Scene June 16, 2021

Mayor Gregory Kurtz and His Anti-Homeless Crusade in Independence B Y

S A M

A L L A R D

2

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

3

CONTENTS JUNE 16-29, 2021 • VOL. 51 NO 37

Upfront .......................................6 Get Out ..................................... 12 Feature ..................................... 14 Arts .......................................... 19 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Shawn Mishak Stage Editor Christine Howey

Eat ............................................ 21 Music ........................................ 25 Savage Love .............................. 26

REWIND: 2ooo Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

Copy Editor Elaine Cicora

Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd., #4100

Advertising

Cleveland, OH 44115

Senior Multimedia Account Executive

www.clevescene.com Phone 216-505-8199

John Crobar, Shayne Rose Creative Services Production Manager Haimanti Germain Editorial Layout Evan Sult Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace

E-mail scene @clevescene.com Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every other week by Euclid Media Group. Verified Audit Member

Business Business & Sales Support Specialist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Cramer Circulation Circulation Director Burt Sender

Copyright The entire contents of Cleveland Scene Magazine are copyright 2020 by Euclid Media Group. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed

Cleveland Distribution Scene is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader Subscriptions - $150 (1 yr); $ 80 (6 mos.) Email Megan - MStimac@CleveScene.com - to subscribe.

envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. Subscriptions $150 (1 yr); $ 80 (6 mos.) Send name, address and zip code with check or money order to the address listed above with the title ‘Attn: Subscription Department’

...The story continues at clevescene.com

4

Unsteady mayoral leadership on expansion plans for Hopkins? Big news now, big news twenty years ago.

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Printed By

Take

248-620-2990

SCENE with you with the Issuu app! “Cleveland Scene Magazine” COVER ILLUSTRATION BY JOEL HERRERA

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

5

UPFRONT NEWS

Dennis! Kucinich joins the clown car. Photo by Sam Allard

Dennis! Kucinich Declares for Cleveland Mayoral Race

TWO DAYS BEFORE THE filing deadline and months after the rumors began, former mayor, congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich declared for the 2021 Cleveland Mayoral race. Standing before the script Cleveland sign in Tremont – where, Kucinich reminisced, it all began – Kucinich said that the city of Cleveland needed both a “steady, experienced hand” and a leader with “bold, visionary ideas” as it emerges from the pandemic and a period of sustained violence and poverty. The particulars of his platform will be released in detail in the coming weeks. But Monday,

6

Kucinich chose to focus on what he said was the most pressing issue in Cleveland today: safety. On that topic, Kucinich’s stance was qualified, striking a balance between pro- and anti-police factions locally. We must support the police who risk their lives every day on the one hand, he said, but “question police and take appropriate disciplinary action” when they violate internal rules or breach civil rights. Kucinich said that the moping by current leaders about violence was no solution. Action is required. He pledged to hire 400 new police officers and 100 new police assistants to be more responsive to crime. He also wants to create

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

a “Civic Peace Department” and launch a nonviolence curriculum in the Cleveland schools – a variation on a proposal he dreamed up 20 years ago in congress – which he said would address all forms of violence in Cleveland. Kucinich was the youngest mayor in Cleveland’s history, serving from 1977 to 1979 during a tumultuous era in which he famously refused to privatize the Municipal Light and Electric Company, now CPP, under immense personal and political pressure. If elected, Kucinich would become the city’s oldest mayor. He is exactly four days younger than Mayor Frank Jackson. Kucinich’s current campaign

hashtag, #LightUpCleveland, is a reference both to his Muny Light history, his plan to literally brighten streets with brighter streetlights, and his view on the city’s need for an attitude adjustment. “I am ready from day one to take the city in a new, upbeat, can-do direction,” he said. When asked what took him so long to formally declare his candidacy, he said, “It’s right on time.” A recent Baldwin-Wallace poll found that Kucinich enjoys more name recognition than any other candidate in the race. Elsewhere on the mayoral beat, candidates Sandra Williams, Zack Reed and Justin Bibb filed their

petitions at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections last week. Assuming at least 3,000 of their submitted signatures are valid, they will appear on the Sep. 14 primary ballot. Bibb noted that his signatures were gathered by 235 volunteer circulators and said that the effort was indicative of his campaign’s grassroots appeal. “Residents told us they want to see new leadership and a fresh perspective in City Hall and I’ll be that Mayor,” Bibb said in a press release. “Clevelanders are looking for a leader who will fight for our future with a sense of urgency and energy that we are missing right now. I believe I am the right leader for the right time and our moment has arrived.” In a phone call from the BOE, Bibb told Scene that in the coming weeks, he plans to continue attending fundraisers and meet and greets and knocking on doors citywide. “We’re hitting the pavement as hard as we possibly can,” he said, “spreading the word that Cleveland can’t wait for new leadership.” Council President Kevin Kelley will reportedly file his petitions Wednesday. Kelley released a statement after Kucinich’s press conference. “This election is about the future,” he said. “Our city has made great progress in digging out from the dark days of the past. We cannot afford to go back.” -Sam Allard

Cleveland Activists Demand Accountability for the Murder of Vincent Belmonte “You about to lose your job, Larry McDonald!” Through the cracks in the hot pavement and into the rustling trees, on May 31, these words reverberated through the neighborhood surrounding East Cleveland City Hall. Almost five months after the murder of eighteen-year-old Vincent Belmonte by East Cleveland police officer Larry McDonald, activists and organizers gathered at Heritage Middle School to demand accountability. On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, Sgt. Larry McDonald fired three shots at Belmonte, hitting him in the back. McDonald’s body camera footage, obtained by cleveland.com, shows the moments leading up to the shooting and the moments following, suggesting McDonald

turned off his body camera while he murdered Belmonte. According to police, Belmonte was driving a stolen car, fled from officers, and threatened them with a gun. According to Belmonte’s family, Belmonte borrowed the vehicle from a friend. And if he was so threatening, they wonder, why did all of the bullets hit him from the back? “If proper action had been taken against [Larry McDonald] years ago, my son would still be here,” Belmonte’s mother said to the crowd gathered outside the East Cleveland Police Department. Throughout his career, McDonald has received a number of complaints about excessive force and lack of probable cause. He was laid off in 2006 due to his reckless behavior but rehired in 2008. In 2020, he was put on probation for releasing a woman from jail in exchange for a date and investigated for stealing marijuana from the department’s evidence locker. The rally, held on Memorial Day, commenced with a land acknowledgment from Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez, co-director of the InterReligious Taskforce on Central America. Then the emcee invited Kareem Henton, Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter Cleveland, to speak. “I’m sorry to make this family relive this again and again, but it cannot be lost on anyone that Vincent was shot in his back,” Henton said. “I struggle to find how someone fleeing law enforcement is a danger to law enforcement. I struggle to understand how it is that a law enforcement officer with a known record for his deviant behavior, and was on probation at the time, can be given the benefit of the doubt by East Cleveland’s [leadership].” Next, Antoine Tolbert of Chasing Justice LLC added to Henton’s sentiment. “In East Cleveland, we see a failure of leadership from top to bottom,” he said. He then invited the audience to call out the names of victims of police violence with him as he poured out water from a water bottle. “Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell, Desmond Franklin, Marissa Williams, Tanisha Anderson,” they shouted out. The list goes on. “Chasing justice is no longer about holding the police accountable. We want the prosecutors. We want the judges. We want the attorney general. We want the certification officers. We want everybody who has failed

this community. They’ve got to go,” Mariah Crenshaw, Chasing Justice LLC’s founder, exclaimed after explaining the affidavits her organization filed against various Cuyahoga County police departments for misconduct and corruption. “Larry McDonald is only doing what they let him do. [Mike] O’Malley, and everyone protecting McDonald, have got to go!” Next up were Alicia Kirkman, whose son, Angelo Miller, was murdered by Cleveland Police in 2007; and Brenda Bickerstaff, whose brother, Craig Bickerstaff, was murdered by Cleveland Police in 2002. “This is the fight of your life,” Kirkman turned away from the crowd to address Belmonte’s mother directly. “I’ve been in this fight for fourteen years. Every day, I’m figuring out how I can get [patrolman] John Lundy convicted of murdering my son.” Both women encouraged members of the crowd who are registered to vote in the city of Cleveland to sign the Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, or the SaferCLE, petition for a ballot measure that expands the investigative and disciplinary powers of the Civilian Review Board to investigate police misconduct, and establish a permanent Community Police Commission to be given final authority on disciplining police officers. “We need 7,000 votes to ensure justice. We’re going for 10,000,” added Bickerstaff. “If you can’t come to me, I’ll come to you.” The Belmonte family led a march from Heritage Middle School to the East Cleveland Police Department building on Euclid Avenue and Marloes, where marchers and organizers in cars blocked the intersection. Members of the family took turns giving remarks about their final days with Vincent and demanding accountability, while sage was smudged and passed around. The crowd repeated chants, waved signs and heckled officers watching from their vehicles and the roof of city hall. After the crowd dissipated, Kareem Henton’s message lingered. “When you leave here,” he told the crowd, “take on the responsibility of bringing others into this struggle. When we show up again, I want to see these numbers triple and quadruple.” -Emma Sedlak

Cavs G-League Squad Moving from Canton to Cleveland, Will Play at Wolstein The Canton Charge, the Cleveland Cavaliers minor league affiliate, will move from Canton to Cleveland next season and play its regularseason home games at the Cleveland State University Wolstein Center. The ‘G-League’ franchise, which the Cavaliers acquired in 2011 and which has called the Canton Memorial Civic Center home for nine seasons, is moving closer to its parent club to give both teams

DIGIT WIDGET 35 Number of people shot, in 22 separate shooting incidents, in Cleveland last weekend. It was one of the most violent weekends of an already violent year. Three people were killed.

600 ft. Approximate height of possible Sherwin-Williams HQ skyscraper in downtown Cleveland, (as reported by @ NEOtrans). If correct, the building would be the fourth tallest in downtown Cleveland, trailing only its Public Square neighbors: Key Tower, Terminal Tower and 200 Public Square.

$22.1 million Total 2020 compensation for Kevin M. Stein, CEO of TransDigm, $13.6 million of which arrived via stock dividend equivalent payments. (Stein was the highest-paid executive on Crain’s annual list of highestpaid CEOs in the region.)

260,000+ Doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine administered at the CSU Wolstein Center mass vaccination site over the course of its now-completed 12-week run. | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

7

UPFRONT greater operational flexibility. “We want to thank Mayor Bernabei, the City of Canton and our Charge fans and partners for a decade of excitement at the Civic Center,” said Rock Entertainment Group CEO Len Komoroski, in a press release. “When we acquired the franchise and relocated it here to Northeast Ohio, our goal was to create the best operation and experience in the G-League, both on the court and off. We’ve had success working towards both those goals and that remains our commitment and focus.” The G-League season is expected to begin in November. As in recent years, several players on the team may be “called up” to play for the Cavs at various points throughout the season. The proximity to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Cavs’ practice facilities in Independence will make for a safer, smoother experience for players, coaches and staff. The City of Canton is naturally very sorry to see the team flee to the CLE. “I am, of course, disappointed that the Charge will no longer be playing in Canton,” said Canton Mayor Thomas Bernabei, in the release. “We had open and professional conversations with Charge management about extending their lease and staying. However, their move is stimulated by a desire to be in much closer proximity to the Cavaliers’ core center of operations. We worked hard at keeping them here, but I appreciate their openness in our conversations, respect their decision and sincerely wish them well.” -Sam Allard

Cleveland Bites!

8

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

The United States Postal Service released its annual dog attack data last week, revealing that more than 5,800 USPS employees were attacked by dogs in 2020. Cleveland, which no longer counts itself among the top 50 U.S. cities by population, is nevertheless number four in total dog attacks, with 46. Astonishingly, six Ohio cities — Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Canton — were among the top 47 cities for dog attacks, more than any other state. (Ohio, in fact, trailed only

California and Texas for total attacks statewide.) Among larger cities, Cleveland was responsible for far and away the most dog attacks per capita, with one attack per 8,369 residents. Of the top 47 cities, only Dayton, Canton and Shawnee Mission, Kansas (outside Kansas City) had more attacks per capita. Northeast Ohio continues to punch (and bite) above its weight class. -Sam Allard

Op-Ed: John Marshall was Pro-Slavery Extremist Even by 19th Century Standards. Change CSU Law School’s Name. Last December, Scene published my essay explaining why Cleveland State University should change the name of our public law school. I won’t rehash my entire argument here. But it bears repeating that the fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall, owned some 200 slaves and at one point auctioned off some of them to pay off his son’s debts. Moreover, the Virginian slave lord subverted the rule of law. Even when statutes and precedents favored Black litigants, he always overruled the law whenever it conflicted with slaveholding interests. It happens that Cleveland isn’t the only city with a law school named “Marshall.” The University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall Law School, and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, share our dubious distinction. Now there are two. For, on May 20th, The University of Illinois board of trustees voted to drop “John Marshall” from the law school. On July 1st it will henceforth be called The University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. Mind you, The University of Illinois board overcame a significant hurdle. When The John Marshall Law School merged with The University of Illinois a couple of years ago, the University of Illinois agreed to keep the name “John Marshall” until August 2025. The law school’s board decided to waive the agreement. And so the people of Chicago won’t have to endure, for another four years, a name that is no less infamous than the Confederate flag. Make no mistake. “John Marshall” and the Confederate flag are cognate symbols. They diametrically oppose the rule of law.

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

9

UPFRONT This buzzword gets thrown around a lot, “the rule of law.” In fact, the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune, lamenting the decision to expunge John Marshall’s name, claimed that he championed the “rule of law”. But did he really? First and foremost, we should understand the rule of law in terms of the social contract. The Declaration of Independence framed our social contract in terms of equality and the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… “That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.” Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers argued that The Constitution must be established by the voluntary consent of the whole people. Of course, “We the People” was limited to propertied white men at first. But the social contract has since expanded. As I write in 2021, we have had millions of Black voters and women voters, a Black president, and we now have a Black female vice president. The point is, the social contract is based on the consent of the people. Ultimately, the rule of law is defined by the informed consent of the citizenry. Abraham Lincoln had meant to include Black people in the social contract when he said that our nation “was conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Our sixteenth president was not perfect, but he was indisputably on the right side of history. On the wrong side of history we find John Marshall and the Confederate flag, both standing for the proposition that white people are “more equal” than everybody else. Only white consent matters in their social contract. “Marshall” and the Stars and Bars symbolize a zero-sum game rigged for white people to win and for all other people to lose, especially Black people. But the rule of law might still seem abstract to the reader. And so I ask the reader to consider the rule of law from London’s point of view. In Scott v. Negro London (1806), London sued for freedom in Washington under a Virginia law prohibiting

10

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

importation of slaves. A jury of twelve white men, some probably slaveholders, concluded London was free because he was illegally imported into the city. The trial court strictly construed Virginia slave law. As legal scholar Paul Finkelman observed: “This result was consistent with other decisions from American state courts of the period that strictly applied statutes regulating slavery and at the same time liberally construed the common law in favor of liberty.” Marshall, nevertheless, reversed the jury verdict. He thus construed the statute for a pro-slavery result. In fact, he decided seven freedom suits and not one Black litigant ever succeeded. Please pay close attention to what Finkelman just said. That Marshall was a pro-slavery extremist even by the standards of the early nineteenth century. Having read Finkelman’s Supreme Injustice, I can attest to that recurring theme throughout the book, of Marshall’s anti-Black and rabidly pro-slavery jurisprudence. All this is to say that the movement to change schools named after John Marshall is not “cancel culture” run amok. The issue is not whether or not to “cancel” Marshall. The issue is whether or not he’s a symbol of the rule of law worthy to name our public law school. Especially now as our nation reckons with our not-so-distant past of slavery and genocide. Not to mention the City of Cleveland’s struggles with past and present segregation. A couple of weeks ago, in light of the news out of Chicago, I asked the dean of Cleveland-Marshall about the time-frame regarding a possible name change. He told me to get back to him in September once the CSU board returns. “Marshall” yet and still graces the school’s entrance. Knowing what we now know about the man, our public law school may as well have a giant Confederate flag flying in front of it. -Taru Taylor

(Author Taru Taylor tried not to let law school interfere with his education. He’s now in the process of unlearning how to think like a lawyer. Email him at tytaylor521@ yahoo.com for further discussion of this piece or whatever.)

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

$

0 3 + restau m o r f s r e rant g r u s! 6b

JULY 12-18TH, 2021 PRESENTED BY

BURGERWEEKCLEAVELAND.COM | FOLLOW US

Interested in participating? Contact events@clevescene.com or call 216.505.8199 | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

11

GET OUT everything you should do this week THU

06/17

TUE

The Choir of Man

State of Cleveland Music Scene

With most of the Broadway touring shows still on pause because of the pandemic, The Choir of Man represents the sole performance taking place at Playhouse Square this month. A press release promises the show is both a party and concert: “It’s a pint-filled good time set in a working pub that combines hairraising harmonies, high-energy dance, and live Percussion with footstomping choreography.” Tonight’s show takes place at 7:30 in the Mimi Ohio Theatre. The run extends to July 11. Check the Playhouse Square website for additional showtimes and ticket prices. 1511 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

Local music industry experts will be at the Beachland tonight for the inaugural State of Cleveland Music Scene summit meeting. The event takes place from 6 to 8, and admission is free, but registration through the Beachland website is required. Expect to hear about how to be involved and stay involved with the local music scene at this networking event. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

WED

Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,” and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.” Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

78th Street Studios Third Friday Art Walk

Tonight, the Third Friday Art Walk returns to the cavernous 78th Street Studios. More than 50 studios and galleries will participate in this popular indoor art walk; be sure to check out spots like the Derek Hess Gallery, Tregoning & Company and Hilary Gent Studio. Look for food trucks out front and live music on the first floor. Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. 1300 West 78th St., 78thstreetstudios.com.

