REWIND: 1988 YEARS
Ten years ago, Tito led the way to an 81-80 season where Cleveland missed the playoffs. Despite how the early results have panned out so far this year, we’re holding out hope that’s not how this campaign goes.
UPFRONT
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS MAYOR KAHLIL SEREN DEFENDS WIFE’S UNOFFICIAL ROLE AT CITY HALL
AMID RISING TURMOIL, STAFF DEPARTURES
WHEN DAN HORRIGAN RECENTLY resigned as the City Administrator of Cleveland Heights after less than three months on the job, his ensuing comments about his departure brought to public light a simmering issue that had been festering for a while.
Horrigan, the former mayor of Akron, shared the reason behind his mere months on the job with a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal. Horrigan was cryptic but clear: a tense office culture at Mayor Kahlil Seren’s City Hall was the focal point of his resignation.
“I raised a number of workplace safety and hostile work environment issues that involved a member of the mayor’s family that were not addressed, and it kind of made the administration of my duties untenable,” he said.
Horrigan had elaborated, in private communications to Seren on March 14, who he was really talking about: the mayor’s wife, Natalie McDaniel.
“The work situation is untenable at this point,” he told Seren. “I realize that this is a difficult and personal situation, but your wife’s presence here at City Hall has caused a number of employees to feel uncomfortable and on at least one occasion, unsafe.”
“Quite frankly,” Horrigan added, “her directing staff in their official capacity is improper and unethical.”
Seren himself has faced internal and external criticism that’s run the gamut from concerns about expenditures in an overdue budget proposal to funding at Cain Park.
For the dedicated and watchful residents of Cleveland Heights, Horrigan’s drive-thru stint under Seren wasn’t an anomaly. Danny Williams, the City Administrator before Horrigan, retired after a year in office. Joe Sinnott, Williams’ predecessor, after a year, as well. As did Patrick Costigan, Seren’s assistant, in January. As did Jessica Rosenblatt, a marketing specialist. As did three finance directors, two Parks & Recreation directors, a communications director, a payroll administrator and the general manager of Cain Park.
In a general sense, at least a dozen current and former employees told Scene, there’s a culture of intimidation that’s gotten out of control, and McDaniel is a co-star.
“During my time there, there was a constant atmosphere of fear,” Jessica Rosenblatt, a former marketing manager for Cain Park who quit last August, told Scene. “The mayor does act more like a dictatorship. And if you do upset him, or his wife, you know, your job is at risk.”
For several members of City Council, McDaniel’s influence at City Hall is more of a symptom of Seren’s wrangling of his executive seat more than, say, a matter of happenstance.
“I’ve heard she has meltdowns in City Hall,” one told Scene. “She’s gone ballistic at employees, reprimanding them. She sits in hirings and firings. She has a keycard to get in and out of offices. It’s all just ridiculous.”
“I just don’t understand why she’s there,” another said. “That’s my biggest confusion at this point.”
In the public eye, McDaniel appears as mysterious as she might seem to those at City Hall she’s
helped hire and fire.
She’s lived in Cleveland Heights for at least a decade and been married to Seren for about that long. She was at his swearing-in for City Council on February 18, 2015. She worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for eight years. Her tenure alongside Seren is a lot more unclear: McDaniel’s not listed in the Cleveland Heights staff directory, or on the city’s website at all.
And McDaniel is not a stranger to accusations of workplace hostility.
In September 2015, McDaniel sued the VA for forcing her back to the office after she claimed her Post Traumatic Stress and anxiety gave her a right to work from home. McDaniel said she was forced to quit, the suit reads, due to a “hostile work environment/harassment; discrimination based on race and gender (McDaniel is Black), disability and retaliation.”
A judge dismissed the case, in February 2019, opining that McDaniel did not have sufficient proof that, a summary judgment reads, a “few, isolated incidents of alleged harassment do not create a hostile work environment.”
In a half-hour interview with Scene on Monday, in a board room at Cleveland Heights City Hall, Seren defended McDaniel’s role over the past two years, framing his wife’s position as a natural extension of his seat. McDaniel, he said, is his “first lady.” She is unpaid. She has no “formal set of duties.” She is a sidekick to his political reach. (None of which is mentioned in the city charter.)
It is “as you would expect from any person in any public office who has a partner in their life—this is not unusual,” Seren said.
“One would expect that Barack Obama sought Michelle Obama’s counsel on many things. You would expect that Richard Celeste sought Dagmar Celeste’s counsel on many things,” Seren added. “You would expect these things because it makes sense. This is a person who knows me well. This is a person who understands.”
As for the emails pointing to an incident involving McDaniel on March 13, Seren asserted that an independent firm has been hired to look into
Photo by Mark Oprea
accusations of hostility. Seren said he received “no complaints of that nature” until Horrigan’s mention of it surfaced in the middle of March.
Since Seren took his oath of office on January 1, 2022, the 46-year-old former city councilman adopted a wholly rigid and stern philosophy around bringing Cleveland Heights away from its financially distraught past. Seren admires a Lean Six Sigma-type of approach to managing City Hall’s denizens—an office mindset obsessed with waste reduction and worker efficiency. He even hired a performance coordinator, Andrea Heim, last year, to advance “that ethos across all departments,” as a 2024 Mid-Year Report states. (Last week, Heim was put on administrative leave, multiple sources confirmed.)
“I don’t think that everybody has an understanding of sort of what process-improvement methodology is for,” he told Scene.
“My goal is always to make the work that people do for the city as easy as possible,” Seren added. “I have no desire to make it harder for any public employee to do their job. I think that there are always ways for us to find unnecessary steps in processes and remove them—so no, I don’t think we’re setting the bar too high.”
As for the departure of three city administrators and other employees in recent years, Seren responded: “There are certain things that—it’s sort of not really okay to say about a departing employee getting into their personal lives.”
And as for Horrigan: “Unfortunately, again, we come back to this sort of jumping to conclusions,” he said, “and determining that what a director says as they’re leaving is not credible unless it’s something that they already believe.”
If Seren chooses to run for re-election, he’ll go up against contenders in a September primary election, then again in a November general election. Based on past comments, it seems Seren feels fine exiting the seat without further controversy, and, as he phrased it in a December Council meeting, take his talents elsewhere. “I’ll be fine,” he told the room. “I can land on my feet. I have opportunities elsewhere.”
– Mark Oprea
Cleveland Health Survey Shows Residents Struggle to Meet Basic Needs
With the first citywide survey in about a decade, the Cleveland Department of Public Health now has a clear-
er picture of the city’s general health. Results began to be released this week with the publication of the 2025 Cleveland Health Survey data snapshot.
From November to January, with help from nine students at Case Western, thousands of postcards were mailed out to Clevelanders in all 34 neighborhoods of the city. A sample size of 1,497 people responded to 90 questions, from how often they smoke menthol cigarettes to how often feel depressed.
And, well, we’re not looking too great.
For starters, we have higher obesity rates (39%), diabetes rates (16%) and high blood pressure (46%). We’re depressed more often (37%) and feel less social (58%).
We’re also seeking food assistance more often (30%), receiving SNAP (33%), own fewer homes, need help paying rent and utilities, and have a tougher time securing rides to work (18%), or just keeping constant work altogether (17%).
Yet Dave Margolius, the head of the Department of Public Health who helped direct the survey, feels the tough truths the survey shows us outweighs the distressing feeling that the city isn’t improving. Or, as the philosopher Krishnamurti once said: It’s best to just see what is.
“You just can’t improve what you’re not measuring,” Margolius told Scene.
“I’m really grateful that we now have the most up-to-date health statistics of any city,” he added, “and probably any place in the country.”
And having a good read on Cleveland, or at least 1,500 of us, may be more timely than ever. The recent string of federal cuts to tree canopy restoration work, food for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and those receiving Medicaid could impact one-third of the city. All that and other issues mean a greater reliance on City Hall to brainstorm, and legislate, ways to keep Cleveland healthy despite lost aid from the feds.
“I know that our goal is that this data, it doesn’t just sit on the shelf,” Ward 12 Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer, who’s also co-chair of Council’s Health, Human Services & The Arts Committee, told Scene.
“It has to inform the actions that we take as a city and the programming that we put into place,” she added. “I don’t think it should come as a surprise to Clevelanders, but we have to figure out how to turn this into actions and programs in the real world.”
A committee meeting to unpack the survey data is to come soon, Maurer said.
But Maurer was clear that City Council does have the choice to put
data into reality. She pointed to Slavic Village, where $150,000 went into a full-on renovation of the Stella Walsh Rec Center. Sure, Slavic Village is a poster child of the effects of redlining—but, in Maurer’s mind, it’s gained access to a new place to exercise.
“I mean, we now have the most top-of-the-line weight room and gym equipment in the entire city recreation network,” she said.
The Department of Public Health will be releasing a more detailed breakdown of the data sometime later this month, Margolius said. For example, data showing how smoking rates were reduced by some 15 percentage points since 2015. (Or were, Margolius mused, just replaced by vaping culture.)
But small victories aren’t passed over easily. Which is part of the reason Margolius hopes that 2025’s data paves the way into the city realizing the incentive of not waiting as long to do the next one.
“Our hope is that we would do this every three years,” Margolius said, “instead of every ten.” – Mark Oprea
People’s Budget Cleveland Group to Launch $100,000 Participatory Budget Pilot Program
People’s Budget Cleveland, the team of advocates that believe Clevelanders should have a greater say in how their tax money is spent and got a participatory budgeting ballot issue before voters in 2023, is giving their efforts another go with a pilot program.
Starting in May, PB CLE will begin six months of research and listening for a $100,000, privately funded version of their idea in one Cleveland neighborhood. (That neighborhood has yet to be selected.)
The bid in November 2023 to direct $14 million of Cleveland’s coffers to a People’s Budget Fund failed by a slim margin, of just 1,387 votes.
A year of regrouping has seemed to led to renewed faith: Clevelanders want greater say in how their dollars are spent on public projects.
“We saw the election as not everything we wanted. And we also saw it as an affirmation, that a substantial number of people in Cleveland want a democratic way of making decisions— real decisions. And we want to see that goal in Cleveland. The pilot is a way of doing that,” PB CLE’s Jonathan Welle told Scene.
With federal funding cuts, Clevelanders will see a handful of projects tabled or delayed. The pilot program will be a chance to give one neighborhood a shot at, well, calling their own shots.
“This work is even more important now, at the time of rising authoritarianism,” PB CLE’s website reads, “because a People’s Budget harnesses the collective wisdom of Cleveland residents and builds neighborhood power.”
A program manager, to be hired this month, will help spearhead idea gathering. Clevelanders can have their say on the best candidate through a questionnaire that wraps up April 15.
There’s no denying that $100,000 doesn’t compare to City Hall’s meaty, $172 million, three-year budget for capital projects, for public pool rehabs, new football stadiums and Irishtown Bend Park. Or the $14 million slice a steering committee could’ve wrangled if Issue 38 had passed.
But that hasn’t stopped the group completely.
“People want to see school projects, beautification projects and safety projects,” Andrea White, a PB CLE committee member, told Signal. “They want to see an uplift of their neighborhoods because they do not see that at this present moment. This pilot can change that.”
Residents voting on how to spend pooled money exists in some form—a county government, a school—in over 7,000 cities throughout the world, the Participatory Budgeting Project found. In 2018, We Decide Detroit helped cobble together $250,000 to spend in and around Clark Park, situated in a Hispanic-majority neighborhood. Months later, after focus groups and votes casted, neighbors made up their minds on how to spend it: $72,000 for outdoor music; $50,000 to fix up Clark’s ragged gazebo; and $139,000 to build a small, ADA-accessible playground for children.
Yet, the neighborhood’s somewhat paltry voter turnout—just nine percent neighbors—rasies questions about the aspirations of true democracy underlying participatory budgeting. And projects in other cities weren’t too far off: just two percent of neighbors showed up to vote in one in Cambridge, Mass.; another one, in Chicago, just one percent.
Any recommendations, in the Clark Park case, hinted at actually consulting City Hall rather than shunning local politicians altogether.
“Involve the city sooner,” a follow-up report on the project read. “Involve a highly trusted elected official known for their grassroots connections earlier in the process.”
PB CLE is slated to host a kickoff event sometime in May. – Mark Oprea
FEATURE
ONE KIA THEFT, ONE CRASH, COUNTLESS LIVES CHANGED
The intersection of Pearl and State, where Janet Reyes died at 21 after being hit by a Kia Optima driven by Monroe Larkin III. The case is still lingering in Cuyahoga County court.
By Mark Oprea
THERE WAS A SPECIAL KIND of electricity on Natchez Avenue the morning of August 3, 2023. And it kept Carmen Gandarilla up most of the night before. A type of excitement, amplified by distance and time, that revolved around one single thought: my Janet is finally coming home for good.
The Reyes family would make the most of the moment. Carmen made brunch plans at Gus’s Family Restaurant down the street. Brother Tato cued the FaceTime from New Jersey. Stepfather Alberto would take the photos. Sisters Gar-
denia and Leslie would cook the pork pernil and tostones, supply the Tito’s. Best friend May scheduled the nails and hair appointment.
Janet had spent the past two years in Surprise, Arizona, living with a boyfriend, Orlando, and newly 21 years old, carving out a life she felt worth pursuing in the years ahead. “And she loved her family,” Gardenia said. “She’s not used to being by herself. She always had somebody.”
And Janet had Natchez. That is, despite a long-standing urge to
find new experiences or challenge her mother in ways daughters often do. There was that colicky baby’s endless crying. That teenage itch to push boundaries—to sneak a serpent tattoo, to go clubbing late at night (“midnight cats,” Grandma Luz used to call them), to abandon volleyball and swimming for the Rhodes High basketball team. And the cycle of career ideas: National Guard? Nurse at MetroHealth? And the endless Janets to show the world: straightened hair, raven-black curls past her shoulders, long braids, red streaks. “She was
very free-spirited,” Carmen said. “Since she was a baby; she didn’t care. She wasn’t afraid to get into trouble. She wasn’t afraid to stand up to you.”
It was that Janet that flew into Cleveland-Hopkins the morning of August 3. After a burger at Gus’s with Carmen, Janet waited for May at the house on Natchez as Gardenia and middle sister Leslie prepared food for her homecoming party. Around three, May and Janet drove to a salon off Pearl in Old Brooklyn and left two hours later with nails newly pink. Driving
Photo by Mark Oprea
home, May posted a photo on Instagram of Janet in the passenger seat smiling, dancing to reggaeton, hair all fresh in braids.
Four minutes later, as May and Janet were turning at a green light onto State Road, blocks away from Natchez, a 2016 black Kia Optima slammed like a missile into the right passenger side door at 88 miles an hour. May’s car ricocheted like a toy. It tumbled into the mulch bed of a nearby plaza center. Airbags deployed in both cars. Debris lined half the road. The entire right side of May’s Honda was cratered.
It was about then a text popped up on Janet’s phone, one that she would never see. Where are you at? We’re waiting, Gardenia wrote. Come on.
Gardenia left to go buy Tito’s at West Side Beverage. She’d seen Janet’s location on her phone close by on State, so she drove over to meet her. She found instead a flurry of police lights. “Something was going on,” she recalled. “They were running to their car. I thought, ‘Something wrong has happened.’ So, I drove over there. I parked on the street, and started running towards them.” She paused. “I just knew. I knew my sister was in that car.”
Janet died almost instantly. “She never made it home,” Gardenia said. “I never got to see her that night.”
May was rushed in critical condition to MetroHealth—as were the four in the Kia Optima —in an unconscious state. She was hospitalized for a month with a traumatic brain injury and lost an eye.
The next day, Carmen and Alberto were interviewed by Cleveland 19 News. They were told that driver in the Kia, like the three others in the car, were just teenagers. The youngest was only 12 years old.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure those kids stop,” Carmen said. “Something has to happen. We all got to get involved. We got to put a stop to this.”
resents a failure of society with no real answers.
Who is to blame? Is it the Chinese car manufacturers who neglected for years to install anti-theft devices in their products?
Is it the fault of cops, muddled by understaffing and stringent chase policies? Is it juvenile court judges, stuck in the quagmire of high case loads and a crammed detention centers? Is it the social media corporations, thriving on likes and ad dollars, who’ve failed to keep minors off the Endless Scroll where those how-to-steal-a-Kia videos first prospered?
City Council to tighten what he saw as outdated and soft curfew laws. (By about an hour for most ages.) He also wanted to revise city code to charge the parents of teen car thieves with intensified misdemeanors—slapping them with fines, and possible jail time.
