘Cleveland Cultural Center’ Nears Completion

    Study Aiming to Revamp Arcade as ‘Cleveland Cultural Center’ Nears Completion

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    The Arcade could become the host to the Cleveland Cultural Center, a conglomeration of ethnic museums and restaurants.

    There’s the Hungarian Museum in Erieview. There’s the Italian American Museum in Little Italy. And the mostly obfuscated and private museum over Emperor’s Palace restaurant in Historic Chinatown.

    A recent plan asks the question: What if we assembled all of these cultural collections into one place.

    And have that place be none other than the Downtown Arcade.

    It’s the dream of a conceptual plan drafted up lately by Sandvick Architects, the firm that spearheaded the Arcade’s $60 million renovation in 1999, and former head of the Gateway District Neighborhood Corporation Tom Yablonsky. The team’s nearly-completed pitch to Arcade owners Skyline Investments is a two-birds-one-stone deal: fill the nearly 60% empty building with a cosmopolitan spin.

    That is, as recent plans show, a so-called Cleveland Cultural Center. Occupying the currently vacant 18 spaces on the Euclid and Superior levels would be an opportunity for a specific ethnic group to rep its traditions—via a bite-size museum, walls of video, through lectures and music, or selling wares.

    Or food. Five of the empty kitchen stalls would be occupied by culinary legs of these cultural groups.

    Yablonsky, currently a consultant for a number of downtown development projects, believes that clustering dozens of different culturally focused outposts in a building that—architecturally speaking—is already a cultural melange could boost the Arcade’s vibrancy beyond weekend weddings, lunchtime loungers and hotel guests at the upstairs Hyatt Regency. (Sandvick and Skyline Investments did not respond to calls for comment in time.)

    And take influence from arguably the Arcade’s best pasttime: hosting thousands during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March. “Imagine experiencing a Kenyan Mombasa carnival,” the plans read, “or Chinese New Year in the splendor of the Arcade!”

    That vibrancy “could be greater if we created an atmosphere,” Yablonsky told Scene. “And a vibrancy that you don’t feel in the inside right now. It’s intuitive.”

    “But it’ll give us so much atmosphere that you’ll be able to quantify over time,” he added, “that the hotel’s operational side and sense of place and purpose would be grandly improved.”

    Since the 1990s, when the Arcade’s previous owners, along with the city and the county, bankrolled that eight-figure investment into the building’s revival, the Arcade has always suffered a certain beauty paradox: How can a space of such a resounding aesthetic, with its Romanesque facades and 300-foot-long skylight, be so empty most of the time?

    click to enlarge The Arcade has struggled in the past decade to lock down a full house of retail tenants. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    The Arcade has struggled in the past decade to lock down a full house of retail tenants.

    Apparently, Indianapolis had a similar conundrum. As Yablonsky and Sandvick cite in their plans, the city was brainstorming ideas of how to revamp their recession-struck Lafayette Square. That cosmopolitan notion hit: the square would be renamed the International Marketplace.

    But there’s a clear difference here. Indianapolis’ Marketplace is a 2.5-square-mile area, pockmarked with some 900 ethnic businesses, including, a recent brochure suggests, “over 50” markets and 115 restaurants. According to the Sandvick idea, the Arcade would essentially be an indoor version of Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens. Not a massive ethnic food hall.

    “I think it might be good for families,” said Bradley Spirakus, 36, drinking coffee with his coworkers at a table on the Arcade’s second floor. “But for thirty-year-olds, there’s nothing in here for any of us. Maybe make it more hip and meaningful—maybe a lounge-type thing. And make it more family-oriented.”

    “Nobody’s coming in here from the ‘burbs,” his coworker Michael Dimarino, 40, said. “I mean, half of the restaurants are closed. What’s the point?”

    Others pointed at the Arcade’s prime revenue source (along with the Hyatt guests) in the past decade.

    “That’s my biggest question: Where will all the weddings go?” Taylor Baker said, eating lunch nearby. “I suppose you just keep them on the weekends?”

    “Maybe you keep weddings on the weekends, and do the cultural thing on the weekdays,” her friend McKenna Donahue added.

    Baker closed her Styrofoam container of finished noodles from Zen Cuisine, a rare food stall still operating. “And what’s gonna happen to my favorite lunch spot? Really!”

    Yablonsky said that he and Julie Dornback, the lead architect on the Cultural Center plans, will be presenting a final version of the concept to Skyline in June, and ideally begin the implementation—and seek confirmed tenants—by the end of the year.

    As for any doubts, Yablonsky turned to his years convincing doubtful investors that the Warehouse District could be reshaped into Downtown’s most populated neighborhood. He sees the same for the Arcade: a space ready to host a concept not yet tried in Cleveland’s limits.

    “It’s a glass half full, half empty discussion,” he said. “You have to have a vision, you have to feel positive while you’re trying to implement. You got to believe in it. You could quickly find reasons not to go forward, and then you won’t ever do the right thing.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Juneberry Table in Ohio City to Launch Dinner Service on Wednesday, June 5.

    Juneberry Table in Ohio City to Launch Dinner Service on Wednesday, June 5.

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Karin McKenna

    Juneberry Table in Ohio City to launch dinner service on June 5.

    After two full years in the breakfast and brunch biz, Juneberry Table (3900 Lorain Ave., 216-331-0338) in Ohio City is adding dinner service. Dubbed “Juneberry P.M.,” the evening hours commence on Wednesday, June 5.

    Chef-owner Karen Small describes the new service this way:

    “What is Juneberry P.M.? It’s all of your most-loved lunch-y items from our daytime menu; fresh spins on favorite starters (biscuit boards, anyone?); earthy entrees, and weekly breakfast-for-dinner features. Basically, it’s all the warm and welcoming vibes you already love from Juneberry Table, at a more relaxed pace.”

    Beginning June 5, the bistro will be open 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Those days and hours could be adjusted down the road.

    While the final menu is still a work in progress, Small shared a few of the items that diners likely will see. Under the “Snacky Things” category are items like a garlic smoked trout plate with jammy eggs, pickles, crème fraiche and rye toast; a local cheese and charcuterie platter with biscuits, butter, jam and seasonal veggies; and crispy smashed potatoes with salsa verde and dip.

    Larger “Supper Plates” include fried chicken with hot honey, creamy mashed potatoes and green beans; butter beans and greens with smoked pork and cornmeal madeleines; and a diner burger with chips or salad.

    Because breakfast for dinner often is the best way to go, Small will be offering up daily specials in that category, along with desserts like honey pie, olive oil cake with strawberries, jam and mascarpone, and a seasonal shortcake.

    Naturally, there will be plenty of beer, wine and cocktail options to enhance the dining experience, adds Small.

    “Instead of fueling you up on coffee and sending you on your way, we’re inviting you to linger over cocktails, craft beer and natural wine, and savor the Ohio-inspired, farm-to-table flavors and homey ambiance that’s been our signature since we started.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Douglas Trattner

    Source link

  • Pro-Palestine Students Speak Out Against Case Western Reserve University’s Encampment Punishments

    Pro-Palestine Students Speak Out Against Case Western Reserve University’s Encampment Punishments

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    Task Force member and Case senior Yousef Khalaf spoke out against Case Western’s decision to ban certain pro-Palestine protestors, at the MLK branch of the Cleveland Public Library on Friday.

    This weekend, in a hall at Case Western Reserve University, some 2,700 undergraduates and graduates will don their black caps and tasseled gowns and walk across the graduation stage.

    And 53 might not, according to students. (That number is just three, according the school.)

    Earlier in the week, on Monday, several dozen students who were involved with the pro-Palestine encampment on the Kelvin Smith Library green were delivered emails from Case’s Office of Student Conduct effectively banning them from campus activity. And, most direly, from not receiving their diplomas as investigations from the office continue.

    As those punished students, deemed personas non grata by Case admins, pursue remedy through the university’s conduct process, a handful of them gathered on the second floor of the nearby MLK branch of the Cleveland Public Library to call out what they see as Case President Eric Kaler’s mishandling of what was a peaceful protest.

    The six present, members of the Palestine Task Force, spoke passionately about what Kaler, unlike more progressive university chiefs around the country, has not seemed to get.

