Scene September 9, 2020

FLOODING, POLLUTION, SPRAWL AND NORTHEAST OHIO’S FRAGMENTED WATER GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS

BY HANNAH LEBOVITS

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| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2020 • VOL. 52 NO 8 Upfront ............................................ 5 Feature ...........................................10 Eat .................................................. 15

Music ..............................................17 Savage Love ................................. 18

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| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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COVER PHOTO BY TIM EVANSON, DESIGN BY EVAN SULT

UPFRONT

THE SECOND DEATH AT THE Cuyahoga County Jail in as many months was a black 28-year-old trans woman named Lea Rayshon Daye. She was found unresponsive by jail guards very early Sunday morning and had been in custody, according to county court records, since May 17, when she was arrested and jailed on robbery and assault charges. The cause of death has not yet been released.

Daye is the second person to die at the facility this summer, after more than a year of no reported deaths. That spell of inmate survival followed a nearly yearlong span in 2018 and 2019 in which nine people died, eight by suicide or drug overdose.

Cleveland.com’s Adam Ferrise, who has covered the county jail scandal and its aftermath in rigorous detail, reported last week that after attempts by officials early in the coronavirus pandemic to drastically reduce the jail’s population, the numbers have spiked once again. The jail had been at its lowest population level ever, 950, in March, but has now risen to more than 1,500. In the past month alone, the population has increased by 300.

The increased population has ripple effects. The amount of jail guards becomes insufficient, and inmates are locked down for hours at a time, a process called “redzoning,” which in turn limits their access to medical care.

The cause of Lea Daye’s death is under investigation by the county medical examiner. But local nonprofits are decrying it regardless, hoping to call attention to the persistence of danger and inhumanity at the county jail and the particular plight of trans people in state custody.

“Transgender people are being murdered across the United States, and the City of Cleveland has one of the highest rates based on our population,” said Maya Simek from Equality Ohio, in a statement provided to the media. “The system that continues to fail Black, brown and LGBTQ+ Ohioans is completely inept when interacting with those

Photo by Sam Allard

SECOND DEATH AT CUYAHOGA COUNTY JAIL IN TWO MONTHS WAS TRANS WOMAN LEA DAYE

at the intersection of race and LGBTQ+ identity.”

Eliana Turan, the Director of Development at the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland who wrote an oped for Scene last month about the murders of trans people in Cleveland, noted a direct correlation between recent racial justice demonstrations and increased public awareness about violence against trans people.

“The time we are living in is creating a spark that’s causing people to see the murders of our trans neighbors as a major problem,” she said. -Sam Allard

RTA Cancels Fare Increases, Slashes Price of All-Day Pass

Fare increases slated for the next two years are now officially off the table, and RTA has lowered the price for an all-day pass.

Those were the two major developments out of last week’s RTA board of trustees meeting that signaled progress but which local advocacy group Clevelanders for Public Transit cautioned didn’t go far enough.

(The fare increases were approved in 2016 but have been repeatedly postponed and, of late, tentatively slated for 2021 and 2022. There was some confusion amongst board members last month after they were alerted that the then-proposed policy to reduce all-day fare included cementing the fare increases, which led to the issue being pushed back until the

meeting.)

“Pre-COVID, RTA Ridership was already at an all-time low due to RTA charging riders double the fare for declining service,” said Dana Beveridge, daily RTA rider and CPT Lead Organizer. “Higher fares decrease ridership, and lower ridership is used to justify service cuts. This death spiral must be reversed.”

An all-day fare now runs $5 instead of $5.50 and regular fare rates will remain steady for at least the next two years. That’s good news for riders — as CPT has told anyone who will listen, RTA’s fares have doubled in the past 15 years coinciding with a 25-percent reduction in service.

RTA, like other public transit agencies, is facing significant | clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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financial issues thanks to the pandemic. Its situation is unique in other ways though, as we wrote earlier this year: “While fares account for only 10-15 percent of the RTA’s revenue, declining ridership could accelerate a death spiral that the agency has been plummeting down for years. Since 2006, CPT’s Chris Stocking reported, RTA has raised fares five times while service has declined by 25 percent.

On top of that, RTA is now losing roughly $20 million each year after former Gov. John Kasich made changes to how the state collects taxes on Medicaid managed care organizations.”

Sales tax collections, which make up the bulk of funding for RTA’s budget, were down heavily in the summer but only 3.5% yearover-year so far. Ridership levels hit a pandemic low of 780,000 in April but had grown to 1.2 million in June, RTA said last month, about half of what that number was in June of 2019. Fare collection has obviously been hit heavy but RTA received $111 million of pandemic-

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Cleveland City Council to Drill Down on Slew of Problems Facing Cleveland Public Power For the next six weeks, Cleveland City Council will conduct hearings each Tuesday to delve into the history, operations and finances of Cleveland Public

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

Courtesy CPP

UPFRONT

related federal aid, more than half of which it has already spent.

CPT, meanwhile, noted that cash fares are still not eligible for free transfer, which is one of the many facets in which RTA is failing its riders, many of whom are doublepaying for trips. Fare equity and dependable service, the group has long argued, will be what drivers riders back to the service.

CPT is also calling on RTA to rescind a temporary $0.25 fuel surcharge instituted in 2008 during peak gas prices that became permanent in 2010.

“Gas prices have dropped significantly since then, defeating the purpose of a fuel surcharge meant to relieve the agency’s budget from then-costly fuel expenses,” the group said in a statement. -Vince Grzegorek

Power.

After the publication of a redacted briefing document which outlined critical issues facing the municipal utility, Ward 16 Councilman Brian Kazy, who assumed the lone chairmanship of council’s Utilities Committee in January, set out to more fully and more publicly understand the problems facing CPP. Kazy’s colleagues roundly applauded the oversight effort.

The hearings will occur adjacent to a process spearheaded

by Council President Kevin Kelley which will investigate FirstEnergy’s actions in Cleveland as they pertain to CPP. Last week, Kazy set the tone for the forthcoming hearings by saying he and his colleagues were frustrated by the lack of communication from the administration about a CPP assessment commissioned in 2018. This lack of communication has been a hallmark of Frank Jackson’s.

Like many in the media, council was provided a redacted copy of the briefing document which

DIGIT WIDGET 5,400 Miles of water mains that the Cleveland Division of Water maintains on a continuous basis.

1,500+ Cuyahoga County Jail population currently, up from a historic low of 950 in March, when judges made a concerted effort to reduce the population to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

17,000+ Weddings held at Old Stone Church on Public Square in its storied two-century history.

Cleveland’s oldest downtown church celebrates its 200th anniversary Sept. 20.

116,000 Ohio voters who will be purged from voter rolls if they remain inactive through December. (Sec. of State Frank LaRose said that no one will be purged before the November election.)

highlighted the organization’s dysfunctional culture and financial mismanagement. WKYC’s Mark Naymik received an unredacted copy and reported that it contained recommendations for rate hikes in order for CPP to remain sustainable.

Kazy asked Cleveland’s Utilities Director Robert Davis to provide council with an unredacted copy of the report, but Davis sounded uncertain in his ability to do so. He did agree to provide the contract with the consultant, NewGen, so council could learn the cost of the assessment and its scope of work.

The briefing document outlined five “critical issues” facing CPP, which Councilman Kerry McCormack accurately referred to as “pretty scathing”: 1) Poorly vetted decision making resulting in costly investments; 2) Dysfunctional culture focused on short-term survival, not longterm sustainability; 3) Poor system conditions; 4) High power supply costs; and 5) Weak financial condition.

Director Davis pushed back on all of them, noting foremost that the briefing document was incomplete, contained proprietary information and was never meant for public consumption. He said that, alongside the NewGen assessment, CPP was undertaking a system-wide “facilities assessment,” which could take 1218 months to complete, and which would inform the NewGen work.

All this would be completed before CPP would ask for a rate hike, in theory.

Davis was flustered early on, stressing that CPP had been making management and infrastructure improvements long before the briefing document was published. He said that while CPP’s financial position was neither “great” nor “good,” it was “fair” and “sound.” He said CPP was doing every possible thing it could — including implementing recommendations from the NewGen document — to reduce expenses and enhance quality.

Only after CPP had demonstrated these efforts, Davis said, would they come to council asking for a rate hike.

Kazy said rumors were out there that a CPP rate hike was on the horizon regardless. He said he thought he should be able to say “emphatically” that there will be no rate increases in 2020 or 2021 due to the projected timeline of the current and forthcoming studies.

Said Robert Davis: “I have no

24 Signs You Might Hate America Without Even Knowing It YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A PATRIOT. YOU’RE WILLING TO die for your country.

Okay, maybe not die, exactly. But you’d be willing to do something. If you weren’t busy that day. And it didn’t involve anything more strenuous than yelling at a lady for speaking Mexican in the school supplies aisle at Walmart.

But what if you hate American without even knowing it? Based on not fake science, we’ve developed a test to precisely measure your patriotism. Simply tabulate the number of statements that apply to you, then register your score at the end: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

You have never fantasized about a Caribbean weekend with Mike Pence.

You’ve been known to put the needs of others before your own.

You filed for conscientious objector status during the War on Christmas.

You have yet to ask an usher to seat you in the whites-only section at a professional wrestling match.

You see the irony in telling an Apache woman to “Go back to your own country.”

You’ve never starred in a viral video for calling police on black kids running a Kool-Aid stand.

You have yet to tell your son that if he’s nice to other children, he won’t grow up to be Jared Kushner.

You think Antifa is an insurance company whose mascot is a talking duck.

You took down your Confederate Flag at home because it collided with the mauve accents of the trim.

You once vacationed in Europe. And liked it.

You find Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” derivative and hard to party to.

You once bought a futon from IKEA, knowing full well it was made by Scandinavian socialists.

You keep forgetting to wear your Kevlar vest at the Cheesecake Factory.

You think Jefferson Davis is a weak hitting second baseman for the San Diego Padres.

Your nieces have yet to unfriend you on Instagram.

You’ve never berated a Costco cashier over your Constitutional rights to endanger the health of others.

Your church’s lightshow budget comes in at under $700,000 annually.

You once spent an evening at a vegan restaurant without punching anyone.

You consider “happy holidays” a perfectly festive seasonal greeting.

You believe in sacrificing for your country – even when it’s inconvenient.

You’ve never applied for a license to marry a Beretta ARX160 assault rifle.

You secretly believe Canada has a better national anthem.

You don’t tell your kids how cool it would be to shoot the animals while visiting the zoo.

You’ve never excoriated the handicapped over their special parking privileges.

Scoring Your Patriotism: 0: You’re 100 percent red-blooded American. Everyone admires you. Don’t be surprised if random citizens approach hoping to have your baby.

1-5: Your access to the gun range has been suspended. You can only be readmitted by harassing the Puerto Rican kids who moved in upstairs.

6-10: Go immediatly to confession. Tell God you purposely tanked the test to keep the Deep State off your trail.

11-15: WTF is wrong with you?

16-20: You’re a traitor to your country. You think 189,000 deaths is an unacceptable price to restart the economy. No, you cannot bring a kayak to the Trump 2020 Boat Parade.

21-24: Don’t even try to donate to the Kyle Rittenhouse Legal Defense Fund.

We don’t want your blood money. - Pete Kotz | clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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UPFRONT comment on that.”

The city’s Assistant Director of Public Utilities is now Martin Keane, the former Ward 17 councilman and Utilities Committee Chair who abandoned his council seat at the first moment it was possible to appoint his successor, Charles Slife, and avoid a democratic election. It was Keane who volunteered that the facilities assessment would likely take 12-18 months, and who estimated its cost at roughly $2 million.

Individual council members brought up additional areas of concern — the so-called “energy adjustment” fee, poor customer service, an ill-advised partnership with American Municipal Power (AMP) — all of which Kazy stressed could be discussed in detail at meetings over the next month-anda-half.

The current hearing schedule, with daily topics for discussion, is as follows: 9/8: History of CPP 9/15: Financial Position of CPP 9/22: CPP’s Customer Service

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9/29: CPP’s Purchase Power Contracts, Rates and Energy Adjustment Charge 10/6: Operations 10/13: CPP Capital Projects -Sam Allard

Civil Rights Commission Reverses Decision on Cleveland Epidemiologist Who Alleged Discrimination The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has reversed its decision in the case of a Cleveland Department of Public Health epidemiologist who alleged that her supervisor had harassed and disrespected her based on her age and country of origin, (Colombia). Based on new testimony, the Commission has now ruled that there is probable cause to suggest Karen Aluma was subjected to unequal treatment.

Aluma filed charges with the Commission in September 2019, alleging that as an employee of CDPH she was subjected to extra scrutiny, that her sick time was questioned and that she was assigned menial tasks which her coworkers were not.

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

Aluma’s colleagues corroborated the allegations, saying that her supervisor, Katie Romig, was dismissive of her work and made disrespectful comments about her accented English. Scene reported on Aluma’s grievances as part of a larger investigation into a culture of discrimination at CDPH this Summer.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission ruled in May that there was insufficient evidence (“No Probable Cause”) to suggest that Aluma was treated unfairly due to her age or nationality. The Commission agreed that there was a “tense working relationship” between Aluma and Romig, but that Romig’s behavior was not motivated by Aluma’s class membership.

In an August 27 document shared with Scene, the Commission reversed its decision.

New affidavits from two CDPH employees who also worked under Romig corroborated Aluma’s allegations. This new evidence, the Commission wrote, refuted Romig’s initial claim that Aluma’s charges were “utterly without merit” and challenged the “integrity and impartiality” of CDPH’s internal investigation into

the matter.

The new statements came from employees Stephanie PikeMore and Dreyon Wynn, both of whom have pending cases of their own with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (they allege the city retaliated against them for speaking on Aluma’s behalf) and whose experiences were featured in Scene’s CDHPH exposé.

The city of Cleveland declined to comment on the Ohio Civil Rights commission finding and said the city’s own internal investigation is ongoing. Spokesperson Nancy Kelsey also confirmed that Austin Opalich, a labor relations manager for the city who handled the initial investigation, had resigned.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission, under its rules, is required to attempt to reconcile or settle the case following this finding. If that fails, a formal complaint and the case are sent to the Civil Rights Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s office for a civil prosecution, according to Mary Turocy, director of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement for the OCRC. -Sam Allard

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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FEATURE FLOODING, POLLUTION, SPRAWL AND FRAGMENTED GOVERNANCE

Northeast Ohio’s water systems are death by a thousand drops for its poorest residents

By Hannah Lebovits IN NOVEMBER 2013, CLEVELAND Water and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District split up the water and sewer bills being sent to their customers. The effort was framed as an attempt to eliminate confusion.

In July 2014, a series of storms overwhelmed the Shaker Heights stormwater sewer system to a point of disrepair. It would eventually cost the city $1 million to fix.

In May 2017, Cleveland Heights residents found out that the city’s compliance with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consent decree could quadruple their sewer bills. The cost to avoid “Sanitary Sewer Overflows” would come out of customer’s pay checks.

In July 2019, the Sam’s Club and Walmart stores near the border of Parma and Brooklyn flooded. In this case, the flooding was unique: It hadn’t rained there at all.

In February 2020, a Cleveland woman named Pat showed me an outstanding sewer bill, desperate for help. The bill was up to $132, and she was starting to consider not paying the water bill so she could pay a bit of the sewer one. Hoping to avoid becoming another one of Cleveland’s 50,000 or so shutoffs, or one of the more than 10,000 homes on which the water department has placed liens in recent years, Pat was looking for assistance. “I keep trying to talk to someone,” she told me. “When they were all in one bill, I could manage it. This is too much. I don’t know what to do.”

It’s hard to imagine a connection between those things, separated by years and miles, beyond the fact that they all involve water. But they are connected, largely through Cuyahoga County’s Manifest Destiny charge to develop every square mile of land, which has altered the amount of water that moves across the area, and the impact this water has on larger systems. Rain behaves differently, lands differently and drains differently in an area nearly 100-percent developed compared to one that was 26-percent developed

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Google Maps

five decades ago.

We’ve taken Cuyahoga County and turned it into one big parking lot.

But that’s just part of the problem.

Cleveland and its inner-ring suburbs were built prior to the establishment of best practices for water and sewer planning.

Wealthier communities in the outerring, many of which are at higher levels of elevation, have benefited from community planning efforts that have shifted the burden to other areas. Climate change has ushered in a new era of storms and overwhelming snow melts. And the federal government has significantly

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

reduced its role in supporting urban infrastructure.

These changes have resulted in higher fees, increased flooding, more pollution, and a disproportionate effect on the area’s low-income populations.

And no one’s really in charge of fixing it.

A Fragmented Governance System The issue isn’t being ignored, per se. There are countless public officials across the county working on aspects of this and the negative

effects. But no one is truly in charge, because too many people are.

There are three primary elements of the water system in Cuyahoga County: what comes out of your faucet, what goes down your drain, and what gets collected from the natural environment.

Cleveland Water, the largest supplier of the water that comes out of your faucet, draws its service from Lake Erie.

For most Cuyahoga County residents, the water that goes down your drain is processed by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

The liquids that end up in the stormwater system are generally

the responsibility of the local municipality.

That’s the easiest explanation.

Individual plumbing systems carry the water from Lake Erie and the cleaning plants into your home.

In some areas of the county, the combined sewer system carries both sewer and stormwater liquids to the central facilities. And while cities are each responsible for their stormwater systems, cities at various levels of elevation might pollute or be polluted by others.

The Ohio Revised Code gives quasi-governmental water utility companies the capacity to place a lien on a property when the owner has a delinquent water bill. The Cleveland City Council has the power to set five-year water rate increases. The Sewer District, a quasi-governmental agency, is under a Consent Decree with the federal government to fix the combined sewer system to ensure that heavy rainfalls don’t result in sewage leaks. The District also has the authority to set rates and expenses but individual cities can and have fought against these.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is on the frontlines of dealing with that, both in providing service to a growing number of cities that contract with the NEORSD for sewer maintenance and in remediating erosion and clearing debris from streams with the $42 million or so it collects — on average, $5.50/month from each customer — for its Regional Stormwater Management Program. (Which, naturally, it had to fight for in front of the Ohio Supreme Court after 11 communities challenged the sewer district’s authority to charge for stormwater management, basically arguing it wasn’t their problem and they didn’t want to pay for it.)

On the public policy end, various groups are involved in elements of water policy, particularly as it relates to Lake Erie. The federal government and several state governments have various degrees of sovereignty over the Great Lakes region.

Water-related illnesses are another layer of governance. The Cuyahoga County Board of Health regularly monitors the drinking quality and some elements of the sewer system to ensure that they are free of or minimally impacted by dangerous particles such as animal feces. Another element: the massive watershed system in the county. Watersheds run throughout the county and are managed individually, collectively by the Cuyahoga Soil and Water

Conservation District and the Sewer District, and, to various degrees, by the County Office of Sustainability and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

These various layers of governance attempt to distill different elements of the water system but in reality, they add costs and inefficiencies. And silos. These costs are transferred to residents not only in their rates and payments but in taxes and other costs. Navigating these various layers of governance also requires herculean efforts when something goes wrong, leaving massive gaps within systems.

Sprawl, Salt, and Sealants In a natural habitat, stormwater soaks into the ground and is absorbed, to various degrees.

However, when a natural habitat is eliminated and replaced by developed and impervious surfaces, most stormwater cannot soak into the ground. Instead, it runs off into areas where it can pool and drain.

These locations include watersheds, home basements, and neighboring communities.

The region has built an astounding number of parking lots, roads, highways and other impervious surfaces in the last 60 years to accommodate development — though not population growth — which has drastically and fundamentally changed where and how water flows, or doesn’t flow. As that paving happened, totalling some 50,000+ square acres, undeveloped land disappeared, and so too did forests, which control stormwater at a 90 percent rate. In their place, newly paved and built-upon urbanized areas see anywhere from 35 to 55 percent of precipitation turn into runoff. And runoff, among causing other problems, can turn into flooding.

Watersheds in highly urbanized/ suburbanized areas also tend to have increased levels of pollutants in their water supply. In the case of Northeastern Ohio, those pollutants are often captured in stormwater because of “urban run-off,” the process by which liquids collect the various pollutants — salt, gasoline, fertilizers, chemicals from sealants and bacteria — on impervious surfaces.

Beachwood is a city that prides itself on its 100,000 daily visitors.

And with long Northeast Ohio winters, that means a lot of road salting. Add in the number of parking lots and their various coatings, along with the six

watersheds that run through the city, and you have a disaster in the making: Road salt contains high levels of chloride, and large amounts of the substance can be a huge hazard to environmental integrity, especially in the Great Lakes region.

What are the trade-offs between economic development and environmental concerns? And how does a city weigh them? At least when it comes to salting, Beachwood contends there are none.

Public Works director Chris Arrietta refused to provide Scene with a specific quantity for their yearly salting efforts. In response to my query and my direct request for an accounting of the balance between environmental protection and economic activity, he said, “We draw businesses and residents to Beachwood because of the quality services we provide; there are no trade-offs.”

But in a city that increased its land-use value by over $20 million in 2018 through development efforts, planning and zoning meetings rarely ask applicants to consider the environmental impact of new projects. A review of city minutes indicates that additional parking lots and other additions to impervious surfaces are often approved without scrutiny. The city, known for its efforts to actively poach businesses from surrounding neighbors who then build new structures in Beachwood, seems to do so with little consideration about the ways these efforts can impact those downstream.

This is especially concerning when considering that neither the state of Ohio nor any of the cities in Cuyahoga County have banned coal-tar sealants, a controversial substance that’s been tied to cancer risks. Cities across Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin — our Great Lakes neighbors — have banned the substance.

Joe Ciuni, the Cleveland lead for the national GDP group — a contract municipal engineering outfit — told Scene that coal-tar based sealants are not often used in local projects.

Ciuni assured me that no one has used coal tar in “twenty years.” A bit of digging however, reveals that companies in the area regularly advertise coal-tar products for cracks in parking lots and private driveways.

In a conversation with Scene, Beachwood city council member Eric Synenberg could not recall whether the city had a policy in place to mitigate these concerns.

Arietta further argued against a question regarding whether urban

run-off is a rising concern by stating that, “No, not typically, because each new development is required to install and maintain stormwater controls on their property.”

Synenberg did note that there is a local concern related to flooding and that he hears from residents when major storms hit. But rather than attribute the flooding to overdevelopment, he placed the blame on other sewer systems that are smaller and not as well maintained as Beachwood’s.

But whether Beachwood wants to admit it or not, it’s actually more likely that it’s the other way around — that they are the cause of flooding concerns to other communities.

Beachwood sits at one of the highest elevation points in the county, and over six watersheds. Cities at lower levels of elevation are forced to deal with and pay for Beachwood’s overdevelopment.

Like what happened with the July 2014 storms that overwhelmed the Shaker sewer system.

At the time, then-mayor Earl Leiken argued that the issue did not belong to Shaker Heights alone, citing the elevation levels in Beachwood (about 150 feet above Shaker) as a source of stormwater run-off in the inner-ring suburb. The concern has only exacerbated in the past five years, as climate change ushers in more wicked storms and the decreasing population means the city has just as many sewers to manage with fewer tax dollars.

Shaker has been investing in “sensible salting” practices for several years now. Beachwood, again, refuses to provide a salt estimate. Beachwood’s sewer system is fairly new — the area only attained city status in 1960 — meaning it can handle the current intense level of usage. Shaker Heights, on the other hand, became a city in 1931.

Moreover, Beachwood sits within several watersheds, all of which could potentially provide natural draining services. The Doanbrook Watershed, though only slightly connected to the Beachwood municipal boundaries, is one of the largest watersheds in the county and made national news when it served a key role in the national narrative to protect the environment from overdevelopment, including freeway construction. Today, the nonprofit Doanbrook Watershed Partnership engages in clean-ups, workshops, and educational efforts in an effort to preserve its natural conditions.

The natural habitats are important to the larger ecosystem, especially in a watershed like the Doan Brook | clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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FEATURE which runs through a significant portion of the county and into Lake Erie. However, none of the current efforts to retain the natural fish and bug life have reached their targets and a majority of the fish habitat efforts have fallen short.

In a conversation with Scene, Victoria Mills, the executive director of the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership, was quick to state that the effects could not be tied to a single community. But she agreed that the issue cannot be divorced from what happens on land and in the built environment.

“One really simple way to look at the relationship between water quality and the landscape is that anything that happens on land is mirrored in the water quality,” Mills noted. Without the proper storm/runoff controls in place, whatever activity occurs on land — driving, building, waste build-up — will seep into the water-based natural environment.

Daily life activities all contribute to the pollution of natural resources.

That means that higher rates of activity result in higher levels of potential non-point-source pollution.

All of which means that a city with over 100,000 visitors — home to a number of schools, malls, light industrial facilities and, of course, hundreds of expensive and expansive homes — produces more than its geographic weight in pollution.

But, in an explainer provided by the city of Beachwood and Cuyahoga Water and Soil, Beachwood residents, rather than the legislators and businesses, are the ones encouraged to take care of the natural water pathways within the city limits.

There is no discussion of the negative impacts of development, and no call to action for leaders to halt development or consider ways to retain and protect porous surfaces.

It should be noted that Beachwood is not alone in these practices.

Cities across the county have parking minimum requirements for development and lack cohesive strategies for managing urban run-off. Like the stormwater itself, it’s a regional issue that requires significantly more attention.

Weathering the Storm Most water infrastructure in older communities — such as those in the core and inner-ring cities of Cuyahoga County — were

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established long before the Clean Water Act. They were not designed to mitigate pollutants or restrict the flow of pollutants into larger bodies of water.

In July 2019, the Sam’s Club and Walmart stores near the border of Parma and Brooklyn flooded.

According to Parma mayor, Timothy J. DeGeeter, no rain fell in that area at the time. “They got no rain in that location,” DeGeeter tells me, “they just got all of the water flowing from the southside.” At almost 300 feet below the elevation of Beachwood, Parma and its neighboring communities have experienced their fair share of flooding in the past few years. The seventh largest city in the state, which ranks second only to Cleveland in impervious acreage, a significant amount of Parma was built prior to the establishment of stormwater-related best practices.

However, Parma’s relative capacity has been key in enabling the city to weather these increasingly difficult storms. The city prioritized green infrastructure when they redesigned the mall. Hasmukh Patel, the city’s assistant city engineer, has been proactive in efforts to apply for federal funding, though he notes that the funding streams are tight. Indeed, according to a recent Congressional Budgeting Office report, federal support for transportation and water infrastructure has been declining since 2010, leaving cities and states to pick up the bill, though their spending has dropped off recently as well.

Twelve years ago, Parma followed in the footsteps of several neighboring cities in contracting out sewer maintenance services to Cuyahoga County. Along with 35 other Cuyahoga County municipalities, Parma has entered into an agreement with the county to enable the larger regional entity to manage its sewer lines in exchange for a fee for service.

DeGeeter sees the regional approach as key. “Development is a regional issue. We can do all the things we can in Parma,” he says, “but we have water coming into our community and going out of our community.”

But while the regional approach provides an economy of scale, it also adds additional layers to an already fragmented governance system, one in which the most vulnerable will always fall through the cracks.

Polluter Pays?

“Oh, so it’s not going to get paid?”

It’s 9:30 p.m. on a Monday

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

evening at the Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus. I’ve come to meet with several third-shift janitors who are struggling to pay their water and sewer bills. But there’s been a mix up. Pat was under the impression that I was coming to help her sign up for a payment plan to pay her sewer bill. She brought a recent bill and other information, having tried previously to get approval for a program to help her pay off or be forgiven for her bill. “I went,” she tells me, “but they told me that you have to have some big problems like being blind or about to lose your house.” As she understands it, she’s ineligible to get any financial assistance. “They said they couldn’t help me. I went and applied but they didn’t pass my paper through.”

Leo hasn’t applied for a payment plan. English is not his first language, but as Leo understands it, he cannot access any additional assistance. I don’t know too much but Leo looks at me with surprise as I explain what a payment plan is and how it might work. He’s a proud homeowner but “the bills are just too much. And with the taxes, it’s way too much. It used to be one bill and now it’s too many bills,” he says, referring to the bill separation in 2013 and the shift to monthly billing in 2017. “It’s too much.” Pat agrees.

Pat and Leo are only two of the thousands of Clevelanders struggling with affordability issues.

They’ve spent years in the city, working at low-wage, high-intensity jobs, yet have secured a piece of privately owned property. Their homes aren’t worth much. Leo lives in the Broadway area and Pat lives near Kinsman. But as the water and sewer bills continue to rise, they’ve been pushed further and further to the edge.

As a general assumption, those who create pollution concerns are tasked with mitigating the negative effects. And while implementation of the ideal can be difficult, it’s easy to assign the “polluter pays principle” to a direct pollutant. A massive company that poisons our water supply. A dumpsite owner who allows the spillover to make a community ill. A landlord who won’t remediate lead. But what about pollution that does not have a single driving source? Who pays for the effects of sprawl, age, and a highly fragmented governance system?

The disparate impact is overwhelmingly felt by those with the most empty pockets and only a few valuable assets. Inner-ring suburban communities who are already hemorrhaging funds and residents. East Side residents who

can’t afford to own a home in a community with newer sewers and pipes, where floods are easier to manage due to communal resources and flood insurance policies. And low-income residents live in areas where big storms not only result in power outages but can have lasting effects brought on by the development patterns of the region.

In a region that includes dozens of local communities, rainwater doesn’t stop at city borders. There are tradeoffs to development, and with tradeoffs should come considerations.

However, there remain few legal or social mechanisms in place to stop this trend or enforce regulations to redistribute power and resources to those most affected by the development practices of these communities. Cities like Beachwood, Chagrin Falls and Solon — cities that might be home to environmentally green corporations seeking to reduce CO2 emissions — are, in fact, perpetuating a system that presents a more significant threat to our sustainability: the toxic mixture of sprawl, fragmented governance, and a lack of direct support for those most impacted.

Lead and Liens The Cleveland Public Water website boasts that “Cleveland water is leadfree when it leaves our treatment plants.” But the phraseology is misleading. While the water that leaves the treatment plant might not have lead, the pipes that lead to individual homes often do. That is, if they’re located in older, poorer, more diverse neighborhoods in the region.

While much of the recent conversation around lead in the county has focused on lead paint — most commonly found in windows and entranceways — lead pipes are a major environmental justice concern in the county as well. Because, while the cost to remediate a single home is a hefty one, the price to replace all of the older piping is exorbitant.

According to the map provided

by Cleveland Water, pipes in census tracts that are older and occupied by low-income residents are the ones most likely to be lead filled. Major development and renovation projects in the city of Cleveland require the replacement of old, lead piping.

But those major projects are often unaffordable for most Clevelanders, and especially out of reach for Cleveland’s poorest population.

But lead is only one concern facing older, more distressed neighborhoods. Water bills can, and

clevescene.com

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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FEATURE do, present even more significant hurdles for thousands of Clevelandarea homeowners. In 2015 alone, there were almost 50,000 water shut offs in the county due to water bill delinquencies. Even worse, a controversial policy at the state level allows water utility companies to place a lien on a home that is delinquent on its water payments.

According to Cleveland Water, this process is only triggered when a user owes more than $300 in backpayments for more than 180 days.

The company also claims that they use this power very infrequently, though records show that over 11,000 homes had liens placed against them between 2014-2018.

And the effects of these leins have been disastrous.

Tax foreclosures continue to increase in the county, even as mortgage foreclosures have dropped and/or stabilized. According to a 2016 report from Frank Ford, Senior Policy Analyst at the Western Reserve Conservancy, one in ten homes that were water delinquent in 2015 were in tax foreclosure the following year. Three years later, data from the Neighborhood Stabilization Team (NST) shows that of the homes that were water delinquent in 2015, almost 14% (506) were tax foreclosed within the following three years.

Some homes owed less than $100 in fees. Dozens of these homes owed only a few hundred dollars.

These small amounts should signal distress — they should have been a sign that the household was in need of financial counseling and assistance. Instead, Cleveland Water effectively sold them down the river.

The company claims that they have, and often utilize, payment plan options to help residents pay off these delinquencies. But water bills that are past due do not include clear and accurate information about any sort of financial assistance. When a home is considered for a lien, the occupant has a right to a hearing.

Yet, many are unaware of or able to engage in that process.

The policy is more than problematic and ineffective. It is discriminatory and prejudicial, according to the December 2019 NAACP lawsuit filed against Cleveland Water. In it, the group claims that the policy disproportionately and discriminatorily targets low-income and Black households. The suit was

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filed about six months after the release of a report that indicated that water affordability is an increasingly concerning issue for Americans of color in metro regions across the United States, including Baltimore and Cleveland.

According to the report, Cleveland’s water and sewer affordability concerns outpace those of other, comparable cities. Though water rates rose steadily from 19932010, a steep rise in rates occurred between 2011 and 2015. Sewer rates increased 13% per year from 20122016. These rates are higher than those of several other Midwestern cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit.

Several Ohio senators have recently taken note. In early March 2020, the Ohio senate constructed SB273, an attempt to eliminate the practice. The bill has bipartisan support but will require several months of committee work and approval by the House and Governor.

Still, the environmental justice concerns related to water and sewer systems is more than an issue of how to respond to delinquencies.

We must ask ourselves why delinquencies occur in the first place. (The short answer: Because Cleveland water bills are unaffordable for a large percentage of the city.)

According to Dr. Manny Teodoro, a leading researcher on water governance, our understanding of water affordability is deeply flawed.

Teodoro, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that many low-wage Great Lakes residents work at least one day out of the month to afford their water and sewer bills. While those who live in Gates Mills, Beachwood, or Solon work half an hour or less to afford these basic needs. That’s a striking reality.

The way we often calculate affordability is through an equation that looks at average income and average costs. But this results in high levels of inaccuracy due to the fact that the variation in median household income is much wider than the variation in monthly usage/ costs. In a November 2019 report from the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Teodoro notes that while the conventional measurements of affordability would suggest that Ohio’s water and sewer rates are affordable, a deeper understanding is required. When considering the current average price of water and sewer bills in Ohio, Teodoro found that, “in about 45 percent of Ohio communities, a household at the

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

20th income percentile must pay more than ten percent of disposable income for basic water and sewer service.”

This means that in a majority of Ohio communities (roughly 80%), paying the average monthly combined water and sewer bill requires at least eight hours of minimum wage work. Low-wage Ohioans must work at least one day out of the month just to afford access to their most basic need.

The Cleveland Water system, including the Cleveland Division of Water and the city council, currently sets rate charges based on how far people live from the central system.

Teodoro suggests that a state or regional policy should set rates with an eye on affordability, rather than just spatial distance.

If implemented, the recommendation, and a slew of others, are likely to shift the state and region away from disparate water-related outcomes. But the nature of our water system makes it unlikely. Not because actors and institutions are profiting off of the practice or because they are intentionally squeezing Ohioans.

But because the nature of the highly fragmented water system and the sprawling practices of the region’s most wealthy and wellconnected communities has created a toxic system that slowly but surely erodes affordability, without consequence.

Towards Justice and Equity Pat owes less than many lawyers make in an hour. “I pay as little as I can but now it’s gotten up to $132 for the sewer and I just can’t pay it,” Pat tells me.

Kathy, a union janitor who brought me to the campus to meet Pat and the others, offers to take Pat downtown, or help her make a phone call, to find out if they can work out a payment plan. “I can come over and meet you and we can see if we can get you on a payment plan with the water and sewer bill. I paid a bit every month until I could pay it off.” Her tone is comforting and Pat is interested, anxious to get her bill resolved.