“I mean, that’s part of the problem,” Polensek said in January. “They get arrested, and tossed right back out. Especially if they’re juveniles. It’s a license to continue what you’re doing: they all know the cops aren’t going to chase them.”
Cleveland Police policy aside, minors caught stealing cars will find their way to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center and in front of one of the court’s six judges. It’s where 14-year-old C.H. found himself after he drove a Kia into a group of teens heading home from school last May. It’s where four teens donning black ski masks, passing 75 MPH and crashing off West 85th, found themselves in June. And it’s where six ended up after a precarious, six-minute chase with Garfield Heights Police on August 12, that ended with them fleeing on foot off East 131st. Which ended quite a busy streak for those offenders: those kids were responsible, CPD concluded, for at least seven other thefts that summer.
The years-long phenomenon of the Kia Boys—the groups of mostly male, mostly teen-aged car thieves that break into quick-to-steal Kias and Hyundais of certain years and models with the aim of bragging about their score on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram for clout (and, in many cases, to use the vehicles to commit other crimes)—rep-
Or, as has been popular amongst some city councils and the court of public opinion: Is it the parents, our first gate of acceptance and punishment, who should bear the weight, despite the burdens of single parenthood and poverty, of the actions of the 13-year-old boy who spends his nights stealing cars?
What has happened in the four years after the #KiaChallenge first blew up on TikTok is the culmina-
tion of a public reckoning with its most heinous effects. Whether that be in new juvenile home detention programs; tightened city curfews; federal class-action lawsuits; steering wheel lock device handouts; curtailed, “kid-friendly” forms of apps; and a looming national ban on TikTok altogether.
But there’s a general consensus, from attorneys and parents and experts, that the problem of the Kia Boys isn’t letting up anytime soon. In the year after Janet Reyes was killed in that Honda Accord in Old Brooklyn, Cleveland Police reported 4,356 cars stolen across the city. Forty percent of those cars were Kias and Hyundais. And about a fourth to a fifth of those 1,645 cars, FBI data suggests, were stolen by minors.
“You know the root of all this? Nothing happens to them when they get arrested,” Ward 8 Councilman Michael Polensek told Scene early last year.
Disgusted by the crash that killed Janet and hospitalized May, Polensek spent weeks after urging
Yet, with all of the implications of 14 year olds zooming down city streets at speeds meant for turnpikes, judges at CCJJC denied to send at least half of these kids to detention. Most were released to their parents, either on probation or with a GPS-equipped ankle monitor. At least five of these teenagers, Scene found, were involved in Kia or Hyundai thefts not even a month after their arraignments.
And, according to the County Prosecutor’s Office, just 61 of their 3,277 total cases had minor defendants who were bound over to the Justice Center downtown to be tried as adults. (CCJJC denied Scene’s request to talk to specific judges about their sentencing philosophies.)
“That’s exactly why I’m on these kinds of cases. Otherwise, this would have never been a case that would’ve come out of Juvenile Court,” prosecutor Kevin Fillatraut told me. He was walking out of a fifth-floor courtroom at the Justice Center in March. A 16 year old named Jayrion Church had shot a police detective, Mark Bahrikczuk, after crashing a Kia he’d stolen on Cleveland’s east side. Fillatraut took the case for the same reasons
Photo by Mark Oprea
he tried the killer of CPD Officer Shane Bartek two years prior. “This isn’t car theft,” he said. “I mean, this kid tried to murder a police officer.”
Church’s history became part of the case. He grew up in Langston Commons, subsidized housing a block from where the Kia crashed. A doctor screened him for post-traumatic stress. He’d witnessed several friends die in shootings. Fillatraut looked over at a circle hovering around Bahrijczuk, his colleagues and his family, all solemn as if they were attending a wake.
Fillatraut looked back. “But that’s not an excuse for what he did,” he told Scene, “by any stretch of the imagination.”
Habitual Kia and Hyundai thieves get really good at what they do. Really good. Look at their videos for proof: a quick double dig of a screwdriver, reveal the innards of the ignition, a USB drive hookup and, bam, the roar of the engine. It’s kind of like watching a young sushi chef slice up a fin of tuna. “Once they acquire that skill, it’s so easy for them,” Ryan Bokoch, a supervisor in Cuyahoga County’s Crime Strategies Unit, told Scene. “You watch a video. It’s under a minute from the time they enter the car to the time that car’s lights are on. And they’re pulling away.”
It’s about what we can assume it took for Monroe Larkin III and his three teenage friends to steal the 2016 black Kia Optima the night of August 2, 2023.
In the aftermath, it’s hard for anyone to separate his run-ins with county institutions with what came after. He was born June 8, 2007, to Janice Bozeman and Monroe Larkin, Jr. His parents split when Larkin was young. At 11, while living under the guardianship of his aunt and uncle, he was found by a court to have sexually abused a six-year-old relative and was charged with three felonies. He was labeled a delinquent child. In 2018, he was placed in shelter care. CMSD marked him a 504—meaning he received special education— and he returned off and on to his aunt’s home. He played football at Garfield High. He stayed in at least five homes, from Old Brooklyn to Parma, by the time he turned 15. A year later, last spring, Larkin was shot in the head by crossfire.
But regardless, on August 2, 2023, Larkin found himself, along with 12-year-old J.R., 15-year-old
T.A. and 17-year-old D.M., at the intersection of West 45th and Hannon. With a Smith & Wesson 380 in his waistband, Larkin and his crew stole a 2015 Hyundai Sonata, police records show. It happened quick. There were no witnesses.
Five hours later, around 3:15 a.m., CPD officer Michael Fragapane interviewed a man in his forties on the corner of East 131st and Hoy Avenue. The man’s Kia Optima was gone. A Ford Focus had pulled up, a neighbor saw from his window. A kid got out. He broke into the Kia in seconds. He drove off northbound to Harvard as the man’s fishing rods clinked inside.
The next day, a little after noon, Larkin showed up to the Dave’s Supermarket in Midtown sporting a red shirt, tan shorts and a red baseball cap. Larkin is big for his age, a mark of high school lineman. “He is threatening and refusing to leave,” a police report read of what happened that day. “No weapons seen.” Larkin “left upon request,” and was “asked not
Gardenia and Leslie read impact statements both eulogizing Janet and blaming Larkin for inflicting what they said would be a lifetime of grief. Carmen cried on Alberto’s shoulder in the gallery. Russo okayed a plea deal giving Larkin 16 to 18 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed, citing a judicial philosophy that made no excuse, she told the courtroom, for Larkin being a minor.
“I hear a lot of people talk to me about—‘Oh, this person’s 17, another person’s 16!’” Russo said. “But you know exactly who’s struggling. Everyone in this room knows about the terror going on in this community.” She looked at Larkin, who stood up quietly from his seat to apologize to the Reyes family, an apology made semi-unintelligible with his face-mask on. “Everything that happened here is your fault,” Russo added. “You caused the death of another human being. You interrupted a life.”
As for the others in the car that night, 13-year-old J.R. pleaded guilty to six felonies and a misdemeanor in front of a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge Kristin Sweeney. After nine recent crimes—throwing rocks at cars, stealing a principal’s purse, assaulting a 34-year-old at an RTA station and helping steal the Kia Optima that killed Janet—he was sentenced to four years.
to come back to the store.”
Eight hours later, with J.R., T.A. and D.M. in the Optima, Larkin stopped at a Sunoco off Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn. They got gas. They left. Larkin drove four-tenths of a mile northbound on Pearl, and seemed to be, as discussed later in court, spooked by a possible trailing car from CPD. Speeds escalated. At 8:36 p.m., Larkin collided into Janet and May in the white Honda Accord. All four teens in the Optima would survive the crash.
On November 19, months after his case was bound over to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Larkin, now 17, was brought in front of Judge Nancy Russo, cuffed in orange and wearing a face-mask that his dreads hang over. “Your Honor, my hope is that you’ll realize that Monroe was 16 years old when this happened,” his attorney Kevin Spellacy said. “It doesn’t make it an excuse. But it does allow this court to view him maybe a little differently than you would somebody who’s 25 or 26.”
A fact the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office was more than ready to publicize in a press release and on Instagram days later, as has been the habit of the office in its campaign against what it feels is leniency by juvenile court judges.
