Zagapi

Also, we lost Sherrod Brown and replaced him with Bernie Moreno. Ugh. Fantastic Cleveland representation.

Does anyone know if the State's Transportation Improvement District could be used for public transit? It just says roadways, so I'd imagine BRT, LRT, and bike/ped infrastructure wouldn't be an issue. Why hasn't Cuyahoga County used this before? I wonder if I'm missing something on the eligibility because it seems so obvious. A quick look at the scoring criteria seems like it would be a slam dunk for the city.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Can always count on @E Rocc and @TBideon for the fun around here! I know there's no shot at this happening, just curious on the pros and cons from the region's perspective. Only a thought experiment really. As for a trans rights go, I wasn't expecting that to be a catalyst for a new state. It was more of a throwaway comment than anything else. But I appreciate both of your blunt opinions lol

I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of the forum on the idea of (mostly) NE Ohio existing as its own state. I've taken to calling this hypothetical state, the Commonwealth of the Western Reserve. It feels a little silly to even bring up this idea, but it seems like the Northeast Ohio Region could have a lot to gain with autonomy from the current state government. Am I just upset about state legislators from some random small town in the southern half of the state stripping away my rights as a trans person? Yes absolutely. But as an urbanist, I think a state consisting of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Lorain, Sandusky, Ashtabula and maybe even Toledo has a much better shot at achieving prosperity for NE Ohio that the status quo. Thoughts?

Are there any policies or programs that the cities themselves can do to increase immigration? I'd love to see Cleveland become a population magnet once again.

Its really encouraging to see Depot moving forward, and the traffic calming would be a godsend. I love the idea of "squaring off" Detroit and opening up that parcel for a new development. With Depot and two more mixed use properties in what is effectively the same intersection would be huge. The concept in the article would activate a huge portion of my neighborhood!

Japan is certainly not a trade rival. I'm not even sure what you mean by that. The only reason I would consider China a "trade rival" is because of their terrible habit of intellectual property theft. They're certainly a political rival. But free trade means you don't have trade rivals, unless they are bad actors. Japan is certainly not a bad actor, especially compared to China. Nippon Steel would have a much stronger interest in keeping the US Steel furnaces running. Cliffs could eventually close them, thereby reducing supply and increasing the price of domestic steel which maintains their bottom line. Nippon has no incentive to close them after purchasing them.

Oh man, I just moved a few blocks away off Detroit. If this place is decent, I'm about to spend way too much money there lol.

Ah yes, famous friends Japan and China. Seems silly to call out Japan with business ties to China and not call out other companies that do the same. Oh, wait. That would be literally everyone else.

From Mathew Ahn's critique: "BAD: 2. Council claims a 41% opportunity ward and a 29% opportunity ward for Latina/o voters, but I reproduced the map in Dave's Redistricting and I'm not getting those numbers. I think those wards are only 39.9% and 26.5% Hispanic." This comment right there pokes a hole in Ahn's entire rant. He's clearly using different data or making different assumptions than what the City was using. Looking at the methodology of Dave's Redistricting, they seem to make updates based on 2022 data and have to infer on some of the racial demographic information between The Census, ACS, and CVAP data: "For all years the following ethnic and racial categories are included. Because the categories overlap, their sum will be greater than the total population for the same area." From what I understand the City had to use the 2020 data. Not the ACS estimates for 2022. So this is not an apples-to-apples comparison even if the above disclaimer wasn't there. I think it's really irresponsible for him to send out this Op-Ed/Thread as if it was the undiluted truth when we have no idea what concessions and assumptions the City had to make. Still, I'm sure the East side wards are at the bottom of the MOE and West side wards are at the top. The discrepancy has almost certainly increased since 2020. But, with Jenny Spencer not seeking re-election, there's an easy opportunity to eliminate a seat. It would have pissed off a lot more people if they decided to eliminate two wards on the East side instead. Even if the data said to. So you have to eliminate one ward on the East Side and go from there. Another critique of Ahn's: "Are neighborhoods kept together? Do opposite ends of wards feel like they belong together? Are natural barriers used for ward lines when possible?" This is straight up only based on vibes. I'd argue reuniting Collinwood, and cutting Slavic village in two wards is better than 4 or 5 different wards like it has been historically. Sorry Maurer, but your ward is outright silly. Also, neighborhoods aren't real lines. Most neighborhood's names and borders are disputed between residents in some capacity. It's not gonna be ideal. Some blocks need to be cut out to make the numbers right. This map is an imperfect solution to an imperfect problem. Populist types like Ahn have a really hard time understanding nuance.