SAT

THU

An Arts Filled Juneteenth

12

06/24

Shane Gillis

06/19

As part of African-American Music Appreciation Month, Western Reserve Historical Society presents an Arts-Filled Juneteenth Celebration today from noon to 4 p.m. As part of the festivities, pianist Daniel Spearman will perform from noon to 12:45 p.m. at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum rotunda, the Passione Quartet will perform from 2 to 2:45 p.m. at the Music Settlement, Helen Turner-Thompson, Mark Thompson and, The Helen Turner-Thompson Gospel Music Ensemble will perform from 3 to 3:45 p.m. at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum rotunda. Consult the WRHS website for more info. 10825 East Blvd., 216-721-5722, wrhs.org.

06/23

Shit Show Karaoke

06/18

FRI

06/22

Comedian Shane Gillis brings the laughter to to Hilarities. See: Thursday, June 24. Photo: AGI ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA & MANAGEMENT

SUN Reggae Sundays

06/20 MON

This special Reggae Sunday Happy Hour Concert series is a summertime tradition at the Music Box Supper Club The indoor/outdoor concert series will take place rain or shine with live music from 4 to 7 p.m. Music Box will also offer food and drink specials exclusive to the series. Reggae Sundays continue through Sept. 5. 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Movie Mondays

06/21

Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays, where film fans can catch up on the latest Hollywood flicks for significantly reduced prices. Bring your friends and family and make Movie Mondays a weekly tradition — many theaters even offer discounted concession stand items. Participating theaters include Apollo Theatre, Cedar Lee Theatre and Chagrin Cinemas. Additional charges apply for 3-D movies. clevelandcinemas.com.

Named an “up-next” comic at Comedy Central’s 2019 Clusterfest in San Francisco and a “new face” at Just For Laughs in Montreal, comedian Shane Gillis has started to receive some serious acclaim. Winner of Philly’s Funniest at Helium Comedy Club in 2016, Gillis regularly guests on and co-hosts Sirius XM and Comedy Central Radio’s The Bonfire. He’s also one half of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast. Gillis, who has a very funny bit called “Why White People Like Country Music,” performs tonight at 7 at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. Consult the Hilarities website for ticket prices and showtimes. 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

FRI Byron Bowers

06/25

A stand-up comedian and actor who’s toured nationally with Dave

Chappelle and Hannibal Buress, Byron Bowers was also featured as a New Face at the prestigious Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. He plays a recurring character on Lena Waithe’s Showtime series drama The Chi and also had a role in Shia Labeouf’s award winning film, Honey Boy. He performs tonight at 7 at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Check the Improv website for ticket prices and showtimes. 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

SAT

06/26

Greg Murray Book Signing & City Dogs Fundraiser

Rescue-dog advocate and professional photographer Greg Murray has followed up on the fan favorite book Peanut Butter Dogs with Peanut Butter Puppies, portraits of rescued dogs captured in studio with colorful backgrounds and in delightfully amusing detail. Locally based Murray is an award-winning lifestyle, commercial, and portrait animal photographer. He is active in animal rescue and advocacy for pit bull-type dogs. He’ll sign copies of his new book today from 2 to 4 p.m. at Visible Voice Books in Tremont. In partnership with Terrestrial Brewing, a portion of beer sales and book sales will be donated to Friends of City Dogs Cleveland, providing financial assistance for the animals at Cleveland Animal Care and Control, which includes daily enrichment opportunities, medical care and supporting the City Dogs adoption and volunteer programs. The event will take place outdoors on the Visible Voice patio but will move indoors in case of rain. 2258 Professor Ave., 216-961-0084, visiblevoicebooks.com.

SUN

06/27

African American Soul Dancing and Book Signing Featuring Frank R. Ross & Friends This Black Music Month event will showcase the marriage between movement and music in Black history and culture, especially as it relates to dance in the 20th and 21st centuries. The presentation will include accomplished dancers from Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago as couples will demonstrate

dances and performances based on Frank R. Ross’s Soul Dancing: The Essential African American Cultural Dance. After the dance demonstrations, Ross will facilitate a Q & A session about the book and talk about offer suggestions for incorporating African-American dance into academic programs. An Ohio native, Ross graduated from Cleveland’s John Adams High School. A dancer, choreographer and retired physical education teacher and guidance counselor, Ross is the creator of the Grand March, the National African-American Folk Dance. He is also the best-selling author of The Grand March – The Spirit of African-Americans from Publish America and Soul Dancing. The Essential African-American Cultural Dance Book. The event takes place from noon to 2 p.m. at Western Reserve Historical Society. It’s free with paid museum admission. 10825 East Blvd., 216-721-5722, wrhs.org.

MON

06/28

Indians vs. Detroit Tigers

The Indians get a break this week as the Detroit Tigers, a team in the midst of rebuilding, come to town. The Tigers own one of baseball’s worst records and simply don’t have the talent this year to compete against division rivals like the Indians. Tonight’s first pitch is at 7:10 at Progressive Field, and the contest marks the start of a threegame series. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.

TUE 06/29 Open Turntable Tuesday

Tonight from 6 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. Jason Gokorsch will book guest DJs and offer slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. First time DJs are encouraged, and equipment is provided. Patrons can also bring records for the night’s DJ to add to their set. Sign up on Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club’s Facebook page. (Niesel) 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, facebook.com/ TheWinchesterMusicTavern.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDS

BE FREE FROM

• For Medical Marijuana Cards & Treatment Plans • Cards available same day! COMPASSIONATE BOARD CERTIFIED MD MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS

DRUG ADDICTION Suboxone Clinic

WELLNESS CENTER 440-580-4998 | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

13

FEATURE

Photo by Sam Allard. Cover illustration by Joel Herrera

THE HORROR!

Mayor Gregory Kurtz and his anti-homeless crusade in Independence By Sam Allard

ON APRIL 15, ROUGHLY 150 MEN EXPERIENCING homelessness were transferred by shuttle from the Tudor Arms Doubletree Hotel in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood to the Ramada Inn in Independence. The men were scheduled to stay there, per the terms of a contract between the hotel and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM), until the end of August. Neither Cuyahoga County’s Office of Homeless Services nor LMM regarded the City of Independence as an optimal location for the unhoused men. Most of them, before Covid, would have been staying at 2100 Lakeside, the largest men’s shelter in the state. But since March of 2020, the county and its partners have pursued a “hotel hub” strategy to decongregate shelters. It’s a strategy seen almost universally as a success: by the county, by the nonprofit agencies coordinating logistics, and indeed, by the 10 hotels that have benefitted from $7.5 million

14

in county contracts. The win-win is straightforward. Unhoused men and women have been able to move to environments where they can physically distance and comfortably shelter in place, and area hotels have received critical business during a time of unprecedented precarity. Strategies of this sort have been adopted across the country, and in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine expressly called on cities to participate in them last March. “We are asking all local communities to include homeless shelters in your planning, so that we can more quickly help support these

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Ohioans to meet social distancing guidelines,” he said. In Cuyahoga County, the investment of both public and private resources yielded positive results. One of the pandemic’s few heartening headlines arrived in January, when the Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Chris Knestrick, told Cleveland City Council that due to the county’s efforts and expanded street outreach, the city had witnessed a 30% decrease in unsheltered homelessness. Independence nevertheless seemed like an odd choice. It is an office park suburb, 15 minutes by car from downtown Cleveland during nonpeak hours, and home to an array of basement-tier regional attractions: the Cavs’ practice facilities, satellite locations of Melt and Slyman’s, the northern terminus of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the tallest building between Cleveland and Akron, Stipe Miocic’s Strong Style MMA gym and a very fancy McDonald’s. It is also home to 7,200

residents, 0.0% of whom, according to 2019 census estimates, are Black. Like many suburbs in segregated, car-centric Northeast Ohio, Independence is defined less by its racial homogeneity than by its highways. (It’s the one where I-77 meets I-480.) Rockside Road is its main commercial corridor, transecting the community across its northern crest in a relationship not unlike the Ohio Turnpike’s to the State of Ohio. Rockside recalls both Solon and Breezewood, Pennsylvania in the respect that it is both blandly and oppressively commercial, pocked with beige hotels, chain eateries and drab office parks. These are all businesses, it seems needless to specify, and in the aggregate, they employ upwards of 10,000 people. The Rockside Corridor is, in fact, one of only six locations in the region that qualifies as a “job hub.” As such, the Ramada’s pre-pandemic clientele was overwhelmingly business travelers. Proximity to highways, though, made Independence a popular

destination for overflow hospitality during major events. The Republican National Convention, for one. Not that any of this mattered to the men experiencing homelessness. They arrived in mid-April and found themselves much further away Cleveland and the network of social service providers on which they depend to get back on their feet. But when the controversy arose, as it did immediately, it wasn’t the unhoused men who complained about their transfer. It wasn’t the unhoused men who instigated the confrontation. It was Independence, and its horrified mayor Gregory Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz has thrown such a prolonged, screeching tantrum that he appears to have successfully forced LMM to vacate the hotel. It has been one of the vilest and dumbest, not to say most inhumane, local crusades in recent memory. Kurtz has used the leverage of his elected office, the brawn of his police department and the specter of legal action to pressure the county, and by extension LMM, to seek refuge for these unhoused men elsewhere. When Scene last spoke to a dazed and cautious LMM, they said the contract with the Ramada was technically still in effect through August. More recently, though, the county acknowledged that Kurtz’ intervention bestirred Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish into action. “The Mayor of Independence spoke with Executive Budish to express some concerns about [the Ramada],” a county statement read. “The city advised that Ohio law prohibits any person from staying in a hotel room for more than 30 days. The Executive told the mayor that he would advise HHS staff, who contract with LMM, that Independence intended to enforce the law and requested a transition period to rehouse the existing residents.” Budish caved, in other words. “Decades of racist housing policy and stereotypes about people experiencing homelessness have given rise to this scandal,” wrote Cleveland.com’s Leila Atassi, in a blistering column last week. “Budish had an opportunity to subvert the far-reaching effects of that history at a time of unprecedented need in Cuyahoga County. But he failed – caving to political pressure, leaving men unsheltered on the streets and cheapening the county’s promise to end racism wherever we find it.” It either didn’t occur or didn’t matter to Armond Budish that the law was on the Ramada’s side; didn’t occur or didn’t matter to him that the State Fire Marshal had affirmed,

(to Ramada management, to legal counsel and independently to Scene), that the hotel was in compliance with its transient stay license and in no danger of violating state code; didn’t occur or didn’t matter to him that the law in question was not the city of Independence’s to enforce. Neither did it occur nor matter to the gutless Budish that the Ramada is a taxpaying entity in the county he oversees and now may face permanent closure. All that mattered was that Mayor Kurtz wanted the unhoused men out. Yes sir, right away sir. Elizabeth White, the Ramada’s manager, wrote an open letter last week in response to Kurtz’s announcement that LMM would be severing its contract with the hotel and that the men experiencing homelessness would be departing by the end of the month. Kurtz characterized the decision as LMM’s alone, and said that they, not he, would be best equipped to explain the move. “This is a bold LIE,” White wrote. “[Kurtz] knows very well why they are leaving. Simply, he is the reason behind it.” White spoke with Scene before she wrote her letter and said that she was present when Kurtz first met with the hotel’s owner, Sharif Omara, back on April 15. “Kurtz said in his newsletter that the conversation was ‘unsatisfactory at best,’” White said. “That wasn’t fair. The only thing [Omara] told him was that he wasn’t doing anything illegal. He was dying. He needed the business. And this kind of thing was happening all over the world at a time like this. It’s Covid. Look at New York. And Kurtz said flat out, ‘Not in my city.’” GREG KURTZ IS ONE OF SEVERAL Northeast Ohio mayors for whom an elected office comes to resemble a lifetime appointment. He served as mayor of Independence from 1986 to 2015, and only took four years off because residents amended the city charter to include term limits in 2002. Kurtz reclaimed the seat – his seat – in 2019, narrowly defeating incumbent Anthony Tagliotti on a platform that emphasized public safety on Rockside. Kurtz’s crusade against the Ramada and the unhoused men staying there began shortly, (that is to say almost imperceptibly), after the contract itself did. On April 16, one day after move-in and the “not in my city” meeting with Omara, Kurtz took to his weekly newsletter to convey his concern to Independence residents. He wrote that due to

high vacancy rates caused by the pandemic, some hotels had begun renting rooms to “questionable” organizations. “The Independence Police have been doing a tremendous job enforcing state and local laws to protect residents,” Kurtz wrote. “I met with my team this morning and have asked them to explore how we can quickly expand and strengthen the City’s nuisance laws and other ordinances related to imminent hazard complaints. I will be meeting with City Council and the Law Director to discuss further legislative and legal actions. Disorderly conduct, loud and destructive parties, and other hotel gatherings where people violate the law put a burden on our safety forces. The city will not tolerate hotel owners who do not operate their businesses responsibly and meet the standards for security and quality.” Apropos of what now? The Ramada management wondered. This message was delivered not 24 hours after the unhoused men had arrived. There had been no disorderly conduct. There had been no parties. There had been no gatherings of any kind. The entire premise of the hotel hub strategy was decongregation, not congregation, and each room rented by LMM was single occupancy. Moreover, the hotel wouldn’t be open to the public for the duration of the contract term. “The thing that really gets me is that he called LMM a ‘questionable’ organization” Elizabeth White said. “They’ve been around for 50 years, helping people in the community. What’s the question?” LMM only arrived at the Ramada because of the NFL Draft. Hotels closer to the heart of Cleveland, and to higher-frequency bus routes, were naturally preferable as decongregation sites. But in the weeks leading up to the Draft, rooms were scarce for the first time in months, and the county wanted to ensure that these would be available for out-of-town travelers. The threeday special event from Apr. 28 – May 1 drew 160,000 fans and hundreds of non-local personnel, shipped in for event setup and security. Marcella Brown, VP of Development and Communications at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, confirmed to Scene that the move to Independence was precipitated in large part by the Draft. “There was demand for hotel rooms closer to Cleveland, and we never wanted the [hotel hub strategy] to impose upon our community’s ability to generate revenue,” she said.

“We are very sensitive to the fact that this project is utilizing public dollars, and we want to be sure that we are being good stewards of those public funds, in partnership with the county.” The most cost-effective way to decongregate shelters in hotels, Brown said, is to maintain as many residents as possible in a single location. This makes transportation and security more manageable for LMM staff. The Ramada fit the bill. The rooms were available. Scene asked if LMM had experienced backlash from public officials or residents at other hotel sites in the past year. “Not to my knowledge,” Brown said. “What I would say is that we are definitely conscious of some of the challenges that the city of Independence is expressing. We get it. But we make every attempt to be as proactive as possible and to communicate, making sure we’re letting them know as much in advance as we can. At times, our need to pivot quickly is based on factors beyond our control. But we make every attempt to reach out and to be in partnership with that community.” Mayor Kurtz didn’t see it that way. In his April 30 newsletter, he described a meeting with LMM and said he “made it clear that [their] not advising the city about this move in advance was disrespectful to our community, safety forces, businesses, and other visitors.” He assured residents that the city was “continu[ing] to investigate all legal, jurisdictional, and zoning matters to ensure the hotel owner and LMM are in full compliance.” As these regular updates demonstrate, Kurtz’s crusade was brazenly public. Investigating “all legal, jurisdictional and zoning matters” was another way of referring to the pressure Kurtz and his minions were actively applying on Ramada management. Through late April and early May, city personnel in marked cars frequently appeared at the Ramada to take pictures, Elizabeth White told Scene. Members of (she believes) the city’s building department and fire department would show up to scour the property, hunting for minor code violations. “They’d tell us to fix something. We’d fix it. And then they’d try to find something else,” White said. The police installed a surveillance camera aimed directly at the hotel’s entrance as well, White said, a tactic she interpreted as pure intimidation. None of this was kept secret. In Kurtz’s May 7 newsletter, he wrote | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

15

FEATURE that “the installation of multiple surveillance cameras in the Rockside Road area is progressing well. These high-tech devices will serve as a powerful tool for our police officers.” Alongside the explanation of his tactics, though, Kurtz needed to justify the excessive attention. “The fact that the Ramada situation is temporary does not diminish the immediate and significant burden it puts on our public safety forces and the city budget,” he declared. The reason for this burden? Crime. On May 11, Kurtz followed through on a threat he’d made the day after the men arrived. The city formally expanded its nuisance ordinances (which penalize property owners for repeat police calls), to include commercial properties in addition to residential ones. There was no illusion about this being anything other than a direct response to the presence of unhoused men at the Ramada. As local media began covering the story, the narrative pumped by Independence officials – Police Chief Michael Kilbane was the go-to regurgitator of the city line – was that the Ramada guests posed an extraordinary criminal threat. Stories in Clevleand.com and WKYC portrayed the controversy in Independence as a dispute between two equally valid sides: in one corner, a hotel that cared about the homeless; in the other, a suburban community that cared about safety. Elizabeth White, the manager, questioned the premise of that coverage in conversations with Scene. She strenuously denied the assertion that the LMM contract was resulting in increased criminal activity. In the WKYC story, Chief Kilbane said that his officers had been called to the Ramada “more than any time in the past.” “That’s just a lie,” White said. In fact, there had been far more calls to the police directly before the contract. White said she’d personally called the police on almost a weekly basis because of what she described as local guests throwing hotel parties. She said this was a trend many hotels in the area had experienced after the arrival of federal stimulus checks. The Mayor’s description of “disorderly conduct, loud and destructive parties, and other hotel gatherings where people violate the law,” in his 4/16 newsletter would have been a more

16

Photo by Sam Allard

It has been one of the vilest and dumbest, not to say most inhumane, local crusades in recent memory. Kurtz has used the leverage of his elected office, the brawn of his police department and the specter of legal action to pressure the county, and by extension LMM, to seek refuge for these unhoused men elsewhere. accurate description of the situation prior to the LMM contract, not during it. But the Mayor and police chief seemed intent on characterizing the unhoused guests as criminals. “There has been an influx of calls since the Ramada began housing the homeless,” the WKYC story reported. “From public intoxication to shoplifting. Even a DOA!” “That Dead on Arrival thing really upset me,” White said. “They made it seem like it was an overdose or something suspicious. This was literally an old man who died of natural causes. There was nothing suspicious. It could’ve happened anywhere.” BEYOND THE INTIMIDATION tactics, the stringent enforcement of building and fire codes, and the portrayal of the guests as criminals, the primary weapon Kurtz wielded to rid his community of vulnerable men during a global pandemic was a state administrative ordinance. According to Kurtz’s interpretation, this law prevented the Ramada from housing individuals for extended periods. “Under Ohio law, the [hotel] owner is allowed to rent a room to an individual for up to 30 days,” Kurtz wrote in his April 30 newsletter. “After that, the hotel room would be considered a ‘dwelling’ which would put the owner in violation of state and City zoning laws.” (This is the ordinance that

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Armond Budish credulously accepted as justification when Kurtz appealed to him.) But according to the State Fire Marshal, the state licensing authority, the Ramada is fully in compliance with its license. No additional action, no special permit, no new variance, is required. Like most of the hotels in the area, the Ramada has a transient stay license, which allows the hotel to book individuals in rooms for up to 30 days. Kurtz is correct on that point. But as the State Fire Marshal’s Chief of Code Enforcement, Alan Smith, explained to Ramada Management early in the dispute, there’s nothing preventing the hotel from checking out an occupant and immediately checking them into another room to maintain compliance. That sort of thing happens all the time and is perfectly acceptable, as far as the fire marshal is concerned. On May 10, LMM invited an Independence police representative to the hotel to observe operations. The gesture was in the spirit of transparency and partnership, to assure the city that the hotel was complying with state law and building codes. Despite the personal invitation, an army of Independence officials arrived, a show of force that created a tense and intimidating atmosphere to hotel and LMM staff. Shaken by the encounter, Ramada ownership and management sought to confirm in writing what the State

Fire Marshal had communicated orally weeks prior. The Code Enforcement official, Alan Smith, wrote to the Ramada’s legal counsel on May 10. “Please note that the city [of Independence] is acting independently of our office and did not communicate any of today’s events with us,” the message read. “As I explained in reference to the Transient stay license, you cannot have any guests stay longer than 30 days in any single room. Upon checking out occupant, there is no law that states you cannot re-rent a different room to same occupant.” Joe Savarise, the CEO of the Ohio Hospitality and Lodging Association, told Scene that even if the Ramada were in violation of the state law in question – which it is not – Kurtz’s opposition loses sight of the bigger picture. “You have to remember, this is a global pandemic,” Savarise said. “What this hotel operator did is exactly what Gov. DeWine and homeless experts at the state and national level were calling for. This was to keep everyone safe. I think the response of hotels that answered the call has been commendable.” Savarise said there should have been an understanding that, during the state of emergency, there would be a temporary use of hotels for different purposes. “That’s not to say the Ramada violated state law,” he said. “In fact, I still haven’t seen any specific allegation of illegality in Independence. But during the pandemic, hotels have temporarily housed medical professionals, military service members, the homeless population, all as part of the community Covid response. Did you hear anybody complaining when nurses were housed in hotels for more than 30 days?” The Ramada in Independence was one of 650 hotels statewide, Savarise said, that volunteered their facilities for pandemic-related uses. And he said that his organization had encouraged hotels to do so. The contracts many of them received were a lifeline. Though not highly profitable (the LMM contract was roughly $250,000/month), these dollars helped sustain businesses ravaged by Covid. Savarise said that Mayor Kurtz’s response, quite apart from the moral question, was illogical on financial grounds. In 2018, hotel lodging taxes generated $1.45 million dollars for the City of Independence. He said that one of the reasons the Ramada made itself available for pandemic contracts was to “fight to

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

17

FEATURE keep its doors open” and to return to sustainable level of operation. “You don’t get lodging taxes when properties close,” Savarise said. “Far be it for me to make this comment, but talk about shooting yourself in the foot.” FOR THE DURATION OF HIS crusade, Mayor Kurtz has managed to stay out of the limelight. Other than his weekly newsletters, he has not made media appearances and has confined his advocacy to backrooms dealings. While he declined a one-on-one interview with Scene, he did respond to a series of emailed questions, advising us in bold at the top of his message that homelessness was “a complicated and serious public health issue” and that our story required “objectivity and thoroughness.” In identical comments provided to Leila Atassi, Kurtz said that “unsheltered residents need more than a hotel room. They need medical, mental and substance abuse counseling, job training, and other social services. I urge you to visit the hotel to determine for yourself if these men are receiving the care and support the deserve,” he wrote. Kurtz confirmed the April 15 meeting with Sharif Omara, the hotel’s owner, and reiterated his bogus interpretation of state law. “I informed him that the City recognized the Ramada as a Transient hotel, not an extended stay hotel. The City of Independence’s zoning codes prohibit any extended stay hotels. I told Mr. Omara he would need to apply to the City’s Planning Commission to receive a variance. To date, Mr. Omara has not applied for a variance.” Kurtz also confirmed that he met with County Executive Armond Budish and said he did so to inform the executive “that Mr. Omara (not LMM) was in violation of the City’s zoning code.” “The County made the decision to ask LMM to transition the current Ramada residents to another location,” he wrote. In response to a question about why he perceived the unhoused residents as a threat, and why he was compelled to take immediate action to seek their ouster, Kurtz said that he never referred to the unhoused men that way and implored us to stick to the facts. Sharif Omara’s attorney, Deborah Michelson, provided the following

18

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

statement in response to our questions: “It is deeply troubling to us – as we expect it is to decent people everywhere – to read about the apparent lengths to which elected government officials and public servants may have gone to interfere with the property and contract rights of a private citizen, harm his business and reputation, and rid ‘their’ community of vulnerable human beings who need the shelter, kindness, and compassion that my client stepped up to the plate to provide. It appears that these officials, entrusted with public funds supposedly dedicated to the public good, instead may have opened a private back channel and worked out a backroom deal to chase my client’s customers from the place that welcomed them and treated them with respect, humanity, and dignity. The Mayor’s weekly newsletters, which we believe falsely attack and defame the hotel owner and his business (and the Lutheran homeless population, as well), are publicly available, posted on the City’s official website. We find it truly shocking that the City and its lawyers would allow such material to exist on its own website. The harassment these past several months is bringing my client to his knees, forcing him either to capitulate or go out of business. We are disappointed that the Mayor and his team reportedly were able to get County officials to go along with them.” For Elizabeth White, the most baffling element of Kurtz’ crusade was its gratuitousness. She said that she’s convinced most residents would not have known or cared about the LMM contract if not for the mayor’s newsletters and his public hissy fit. The Ramada is set apart from the residential sections of Independence, tucked away in an office park with limited visibility from Rockside. “They’re not bothering anybody,” White said. “There’s honestly nowhere for them to go. The only time [residents] might have seen them was if they were walking to the gas station for cigarettes or something.” So why the horror? Scene wanted to know. Why such vocal opposition from Mr. Kurtz? “Okay – look. Independence is a predominantly white community, and we’re talking about predominantly Black homeless men. I honestly…” White paused. “I mean I honestly think it’s as simple as that.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

ARTS

cantriennial.org

“YOU ARE HERE”