Prosecutor Michael O’Malley elaborated on this kind of prodding recently to Scene, sitting in his spacious office overlooking Huntington Bank Field. He tossed over a printout of pages of charges to minors, including J.R., who’ve frequented Juvenile Court so much they’ve caught O’Malley’s attention. (And, soon enough, a seat in adult court.) “The carjacking reactions are bad enough,” O’Malley said. “But when I come in, and I get an email about a case like—a young boy. He’s already done it. He’s put on probation. He’s got multiple pending other cases.” He leaned back in his conference chair. “I can’t help but think this system failed that kid.”
And neither can Clevelanders. Commenters flooded the post about J.R.’s charges with doubt and confusion fixating on only one faulty spoke in the wheel. “How quick it goes from throwing rocks
Photo by Mark Oprea
at cars to a stolen Kia, killing a person,” one noted on post citing the August 3rd crash. “Maybe if real consequences were imposed when red flags first popped up, that 21-year-old passenger would still be alive.”
On January 31, 2024, Shou Chew, the president and CEO of ByteDance’s American division, sat in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to address allegations of how TikTok was and was not protecting minors on the most downloaded social media app in the world. How were 13 year olds being age-verified, members asked Chew. How do you shield kids from harmful content? Can you even truly do that?
Chew responded with an air of corporate confidence. TikTok’s “robust community guidelines strictly prohibit content or behavior that puts teenagers at risk of exploitation or other harm,” he told Congress. “And we vigorously enforce them.”
To anyone with two thumbs and a smartphone, Chew’s assertion that exploitative content is completely off limits for TikTok’s 170 million users just seems kind of ignorant. Any quick search on TikTok or Instagram for “kia boys” brings up accounts with area code suffixes (“kia.boys216”) or city prefixes (“cleveland.kiaboys”). And they’re there. Videos of teens using screwdrivers to hack ignitions. Others taunting police cars or boasting the legal taunt, “No Face, No Case.” Even one posting video of Janet and May getting hit. (With the caption “FreeDemGuys”.)
So, what’s really the deal? TikTok, the online home of the original #KiaChallenge, has some 40,000 “safety professionals,” Scene was told, tasked with removing content that’s been flagged or violates community guidelines. A TikTok spokesperson reiterated this, channeling the same assurance Chew used with Congress. “Content that promotes or enables criminal activity,” that spokesperson told Scene in a phone call, “including theft, is obviously against our community guidelines, and will be removed from the platform.”
Ask a corporate lawyer the most-cited reason for why social media companies act this way, and they’ll likely point you to Section 230 of the U.S. Code of Law. Or, as it’s more commonly referred to, the Communications Decency Act. Enacted during the infant stages
of the internet, the CDA essentially says that websites (or apps) don’t inherently own the videos or pictures their users post. “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information,” the law reads, “provided by another information content provider.” In other words: They posted it; not us.
It’s why PornHub can dodge the ramifications of videos of minors hosted on its platform, or how Reddit can distance itself from racist hate speech. It’s also how, in July of 2019, Amazon was unsuccessfully sued after a dog leash bought off the site snapped and blinded a woman in Pennsylvania. The judge cited the CDA: Amazon wasn’t “the seller”; it was a “third party.” The case was tossed.
What is different these days is that state attorneys and those at the U.S. Department of Justice are attempting to reprimand TikTok in federal courts across the country. In one suit, New York v. TikTok, which bands together attorneys general from 14 states, TikTok is accused of damaging the psychological makeup of millions of minors, while knowingly letting those under the age of 13 onto the app.
That complaint, filed in October, seems abundantly clear in its framing, best summarized by the title of one subsection: “TikTok Challenges Have Caused Deaths and Illegal Behavior.”
“Numerous teen users have injured or even killed themselves or others participating in viral pranks to obtain rewards and increase their number of likes, views and followers,” the complaint reads. “A foreseeable consequence of TikTok’s engagement-maximizing design.” (The suit, along with USA v. TikTok, is still pending.) At the end of 2023, TikTok was reported to have hit a record of $16 billion in revenue. Roughly $2 billion of this, a Harvard study found later, came from users aged 17 and younger.
TikTok isn’t alone. More than two dozen cities and states have attempted to use the law to hold other actors in the grand Kia Boys legacy responsible. As of early 2025, 17 cities have filed suits against Kia and Hyundai, including Cleveland, which in March 2023 lobbed allegations that Kia was negligent by refusing to install immobilizers in its American vehicles. (The suit is still pending.)
Even Parma, which saw a 414 percent increase in Kia and Hyundai thefts, jumped on the legal bandwagon six months after Cleve-
land. The origin of the Kia Boys, the city argued, was clear as day. Kia’s “conduct has created a public nuisance,” its complaint reads, “that could have been avoided had they simply followed industry-wide standards.”
Carmen Gandarilla was 36 years old when she was in the worst car accident of her life. She was a surgical assistant at the time, working at Hudak Dental off State. She was living with ex-husband, José, on Archwood. She missed the Bronx, where she grew up, and Puerto Rico—both which instilled in her a sense of pride and character. But she wanted a better life. She wanted the peace of a secure family. And she was having another child.
It was right at Pearl and Broadview, right in front of the post office, no more than three blocks from where Janet’s life would end 21 years later. “He was drinking. He had bottles of whiskey,” Carmen recalled from her living room. “And the guy hit us. It was bad. José called the ambulance. And when I got to the hospital, the doctors told me, ‘Did you know you were pregnant?’ And I said, ‘I’m not pregnant.’ And they said, ‘Yes, you are.’ ‘I’m not pregnant.’ And they told me, ‘Well, guess what? You are.’ And that’s when my Janet came.”
In December, Carmen invited me over to her house on Natchez to talk about Janet, and the reverberations over the past year-anda-half of her being gone. About the $15,000 funeral, the neighborhood memorial, the fundraising for a remembrance stone, the failed attempt to sue Kia. (Which a judge deemed unworthy, Carmen said.) But Janet is still very much present here. There’s the life-in-photos collage in the dining room. There’s that gigantic heart Alberto constructed hung out in the garage. And, right when you walk in to her house—you can’t miss it—there’s this ethereal picture of her on canvas, Janet with her lush, leonine hair of black curls set against a field and setting sun. “JANET REYES,” it reads. “WE LOVE YOU FOREVER, SUNSHINE.”
In Carmen’s living room, Gardenia, Tato, Alberto and Carmen sit, trying their best, over three hours and just as many cups of coffee, to find clarity in Janet’s death while attempting to carve out a true culprit. “These kids nowadays are different kind of kids,” Carmen says.
Her native Bronx accent kicks in as she stands up. “They’re grown up, already ‘smart’. They’re born with a phone in their hand. They have all the knowledge.’ But they know better. They know better.”
“It’s TikTok, Instagram, YouTube,” Tato says. “We put the blame on that.”
“There’s literally Instagram accounts teaching them how to do it,” Gardenia says. “They’re recording themselves. Stealing cars. Doing donuts.”
“I mean, if I was an owner of a Kia, I would find a way to get rid of it,” Alberto he says. “I’m not blaming the dealer; I’m blaming the manufacturing.”
“And they’re minors,” Carmen says. “Kids!”
Tato interjects. “No,” he says. “That kid stopped being a kid when he killed my sister.”
Carmen leaves the living area, then returns to a motherly kind of pacing. Tears well up in her eyes, her lips tighten. Her mind clearly shifts to Larkin, to that sight of him in court, to the horrible video that still exists out there on Instagram. To the fact that Larkin, after failing the qualifications of his plea deal, will be going to trial sometime this year.
“I understand no parents or guardians were there for him,” she says. “He didn’t have that father figure, or somebody ready to step up and tell him what to do. The street told him what to do.” She pauses. Tato wipes a tear from under his sunglasses. “They could give the kid 100 years. You think that’s gonna make me feel better? It does. But it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change anything. My daughter’s still dead. I still miss her. But am I gonna live like that?”
“I can’t hold grudges because this kid killed my daughter,” Carmen says. “You know, what I’m gonna do? I’ll leave it to God. Let God take care of it. Just in the same way I tell Him, ‘Please take this pain away from me because I don’t know what at all to do with it.’”
Carmen breathes. She sits on the lip of the couch near Alberto, who embraces her. She looks at her children, to the photo booklet of Janet lying on the sofa. She looks at me. “But you know what?” Carmen says. “I forgive him. Believe it or not, I forgive him.”
GET OUT Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks
WED 04/09
Marcel Khalife: Legacy
The Cleveland Museum of Art hosts this concert featuring the Lebanese composer, singer and oud master who’ll perform with his son, virtuoso pianist Rami Khalife, and his nephew, cellist Sary Khalife. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
Midnight Rental presents Secret Movie Night
Hosted by Lenora from the internet hit-series Midnight Rental, this movie night features what it deems to be the best in VHS horror, thriller and campy classics. The event begins tonight at 8 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, and the club will feature a special movie night menu for the event.
2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.
Monsters vs. Grand Rapids Griffins
The Monsters go up against the Grand Rapids Griffins in this rare mid-week game that takes place at Rocket Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketarena.com.
Peter Pan
A new adaptation of the classic play directed by Emmy-winner Lonny Price and choregraphed by Lorin Latarro comes to Connor Palace. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7, and the play runs through Sunday. 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
THU 04/10
Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox
The Guardians wrap up a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox with today’s day game at Progressive Field. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.
Squaring the Circle
This documentary traces the story of Hipgnosis, the album art design studio that created artwork for albums such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. It screens at 7 p.m. at the Rock Hall.
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-5158444, rockhall.com.
FRI 04/11
GlamGore: The Witch Ball
This rendition of the popular drag show celebrates the “spooky, campy, and devilish” divas and daddies from pop culture, movies, literature, film and legend. Doors open at 8 p.m. at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., 216-3215588, grogshop.gs.
Guardians vs. Kansas City Royals
The Guardians take on a Kansas City Royals team that surprised many pundits and made it to the playoffs last year. The two teams play tonight at 6:10 at Progressive Field. The series concludes on Sunday. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.
SAT 04/12
Fans & Cameras: Jim Lanza – 45 Years of Photographing Unpopular Bands and Weird People
The exhibition features more than 150 “raw and electric” photographs by local photographer and artist Jim Lanza. It includes photos of acts such as Nick Cave, tThe Cramps, Marilyn Manson, Ramones, Dead Boys, Redd Kross, Alien Sex Fiend, Black Flag, Sound-
garden, Cocteau Twins and GBH. An opening reception takes place from 3 to 7:30 p.m. at Sixty Bowls Gallery. 3125 Detroit Ave., sixtybowls.com.
SUN 04/13
The Biggest Little Farm
A farm-to-table tasting precedes the screening of this movie about a couple that tries to live on a farm outside of Los Angeles. The tasting takes place at 4, and the screening commences at 4:30 p.m. at CDFF on the Triangle. 3 N. Franklin St, Chagrin Falls, 440247-1591, chagrinfilmfest.org.
Cavs vs. Indiana Pacers
The Cavs take on a playoff-bound Indiana Pacers at 1 p.m. today at Rocket Arena. The game marks the last home game of the regular season for the Cavs. One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketarena.com.
TUE 04/15
Outlab: Experiments in Improvised Music
Musicians are invited to bring instruments or any sound making device (drum kit and keyboard provided) that can be used to explore collective group improvisation. Please bring your own
Dyngus Day returns. See: Monday, April 21. | Emanuel Wallace
amps if needed. The monthly session begins at 8 tonight at the Bop Stop. Admission is free.
2920 Detroit Ave., 216-771-6551, themusicsettlement.org.
WED 04/16
Raul Midón
Over the course of his career, this singer-guitarist has worked with the likes of Midón has worked with the likes of Bill Withers, Herbie Hancock, and Sting. He performs tonight at 7:30 at Cleveland Museum of Art. 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
THU 04/17
Bach’s Easter Oratorio
Conductor Bernard Labadie is back at Mandel Concert Hall for an all-Bach evening featuring the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and star soloists. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30, and performances continue through Saturday. 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.
FRI 04/18
Third Friday
From 5 to 9 p.m., many of the 78th Street Studios resident artist studios and galleries will be open as part of this monthly event. There will be live music, and Local West, a Gordon Square sandwich shop, will serve food. BARneo will have a selection of adult beverages as well. Admission is free. 1300 West 78th St., 78thstreetstudios.com.
SAT 04/19
Jeff Arcuri: Whole Wide World Tour
The comedian that one critic called a “joke machine” comes to Connor Palace, where he performs tonight at 7. 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
Artist in the Atrium
Every third Saturday of each month, stop by the Ames Family Atrium between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to get a firsthand look at the art-making process. Each session provides the opportunity to engage and interact with a different Northeast Ohio maker during pop-up demonstrations and activities. 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
The Columbus Crew vs. Inter Miami CF Inter Miami CF, a Major Soccer League team co-owned by retired soccer great David Beckham, brings its superstar team led by Lionel Messi to town for a special
game against the Columbu Crew at Hunt ingon Bank Field. It begins at 4:30 p.m 100 Alfred Lerner Way, 440-891-5000, huntingtonbankfield.
Whose Live Anyway?
The traveling music and comedy show featuring Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis, Ryan Stiles and Joel Murray comes to the State Theatre. Tonight’s perfor mance begins at 8. 1519 Euclid Avenue, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
MON 04/21
Dyngus Day
Cleveland’s Dyngus Day celebration gets bigger and better each year. This year’s event, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today at locations throughout Ohio City, Tremont and the Detroit Shoreway, promises to be anoth er wildly good time. As part of the daylong celebration, Detroit Avenue will be closed from West 57th Street to West 59th Street. Opening ceremonies take place at 10 a.m., and the Miss Dyngus Day Pageant will begin at 5 p.m. clevelanddyngus.com.
Guardians vs. New York Yankees
The hard-hitting New York Yankees, a team that hit nine home runs in a game that took place earlier this season, come to Progressive Field for their one-and-only regular season visit to Cleveland. Tonight’s first pitch is at 6:10 and the teams play again tomorrow and Wednesday.
2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.
The Jerusalem Quartet: Complete Shostakovich Quartet Cycle
Starting today at Cleveland Museum of Art, the Jerusalem Quartet, a group featuring four Israeli musicians, will play the complete Shastakovich Quartet Cycle over the course of five night at Gartner Auditorium. Tonight’s concert begins at 7:30. Check the art museum website for a complete schedule.
11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
TUE 04/22
Shucked
The Tony-winning comedy musical about corn comes to Connor Palace for an extended run. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30, and the musical runs through May 11.
1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
SHELDON HARNICK
CLEVELAND CLASSIC
Blue Pointe Grille’s bountiful seafood splendors and quality service remain a draw decades later
By Douglas Trattner
WHEN
I
WANT TO EVALUATE
the quality of a particular lobster bisque, I compare it to the bowls served at Blue Point Grille. Ever since my earliest visits to the Warehouse District mainstay, I’ve used those memorable sips as a benchmark by which all others are judged. A recent visit confirmed that the bisque ($14) is every bit as blissful as I recall. The crimson broth is deeply flavorful, clearly made from rich seafood stock. It is velvety in texture, studded with heaps of sweet lobster meat and garnished with an artistic scribble of crème fraiche.
Even after more than a quarter century, Blue Point Grille continues to draw crowds thanks to stellar seafood, stunning surroundings, and an old-fashioned level of hospitality that grows rarer by the day. For those celebrating a milestone, Blue Point sits top of mind, as evidenced by the number of party-size tables in the main dining room. But in between those boisterous 8-tops cheers-ing the man or woman of the hour are smaller tables occupied by locals who know that their hard-earned money will be well spent.
With a name like Blue Point – a tribute to the mild, popular East Coast oyster – you’d be wise to start any meal with a selection of bivalves. Our sampler ($28) featured four varieties of deftly shucked oysters presented on a bed of ice in a silver platter. Oysters Rockefeller ($19) can go south a million different ways, but these are exceptional. Beneath a golden-brown crust, plump oysters and creamy spinach are bathed in a silky Pernod-scented sauce.
There’s nothing wrong with the crab cakes ($21), a fine example of the form with a crusty exterior giving way to a nicely seasoned cake with minimal filler. But for a couple dollars more you can enjoy a crab cocktail ($24), which is nothing but fat lumps of downy-white Maryland Blue crab meat. You can dip the shellfish into the accompanying honey mustard or cocktail sauce, but why cover it up.
It’s hard these days to find a restaurant that still knows how to course out a meal. Instead, we’re left with places that “send out plates as the kitchen deems appropriate,” causing congested tabletops, cold food and undesirably rushed meals. In between our oyster and crab courses and the main event, we had space to enjoy salads like a cold, crisp wedge ($14) and peppery Caesar ($13) featuring quartered romaine hearts and white anchovies – alongside that famous lobster bisque.
