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Photo by Erik Drost/FlickrCC

-Sam Allard

Punishments Announced in Lake Catholic Swastika Incident

WEINGART LOBBIED FOR LAW CHANGE THAT PAVED WAY FOR MEDICAL MART HE NOW CONDEMNS

LEE WEINGART, THE

Republican candidate for Cuyahoga County Executive, lobbied the Ohio legislature on behalf of the county to amend state law and allow the county to raise a quarter-percent sales tax to fund the Convention Center and Medical Mart.

As a political candidate, Weingart has been a vocal critic of the Medical Mart, known these days as the Global Center for Health Innovation. In recent weeks he has drawn a sharp distinction between himself and Democratic challenger Chris Ronayne in their respective views on the future of the facility.

Weingart strenuously opposes a county plan, (currently being fast-tracked), to pump $46 million into the building to tinker with the ballrooms and the escalators and thereby more formally merge it with the adjacent Huntington Convention Center.

Weingart believes that these new expenditures represent a waste of public money — a position shared by the vast majority of the public — and has proposed selling both the Global Center and the Hilton Downtown Hotel to salvage whatever value may be salvaged for county taxpayers. The debt service on both buildings comprises a sizable percentage of the county’s annual budget, and Weingart considers those obligations burdens that taxpayers should no longer have to bear.

Ronayne’s views are more qualified. He objects to the $46 million price tag for the Global Center overhaul but shares the view of Destination Cleveland that the convention business is an important economic driver for downtown Cleveland and the region. He has said he would not sell the facility.

Cleveland.com county reporter Kaitlin Durbin found on the website of Weingart’s consulting firm, LNE Group, an apparent contradiction. Though Weingart opposes the Global Center now, it was through his professional advocacy that it was constructed in the first place.

“Then-current state law authorized only a convention and visitors bureau to manage the construction of a convention center,” the LNE Group site boasts. “The county engaged LNE Group to change state law to enable county elected officials to raise funds for the new convention center and medical mart through a sales tax increase and to manage the construction of the new facilities.”

Weingart was paid $49,000 for his services, cleveland.com reported.

In comments to Durbin, Weingart downplayed his involvement. He argued that his lobbying work on the county’s behalf was 15 years ago, in 2007, and that the Medical Mart concept “made all the sense” at the time.

When Scene reached out for additional comment, Weingart said the law in question gave the county commissioners authority to either levy the funds or put the measure before voters.

“I would have put it on the ballot,” he said, “just as I did in 1995 with the Browns and the Sin Tax.”

Weingart said that he believed the county was set up for success, and that 15 years later, while the Convention Center may be considered a “moderate success,” the Medical Mart has been a disaster. Weingart rejected the idea that his earlier work for the county and his current campaign positions represent a contradiction.

“In fact it’s wholly consistent to say that when you’re in a hole, you stop digging,” he said. “You stop funding a project that doesn’t make any sense. This is what people in the private sector do all the time. If you start a project, and it’s not working, you pull the plug and you salvage what you can. That’s not inconsistent.”

The head coach and assistant coach of the Lake Catholic High School lacrosse team have resigned, and students must participate in programming at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in order to receive their transcripts after a swastika appeared on the calf of a player during a playoff game against Orange High School earlier this month.

Lake Catholic, in Mentor, is one of five high schools under the administrative umbrella of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.Cleveland Central Catholic, Elyria Catholic, Holy Name and VASJ are the others.

In a joint statement last week, the Diocese and Lake Catholic released findings from their investigation into the swastika incident.

“The swastika is the most notorious symbol of antisemitism and hate more broadly, and its appearance was both shocking and appalling,” the statement read. “The Diocese of Cleveland and Lake Catholic High School condemn anti-Semitism in all forms, and we extend our most sincere apologies to the Orange High School community and to all Jewish and non-Jewish community members alike for the hurt that has resulted from this incident.”

According to the investigation, a Lake Catholic player, in an

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attempt to “play a prank” on his teammates, drew a swastika on his hand in eye black and then pressed his hand onto the arms of two of his teammates and the calf of another. The two players with the swastika on their arms noticed the symbols before the game and managed to wash them off. But the player with the symbol on his calf did not see it, according to the investigation, and didn’t remove it until it was brought to his attention during the game. The Lake Catholic players huddled together to remove the swastika during the third quarter, according to an Orange High School student photographer.

A letter to the community from Orange High School Superintendent Dr. Lynn Campbell noted in the wake of the incident that alumni and parents at the game had reported a Lake Catholic fan using racist slurs toward the Orange team.

The Diocese’s fact-finding efforts were unable to substantiate these accounts, but they did find that an adult associated with Lake Catholic who was serving as the team’s photographer uttered “coarse and profane language” in interactions with Orange High School fans.

That adult has now been banned from participating in official team activities, per the Diocesan statement. The player responsible for the prank has reportedly expressed sorrow for his actions. He was prohibited from participating in Lake Catholic’s commencement activities and will not be allowed to receive his diploma and transcript until he completes a program of community service designed by the school.

Additionally, “the entire 2022 lacrosse team will be required to attend a program developed by the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in the coming weeks,” the statement read. “The program will include both instructive and restorative elements.”

