Issuu

AKRON

Developer Tony Troppe said he has purchased the former Temple Israel and plans to turn it into an arts center. PAGE 7

HEALTH CARE CARE: Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals join forces to boost region. PAGE 10

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I AUGUST 22, 2022

Dr. Ed Barksdale Jr., surgeon in chief at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Mary Anne Crampton, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action, and Beverly Pettrey, captain and interim chief of the Cleveland State University Police Department, are a few of the local officials working to combat gun violence and its effect on the community. | KEN BLAZE FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

SEARCHING FOR

SOLUTIONS

Gun violence is a public health crisis, a political crisis and, ultimately, an economic crisis. Not only is it costly in terms of law enforcement, physical and mental health care and other obvious expenses, it’s a threat to efforts by Cleveland, Akron and the state of Ohio to build back population and improve the environment businesses and people need to thrive. PAGE 15

Evicting landlords don’t need to prove properties are lead-safe Appeals court rules in favor of Cleveland’s apartment industry BY MICHELLE JARBOE

The apartment industry won a significant legal battle this month, when an appeals court invalidated a Cleveland Housing Court rule that required landlords seeking evictions to comply with the city’s lead-safe certification mandate. Members of the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, a broad-based group focused on curbing

childhood lead poisoning, viewed the rule as a key tool for forcing property owners to clean up rental homes. But landlords, and the Northern Ohio Apartment Association, saw the edict as a judicial overreach. On Aug. 11, a three-judge panel in Cleveland agreed. “There is no authority in the statute for preventing an eviction,” the judges wrote, citing state law. “If the property is in violation of (Cleveland’s lead-safe ordinance) or any other health and safety law, the remedy is to See LEAD on Page 25

New development tactics

Legislation in North Olmsted is designed to lure in investment BY STAN BULLARD

North Olmsted sits at the western edge of Cuyahoga County. Most of its residential growth came after the 1960s, near the end of the post-World War II suburban movement. Though it once had an interurban electric rail line connecting it to other parts of the county, its development is distinctly later than the trolley era that defined inner-ring suburbs from Lakewood to Shaker Heights. However, its scarcity of developable land — city officials say it is 94% developed — puts it in the same boat as much older areas. Most of its opportunities are likely in redevelopment. A

flurry of legislation adopted the past two months, with some pieces still pending, is designed to change the suburb’s posture from catching what comes its way to taking steps to lure more commercial and residential investment. At first blush, legislation passed earlier this summer to permit phased development looks made to order for potential redevelopment of the Sears area of Great Northern Mall. But Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones and others say the steps are being taken with the long haul in mind rather than a specific property play. See NORTH OLMSTED on Page 24

P001_CL_20220822.indd 1

8/19/2022 1:20:38 PM