Kathy is a leader in her union and the matriarch of a close-knit family. She knows that Leo has gotten some help with his bills in the past, though he had difficulty sharing the information. She knows at least three other janitors out of the thirty in her group are currently struggling to pay their water and sewer bills. Most are Spanish

speaking. All live in the city of Cleveland, in older neighborhoods with low-value homes.

It’s not Kathy’s job to share this information. It’s not her responsibility to ensure that her fellow coworkers have access to clean water and sewer systems. She has her own family to take care of, including a daughter and several grandchildren. But her family has been through this process and she has valuable insight to share. She’s a connector and a resource for those who are struggling.

Still, the fact that she’s needed signifies a larger gap in the system of affordability and environmental justice: Not only do those who pay not contribute to the pollutants, the systems available to assist them are difficult to navigate and require extensive technical expertise. These administrative burdens are the final hurdle that residents have to conquer. It’s one of the greatest and most pressing inequities in a city where 66% of residents are functionally illiterate and huge swaths of the east side lacks access to the internet.

“I got behind about a year ago,” Pat tells me. When asked if it was because of something really awful, she shakes her head, “No. I mean something bad did happen, but not something related to this.” I don’t push her for more details, but it’s clear that she could have used some additional assistance, well before 9:30 on a Monday night in February 2020. It’s perhaps the most disparate outcome related to the water affordability crisis — the fact that those already struggling are the most likely to be further stressed by unaffordable bills. In fact, a past due bill should signify distress and trigger a socially supportive response, rather than a punitive one.

In a region that considers Lake Erie to be one of its most-prized gems, that considers itself to be a leader in sustainability, our conversations related to the topic remain almost entirely focused on habitat and natural preservation.

Environmental justice, on the other hand, demands that we center the human experience and the interactions between humans and their environment in our conversations about sustainability.

It’s death by a thousand drops in Northeast Ohio, and the poorest and most marginalized populations are suffering the most.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

Photo by Doug Trattner

EAT BETTER TOGETHER

Hako in Lakewood will have sushi lovers fondly remembering Sapporo on East 6th, with good reason

By Douglas Trattner FOR 15 YEARS, SAPPORO WAS the ace-in-the-hole for downtown workers and residents in search of a fresh alternative to gut-busting burgers, subs and slices. The unassuming Japanese restaurant on E. 6th Street proved a consistent, reliable choice for quick, healthy and appetizing meals built around sushi, noodle bowls and teriyaki dishes.

For just as long, Ohashi in North Olmsted has served as a destination for more adventurous Asian food fans. The spacious suburban setting provides a larger and more robust sushi bar experience featuring a lengthy roster of fish and seafood. But Ohashi’s menu goes well beyond raw fish and rice.

On August 11, those two sushipowers joined forces to open Hako in Lakewood. The union proved a fortuitous and mutually beneficial arrangement given that Sapporo was on its way out of downtown, while Ohashi owner Jackie Kim was looking to retool her Lakewood restaurant Aji Noodle Bar. Aji opened in the former Yuzu space in June of last year, but closed its doors at the start of the local Covid crisis in March.

Kim did much of the heavy lifting in terms of physical improvements, freshening up the former Yuzu interior with improved seating, lighting and décor before opening Aji. That contemporary, functional, Asianinspired design remains, of course, joined by a more run-of-the-mill rear patio space.

In terms of offerings, I’d describe the lineup as being closer in composition to Sapporo than Ohashi. Whereas that admired N. Olmsted eatery offers diners a broad range of appetizers, noodle bowls, tempura dinners, and donburi bowls capped with various toppings – not to mention an exhaustive catalogue of sashimi, nigiri and dozens of traditional and eclectic rolls sushi – Hako largely sticks to sushi. Granted, my

last meal at Ohashi was pre-Covid and it is likely that their offerings have been scaled back.

Exceptions arrive in the form of a handful of appetizers, noodle bowls and teriyaki dinners.

Dumpling lovers can select from three different fillings (pork, chicken, veggie) and two different preparations (steamed, fried).

The deep-fried (as opposed to pan-fried) pork dumplings ($7.50) arrive four to an order and sport a crackly, golden-brown exterior, hand-crimped edge and moist, flavorful filling. A nice alternative to the tried-and-true gyoza are the shumai ($6.50/6), delicately steamed wrappers filled with ground shrimp.

In terms of fish, both raw and cooked, the options range from unembellished sashimi to

avocado, carrot and kanpyo (gourd) and tender egg omelet.

For those who love to pile it on, there are rolls like the Hurricane ($17), a force of nature with four types of fish, asparagus and spicy mayo. For an extra two bucks, the kitchen will dip the whole affair in tempura batter and deep fry it.

HAKO 13603 MADISON AVE., LAKEWOOD 216-273-7110 SUSHIHAKO.COM

wild and colorful rolls filled and draped with assorted ingredients.

In between lie straightforward nigiri sushi, classic maki rolls and slightly more inventive constructions. It’s hard to top the simple satisfaction of a hamachi roll ($6.95), a tightly twisted cylinder of jet-black nori, ivory sushi rice and raw yellowtail. A step up in complexity and crunch is the tempura California roll ($7.95), which is just like it sounds.

A whole roll is battered, fried and sliced into crispy-coated wheels of nori-wrapped faux crab, cucumber, avocado and rice.

A work of edible art, the futomaki ($13) roll is easily identified by its size. These characteristically fat, wide slices are like miniature stained glass portholes, with vivid pops of yellow, green and red. Unlike many specialty rolls that go overboard with fish, these tend to rely more on vegetables like spinach,

While far from comprehensive, Hako offers enough noodle bowls to satisfy most tastes. Choices include dishes starring thick and chewy udon, thin soba and springy, kinky ramen. A large ramen ($11) with shrimp arrives cloudy from egg, which is mixed into the broth as opposed to

soft-cooked and arranged on top.

There are plenty of gently cooked tail-on shrimp, vegetables and noodles.

The few remaining menu items are teriyaki dinners comprised of chicken, beef or salmon, and a lone pork tonkatsu (breaded cutlet) with rice and salad.

Initially, management had included on the menu a selection of “pan sushi.” Popular in Hawaii, pan sushi is a more carefree style of preparation that features layers of rice, fish, roe and sauces, which are pressed and then cut into tidy squares. Apparently, those did not make the final cut.

What did make the cut was a spare list of Japanese beers, wines and cocktails.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

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Photo by Doug Trattner

EAT BITES

East 4th Street’s new Citizen Pie Roman Cafe offers heaven by the slice

By Douglas Trattner AT FIRST GLANCE, THE rectangular slices of pizza that are displayed like colorful bunting within a prominent display area look like standard-issue Sicilian or “Grandma” style pie. But all it takes is one bite of the light, airy and crispy-crackly creations to recognize that Roman-style – aka pizza al taglio – is no conventional construction.

A complex and unique dough preparation process is combined with special baking equipment to create this singular style of pizza that originated in Rome but has spread like so much melted mozzarella across the globe. And the only place in Ohio to bite into a slice of the real McCoy is at Citizen Pie Roman Cafe (2057 E. 4th St., 216-3940155) downtown.

