Warrensville Heights Tiger Tects Team Make ACE History

Warrensville Heights Tiger Tects Team Make ACE History
By Marissa Valentine

The Warrensville Heights Tiger Tects made history on May 12 at the ACE Mentor Program Championship. In the ACE Mentorship Program’s 33-year history, no school had won the championship two years in a row.
Founded in 1994, the ACE Mentor Program of America, through its award-winning afterschool program, introduces students to science, technology, engineering, and math learning initiatives, with a specific focus on architecture, construction, and engineering. Through hands-on instruction and mentorship from industry professionals, students in ACE are introduced to career opportunities via project-based learning.
The Tiger Tects’ award-winning project focuses on the revitalization of E.F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home, one of the oldest Black-owned funeral homes in Cleveland and the United States. The students’ design honors the institution’s history while creating spaces intended to offer comfort, dignity, and peace to families navigating loss. Their model expanded and modernized office spaces while introducing new gathering areas where families could come together, reflect, and support one another through life’s most difficult moments.
“As a district, we maintain our ethos, which is to elevate, innovate, and inspire our scholars to the point where excellence is more than an expectation– it is the norm,” said Aaron Eatman, Warrensville Heights High School ACE student adviser. The Director of Community Impact led this year’s championship team, Ms. Audrey Davis from the AKA Team, alongside Warrensville Heights High School’s other student adviser, Mrs.Victoria Irving. Mentors from Robert P. Madison International, Whiting-Turner, Warrensville Heights Community & Economic Development, and other organizations challenged students to review structural constraints and reimagine how a community business could thrive with support.

About Warrensville Heights City School District
Warrensville Heights City School District is a public school district dedicated to inspiring students to excel academically and lead with purpose, through innovative opportunities and strong community partnerships.

Journalist Biography
Marissa is a United States Navy Veteran with 14 years of journalism experience. She holds a Master’s in Marriage and Family

Faith in the age of social media

Faith in the age of social media
By Amaya Gentry

Source: Dreamstime

Religion is more accessible than ever in the age of social media. Apps can remind believers to pray, and search engines can answer religious questions more quickly than traditional reference methods. After the 2020 pandemic, pastors also found many online ways to keep congregants connected to the church.

A 2023 Pew Research Center study found online services appeal to many Americans, with about a quarter of U.S. adults using them. The study also concluded that in-person attendance is more popular. However, religious leaders are concerned that the ease of information makes it harder for people to find reliable information. According to Andrew M. Henry in Religion and Education, “the advancement of religious literacy on social media platforms must involve scholars and teachers taking on the role of ‘strategic amplifiers,’ agents that amplify content that promotes religious literacy while being aware of the challenges these platforms present.”
Church attendance in the U.S.
A 2024 University of Chicago study by Professor Devin Pope, which used cellphone geolocation data rather than self-report surveys to measure church attendance, found 73% of Americans attend church at least once per year. However, only 5% of Americans attend services weekly, compared to 22% who report weekly attendance in surveys. The study also found that weather, service hours, and religious holidays can affect how often people go to services. While the exact reason attendance rates appear inflated in self-reported surveys remains unclear, the survey concluded that religion is very important to millions of Americans.
Accessing Religious Content Online
Smartphones have made religious content easier to access. However, despite the abundance of religious content online, researchers at the Pew Research Center show that many do not use digital tools for religious practice. The 2023 study found that 70% of Americans never go online to search for information on religion, and only 21% use apps or websites to remind them to read scripture.
A church responds to social media.
A 2025 Statista survey estimates that 310 million people in the United States use social media. The reach has prompted some churches to integrate social media into their marketing and outreach efforts, religious leaders say. The Rev. Brent Bramer, a California pastor, states, “The church needs to better understand how social media can shape opinions, perceptions, and politics.” In doing this, religious leaders can learn [about] social media and how they should use it to better reach their congregants.
Takeaways
Although digital tools have made it easier to reach religious institutions, many American churches face declining attendance. Churches across the country have tried to keep up with technology by maintaining active social media profiles and broader digital presences. Some religious leaders worry social media can weaken congregants’ religious literacy. Still, many religious leaders are using social media to reach congregants who do not regularly attend services.
About the Author
Amaya Gentry holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and has previously worked as a quality control chemist.

Central residents wonder when a grocery store will return to neighborhood

By Conor Morris

When Central resident Tesia McDonald wants to get fresh groceries for her four children, she must walk roughly 30 to 40 minutes, shop, then carry everything home.

Since she doesn’t have a car, McDonald can sometimes catch a bus to the store. That does help, but she said public transit isn’t always reliable, and sometimes she’ll need to have her kids with her, further complicating matters.

This is the reality for many residents in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, which has been without a grocery store for roughly three years, ever since Dave’s Market left the area.

“It stresses me out, and it makes me unmotivated to cook, to eat healthy,” McDonald said. “I’d rather just go to the corner store and get a bag of chips.”

Burten, Bell, Carr Development (BBC), the community development corporation (CDC) that serves the Central neighborhood, has sought to find a supermarket to come to Arbor Park Place, a shopping plaza it operates in Central, but recent negotiations with a potential operator fell through.

This is all happening in a neighborhood where roughly 55% of households don’t own a car, according to an analysis of 2019 American Community Survey data.

While there is a Dave’s grocery store about 30 minutes away by foot, McDonald said she prefers to go to the nearest ALDI Grocery Store or to the Heinen’s Grocery Store downtown. She doesn’t have a job and one of her children has a lot of food allergies, so she said she prefers Aldi’s prices and Heinen’s offerings over Dave’s.

She also sometimes catches a bus to the Steelyard Commons shopping area to go to the stores there, but that also can be dicey.

“You’ve got a couple minutes to shop before the bus comes back around or you have to wait another hour,” McDonald said.

Food deserts, or what some now call “food apartheid,” persist throughout Cleveland, including in Central. These are areas defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as communities “where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food,” often without access to supermarkets.

These areas are especially concentrated on Cleveland’s East and South sides, where residents of historically redlined neighborhoods are dealing with some of the highest poverty rates in the city. In fact, in 2018 about 35% of Cuyahoga County residents and 59% of Cleveland residents resided in such “food deserts.” That’s according to a 2019 assessment of residents’ access to supermarkets in Cuyahoga County by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.

This issue was brought yet again to the fore this year when Dave’s Market in Collinwood announced it would be closing in late April. At the time, Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek said the owners cited numerous reasons for the closure of the Dave’s Market in Collinwood, including “low sales volume” and a “drop in revenue,” although plenty of other factors likely played into that decision.

Meanwhile, Joy Johnson, executive director of BBC, said the CDC continues to work on bringing a grocery store to the shopping plaza in Central. She said negotiations with a grocery store partner interested in moving into the space fell flat after both parties couldn’t agree on the terms of the lease, specifically around the use of local contractors.

“We are sure the end result would be a store that provides quality goods and services that would hire from the community, but we want to make sure on the front end that there’s a benefit to local contractors and construction workers as well,” she said.

It’s not clear now if the CDC is talking to other potential stores. Joe Janes, the owner of the Janes Group, independently operates 15 Save-A-Lot stores in Greater Cleveland, which were acquired in March 2021. Janes was in talks with BBC and Ward 5 Councilman Richard Starr to bring one of his stores to the Arbor Park Place mall before negotiations were ended by BBC, Starr said.

“We need some good quality food to be able to be served in our community, and it is imperative to them (residents) to make that happen, and for us to put aside some of the differences that we’re having,” Starr said.

Janes said he wanted to stay at the table and figure out how to make the project work for everyone, but declined to talk specifics about the contract negotiation. Starr said Janes was willing to use all local or minority-operated contractors for the build-out of the store, per requirements from BBC, but a sticking point came about when Janes wanted to use the same contractor he had used previously for the build-out of the refrigeration systems.

Plus, BBC’s Johnson has previously said potential grocery store operators have asked for roughly $400,000 in renovations to the Arbor Park Place storefront. That funding would likely need to come from external sources like local governments.

Johnson has not responded to follow-up questions on if the community development corporation is now pursuing a different operator.

