The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

In March 2020, employees across the country packed up their offices, and \"Zoom calls\" and \"you\'re on mute\" entered our daily lexicon. Yet, millions of low-wage workers were deemed essential and reported to their jobs. Workers like farm laborers, meat packers, grocery clerks, retail associates, fast food workers, and janitors. They all risked exposure to COVID-19, and often faced hostile work environments due to enforcing public health mandates.\r\n\r\nAs Ohio begins to reopen, unfilled job postings in these sectors have made national news, especially in seasonal tourism, hospitality, and retail. Low wages, unreliable schedules, lack of childcare, supply-chain disruptions, and even an over-reliance on Pandemic Unemployment Compensation have all been cited as possible causes. Others point to data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which shows six months of stalled job growth, questioning claims of a job glut at all. Still, employers are trying to find new ways to attract workers, and questions have resurfaced about job quality and what constitutes a living wage.\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club in Public Square as we discuss the future of essential work in today\'s economy.

As it happens every two years, the 2022-23 state budget was passed in late June after months of debate in both the Ohio House and Senate. The state budget ultimately determines how public resources will be spent on many things our communities need: K-12 public schools, health and human services, local governments, public transit, libraries, economic development, and more.\r\n\r\nThis particular budget comes on the heels of the state's reopening after public health precautions were put in place due to COVID-19; making it one of the most vital tools to help address some of the alarming disparities and challenges Ohioans faced during the course of the pandemic. Behind all the numbers, mandates, and packages - what does it mean for everyday Ohioans and our communities?\r\n\r\nJoin us for our virtual Friday Forum as we decode the state budget with Hannah Halbert, Executive Director at Policy Matters Ohio; Greg Lawson, Research Fellow at the Buckeye Institute; and Andy Chow, Journalist/Producer with the Statehouse News Bureau.

In 2021, Cleveland faces a mayoral election. Leading up to the primary, the City Club will be speaking with candidates seeking the city\'s highest office.\r\n\r\nDennis Kucinich was elected to Cleveland City Council in 1969 and served as the 53rd mayor of Cleveland from 1977 to 1979. As mayor, Kucinich is well known for his battle against selling Municipal Light to the privately owned competitor, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company. Kucinich also served the 23rd district in the Ohio State Senate from 1995-96.\r\n\r\nIn 1996, Kucinich was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio's 10th Congressional District, where he served for 16 years. Kucinich served on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Kucinich ran for President of the United States in 2004 and 2008.\r\n\r\nDue to redistricting after the 2010 census, the new map put Kucinich\'s home into the controversial "Snake on the Lake" - forcing a run for the 9th district, which he lost to incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur. After his time in Congress, Kucinich served as a regular contributor to Fox News Channel. He left in 2018 to run for Ohio governor.\r\n\r\nKucinich formally announced his candidacy for Mayor of Cleveland on June 14. As mayor, he plans to push public safety and criminal justice reform by instituting reforms and additives to the Cleveland Division of Police, creating a cabinet-level Civic Peace Department, and decriminalizing non-violet drug offenses.

If you had 15 minutes to walk from your front door, where could you walk to? And would you? The 15-minute city is an urban planning concept where any resident should be able to get to their job, visit the doctor, grab groceries, or even a cup of coffee with just a short walk or bike ride. Andre Brumfield of Gensler, Jason A. Segedy, Director of Planning and Urban Development for the City of Akron and Khrys Shefton, Director of Real Estate Development explain.\r\n \r\nSupport for City Club Virtual Forums is provided by Bank of America, KeyBank, PNC and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Production and distribution of City Club forums in partnership with ideastream is generously provided by PNC and the United Black Fund. \r\n

In the fall of 2017, the #MeToo movement became a national force, outing men who for sexual abuse, assault, and harassment. At the time, artist and film producer Tanya Selvaratnam was dating one of the movement's most vocal and effective male allies-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, known for filing charges against Hollywood's Harvey Weinstein. And at the time, Schniederman was also regularly abusing and assaulting Selvaratnam.\r\n\r\nIn 2018, in the pages of The New Yorker, Selvaratnam went public with the abuse and assaults she had suffered at Schneiderman's hands. The disclosure was especially challenging, given Schneiderman's role as a public advocate and as New York's top law enforcement official.\r\n\r\nHers was a high profile case, but it is not unique. Intimate partner violence is one of the biggest threats American women face today. According to a 2017 Center for Disease Control report, roughly one in three women has experienced stalking or physical, sexual, financial, and/or emotional violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime. That number is far higher for women of color, and incidences of intimate partner violence surged during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased stress and trauma, economic hardship, imposed isolation, and decreased access to community and faith-based support. And, because abuse within the context of a consensual heterosexual relationship is often shrouded in secrecy and hidden behind closed doors, experts believe there many more instances that go unreported. Selvaratnam tells her story in her new memoir Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence.\r\n\r\nJoin Selvaratnam and Melissa Graves, CEO of the Journey for Safety and Healing, for a conversation about the book and the deep, often hidden issues many women face.

