- Cleveland's baseball team reaches a lease extension and deal to renovate the aging Progressive Field.

Masks are back as Coronavirus cases rise driven by the Delta variant.

Ohio begins its work to redraw Legislative Districts' boundaries with the aim of less gerrymandering and more competitive races.

Ideas is next.

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(tense music) - Hello, and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Rick Jackson, in for Mike McIntyre this week.

Thanks for joining us.

Cleveland's baseball team has a new lease extension and deal to renovate its aging stadium, just in time for next season's name change to the Guardians.

Hope you didn't throw out your mask.

More businesses and communities are requiring them again as coronavirus cases climb.

Ohio is set to begin its redistricting efforts today.

It's a process made more complicated by the delay of the United States Census Data.

We'll talk about that and much more ahead on the Reporters Roundtable.

Joining me this week from Idea Stream Public Media, we have Managing Producer for Health Marlene Harris-Taylor and Senior Reporter Nick Castele.

Andy Chow joins us from the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.

So, let's get started.

- With the lease coming up, we had three choices, renovate the stadium, build a new one, or risk losing the team.

To their credit, the Indians never threatened to sell or move.

- Nick, where's the money come from?

- Oh, all sorts of sources, but the city and the county were trying to be very clear at this press conference to say that we are not raising taxes, we're not creating new taxes, they're looking at current revenue streams.

Anything from part of Cleveland's admission tax that is charged to revenue from the Gateway Parking Garage on the county side.

(clears throat) Excuse me.

The county is contributing money from the hotel bed tax, as well as some reserve funds that were set up during the Q deal.

The previous similar, you know, financing arrangement for Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and the county is going to be contributing money straight from the general fund too, which is, you know, that's your main source of funding for county services.

And so I think it's still gonna take a little bit of time just to get into all these numbers and really see, you know, how much money is available.

The other big source is the sin tax, the tax on alcohol and cigarettes that was approved.

It was renewed in 2014 for capital repairs at the facilities.

There'd been a lot of conversation before in the weeks and months before this about how much of the sin tax revenue was really still available.

Some of the other teams had pretty much used up their allotments, I believe, of the sin tax money.

I asked the County Executive Armond Budish about this at the Zoom press conference.

And said he is assured that there is still money available in the sin tax collections, as well as this Q deal reserve fund.

So, you know, the officials are saying they've got the money, but they did have to call in an assist from Governor Mike DeWine.

And this is because they apparently just needed some additional sources of funding, so the State is contributing $2 million a year also into this deal.

- The clip we played from the Executive, we purposely used that one because he says the Indians never asked for certain things, including a new stadium.

That was never discussed?

- Well, Budish also said that the Indians never discussed leaving.

So, you know, that's always, maybe the threat, whether spoken or not, that, hey, if we don't give the teams something that they're asking for, they might pick up and move, you know.

We know what that's like here in Cleveland.

And so according to Budish, that was never threatened.

And you know, I mean the Dolan family, they have longtime ties to Cleveland.

I mean, they've been here for generations and so it may be a little bit different relationship than with Art Modell.

- [Marlene Harris-Taylor] Can I point something out?

- Oh, sure.

- As a taxpayer in Ohio, I mean, even though they stress you out, they took pains to stress that there's no new taxes going into this deal.

There's still tax money in this deal from taxpayers, and when you talk about state money, that's still taxpayer money that's coming out, - And if it's going to the baseball team, where is it not going?

- Right, exactly.

So, you know, I just wanted to point out, as a taxpayer, that there's still tax money in this deal.

- Well, they said, "No new tax."

- [Marlene Harris-Taylor] No new tax.

(all laugh) - Andy chow, Cleveland's baseball team not the only pro team in the state.

Will the State of Ohio now have to chip in for the other six top professional sports franchises, not to mention all the minor league teams?

- Well, it'd only be fair right?

(laughs) No, I'm kidding.

So what we actually see here is, sort of, it's not unusual.

A couple of years ago we saw the state legislature put money into the capital budget for the Columbus Crew's new soccer stadium here in downtown Columbus.

They did the same thing for FC Cincinnati, the soccer team down in Cincinnati.

So we have seen the types of... - [Rick Jackson] Oh, I forgot them.

Okay.

Seven professional teams.

- Yeah.

- [Rick Jackson] I forgot that one.

- All the way down there.