Starr said he felt the CDC wasn’t willing enough to make concessions in the negotiations. In the initial interview with Johnson, she did offer that finding a grocery store to come into the shopping mall is an evolving process that requires a lot of due diligence by all parties.

“What we have learned,” Johnson said, ”is typically property owners make a lot of concessions to have a grocery store in their places because they know it’s something that’s going to attract people, and (they) can rent out other places nearby at a higher rate if they accept a lower rate (for the) grocery store.”

Starr noted he wasn’t on board with a Save-A-Lot coming to Central initially. But he and community advocate Walter Patton toured the Save-A-Lots operated by the Janes Group in Cleveland and came away highly impressed. Patton said the fresh produce and meat offerings were “great,” on par with many other area grocery stores.

“They hired how the community looks,” Patton said. “On Broadway, there was a mixture of Black and white workers. On Clark (Avenue), it was Puerto Rican workers.”

Janes explained that as an independent licensee of Save-A-Lot stores, he has significant leeway to operate the stores differently compared to other Save-A-Lots.

Meanwhile, in Collinwood, Janes said the Save-A-Lot on Neff Road operated by his company has picked up a lot of new customers since Dave’s Market left Collinwood; customers who say they are pleased with the store’s offerings.

Roger Sikes, program manager of Creating Healthy Communities with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, said the solution to a lack of supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods in Cleveland is complex. It will mean partnerships between the community, the government, nonprofits, and private businesses.

Sikes said Simon’s Supermarket in Euclid is a good example of how that could work. The market got several grants and loans from the government and nonprofits, including $125,000 from the city of Euclid to fund build-out of the store. In tandem, there were several “large-scale” community forums where residents advocated for what they wanted in the store.

Sikes said the process was a success in that it resulted in a full-service grocery store in a low-income neighborhood, but tensions persist between the store ownership and the neighborhood.

Sikes said that for a grocery store to truly succeed in these neighborhoods, they’ll need community buy-in. They should hire from the community and provide those workers with a living wage; provide products the community asks for, and actively seek out feedback on operations.

“I don’t think that public funding is going to solve all of our food deserts. Supermarkets are making an economic calculation as to where they can stabilize and be profitable,” Sikes said. “…but I would say anytime you have funding, money that’s out there to help someone do something, I mean, c’mon, that’s real.”

Back in Central, only time will tell when the neighborhood will again have easier access to fresh food.

In the meantime, residents like Tesia McDonald will still face long walks to get access to fresh meat and produce.

“It’s no wonder that people just go to the corner stores and shop,” she said.

This story is a part of the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative’s Making Ends Meet project. NEO SoJo is composed of 18-plus Northeast Ohio news outlets including The Cleveland Observer. Conor Morris is a corps member with Report for America. Email him at cmorris40@gmail.com.

Gerrymandering is Voter Suppression

By Bruce Checefsky

Gerrymandering is defined as manipulating the boundaries of an electoral district so as to create an advantage for a party, group, or class.

Earlier this year, the Ohio Supreme Court, which is the highest judicial court in the state with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and has a current makeup of four Republicans and three Democrats, invalidated legislative district maps and sent the Ohio Redistricting Commission back for revision. It rejected the fourth plan of the state redistricting commission as unconstitutional gerrymandering that unfairly favored Republicans.

The redistricting commission resubmitted its third plan, which had been thrown out by the court, rather than creating a new one. Republicans filed to get a federal court involved in the process, and a panel of three federal judges threatened to step in and force the state of Ohio to implement a new redistricting plan.

U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amul R. Thapar and U.S. Western District of Kentucky Judge Benjamin J. Beaton, both appointed by former President Donald Trump, voted to use the third set of maps giving Republicans the green light to move forward in a 2-1 decision. The decision disregarded what the Ohio Supreme Court said was unconstitutional. Secretary of State Frank LaRose ordered a special election on August 2 to implement Map 3. It will serve as an election for state representatives, senators, and the state central committee, and is the first election affected by the redistricting following the 2020 census.

In July 2015, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the legislature had carried out a blatantly unconstitutional gerrymander and ordered redrawing of eight congressional districts and all 40 state senate districts, according to Reclaim The American Dream, a non-partisan, non-profit, informational website. When the legislature had trouble coming up with revised maps, lower courts stepped in to supervise the redrawing of election districts to make elections more competitive and give voters more choice. The new, court-ordered maps went into play for the first time in 2016 and produced notable upsets in both parties, with political newcomers ousting long-serving incumbents.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) provides several solutions to gerrymandering, including tools to identify gerrymandered maps with free online tools to upload proposed redistricting maps to determine whether they are fair or gerrymandered. DavesRedistricting.org , CampaignLegalCenter.org and PlanScore.org empower advocates, journalists, policymakers and the public to assess and score maps, to establish Independent Redistricting Commissions (IRC) to create fair maps and to limit the power of self-interested politicians in the mapmaking process. They also advocate for the passage of federal legislation to ban gerrymandering. Congress should pass the Freedom to Vote Act which would open new judicial avenues to challenge maps that unfairly advantage one party.
(https://campaignlegal.org)

States could give the responsibility for drawing voting districts over to independent commissions.

State legislatures have the authority to draw political districts. They could hand that responsibility to another party or organization. A few state legislatures have allowed an independent commission to draw political boundaries. The results have been more sensible maps.
(https://www.brookings.edu)

Ohio may need to look for other ways to redistrict to avoid a recurrence of the latest situation.

How many Safe Smart CLE security cameras are in each city ward, and where are they?

By Doug Breehl-Pitorak, Cleveland Documenters

As of Dec. 1, 2021, there were 1,206 Safe Smart CLE security cameras installed throughout Cleveland, according to Larry Jones II, Assistant Commissioner of Public Safety IT.

The cameras, installed as part of an initiative launched in 2018, have sparked a lot of questions in the meetings Cleveland Documenters have covered over the last 15 months. Two common questions included the number of cameras and their locations.

Cleveland Documenters put in a public-records request for the locations of the Safe Smart CLE cameras. The city said the requested information cannot be released according to these exemptions from public-record laws:

You can find the full Ohio Revised Code the city referenced here.

Cleveland Documenters did obtain records showing the number of Safe Smart CLE cameras in each city ward, a question asked by Council Member Brian Kazy, Ward 16, in a Safety Committee meeting last year. Documenter Joyce Shaw had the notes.

You can find a breakdown of the number of Safe Smart CLE cameras in each Cleveland ward here.

The cameras are mostly located around the city’s 22 recreation centers, according to Jones, who added that the department does not take a “by-ward” approach to camera installations.

That rec-center emphasis is mentioned in a 2018 press release about the Safe Smart CLE initiative, which said the effort aims to combine the installation of new LED streetlights with smart-camera technology to make “neighborhoods safer and more sustainable.”

What’s next?

More Safe Smart CLE cameras are coming. Cleveland City Council approved about $4.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds last November for installing the next phase of cameras.

Documenter Laylah Allen live-tweeted the discussion about the funding in an Oct. 13, 2021, Safety Committee meeting. The ARPA funds would cover a projected 429 new cameras, Director of Public Safety Karrie Howard said then.

The city has a request-for-proposal out now for the next phase of camera installation and should have a contract in place by May, according to Jones.

You can find all meeting notes and live-tweet threads done by Cleveland Documenters here.

Tips for Improving Communication Between Cleveland Residents and City Government

By Gennifer Harding-Gosnell

Good communication is at the center of any healthy relationship, and with a new mayor, administration and council, what better time to look at ways to improve how city government and Cleveland residents talk to one another.

Effective communication increases the chance that legislators are willing and able to hear your thoughts and opinions, and the likelihood of getting action.

The Cleveland Observer reached out to individual members of the City Council to get their thoughts and ideas on things the community can do to help improve communications with local legislators:

Get organized

Find support from other members of your community. “I always encourage residents to engage others in any project, initiative, or cause,” says Ward 15 Councilwoman Jenny Spencer. “I hope that residents will choose to organize their community rather than feeling they have to shoulder something alone.”

Running a well-structured campaign can give your cause good momentum, similar to the way lobbyists work. “It can help to know that there is a citizen movement and/or a coordinated group of residents behind any resident outreach,” says Spencer.

