Hundreds March for a Safer Heights
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FREE Volume 13 Number 7 TAKE ONE July 1, 2020 HEIGHTS OBSERVER READ LOCAL. SHOP LOCAL. Published by Written by volunteers for Cleveland Heights and University Heights • Read more at www.heightsobserver.org Free parking Hundreds march for a safer Heights at all Cleve- Sarah Wolf land Heights meters On Sunday, June 14, another peaceful and powerful rally brought hundreds of Heights residents together in unity with the Black Lives Matter movement. INSIDE Organized by Safer Heights, a grass- 7 roots activist group, the event began CH council with speakers at Coventry P.E.A.C.E. member to Park who then led leagues of chanting host third and sign-carrying participants through town hall Coventry Village, down Mayfield Road forum July 11 to Superior Road. The march paused outside of Christ Our Redeemer AME Church, where participants took a knee for a moment of silence. Then 8 several speakers shared stories about City and de- their experiences as black members of veloper break the Cleveland Heights community, and called for systemic changes in policing. WOLF SARAH ground on Top Participants marched through the Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Arch at Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Park. of the Hill The march then continued down Superior Road, looping back to Coven- Everyone was invited to stay for a e-mail them to [email protected]. try P.E.A.C.E. Park, where organizers picnic, with food provided by partici- addressed the large and enthusiastic pants and local eateries. Sarah Wolf is a marketing VISTA at Future- crowd, thanking community partners Via Facebook, Safer Heights has Heights, a resident of Cleveland Heights, and 14 and volunteers who helped make the day asked that anyone who would be willing a graduate-level community practice student Heights Arts a success. to share pictures or videos of the rally at MSASS/Case Western Reserve University. exhibition shows evolution Game encourages of local artists Lee Road gym hosts ‘I Can’t Breathe’ tribute-fundraiser shopping in CH Nicole Tugeau Jessica Schantz On Saturday, June 13, CrossFit I/O As Heights businesses reopen to in- on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights person customers, the city of Cleve- hosted a fundraiser and tribute land Heights has devised a game to workout dedicated to George Floyd encourage local shopping—Shop and his family. More than 75 all-ages Local Bingo. athletes participated in the socially Featured businesses are selected distanced event, held in the gym’s randomly, said Mary Trupo, director of communications and public engage- parking lot. CHAFFER S ment for Cleveland Heights, “with em- The more than $1,700 raised will GABE GABE be matched by a corporate sponsor Jewell Johnson runs in the “I Can’t Breathe” phasis put on diversity of locations.” and distributed equally to these workout. The first round featured restaurants, nonprofits dedicated to racial equity: us still face today.” bars and grocers, with other types of Audre Lorde Project Inc., Black The workout went viral when an businesses to be included in future Lives Matter Foundation Fund, Race online platform, WODwell, added rounds, as more reopen. Forward, and the National Urban it to its list of memorial workouts. Each game card, available for League. Michael and Jodi Melistrup, download at www.clevelandheights. Angelo Rogers, a first-responder owners of Crossfit I/O, acted com/1299/Shop-Local-Bingo, features in Norfolk, Va., created the “I Can’t quickly to turn Rogers’ idea into a 24 Cleveland Heights businesses. Breathe” workout “as a positive way Heights community event. The aim is to fill in any line on the to channel the pain and emotions so CrossFit I/O members, along card—horizontal, vertical, or diago- many of us are feeling as we witness with their friends and family, were nal—just as in the classic game. To do FutureHeights FutureHeights Blvd. #105 Washington 2843 Heights, OH 44118 Cleveland the continued injustice so many of continued on page 2 so, participants purchase goods from listed businesses (online or in-store), then take pictures of themselves hold- University Heights enacts anti-discrimination law ing both their purchases and receipts. Per the city’s instructions, “Once you Mike Cook have a Bingo, send all of your pictures in one e-mail to [email protected], or For members of University Heights City send a direct message to Instagram (@ Council and Mayor Michael Dylan Bren- clvhts), or our Facebook (@cleveland- nan, enacting an anti-discrimination law heightsoh) with all your pics. Be sure pertaining to sexual orientation wasn’t to attach your marked card as well!” just important. It was personal. Submissions will be entered into At the June 1 council meeting, weekly drawings for what the city de- Council Member John Rach said he scribes as “a Cleveland Heights dinner/ hopes to see other cities follow the lead dessert/beverage/groceries experience of University Heights. “I hope this reso- on us—a $50 value to your choice of nates across the country,” Rach said, “so featured business—two $25 gift cards.” that I, too, one day can work anywhere UH CITY HALL COURTESY The city is purchasing the gift cards. in the country and not feel the pressure For the second year in a row, the rainbow flag flew outside University Heights for the entire month of June. “This is the city’s effort to further of one day losing my job because of who continued on page 10 continued on page 15 Heights Observer July 1, 2020 1 www.heightsobserver.org OPINION Letters Policy How we move forward together GYM continued from page 1 The Heights Observer welcomes letters to in attendance, as were members of the editor. They must be submitted electroni- cally, along with the writer’s name, phone Michael Dylan Brennan started and underway. other local gyms, and drop-ins who’d number and e-mail address, to: www.height- As mayor, I have signed the heard about the event online. sobserver.org/members. Four hundred and one years ago, the pledge to review the police depart- Marques Evans, a certified Cross- first Africans arrived to this conti- ment’s Use of Force policies. Council Fit I/O coach, and a pastor, led with HEIGHTS OBSERVER nent. Brought here in chains. Member and Safety Committee moving remarks about George Floyd’s As children we are taught the Chair Saundra Berry and I have cre- death and the universal message that The Heights Observer is a citizen-based news mythology that the Pilgrims, Puritan, ated a citizen’s advisory council. This we all want to be “treated the same.” source published monthly by FutureHeights, a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to English and other colonists came to advisory council will collect public Evans urged the diverse crowd to civic engagement and quality of life. America for freedom. But that is far input and review our city police work hard and perform the exercise, 2843 Washington Blvd. #105, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 from the whole story. The freedom department’s Use of Force policies. not just as an action toward per- 216-320-1423 of the colonists was made possible The committee will meet over the sonal health, but in tribute to George Copyright 2020 FutureHeights, All rights reserved. by the labor of the enslaved. summer, make a report of its find- Floyd and his family. He asked them Reproduction is forbidden without written permission. This nation was founded claim- ings, and suggest reforms. to “feel just a little bit the angst and PUBLISHER Deanna Bremer Fisher ing certain self-evident truths, that There is a lot of talk these days the pain that he [George Floyd] felt [email protected] we are all created equal, and endowed about people trying to erase history, when his life was leaving him.” Editor-IN-CHIEF by our creator with unalienable usually in connection with taking After the warmup, the par- Kim Sergio Inglis [email protected] rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of down the statues of Confederates ticipants—many of them wearing “I E-NEWS Editor happiness. Lofty words written by a and other white supremacists, or Can’t Breathe” T-shirts and tanks— Jessica Schantz man who owned 609 slaves over the discontinuing racist marketing and shared a moment of silence, and then [email protected] course of his life. The paradox of brands. But we know better than flooded onto E. Overlook Road to ADVERTISING Bob Rosenbaum this equality was that it was not for to think history can be changed. begin their run. 216-401-9342 everyone. There is no changing the history of The “I Can’t Breathe” workout [email protected] That has changed over time, but what white colonists and the first comprises the following, and can be advisorY coMMITTEE Deanna Bremer Fisher, David Budin, Greg Donley, not enough. Slavery was ended, civil generations of white Americans did scaled as needed: 1,600-meter run, Judith Eugene, Jewel Moulthrop, Vince Reddy, Bob rights acts were enacted, but this to people of color, to indigenous 30 burpees (full-body squat thrusts), Rosenbaum, Jessica Schantz, Kim Sergio Inglis country has yet to extend the full people, to Asian people, and to Black 800-meter run, 20 burpees, 400-me- Editors benefits of American citizenship and people, especially. ter run, 10 burpees, 400-meter run, Jamison Babb, Maryann Barnes, Deanna Bremer Fisher, Christine Brucker, David Budin, Fred D’Ambrosi, society to all of its people. But how we move forward to- 20 burpees, 800-meter run, 30 bur- Greg Donley, Jewel Moulthrop, Vince Reddy, Bob Rosen- On June 23, local students orga- gether—that is in our hands.