    “Case Western has retaliated against their students for exercising their right to academic freedom and inflicted disproportionate punishment on their students,” Faten Odeh, the director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, told the crowd, “simply because they disagree with them that an ongoing genocide should not be paid and funded with their tuition”

    The Task Force, which worked with Students for Justice for Palestine members to erect a tent village in early May, has been placing increasing pressure on CWRU to both disclose and divest in any financial stakes in Israel-owned companies.

    Protesters at colleges around the world have used encampments and graffiti with varying levels of success. At Trinity College in Dublin, university admins agreed not to renew any investments with Israeli ties next March. And on Wednesday, the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine encampment disbanded after failing to earn a divestment commitment from university admins.

    At Case, what protesters see as a communication breakdown between them and Kaler has led to, what students said on Friday, a misjudging of their original goal to spotlight war casualties. A 180 from what, Task Force members and Case senior Yousef Khalaf said, the college’s guiding mission.

    “They accepted us because they knew that we stand for these ideas,” he said. “They knew that we’re willing to fight for what we believe in, and we’re willing to pursue these different ideas and have dialogue and do revolutionary things.

    “And now we’re being punished for those same things.”

    click to enlarge Jad Oglesby, a senior and former head of Case's Students for Justice for Palestine, speaking on Friday with the five other Task Force affiliates. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    Jad Oglesby, a senior and former head of Case’s Students for Justice for Palestine, speaking on Friday with the five other Task Force affiliates.

    Since February, Case Western officials have long maintained a sense of openness regarding freedom of expression on campus, and has categorized some of the protesters’ behavior—some Free Palestine chants, or “YOU CAN’T HIDE” painted on Eldred Hall—as “threatening” or “hateful.”

    It’s why, along with an encampment on Case property, 53 students received notices of interim suspension. Yet, according to a statement on Friday, Case’s Office of Student conduct has “moved expeditiously” to hurry those punished through the hearing process in time for graduation.

    As of Friday’s press conference, only 12 were in midst of the conduct procedure; and just three students, the university said, are to be banned from commencement. (I don’t know where they’re getting that number from,” law graduate Mike Grimm told press.)

    “All others have been permitted to take part in their degree-conferral ceremonies,” the statement read, “among other commencement-related activities. Decisions on the awarding of degrees will be made once the conduct process is complete.”

    But what about after graduation? Many of the anxieties expressed by Task Force affiliates dealt with issues extending past May—from securing a spot on a scheduled bar exam to starting internships or locking down hoped-for jobs.

    Several protesters, including Jad Oglesby, a Case senior and former SJP president, brought up a forest for the trees mentality, that history would see the encamped in a better light rather than being a burden. He reminded those present there was a reason that the encampment began around the 54th anniversary of the May 4th Kent State Shootings.

    “In the past, protesters have been labeled as radicals, as malefactors to society,” Oglesby said, wearing a black suit wrapped in a keffiyeh. “That’s how we were labeled during the Civil Rights movement. That’s how we were labeled during the Vietnam war. That’s how we were viewed during protesting South African apartheid.

    He added: “And that’s how we are being labeled today.”

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Cleveland to Debut Parks and Rec Master Plan This Week

    Cleveland to Debut Parks and Rec Master Plan This Week

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    Public Square’s greenspace last year.

    After five months of drafting, the city will be releasing its master plan for the future of Cleveland’s parks this week.

    Throughout four days of open houses, from May 14 to May 17, Clevelanders will have a chance to laud or critique the long series of recommendations the city’s hired consultant, the Philadelphia-based OLIN, have made for Cleveland’s 179 parks and recreation areas.

    That master plan debut comes after the city and OLIN paired up to survey some 1,500 city residents, which revealed some high hopes for expansion in the next 15 years, along with some glaring criticisms: Roughly 60 percent of those surveyed don’t believe that Cleveland’s parks are in good condition. Eighty percent felt similarly about its rec centers. Many don’t feel safe in either.

    “Our parks and public spaces belong to the residents,” James DeRosa, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, said in a press release “and we are committed to making sure these spaces meet the community’s needs.”

    A huge chunk of the plan debuted this week will be centered on MOCAP’s best strategy to fund what would be a pricey overall.

    If the city were to focus on deficits discovered by Cleveland’s system’s rating on ParkScore—scoring 26th in the country—there could be, in theory, millions spent on improving playgrounds, installing permanent restrooms and adding long-missing dog parks and splash pads to the mix. And more trails, which was a concern for 41 percent of those surveyed.

    And, to amend another long-running critique from two-fifths of survey takers: fix up and keep open the city’s 40 pools.

    As Cleveland’s pursuit of beautifying its downtown core and surrounding neighborhoods comes further into view, it’s obvious that a parks master plan would fit snuggly alongside promised development on the horizon, from the Irishtown Bend Park to a half dozen miles of tree-lined cycle tracks to pop up near decade’s end.

    Clevelanders can attend these feedback sessions, which run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., with the following dates and locations:

    • Michael Zone Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center, 6301 Lorain Ave., on Tuesday, May 14
    • Collinwood Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center, 16300 Lakeshore Blvd., on Wednesday, May 15
    • Estabrook Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center, 4125 Fulton Road, on Thursday, May 16
    • Lonnie Burten Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center, 2511 E. 46th Street, on Friday, May 17

    There will also be two pop-up sessions with different times:

    • Wednesday, May 15 – Pop-Up at Senior Day at Public Auditorium (500 Lakeside Ave.), 10 a.m. to noon
    • Monday, May 20 – Pop-Up at Kerruish Park (17200 Tarkington Ave.) with The Trust for Public Land and the Cleveland Parks & Greenspace Coalition, 3 to 6 p.m.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Case Western Reserve University Bars Some Pro-Palestine Student Protesters From Graduation, Campus

    Case Western Reserve University Bars Some Pro-Palestine Student Protesters From Graduation, Campus

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    Pro-Palestine protestors at the Kelvin Smith Library Oval last week.

    Last Friday, after a week and a half of operating a tiny tent village in front of Case Western’s Kelvin Smith Library on campus, pro-Palestine protesters announced that they would be dissolving the Gaza Solidarity Encampment they created.

    They cited two escalating sources of tension: That President Eric Kaler had days before threatened the students with possible civil law violations, and that a growing list of dissenters had been causing safety concerns, from “extremist agitators” to Zionists vowing to “set fire to the encampment,” a letter from student leaders said.

    “While the encampment is coming to an end, the commitment to the cause remains unwavering,” it continued.

    On Monday morning, despite the agreement to vacate, some protesters affiliated with the encampment were sent emails from the university’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards bearing news that they were the subject of an investigation concerning their involvement in the encampment.

    Those receiving notices  were issued an interim ban from campus and all campus activities, and graduating seniors would have their degrees withheld, pending the outcome of the investigation.

    “Case Western Reserve has initiated its student conduct process—including temporary withholding of degrees and bans from university property,” a spokesperson for Case wrote, “and issued notices prohibiting from campus third parties involved with the unsanctioned encampment on private property.”

    “This action follows repeated warnings from President Kaler,” it went on, “to those remaining in the unsanctioned encampment and, later, to those blocking access to Adelbert Hall.”

    Like many of the protests and encampments that have popped up on college campuses in the past month, the protesters at Case had used their sudden tent village—with its First Aid tent and own library—to attempt pressure CWRU into divesting its financial stakes in Israeli companies. Kaler hit back on May 8 with a foot-down measure: “Divestment is and remains something the university will not do,” he wrote.

    In the past week, as commencement ceremonies loom, such protests have come to a head, in a wild variety of directions. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, admins agreed to join calls for a cease-fire, and possibly abandon Israeli investments, after protesters agreed to dismantle their encampment. At Trinity College in Dublin, officials said they would do away with all of their stakes in companies tacked to Israel altogether.

    For Case protesters, their week preceding graduation is different. For the two dozen or so students that stayed for long bouts of time in the encampment, the university will now deem them “persona non grata,” and essentially bar them from campus until a formal hearing to, the email said, “ensure the safety and well-being of members of the university community.”

    Those with student housing, the office said, will have to vacate by 3 p.m. Monday. None can be on campus until their formal hearing.

    “Failure to adhere to this notice will be considered an additional code of conduct violation and may result in further conduct charges and sanctions,” the email read.

    Although about three dozen or so protesters were detained briefly in mid-May, acts of blatant violence have either not existed or not warranted major charges. In interviews with the encamped last Wednesday, those present told Scene they had been verbally assaulted by Zionist sympathizers, and had even prepared tiered response plan if counter-protesters got physical. Or, of course, if their village was raided by police.

    click to enlarge A scene from the encampment at Case Western Reserve University. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    A scene from the encampment at Case Western Reserve University.

    On Kaler’s side, the president and his Office of Student Conduct claimed that recent chants and graffiti—especially one spelling “YOU CAN’T HIDE” on Eldred Hall—veered on antisemitism, and were threatening to Jewish students who wished to remain neutral and unopposed.

    Which, to students now banned from campus, seems a bit misdirected.

    “This is terribly consistent with what the university has been doing from the beginning of this movement,” Olivia Cobb, a third-year student and member of Law Students for Justice in Palestine, told Scene.

    “They are spinning a narrative in which they are heroes,” she added, “while they are using backdoor channels to threaten, intimidate and harass students into giving up their ability to access free speech, and giving up their ability to effectively protest.”

    Cobb, who was once hopeful for her graduation on May 18, expressed a sour feeling of discontentment at this week’s news.

    When asked if she regrets setting up camp, given the university’s response, Cobb turned immediately to Gaza’s casualties of war.

    “Yes, [the ban’s] devastating to me,” she said. “But I’m still here. I’m not starving, and I’ve never been hit with a bomb. And until I have to decide between that and standing up, then there’s not a moment of hesitation.”

    One student affiliated with SJP, and who wished to remain anonymous, told Scene he believe punishment of not graduating with his peers was overbearing for a protest that was, for the most part, reasonable and nonviolent.

    “It’s really disheartening and disappointing for me, personally,” the student said in a phone call. “It’s unfortunate that the campus claims to support First Amendment freedom of speech—but doesn’t.”

    All protesters linked to the encampment will be able to, later this week, appeal the college’s decision to ban them. One of the qualifications to win an appeal is for such students to comply with a mental health evaluation, Case’s Code of Conduct reads.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Massive Redevelopment of Warner & Swasey Building Heads to Conceptual Review

    Massive Redevelopment of Warner & Swasey Building Heads to Conceptual Review

    [ad_1]

    Jeffrey Stroup

    The Warner & Swasey Building at 5701 Carnegie Ave. has been abandoned since 1992.

    Attention post-industrialist photographers and area bands: That gargantuan red-bricked, abandoned warehouse off Carnegie Avenue and East 55th may soon be off the market for off-the-books activities.

    Cleveland’s City Planning Commission will be, in an upcoming meeting of its board, scrutinizing a ready concept of the Warner & Swasey Building’s future: a totally remodeled, five-story apartment complex.

    Priced last August at a $36 million construction cost, the concept includes intentions from Pennrose, its Philadelphia-based developer, to build 140 units of affordable and market-rate housing, including 56 apartments for seniors and 56 for lower-income families. Along with, as Pennrose Development Director Geoff Milz told the Plain Dealer, a roof deck for prime downtown skyline views.

    Pennrose’s readiness for concept review suggests the project is nearing its funding goals. Late last year, the firm garnered a $1 million grant from MidTown Cleveland, along with $12 million in low-income tax credits that May. (Calls to Pennrose’s Ohio office were unreturned Thursday afternoon.)

    click to enlarge In the 1940s, the building was a center for wartime machine parts. Today, it's eyeing a makeover for affordable housing. - Archives of the Western Reserve

    Archives of the Western Reserve

    In the 1940s, the building was a center for wartime machine parts. Today, it’s eyeing a makeover for affordable housing.

    Other than acting as a poetic emblem of Cleveland’s Rust Belt chic, the Warner & Swasey building also represents a symbol of the city’s prewar power as a manufacturing hub. Its revitalization, both to hungry urbanists and area councilmembers, acts as a marker of Cleveland’s gradual return to growth in and around the central core.

    Erected by New England machinists Worcester Reed Warner and Ambrose Swasey in the 1880s, the structure was a powerhouse for an array of topical tools—from bespoke telescopes (like one for the U.S. Naval Observatory) to World War II-era plane parts and turret lathes.

    By the 1960s, white flight to the suburbs threatened the building’s energy. By 1965, Warner and Swasey’s worker base was halved, to about 2,000 employees. Come the Reaganomics of the 1980s, the building was sold to out-of-towner Bendix Corp., which threatened to gut the building altogether.

    Politicians saw it as a marker of Cleveland’s downfall.

    “What the hell are we doing to keep people in this town?” Councilman Joe Cannon asked the Plain Dealer at the time. “Do we take care of the business that we’ve got? You’ve got to hold what you’ve got, and maybe take a few from [the suburbs].”

    In 1992, all structures and links to Warner & Swasey were gone in Northeast Ohio. It wasn’t until 2019 when the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

    Cleveland’s City Planning Commission will be discussing its conceptual plans next week. If approved, construction could start sometime in 2025.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Evelyn Restaurant Project from Jill Vedaa and Jessica Parkison is Not Happening

    Evelyn Restaurant Project from Jill Vedaa and Jessica Parkison is Not Happening

    [ad_1]

    Jill Vedaa (left) and Jessica Parkison

    Evelyn, announce two years ago, will not happen.

    Two years ago, partners Jill Vedaa and Jessica Parkison announced that they were taking over the former Spice Kitchen property at the corner of Detroit and W. 58th Street in Gordon Square. A few months later they had a name and concept for the property: Evelyn, named after Vedaa’s mother, would offer an “elevated tapas” experience.

    Today, the Salt owners have announced publicly for the first time that the project is dead.

    “As some of you know, we were planning on opening our third restaurant, Evelyn,” the partners stated. “After countless discussions, sleepless nights, and hours of trying to make it work, we have decided to sell the property.”

    Reached for additional comment, Vedda added, “Ultimately, it was an incredibly hard decision, but in order for Salt and Poppy to continue to do well we had to make this sacrifice. It’s heartbreaking because we had such amazing plans for the space. We definitely wanted to sell to someone that understood the legacy and beauty of the build and I think we accomplished that.”

    Vedaa and Parkison have sold the property to Revifi Properties.

    “[They have] amazing plans for the future. We support their endeavor and wish them the absolute best,” Vedaa added.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Douglas Trattner

    Source link

  • Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Agrees to Coat Glass to Prevent Bird Collisions

    Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Agrees to Coat Glass to Prevent Bird Collisions

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    The exterior of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse will, after years of workarounds, be coated in a protective film to prevent bird collisions.

    Birders can rejoice: one of the most lethal buildings to our feathered friends will not be as deadly anymore.

    Well, at least come this fall, when Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse plans to coat the majority of its surrounding glass facade with a bird-protective film, which would save tens of thousands from smacking into it in the first place.

    As Signal Cleveland first reported Wednesday, the Gateway Economic Development Corporation signed off on a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers to pay $845,975 to wrap the Cavs’ home in Bird Divert, a thin film that acts as a caution light to birds while remaining relatively invisible to the human eye.

    That expenditure, following two years searching for a workaround, comes as a gigantic win for Lights Out and other bird advocacy groups who work to prevent collisions. Delisting the FieldHouse as a building-of-concern that is, several sources said, a direct result of advocacy work in the past year.

    “That’s by large the biggest offender in terms of bird collisions,” Matthew Schumar, a program coordinator at the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative, told Scene on Thursday. “On a busy day you can stand there on Huron, and watch as birds fall all around you.”

    “This is great,” he added, “this is a huge step forward.”

    Roughly 1.7 billion to 2 billion birds collide with buildings in America every year, according to the Audubon Society, mostly with glass-heavy, low-rise structures that blind eyes mid-flight. Most collisions happen just after dawn, and during the high migratory months in spring and early fall.

    In Downtown Cleveland, one of the urban areas most prone to collisions in the Midwest, a handful of volunteers at Lights Out has been patrolling streets in the wee hours to rescue stunned birds, and preserve dead ones. Yet, due to the high amount of walking, lack of pay and early start time, the patrol group is hard pressed to fill its ranks.

