Home "Image" Post formatPage 3

Images

Cleveland Consent Decree Public Meeting on Community Involvement

By Rich Weiss, for Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland

The Neighborhood and Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland (NCMA-CLE) is providing monthly reports on a series of community conversations about the 2015 Consent Decree negotiated between the US Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland regarding the policies and practices of the Cleveland Police Department.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, what percentage of the Consent Decree [is] considered to be completed? 10 percent, 30 percent, 70 percent?”

“Do you think the Community Police Commission (CPC) should play a more significant role with enforcement power? And are there any down sides to shifting disciplinary enforcement power from the Chief of Police?”

“Why should Clevelanders believe that the CPD can police itself and its behavior without significant oversight from citizens, since we’ve had two federal probes and we still are underneath a Consent Decree beyond its five-year deadline?”

These were among the questions being asked and answered during the monthly conversations held online about the workings of Cleveland’s Consent Decree. The September meeting focused on the “Cleveland Police Commission and Citizen Involvement.”

Continue reading

Gaelic Glen Alpacas Return to Walkabout Tremont

by Michael Jankus

At this month’s Walkabout Tremont on October 8 the Gaelic Glen Alpacas will bring their joy to Professor Avenue from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Rob and Kathy Turk fell in love with these “huggable lawnmowers” at first sight and started Gaelic Glen Alpacas LLC in 2010 to share their newfound lifestyle with everyone.

“People experience a lot of joy with the alpacas,” Rob said. “They’re happy to see them, and they get a chance to pet them, and feed them, and hug on them.”

Gaelic Glen Alpacas is a family farm in Perrysville run by retired Rob and Kathy Turk where they breed and raise Huacaya and Suri alpacas for their wonderful fiber as well as sell them. The couple are also keen to bring them to places like elementary schools and Walkabout Tremont where people can meet an alpaca for the first time and maybe even form an immediate connection, as they did.

“We love to let people experience these magnificent animals,” Rob said.

Continue reading

Advocates for free eviction help urge increased commitment by the City of Cleveland to fully funding the program

by Chuck Hoven, Plain Press

This article is republished with permission from the Plain Press. The press conference on “eviction help” was organized by the Neighborhood and Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland (NCMA-CLE), an association of 14 community media outlets serving Greater Cleveland, including the Plain Press and The Tremonster.

United Way of Greater Cleveland, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and CHN Housing Partners have teamed up in a public private partnership with the City of Cleveland to offer free help to qualified Clevelanders facing eviction.

Two programs paired together, the Right to Counsel Program of Legal Aid and Rental Assistance Program at CHN Housing Partners are successful in helping those eligible to stay in their homes and avoid the destabilization and life altering impact of eviction. Program advocates from United Way, Legal Aid and CHN Housing Partners would all like to see the City of Cleveland increase its commitment to these programs and expand eligibility to more households facing eviction.

Continue reading

FirstEnergy’s admissions feed critics’ call for big-picture regulatory oversight and review

The company’s revelations about Ohio’s largest corruption case raise questions about the integrity of the regulatory process and its piecemeal approach to reviewing utility spending.

By Kathiann M. Kowalski

This story is from the Energy News Network in collaboration with Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism. Please join Eye on Ohio’s  free mailing list or the mailing list for the Energy News Network as this helps The Tremonster provide more public service reporting.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio should conduct a big-picture, in-depth review of FirstEnergy’s spending and governance in light of the company’s admissions last month about former PUCO Chair Sam Randazzo, critics say.

“It’s not a debate anymore whether the company engaged in corruption,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “The company did so. With this pervasive corruption, the PUCO needs to mind the store in order to protect the public interest and to protect consumers.”

Continue reading

Community meeting on consent decree to focus on CDP search and seizure practices

By Rich Weiss, Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland

The Cleveland Consent Decree mandates that the City of Cleveland Division of Police conduct all investigatory stops, searches, and arrests fairly and respectfully as part of an effective overall crime prevention strategy that considers community values.

How well they are discharging that mandate is the subject of the next community conversation in the series of discussions jointly sponsored by United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland NAACP.

The next meeting in the series is this Wednesday, August 11 at 6:00 p. The theme will be Search and Seizure. The public is invited and encouraged to attend these sessions to help in the monitoring process.

To attend, ask questions or voice your concerns, register for any of the four remaining Consent Decree public meetings by visiting unitedwaycleveland.org.

The meetings are conducted via Zoom on the second Wednesday of each month. The July meeting focused on “Bias-Free Policing and Racial Profiling,” Among the topics raised last month:

  • “What does ‘trained, bias-free policing policies’ mean practically, and what does that training look like?
  • How do we justify over-policing in communities of color and lower-income communities?
  • How are we measuring success with these initiatives?

Richard T. Andrews contributed to this report.

The Other Henry Senyak

Henry Senyak, avid beer can collector (photo by Bruce Checefsky).
Bruce Checefsky

Henry Senyak is a retired communications and electrical contractor and lifelong resident of Cleveland. He served as past President and Board officer with the Tremont West Development Corporation, and continues his community engagement in the Tremont and Near West Side neighborhoods. He is currently Chairperson of Lincoln Heights Block Club. He’s also an avid beer can collector. 

Bruce: When did you start collecting beer cans?

Henry: I started collecting when I was 10 years old. My dad and uncles would get me beer cans when we went on road trips. We’d check the dumpsters at rest areas for empty beer cans. I stopped collecting when I turned 18 and went back to collecting in1996. I bought an inventory of beer cans from a dealer in Fairlawn who lived in a small little bungalow house with his wife. She wanted him to sell his entire inventory. He owned a business called B&B Sales, one of the biggest beer can selling outfits in the country back in the 70’s and 80’s. I ran into him at the Hartville Flea Market. I started to buy his inventory in 1998 then he passed away a year later. It took me about forty-five trips with my van to go to Fairlawn and bring his inventory back to Cleveland. I’ve sold a lot of it since then on eBay in early 2000. I supplement my personal collection by buying and trading with other collectors across the country.

Bruce: How many cans were in his inventory? 

Henry: Over 50,000 beer cans. I paid about $2,600. A lot of people might say, ‘you got a bunch of junk here’ which collectors might agree with but everybody has junk. If they only knew that I sold and traded some from his inventory to build my personal collection, they’d understand. My personal collection is now more than 45,000 cans and I still have about 40,000 duplicates from his inventory available to trade.

Continue reading