CAN Triennial Announces 2022 Theme and Opens Artist Applications By Shawn Mishak AFTER A LONG AND ABRUPT hiatus due to COVID-19, Cleveland’s Collective Arts Network (CAN) and organizers of CAN Triennial have opened up artist applications to participate in its 2022 exhibition. The theme and title for the 2022 citywide art event is, “YOU ARE HERE.” Applications will be open until Sept. 30. CAN is the guiding ‘North Star’ for this Arts ‘happening’ in Northeast Ohio. The nonprofit organization serves the visual arts industry in and around Cleveland, providing a public forum for promotion, reporting, and reviews. CAN publishes the quarterly print magazine, CAN Journal, the website CANjournal.org, its blog, the e-newsletter CAN Weekly, and CAN Triennial itself. This multi-venue exhibition will feature artists’ work in galleries within various Arts districts across the city. Creative Arts Network’s CAN Triennial was conjured up in 2016 after community interest for a regionally-centered answer to FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. The first CAN Triennial in 2018

ran from July 7 – 29, was hosted by 78th Street Studios, presented works of 90 artists, including 16 commissioned, site-specific installations and drew 7,550 visitors. The CAN Triennial 2022 will take place in July and August of 2022 with specifics to be announced. This event did not take place last year due to COVID-19. “The 2022 Triennial will take place not in one gallery or building, but in multiple venues clustered in neighborhoods around the city,” said Michael Gill, CAN’s Executive Director (and former Scene Senior Editor). “This will help organize what is necessarily a very large exhibit by creating the opportunity for individual chapters, like parts of a whole book. This relates beautifully to the theme, You Are Here. While Northeast Ohio, and even Cleveland specifically, is a place, each of the neighborhoods also have their own identity and personality. Members of the curatorial team will each work with individual neighborhoods, which gives each of them a greater opportunity to execute a vision of the theme. We’ll be announcing those neighborhoods and venues in the

coming weeks.” 2022’s YOU ARE HERE’s focus is broad and includes notions of: place, location, culture, politics, presence and loss. The press release states that, “These exhibitions will give us an experiential journey through the literal geography of our city, and the ever-complicated situational understandings of place, context, identity, and action.” “We resumed the curators’ dialog by Zoom early this year,” explains Gill. “We had announced our curators in the Fall of 2019, and they had begun to meet early in 2020, just before the pandemic shut things down. Their early conversations had made significant progress toward identifying a title and theme for what was expected to be the 2021 triennial. Then along came the pandemic. When it became clear that the shutdown would last longer than a few weeks, I had a conversation with Fred Bidwell, who told me that FRONT Triennial had decided to postpone. Because we see synergy for Cleveland-based artists with the international FRONT Triennial, we decided to postpone, too. “So at that point our curatorial

conversation paused…We resumed the curators’ dialog by Zoom early this year. It was great to see all the curators’ enthusiasm for the project after nearly a year’s break, and they picked up right where they left off. Our resulting theme, You Are Here, emphasizes place, which is appropriate for a regional show, and especially this one, which takes place in several Cleveland neighborhoods. It also emphasizes the present tense.” The Triennial’s diverse assemblage of curators and board members will include: Darius Steward, Sabine Kretzschmar, Thea Spittle, Kristin Rogers, and Hector Castellanos Lara, who collectively offer diversity and a wide range of artistic as well as curatorial experience along with track records for acute acumen with regard to the visual arts. “We’re truly thrilled with our curatorial team, and especially the involvement of Currently Under Curation, which is the Cleveland Museum of Art’s curatorial mastery program for Cleveland High School Students, led by artist/educator Darius Steward and curator/ educator Sabine Kretzschmar,” Gill said. “The students have a history of curating not only from the museum’s collection, but with contemporary artists, including the recent exhibition of works by LA-based, international artist Laura Owens, presented by the Museum at Transformer Station. CAN Triennial will give them an opportunity to apply their vision and concerns to make a significant statement in partnership with contemporary Cleveland artists, and to do so on a grand scale.” Artists selected to be a part of the exhibition will be notified by the end of 2021. The forms of media include, but are not limited to: painting, printmaking, photography, collage, fiber, ceramic, performance art, sculpture, mixed media, etc. Applications are open to any artists living in Cuyahoga and surrounding counties: Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga, and Lake Counties. All artists will be paid an honorarium. Artists will individually determine whether works are offered for sale, and will set their prices, bearing in mind that the gallery will take a commission of 40% from any sales. The participating locations are to be released at later date of this exhibition.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

19

Photos by Doug Trattner

EAT

ONI FANS

Ushabu’s second act is true izakaya – all about the vibes By Doug Trattner MY WIFE AND I POPPED INTO Bar Oni more out of curiosity than hunger. It had been a couple years since we were inside the snug Tremont space. Since 2016, when its predecessor Ushabu opened, we’ve enjoyed interactive shabu-shabu meals and elaborate 13-course kaiseki feasts that eclipsed Michelin meals enjoyed elsewhere. But we had not crossed the threshold since chef Matthew Spinner reinvented the property as Bar Oni, which he did during and because of the pandemic. Bar Oni draws you in. Through an open front door you can hear upbeat music, see staffers readying the bar and spy chef Spinner organizing his station in the partially open kitchen. The next thing you know, you’re knocking back kegged hi-balls, biting juicy morsels of grilled chicken off a stick and catching up with old friends. In the blink of an eye, two hours have passed, the skewer sticks have piled up and you’re already planning a return visit. Second acts often don’t work for restaurants. But Spinner wisely traded in his fussy destination place for a lively, convivial and approachable neighborhood izakaya – one that beckons night after night as

20

opposed to just on special occasions. To make way for the transformation, management ripped out all the builtin burners, swapped in new tables, replaced and extended the bartop, hung some TVs and cranked the hifi. The new configuration allows for nearly double the guests but does so solely on a walk-in basis. For a clue about Bar Oni’s intentions, take a gander at the

grazing. We started with a few fried appetizers to pair with our cocktails. The vegetable tempura ($9) arrives in the form of crispy half-moon fritters comprised of chopped mixed veggies. The wedges pop after a dip in ponzu sauce. Octopus fans should not skip the takoyaki ($9), savory street food-style octopus balls garnished with mayo, pickled ginger and bonito flakes.

BAR ONI 2173 PROFESSOR AVE., CLEVELAND 216-713-1741 BAR-ONI.COM

cocktail list. Where else can a guest secure a pitcher of gin-and-juice cocktails ($25) that clock in at tipsy 9-percent ABV? Other draft hi-balls include house hard seltzers ($7) that go down like sweet tea on a sultry summer day. Fancy a cold beer? There’s Sapporo and Straub on tap, served in a frosty mug. Spinner still offers exceptional sakes, but does so through a rotating but abbreviated list. In contrast to the rigid framework of Ushabu’s multi-course kaiseki, Bar Oni is all about freestyle

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Another round of beverages – this time a Daiginjo sake from the Ishikawa Prefecture ($15) and a Junmai from Tochigi ($13) – demanded another volley of snacks. We polished off a plate of succulent shrimp shumei ($9) served atop a pool of sweet and spicy mayo and another of deep-fried vegetable gyoza ($9) with sesame-wasabi dipping sauce. Like all the appetizers, these are not tiny, precious servings, but rather eight- or nine-piece orders. It’s hard to describe how simple but compelling the grilled avocado ($4)

is. Halved, pitted, grilled to nearly black and filled with citrusy ponzu sauce, the creamy, pudding-soft flesh is a revelation. For the main event, we decided to split the omakase ($50), a chef-picked selection of 10 grilled items. The mix of vegetable and meat kebabs arrive in rapid-fire fashion, still smoldering from the charcoal fire. There is a trio of colorful baby sweet peppers, blistered and slicked with fish sauce. A half dozen okra are threaded onto a pair of skewers like a wooden raft, grilled and gilded with chili crisp. An ear of summer-sweet corn on the cob is glossy with melted butter. A twist of braised, glazed and grilled pork belly is ringed with fat and drippy with a sticky-sweet sauce. Grilled unagi (eel) is rich, buttery and lush. But yakitori is all about the bird. Spinner dispatches skewers laced with juicy pieces of breast, thigh, leg and tender meat, each basted with its own sauce. The stripped, bare skewers get plopped into a nearby glass where they begin to multiply. For less than the price of one shabu-shabu meal at Ushabu, two of us ate and drank to our heart’s content, vowing to return sooner rather than later. It’s impossible not to get swept up into communal spirit of the place, where the chef’s booming voice careens off the walls, the bartender is always an arm’s length away and another skewer or three can be summoned with ease. True izakayas are all about the vibe and Bar Oni nails it on every level. If there is a more appropriate place to celebrate the post-pandemic future, I have yet to stumble out of it.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

21

22

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

Photo by Doug Trattner

EAT BITES

Acqua di Luca Opens in Warehouse District By Douglas Trattner LOLA AND LUCA SEMA GOT the keys to 500 W. St Clair Ave., the former home of XO Steaks, about eight months ago. After stripping the space down to its exposed-brick shell and rebuilding it, the husbandand-wife team is ready to invite their first dinner guests to Acqua di Luca. (The expected opening date was Monday, June 14. The Italian-style seafood restaurant has a completely different look and feel than its predecessor thanks to exposed brick walls, new hardwood flooring, an open kitchen and new configuration that relocated the bar to the opposite side of the main room. New lighting, new furniture and new windows, some of which fold out of view, combine to create an open, elegant restaurant. When Acqua di Luca opens in mid-June, it will be a seafood-focused Italian eatery specializing in whole fish like bronzini. A daily selection of fresh oysters, specialty pizzas and desserts will round out the offerings. The menu will be completely different from Luca Italian Cuisine, which the couple opened in 2013. The Semas also operate Luca West, which they opened in 2017 in Westlake.