When it comes to fish and seafood, Blue Point covers a lot of ground – or should I say sea. Options include tuna, swordfish, salmon, grouper, sea bass, scal-
lops, king crab and lobster – plus daily specials. The Nag’s Head grouper ($49) is a house staple. Only at the thinnest point was the fish a touch overcooked. But the bulk of the very large filet was moist, flaky and mild. Given its petite size, a snapper special ($45) appeared to be the last piece in the house – a portion inversely commensurate with its price.
Lobster bisque fans will appreciate the lobster Bolognese ($36), penne pasta, Maine lobster meat and spinach tossed in an indulgent cream sauce. Compared to the pasta dish, the famed lobster mashed potatoes that join many plates lacked the usual spark. Other sides are solid, serviceable if not thrilling, with sauteed spinach, tender fingerling potatoes and roasted broccoli making appearances.
Diners in the mood for meat have a choice of quality cuts that include filet, strip or ribeye.
Blue Point has always maintained an award-winning wine cellar, appropriately front-loaded with bubbles, whites and lighter reds. We enjoyed bottles of Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis ($60)
and Goldeneye pinot noir ($72) from the Anderson Valley, both opened, presented and poured with professional care.
Locals know that the bar at Blue Point – located through the brick archways in a woodsy saloon that looks ripped from the Pacific Northwest – is where to happy hour. You can still score $2 oysters here (even cheaper when you get a half dozen) and $7 martinis. There’s a reason why this place flies through approximately 75,000 freshshucked oysters per year.
A lot has changed in the Warehouse District since Blue Point Grille welcomed its first guest in 1998. Even more has changed within the industry that it operates. But Hospitality Restaurants, which began with Cabin Club in 1991 and charged ahead with Salmon Dave’s, Blue Point, Delmonico’s Steakhouse, Rosewood Grill and Kingfish, is steadfast in its commitment to do right by every customer, which sadly no longer seems to be the norm.
dtrattner@clevescene.com
t@dougtrattner
BLUE POINT GRILLE
Courtesy Photo
BITES
First look: Sofia's Kitchen + Bar, opening in Lakewood on April 15
By Douglas Trattner
IN JANUARY, ANDREW REVY of Immigrant Son Brewery announced that he was taking over the former Salt space in Lakewood. Just a few short months later, on Tuesday, April 15, he will open the doors to Sofia’s Kitchen + Bar (17625 Detroit Ave.), an upscale-casual restaurant that he describes as “corner bar meets American bistro.”
Revy said that he inherited a “relatively turnkey” space that needed only moderate changes to suit his vision. By shifting the main entrance from the Rockway Ave. corner of the building to the facade on Detroit Ave. he was able to increase seating in the bar area. Revy also added a little more separation between the dining room and bar so the new TVs there won’t interfere with diners in the main room. The black floors were refinished to reveal their natural cherry hue. New lighting, artwork and wall colors bring a different look and feel to the space.
“Ideally, when people walk into Sofia’s Kitchen + Bar, they embrace it as a brand new and vibrant space,” says Revy.
Heading up the kitchen is veteran chef Andy Strizak, whose resume reads like a Top 10 list of Cleveland’s best restaurants. His experience stretches back to Parker’s American Bistro and continues on through Lolita, Spice, Flying Fig, Lucky’s and more. At every turn, Strizak strives for fresh, local and seasonal foods.
On the opening menu are starters like deviled eggs, cheese boards, battered veggies, sauteed mussels and a Shepherd’s Piestyle loaded fries with lamb, peas, carrots, gravy and cheese curds. In addition to soups and salads, there is a lamb burger, roasted pork sandwich with au jus, and a vegetarian sub.
Main courses include rigatoni with beef and pork ragu, pappardelle with lamb and peas, spicerubbed chicken thighs, sesame udon noodles, grilled ribeye and
pork prime rib. New items and daily specials will be added in the coming days and weeks.
To drink there are five Immigrant Son beers on tap, more by the can, seasonal and classic cocktails, and an exceptional wine-by-theglass and bottle list.
“A lot of people have started to enjoy wines again and I wanted to start with a robust glass program because I want people to know that we are serious about wine,” says Revy.
Sofia’s will serve dinner seven days a week. During happy hour, which runs 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, guests can enjoy food and drink specials.
Xinji Noodle Bar in Ohio City to Close on April 19
Xinji Noodle Bar (4211 Lorain Ave.), which opened in Ohio City in 2017, will close following service on April 19. Owner Shuxin Liu announced the sad news today.
Liu, who had worked at Momocho, opened the Japanese-style ramen shop when that stretch of Lorain was experiencing tremendous development, with places like Platform Beer, The Grocery, Herb ‘n Twine, the Plum, Forest City Shuffleboard and Ohio City Provisions coming online.
The owner shared the following words regarding the upcoming closure:
“With heavy hearts, we announce the closing of our restau-
rant. This decision comes after much reflection, and while it’s bittersweet, we are filled with gratitude for the amazing community we’ve had the privilege of serving.
Thank you for allowing us to be part of your lives, your celebrations, and your everyday moments. We’ve made so many beautiful memories together, and those will stay with us forever.
To our wonderful staff, loyal customers, and all who have supported us along the way—thank you. This is not goodbye, but rather a heartfelt thank you for everything.”
Old Brooklyn Cheese Co. to Close on April 19
Old Brooklyn Cheese Co. (4464 Broadview Rd., 216-860-4000), an artisanal cheese and mustard venture in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood, will close its doors on April 19. Founded in 2016 by Michael Januska, the company went on to open -- and then later close -- an east-side outpost at Van Aken District’s Market Hall.
Januska says that he’s seen a dramatic decline in business over the past year or so and to continue on would be unwise.
“More than 50 percent,” he estimates in terms of lost business. “I can’t blame any one thing why people aren’t coming in anymore, but you know it could be a multitude of things, either people reassessing how they’re spending... Who knows what it is; I can’t figure it out.”
The silver lining in this story is the recent success of POP Mustards, formerly known as Old Brooklyn Mustards.
Last year, Januska partnered with Michael Symon to elevate awareness surrounding those award-winning mustards, which Old Brooklyn has been making and selling for years. Symon, a huge fan of the whole-grain mustards, felt the products were not getting the recognition they deserved. The pair rebranded the products as POP Mustards, and together they have begun securing large distribution deals.
“There are a lot of whole-grain mustards out there, but there’s nothing like what Michael is making,” Symon says. “I feel that there’s an opportunity for a unique whole-seed mustard like this to go nationwide.”
Soon, shoppers across the country will begin seeing those distinctive jars of POP Mustards -- “the caviar of mustard” -- on store shelves at Sprouts, Meijer and, fingers crossed, Costco.
Januska says that, for now, he has more than enough room at his 5,000-square-foot production facility in Old Brooklyn to fulfill POP Mustards orders for the foreseeable future.
“The only thing I would run out of space for would be warehouse, you know, like finished product, but I’m already looking,” he adds.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
MUSIC
GRAPPLING WITH A COMEBACK
Cleveland’s Kill the Fall experiences a musical rebirth
By Jeff Niesel
ONE DAY LAST YEAR AFTER
Raymon Terry changed out of his martial arts gear and got into his punk rock garb to practice with his group Kill the Fall (he and his bandmates used to rehearse at the Middleburg Heights gym he runs), one of his martial arts students, Ryan Williams, heard the group practicing and was intrigued.
“He heard us, and it caught his ear, and after that, he asked what the band’s name was and if we were active,” says Terry one morning from the band’s current studio at Rock & Roll City Studios on the near West Side. A set list of about 20 songs on a white board hangs from the wall, and there’s a Nine Inch Nails poster from a show at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia on the wall as well. “He asked me to send some music to him and [producer] Bob Marlette. They thought it had potential. Once I heard where they come from — Bob with Black Sabbath and Tracy Chapman and Ryan with Red Sun Rising and New Monarch — I said we should work together.”
The duo started working with Terry on new material, and they’ve made significant progress. A new EP is due out this year.
“It’s a great team,” says Terry when asked about Williams and Marlette. “They bring a lot out of me. They push us to be at our best at all times. I sit back and trust them.”
Terry, a Jiu Jitsu Brown Belt, played football and other sports while growing up. But after seeing the first Ultimate Fighting Championships in the early ‘90s, he gravitated toward martial arts.
“I developed a huge interest
in Jiu Jitsu and grappling,” he says. “When I was young, my grandfather taught me how to box. I’ve always liked fighting, but it was something I didn’t do until later.”
