As CoolCleveland celebrates 20 years (I know, thank you!), we are increasingly tuned in to the moments when we as citizens can actually make a difference in our communities. One of the biggest ways you can do that is to vote next Tuesday, November 8 (or before). So forgive us if we supply a little roundup of all our election coverage and ENDORSEMENTS below. It all comes down to this week.You can also make a difference by supporting your local artists, chefs and entrepreneurs this week. The Cleveland Comedy Festival, the Cleveland Arts Prize presentations, Cleveland Restaurant Week, and CMA’s MIX are all signature programs that define our region. We also recommend a few that are off the wall: Death On A Stick at Jilly’s, The Movement Project’s Dance Fest, and SPACES’ Monster Mash and Monster Drawing Rally all deserve your attention.
Your most important move this week is to vote. And to help, we’ve interviewed a number of the candidates and endorsed a few more. Our state is besieged by corruption and election deniers, so we’re recommending a lot of (but not all) Democrats. If CoolCleveland’s readership in Northern Ohio turns out the vote, we could elect Tim Ryan to the Senate and elect an historic all-woman Governor and Lieutenant Governor slate, plus elect three women to the Ohio Supreme Court who would help keep things in balance. Other key statewide offices, judges and downstate races will be decided by your vote. This is the week to do your part, so you can feel like you did everything possible once the votes are counted.
Master Chef Eddie Tancredi has won awards all around the world for his cooking. Now he runs ETalian, serving personal nine-inch pizzas from a wood-fired stove in an old blacksmith shop in Chagrin Falls.
As a member of Cleveland Independents, Eddie talks with CoolCleveland about the upcoming Cleveland Restaurant Week, taking place Nov 1-12, 2022, which features 32 participating local restaurants, most offering a three-course, prix-fixe meal at a discount of $36. Read more.
November 8 is Election Day, and the future of Ohio hangs in the balance. The Ohio GOP has done everything in its power to rig the game, with illegal districts intended to confuse and discourage voters. Don’t be discouraged. Vote!
Republicans are trying to run on “the economy” and “crime,” both lies. In fact their legislative agenda is anti-economy and pro-crime. In banning abortion, they’re driving child and family poverty to new levels. And in loosening gun laws, they’re doing the #1 thing that increases crime.
The real contest is between two visions: a GOP agenda based on taking away rights of women & LGBTQ+ people while flooding the streets with guns, and the Democrats’ vision of focusing on better-paying jobs, stronger public schools and wider access to health care.
We’ve been telling you about the strengths of the (mostly) Democratic candidates for months. Here’s a round-up of those endorsements and our VIDEO interviews with some of the candidates.
Electing former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley and former Cleveland Heights mayor Cheryl Stephens would be an Ohio first: two women where Ohio has never had even one. And both display a strength lacking in spineless Governor Mike DeWine and a straightforwardness lacking in opportunist LG Jon Husted. Read more and view the VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Cheryl Stephens here.
Congressman Tim Ryan is a blue-collar son of the Mahoning Valley who never left his roots. JD Vance grew up poor in SW Ohio but escaped to Yale & California as soon as he could. He found a sponsor in blliionaire Peter Thiel and learned to abase himself to kiss Trump’s ass. Only Ryan is focused on ordinary Ohioans. Read more
Oho Supreme Court justice Jennifer Brunner and judges Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison respect the law and the constitution. Their GOP opponents don’t. All the Republican judges voted for unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps and have publicly shared their views on abortion, an issue which is likely to come before the court, a violation of judicial ethics. Read more and view the VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Terri Jamison here.
We always recommend Judge 4 Yourself.com as a starting place for learning about contested Cuyahoga County judicial seats. This time, pay attention to two judges who got “Not Recommended” ratings & don’t vote for them. Their opponents are incumbents Joan Synenberg and Wanda Jones, nominally Republicans, but functionally good judges. Read more
The most visible difference between Chris Ronayne, the Democratic candidate for county executive and his GOP opponent Lee Weingart is that Ronayne has walked the walk and Weingart has …. said stuff. Ronayne has spent more than two decades in both city government and the nonprofit sector in hands-on roles in planning and development. Weingart has been a lobbyist. The choice to elect Ronayne is clear. Read more and view the VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Chris Ronayne here.