    “This should help though,” Tim Jasinski, a wildlife rehabilitation specialist at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center, said regarding the FieldHouse’s purchase. “What I’ve learned [with glass protection], is that there’s a really low chance a bird will smack that window—unless they’re being chased by a hawk and trying to get away.”

    click to enlarge Advocacy work from Lights Out, shown here attempting to rescue a warbler in front of the FieldHouse last year, influenced the Cavs' decision. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    Advocacy work from Lights Out, shown here attempting to rescue a warbler in front of the FieldHouse last year, influenced the Cavs’ decision.

    Lights Out, which Jasinski helps manage, will still monitor the FieldHouse after Bird Divert is installed. Since March 15, the usual start of the spring migration, Jasinski said Lights Out’s catalogued “probably over 300” birds thus far, which was fewer than those collected in 2023.

    And not just due to a skewed pattern. “A lot of it is just not having enough people,” he said.

    Despite the short staff, Jasinski and his colleagues have worked in the past few years to put pressure on downtown property owners to consider making their windows less deadly. Those with high amounts of reflective, blinding glass, and near to open green spaces with trees to nestle in.

    It was sometime in 2022 when, according to Schumar, he and others began talks with FieldHouse staff regarding the deadliness of their exterior. Schumar cited the Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium, found to kill 100 birds a year, as good enough reason to reshape the arena.

    Due to the costliness of installing Bird Divert—or Feather Friendly, its commonly-used competitor—Schumar said that FieldHouse’s team, lead by Michael Lathrop, the FieldHouse’s lead architect, tried to find cheaper workarounds. Turn their lights on earlier. Play a “predator-type” of sound, “like a raptor,” to scare birds away from collision.

    “Anything they could try,” Schumar said, “before the step of having to treat the glass.”

    In an interview with Scene, Susan Oguche, a spokesperson for the Cavs and the FieldHouse, admitted that Jasinski, Schumar and others at Lights Out played a part in the Bird Divert expenditure.

    “I think when we realized it was an issue, we sought a community organization to partner with on a solution,” Oguche said. “The team is so relieved that we’ve been able to find a solution.”

    Schumar sees it a different way. “It’s a PR move,” he said. “They can use it to their advantage.”

    Manufactured in New Jersey, Bird Divert is a thin film that reflects ultraviolet light via a matrix pattern of hollow glass spheres about the size of dimes. It’s different than the light-diffusing stuff installed on the Cuyahoga County building or the Huntington Convention Center.

    Bird Divert, Oguche confirmed, is planned to be installed this summer.

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Broadview Heights Pride Fest Moves Forward in Spite of Resident Hostility

    Broadview Heights Pride Fest Moves Forward in Spite of Resident Hostility

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    BBH Pride

    Broadview Heights’ first Pride Fest last year.

    On April 15, about 60 or so Broadview Heights residents showed up to their City Council chambers, some heated, some empathetic.

    All were focused on what they perceived to be a subject of prime importance: whether or not the town’s second Pride Fest should or should not happen on city property.

    Most present, the Plain Dealer reported, were against the festival.

    “We are Broadview Heights,” Robert Kilo, an organizer with the Center for Christian Virtue policy group, told Council. “We are not Lakewood. We are not Cleveland.” Citing religious beliefs, Kilo warned, “You try to cram this down our throats, we the people will have something to say.

    “And tonight is just the beginning,” he added.

    That festival, slated to go on from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 8, is being hosted by Broadview-Brecksville Heights Pride, an area nonprofit that formed in May 2022 as an anti-discrimination advocacy group for LGBTQ+ folk. Pride Fest, as the group advertises, is one its prime events to showcase its uniting mission.

    But not without its difficulty. Though long threatened by religious extremists and hate groups, LGBTQ organizations have had to ramp up security plans and insurance policies in light of a more vocal opposition, from Proud Boys protesting drag in Chardon, to tension with evangelists at Cleveland’s own festival last June.

    In Broadview Heights, a majority white suburb of 19,936, such vocal opposition to a Pride Fest has driven public confusion as to how some in such a seemingly peaceful town could reject such festival. Just as it has, for BBH Pride, for the underlying laws that have led to tension in the first place.

    “You know, some organizations reached out to city council to kind of explain to them, ‘Hey, let’s understand the line between free speech and hate speech, and it’s fine that residents say, oh, I have a concern, or I don’t care for Pride Fest,” BBH Pride director Jennifer Speer told Scene.

    “But the fact that they want to influence policy over this, and they are coming after the mayor?” she said. “That’s really bad.”

    click to enlarge Counter-protestors outside Element 41 at a contentious drag brunch in Chardon last April. Tension between the LGBTQ community and hate groups has become more apparent in recent years. - Photo by Mark Oprea

    Photo by Mark Oprea

    Counter-protestors outside Element 41 at a contentious drag brunch in Chardon last April. Tension between the LGBTQ community and hate groups has become more apparent in recent years.

    Speer is talking about a 97-year-old statue that gives the Broadview Heights mayor—in this case, Mayor Sam Alai—the ability alone to say whether or not an event is hosted on city grounds. Because the city is co-sponsoring Pride Fest, Speer said, Mayor Alai was allowed to bypass any necessary council greenlight.

    It’s seems to be why Vince Ruffa, the law director for Broadview Heights, expressed confusion at the April 15 meeting, as to why Pride Fest sparked a revisit to the longstanding laws.

    “When it is a city sponsored or co-sponsored event it is an administrative function good, bad or indifferent, Council doesn’t vote on that,” Ruffa said, according to the minutes. “I have been the law director or almost 21 years we have never used that process for a city sponsored or co-sponsored event.”

    On Thursday night, half of Broadview Heights City Council will be gathering at council chambers to entertain a possible change to that law, thus requiring council approval for future events held on city property.

    As for BBH’s seminal Pride Fest last June, Speer recalled similar tones of opposition, mostly regarding the group’s choice to host it at Broadview Heights Middle School. (On a Saturday though, Speer said.) Despite one protestor, Speer said the event surpassed its mission. Six-hundred showed up. It was rated seventh best Pride Fest in Northeast Ohio.

    “We’re talking dozens upon dozens of people have approached us since the last Pride Fest, and saying, ‘This has changed my outlook. This has changed my perspective,’” Speer said. “‘I now believe I might be able to stay in this town.’”

    BBH’s festival on June 8, Speer said, will host a range of activities, from a feminist choir to flowerpot making and karaoke. There will also be vendors touting crochet or dog rescuing, along with four churches and one voter registration agency.

    It all goes swimmingly as planned, Speer believes that this year’s Pride will help the nonprofit segue nicely into finishing, and distributing to City Hall, a city action plan that would act like a blueprint for how to train city employees, or teachers in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District, to better accommodate the LGBTQ population.

    “If people would just come and meet their neighbors,” Speer said. “These lovely people work around you, they raise children around you.

    “And guess what?” she added. “They attend church, too.”

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Old Brooklyn Mustard, Fuego Fermentations Take Top Prizes in Prestigious Good Food Awards

    Old Brooklyn Mustard, Fuego Fermentations Take Top Prizes in Prestigious Good Food Awards

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Courtesy photo

    Locally made, nationally recognized

    As of last night, one production kitchen in Old Brooklyn has become home to three Good Food Award-winning products. Now in its 14th year, the Good Food Awards – the “Oscars of the food movement” – were held yesterday in Portland, Oregon, and both Old Brooklyn Mustards and Fuego Fermentations walked away with top honors.

    “It shows the quality of products coming out of one location on Broadview Road in Cleveland,” says Ian Barrett of Fuego.

    Old Brooklyn Mustards snagged ribbons for its Preserved Lemon Mustard and Deli Style Mustard products while Fuego’s Fermented Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce earned top honors as well.

    Winners are selected through a blind-tasting process that whittles approximately 2,000 products from across the country down to 215 winners in 18 different categories such as coffee, honey, preserves and pickles. Old Brooklyn Mustards and Fuego Fermentations swept the Best Pantry category for the 10-state Midwest Region.

    “Winning two Good Food Awards for Best Pantry Midwest means the world to us,” says Old Brooklyn’s Michael Januska. “It’s a testament to the dedication and passion we pour into crafting high-quality, delicious products that bring joy to people’s homes and elevate the culinary experience in all kitchens.”

    Those aren’t the only Good Food Awards claimed by local food entrepreneurs: Cleveland’s own bean-to-bar chocolate maker, The Cleveland Chocolate Co., won for its 72% Dark Chocolate with Coffee. A little further afield, Seldom Seen Farm in Montville, Ohio won for its Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup.

    See the complete list of winners here.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Douglas Trattner

    Source link

  • A Contest to Design a New Flag for the City of Cleveland Launches Monday

    A Contest to Design a New Flag for the City of Cleveland Launches Monday

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    City of Cleveland, Wikipedia

    Is it time for a new flag?

    After months of planning, a volunteer group of Northeast Ohioans will on Monday launch a public contest to design and select a new flag for the city of Cleveland.

    CLE Flag, started by a handful of friends and likewise interested folks, aims to find a new civic emblem, one that better represents Cleveland’s current ethos, and one that might be more likely to be displayed outsides homes and businesses across town.

    The public launch of the contest on Monday welcomes submissions from any and all Greater Clevelanders, and will run through July 19. Afterward, a committee of about a dozen local leaders and business owners will, with the help of the North American Vexillological Association and AIGA Cleveland, whittle the group down to a batch of finalists. A public vote will follow, with the finalists and winner receiving compensation for their efforts.

    The group has met with city council, some members of which have voiced support for the effort to create something more universally embraced than the current design, while others (cough, Polensek, cough) have failed to see the appeal.

    It will be back to that august body CLE Flag will return later this year once the final winner is selected, with the hopes of getting it adopted as the official flag of the city while showing support from residents from all Cleveland city council wards.

    “It’s better and more impactful if it comes from the community,” Brian Lachman of CLE Flag told Scene.

    The community-driven angle was one of the founding principles of the group, after all.

    It was after a trip to Chicago that Lachman, Andrew Burkle and others started thinking in earnest about a piece of municipal art that few consider locally.

    Noticing how Chicago is one of the few major cities that embraces its flag, they decided to do something.

    “We were looking at designing the flag ourselves, and we went back and forth on a lot of options, like 50 designs, and we felt pretty good,” said Burkle. “And then all of a sudden, it dawned on us: We’re approaching this the wrong way. It’s a symbol of a diverse city and here are three guys from Cleveland Heights designing a flag. That’s not the best approach to this. So we shifted gears to be more shepherds of the project.”

    Similar efforts have been made in other cities, with mixed results.

    “We stumbled across Milwaukee’s People’s Flag,” Burkle told Scene. “It’s a great website, and they had a similar process. But the one thing they didn’t do was involve the city early on. So currently, Milwaukee has this terrible flag that the city hasn’t embraced, but people fly the People’s Flag.”

    And the lesson was to get city council involved early on, especially if actual change and something more than a fun art project were to be the end results.

    The city of Cleveland’s current official flag, approved by City Council in 1895 and by Mayor Robert McKisson in 1896, was designed by Susan Hepburn, an 18-year-old art school graduate whose submission to a contest sponsored by The Plain Dealer, quickly organized in advance of the city’s centennial, gained the admiration of the selection committee, which praised its “power and simplicity.”

    Meant to capture stirring civic pride as the momentous date arrived, the design included symbolic nods to Cleveland’s position as a shipping port and its status as an industrial center. The colors — red, white and blue — were used to mirror those of the American flag and assuage concerns a city banner would upstage the national one. (The motto of “Progress and Prosperity” wasn’t included on the original design and was only added in the 1960s.)

    More than a century later, the flag has endured, but not without complaint.

    Now, a chance to replace it with something more civically suitable to Cleveland of today. The submission form includes survey responses the group has gathered with notes on what some residents have expressed wanting to see in terms of colors or symbols, but these are merely suggestions, not restrictive guidelines.

    The next Susan Hepburn is out there somewhere. Starting Monday, the search is on to find them.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Vince Grzegorek

    Source link

  • Food Truck Lunch Events Arrive in Downtown Cleveland Every Weekday for the Summer Starting May 1st

    Food Truck Lunch Events Arrive in Downtown Cleveland Every Weekday for the Summer Starting May 1st

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Walnut Wednesday and a whole lot more on tap for this summer in Cleveland

    Walnut Wednesday, the popular food truck roundup, has been rolling into downtown Cleveland for more than a dozen years. The weekly event at Perk Plaza (E. 12th & Chester Ave.) offers a diverse lineup of cuisines, live entertainment and a pleasant environment in which to enjoy an alfresco lunch.

    Walnut Wednesday — which kicks off for the season on May 1st — may be the brightest star in the food truck galaxy, but it’s got some new and not-so-new competition. Filling out the weekly dance card are events such as Memorial Monday at Fort Huntington Park (W. 3rd & Lakeside), Food Truck Tuesday at KeyBank Plaza (Rockwell & W. Mall Dr.), Truck Stop Thursday at One Cleveland Center Plaza (E. 9th St. & St. Clair Ave.) and Free Stamp Friday at Willard Park (E. 9th St. & Lakeside Ave.).

    The hours run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through Sept. 30th.

    “This daily programming throughout Downtown’s streets and public spaces elevates the already vibrant culture of the core,” says Michael Deemer, Downtown Cleveland President and CEO. “This is all part of our strategy to create a lively and engaging 15-minute, 18-hour city. It showcases Cleveland’s diversity and unique attributes while creating opportunities for people to get out of the office and enjoy Downtown.”

    Hungry and interested parties can peruse the daily lineup of food trucks on Street Food Finder under the “Hot Spots” tab.

    More information can be found at the Downtown Cleveland, Inc. website.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Douglas Trattner

    Source link

  • Case Western Students Host ‘Die In’ Protest During University’s Annual Open House

    Case Western Students Host ‘Die In’ Protest During University’s Annual Open House

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Maria Elena Scott

    Students for Justice for Palestine spearheading a protest at Case Western in November.

    About 80 or so Case Western students dropped “dead” in the middle of the university’s bustling Tinkham Veale University Center on Friday morning, as prospective students and their parents were scheduled to attend an open house ceremony nearby.

    The protest, led by the campus’ Students for Justice for Palestine chapter, was a signal to university admins, the organization told Scene, for their lack of transparency regarding possible financial ties to Israeli arms manufacturers. As they called for Friday, SJP has repeatedly pressured Case Western to pass a Resolution 31-15, which would lay bare the university’s dealings with foreign entities like Israel.

    The so-called “die-in” is also a prodding move by SJP to protest its suspension as an official student organization. In early March, the Palestinian supporters group was suspended by the university due to allegedly glueing flyers to the campus’ Spirit Wall, which its Office of Student Conduct claims violates its posting policy.

    From their ban to Friday’s open house protest, SJP and Case admins haven’t come any closer to reaching agreement, activists told Scene before the “die-in.” Partly because SJP members believe their apparent flyer-glue charge was made in error in the first place. (Members interviewed denied there was “hard evidence” the Spirit Wall was debased by SJP.)

    “[Case President Eric] Kaler and the administration are pretty clearly silencing pro-Palestinian advocacy and any relevant discourse about the genocide going on,” Hannah Morris, a Case junior and SJP member, said on Thursday. “I think they’re uncomfortable, and I think that [the suspension] was totally a move to try and stamp out SJP.”

    She clarified: “I don’t think there’s been much, like, positive progress towards reinstating SJP, to my knowledge.”

    After more than a half year into fighting between Israel forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, conflict that’s taken the lives of 34,000 Palestinians, pro-Palestinian protests are close to reaching a zenith in both scope and legal backlash in the month of April.

    Protestors blocked traffic for hours on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge; others shut down a major freeway in Oakland. And in Cleveland, activists calling for sympathy for Gaza have blocked airport traffic, shut down City Council meetings and covered Euclid Avenue and Public Square repeatedly with chants and flag-waving.

    Case Western isn’t an island in rising tensions between student and faculty.

    click to enlarge Gaza protests have filled City Council meetings, shutting them down at one point earlier this year. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    Gaza protests have filled City Council meetings, shutting them down at one point earlier this year.

    Just on Thursday, dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors encamped at Columbia University in New York were arrested and cuffed in zip ties, many of them SJP members frustrated with their own six-month suspension. Crackdowns on unauthorized protests—which, in some cases, led to students being kicked out of campus housing—ran in tandem with Columbia President Nemat Shafik’s testifying to Congress about apparent anti-semitism on campus.

    On February 26, after months of back-and-forth tension, George O’Connell, the director of Case’s Office of Student Conduct, issued an “interim loss of recognition” on SJP, stripping it as a legal club. O’Connell’s office demanded the names of all SJP members and engagement “in continued participation” with his office to “resolve” the effects of the alleged glue-posting.

    “Failure to adhere to this notice or any form of retaliation will be considered an additional code of conduct violation and may result in further conduct charges and sanctions,” O’Connell’s letter demanded.

    Another SJP member, who commented anonymously fearing retaliation from the university, told Scene that Friday’s “die-in” echoed the sentiment of SJP’s response to its ban, posted on Instagram on March 4. (“You can try to shut our organizations down, but you can’t stop the movement from growing,” the post read.)

    “Our goal at the end of the day, in everything that we do, is to make sure that we foster a safe, equitable, and just not only university community,” the student told Scene, “but broader society and fight systems of oppression and colonialism that have completely ravaged the lives of many of us.”

    “So we will not stop, and we will not let more people die quietly,” they added. “So the university can try all of its tactics in full rank as much as it wants. But at the end of the day, what we have and what they don’t is people power.”

    In a statement to Scene, a Case spokesperson did not acknowledged any progress, if any at all, in bringing SJP back as an official student organization.

    “Due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the university doesn’t comment on student conduct issues,” they wrote. “As with all student organizations, the university follows its student judicial policies and procedures.”

    Update: Around noon on Friday, after the protestors cleared Tinkham Veale, Rachael Collyer, the director of the Ohio Student Association, told Scene that members of SJP were not directly involved in the “die-in.”

    “SJP did not participate in the planning of the demonstration or in the demonstration itself due to concerns about their safety and about receiving further backlash to their student org from the university,” Collyer wrote in a text message. “The intention of the protest was to lift up the voices of the broader CWRU community, who are voicing their support for SJP to be reinstated.”

    “Additionally,” she added, the two students interviewed for this article “are not SJP members.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Want Free Ice Cream? Start Nabbing ‘We Buy Houses’ Signs Off the Streets of Cleveland

    Want Free Ice Cream? Start Nabbing ‘We Buy Houses’ Signs Off the Streets of Cleveland

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Ward 13 Councilman Kris Harsh has a proposition for you: Take down as many “We Buy Houses” signs off of Cleveland’s streets as possible in the next two weeks.

    Those who take the most? He’ll buy you ice cream.

    “Here’s the deal,” Harsh said in a video on Twitter/X from his driveway on Tuesday. “I’m gonna start a bounty for these signs. Whoever can get the most of these signs off the streets by the end of April gets Honey Hut on me.”

    “You take one of these signs down,” he reiterated, holding a sign he presumably nabbed himself. “Show it to me. Winner gets Honey Hut.”

    Harsh, among other ideological strongholds, has long been a stickler for bad housing policy, especially any exchange of property dealt mostly in cash. And those attractive to the out-of-state investor type taking advantage of Northeast Ohio’s famously affordable market.

    “We Buy Houses” is a universal ad slogan you’ve seen plastered on signs dotting utility poles for brokers and buyers in hot pursuit of homes bought on the cheap, hunting for a nice commission. (An actual business, too.) And typically from homeowners itching to sell as quickly as possible.

    click to enlarge The signs of question, as Harsh showed on his 'April Challenge' video on Tuesday. - Kris Harsh

    Kris Harsh

    The signs of question, as Harsh showed on his ‘April Challenge’ video on Tuesday.

    “Oh, it’s almost like always a scam,” Harsh told Scene in a phone call. “They’re trying to lowball people who are, you know, in a pickle who don’t think they can take their time to get rid of something. So they offer them below market value and then flip it to an investor. That’s pretty much it.”

    Though the councilman said his “April Challenge” had no relation to the Residents First overhaul of Cleveland’s housing code that he was a main backer of, it’s clear that Harsh’s bounty matches the overall ire of City Hall’s Department of Building & Housing.

    Approved in February, the legal makeover aims to deter bad actor investor, and created a Local Agent in Charge clause that requires any out-of-state owner—in California or Switzerland—to hire a local manager that Building & Housing could take to court, if need be. (It’s yet to be determined if that agent will show up in court or not.)

    So far, Harsh said a few likeminded folks at City Hall sent him photos of signs they’d gathered. He still hopes his bounty on the “We Buy Houses” signs reach anyone in the city who’s up for an ice cream sundae. Or two.

    “I could switch it up to, like, Old Brooklyn cheese if, like, they don’t like ice cream,” Harsh said. “Or if they’re lactose intolerant, we could go down to Metropolitan or Six Shooter Coffee or something.

    “I don’t care,” he added. “As long as they take these signs down.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • University Circle to Become a ‘Special Improvement District’ in Effort to Bolster Security

    University Circle to Become a ‘Special Improvement District’ in Effort to Bolster Security

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    UCI Chief Place Management Officer Elise Yablonsky, UCPD Chief Tom Wetzel, and UCI President Kate Borders at Monday’s Council meeting.

    In a move to bolster safety efforts in University Circle, Cleveland City Council approved legislation on Monday that will form a special improvement district inside the East Side neighborhood.

    Such a district would be used to evenly raise money—some $4.3 million—to better financially back police patrolling and transportation in about a 1.2-square-mile area, Kate Borders, the director of University Circle, Inc. hired last summer, told Council’s Finance, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

    Framed as the most pressing issue, Borders and team explained that their police force, made up of five dispatchers and seven frontline cruisers, are mostly funded by Wade Oval legacy institutions—think CMA and the Natural History Museum—ordered by property size and employee count.

    The issue with bolstering a busy police force, one that trekked 56,000 miles of patrol coverage in 2023, in a kind of a lá carte method carries issues: yearly inflation, vagaries based on worker turnover, of museum expansion costs.

    Making the Circle a special improvement district, or SID, would, Borders told Council, level the playing field, in a way.

    That money was originally “coming partially from voluntary payments, but there was a substantial deficit in that,” Borders said. “But this [district] is really necessary to maintain and support our safety services in the Circle, and fund them sustainably.”

    Pushed by Cuyahoga County as a communal way for a neighborhood to fund collective services— bike lanes, police staffing—a SID, like the one coming to the Circle, will require most, if not all, properties in that district to pay into a set-up fund. Money could be used to make improvements along Euclid Ave. or to add seasonal staffing.

    Public safety remains a priority for those living and working in the neighborhood.

    On April 2, a vehicle explosion in front of the Museum of Natural History led to Cleveland’s bomb squad being called in, and the road closed, Fox 8 reported. A week later, on April 8, four teenagers attempted to steal a Kia Forte at the nearby Centric Apartments, a theft that ended with two UCI officers chasing the teenagers down the tracks of the Red Line. (And breaking a hand and a knee.)

    Though Wetzel said that the SID will help the department fund a crisis intervention specialist, and lead to “bias-free police training,” that four million dollar fund isn’t built without some notion of controversy. In 2020, ProPublica found that 90 percent of all drivers ticketed in that area, since 2015, were Black.

    Borders and Wetzel, both less than a year into their position, repeatedly framed the SID creation as a move to relieve pressure on Cleveland Police and nearby officers and security at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic.

    Council President Blaine Griffin saw Borders’ pitch as necessary to keep locals and visitors’ perceiving Uptown as a safe area to be.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, we have approximately 50,000 people that come into this area every single day to come to work and play,” Griffin said. “That’s why we need that support. I just want to make sure that everybody understands why this is a critical piece of legislation.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • The Cleveland Catholic Diocese Has a List of Clergy Credibly Accused of Child Abuse. Advocates Want the Church to Finally Release It

    The Cleveland Catholic Diocese Has a List of Clergy Credibly Accused of Child Abuse. Advocates Want the Church to Finally Release It

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of Bishop Accountability, an anti-abuse non-profit, spoke near the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Wednesday.

    In 2002, following a groundbreaking investigation by the Boston Globe into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the steps the church took to protect them, Cleveland prosecutors and grand jurors soon came up with a list of 145 local priests who allegedly abused children.

    The problem then, even after years of work by then County Prosecutor Bill Mason and the grand jury, only a handful of the suspects were charged. The rest contained on the list remained secret due to a judge’s ruling on the secrecy of grand jury proceedings and it took years for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, after cultural pushback, to release some (52 to date) of the names themselves.

    On Wednesday, in front of the catherdral of St. John the Evangelist, a team of anti-child abuse advocates called once again for the full grand jury list of offenders to be released.

    The push, led by activists Anne Barrett Doyle and Claudia Vercellotti, arrives just a week after officials at St. Ignatius High School in Ohio City admitted that a former priest of theirs, a Fr. Frank Canfield, had likely abused at least one former student.

    Speaking in front of poster boards with victims’ portraits and silouhettes of accusers, Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability, directed her accusations to Bishop Edward Malesic, whom she believes carries the power to unveil the remaining hundred or so names of the alleged.

    “The single most compassionate thing a bishop can do when he says he cares about victims… It’s not a healing mass. It’s not a healing garden. It’s not even praying for them. It’s releasing information,” Doyle said. “When the church acknowledges that someone has been credibly accused and they release information about the abuse, you know what happens? More victims come forward.”

    The group, as part of the press conference, published the names of 50 clerics they say have been credibly accused but who have not been named by the diocese.

    Doyle’s hunch is reflected in the incident at St. Ignatius. Canfield, originally from the Diocese of Toledo, was accused in 2022 of abusing a student at Saint John’s Jesuit High School. In 2023, an investigation by the Midwest Province Jesuits concluded the allegation was credible. Other schools Canfield worked at were informed.

    By December, a St. Ignatius alum came forward, accusing Canfield of abusing him during the 2011-2012 school year. (Canfield had died in June.)

    click to enlarge Doyle's accusations were focused on Bishop Edward Malesic, who she believes carries the power to release the names of priests in the Diocese of Cleveland who've received sex abuse allegations in the past two decades. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    Doyle’s accusations were focused on Bishop Edward Malesic, who she believes carries the power to release the names of priests in the Diocese of Cleveland who’ve received sex abuse allegations in the past two decades.

    In a letter to the public, St. Ignatius president Raymond Guiao explained that transparency in the situation with Canfield was paramount to securing trust, and encouraged other students who may have experienced abuse to reach out.

    “I invite you to join me in prayer for our alumnus, for all victims of clerical sexual abuse, and for all of those impacted in the wake of such a tragedy,” Guiao wrote. “Should anyone wish to discuss this or any other situation with me personally, my door is always open.”

    Doyle’s list, held up for cameras multiple times during her speech on Wednesday, contains some 50 clerics who spent at least some of their career in the Cleveland diocese. Thirty-eight, she said, had already been “credibly-accused” by another bishop, or some religious superior. Many, she said, are deceased.

    As for reasons Bishop Malesic’s hasn’t shared the remaining names, Doyle believes that the cleric’s refusal is in direct infringment of Pope Francis’ sexual abuse accountability law, created to hold all those accused of abuse in the Catholic Church accountable. The law made expanded and made concrete in canonical proceedings last March.

    It’s given Doyle, who had been working in anti-abuse advocacy since the Boston scandal, a particular sense of urgency.

    “Where are those priests now? Do their neighbors know what they did? Are they working in schools? Are they counselors?” Doyle said. “We find that even when priests are released from the priesthood, if they’re abusers, they find a way to work with young people and children again.”

    The Diocese of Cleveland’s own list, which came to light in April 2002 and was revised in 2018, contains the names of 53 member clerics found guilty of abuse, those who’ve admitted to abusing minors, who those whose actions have been proven true “by canonical procedure.”

    And those procedures end in a series of punishments: removed (like 14 priests) from all regular church duties—saying Mass, hearing confessions, wearing priestly garb; given a life of prayer and penance; obligated to “live alone in prayer” (like one priest).

    Others, like six priests on the Diocese’s list, were removed from ministry permanently. (Thirty had died before accusations were brought to light.)

    In response to accusations against Malesic, a Diocese spokesperson told Scene that their own list doesn’t include clergy from other dioceses, or those who belong to a religious order—”only clerics of the Diocese of Cleveland.”

    “The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is steadfastly committed to the protection and safety of children, as demonstrated in its robust policies regarding background checks, its education and training, its commitment to reporting all allegations of child sexual abuse to civil authorities,” the statement read, “and by the fact that no cleric in the Diocese of Cleveland against whom a substantiated allegation has been made is permitted to ever again serve in ministry.”

    Both Doyle and Vercellotti said that they’ve received lackluster responses from Attorney General Dave Yost and County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, yet have faith in institutions like St. Ignatius to surface names they believe belong in the public eye.

    “It takes seconds to abuse a child and a lifetime to overcome it,” Vercellotti said. “Ohio deserves better. Ohio kids deserve better.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Clevo Books to Move Into Vacant Rise Nation Space This Month

    Clevo Books to Move Into Vacant Rise Nation Space This Month

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Mark Oprea

    Clevo Books came of age at the 5th Street Arcades. Its owner says it’s time to move on.

    After two years of testing the waters in a sizable space at the Euclid Arcades, Downtown’s Clevo Books will relocate three blocks east to the old Rise Nation space at 1030 Euclid Avenue in late April.

    The move, owner Cathyrn Siegal-Bergman told Scene, stems from a combination of the store coming into its own as well as an itch to leave the Arcades, which have continued to struggle with vacating tenants and lackluster foot traffic following its takeover by new managers CBRE.

    Siegal-Bergman is excited for the new digs for the store’s growing collection, and for a monthly readings and a planned literary-themed wine bar.

    “We’re outgrowing the space we’re in now,” Siegal-Bergman told Scene. The former boutique gym at 1030 Euclid, she said, “seems to be ideal. It gives us new room to grow into.”

    Along with that wine bar, which will come with a second phase renovation this summer, Siegal-Bergman plans to use Clevo’s new 3,000 square-foot store to expand her sidelines merchandise—themed notebooks, pens, book-related gifts—and allow for a more airy, inviting place to hang out. (Which means more furniture.)

    Clevo’s relocation to Euclid Avenue comes at a time of spring shuffling in Cleveland’s literary world.

    Last month, The Bookshop, the non-pretentious spot off Madison Avenue in Lakewood announced they were closing and would be liquidating books at a 75 percent discount. (Just as Book Brothers, a well-stocked literary haven a block west, stretches its legs into the space next door.)

    And in early April, following a $250,000 state historic tax credit, NEOTrans confirmed that Visible Voice will be moving out of Tremont to a new, rehabilitated storefront close to West 45th and Lorain Avenue. And in December, sisters Catherine Kassouf and Jean Khoury, began renting a space in the largely-vacant Erieview for their travel-inspired Browsing Room Bookstore and Cafe.

    The city’s only bookstore to specialize primarily in books-in-translation, Clevo grew out of Siegal-Bergman’s own work as a German translator. Clevo’s shelves are categorized into 53 languages—including works such as Marx’s Das Capital and Dante’s Divine Comedy—as well as those sporting graphic novels, tomes on photography, classics and poetry.

    Siegal-Bergman’s eye on Euclid Avenue interplays nicely with Downtown Cleveland, Inc.’s nigh actualization of its five-year retail plan, a strategy aiming to fill long-vacant storefronts downtown with small businesses owned by women, minorities or Veterans.

    As of early April, Euclid Avenue, Cleveland’s historical commercial locus, remains about a quarter to half vacant, amplified by the exoduses of the Chocolate Bar, Cathy’s, Nosotros Climbing Gym, and the Flower Petal as newcomers test the market, like HYPE Clothing, Best Steak & Gyro and the Square Cafe.

    Siegal-Bergman said Clevo Books is aiming to have all their books transported to the old Rise Nation space, and reopen, on Independent Bookstore Day, April 27.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • More Black Babies Die in Ohio Before Their First Birthday When Compared to White Babies

    More Black Babies Die in Ohio Before Their First Birthday When Compared to White Babies

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    CDC

    Ohio has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the country

    Fewer Black babies live to see their first birthday in Ohio when compared to white babies, the Ohio Department of Health’s most recent report shows.

