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It appears as if a relatively small number of large property owners are imposing their will on a large number of smaller ones. It’s not at all clear that the community will benefit much from the SID, but it is crystal clear that certain UCI member institutions will.
One wonders how UCI will expand the SID in the future, both in terms of imposition of costs for other services and projects, and in terms of the areal extent of the SID.
It worries me that there is little determined questioning of potential underlying motives and future implications of an SID that may not be transparent to the community now. Many people that live in host neighborhoods to UCI’s members institutions, based on their history, are correctly skeptical that all is what it is being sold as with the proposed SID. It feels very much like the camel is just getting its nose under the tent.
I suggest City Council defer a vote until UCI’s new leadership is in place, has an opportunity to assess the SID and can be thoroughly and vigorously questioned by UCI’s host communities that are entitled to a complete understanding of the future implications of the SID. Appropriate restraints and oversight must be in place with any SID to assure that the University Circle institutions’ host neighborhoods are properly informed, listened to and respected.
Thank you,
Arthur Hargate
Edgehill Rd., Little Italy, Ward 6
State your name, affiliation and note that you are a Cleveland resident
Acknowledge the historical nature of tonight and 2023 City Council’s leadership and role in the realization of CentroVilla25, a long time vision of the Hispanic residents of Cleveland
Directly thank Council President Blaine Griffin and Councilwoman Jasmin Santana
Recognize City Council members (as a group not by name) for sending a clear message to the Hispanic community members in the City and region that nuestra gente están presente and add your eloquent comments
Tonight City Council stands as partners with a broad array of individuals and institutions who have embraced and invested in CentroVilla25. These include but are not limited to: Hispanics and host committee members who have contributed time, talent and treasure; corporations that have donated; other public sector entities such as County Council representative who contributed; a nonprofit that invested and challenged others to participate; and philanthropic entities that stepped up to recognize the local and regional benefits and wealth creation opportunities brought forth by CV25 through culture, community and commerce.
Gracias for … add your closing
A ve
But always we must ask these questions of their positions: Who benefits? And who pays?
This much we know: the cosmic lie of “trickle-down” economic development decisions the last 50 years here is one very good reason why Cleveland remains one of the poorest big cities in the United States, with underfunded public schools, a devastated urban tree canopy, high rates of urban infant mortality, deep racial segregation and discrimination, crumbling infrastructure in certain neglected neighborhoods, a lack of living wage jobs, many dangerous streets, declining population and an affordable housing crisis.
If the business and property development community’s approach to economic development had worked, we would have made much more progress on these intractable problems the last 50 years. They have held considerable sway and dictated their policies and preferences to the Mayor’s administration and City Council for decades, and look at the results.
Why would we listen to them yet again and expect different outcomes? The people that live in Cleveland can no longer allow private interests to continue to gorge themselves at the overflowing trough of public money while poor people remain poor and the middle class in this City can’t catch an even break.
City Council needs to stand its ground and promote economic and property development that benefits ALL Clevelanders, not just the region’s posh, powerful and privileged.
Thank you.
While I know there are numerous issues that the city faces I am writing about one that affects me daily. The public health crisis of noise pollution. Specifically the noise coming from the park behind my home. I know it may not be a concern to many who don't have the same issue. Believe me I could not fathom it before I had to live this nightmare. I live on Reservoir Place Drive behind Luke Easter Park and year after year as the weather warms up the car stereos and bass systems get louder and louder. My windows and glass table have actually vibrated from the sound. They park right behind my house and turn it up as loud as they can. Even if they are further away at the rec center the bass carries to my house. It is truly distressing. I cannot concentrate, I have migraine headaches and find myself being nervous and on edge due to lack of rest and just anticipating the noise.
The park is not even a safe or welcoming place for the children and families it is intended for as adults take over and blast music with explicit lyrics that can be heard far and wide right near the playground portion. These persons have no concern for the obvious disruption to the people living in the homes that are clearly visible to them and just feet away. The police do not respond to the phone call complaints of the noise. They simply do not come. I have to endure it until they decide to leave the area. I've heard it even while the little league teams play their games back there. They stay even after the dark, after 9:00pm when the park closes with the noise blaring. I need help and am asking for a reprieve from this torture. If there's something I can do short of approaching one of them again please let me know. I don't have peace in my own home. I plan to move soon, but of course the elevated interest rates and inflated housing prices make it a poor financial decision and a tough time to do so and it's sad that I am being forced out. I cannot understand why this type of behavior is acceptable.