WKYC, Cleveland.com and others reported that Head Lacrosse Coach Chris Hastings, who was not a Lake Catholic teacher and who didn’t arrive at the game until midway through the first quarter, has resigned. The assistant coach has resigned as well.

DIGIT WIDGET

10-0

Unanimous vote at W. 6th Starbucks to certify a union. The location becomes of the first two Starbucks stores in Ohio to unionize.

4 p.m.

New curfew at Pinecrest for unaccompanied minors (17 and under), after more than 100 juveniles gathered on the lawn of the Silverspot Cinema earlier this month.

76%

Increase in Cuyahoga County Covid cases over past two weeks, (thought hospitalization numbers remain low.)

$500, $1000

Increased fines for dirt bike riding, under City Council’s newly amended legislation to crack down on the practice. Previously, fines were $50 for a first offense and $100 for subsequent offenses.

-Sam Allard

Downtown Guerilla Gardeners Exposed!

The day after recent Cleveland State University graduate Jack Brancatelli planted a small garden in a sidewalk hole on Euclid Avenue with two of his former CSU classmates and chums, he was walking home to his campus apartment from the Red Line rapid downtown and saw a News Channel 5 camera crew capturing images of his handiwork.

In the same rascally spirit with which the garden was planted, Brancatelli approached the crew and asked them what the deal was. Someone had planted the delightful little garden overnight, Brancatelli was told. When he confirmed for Channel 5 that he was a downtown resident, they asked if he’d be willing to be interviewed on camera for the story. He agreed.

And so Brancatelli, one of the “guerilla gardeners” himself, appeared as a random bystander in local news coverage of the unknown green-thumb vigilantes. During the interview, he never tipped his hand, applauding “whoever did this.”

Whoever did this was Brancatelli and his roommate Zac Schauer, 2022 and 2021 alums, respectively, of CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, and their friend Vince Lucic, a CSU history major who graduated last year and lives in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

All three arrived at the site of the Euclid sidewalk hole across from Heinen’s grocery store in the wee hours of Tuesday, May 17.

“Monday at midnight seemed like it would be a little too early, a little too active,” Schauer told Scene by phone from Albuquerque, where he’s currently vacationing with Brancatelli before Brancatelli begins a summer job in New Mexico. “So we decided on three a.m. Who’s walking around downtown at 3 a.m.?”

The answer, as it turned out, was nobody.

With a wheelbarrow and approximately $120 in topsoil and tools from Home Depot, the three buddies carefully planted their garden and ringed it with a small white picket fence. All told, the installation took less than two hours.

“Jack and I had been complaining about this hole for months,” Schauer said. “We had joked about things to do with it.”

Brancatelli stressed that while both he and Schauer were now wellversed in streetscape design and urban planning, thanks to their CSU degrees, their act was not explicitly political — at least not in the same vein as the guerilla urbanists who installed a speed bump on a residential street last month after an immigrant child was killed by a reckless driver.

“I don’t think we were thinking that deeply about it,” Brancatelli said. “At the time, we just thought it’d be kind of a fun, funny thing to do. We’re both urban planning majors and would probably agree with the interpretations that people have come up with [protesting the city’s sluggishness on repairing the public right of way, for example]. It’s not like we’re naive, but we’ve lived downtown for four years now, and we were confident that our neighbors would get a kick out of this.”

Schauer and Brancatelli said that they have been overwhelmed with the response, which has been almost universally positive. The garden is regarded as a delight, the craftsmanship as top-hole.

“It was one last message of love for the neighborhood I’ve grown to love,” Brancatelli said.

All three would have been content to remain anonymous, they said, but the response has been so over-thetop on social media that they felt it couldn’t hurt to come forward.

“I’ll be down here in New Mexico,” Brancatelli said. “But a bunch of people said they’d buy whoever did this beers, and Zac should be able to cash in on those. But honestly there was kind of a mysticism growing around it. And we wanted to say that we’re just some college guys, and this was just a simple, fun thing. Hopefully coming forward keeps it that way.”

-Sam Allard

Guitar Stolen in Cleveland from International Musical Artist on its Way Home

The valuable and beloved guitar belonging to Grammy-nominated Paraguyan musician Berta Rojas that was stolen from the back of a car in Ohio City in April is now on its way back to its owner.

Rojas last week announced that the guitar, worth about $20,000 and crafted by esteemed luthier Michael O’Leary, journeyed, in an unclear number of steps, from the thief to someone who bought the piece without knowing it was stolen.

After purchasing it, the buyer, who had intended to give it to a loved one, did some quick online searches given the unique aspects of the guitar, which had a Paraguyan flag attached to it, and found coverage of the theft. They contacted the Cleveland Guitar Society, which was hosting Rojas for a concert in April when the theft occurred, and made arrangements to return the prized instrument to its owner.

“I have no way of conveying the emotion I feel knowing that La Rojita did not want to be absent from the release of the album she recorded and that she is returning to me soon to resume our adventures together,” Rojas said in a statement.” Until I see her, and feel her, I won’t know her exact condition, but the photos convey that she is strong, healthy and ready. Thank you, dear friends, for everything; for all your immense love and solidarity. You made me deeply feel that the musical stories we are writing are a part of you. For the space you make for us in your hearts, thank you!”

-Vince Grzegorek