Here's an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showing the PA Workers support for the Nippon Steel purchase. https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2025/01/03/us-steel-nippon-biden-mon-valley-pittsburgh/stories/202501030076

You are confusing the United Steel Workers Union for the workers of U.S. Steel. USW is absolutely on the the side of reducing any type of foreign competition. Its called rent-seeking.

Good. US Steel Wants to sell to Nippon Nippon wants to buy US Steel US Steel workers want Nippon to buy US Steel Cleveland Cliffs: "Is there someone you forgot to ask?" This is entirely motivated by Cliffs wanting to avoid any competition as they have been the biggest lobbyists against letting the sale go through. They would own 100% of the blast furnace capacity in the US. It will somehow need to get past the FTC, although, I can't imagine the Trump admin will care much. I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. This is just protectionism and it is inherently inflationary. "National security" just means whatever is convenient for your argument. Japan is one of our closest allies and Nippon is a global leader in steel innovation. More competition here is good for literally everyone on Earth, except for the shareholders of Cliffs and folks that think American manufacturing will ever return to what it looked like during its golden age.

I have a very close tie to Praxis Fiber Studio. It is truly an incredible community and a perfect example of a "third place."

With Council voting on the proposed map tonight what are everyone's final thoughts on the new lines?

I'm not nearly as well informed about all of the lore of the council members and the full story about the community's ability to comment on the redistricting process. So, take what I say about the individual members with a grain of salt. But it honestly seems like this process went pretty well. Sure, they could have had more opportunities for the citizens to speak, but they ultimately did. Not everyone can be happy. I was persuaded by Polensek pleading for folks to understand that while imperfect, this is the most democratic and transparent the redistricting process has ever been. He also talked about one of the redistricting efforts that axed a dozen council members all behind close doors. Imagine that for a moment. They are bound by how the charter amendment has the process laid out. Personally, I can't really find too much wrong with the proposed map given the constraints they had to follow. It seems like council completed the task per the law. They needed to have some difficult discussions behind close doors, otherwise they don't happen at all. I'm sure we've all had work experiences where you need have a smaller meeting in a conference room. As far as not allowing public comment at the council meetings, I would be inclined to agree. Council meetings have a lot of things to go through, and that is not the best format for citizens to provide their input and actually be heard. Having dedicated meetings allow you to actually break things down with them, and play around with the maps and take notes right there. You can't do that at the Council meetings. I don't even want to entertain the idea of legitimizing the participatory budget proposal. That was such a short-sighted effort that was motivated entirely by populism, not liberal democracy. If they wanted to propose a new tax or some other new revenue stream to achieve a "people's budget" then I would absolutely entertain the idea, but there are certainly still risks to that idea. The purpose of the ballot measure was to undermine the city's ability to conduct the business that we empower them to do and hit them a senseless budget cut. Feel free to let me know which neighborhoods should receive less city services. Then, we can go them for public comment and get their take on it. I don't mean to come off as hostile. I would just bet that if the city had doubled the public comment sessions, we would be hearing the same complaints.

I have ridden the Healthline quite a bit in the last year during peak hours, as well a few times on less busy times. The drivers have no problem holding up the bus at any point if they see someone not scan a ticket or acting up. Kids, adults, homeless or otherwise, they don't hesitate. My commute until very recently was to hop on at E. 14th and hop off at E. 40th. Since I'm on there for 5 minutes tops and I'm young and able, I would always stand by the non-opening door, assuming it wasn't too crowded to do so. A few months ago, one of the drivers attempted to scold me for leaning against the door, which I'm very conscious of not doing. He insisted on saying it again, and I had to assert myself that I was not leaning up against the door so we could get the bus going again. I once bought a ticket for homeless man that got on the bus without paying for one. The driver was not having it and was telling him he'd have to get off. I paid for it partly so we could just keep moving, but mostly because I hate the idea of $2.50 preventing someone from getting somewhere. Homeless or not, he was trying to use the service as intended and wasn't bothering anyone except the driver. The non-Healthline drivers are significantly friendlier. Which makes sense with the increased shenanigans, but the HL drivers look like they hate their lives.

