Are Ohio’s Republican leaders using their gerrymandering tactics to stall marijuana

CLEVELAND, Ohio — University Hospitals CEO Dr. Cliff Megerian, Cleveland Clinic Chief of Staff Dr. Beri Ridgeway and MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros on Wednesday stressed the importance of collaboration for solving the region’s health disparities.

We’re talking about how they collaborate on issues including lead poisoning, infant mortality, maternal health and food deserts on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here. See the automated transcript at the bottom of the post.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, on Wednesday with city hall reporter Courtney Astolfi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

Here are the questions we’re answering today:

How does the head of MetroHealth say health officials are failing to live up to their promises of equity?

How many people want to be part of Cleveland’s new and very powerful Cleveland police commission, the civilian board that will oversee the police discipline process?

Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders did everything they could to avoid their Constitutional duties in drawing maps. Are they using the same tactics now to avoid having a marijuana initiative on the November ballot?

Why was the arrival of a ship in Cleveland this week a big deal?

How did a recent fire in Brooklyn illustrate the challenges that fire departments are having in being fully staffed?

What is the allegation that has launched an investigation into the Medina County treasurer and a county car that ended up in the position of his son?

Why might Joe Blystone, the failed candidate for Ohio governor, be in some trouble?

How is the market for used cars about to cost Euclid big with one of its biggest employers?

What is the Rocking the RV Life podcast, and how is it now connected to cleveland.com?

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If you use Stitcher, we are here.

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris: [00:00:00] We’re going to have to do a story on the return of dirt bikes to Cleveland streets to hear television reporters tell it it’s the end of society. As we know it. And the Justin Bibi administration will crack down it’s today in Ohio, the news podcasts discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer.

I’m Chris Quinn. And I am here with Lisa Garvin, Layla Tassie, and Lauren. Then Laila, the dirt bike problem is, is a fascinating one because people get annoyed when they’re at the intersection and the kids are out there. Circling police don’t want to chase little kids on dirt bikes because there’s a chance that they’ll hurt themselves or die.

And who wants that on their, on their conscience. But television news reports get the video when they painted as hooligans taking over the streets. And the vivid administration is talking about cracking downs. We’re going to have to look at how do you do that?

Leila: Yeah. You know, I, I’m not exactly sure what approach the bibs administration is going to take.

And I mean, to be clear, I don’t think they’re little kids. I think, you know, I think they’re, they’re older and young adults and things [00:01:00] like that, but this has been in the con you know, we’ve been having this conversation for several years. Frank Jackson tried to approach this, uh, you know, in his way. He tried to bring this, uh, you know, this group of, of young people to the table.

He tried to create a sort of, sort of formalize a, tried to create a place for them to engage in their sport. Right. He tried to create their dirt bike tracks so that they could learn how to maintain their bikes and how to, you know, create a safe Haven for them to go and, and practice and, and, and ride.

And that just sort of fell apart because of. Pick the absolute worst place in a neighborhood for people you create lots of noise and

Chris: not a place where you can yeah. The dirt by tracking an area, it was a dumb idea. But the idea of talking to them instead of slamming them, I mean, yeah, you’re right.

They’re teenagers, they’re young adults and their joy riding. You know, that, the other thing that I note is there are bicycle groups that do the same thing. Nobody complains [00:02:00] about them. I do.

Lisa: I absolutely do. I hate those hordes of bicycle. Isn’t just run through the intersection. Like they own it, you know?

And the thing with the dirt bike riders is, yeah. They’re going to tear through your neighborhood. I’m going to last about 10 seconds, you know, I mean, I have the same problem with the guy around the corner who drives through every day with his bass on this, you know, speakers rattling my windows, but he’s gone in 10 seconds.

So what the heck? Well, yeah,

Leila: there’s a lot of parallels you can draw between the two groups. And I think there, you know, you can raise the question about, uh, about race here, right? I mean, Because, like you said, the bicyclists who they call it a critical mass bike ride because there’s so many of them that they feel they have the right to tie up traffic while they pass through.

And you’re sitting there at the light, just see thing while they’re all cruising on by for about 10 minutes. I mean, that is. You know, that’s an inconvenience to people on the road, just as much as a big group of people on their dirt bikes.

Chris: So it’s not the end of [00:03:00] society. As we know it. It’s not Armageddon.

It’s not the breathless reporting subjects of television news reports. You know, it’s an issue it’s. Life in the city. Uh, it’ll be interesting to

Leila: see. Well, and also you don’t, you don’t see any legislation coming across that’s banning that sort of stuff. Instead, you see bike, bike advocates coming to city council to, you know, try to speak on behalf of bike safety and how can we work with the city to make sure that we have the right to blah, blah, blah, blah, you know?

Right. So, um, you know,

Chris: this, isn’t what we came here to talk about today. We will talk about this in the future. Let’s begin. How does the head of Metro health say health officials are failing to live up to their promises of equity. Laura, this was a gathering of some of our top health officials yesterday, and they had some interesting things to

Laura: say they did.

I was really, I learned something from Julie Washington story. Not that I know specifics because Akron Boutros did not name names on [00:04:00] people who are not fulfilling their promises. What he was referring to is a 20 19 6. Speech. He gave about public health, health crises talking about how structural racism and childhood trauma create all of these problems.

And he got commitments from, you know, place, I assume, businesses and community groups that they would work on this. He says they’re dragging their feet on promises they made, and he’s not getting, uh, the declarations of support he expected. And they’re slipping very quickly in the past six months. But some progress is being made and his main focus.

Along with the university hospital CEO, Dr. Cliff material and clinic Cleveland clinic, chief of staff, Dr. Barry Ridgeway was basically talking about why public health matters as part of this, uh, accelerating health equity conference that was sponsored by the American hospital association.

Chris: Well, it wasn’t just health officials that came out of the woodwork after the Floyd killing, it was every company [00:05:00] came out of the woodwork, their statements, their God, we were getting press releases by the dozen about how we’re going to change everything.

It’d be interesting to go back and see, did they do anything? It’s one thing to issue a statement. It’s another to change the culture. Did anybody actually changed their culture?

Laura: Completely agree that it’s night, you know, it’s, it’s pretty easy to put out a press release. It’s very difficult to change the way that you do business.

And with these three healthcare leaders talked about were issues like lead poisoning, infant mortality, maternal health, food deserts, things. Normally see, like as a hospital issue and they pointed to some projects that they’ve worked on, um, like the rainbow babies and children’s, uh, who’s a center for women and children, which is located in an area of Cleveland with high infant mortality.

And they talked about how they are working together more than they ever have been. They’ve built trust. And obviously they are competitors. I mean, Look at…