Online Users: This easy-to-read toolkit is only 6 pages and provides community organizing for beginners’ explanations. This article goes deeper into the concepts behind community organizing. For an example of a fully structured campaign, see the Clevelanders For Public Comment organization.

Ask for something specific

Vague or broad comments and requests about issues are harder to address and don’t provide legislators clear directions on exactly what you want them to do. You can ask for them to introduce, back, or oppose the legislation, attend community events, and write letters of support on your behalf. Focus on the problem you want to solve and be specific with your request – legislators can’t govern just on emotional pleas.

Online Users: This article explains these and other effective communication concepts more in-depth.

Utilize public comment

Public comments to City Council can be made in-person at regular Council meetings or can be submitted as written comments online. Ward 12 Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer says there should be more: “[We need to] get a public comment at committee meetings, not just council meetings. This will allow the public to engage in the nitty-gritty on substantive issues.”

Online Users: Here is the public comment information and registration page directly from Cleveland City Council. The Cleveland Documenters’ Guide To Public Comment tells you everything you need to know about the process, including a handy one-page guide to walk you through the basics.

Actively support systemic changes both residents and council members are advocating that make civic engagement easier

Encourage your legislators to educate residents on the how and why of their decision-making. This is transparency. Support and participate in efforts to educate and engage other residents, like sharing educational resources on social media, or inviting a conversation at your local park.

On Council’s end, Maurer believes they should make council meetings easier for the public to understand and follow. “Right now they are very fast-paced,” she says, “and if you don’t know how the council works, they can be hard to follow.”

“How do we expect the public to know first reading vs. second reading vs. journal, etc. Even the voting structure can be hard to understand if you aren’t used to it. Council members don’t [speak up if they] vote ‘yes’, [only] if they want to vote ‘no’. We need to slow it down and explain what we are doing.”

To make it easier for residents to attend, Maurer also suggested, “When it is COVID-safe, [why not] take council meetings to the public by holding them at parks and rec centers.”

Online Users: This one-page guide by Cleveland Documenters explains the legislative process in a nutshell, the basics of what you’ll need to understand how Cleveland City Council works.

Become a resource

Make sure you are working with as much knowledge and information on your issue as is available to you before communicating about it with legislators. Know your topic or the re-telling of your experience inside and out. Leave information for your legislators (cards, pamphlets, etc.) so they have something tangible that they can use to look into your concern and follow up with you later. Ward 17 Councilman Charles Slife says, “I appreciate when commenters offer specific resources that members can use to learn more about the topic.”

Follow up

Set a reasonable timeline for responses and actions, and be ready to follow up with legislators when those deadlines hit. Ask for your current status or if they need more information about your concerns. Address communication shortcomings with them. “Residents should hold their individual member of Council to a high standard,” says Slife, “and if necessary, explain that their communications strategy is failing to get information out to residents expeditiously.”

Meet your legislator’s half-way

Communication is a two-way street. It requires a messenger and a receiver, and both must be engaged for communication to occur. “My position has always been, if you care about your community then you need to participate in it on some level,” says Ward 8 Councilman Mike Polensek.

Don’t have the time or energy to organize a campaign or attend Council meetings? “I know there are many single moms and dads trying to raise their families and working at the same time, thereby making it difficult to participate in neighborhood evening meetings,” says Polensek. “That is why I encourage people to get ahold of me by [phone, email], whatever means they feel comfortable with.”

“Believe it or not, I still get handwritten or typed letters in the mail…I did today,” he says.

Make direct contact with your Council member, don’t rely on social media as a gauge for what is or is not known. Charles Slife points out “the importance of reaching out and making contact and not assuming that someone else has.”

“We live in an age of instant information,” he says, “but the day-to-day demands of the job don’t always let members of Council keep up in real-time. I tell residents never to assume that their Council member is up-to-speed on breaking news. Often information makes it to social media before we receive any sort of call or e-mail. There have been many instances where people are talking about an issue on Facebook, even criticizing me, and I was wholly unaware of the issue up to that point.”

Online Users: Here is the contact information for all members of Council and other city agencies.

This article was written with information obtained from Documenters.org, a news service providing coverage of local government meetings.