When you get this newsletter, the election will be less than a week away and it has never been so important for you to vote. You can still vote early at the Board of Elections through Sunday; then your local polling place will be open from 6:30am-7:30pm November 5. As of October 29, 150,000 Cuyahoga County residents have already voted early in person or returned their mail ballots. Details about where to vote and what you’ll be voting on can be accessed at the BoE website.

We want to remind you of our voting recommendations. Of course we urge you to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to bring sane, compassionate government to the White House, so we don’t have to hear any more “Mexicans are murderers,” “Schools are operating on your kid to change their gender” or “Puerto Rico is a floating island of garbage.” We’re done with the hate.

Once again, Vote YES on Issue 1. When you get your ballot, you will read lies written by Ohio’s partisan Secretary of State who is leading the campaign to retain the GOP’s outsized, unearned power. A YES vote is a vote AGAINST gerrymandering and districts that don’t represent the voters — don’t believe the ballot; read up before you go in. Read more.

In connection with Issue 1, it’s important to vote for Michael Donnelly, Melody Stewart and Lisa Forbes for state Supreme Court to put justices on the court whose decisions are based on the law and the truth. A court that found you should expect to find bones in your boneless chicken could easily decide the voters didn’t really mean to pass Issue 1 and that gerrymandering is OK. Read more.

Finally, we need to reelect Sherrod Brown over that car salesman/fountain of lies Bernie Moreno. His ads attack Brown for “open borders,” something the U.S. hasn’t had since the 1920s when Brown wasn’t even born, and use trans people as villains to scare people. Moreno has also made clear his contempt for women and their rights; he’s not capable of representing all Ohioans, as Sherrod Brown always has. Read more.

Back In 2006, voters passed a cigarette tax to fund arts and culture in Cuyahoga County. It was renewed in 2015. It’s set to expire in 2027, and on November 5 it’s on the ballot again with a significant increase since revenue has declined as smoking rates have gone down. We are urging people to vote yes on Issue 55 to fund a something that produces infinitely more economic benefits to the region than a football team.

We’re aware of the complaints about how the money has been spent, that it funds nonprofits with little trickling down to artists. We’re also aware that many think a cigarette tax is unfair since Black people and less affluent people are more likely to smoke. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the choice of county arts supporters but of the heavily gerrymandered Ohio legislature, which disfavors urban areas and doesn’t care about the arts, one more reason to vote YES on Issue 1. In meantime, let’s continue to support arts & culture in the county. Read more.

Extreme weather events have been hitting close to home, CoolCleveland contributor Claudia Taller reminds us. Last summer’s wildfires in Canada spread dense smoke and poor air quality across the northern and eastern U.S. and made breathing challenging in NE Ohio.   And Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton created massive damage as far north as Asheville, North Carolina, four hundred miles from the Gulf Coast.

‘We need to know where our presidential candidates stand on environmental issues,” she says, urging us to educate ourselves before voting. “One political party wants to regulate and incentivize to restrain climate change, the other would ignore or deny there’s an issue. Harris was an early sponsor of the Green New Deal, a sweeping series of proposals meant to swiftly move the U.S. to fully green energy. The Trump campaign’s mantra, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, is ‘Drill, Baby, Drill,’ and has cast climate change as a hoax.” Read more.

Chardon husband-and-wife duo Mr. Gnome has just released their seventh album A Sliver of Space, their first since 2020’s The Day You Flew Away. They’re debuting the new music at the Beachland Ballroom on Saturday November 2; the show is sold out. Since their first EP, Echoes on the Ground, in 2015, guitarist/vocalist Nicole Barille and drummer/keyboard player Sam Meister have made haunting, edgy music that has earned them a loyal national fan base. The Cleveland date is part of a tour that began in late September and has taken them across the country to the West Coast and the Pacific Northwest. Read more.