Earlier this year, U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge

After spending more than 44 years working to support and advocate for people returning to community from incarceration, Charles R. See retired from Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) in 2017. A native Clevelander, See is known for his leadership in addressing the needs of people involved in the justice system. In the 1960's when civil unrest in Cleveland was at its peak, he was drawn to a career in public service, accepting a job at a local community center. In 1973, See began at LMM where he spent most of his career leading and expanding Community Re-entry, Inc., a program of LMM. His work included the innovative and nationally-recognized Care Teams program which trained returning citizens for positions assisting older adults living in public housing.\r\n\r\nIn his honor, LMM is pleased to present the inaugural Charles R. See Forum on Re-Entry featuring DeAnna Hoskins, President of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). Dedicated to cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030, JLUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform. An Ohio native and nationally recognized leader, Hoskins has been committed to the movement for justice, working alongside people impacted by incarceration for nearly two decades. She has experienced the reentry system from all perspectives-she is herself a previously incarcerated individual who has successfully transitioned back into the community, ultimately receiving a pardon from Governor Ted Strickland.\r\n\r\nJoin us for a conversation with Hoskins about how to achieve criminal justice reform through collective leadership, advocacy for justice reinvestment, and bold systems change.

It\'s vital that there be accurate and inclusive representation of LGBTQ people in the stories we tell. Are the right people telling these stories? If not, why?\r\n\r\nEarlier this year, the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD released its annual Where We Are on TV report. For the first time in five years, the overall representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer characters on television decreased. Despite the overall decrease, the racial diversity of queer characters increased. Amid pandemic setbacks, how do storytelling entities - media, television, film, literature, art and culture - create accurate and authentic portrayals of members of the LGBTQ community?\r\n\r\nQueer representation in media, literature, and arts and culture can break new ground with stories and depictions that resist harmful stereotypes. During Pride month and a hotly contested American culture, where is the public at large in understanding the intersectionality of race, gender identity and expression, and sexuality?\r\n\r\nJoin us as two local leaders discuss LGBTQ+ visibility in Northeast Ohio media, arts and culture, and literature.

In May, the U.S. Census Bureau announced population statistics following the completion of the 2020 census. Ohio, for the sixth consecutive time, will lose a seat in the House of Representatives, bringing the number of representatives from 16 to 15. While Ohio actually gained population since the 2010 census, other areas of the country - especially in the Sun Belt and the west - grew faster. The timing of this loss is problematic as the state embarks on a new system of drawing its congressional maps, which are considered among the most gerrymandered in the nation.\r\n\r\nIt's unclear which of the 12 Republicans and four Democrats stands to lose their district when the new maps are drawn in September. The data released in May did not indicate which parts of Ohio were experiencing population growth versus decline - a key factor in determining how the boundaries for the new districts will be drawn. Despite all the unknowns, the implications are significant especially for Northeast Ohio. Under the new legislation, the boundaries around District 9 - the aptly named \"snake on the lake\" - will need to be redrawn. And the region, which currently divided into four congressional districts, will likely be reduced to three as the new guidelines only permit five of Ohio\'s 88 counties to be split more than twice across congressional boundaries. This has huge implications for Cuyahoga County especially in District 11, the only majority minority district in the state.\r\n\r\nHow are Ohio legislators preparing for these changes? What are the implications for Northeast Ohio and Cuyahoga County? How do we ensure that the redistricting reforms passed in 2015 and 2018 are upheld - and that the process for redrawing the maps is transparent?

In May, 2020, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), released a report examining a decades-long effort by conservative interests to remake the federal judiciary. The 54-page report, Captured Courts: The GOP\'s Big Money Assault on the Constitution, our Independent Judiciary, and the Rule of Law, details the impact Republicans and millions of dollars of \"dark money\" have had on the court, with nearly 200 judicial nominees confirmed during the Trump presidency. The report maintains that many of these appointments were not based on a judge\'s qualifications or expertise, but rather in their ability to adhere to and further the goals of the Republican party.\r\n\r\nThe report follows a several years of increased tension in the Senate over the perception of partisan judicial nominations. The tension escalated after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the expediated process to confirm a replacement before Election Day. On September 22, 2020, Senator Whitehouse testified before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property & the Internet about the court capture and its effect on an independent judiciary, the rule of law, and the future of American democracy.\r\n\r\nSenator Whitehouse, a former U.S. Attorney and State Attorney General, was elected to the Senate in 2006. He is also the author of Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy.