By CLEVELAND, Ohio — Northeast Ohio could generate $21.2 billion over 40 years, securing new stadiums for the Browns, Guardians and Cavaliers, relieving minor league teams of debt and building a state-of-the-art airport — all with a quarter-percent sales tax.
We’re talking about our ambitious and politically challenging idea on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here.
Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here.
RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.
On Google Podcasts, we are here.
On PodParadise, find us here.
And on PlayerFM, we are here.
Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris (00:01.787)
We threw a novel idea into the atmosphere over the weekend and heard back from a whole lot of people who loved it. We’ll be talking about it on Today in Ohio. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Alela Tassi, Laura Johnston. Thanks to everybody who wrote me notes about a column I wrote over the weekend. It was overwhelming and a very good diversity of opinions. It’s always good to get that. Let’s begin.
What is the Northeast Ohio Facilities Commission and how might it give Cleveland a world -class airport while maintaining the civic identity that is wrapped up in its three major league sports teams? Layla, take it away.
Leila (00:43.566)
This was a fun thought exercise that you cooked up Chris and we asked reporters Lucas de Prilly and Zach Smith to explore the possibilities and give readers something to chew on behind this concept are a couple questions. How can we once and for all and all the stadium drama that is the subject of so much debate every so many years when the stadium leases come due or even when the teams come asking for upgrades that they’re.
their lease entitles them to, but the public can’t afford it. There’s always that threat left unspoken that if you don’t provide for the teams, they could leave. And what would that do to our region? And then simultaneously, how can we help turn our airport into a point of pride that would be attractive to airlines and travelers? We like to talk about how it’s a dump right now, but we’d love to turn that around. So this proposal that we’ve pitched involves
creating a quarter percent sales tax applied throughout the nine counties that make up our region, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorraine, Medina, Portage, Stark, and Summit. And our analysis shows that that could generate $20 .1 billion over 40 years. And that would then be used to cover half the cost of building new pro stadiums every four decades with the sports teams covering the other half.
And we could then give the stadiums midlife renovations too. And the teams would also be responsible for maintaining these facilities in between. That’s important to note. We would also support our minor league baseball teams in the region by taking their debt off their hands and running their facilities for them. And we could afford to cover half the cost of building the women’s soccer stadium that might attract the National Women’s Soccer League to establish a team here.
As for the airport, we would build a new terminal and help maintain it. And with this tax, we would eliminate a variety of the fees that airlines usually have to pay. It’s about $35 million a year total and contribute that to the airport’s operating budget. And we would help cover the cost of running Akron Canton Airport too. And overseeing all of this would be a facilities commission assembled from throughout the nine county region. Now there are a lot of caveats to this plan.
Leila (03:01.646)
This is after all just a thought exercise at this point. We recognize that creating this new taxing district would require an act of the legislature and a vote of the people. And we’re assuming that the city of Cleveland would give up ownership and control of the airport, which City Hall sees as a major asset. And so that’s a little bit of a political battle. But we offer this up as a conversation starter to get people to think more ambitiously about ways that regionalism could solve some of our problems.
And this particular proposal might be politically challenging, but it’s definitely financially feasible according to our analysis.
Chris (03:39.643)
Yeah, we’re going to call around today and get reaction from the various leaders involved. And we do say in the story that Cleveland is for decades been dogged by its failure to embrace a big idea. We just don’t have visionary leaders that can take something, run with it, do it fast, do it smart. So we don’t expect they’ll run with this. We expect we’ll have the same lethargy we’ve always had. We’ll update the football stadium. It’s on the lakefront, which nobody really wants to do. And our report will continue to be awful.
I was stunned at the immediate response we got in the mail where one person after another was like, wow, I live in Lake County. I would vote for this tax on a heartbeat. This is what we need. We need to think big. Cleveland could be a great city. The story did do what we hoped it would do. It triggered the imagination. It triggered a conversation. And that was a positive. The idea that I got, you know, I saw a couple of emails from people saying, you know, you’re asking Cleveland to give up an asset. The airport’s not an asset.
It’s in no way a city asset. It is a huge anchor chain on the neck of Cleveland. Cleveland cannot take any money out of the airport. It gets no benefit in its budget from the airport. And because the airport has to pay for itself and because Cleveland’s so broke, it’s a problem. The city does not have the resources to do it. And the same thing goes, somebody said, you know, Brown Stadium is an asset. It’s like, that’s not an asset. That’s a giant sinkhole where cash goes to disappear.
Leila (04:50.414)
Mm -hmm, right.
Chris (05:07.739)
Cleveland would be much better off if it didn’t have to single -handedly provide this region with all the sports arenas. Everybody uses this stuff. The whole philosophy of this is that airport serves the northern half of Ohio. The sports fans come from all over the northern part of the state. Why isn’t everybody helping here? And Cleveland would still benefit from having the airport in its borders if it went along with this. They’d get the income taxes and all of the…
Leila (05:07.822)
Right.
Chris (05:36.347)
other things that go along with it. The other thing I thought, we didn’t say this, if Cleveland rejected this, Layla, we could do it anyway and just build an entirely new airport and let Cleveland Hopkins founder because, right, if the airlines know you can go into the new one for free, why would you go to the old one? I mean, the FAA would have to get involved. It’s just, we threw this out there. It is disheartening to think though what’s going to happen today. Yeah. The mayor will say, I don’t want to give up the airport and blame Gryphonil.
Leila (05:45.294)
Let them compete.
Leila (05:52.782)
Right.
Lisa (06:00.837)
Mayor will say.
Chris (06:04.059)
you know, take the traditional role that Frank Jackson always took about city assets and you just won’t see people rise to it. The sports teams owners may not like this because they don’t want to have to maintain the stadiums even though they’re their homes, but it’s a fair proposal. We also, I think, should put the numbers out there. We had a great chart in -house that showed money coming in, money going out to show how feasible it is. We should we should publish that.
Leila (06:31.502)
Yeah, yeah, that’s very interesting. go ahead, Laura.
Laura (06:31.799)
Can I?
Lisa (06:31.973)
Yeah, that’s very interesting. I watched this book. I didn’t do any of the work. I didn’t edit this. And I was really impressed with it. And then all of the reactions coming in, you’re right, you’re sending it to us. People were overwhelmingly supportive. One of the people said, we don’t get the…
Laura (06:34.199)
I watched this mostly. I didn’t do any of the work. I didn’t edit this and I was really impressed with it. And then all of the reaction coming in, Chris, you’re right. You’re sending it to us. People were overwhelmingly supportive. One of the people said, you know, Cleveland gets the benefit from this. They get the sales taxes from people who come down. They get the parking taxes. But I’d like to point out that like sports bars across the region benefit from having a major league sports teams or having three major league sports teams here.
there are stores across the region that sell this stuff. I would argue that the entire region not only likes these teams, but sees the benefit of having a pro sports team. So just because you drive into Cleveland, you park in a parking lot, and maybe you have a beer before the game, doesn’t mean the city’s benefiting any more than a sports bar in Summit County.
Chris (07:22.139)
Well, I would argue it’s more than that, though. Look, I’m not from Cleveland. I’ve been here for 28 years. But clearly, the sports teams are part and parcel of the identity of Northeast Ohio, all three of them, the guards, the Cavs, the Browns. I mean, it is the fabric of this area. And every 10, 15 years, we get worried we’re going to lose one. If you created these leagues today, we wouldn’t get these teams. We’re too small. So to maintain that identity, to maintain these teams, we need to do this.
Laura (07:32.183)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Laura (07:45.815)
Mm -hmm.
Chris (07:50.587)
I would like to point out one other thing. Several people came back and said, the hell with the sports teams, let’s build rail. Now that’s ridiculous because that’s way more expensive than what we’re talking about here. And we don’t have the demand for that. I mean, what we did with our facilities commission, we do have demand for an airport. We do have demand for sports stadiums. It is, these are gigantic civic problems that need to be solved. Once you start to stretch this in every pet project direction,
Laura (07:55.319)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Chris (08:20.251)
you’ll kill it. But if you keep it focused on what are the public facilities that we need to focus on, this is a pretty good idea. I got to give credit to Lucas and Zach. You know, you’re right, Leo. This was my wacko idea. You guys have a nickname for my wacko ideas that I throw out there and say, let’s do this. And you all roll your eyes and go, OK, there’s no denying him. But they… Yeah, right. And Rich Exner and you working with these two guys,
Laura (08:30.953)
Mm -hmm.
Leila (08:41.838)
We call them Quinn specials.
Chris (08:49.115)
went in and did just tremendous work crunching all the numbers gathering all the data. I was so impressed at that first meeting we had about a month after they started with all of the great work they did my hats off to them. This is a terrific idea. It ought to be something we’re talking about. And if you believe in it, get in touch with your local political leaders because they’re lame. And they never move without the cattle prod. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (09:11.758)
Thank you.
Chris (09:16.891)
How much could Ohio learn from Michigan on providing solid subsidies to childcare and the return on what Ohio could get on that investment, Laura?
Laura (09:26.039)
So let’s keep talking about bold ideas that could make the world better because we’re on a roll here, right? Michigan in 2021 launched this idea of a tri -share childcare program where the government pays a third, the employer pays a third, and the family pays a third. And it’s already been adopted by a handful of other states, including Kentucky and New York. It’s not a panacea. This is not a way to pay for childcare for everyone in your state. But it is helpful for people who are stuck
They don’t get the federal subsidy. They make too much money, but they can’t afford child care. And Michigan has found this program to be popular among governments, local governments, and child care centers. But it’s not really attracting the big business companies that they expected. The state has 200 employers, 700 families enrolled in this program. So it’s not huge yet. The state is kicking in $3 .4 million a year. And like I said, it’s not magic.
Lisa (09:54.949)
They don’t get the federal subsidy. They make too much money. They can’t afford child care. And Michigan has found this program is popular amongst governments, local governments, and child care centers. But it’s not really attracting the big business companies that they expect it. The state has 200 employers, 700 families enrolled in this program. So it’s not huge yet. The state is taking in $3 .4 billion a year.
make the world better because we’re on a roll.
Lisa (10:21.061)
And like I said, it’s not magic, but it does do one piece of the puzzle. And Michigan says, look, if you partner this with other programs, this will help get the children in care, which is good for the kids, and their parents in the workforce, which is good for the kids.
Laura (10:23.127)
but it does do one piece of the puzzle. And Michigan says, look, if you partner this with other programs, this will help get the children in care, which is good for the kids, and their parents in the workforce, which is good for the parents and the companies, and it helps everyone.
Chris (10:41.563)
Yeah, it was a great comparison. I think Ohioans hate looking to Michigan as an example, but in this case, Michigan has provided the real example. And I don’t know, you’ve been watching this, you’ve coordinated all the coverage of it. Do you think we’ll do it or do you think it’s just going to languish in the legislature?
Laura (10:53.335)
Mm -hmm.
Laura (11:01.015)
Yeah, I don’t see it happening this year, but we have something like, what, eight proposals in the state house, a lot of them proposed by the same Republican woman in the state house, because it’s an idea of like, pick this, pick that, see what you can address, which way does Ohio want to go? There are other innovative programs. I’m just glad we’re talking about it because no, we don’t have to go do exactly what another state is doing, but we need to do something. And this doesn’t address the lack of childcare availability.
Lisa (11:27.173)
This doesn’t address the lack of childcare availability. Do you have kids who are not yet in school who know how difficult it is?
Laura (11:30.103)
If you have kids who are not yet in school, you know how difficult it is to find a placement for your child, especially if you’re talking an infant, because plenty of people go back to work after six weeks. There’s not a whole lot of child care centers that take them. This doesn’t address that. But it does look at an important part of the population that I really hope that we address. If we don’t do Tri -Share, and I mean, I don’t see it happening in this session of the legislature, they’re going to be obsessed with the election in the second half of the year.
and I don’t see it getting shoved through and lame done.
Lisa (11:59.909)
I don’t see it getting stuck.
Chris (12:02.683)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Jim Jordan is like a cartoon strumpet. He just demands attention. And when he doesn’t get it, as he wouldn’t be because of all the news about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, he tries to get it another way. But in the end, he’s a mere congressman. Lisa, is he actually putting himself above the U .S. Supreme Court when it comes to regulating social media?
Lisa (12:25.317)
It certainly looks that way. So this is in the wake of a 6 -3 Supreme Court ruling in a social media censorship case that was brought by the states of Missouri and Louisiana and other individuals. So the ruling found that social media content moderation policies did not directly harm the plaintiffs, it failed to connect past social media restrictions to communications between the government and social media platforms, and that they lacked the standing to sue.
In the opinion, Amy Coney Barrett wrote that the platforms moderated similar content long before the government engaged in this challenge conduct and in fact, strengthen moderation policies. Jordan and 44 Republicans sent a legal brief in the case. They asked to halt the Biden administration’s unlawful conduct, censoring speech on matters of public concern. He said the decision won’t stop his probe into what he calls the censorship industrial complex.
And he says, you know, they’re conspiring to censor free speech. So our important work will continue, he says. On the other side, his Democratic colleague on the House Judiciary Committee, Gerald Nadler of New York said the SCOTUS decision is a stinging and rebuke to Jordan and his conspiracy theory fueled witch hunt.
He said the platforms exercise their own judgment and content moderation, and that he hopes that this humiliating defeat will end Jordan’s failed investigation into those trying to stop the spread of misinformation on.
Chris (13:57.659)
I really think he missed his calling. If he really just wants to be the center of attention, he should have gone to Hollywood. He should have been an actor because it seems like that’s all he wants. Look at me. Look at me. Everything he does, it’s more and more cartoonish. It’s more and more ridiculous. It’s just to get the spotlight off of major players and on to this little dopey guy who pushes nonsense. This is ridiculous. The Supreme Court has ruled this thing’s rolling along.
Lisa (14:03.557)
You
Chris (14:25.115)
And he goes, Nope, nope, I know better. I’m going to use my committee as a weapon. And you know, he did the normal authoritarian playbook. He calls it the committee against weaponization. It’s ridiculous. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. One of these days, Laila, at least by September, we will have legal recreational sales of marijuana in Ohio. Reporter Laura Hancock spent a day in a marijuana dispensary in Michigan. Another Michigan example to find out what we’re in for.
Lisa (14:27.141)
Mm -hmm.
Leila (14:53.71)
Laura visited NAR Cannabis in Monroe, Michigan, just north of Toledo. Monroe is a small city. They have a population of 21 ‚000, but it’s home to 18 marijuana dispensaries that cater to a large number of Ohioans who cross the border for their products. And Laura found that while Ohio prepares for recreational sales and experts are predicting
Chris (14:54.747)
What did she learn?
Leila (15:19.214)
high initial prices and long lines because of limited supply. In Michigan, it’s the opposite. Michigan never limited the number of dispensary licenses it handed out. And within the last couple of years, there’s been an oversupply of product almost everywhere in the US and Canada, including Ohio and Michigan. So Michigan is so saturated with dispensaries that they’ve seen prices drop due to oversupply. Both Ohio and Michigan dispensaries dropped their prices to move marijuana and to compete with each other, but prices fell so low in Michigan.
that around 19 % of dispensaries have failed, unable to stay open on the lower profit margins. So Laura observed that on her visit, much lower prices and customers shopping around for the best product and prices from one dispensary in the town to another to find exactly what they want. And she also learned that Michigan offers a better customer experience. They let bud tenders open containers for visual and aromatic inspection. That’s against Ohio’s strict regulations.
And that kind of aromatic inspection is important to a lot of people. Everyone’s different. And sometimes you don’t know until you give it a sniff if a certain cannabis product will appeal to you. So customers might still be going to Michigan for cheaper products and a better shopping experience and what they’ll find in Ohio, though the convenience of having a recreational dispenser closer to home, you know, that might thwart those market forces and keep Ohio customers in Ohio. So we’ll see, see how that all shakes out.
Chris (16:46.491)
You know, he’s gonna believe what I say here, but this is true. I was with somebody who wanted to go to a dispensary in Michigan over the weekend. So for the first time ever, I was in one. And it’s such a culture shock for me because my frame of reference on marijuana is the 70s, right? So you go in and they do all the stuff that you just described, but there’s like a smorgasbord of stuff. And I almost lost it because the person I was with was asking a bunch of questions.
Lisa (16:58.085)
Ha ha ha!
Chris (17:15.195)
And the answer was, yeah, you’re buying a doobie. And I just thought, okay, the world has changed. You’re in a place where you’re actually buying a doobie. It’s hilarious. And that’s what’s coming to Ohio. A doobie. There we go. it’s, it was, it was through me and I was just surprised that, I mean, it’s very high security and I was surprised that it just how upscale it is with all of the different.
Leila (17:24.014)
They said doobie? It is.
Lisa (17:28.261)
That’s very 70s.
Leila (17:41.198)
Yeah.
Chris (17:42.843)
and things you can do and all the marketing that goes on. It’s just hilarious. And the person I was with was
Leila (17:49.486)
I know it’s totally legitimized, completely professional. You know, the facilities are super nice. I’ve seen pictures of some of the dispensaries that look like spas, you know, they’re just so nice. It is amazing how we’ve turned that corner as a culture, you know.