So we have seen this kind of money flow to professional sports teams in the past.

The explanation given just like yesterday with Progressive Field's deal is that this is a fixture in the community.

It's something that brings people together, that brings economic development and growth to the cities.

You know, that's a claim that's been disputed by other reports, but those are a couple of other examples of how the state has paid other professional teams here in Ohio.

- Nick, let's stay with the whole political idea.

City Council has to have approval on this.

Kevin Kelley was quick to point something out yesterday in terms of what else they have to do when they reconvene in September.

But we should also point out that several of the City Council Members are running for mayor.

- Well, exactly, yeah.

City Council and County Council will have to approve this, and on the city side, the President, Kevin Kelley and Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones are both running for mayor.

You know, Kelley, it was interesting because Kelley has been a prominent supporter in the past of these public stadium deals.

He was a top spokesperson for the renewal of the sin tax in 2014, he was also out front, you know, taking a lot of the political heat for the Q deal in 2017.

This time though, he was not at the press conference.

He issued a statement shortly afterward though saying it's going to be reviewed by Council.

You know, he was asked about it later on in the day at a press conference that he had for his mayoral campaign.

He was out accepting the endorsement of the building trades, the construction labor unions.

And he said, you know, we're gonna review it, we're gonna give it scrutiny, and at the end of the day, the men and women of the building trades will build it.

And you know, it was a sort of a good pivot maybe for him politically, right?

But I do think it's interesting that he is not positioning himself as a full-throated supporter of this as he had in the past.

It seems like he's taking a more wait-and-see approach.

- Isn't it tough for any politician though, to be against something like this, about keeping your team in town?

I mean, we all have, and I'm sure the politicians even have mixed feelings around who wants to see, you know, everybody's tax dollars go to something that only a few people use?

But at the same time, when the team is playing, and downtown is full, and the restaurants are making money, everybody's happy.

- Yeah, the trickle-down effect is way more than the 28,000 who were sitting inside Progressive Field, right?

- Absolutely.

- You bring up a good point though.

There are so many other needs in Cuyahoga County and the city of Cleveland, our health and wellness being one of them.

That's your expertise.

- Yes.

- Central that the pushback on the Cavs renovation had to do with that.

And we haven't had time yet to see if there's pushback here.

- Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if those same forces that came together, those same groups who came together to oppose the Cavs deal will come out and oppose this deal because, hey, all you have to do is look around Cleveland to see that there's great need, particularly in some of the east side neighborhoods that have been ignored for years.

And it would be nice if, as a part of some of these deals, we start to see our leaders talk about that.

"Hey, is there some way we can make sure as a part of this deal, we're making sure the other parts of our community are being taken care of?"

- And it goes beyond just the baseball team deciding to put money into League Park and things like that.

- [Marlene Harris-Taylor] Exactly.

- Substantive changes for many neighborhoods.

- Right?

Because, I mean, because we're talking about, you know, big projects we're doing here at Idea Stream is about racism as a public health crisis.

And a part of that is the fact that we don't have infrastructure in certain neighborhoods, we don't have housing in certain neighborhoods.

People in those neighborhoods have sometimes bad air, air pollution.

And so there's these real structural problems in the city that are gonna cost a lot of money.

And so, it needs to be a part of a broader conversation when we talk about how to spend money locally, overall.

(tense music) - The finish line for the pandemic moved further away again this week.

Climbing case numbers in reverse and recommendations from the CDC on mask guidance, even for the vaccinated, means we're seeing a return of masking in public.

It all feels very familiar.

Marlene, Cuyahoga and Summit Counties this week both announced recommendations that people, regardless of their status, mask up inside.

Are other health departments falling in line with what the CDC is asking?

- We are seeing the health departments fall in line and say, "Hey, you have to wear a mask."

We're starting to see businesses say you have to wear a mask.

We talked about Giant Eagle this week is now suggesting, strongly suggesting, to customers, beginning today, that you wear masks and their employees have to wear masks.

And we're seeing that across the line with a lot of other businesses.

McDonald's is an another prominent business that's doing that in our area.

- Let's go to one that impacts a lot of people, which is not necessarily a business, but the schools.

We seeing masking, we see some that want to mandate, some that don't want to mandate.

Cuyahoga recommends masking in schools, even for the vaccinated.

- Yes, and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out, Rick, because what we saw last time around was, the bigger school districts and the urban school districts went along with things when they were recommendations.

The further you get out into some more rural, smaller districts, there was some pushback there around, "No, we don't want to follow these recommendations."

So it'll be interesting to see if all the school districts go along.

But one thing that's that's puzzling to me is that the CDC is still saying, well, we have to social distance kids three feet apart in schools.

That's also a part of it.

And they will also require people to quarantine if there is an exposure.

But you also hear health experts say, "Hey, if you're in a room and somebody has this Delta variant, and, you know, the Delta variant is being sprayed around the room.

It doesn't matter if you're three feet apart, it's in the room."

So that's why masking is so important.

- And schools just don't have the space to move everybody about, and most of them are overcrowded as it is.

- Right, right.

So no matter how far they stretch out the kids, masking is really gonna be the protection because kids under 12 are not allowed to get the vaccine right now.

They're trying to rush through, you know.

I shouldn't say rush through.

- [Rick Jackson] That could still be February.

- Because that's a trigger word for some people, they feel like this is being rushed.

They're trying to move this along as swiftly as possible to get kids vaccinated, but they cannot at this point so what protection do they have?

You've also seen school districts talk about mandating it for teachers.

- Nick, she mentioned Giant Eagle.

There are a lot of businesses, even Playhouse Square, where we are changing course on masks.

- Right, yeah.

Playhouse Square now saying that theatergoers need to wear masks.

You know, this was a big, everyone was waiting for, you know, theater to return to the stage after, you know, a lot of stages went dormant last year.

Well, you know, people are coming back, but now you know, they're trying to play it a little bit safer, trying to be cautious.

I think Broadway in New York is requiring vaccinations.

So, you know, you can see that, you know, for actors, for, you know, theaters, obviously they need to, you know, economically to survive, they got to put on shows, but now they're trying to figure out, how do we do this safely?

And so first step of that is asking everyone to wear a mask when they go inside.

- Back in 2020, the masks were mandated by the state to help businesses and venues get back to going.

That's not going to happen this time, or is it?

- What we have heard in the past from governor DeWine and his administration is that there is not the political will or just the will of the Legislature to approve of something like a statewide mask mandate again.

Now remember, the Legislature, the Ohio Senate, and the Ohio House passed a law that gives them the ability to rescind something like a statewide mask mandate that is created by the Governor.

So I think the mentality here, the Governor is saying, "Listen, I could do a statewide mask mandate again.

But then the legislature is going to just come out and revoke that mask mandate."

So the question is, well, do people still want to see the Governor do that, do the mask mandate, and then force the State Legislature's hand and see where they vote on it.

So this is sort of the effects of what SB 22 meant earlier this year and why the Governor was fighting so hard against it.

He vetoed it, and then the Legislature overrode that veto.

- Well, when the Legislature did institute those checks though, the idea was that nothing further would be implemented because we thought we were reaching the end.

There's got to be a threshold at which they say, "Okay, we've gone deep.

We've got to do something new."

- You would think, but then when you flash back to the spring of 2020, you had Legislators saying that they thought the mandates and the health orders back then were going too far.

So what would be interesting is if the Governor were to issue something like a mask mandate again, it would really put all the power over to the Legislature to really say, "Okay, it's not just rhetoric anymore.

It's not just talking points and posts that you make on social media.

You are now the people who are going to decide, do you want to keep this mask mandate in place or do you want to revoke it?"

And so that's sort of the showdown that could happen if a decision were made from the DeWine Administration.

It's just unclear at this point if that's going to happen or not.

(tense music) - Voters in two Ohio Congressional Districts cast ballots this week to fill open seats in a special election primary.

Northeast Ohio voters selected Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown as the Democratic Nominee to fill the seat formerly held by Marcia Fudge, who is now the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Republicans voted for Laverne Gore.

District gerrymander to be reliably democratic means that in all likelihood Brown will win the general election in November.

Overall, there were 13 Dems in the race, but the contest centered on Brown and Turner, who became prohibitive front runners as the race gained national attention.

Nick, we were talking earlier, where did Shontel Brown pick up most of her voter support?

- Well, you know, where Shontel Brown did very well was in the suburbs, in the east side suburbs of Cuyahoga County.

Places like Beechwood, Pepper Pike, Orange Village, some of these area she got her best margins.

However, she also held her own within the City of Cleveland.

Overall, Nina Turner won the portion of the City of Cleveland that is in this district, which is basically the east side and the near west side of the city.

But she didn't win it by a ton.

And Brown was able to eat out some small victories in some high-turnout wards in the city like Ward 1, the Lee Harvard area, which Turner used to represent on Cleveland City Council.

Ward 2, Ward 4, all those places were essentially split, but giving a little edge of their vote to Brown.

And so I think that enabled her to stave off Turner's advantages in the city of Cleveland, bring in a lot of support from the suburbs and that kind of carried the day for her in the end.

- As we said, 13 people running in the race and she still took more than half the votes.

- Yeah, well I think it was clear early on with all respect to some of the other candidates like Jeff Johnson, John Barnes, Shirley Smith, and a number of other folks who are known in Cleveland politics, it was pretty known that Turner and Brown were going to be the top two.

They were the ones who early on attracted the endorsements, the money, the attention.

And so it was a race between the two of them and, you know, very interesting political figures both of them.

Nina Turner obviously had very longstanding ties to the Cleveland area.

Former Cleveland City Councilwoman, former State Senator, ran statewide in 2014 for Secretary of State, did not win.

And, you know, then went to the Bernie Sanders' Presidential Campaign and sort of affiliated movements and was a high-profile supporter of Bernie Sanders, to the dismay of some within the Democratic Party.

And, you know, then she came back to run in this district.

Shontel Brown, I think, played more of an inside track, going from a Warrensville Heights City Council to Cuyahoga County Council, becoming Chair of the Democratic Party.

You know, because Marcia Fudge is now a Cabinet member, she cannot go out and make endorsements, but her mother can.

- [Rick Jackson] Shontel called her the Queen Maker.

- Well, and along with South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, may have helped, you know, carry the day for her.

- Andy, let's talk about the other primary, the Ohio 15th in Central Ohio.

Mike Carey the Republican nominee, Allison Russo wins the Democratic nominee.

This is the seat that former Congressman Steve Stivers walked away from to lead the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

This was being watched nationally as a test of former President Trump's clout.

He backed Carey - He did back Carey.

And as you just mentioned, there are people from around the country who have been keeping a close eye on who former President Donald Trump endorses.

And I think what's really interesting to note here is that Mike Carey was not only just the person that Trump endorsed, Mike Carey is a relatively unknown person.

He has not served public office before.

Meanwhile, he went up against former State Senators, current State Senators, former State Representatives.

People who have really had a relationship with the voters in this district.

People who have been out there knocking on doors for years now, getting their name out there.

Then all of a sudden, somebody like Mike Carey, who is a former lobbyist for the coal industry comes around, Donald Trump puts his arm around him and says, "This is my guy."

And then he ends up winning by a lot.

And so that does sort of show how strong a Trump endorsement can be in the Central Ohio to Eastern Ohio area.

Again, as the Congressional 11th District is drawn to favor a Democratic candidate, The 15th District is drawn to favor a Republican candidate.

So, Carey is expected to go on to win in the general election.

I think the other thing to note here is it was a lot like the 11th District, a very crowded field.

So the people who did not want to vote for Carey seemed to really split their vote in all sorts of directions, especially when it comes to the current State Legislators.

(tense music) - Ohio begins its process for redrawing its Legislative Districts.

The goal is to make the process more bi-partisan and create districts that are less heavily gerrymandered and more competitive.

Both districts in the State and the Congress will be redrawn, but we're talking different processes here.

And what starts today?

Explain for folks.

- So this is the Ohio Redistricting Commission, and for people who might remember, back in 2015 and in 2018 voters around Ohio were asked to vote on a statewide ballot initiative to reform this process.

We're talking about the term gerrymandering, which people know to be something where one party will draw the maps to favor their party over the other.

In 2010, 2011, a group of Republicans got together because they wanted statewide offices.

They got together, they drew the maps and the maps have heavily favored Republican candidates across Ohio.

And so these are new reforms that are taking place today.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission is meeting.

They have to do a couple of things right off the bat.

They have to set up some public hearings around the state to hear from voters, to find out what the districts mean to them.

What do they think fair districts mean?

And then they have to create maps.

And within these reforms that voters already approved, the Redistricting Commission has to follow a certain amount of guidelines.

One of the best things to describe something that might be easy to understand is most counties in Ohio, practically all the counties in Ohio, cannot be split.

They have to be made whole in Congressional Districts.

Only the five largest counties in the state can be split up, and they're only allowed to be split twice.

And so there are very specific rules in place so that you can't really just carve out this street and then push this block of voters over this way, push that block of voters over the other way.

There are specific rules they have to follow.

- Nick, we know, even without those changes, the district will look different because Ohio loses a seat next year.

- Well, and that is a factor too, right?

Because we have not gained population as quickly as other parts of the country, we will be losing a congressional seat.

So, you know, there's sort of a guessing game as to who, which incumbent is going to suffer that blow of having their seat effectively, you know, drawn out from under them.

That may be one factor behind Tim Ryan's decision to run for Senate.

Because of course his District, while a Democratic District, is in a part of the state, the Mahoning Valley, that has been tending more Republican of late.

And so maybe that could be a candidate for a district that would be drawn more to favor Republican voters.

But, you know, we'll have to see.

Another issue is that the City of Cleveland, the thinking is the city of Cleveland would be kept whole in a new district.

Currently, you know, one half of the city is in the 11th Congressional District and shares a Congressperson with part of Akron and the other part shares a Congressperson with part of Toledo.

And so if the city of Cleveland is kept whole, what does that mean for potentially, you know, the incumbent Congresswoman Shontel Brown if she's running in a primary with maybe some of those east side suburbs not in her district anymore, or drawn in a different way entirely?

I mean, there's still a lot of questions as to what that will mean for Cleveland's representation.

- And to the west side of Cleveland, you talk about Marcy Kaptur and her District being in parts of five counties, not any entire county in that Snake on the Lake District.

It's ridiculous, but this could be fixed.

- Well, yeah, I think it seems like we'll probably see changes there and you might have some more, you know, someone more local to Cleveland representing Cleveland.

- Andy, there were a lot of concerns about the delayed census data impacting this process.

We're only nine months from the May Primary.

Can they get it done?

- Well, the Constitution says they have to get it done.

And so the question is, can they reach some sort of bipartisan agreement where a 10-year map can be approved?

And so that's the big question because they're still waiting on the census data.

It's supposed to come out later this month and then they have to turn around and get a map approved by September 1st.

And then whatever that map is, right now we're talking about the State Legislative Districts, so not the Congressional Districts.

Then that map, the State Legislative Map, would have to go in front of the public and then they would have to hold hearings and amendments.

There's a whole process here.

And so they have to get that State Legislative District map done pretty quickly, before September 15th.

when it comes to the Congressional Districts, they do have a little bit more time.

I think that goes over into the month of October.

So there is a little bit more time, but when it comes to really looking at the data, looking at the demographics and trying to figure out how to draw a fair map, that can take a lot of time and so, I talked to State Auditor Keith Faber yesterday about it.

He said it's going to be a Herculean task to get all this done, but they say that this is gonna be their focus and that he believes that they can get it done.

- Okay, last thing on this, Marlene, Nick mentioned the 11th.

It's been represented by a woman of color since 1999, partly because of the way the district is drawn, that could change with redistricting.

Is that a concern in the community?

- Well, you know, I haven't really heard that expressed.

I think more people are just curious about how it's gonna play out like Nick was talking about earlier because people haven't even really had a chance to think about the fact that well, hey, maybe we could lose for the first time a woman of color in Congress, or a person of color in Congress, you know?

- Right, the last three women, the last four people.

Right, right.

- Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question.

Because Carl and Louis Stokes, when those districts were first kind of, when a majority/minority district was first created, they created what was called the 21st Congressional District Caucus, which was sort of a political organization for, you know, the black community in Cleveland, which really hadn't had an organization like that for the first time.

And so, you know, that sort of has existed up until this point, you know, as those districts are redrawn, I imagine you still will have a majority black district, whether it includes Warrensville Heights, you know, where Shontel Brown lives, or not is yet to be determined.

But, you know, I expect that will continue to exist in some form into the future.

- And for all we know it won't even be called the 11th.

- Right.

And I was just going to say, you know, it can have implications across the whole state in terms of districts that were carved out in other places as well to be minority districts.

We'll see how that all plays out with this new commission.

- Okay, thanks.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas, we talk about an effort from the St. Luke's Foundation to lift every voice in the neighborhoods it serves.

It is seeking input from residents on how money is being spent in their communities.

I'm Rick Jackson.

Thanks so much for watching.

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