Doug Katz Closing Chutney B at Van Aken District, Le Stand to Replace Doug Katz has announced that he will close Chutney B, the fastcasual Indian/Thai rice bowl concept inside the Market Hall at Van Aken District. He says that his two-year lease was coming up for renewal and that it made sense not to renew in order to focus on his upcoming projects. In April, he revealed his plans to open Amba, a full-service version of his Indian-fusion ghost kitchen, in Ohio City. That should come to fruition in late fall or early winter. Chutney B’s last day of service will be June 19. The space will not sit idle for long. Chef Anthony Zappola, who also runs the popular Lox, Stock and

Brisket in the Market Hall, will take over the stall. He gets the keys on July 1 and is aiming for a mid-July opening. His new concept is called Le Stand, a French-inspired salad, wrap and parfait business. Zappola says his intent was to fill a gap in the current food offerings. “As someone who works seven days a week in the Market Hall, I know that I would love a salad a few days a week,” he says. “How many brisket and fried chickens sandwiches can I eat in a week?” Diners can look forward to predesigned and build-your-own salads, whole wheat wraps and yogurt and pudding parfaits. Items that may make the final menu include parfaits topped with poached strawberries and coconut, a salad niçoise with tuna, tomatoes, eggs and olives, and a wrap with grilled chicken, olive tapenade, oven-roasted tomatoes and baby lettuces. Other wraps might star roast beef or Moroccan-spiced eggplant. Back in May, Zappola announced that he was reviving his Rice Shop concept at Van Aken District outside the Market Hall. That is expected to open in early August.

Vero Pizza in Cleveland Heights to Reopen for Dine-In Service with New Wood-Burning Oven Marc-Aurele Buholzer has been baking pizzas in the same oven for nearly a dozen years, nine as the owner of Vero Pizza (12421 Cedar Rd., 216-229-8383) and two and half as the chef of its predecessor La Gelateria. Soon, he will be receiving

and installing his “dream oven,” an Acunto from Naples. He says that his current wood-burning oven, while clearly more than serviceable, was not created as a true pizza oven. It was only through very intense wood management systems that he was able to get such consistent results from it. “I push the hell out of her anyway,” he says of his soon-to-beformer oven. “It’s like taking a Fiat around a course that was meant for Ferraris. Now, we have the Ferrari on the way. I’ll definitely have to be light on the peddle at first.” The new oven clocks in at a whopping 6,000 pounds, more than double the weight of the current one. It will cook pizzas in 60 to 90 seconds as opposed to three to three and a half minutes because of its superior heat retention. But to get the oven into the kitchen located in the rear of the slender space will require some considerable labor. Permits in hand, Buholzer will soon begin the work of shoring up the kitchen floor. When the oven arrives from Italy, it will need to come through the front windows. A staircase that leads to the mezzanine will also need to come down and then be rebuilt. The timeline is expected to take four to five weeks and require a two- or three-week closure of the restaurant. Until the closure, Vero will be a weekend-only take-out operation. When the dust settles, Vero will open for dine-in service for the first time in more than 15 months. In addition to a full-capacity dining room, there will be an expanded outdoor seating area out front.

Diners should not expect wholesale changes to the menu, says Buholzer. “We’re going to keep things simple and distilled,” he explains. “We’re going to make sure that every single item on the menu is exactly how I wanted and intended it to be.” That means no new “meatlovers” pizzas, but rather lightly topped seasonal pies that allow the flavor and texture of the dough to shine. In fact, Buholzer will likely triple the number of Margherita pizzas that feature different tomato varieties. The pizzas will be bolstered by antipasto dishes like olives, anchovies, vegetables, roasted peppers and charcuterie. Despite making pizzas in the same small Cleveland Heights kitchen for 12 years, Buholzer remains enthusiastically passionate. His dough continues to evolve and improve with each passing year. His “super-hydrated,” naturally fermented dough, he says, has never been better. “It’s not easy, but I’m still excited every day when I make it,” he says. “That’s why you see that nice open crumb. It still has a chew, but not the extra chew you see in lower hydrated doughs typical of Neapolitan-style.” Buholzer says that he will continue selling take-out pizzas after reopening for dine-in business. Until the pandemic, take-out pizza was strictly taboo at Vero.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

23

24

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

MUSIC RIGHT TIME FOR A ‘RESURRECTION’

Singer-guitarist Mike Zito recorded not one but two terrific albums during quarantine LIKE MANY MUSICIANS, Texas-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer Mike Zito, a founding member of Royal Southern Brotherhood, a terrific blues-rock supergroup which also included Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Yonrico Scott and Charlie Wooton, makes his living on the road. Last year, when the pandemic hit, Zito had just started a European tour that would’ve paid the bills in a major way. As venues began to shutter, Zito and his band mates had to scramble to get back home. “[Covid] was being just talked about as we went over,” says Zito via phone from his Texas home. He performs at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 18, at the Beachland Ballroom. “We didn’t think anything of it. We didn’t know what it was going to be. We played a few shows in Norway and got about three shows into Germany. We had booked 33 shows total. It’s a real long tour and a real good tour. Every time we did a show, it was getting worse and worse. People were starting to not come out, and all of a sudden, they cancelled like twentysomething shows the next morning. That’s when we realized we needed to get the hell out of there. It was crazy.” From then on, Zito says he went through what every other musician goes through. “There was no work and no anything,” he says. “We tried to do livestreams, and I luckily have a recording studio behind my house. There were other things to do, but none of it equals playing live.” While he was still in Germany getting ready to come home, Zito decided he needed to find a way to be productive during the upcoming downtime. So right then and there, he began writing tracks for an album he dubbed Quarantine Blues. “We were all going home to four different cities, and we were going to have to quarantine,” says Zito. “I said, ‘You know what? Why don’t we see if we can write, record and put out a record in two weeks.’ I didn’t know how we could do it. I knew that people do it, even though we had never not recorded in the same room. That started to give us something to do. I put [the album] up [online] and told the fans we’re giving them in a

photo by Scott Lukes

By Jeff Niesel

free record.” The fans, however, had the option to make donations, and they did, enabling Zito to pay the band about what it would’ve made on the European tour. “It just turned into this project,” says Zito. “I was writing songs on the plane on the way home. I was inspired by that challenge of whether we could do it. It turned out to be good.” As the year went on, Zito tried to tour and play, but it became more and more apparent that things weren’t returning to normal anytime soon. “By September [of last year], I knew it wasn’t’ going to be over quick,” says Zito. “I was done with the record label I was on. I was going to be on my own record label. I thought by summer of 2021, we might be getting out of our shell, and I’ll started writing some songs.” Zito normally writes a bunch of songs, and the group records them in a matter of days in the studio. Not this time. “We started working and taking our time and recording at different tempos or styles, something I’ve never ever had time to do before,” he says when asked about how Resurrection, his latest effort, came together. “By end of September and beginning of October, I started working on the songs, and we worked on the album through March of this year. As

much as a bummer as it’s been and it’s horrible for people who lost loved ones, creatively for me [the pandemic] was a good break. It gave me a second to reset and spend time with my family and what I want to sound like and how many shows I wanted to play.” Since the album would come out on his own label, Zito felt that he could take the liberty to put something on the cover other than a photo of him and his guitar. He found a South Korean artist on Instagram that he liked and enlisted her to draw the psychedelic image for the album cover. “She uses chalk and pencil, and it’s all done by hand,” he says. “[I saw her work], and I sent her a message and asked if she ever made an album cover before. She didn’t speak English, so she found someone who did. We started to communicate. She didn’t know who I was. I wanted an art cover and asked her to put a guitar in it and make it darker on the bottom and lighter on the top. That’s all I told her. She sent it, and it’s unbelievable. It’s fantastic. That’s what the album sounds like. It’s a mixture of all these different things.” Resurrection serves as a theme for the album, which kicks off with a sneering rendition of the J.J. Cale tune “I’ll Make Love to You,” setting the tone for the disc, which comes off more like a rock record than a blues album.

“I’m always looking for a story or idea,” says Zito when asked about the album’s theme. “We put a record out, and it’s like this guy sings and plays guitar really well. There’s a lot of people who do that. There needs to be something different. I may not know right away what it’s going to be. I started to get this idea because I had written that song. It’s about marriage and my wife and being early in my marriage. We had our second child by accident. I was still young and had been married three times. I always leave. I stay a couple of years and then say, ‘What was I thinking?’ I realized it’s me, and I have a fear of intimacy. Of course, we worked it out, and [my marriage] is fantastic and wonderful. It’s a great idea for a song. I think people can relate.” In addition, turning 50 also served as what Zito says was a “huge wakeup call” and inspired his approach on the album. “I never made a record I think is terrible,” Zito says. “I like them all, but I really like this record. I feel like it really has a lot of heart and soul in it.”