He’s balanced his interest in martial arts and rock ‘n’ roll ever since.
Terry, who grew up in Berea, listened to punk bands such as the Misfits and Minor Threat when he was young. Later, when grunge became popular, he became a fan of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. That music would influence his first band, the punk group Counterclockwise, as well as his next band, Allergic to Whores, which formed in 1996.
“Counterclockwise was punk rock band, but I wanted to do something more hardcore and thrashier,” he says when asked about why he left the group behind to form Allergic to Whores.
One of the local scene’s more active groups, Allergic to Whores regularly toured and recorded.
“We were on Warped Tour and played with bands like Against All Authority and the Misfits,” says Terry. “We would go on
in the local hard rock band Disengage, helped Terry in the early stages. The current lineup now features Terry on vocals and guitar, Dustin Hamilton on drums and Spiro Sintsirmas on bass.
A longtime collaborator with the band, Ohio native Anthony Zart did the art for the single.
“Anthony Zart has been doing my artwork for 20 plus years,” says Terry. “He was in a band called the Atomics that would play with Allergic to Whores. We just became very close. He does artwork for the gym too. I can tell him an idea in my head. To anybody else, it can sound like jumbled nonsense, but he can make sense of it.”
One of the band’s new singles, “Screaming into Silence,” suggests Kill the Fall’s new direction. It sounds symphonic without a symphony and possesses emotional depth as Terry starts the song by ominously whispering.
tours for one to two months at a time. We had a record deal with Sound Pollution. We got hooked up with them through Tony Erba from [the local punk band] Nine Shocks Terror. He liked what we were doing and thought we would fit well on that label. His band was on that label. He put in a call to the label. We recorded our first record for them and mastered in four hours at [the local studio] Invisible City. It was a big warehouse downtown. We were on a budget, so we had to knock it out.”
Terry did all the managing and booking and songwriting for the band. At the end, he even released two EPs on his own record label.
Kill the Fall formed about a year after Allergic to Whores disbanded; Terry simply wanted to explore a new sound.
“I wanted to focus more on writing,” he says. “I didn’t want to do super-fast thrash, which is great. But after so many years of it, I was kind of done. I wanted to elaborate into different songwriting and do something a little slower and sludgier.”
John Morgan, the drummer
“The lyrics I had for a while,” says Terry. “I wanted something big and dark. One day, I was at a martial arts tournament, and I always take my guitar with me. I was sitting around between coaching, and I came up with main riff and recorded it on my phone. I sent it to Ryan [Williams], and he said he liked it. I had it written and that’s the beauty is when I bring it to Dustin [Hamilton] and Spiro [Sintsirmasand] to add their touch. Dustin came up with some drums that make the song and move it. When Dustin and Spiro brought their parts to it, they made it massive. His drumming carried the song and allowed me to open up much more into my vocal patterns.”
Going forward, Terry says the band would like to get a booking agent and play locally and regionally on a more regular basis.
“Until then, we’ll just hammer away,” he says. “I thought that if I am going to get back into it, I want to attack and touch on all the areas I never did in the past.”
Kill the Fall’s Raymon Terry.|Courtesy of Raymon Terry
LIVEWIRE Real music in the real world
THU 04/10
Gavid Adcock
The country singer-songwriter out of Georgia performs at 7 p.m. at the Agora. This tour supports his breakout debut album, last year’s Actin’ Up Again, which has yielded hit singles such as “Loose Strings,” “Need To” and “Unlucky Strikes.” 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.
FRI 04/11
Violet Ray Release Party
This local punk band celebrates the release of its new album, This Is Skate Rock, with tonight’s show at CODA. The songs reference skate legends such as John Cardiel and Duane Peters and include local references too. Saints of Lorain share the bill. 2247 Professor Ave, 216-274-1200.
SUN 04/13
mssv
This group that includes band leader Mike Baggetta, drummer Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, David Lynch) and bassist Mike Watt (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, Stooges) comes to the Beachland Tavern in support of a new album featuring improvised instrumental songs. The show begins at 8 p.m. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
Sammy Rae & the Friends
The group of classically trained jazz musicians brings unbridled energy to its live shows. On tour in support of the new LP, Something for Everyone, the band performs tonight at 7 at the Agora. Zinadelphia opens. 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.
MON 04/14
Mason Ramsey
Reportedly the youngest major label country artist signed in nearly two decades, Mason Ramsey comes to the Beachland Ballroom tonight in support of his new album, I’ll See You in My Dreams. The show begins at 8, and Halle Kearns opens. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
WED 04/16
Willow Avalon
Touring in support of her debut album, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell, this up-andcoming country singer-songwriter who grew up playing piano in church and taught herself to play guitar at age 12 comes to the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. The show starts at 8 p.m. 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.
Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre — Tull Unplugged Tour
SAT 04/12
Brian Lisik Album Release
Singer-songwriter Brian Lisik celebrates the release of Goodnight, Detroit, a limited-edition Record Store Day 2025 vinyl release, with this special show that takes place at 12:30 p.m. at Hollow Bone Records in Akron.
Former Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre brings his unplugged show celebrating the classic rock group to the Kent Stage tonight at 6:30. If setlists from previous tours are any indication, expect to hear Tull hits such as “Aqualung,” “Thick as a Brick” and “Locomotive Breath.”
175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.
Remi Wolf rolls into the Agora. See: Saturday, April 19.|Ragan Henderson
Jack White
In what’s arguably the year’s hottest show, singer-guitarist Jack White brings his No Name Tour to the Agora. Back when White fronted Detroit’s White Stripes, he regularly played Cleveland clubs such as the Beachland and Pat’s in the Flats, so he has a long history of putting on stellar shows here. The setlists for this tour include some White Stripes tunes as well as songs from his solo careers and a few choice covers. Doors open at 7 p.m. 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.
THU 04/17
Dean Lewis
The singer-songwriter who notched a major hit in 2016 with the pop anthem “Waves” performs tonight at 8 at the Agora. He returned last year with The Epilogue, an album of soaring anthems about resilience and perseverance.
Singer-songwriter Henry Moodie opens. 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.
FRI 04/18
H.R. of Bad Brains
The singer from the terrific reggae-punk act Bad Brains brings his solo show to the Kent Stage. Bad Brains emerged out of Washington D.C. in the late ‘70s and quickly gained a cult following, though the original band members would part ways in 1987 (they have since reunited on several occasions). Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.
Slackfest Night 1: The Slackers LIVE at Grog Shop with Tobyraps and the Operators The Slackers, a group that formed in New York in 1991 and experienced some commercial success when ska-punk became popular again, come to the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights for a twonight stand that will feature different sets each night. Tonight’s show begins at 8, and tomorrow’s concert commences at the same time.
2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.
SAT 04/19
Joywave
Indie rockers Joywave have released a series of mixtapes, EPs and albums over the course of a career that stretches back 15 years. The band had a No. 1 hit with Big Data’s single “Dangerous (Feat. Joywave).” It performs tonight at the Roxy at Mahall’s 20 Lanes. The indie rock act little images opens.
13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-5213280, mahalls20lanes.com.
Remi Wolf
Indie artist Remi Wolf’s woozy single “Motorcycle” features Amy Winehouselike vocals and demonstrates Wolf’s ability to deliver laid back songs that possess a quiet intensity to them. The current tour that brings her to the Agora supports her latest album, Big Ideas. The show starts at 7 p.m. 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.
MON 04/21
EXTC
XTC’s Terry Chambers brings a few of musical friends to the Beachland tonight to play songs by the British group that had significant hits back in the ‘80s with tunes such as “Dear God” and “The Mayor Simpleton.” The show starts at 8 p.m. Jack & the Optimists open. Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
The Fixx
The ‘80s rock act returns to the Kent Stage. Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule opens the show. Throughout her career, Sobule has shared the stage with stars such as X, John Prine, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, Paul Weller, Boots Reilly, Tom Morello, Steve Earle and more.
175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.
