May 15, 2023

Thank you very much for having me, and thank you, I met some of you council members this afternoon. In short, I'm Dr. Phillip Gardiner, one of the co-chairs of the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, and we're strongly encouraging the city of Cleveland to remove menthol cigarettes and all flavored tobacco products from the shelves. Look, the original sin was in 2009 when the FDA removed 13 flavors from cigarettes, from tobacco products, and the only one they left on were menthol cigarettes. We know that the problem with that is that for over 60 years, the tobacco industry has targeted African-American communities with these products. There's more advertisements, there's more promotions, in fact, we have data that shows that menthol cigarettes are cheaper in those communities. This is a special flavor. It's not only tasty, it's an anesthetic that allows for deeper inhalation. The deeper that you take in things, the more addicted you become. The more addicted you become, the harder these products are to quit. Let's be clear that the basis that the council should take this up, I'm encouraging you to follow the lead of your sister city of Columbus, which we worked with tirelessly over the last year, to get menthol restrictions passed. Don't believe the hype that you're going to hear as we move forward with this, that this is a 'black cigarette' and that if you take it away we'll be discriminatory. I'm a public health doctor, I'm not discriminatory. It's the tobacco industry that is discriminatory. That there'll be an illicit market. There have been 90 cities around the country that have taken this up, no illicit market has been found. And that this somehow will lead to greater arrests of African Americans. This is about stopping the sale of these at the retail level, this is not about individual possession. It's time to act. The time to act has passed, and in the next months, you're going to see a rollout here in Cleveland. City Council trainings, community trainings and educations, and retailer trainings and educations. Lives are at stake. I'm calling on you once again, let's remove menthol from the marketplace. Thank you.

Thank you. Service, social justice, dignity, and worth of a person, importance of human relations, integrity, and competence. These are the seven ethical principles I'm held to as a social worker. I aim to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources of equality, opportunity, and meaningful participation and decision making by all people, which is why I came here today, to say that it's socially unjust to utilize funding designated to to speed up the country's economic and health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing recession on elevated repairs at the West West Side Market. Meanwhile, per Healthy Northeast Ohio 2022 data, 89 to 99% of residents and 15 zip codes suffer from food insecurities. I don't know if repairing the West Side Market will help us recover from the health effects of Covid-19, but I do know that addressing food insecurities for our most vulnerable residents will. I've lived here for 46 years and to our mayor's credit, I've watched the city transform at what feels like lightning speed as far as development, investment, to the point where at least I feel like we are a world-class destination. So thank you, Mr. Bibb, all accolades too. However, considering that the market sits in the middle of two of the top 10 richest neighborhoods per the 2022 U.S Census data, is it unreasonable to pursue private funding? The ARPA fund should be utilized to take care of our fellow residents who lack access to basic food. In the words of Albert Einstein, 'If I were to remain silent I'd be guilty of complicity.' Thank you for your time.have the floor please acknowledge your

Hello. My name is Essie Williams. I live in Ward 2. Mr. Kevin Bishop is my councilman, and I'm here to voice my concerns about public funds. I know public funds should be used to repair or build a new stadium at First Energy. We, the Cleveland residents, are still paying for the last stadium that was built and we are indebted to that last stadium until 2028. The Browns organization only pays $250,000 a year for rental of the stadium. However, the Cleveland residents pay $762,000 in taxes a year, and that's a deficit of $512,000 that the Cleveland residents are paying right now [audio feed disruption] for rent than he does for his expenses. And I'm repeating, Cleveland residents are paying all of the upkeep [audio feed disruption]. Now the residents in Ohio are facing a doubling of the electric bills, and this is by First Energy Corporation. Now, we had a huge price increase in our bills before the Larry Householder incident. So are we paying to reimburse First Energy for the money that they gave Larry Householder? And there's been no outcry or pushback from the state legislative body. So where do the city officials stand on this pricey, unprecedented stadium repair and utility increase? Thank you for listening to me.

Good evening to the Councilmen and the Councilwomen. I'm here on behalf of my community. I am a Precinct Committee person for Ward 3A. Also I am a CMHA Commissioner. I'm here to speak on, we need Irishtown Bend at Lakeview Terrace and Riverview. I've been living in CMHA for 26 years as a community leader, and we need where our residents in wheelchairs, and children can go with their parents, maybe walk to the Flats, walkways on trails because we've been blocked off for years. It's not like we was considered of being in Ohio City because we was living in public housing. But we do need Irishtown Bend. Thank you for your time.

Good evening to the Councilmen and the Councilwomen. I'm here on behalf of my community. I am a Precinct Committee person for Ward 3A. Also I am a CMHA Commissioner. I'm here to speak on, we need Irishtown Bend at Lakeview Terrace and Riverview. I've been living in CMHA for 26 years as a community leader, and we need where our residents in wheelchairs, and children can go with their parents, maybe walk to the Flats, walkways on trails because we've been blocked off for years. It's not like we was considered of being in Ohio City because we was living in public housing. But we do need Irishtown Bend. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Council President, members of Council, good evening. My name is Tom McNair. I am here before you tonight first and foremost as a resident of Councilwoman Gray's Ward 4 in the Buckeye neighborhood where I'm proudly raising my family with my wife. And as many of you know, I spend my days on the West Side of the city trying to make Ohio City a better neighborhood, and I think for all the headlines that you may read on places like Ohio City, I think it is important to remember that this is a neighborhood that still has a 39% poverty rate. It is a neighborhood that is proudly home to over 2,000 residents in public housing, like Miss Howard, and it's why we spend so much of our time at Ohio City Incorporated focusing on doing the work of equitable outcomes. Whether that was starting Near West Recreation with the youth sports league for over 1,300 kids across the near West Side, 54% of which live below the poverty line, or our work around affordable housing with the creation of the Near West Land Trust. But tonight, I stand before you representing over 20 different civic, non-profit, and governmental and private partners, including our friends Greg Peckham from Land Studio who's here, Whitney Long- Jones, our Director of Community Engagement, and Miss Howard, who is a member of our Committee of Champions. And I wanted to say thank you. And I want to say thank you to the administration and the council for your consideration of the ARPA waterfront fund, and specifically for your potential allocation for the Irishtown Bend stabilization and park project. Now as it states, it is first and foremost a stabilization project because the Cuyahoga River represents a $4.7-billion dollar economic output for our region right? But it is also an opportunity, it is an opportunity to connect our neighborhoods to the waterfront and to the city, and the region and beyond, right. And so, at Ohio City we always joke that our office is the waterfront neighborhood that can either see nor touch the water, and we are working to change that every single day, and so this is why we have spent so much of our time trying to make sure that we are doing that right, working with our residents in CMHA to be intimately involved in the planning of Irishtown Bend Park, because ultimately we know that this park will be nationally significant. It will be a city-wide and regional amenity, but it will be a new backyard for Miss Howard and the residents in Lakeview Estates and Riverview Tower. So again I just wanted to say thank you as you create this ARPA waterfront fund, and having a fund that focuses not just on things like downtown lakefront access, but things that really focus on that neighborhood waterfront amenities too, whether it is the Cheers Project or Euclid Beach Park or Irishtown Bend Park. So thank you guys all very much.