Lisa (18:08.325)
And I just got back from California where some of the dispensaries have smoking lounges and bingo nights.
Chris (18:14.811)
Wow. The person I was with has a medical marijuana card in Ohio and was stunned at how much cheaper the prices were in Michigan. So I think what you said, Laila, about people maybe still going there may prove to be true because it was markedly less expensive.
Leila (18:15.374)
What?
Leila (18:24.526)
Wow.
Lisa (18:31.973)
And we’ve done stories here on the podcast that they say it would take about a year for supply to catch up with demand in Ohio.
Chris (18:39.707)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. What’s the story behind President Joe Biden awarding the Medal of Honor to two Ohio Civil War soldiers, Laura?
Laura (18:48.631)
This is such a cool story and I had no idea that this had ever happened. This idea of this train attack basically. It was 1862, two dozen Union army soldiers from Ohio snuck onto this Confederate territory train to destroy an enemy supply line and all the infrastructure in between Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee before this Union attack on Chattanooga. So it’s kind of the backwards of Sherman’s march to the sea.
They called themselves Andrew’s Raiders because they were led by a civilian spy named James J. Andrews. And they took this locomotive known as the General near Kennesaw, Georgia, drove it along the Western and Atlantic Railroad line for seven hours, destroying telegraph lines and railroad tracks along the way. It became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. And then when they ran out of fuel near Ringgold, Georgia, the Ohioans scattered. They were apprehended by the Confederate troops. Eight of them were executed as spies. The rest were escaped.
or they exchanged for Confederate prisoners. But while six of the Ohioans were awarded the first medals of honor in the nation for this, the two of the Ohioans, for some reason we don’t know, didn’t get that. So that was rectified on Wednesday when President Biden awarded this honor, which is the nation’s highest military honor, to the remaining Ohio soldiers, Private Philip Gephardt Shadrach, who was really young when he died, and Private George D. Wilson.
They were both hanged as spies.
Chris (20:16.891)
The story said that this was made into a movie that I never heard of, but it would be fascinating to do it again today with some modern technology. It’s a great story, and I don’t think many people knew about it. I certainly did not.
Laura (20:20.759)
Disney movie. Disney!
Laura (20:34.423)
Yeah, I think the Disney movie was in the 50s, which would explain why I’ve never heard of it. But when you say great locomotive chase, that does not say civil war spies to me. Right. That sounds like some kind of mad caper. That’s probably a comedy. And this is obviously not. So I don’t know. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t live in the hearts and minds of Americans the same way. But the family is actually pushed for this. There’s a so Shadrach was only 21 when he died.
And Ron Shodrock of Independence, he’s a cousin, he’s long lobbied for this award, he established a website that described their heroism, he traveled to Washington for the ceremony, so good for the families, I’m glad these people finally got their due, and what a story.
Chris (21:16.347)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, we’ve had sprinkles and some rain in the past few days and there’s some more that’s supposed to come in thunderstorms, but this area is looking awfully brown and part of Ohio is in a drought. How bad is it officially and where is it worst?
Lisa (21:32.069)
So 28 % of Ohio is now in what’s called a moderate drought. That’s like the second lowest designation. It’s mostly in the Southern counties. It’s up from 21 % that was in moderate drought the previous week. And this is according to the weekly update from the US Drought Monitor, which comes out every Wednesday. That affects about 5 .5 million Ohio residents. Northeast Ohio, particularly Cuyahoga and Summit have some improvement.
but it’s still kind of, I’m sorry, back that up. Cuyahoga and Summit are still in moderate drought, but there’s been some improvement in surrounding counties, Geauga, Lorraine, Medina and Portage counties. Ashtabula and Lake counties did get some rain. They got about three inches over the last week and other lakeside areas got rain as well. So they’re improving there, but 67 % of the state is abnormally dry. That’s the very lowest designation. That’s down from 80 % the previous week.
probably because of these rains. We will be getting Hurricane Barrel just made landfall this morning in Texas and we’ll be getting some of that moisture later this week.
Chris (22:39.931)
I hope so. We could certainly use it. It’s awfully dry around here. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The summer of 2024 has started terribly with bloodshed. We had a police officer killed in Euclid. We had a 10 -year -old girl killed in a drive -by shooting, and we had a Cleveland police officer before dawn on July 4th get killed in the line of duty. Lalo, who is the Cleveland officer, and how did he die?