Nickie Antonio is known as a go-getter and tireless advocate for every-day people of all types, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. As the first out lesbian in the legislature, she gets that there’s more that brings us together than divides us, and she deserves to be re-elected. Read more and view the VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Nickie Antonio here.
Mike Skindell, who has served in both the state senate and state house since 2003, has earned a reputation as a reliable progressive with consistent positions supporting every-day workers, labor unions, higher wages, job training and access to health care. He has earned your vote for re-election. Read more and view the VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Mike Skindell here.
Ohio’s current attorney general has spent taxpayer dollars fighting partisan battles; he didn’t even let an hour pass after the overturning of Roe before he ran to the courts to allow Ohio’s onerous anti-abortion law to take effect immediately. He’s joined with other states’ Republican AGs to push a right-wing agenda. Jeff Crossman, the Democratic running for AG, believes that the office shouldn’t be in the business of taking away citizen rights.
As a State Representative, Crossman witnessed the House Bill 6 scandal in which First Energy admitted they paid bribes to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his Republican cronies, then Crossman led the charge to expel Householder from the Ohio House, the first legislator to be removed from office in Ohio since the Civil War.
Crossman also discusses his opponent’s seeming misunderstanding of Ohio’s new abortion restrictions, causing a 10-year-old girl who was raped in Ohio to flee to Indiana for an abortion. The current Attorney General cast doubt on the report, even after the rape suspect had confessed. View the CoolCleveland VIDEO ENDORSEMENT here.
Local guitarist/singer/songwriter Diana Chittester recently opened for Jackson Browne at a fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan. The campaign was so impressed they invited her to perform with Ryan on six campaign stops across Ohio this week. Read more
Also on the road is Beachland co-owner Cindy Barber, who’s headed out to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Music Cities Conference, where she’ll be talking about how each city can make its music scene unique and what’s already happening in Cleveland to make its scene distinctive. Read more
Pete and Debbie Gulyas of Blue Arrow Records started the Waterloo Alley Cat Project 13 years ago to care for stray & abandoned cats in North Collinwood. Now Pete is putting some of his prized music memorabilia up for auction Nov. 1-6 to pay some unexpected feline medical bills.Read more
As November rolls in and the cool air starts to blow, Melt Bar and Grilled helps you warm up with special features like Melt Pierogi and the New Bomb Turkey. Fresh Cut Fries are back, and you can load them up: Cheesy Bacon Fries, Chili Cheese Fries, Cheesy Gravy Fries and Garlic Romano are whetting your appetite.
Check the website for holiday hours, weekly specials and more details including new box meal options. And call now to reserve a room for your holiday party. Read more.
WED 11/9 Memorial Music 80s hitmakers Nightranger join Cleveland’s Contemporary Youth Orchestra for a tribute concert for a Cleveland man whose brother is the band’s tour manager.
But among the acres of Collinwood’s industrial past, there is a shining star. It is the Cleveland Job Corps. Located on a 25-acre site that formerly housed the Fisher Body Plant, it is truly one of Cleveland’s hidden treasures. Made up of some 30 newly constructed low-rise buildings, the unsuspecting visitor would initially think that it was an upscale housing development or retirement village.
This is a residential program where students live for a maximum of two years. Students living in the area go home on weekends, others stay until their program is finished. And most important, it’s free — no student loans to pay back. Students receive training in such fields as bricklaying, carpentry, EMT training and nursing assistant, in addition to academic training.
The campus includes housing, recreational areas, full cafeteria services, computer labs and a wellness center for basic medical needs. To say that I was impressed with the facility is an understatement. Read more