    Ohio’s overall infant mortality rate was 7.0 in 2021, according to the report. Breaking it down by race, the infant mortality rate was 14.2 for Black babies and 5.4 for white babies. 

    “The gap in racial outcomes is alarming,” said state Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering.

    Racism is the umbrella reason why infant mortality rates are higher among Black babies, said Celebrate One Executive Director Danielle P. Tong. 

    “The umbrella understanding of racism has to be at the crux of these conversations and the way that tends to play out most consistently is this refrain that folks do not feel listened to by their care providers across systems,” she said. 

    “Specifically in the medical system there are implicit biases … this concept around how much pain Black women can take versus other types of women and how do we dispel those kinds of myths.” 

    What is infant mortality?

    Infant mortality is the death of an infant before their first birthday and is the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

    Black babies die at a rate almost three times higher than white babies in Ohio. In 2021, 912 Ohio babies died before their first birthday — 528 White infant deaths and 332 Black infant deaths.

    Ohio has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina are the only states with higher rates of infant mortality.

    The national infant mortality rate was 5.6 in 2022, according to the CDC.

    Prematurity is the main cause of death of babies, according to the 2021 ODH report. Black infants died from prematurity-related causes and external injuries three times the rate of white babies. 

    Lucas, Highland, Brown, Scioto, and Guernsey counties had the highest rates of infant mortality in the state, according to the 2021 ODH report. 

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced that ODH in partnership with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth was awarded $5 million to 19 community and faith-based organizations to better support pregnant women and new parents. 

    “Giving all Ohioans the best possible start in life truly begins before a child is even born and that means ensuring the child’s family has access to the resources and support they need,” DeWine said in a news release. 

    The money will give funding help start or grow services that are working to improve infant and maternal health. 

    “We need strong local partners in order to effectively address our state’s maternal and infant mortality numbers,” Ohio Department of Children and Youth Director Kara Wente said in a news release. “We must work together at the state and local levels so that more children thrive and reach their first birthday.”

    CelebrateOne

    CelebrateOne has spent the past 10 years helping Franklin County babies see their first birthday. 

    “We’re talking about survival and thriving,” Tong said. 

    CelebrateOne can pair pregnant women with doulas and community health workers at no cost to help them throughout their pregnancy and their babies first year of life. 

    Prenatal care also plays a big role in reducing the infant mortality rate. 

    “Too often women just don’t go get prenatal care,” Tong said. “It’s just crucial to avoid preterm births, low birth rate, complications during delivery.”

    House Bill 7

    State Reps. White and Latyna Humphrey, D-Columbus, introduced a bipartisan bill last year that would support doula services, pregnancy and postpartum individuals, children and families in poverty, early intervention, child care, a cost savings study for the Medicaid program, and the Head Start Program.

    “This bill is about changing the trajectory of our most vulnerable citizens by strategically investing in this first 1,000 days of life concept,” White said. 

    House Bill 7 would require the Board of Nursing to establish a registry of certified doulas, a Doula Advisory Board would be created within the board of nursing and it would require the Ohio Department of Medicaid to cover doula services provided by a certified doula with a Medicaid provider agreement. 

    “We’ve got more mothers dying from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in Ohio than many other states,” White said. “We’ve got more than one and 150 babies who don’t live to their first birthday.” 

    Moms2B

    Moms2B is working to improve the infant mortality rate in Franklin County.

    Dr. Patricia Gabbe helped start the Moms2B program in 2010 within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. 

    They started by focusing on the Weinland Park neighborhood, just north of Downtown Columbus.  

    “We learned about the social determinants of health and the medical complications that women in that neighborhood faced,” Gabbe said.

    Weinland Park’s infant mortality rate was 16 per 1,000 in 2010 and the neighborhood ended up seeing a five-fold reduction in infant mortality in Moms2B’s first four years, Gabbe said.

    Today, Moms2B has weekly sessions for pregnant women throughout various Columbus neighborhoods. 

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

    [ad_2]

    Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal

    Source link

  • Here Are Ohio’s Proposed Rules for Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries

    Here Are Ohio’s Proposed Rules for Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Metro Times

    Adult-use dispensaries have yet to pop up in Ohio. This week, a handful of rules for how they should operate were sent to a state board for review.

    Even Gov. Mike DeWine called the whole contradiction “goofy“: Ohioans can now, since Issue 2 went into effect in early December, grow and smoke a relatively small amount of marijuana legally.

    Yet, there’s literally nowhere for them to buy it. (Again, legally.)

    After passing with 57 percent of the vote last summer, Ohio became the 24th state to legalize weed for adult use. Though the Ohio Senate scrambled soon after Ohioans began, presumably, lighting up, a persistent legislative gap has led to a slew of unanswered questions as dispensaries new and old prepare to open up doors to regular, bud-seeking citizens.

    On Wednesday, following this four-month legal gap, about a dozen proposed rules for how the state regulates the soon-to-be adult-use dispensaries were sent through DeWine’s Common Sense Initiative, a board that scrutinizes statewide laws and regulations impacting businesses.

    As stated in a draft form of the rule sheet, the newly-formed Division of Cannabis Control, the ivory tower for all legal weed transactions, will oversee 13 areas of regulation that, the document suggests, are copied from or influenced by other legal states.

    “Other state cannabis markets and regulations were studied,” it reads, “and identified best practices were used to help develop these rules.”

    With the DCC allocating a portion of legal sales into a fund benefiting persons that have long dealt with the brunt of the justice system, big questions abound regarding how fairness in a juicy, nascent market in Ohio will fare with free-market capitalism. And, of course, how the state and local law enforcement will balance preventing potential harm—to minors, per se—and allowing green Ohioans their joie de vivre after years of fearing legal repercussions. And jail time.

    In New York last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul called the state’s sluggish legal weed rollout a “disaster,” following a slew of lawsuits from hundreds of dispensary prospectors claiming New York’s Office of Cannabis Management awarded its flimsy 109 licenses, out of 7,000 total applications, with bias.

    And just on Monday, Germany became the next country in the European Union to legalize weed, despite criticism that limiting access to “not-for-profit clubs” was too stifling. Ironically, as in Ohio, it’s still illegal to buy and sell.

    click to enlarge At a weed conference at the I-X Center last year. Ohio may be bound for some of the rollout issues other states are seeing, like in New York, where lawsuits claiming bias in the licensing system abound. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    At a weed conference at the I-X Center last year. Ohio may be bound for some of the rollout issues other states are seeing, like in New York, where lawsuits claiming bias in the licensing system abound.

    In Ohio, the 13 rules proposed are comprehensive in their security precautions and their tracking of kindbud throughout every single step of the sales process. (And even its disposal out back.) Here are some highlights:

    • All dispensaries must be 500 feet away from any library, park, playground, school or church. And they can only stay open until 11 p.m.
    • No dispensary owner can “own, control, or have financial interest in” more than one weed processor, one cultivator or more than eight separate dispensaries.
    • The Division of Cannabis Control must get an accountability chart of every dispensary employee, along with records their connections to any prior employment in the marijuana industry. (Even if you’ve worked at a Starbuds in Denver.)
    • No dispensary can change their name, or choose their name, without approval from the DCC.
    • All dispensaries, new and old, must deposit $50,000 in an escrow account before operating legally. All testing labs, $75,000. High-level growers? $750,000.
    • Every Ohioan entering an adult-use dispensary must show ID, be 21 or over, and will be “escorted and monitored by an assigned registered employee at all times.” Want to go to any other part of the store? You’ll need to sign a visitor log with your name, date, time, escort name and “purpose of the facility visit.” (To “get geeked”?)
    • All dispensaries have to keep tight watch on any weed thrown out. That bad bud must be weighed, recorded and measured, and must be kept away from sellable stuff. And everything—the “stalks, stems, fan leaves, or roots”—has to be ground up with non-cannabis waste to be tossed out properly.
    • Dispensaries must be camera-heavy: at all points of entrance and exit, in the shop’s retail area and limited-access area (for employees), overlooking trash bins and all cash registers. (All of which the DCC can monitor in real-time, 24/7.) Also, there must be access alarms at every entry point, along with motion detectors and silent alarms that ping security guards if they’ve been breached.

    And with that, enjoy lighting up this summer at the dispensary nearest you. When it opens. If it opens.
    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link