The process begins with super-hydrated dough that is cold-fermented for 48 to 96 hours, producing a low-gluten crust. The pizza is baked in long rectangular pans in special dual-temperature ovens that treat the tops and bottoms of the pie differently, resulting in a thin, crispy bottom and gossamer, honeycomb-like interior.

“It’s light as a cloud and you can eat a ton of it,” says chef Vytauras Sasnauskas, who also operates the wood-fired Neapolitan-style Citizen Pie pizzerias.

Walk into Roman Café and you’ll see a dozen different types of pie, all of them composed with various combinations of base and toppings, prebaked and ready for the final step. That step – a quick blast in a hot oven – can take place in the shop, at the office or back home.

And because the entire process is designed around that procedure, the results are predictable and outstanding. Either in, out or at home, the pizza needs just one to two minutes in a 500-degree oven to achieve perfection.

Despite the lighter-than-air base, these slices are sturdy enough, thanks to a thin but rigid bottom, to support considerable toppings.

Unlike the typically austerelytopped Neapolitan pizzas, Roman

16

slices often are piled high.

A Veggie slice ($4.50) features a zucchini base, mozzarella, tomato, ricotta and pesto. A post-bake sprinkle and splash of fresh greens and lemon vinaigrette wake it up.

The Spicy Salami ($4.50) is layered with paper-thin slices of eggplant, mozzarella, spicy salami and touch of blue cheese sauce. Others have potato, bacon egg, cheese and truffle, or mushroom, ham, cheese and burrata.

While the grab-and-go process is well suited to the current dining environment, the process requires steady foot traffic to survive. The pre-baked pizzas are only permitted to be on display for a couple hours before they are binned. And if you experience a twinge of sticker shock, know that Sasnauskas uses only the best ingredients, including large amounts extra-virgin olive oil that goes into each batch of dough.

The shop, formerly Erie Island Coffee, also serves as a satellite outpost for Bigmouth Donuts and Six Shooter Coffee.

Hell’s Fried Chicken to Open in University Circle This month Hell’s Fried Chicken (11324 Euclid Ave., 216-331-1005), a fried chicken concept that has been in the works for more than a year, finally is approaching opening day.

It will do that later this month in a location that is across the street from its original home, which was the primary cause for the delay.

The restaurant is from Sheng Long Yu, the entrepreneur behind Shinto restaurants in Strongsville and Westlake, Kenko in University Circle and Kent, Dagu Rice Noodle in Asiatown and Pittsburgh, and Ipoke near the Cleveland Clinic. This one is set in a 1,600-square-foot spot near the intersection of Mayfield and Euclid.

Yu describes the concept as an American-style fried chicken restaurant starring Korean-style fried chicken. The fast-casual eatery will feature a concise menu of fried chicken, fresh-cut fries, coleslaw

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

and bread. A blend of special flours creates a super-crispy breading that stays that way for longer than traditional all-purpose blends.

Various combos are built around tenders, whole wings, thighs and sandwiches, all of which can be ordered in one of seven different spice levels. Also available will be a number of sauces that range from sweet to hot. The fried chicken will be cooked throughout the day.

If all goes as planned, Hell’s Fried Chicken will be open by the middle of September. When it does, it will offer online ordering for easy, efficient pickup.

Domo Yakitori and Sushi at Van Aken District is a One-Stop Shop for Three Classic Japanese Street Foods Tucked into a roomy corner space in the Van Aken District Market Hall, Domo Yakitori & Sushi (3401 Tuttle Rd.) almost feels like a proper – albeit small – restaurant as opposed to a food court stall. It is physically separated from the main hall, there are tables and chairs, and guests can even plop down at the counter to watch the show.

That show encompasses a variety of Japanese street foods that are grilled, deep fried, griddled and rolled. The trio of principal food groups here is comprised of sushi, yakitori and okonomiyaki.

The sushi is straightforward enough for fans of the category.

Choices include sashimi, nigiri and rolls, further divided into groups for non-fish vegetarian items and those containing fish (raw and/or cooked).

Well-constructed rolls range from a straightforward avocado and cucumber roll ($6) to a colorful twist of cooked shrimp, kanpyo (gourd), sushi rice and nori, draped in ripe avocado and garnished with a brinysweet crab salad ($13). In all, there are more than a dozen sushi options.

Yakitori, the emperor of street foods, is grilled meat on a stick.

Here, options include most classic chicken parts, from the wing, breast and thigh to meatballs and those succulent “oysters.” The bite-size pieces are marinated, grilled, glazed and served atop rice or noodles.

Prices range from $10 to $13 for two three-piece skewers. In the nonchicken department, there is pork belly, quail egg and duck meatballs along with vegetarian sticks containing grilled mushrooms, tofu or shishito peppers.

The third section of the menu is devoted to okonomiyaki, a rarity around here. Domo prepares Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is a layered smorgasbord starring a large savory pancake presented on a bed of crunchy gently cooked cabbage. But that’s just the start of it: there is also bacon, fried eggs, chewy noodles, sweet and sour sauce, spicy aioli and umami-rich bonito flakes. That base model ($9) can be supplemented with add-ons like shishito peppers, shrimp and octopus for a few extra dollars.

Place your order, grab the pager that will signal when your food is ready and go shopping for a beverage, preferably a cold beer.

This is street food, after all.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

Photo by Samantha Fryberger

MUSIC

C-NOTES

A newly renovated Beachland Ballroom has reopened

By Jeff Niesel District.

During lockdown, the Beachland crew refinished the ballroom floor and put new carpet on the stage.

There will be also be new curtains in the ballroom, and a smaller digital board will be located further back in the ballroom.

“Because we won’t have as many people at the shows, we know we need to up our food game,” says Barber as she sits at a socially distanced outdoor table during last weekend’s sneak preview for Beachland friends.

The club’s capacity will be capped at about 75 people, and local musicians and DJs will regularly perform. The club also plans to book national touring acts on occasion. Singer-guitarist Samantha Fish and singersongwriter Alex Williams will perform at the venue on Oct 14 and Oct. 23, respectively.

“We want to stream the concerts too,” Barber says, adding that she hopes to add a permanent outdoor patio. “I’m trying to get funding for the streaming for the Happy Dog, Grog Shop, Bop Stop and Beachland. I’m asking for a grant to buy equipment, so we all have some kind of capability. I don’t even know that we’ll be able to have shows of 500 people in spring of 2021, so the small clubs really have to work together in order to survive.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, the North Collinwood club known for hosting an eclectic line-up of musical acts seven nights a week, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a string of spectacular shows, including indie rock noisemakers the Black Lips, heavy metal singer Geoff Tate and arty rockers Of Montreal.

The club even planned a series of special concerts throughout March to further mark the occasion.

When COVID-19 hit, the shows in late March were either cancelled or postponed, and the club closed in accordance with the governor’s orders banning mass gatherings.

During the downtime, owners Mark Leddy and Cindy Barber have renovated the venue and finally reopened it last weekend with reduced capacity.

The Beachland will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays going forward.

The club also hopes to host concerts outdoor in its parking lot, but the nearby residential neighbors still have to sign off on that.

A new and expanded kitchen should be up and running in a few weeks. For the time being, the Beachland will serve a limited menu of items (bratwurst, fresh garlic sausage and veggie dogs) cooked on an outdoor grill. The bratwurst, garlic sausage and sauerkraut all come from small businesses in the Waterloo Arts

$550 weekly Working Days: 3days Time Schedule: 9AM - 12PM Email: cleanerjob1@outlook.com | clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

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SAVAGE LOVE NO CHOKE.