TUE 04/22
Ty Segall Solo Acoustic
Last year, this L.A.-based indie singerguitarist released the ambitious doublealbum Three Bells and toured behind it. As if to keep his creative juices flowing, he switches musical gears with this acoustic tour that lands at the Beachland Ballroom. The concert begins at 8 p.m. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
Martin Sexton
The word prolific is often thrown around when talking about singersongwriters, but with Martin Sexton, it’s no exaggeration. He got his start in Boston, playing open mics and busking in subways and on street corners. He’s released numerous albums, received awards for his music and reaped praise from the likes of John Mayer and Dave Matthews. He brings his Abbey Road Show to Kent Stage. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org. scene@clevescene.com
SAVAGE LOVE
COME AND GO
By Dan Savage
I’m a gay 35-year-old guy in the San Francisco area. I’m heading on a weekend getaway with my boyfriend and two other gay couples. We’re all solid but purely platonic friends — at least so far — but turning this “couples’ getaway” into a group play extravaganza sounds so hot to me. I believe everyone is in an open relationship like us, but we’ve never played with either couple, and I have very limited experience playing with groups in general. How do we test the waters with the other two couples to see if they’re down to clown without making things awkward and ruining the vibe of the trip?
Weekend In The Country
“We’ve had things like this happen for us organically,” said one of my sluttiest gay friends after I shared your question with him. “But it’s only happened without advance planning on night four or five of week-long vacations in Provincetown LOL — after a long buildup of a lot of hot will-we-or-won’t-we?’ erotic tension. And by the time it happened, it was really pretty clear group play was the vibe, and everyone had signaled they were down.”
Like you, WITC, my sluttiest gay friend is in an open relationship — a long-term, committed, wide-open relationship — and he has a lot more experience turning friends into friends-with-vacation-relatedbenefits than I do (it’s practically his superpower), which is why I shared your question with him. Let’s call him Himbo.
Okay, seeing as you and your partner don’t have the luxury of time — you’re only going away with the friends you wanna fuck for a weekend — what’s the best plan of attack?
“Assuming his friends aren’t a bunch of sex-positive gays with X-rated alts and OnlyFans accounts — and it doesn’t sound like they are, considering this guy doesn’t even know if his friends are open or not — he’s going to need to proceed with caution,” said Himbo. “So, step one is obviously asking the other couples if they’re open, which is a question most gay couples are comfortable answering. And if they are, maybe broach the subject in advance. If all three couples are open and all three down — two big ifs — that will create anticipation, which can be way hotter than just stumbling into things. But even if everyone is open and thinks they might be down, no one can know for sure how they’re going to feel until you all get together. If it’s not the vibe, don’t force it.”
Another reason to talk about it in advance?
“The bottoms won’t be magically
prepped at the exact same time without a little advance warning,” said Himbo. “Springing a group fuck session on a bunch of guys and expecting the bottoms to be ready-for-use is something only a clueless top would do. I’m not saying all tops are clueless — I don’t even know if this guy is a top — but speaking as a bottom, expecting guys to be ready to bottom without warning is the move of a very clueless top.”
Anything Himbo thinks you should watch out for?
“Smashing close friends on your first attempt to open your relationships goes one of two ways in my experience: great or horrible,” said Himbo. “Couples who are opening up for the first time are more likely to get in their heads and have weird feelings, so if these other couples have been closed up to now, this guy and his friends should take it really slow. Another thing to consider is how they’re all going to be trapped in the same house and unable to leave, which is a little risky. So, maybe leave the fucking around — if, again, it’s the vibe — for the last night. If it goes great and everyone in the group wishes they’d fucked around the whole time, they can schedule another weekend getaway for the group sooner rather than later.”
P.S. I’m sure there are people out there thinking, “The world is on fire and all this Himbo guy can think about is catching dick in Provincetown.” For the record: to prove that dick isn’t the only thing my sluttiest gay friend thinks about, I asked him what else is on his mind right now: “The strength, speed, and effectiveness of the right-wing propaganda machine in the United States is both fascinating and horrifying,” said Himbo. “I honestly think the internet ruined America and the rise of a Trump-like figure was inevitable. Basically, the internet made it impossible for people to discern between legitimate information from fraudulent bullshit, which paved the way for Trump. I don’t know what to do about it, but here we are, and it sucks. But I do get a lot of dick online, so, you know, the Internet isn’t all bad.”
I’m in a pickle. My gay male partner and I have a bonus boyfriend who comes in from LA once or twice a month to see us.
I feel the relationship with this boyfriend has run its course, but partner wants to keep it going. This boyfriend prefers me because I fuck him — and when I do, he confesses his love for me. I have texted the boyfriend and talked to the partner about this, but neither seems to get the message. Do I have to be mean to get my message across?
Keeping It Not Dramatic
Whatever you said to your partner and whatever you texted your bonus boyfriend didn’t do the trick. They either didn’t understand what you meant because your meaning wasn’t clear or you made yourself
clear enough, KIND, but whatever you said — to your partner and separately to your bonus boyfriend — was open to more than one interpretation and your partner went with the interpretation that allowed him to keep seeing your bonus boyfriend and your bonus boyfriend went with the interpretation that allowed him to keep taking your dick.
Regarding your bonus boyfriend: The impulse to let someone down easy the impulse to soften the blow — is a commendable one, of course, but you can let someone down so easily they don’t realize they’ve been let down (read: dumped) at all. So, while it sounds like you’ve been clear with your partner, it sounds like you’ve been vague with your bonus boyfriend in the hope that he… do what exactly? Pick up on your subliminal suggestion and think it was his idea to break things off with you? Or maybe you hope your partner — who doesn’t want this thing to end — will do the dirty work and let your bonus boyfriend know it’s over?
Sorry, KIND, but you’re gonna have to do this yourself. You don’t have to be mean, but you have to be blunt: “I’m sorry, but this is over. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
Regarding your partner: You wanna end things with your bonus boyfriend, your partner does not. So, is your partner allowed to keep seeing this boy on his own? Or is your partner required to break up with him too? You obviously can’t be expected to keep seeing/fucking some boy you don’t wanna see/fuck anymore, KIND, because that wouldn’t be fair to you. But your partner may feel like having to break things off with this boy just because you don’t wanna see/fuck him anymore isn’t fair to him — or fair to this boy, whose feelings matter too. If you and your partner have an “only play with and/or date other boys together” rule, you may need to revisit it. Whether you wind up revising it or recommitting to it is ultimately up to you and your partner. Good luck.
I’m a 33-year-old gay male in a monogamous relationship for three years. The other night I went to a dance festival with two friends who are a hot gay couple. As the night went on, I was in an increasingly altered state of mind. I told my boyfriend earlier that I would come to his place after the festival. However, I did not do that. I went back to my friends’ place with the intention of possibly having sex with them. We did not have sex. We didn’t even kiss. All we did was cuddle while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race. I have a tremendous amount of guilt over this because I did not tell my boyfriend. I don’t know if I should tell him. I do not want to break his heart. He was already upset with me for not telling him I was going back to my friends’ place. Is this something that I should keep to myself in order to protect his feelings? Or should I tell him in order to relieve myself of this guilt that I feel?
Please help. I feel like I just ruined a good relationship.
Almost Cheated Didn’t Cheat
You went out dancing with a hot gay couple, you did a bunch of drugs, and then instead of going back to your boyfriend’s place as promised, ACDC, you went back to this hot couple’s place. Now, I believe you when you say nothing happened not even a kiss — because you have no reason to lie to me. But your boyfriend, who suspects something happened that night, knows you have cause to lie to him, which makes him less likely to believe that nothing happened. And when you think about it… which you’ve outsourced to me… something did happen that night: you decided to cheat on your boyfriend, and you almost did cheat on him. Not cheating isn’t cheating, of course, but deciding to cheat and almost cheating isn’t nothing. So, you’re gonna have to tell him what happened that night, ACDC, which means telling him what happened and/or almost happened.
Once it’s all out in the open, ACDC, you could try to convince your boyfriend that what happened that night was a good sign. After all, you honored your monogamous commitment when it mattered most: when you were seriously tempted. You were alone with two hot men, you were high and horny, but you didn’t — despite means, motive, and opportunity — go through with it. Which means your boyfriend can trust you! Or you could admit to your boyfriend that, even though you honored your monogamous commitment that night, going home with a hot couple fully intending to have sex with them — fully intending to seize the opportunity — means you can’t trust yourself. Yes, you resisted temptation and watched Drag Race instead… but you only barely resisted temptation, ACDC, and odds are good you’ll succumb to temptation the next time you’re high and horny.
And there will be a next time.
It’s the kind of conversation that ends or transforms a relationship the stakes are high — but your relationship is likelier to survive a brutally honest conversation before you’ve cheated than it is to survive the inevitable after-you’ve-cheated confrontation.
I think it is time for another contest. What should come up when a person googles “Elon Musk”? The Name Game
“Susan Crawford.”
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