Mike Zito Band, 8 p.m., Friday, June 18, Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124. Tickets: $70-$140, beachlandballroom.com.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

25

SAVAGE LOVE THE EURO ZONE By Dan Savage Hey, Dan: We’re a happily married couple from Europe, longtime readers, both in our thirties, and both interested in having sex sometimes with other people. Before the pandemic we were invited to a private sex party in a major European capital. It was an age- and face-controlled swingers night with background checks on every participant. It was our first experience and it was eye-opening, wonderful, and very sexy, even though we were too shy to fool around with anyone else. But we promised ourselves we would return and explore further. Then COVID-19 happened and we couldn’t travel. We decided to hook up with other people locally. We had amazing threesomes and foursomes, and it all went ridiculously well, up until the part when we got herpes from another couple. This other couple didn’t know they had it or didn’t bother to disclose. Herpes isn’t as common here as in the US, as far as my research went, and it was a huge bummer, but after educating and medicating ourselves, we decided to continue having hookups with others. We tell everyone in advance because we believe it’s the right thing to do. Some cut us off, some don’t care, some admit they also have it, which always leaves us wondering if they would have admitted it without us “coming clean” first. We are still part of the online community that organized that wonderful party and, with things opening up here, they are beginning to plan the next event. We would love to go back. My question is: Can we? Should we? Should we tell everybody about the herpes? Or is that a risk you take at an orgy involving fifty or more people? We’ve read a lot about transmission and know that sometimes skin-to-skin contact is enough. We also know that it’s possible to have herpes and not be aware of it, which means other participants may already have it and not know. So what’s the right thing to do? Should we just pass up this orgy for the rest of our lives? Take the viral suppressants that weekend and fuck as many people as we can without worrying about it? Sincerely Wondering About PostPandemic Explicit Disclosures P.S. I found a piece of advice online about this issue from Betty Dodson, written in 2009, but I’d love to hear

26

your thoughts. Hm. I would think an invite-only swingers party with “age- and face-controlled” background checks (meaning: no olds*, no uglies**) would also put a few questions to prospective attendees about sexual health. If the organizers of this party don’t require you to disclose that you have herpes or other sexually-transmitted infections — because they enforce safer-sex protocols that minimize the risk of transmission and/or they quite rightly assume that anyone down to sex with fifty strangers in a single evening either already has herpes or at least willing to chance it — then I don’t think you have to disclose. Don’t confuse “don’t think you have to” with “don’t think you shouldn’t.” I think you should disclose — I think you should keep disclosing — and if disclosing gets you scratched off the guest list, SWAPPED, you will have other opportunities to fuck other people in other major European capitals. I mean, you’ve been disclosing to couples locally and haven’t exactly wanted for opportunities… even during a pandemic. (People who weren’t worried about catching COVID-19 during the pandemic — which isn’t over yet — probably weren’t too worried about catching herpes.) Yes, some couples ghosted after you disclosed but it sounds like just as many or more weren’t scared off. And the couples who ghosted? Some already have herpes and don’t know it — and HPV as well, SWAPPED, as both of these very common STIs are easily transmitted through skin-to-skin contact. Anyone who wants to avoid contracting them shouldn’t have multiple sex partners — or arguably any sex partners at all, considering how common these infections are. And anyone who attends orgies — anyone who’s sexually active at all — should get regular STI screenings, get treated for treatable STIs, and refrain from having sex (or attending sex parties) when they’re symptomatic or still infectious. (And everyone can and should get the HPV vaccine and people with herpes can take meds that make outbreaks less frequent and less intense and make them less likely to pass herpes on to others.) And while it’s my official position

| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

that you should disclose — because, like you, I think disclosing is the right thing to do — my unofficial position is that anyone who has sex with fifty strangers in a European capital, be it major or minor, has volunteered for herpes. P.S. The late, great Betty Dodson was never one for mincing words. Not only did Dodson tell a couple with herpes that they didn’t need to disclose unless asked in the column SWAPPED found, Dodson also shared that she didn’t tell her own partner she had herpes until she had an outbreak ten years into the relationship. (“Orgy Guilt Because We Didn’t Share We Have Herpes,” Dodsonandross.com, July 7, 2009). “I abhor how our society has turned Herpes into an STD,” Dodson wrote. “My first genital herpes outbreak was in the seventies. If you didn’t have Herpes back then, it meant you weren’t having sex. It was more like a badge of sexual abundance.”

Hey, Dan: I’m a 24-year-old heterosexual French man. (Sorry for my English.) I really love my girlfriend. Our relationship is deep, we listen and understand to other, and we take care of the other. The xex is great, truly great. We try many different things and we try to fulfil our common desires and the desires of the other. Long story short: everything with her and our relationship is perfect. The only thing is that she wants our relationship to be monogamous and I would like to have sex with 75% of the girl I bump into. Normally this is not a big deal because, since I’m not particularly attractive, so there are not many girls that want to have sex with me. But during the four years we have been together I had some opportunities to which I had to say no. Once I kissed another girl and the day after I confessed this to my girlfriend. Now every time I find myself attracted to someone else I immediately tell my girlfriend. She doesn’t blame me for finding other women attractive or even when I confess to flirting with another woman but I know she doesn’t feel good about it. If I have to choose I will always choose her but I love to flirt. I would also love to see how is sex with someone else, as I have never had sex with anyone else. But at the same time I don’t want to hurt her and I feel

childish for not being able to control my instincts. How do people get out of these sorts of situations? Diligently Escaping Sexual Intercourses, Relentlessly Excited First… your English is way better than my (non-existent) French. No need to be feel bad about that. Second… if you wanna be feel bad about something, DESIRE, feel bad about being a jerk to your girlfriend. In other words: OH MY GOD, DUDE, SHUT THE FUCK UP. Stop running to your girlfriend to “confess” every time you have an impure thought about another woman. Constantly and needlessly reminding your girlfriend you would like to fuck other women is just cruel. She knows that, DESIRE, so you don’t need to tell her. You’re not being honest, you’re not being transparent, you’re being an asshole. This is a relationship, DESIRE, not a meeting of Reluctant Monogamists Anonymous. (“Hi, my name is ASSHOLE BOYFRIEND and I’ve been monogamous for four years and each day is a struggle.”) If you don’t wanna be in a monogamous relationship with this woman, DESIRE, if monogamy isn’t the price of admission you’re willing to pay, end this relationship. But if it is a price you’re willing to pay, DESIRE, then pay it and SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT IT. If you can’t keep these thoughts to yourself and/or find someone else to confide in about them (a friend? a bartender? a pompier?) — your girlfriend is going to realize she’s paying way too steep a price and dump your ass. * Age is just a number, of course, but people, alone or in groups, are allowed to seek sex partners in their own and/or their preferred age range — and I say that as someone who would most likely be excluded from this particular sex party based on my age. **A person doesn’t have to be conventionally attractive to attract sex partners — and a person can be conventionally attractive in every sense and repel more people than they attract.

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

HOME BUYERS!!!

FREE MONEY!!! DOWN PAYMENT PROGRAM*

BUY YOUR DREAM HOME!!! Plus Get Up To $100k + More* (for new kitchen, new roof, new carpet, appliances, paint, basement waterproofing, windows, heating & cooling)*

NEVER EVER EVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BUY A HOME!!! Great Low Fixed Interest Rates* When YOUR dreams come true... OUR dreams come true!!!

440.342.7355 (SELL) To Buy...or Sell

Call Grizzell *Some restrictions will apply *for those who qualify... we consider... Se Habla Espanol

clevescene.com

GOOD CREDIT • BAD CREDIT • BANKRUPTCY

Phone Lines

EXPLICIT CHAT WITH SEXY LOCALS Get your FREE TRIAL! 18+ CALL The Night Exchange NOW! 216.502.4388 440.499.6400 www.nightexchange.com

HOT LOCAL URBAN SINGLES!

Are looking to hook up now! Try it FREE! 18+ 216.367.1010 / 440.424.0303 www.metrovibechatline.com

CALL NOW, MEET TONIGHT!

FREE to try! 18+ 216.626.7777 / 440.325.7777 Other Cities: 1.888.257.5757 www.questchat.com

100’s OF SEXY LATINO SINGLES

Meet Hot Latin Locals! Get your FREE trial! 18+ 216.626.7777 | 440.325.7777 www.questchat.com

Massage - Certified

CARING MASSAGE

Days & Evenings, weekends. Warm candlelight atmosphere. Lakewood/West Suburbs Linda 216-221-5935 | clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021

27