By Dan Savage Hey, Dan: I’m a 29-year-old straight woman in Pennsylvania. My question is to do with choking and consent.

I’ve had two experiences in the past six months or so where someone has tried to choke me without my consent. The first time this happened, I coughed immediately but he tried multiple times during sex. I was caught so off-guard that I didn’t say anything until the next morning. I told him I wasn’t OK with that and that it was too much. The second time, I shook my head as soon as he put his hand on my throat and he stopped immediately. I told him, “That scared the shit out of me.” He apologized for startling me and said he wouldn’t do it again. My question is, Why is this a thing? The fact that this has happened to me more than once in a short period of time kind of shocked me. And what is the appropriate thing to do when this happens? What should I do with the person who does this?

Concerned Hetero Over Kinky Entitled Dumbasses “I would also love to know why choking has become a thing,” says Dr. Debby Herbenick. “And it is a thing, especially among young adults.”

Dr. Herbenick is a professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health and the author of numerous books on sexuality and sexual pleasure. She’s also the lead author of a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, CHOKED, a study that looked at the sort of behavior you’ve been encountering recently: people engaging in spanking, choking, face-fucking, etc. Though some of this is no doubt consensual, much of it is not.

“We found that 21% of women had been choked during sex as had 11% of men,” says Dr. Herbenick. “We also found that 20% of men and 12% of women had choked a partner. But choking during sex was much more common among 18-29 year olds — almost 40% of whom had choked or been choked — leading us to believe that choking has really changed in the U.S., over probably the last 10-20 years.”

18

Men who choked women were the biggest single group of chokers, CHOKED, followed by men choking men, women choking women, and trans and gender non-binary individuals choking and being choked. Straight cisgender men, perhaps unsurprisingly, were the least likely to report that partners choked them during sex. Trans and gender non-binary participants in Dr. Herbenick’s research more often reported that their partners established consent prior to choking, but across the board there was still a great deal of nonconsensual choking going on.

How did we get here?

“Probably porn,” says Dr. Herbenick. “We found that many people into choking remember growing up and watching porn with choking in it — and in a country where porn stands in for sex education and family conversations about sex, some young people do what they see in porn.”

And some people — mostly male people — do it because they think the other person wants or expects it.

This was dramatized in an episode of Euphoria, the terrific HBO show about a group of high school students, when a boy suddenly starts choking a girl during their first hookup at a party. The girl is scared and confused — she thought the boy liked her — and the boy tells her he does like her; he grabbed her throat because he thought she would like it, not to harm or scare her.

Although shaken, she makes it clear she expects him to ask first.

It is scary to suddenly be choked by a sex partner. When asked if something scary had ever happened to them during sex, numerous women Herbenick surveyed for a different study cited someone choking them without asking. Even if you were into being choked, CHOKED, which you’re not, suddenly being choked by a new sex partner would still be scary. Because if someone chokes you without asking first, they’re essentially saying — they’re clearly saying — that they have extremely shitty judgment (and didn’t think to obtain your consent) or that they’re an extremely shitty person (and didn’t care to obtain your consent).

“Now I’m not one of those people who says explicit verbal consent is needed for every hug or kiss or breast/chest touch,” says Dr. Herbenick. “I’m well aware that sex often involves verbal, non-verbal, and other shades of asking for something. But no one should choke another person without their explicit verbal consent.”

| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020

That goes double/triple/infinity for aggressive and/or high-risk kinks, not just choking.

“And choking is really risky,” says Dr. Herbenick. “Even though people call it choking, external pressure on the neck — like from hands or a cord or necktie — is technically strangulation. In rare cases, choking/strangulation causes people to pass out, leading to probable mild traumatic brain injury. And choking/strangulation sometimes kills people. Even if the person who was choked consented to it, even if they asked to be choked, the person who did the choking is often legally responsible in the event of injury or death.”

I’ve interviewed professional Dominants who will literally stick needles through men’s testicles — sterilized needles, consenting testicles — but who refuse to choke clients or engage in other forms of breath play. These professionals aren’t refusing to choke clients because it’s too extreme (remember the needles?), but because it’s too dangerous.

“There is truly no safe way to choke someone,” says Dr. Herbenick.

“As part of my research, I’ve sought advice from several kink-positive physician colleagues, none of whom feels confident in a ‘safe’ way of choking, as there is too much that can go wrong — from seizures to neck injury to death.”

So what do you do the next time some dude grabs your throat? (And there will, sadly, most likely be a next time.) You immediately tell them to stop. Don’t cough, don’t deflect, don’t prioritize their feelings in the moment or worry about ruining the mood and derailing the sex. Use your words: “Don’t choke me, I don’t like that, it’s not sexy to me and it’s not safe, and you should’ve asked.” If they apologize and don’t try it again, great. Maybe you can keep fucking. But if they pout or act annoyed or insist you might like it after you’ve just finished telling them you definitely don’t like it, get up and leave. And if someone tried to choke you during sex and you shut it down and they pivoted to mutually enjoyable sex acts, CHOKED, be sure to raise the subject after sex. Make sure they understand you don’t want that to happen again and that you expect them to be more conscientious about consent the next time — if there is a next time.

And considering that this has happened to you twice recently, CHOKED, and considering how popular busting this particular move seems to have become, you

might wanna consider saying something about choking to a new sex partner before you have sex for the first time.

“I would be very up front about it from the get-go,” says Dr. Herbenick.

“When you’re first talking with someone or moving things forward, say something like, ‘I’m not into choking, so don’t try it,’ or, ‘Whatever you do, don’t choke me.’ If you can both share your hard limits, you’ll be better prepped for good, fun, exciting, pleasurable sex — not scary stuff like non-consensual choking.

“And for everyone reading this, seriously: stop choking people without first talking or asking about it. Just stop.”

Follow Dr. Debby Herbenick on Twitter @DebbyHerbenick.

Hey, Dan: I hope you’re getting a lot of mail from people uncomfortable with your response to DISCORD, the woman whose cheating husband blew up when a man she was merely chatting with forwarded their correspondence to her husband.

My first question was whether the sadistic creep who baited her into telling him she had an affair wasn’t actually her POS husband playing some sick game. I mean, 30 minutes is awfully quick turnaround from her messages being forwarded to his blow-up. And seeing as DISCORD’s husband has already established that she will put up with his tantrums, withholding of sexual intimacy, strangulation, lying, and affairs, it’s also possible that he’s engineered her financial dependence. I would advise her to at least talk to a professional who could paint an objective picture of her financial options. She might also benefit from the advice of an advocate for domestic violence survivors. Strangulation is usually not an isolated violent act.

Rarely Disappointed Reader Thank you for writing, RDR — thanks to everyone who wrote. I’ve reached out to DISCORD privately and will forward your emails on to her. I should’ve pushed back when DISCORD ruled out divorce as an option. Here’s hoping DISCORD takes your advice over mine.

Questions? mail@savagelove. net. Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage.

Meet the author of The Vagina Bible on this week’s Savage Lovecast: savagelovecast.com.

mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage www.savagelovecast.com

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| clevescene.com | September 9-15, 2020