Leila (23:04.206)
The officer was 27 year old Jameson Ritter. He was fatally shot during a July 4th operation at around 4 a on Thursday when he and his team were serving a felony arrest warrant on 24 year old Delante Hardy in the Hough neighborhood. This was a warrant that stemmed from a June 29th incident where Hardy is accused of stealing his grandmother’s gun and shooting her in the face. She remains on life support.
According to prosecutors, when officers tried to arrest Hardy on July 4th, he attempted to flee on a bike before pulling a gun and then firing five shots at the officers who were pursuing him. And one of those bullets struck officer Ritter, who was then rushed to university hospitals, but he was later pronounced dead.
Hardy appeared in court for the first time on Friday and Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Andrea Moore set his bond at $5 million. His case will then move on to the Cuyahoga County Common Police Court. And meanwhile, his public defender mentioned that Hardy owns a moving in repair, but it would be what we know about him so far. Officer Ritter, on the other hand, he was originally from near Rochester, New York. He graduated from Syracuse University and served in the U .S. Army National Guard, including a deployment to Syria.
He was recently honored by the Cleveland Police Foundation as Officer of the Month along with his partner for actions that they took earlier this year to save, I believe it was a person who had fallen in the river and also a gunshot victim.
Chris (24:40.219)
I this summer is just looking bad. Last year we were talking about car jackings and stolen cars, but this year it’s everybody has a gun. We had that thing at Edgewater where 16 kids pulled out firearms. It was a bunch of shots fired there. I mean, this was a terrible weekend. There were people shot and killed all over the place. A 10 year old girl on a drive by shooting. And you just wonder, we’re going to ask today, what are you going to do about it? I mean, everybody seems to have a gun. This guy.
Leila (24:51.31)
Right.
Leila (25:04.078)
I know.
Chris (25:07.579)
had been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mentally incompetent to stand trial. That’s a pretty high bar. Yet he had a gun. I mean, it’s just, everybody gets a gun. And when people who are responsible have guns, this is what happens. And police die as a result. It’s just one of the worst tragedies that we’ve seen on the day, Independence Day, the day we celebrate what’s great about the country.
Leila (25:32.878)
It feels like it’s probably time to deploy the forces the way they did last summer. I mean, that’s been done already in Cleveland, hasn’t it? I thought that we were just talking about this, that they resurrected that approach to controlling the crime, the violent crime in Cleveland. I don’t know, what else can they do?
Chris (25:53.723)
I think it gets back to what we talked about a week ago. There was an expectation when we were growing up that when you got to be 16, 17, you were going to work in the summer. I mean, that’s just part of growing up. It taught responsibility and things. And it seems to have disappeared. Maybe the opportunities aren’t there like they used to be. A lot of those opportunities came from playgrounds and pools and camps and things like that. But
It seems to me that there are a whole bunch of people with a lot of time on their hands that that we’re not keeping active and we should do a better job of it. This guy, I think, was 24, so he was beyond that. But but this guy has mental illness, clearly. And you would think that somehow there would have been a red flag about him. You know, listening to Today in Ohio, Laura, what is quiet vacationing and should employers be worried about it? I found this story to be an unusual one.
Laura (26:47.351)
Yes. So the idea of quiet vacation is similar to quiet quitting. It’s basically when you’re taking, you’re doing the minimum and you’re taking time off without talking to your bosses about it. And the question is, is this because people are overworked and they don’t have enough vacation days or is it because they’re afraid to use their vacation days and ask for them? Because this came from a Harris poll and what happened, they say the majority of people said that they had have
Lisa (26:55.696)
The question is, is this because people are overworked and they don’t have enough vacation days or is it because they’re afraid to use their vacation days and ask for help because this came from a parent’s role and what happened? They say the majority of people said that they have quiet vacation around the July 4th holiday.
Laura (27:16.087)
they have quiet vacation around the July 4th holiday in the past. 48 % of American workers said that. For millennials, 56%, Gen X and boomers, it was 35%. But also 78 % of workers said they don’t use the full amount of paid time off that they get every year. So why couldn’t they just use the paid time off they’re given around the July 4th holiday? That’s the question here. And Sean McDonald talked to a Baldwin Wallace professor who said that’s the red flag, that if
people are afraid to tell their superiors they want to take their time off that they’ve earned, that’s a red flag that there’s a problem with the organizational culture.