We, the undersigned organizations, ask for your support for an ordinance that ends the sale of all flavored
tobacco products including menthol and establishes a Tobacco Retail License (TRL) in the City of Cleveland.
For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted communities of color with flavored tobacco products. Products
such as menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars were intentionally developed to mask the harsh taste of
tobacco, allowing more frequent use, and resulting in higher addiction rates. The industry’s predatory
behavior has had a devastating impact. Black communities suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related
death, with black adults 32% more likely to die from heart disease and 45% more likely to die from stroke.
Now the tobacco industry is using the same tactics to addict our children. Kid-friendly flavors like gummy bear,
grape crush and cotton candy, often used in non-combustible “e-cigarettes,” are designed to hook a new
generation of tobacco users. Nearly all (97%) youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products, and the
overwhelming majority point to flavored products as their starting point.
In addition to ending the sale of flavored products, the City of Cleveland needs better tools to enforce existing
tobacco laws. While the minimum age for tobacco sales was raised to 21 in 2015, enforcement efforts
continue to be inadequate in deterring sales to underage youth. In 2019, only 28% (176) of Cleveland’s 618
tobacco retailers received a compliance check. Of the 176 inspections performed, 66 or 38% failed inspection.
And of the tobacco retailers that failed inspection, 78% received only a warning letter.
A comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and Tobacco Retail License ordinance is needed to:
• End the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including but not limited to menthol cigarettes, flavored
cigars/cigarillos, flavored e-cigarettes, flavored smokeless tobacco, flavored shisha/hookah, etc.
• Require every tobacco retailer in Cleveland to get a license and renew annually so the city can know
how many tobacco retailers are operating in the city and more effectively enforce local, state, and
federal tobacco laws.
• Use the annual tobacco retail license fee to fund robust enforcement efforts, including at a minimum
one compliance check per retailer per year.
• Hold retailers accountable for unlawful sales to youth through graduated penalties and license
suspension or revocation for repeated violations.
Ending the sale of flavored products addresses decades of predatory marketing on behalf of the tobacco
industry directed towards communities of color, as well as recent efforts to hook a generation of youth users
with flavored e-cigarettes. Establishing a Tobacco Retail License will allow the City to better enforce laws that
keep tobacco products out of the hands of youth. Taken together, these policies give the City the tools needed
to lower Cleveland’s startling high smoking rate of 35.2% (a rate significantly higher than state and national
averages), prevent future tobacco addiction and tobacco-related health outcomes including heart disease,
lung cancer and stroke, and reduce the health disparities that confront Cleveland’s Black and Brown
communities as a result of decades of racial targeting.
Please put the health of our kids and community first by passing a comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and
Tobacco Retail license ordinance that ends the sale of ALL flavored tobacco products in Cleveland and ensures
tobacco retailers aren’t selling to underage customers. This policy will go a long way toward addressing racism
as a public health crisis in the City of Cleveland.
Sincerely,
American Cancer Society - Cancer Action Network
American Heart Association
American Lung Association
A Vision of Change
Better Health Partnership
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Care Alliance Health Center
Case Western Reserve University
Center for Black Health and Equity
Center for Health Affairs
Center for Community Solutions
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Office of Minority Health
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
First Year Cleveland
Healthy Cleveland BreatheFree Committee
Hospice of the Western Reserve
MetroHealth
Midtown Cleveland Inc.
Mt. Sinai Health Foundation
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) – Cleveland Branch
National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services, Inc.
Ohio Public Health Association
Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation
Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes
Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation
See You at the Top (SYATT)
Signature Health
Slavic Village Community Development Corporation
The African American Tobacco Control Leadership
Council
The Gathering Place
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's
Hospital
Urban League of Greater Cleveland
Young Latino Network
YWCA Greater Cleveland