Below is the link to the GIS layer for the 2025 Wards Draft Map https://services3.arcgis.com/dty2kHktVXHrqO8i/arcgis/rest/services/Wards2025DRAFT/FeatureServer/0

With how unliked Haslam is amongst the other NFL owners, and all signs pointing to Bibb and Ronayne wanting to tell HSG to kick rocks, what actual leverage do they have? Sure, there would be some revenue loss for downtown in the short term. But personally, I'd take the bet that the city/county can activate that land to be productive in a much more efficient manner than what it is now. Back to his unpopularity with the ownership groups, would they even let him move the Browns? Maybe they would be willing to use him as a guinea pig for Europe or Mexico City, but I'm not sure how they'd react to moving to Columbus. Maybe I'm being an alarmist, but I'd anticipate Cleveland and Columbus breeding some real resentment if they fought over an NFL team. Much more than the usual sibling rivalry we have now. Maybe I'm being an accelerationist, but that might be enough of a catalyst to begin the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Western Reserve. Only half joking 👀

The new Ward 11 and 12 seem to use West Blvd as the border. This map splits Edgewater in two. And to your point, look how small the wards on the West side are compared to the east, especially when you remember a third of the new ward 15 is Hopkins. Assuming the population per ward are all around 25,000, the new Ward 12 seems to be very dense. How many wards span the river?

Cleveland City Council - LIVE Press Conference - Redistricting, Dec. 10, 2024 Cleveland City Council President Blaine A. Griffin will host media availability on Tuesday, December 10, to release the redistricting map that Councilmembers are expected to vote on at the January 6 City Council meeting.

Everyone on Reddit seems to be either apathetic or outright relieved that Tick Tock is closing. Apparently its been a punch palace with fights breaking out on the patio and spilling on the sidewalk pretty regularly. Also, saying the food was awful. As someone who just moved around the corner from there, can't say that I'm too sad about it if what Reddit says is true. Historic or not, its a sh*thole lmao

If I wish to make a public comment to ask City Council to propose a new ordinance where would I submit that? Do I need to send it to the respective committee Chair or my council member? The Policy Research Contact for the committee? The City Council itsself on a Monday Meeting?

When it happens, its usually trans misogyny/gender-essentialist type thinking. For example: "You grew up and were socialized as a male, therefore you don't understand." or "All men are bad, and you were one, therefore you're bad." These people are called TERFs, or Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. JK Rowling is the queen of the TERFs. Like I said, this is much less common in the real world, but it definitely still happens. The largest concern is someone calls me out in the bathroom and that escalates into something violent. Luckily, no issues so far, but I've stuck to the more enlightened areas of the state as much as I can. The Left doesn't care about the sports conversation. My personal opinion is that its a complete non-issue that is used to normalize hate against trans people. Specifically trans femmes/women. Only 0.5% of the population is trans. Everyone seems to forget that trans mascs/men exist, so no one cares about them in sports. So roughly, only 0.25% of the population could even "threaten" girl's/women's sports. Then, how many of this 0.25% even have an interest in playing sports? Then, how many of this 0.25% are any good? If they are good, why is that inherently nefarious? If trans women are women, then they should be allowed to play in women's sports. To say otherwise implies that we aren't women. Nobody ever mentioned girl's sports until this "issue" came up. Trans women have been allowed to compete at the Olympics for years for both the Summer and Winter Games, and I haven't heard of any trans women dominating the Olympics. Just the one boxer that everyone was accusing of being trans, but she was cis woman. Why should children's sports be stricter than the Olympics in that regard? I knew something was up with my gender identity when I was in High school, but I didn't accept it then for many reasons. One of which was that I couldn't stand the thought of having to give up baseball and not being allowed to play softball. I never had any desire to play in college. I finally accepted it and began my transition a year ago at the age of 24. Luckily, before that at 23, I found an LGBT Rec Softball League that helped heal that old wound. 95% of high school athletes never play in college, and even less of those make it pro. Kids just want to play sports with their friends. This "issue" is meant to make children feel bad for wanting to exist and live the same way as their peers. That leads to very dangerous things.