Chris (27:54.043)
Although you do have to plan for time off. And so most employers like us put out the word in February and March, okay, we need you to put in your time off requests so we can schedule it so that we can cover the basis. When an officer gets shot on July 4th, we need to have people that can cover it and spread the news of it. So I’m not quite sure I follow this where people just unilaterally decide, well, I’m not going to work. I don’t understand how that
Laura (28:12.951)
Mm -hmm.
Chris (28:23.355)
That can be a trend that would allow any business to be successful.
Laura (28:27.799)
I don’t think anybody thinks it’s a good trend. It’s just happening because people are trying, you know, taking time that they think they’re due, right? That’s why you’re doing it. My guess is they’re just answering emails so that they can say that they were working, but they’re not doing anything else. I have no, that’s just from, yes.
Leila (28:42.03)
Can I jump in? I got something to say about this. There is, you know, there’s a lot of discussion, you know, in every industry about burnout, right? Like we, we hear about this a lot that people feel like they are overworked or they’re burning out faster than ever. If you, if, if 40 % of people are saying that they’re taking a quiet vacation, that they’re able to just.
Chris (28:43.483)
yeah.
Lisa (28:44.549)
I got something to say about that. There’s a lot of discussion in every industry about film and art. We hear about this a lot, but people don’t know the overall recording out faster than that.
Laura (28:55.415)
Mm -hmm.
Leila (29:09.55)
blow out of work and no one notices, then your job is not hard enough for you to say you’re burned out. Like if no one notices that you’re not working for days on end and you can just take a quiet vacation, then you’re not really working even when you’re on the clock. So the whole burnout culture thing needs to go away if that’s the case.
Lisa (29:14.473)
Mm -hmm agreed agreed I
Laura (29:16.151)
Ha!
Lisa (29:36.069)
Yeah, I had that, you know, I worked for a very small content team at MD Anderson Cancer Center and most of my teammates were younger than me. They would routinely go on two to three hour lunches. So that’s what I thought of quiet vacation and being and nobody cared. Nobody cared. I was sitting there working away and all they were out there having their little lunch. Yeah, drove me nuts.
Laura (29:53.719)
Wow.
Chris (29:58.939)
I think that’s hard to do in a place like ours because you show your work. And so I really never had trouble with the hybrid where people were working from home because we know what they’re doing.
Leila (30:01.582)
yeah.
Laura (30:03.671)
You
Leila (30:10.062)
Because everyone’s producing, yeah.
Laura (30:12.407)
Well, and that’s what some of this expert said is that companies are bad at measuring how much work is getting done. They can’t measure productivity well because not everybody is in a newsroom where every time you write something, your bylines on it, it’s published in the entire world can see how much you’re producing, which honestly is one of the reasons I liked journalism getting into it because it was very clear what you produced every day. It’s like coming home from school with your A’s on your papers, right?
Lisa (30:26.245)
Mm -hmm.
Lisa (30:34.821)
Mm -hmm.
Laura (30:39.127)
The thing is people do need to take vacations. I mean, you actually become more productive if you take vacations. You just need to do it the right way. Because if you’re quiet vacationing, I’m sorry, you’re probably not really relaxing anyway because you’re super worried about answering that urgent email that comes in or what if your boss finds out. You’re not getting the same break of the, I’m free and I can do whatever I want and this is my time that a real vacation gives you.
Chris (31:07.355)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We were off for a couple days, so let’s do one more. A well -known Northeast Ohio musician called the Jimmy Buffett of the North died last week. Lisa, who was he and how did he get his renown?
Lisa (31:19.429)
He was singer -songwriter Pat Daly who died Wednesday at his home at the age of 83.
There was no cause of death given in the Facebook post done by his son, Reese, but they say that he passed peacefully. He was also known as the Jimmy Buffett of Puddin’ Bay, where he performed in the Lake Erie Islands area since 1978. He had a weekend residency at a couple of Lake Erie Island bars, the Beer Barrel Saloon and the Boathouse Bar. He also overwintered at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Florida, where he befriended the…
famous author and illustrator, Shel Silverstein. He was also a frequent guest on the Great Lakes Areas, Bob and Tom radio show. He wrote a lot of songs with local flavor. Titles included, Put in Bay, Island Fever, Big Money Walleye, Get Your Ass to Cleveland, Legend of the Lake, and Lake Keepers, which he wrote in 2017, which was kind of a little haunting ballad about the importance of the Great Lakes watershed.
Chris (32:20.571)
All right, there you go. That’s it for the Monday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back Tuesday talking about the news.
