CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio’s government is overwhelmingly anti-clean energy, and so is much of the state’s rural areas.
We’re talking about how much solar energy they’ve opposed, despite needing new energy sources, 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 we’re asking about today:
If the Ohio Legislature and Mike DeWine were not backwards thinking rubes when it comes to championing air-polluting energy over solar, how much of Ohio’s energy needs might be covered by the solar projects they have effectively killed?
When an Ohio legislator proposed forcing kids to spend more time in schools, we debated on this podcast whether the number of days of classes had dropped over the 20 or 30 years ago. So, we checked. What is the answer?
We are seeing more and more protests of what the Trump administration is doing and the invisibility of our Republican congressional delegation. What is behind it?
Cuyahoga County has announced it will no longer accept Cleveland inmates at its jail unless they are charged with crimes. So how many people does Cleveland arrest without ever charging them, and how unusual is that?
Remember malls? When is the last time you were in one? How is North Olmsted fighting retail trends by trying to keep its mall going?
We talked last week about federal research dollars potentially drying up, and this next story is about the kind of thing that would not happen. What have cancer researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals been testing that could be a game changer?
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, as we mentioned, and the big parade steps off this afternoon. But that parade’s future is clouded. How come?
Eaton Corp remains one of Northeast Ohio’s significant employers, and it just bought another company in the energy sector. What is it?
Laura, your latest column is about perfectionism. I imagine a lot of people identified with it. What was your theme?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:01.111)
It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. It’s sure a sign of spring as the first day of spring. So glad we are emerging from the winter. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Layla Atassi, Lisa Garvin and Laura Johnston and Layla. If the Ohio legislature and Mike DeWine were not such
backwards thinking rubes when it comes to championing air polluting energy over solar. How much of Ohio’s energy needs might be covered by the solar projects that this state is effectively killed? This is a preview of a story we haven’t published yet.
Leila (00:42.35)
Yeah, that’s true. And the state could be in a completely different place right now when it comes to meeting its energy needs. In just the last three years, local politicians and fired up residents empowered by a 2021 law called Senate Bill 52 have blocked or derailed enough solar projects to generate more than 2000 megawatts of power. That’s a really significant number. One megawatt can power about a thousand homes.
So that’s enough electricity to cover nearly two million households. We’re talking about all the homes in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati combined, and then some. And those were projects that developers wanted to build. They had the money lined up. They were ready to bring in hundreds of millions in private investment, good paying jobs, and big tax revenues for rural counties. But because of SB 52,
Local governments can now veto wind and solar projects and they’ve done it. About 40 % of Ohio counties have flat out banned new solar and wind development. So not only has Ohio killed off those 2000 megawatts of clean energy, but the pipeline for new solar projects has basically dried up. In 2020, before this law took effect, developers had proposed more than 4,000 megawatts of solar. And last year, barely over a thousand.
That’s a massive slowdown at a time when Ohio’s electricity demand is booming, driven by energy hungry data centers for companies like Amazon and Google, plus the retirement of old coal plants. So the irony here is that the very people blocking solar are the ones now saying Ohio needs more power. And instead of welcoming clean energy, they’re doubling down on natural gas, even though those plants take years to build and won’t solve the short-term crunch.
Chris Quinn (02:34.157)
And pollute the air with lots of lots of what throws me about this is this is subject of a children’s cartoon. It’s so obvious. The polluters are the guys that are evil looking in in black and white and the good guys are like the bear cubs and the puppies that want to have clean energy. I don’t get it. They just do everything possible to stop it. Think about that. You could power Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus with passive free for all all
Leila (02:35.437)
Of course, yeah.
Chris Quinn (03:04.119)
Intense and purposes energy that has no pollution factor and these guys towing the line for the gas and oil industry try to peddle the fiction that the windmills and the solar are bad. They’re bad for the environment while they pollute. It’s just such a shock that they would turn down this wonderful technology that just takes the energy straight out of the air.
Leila (03:30.648)
Exactly. And while Ohio politicians are busy blocking solar, other states, including plenty of Republican led states, are raking in the benefits of renewable energy. I Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, these are deep red states and they’re national leaders in wind and solar. And that’s because they see the economic opportunity here. Clean energy is about cutting emissions, but it’s also about jobs and energy independence.
So Ohio is tying itself to this outdated model that’s slower and more expensive to build. And meanwhile, those same, you know, the data centers that are in tech companies that are driving demand, they’re under huge pressure to run on clean power. So Ohio’s got to deliver on that.
Chris Quinn (04:01.188)
It’s.
Chris Quinn (04:18.905)
Yeah, I know. It’s as clear as the air would be if we started to do green energy. I, you just, look at these guys while they peddle their nonsense about how green energy is bad and think, what did you do? Did you grow up watching children’s cartoons and identifying with the bad guys? Cause this is that simple. This is any child could tell you, do you want smoke and CO2 going into the air and
Laura (04:38.492)
Yeah.
Leila (04:38.659)
right.
Chris Quinn (04:46.565)
causing global warming and climate change, or do you want to just collect the wonderful sunlight and power your home? Any moron can figure this out except for our elected politicians.
Laura (04:59.025)
It was like the Lorax, right? mean, that’s the entire, it’s a movie, it’s a book. What do you think it’s gonna take? Do you think there could be a referendum? I mean, I know we’re dealing with the offshoots of the marijuana and changing that there, but that seems to be the only way that Ohioans can get what they want. Would there be a company that would start a campaign to put this on a ballot?
Chris Quinn (05:02.115)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Quinn (05:21.325)
I think the oil and gas industry would outspend them. I think the most likely thing to get to the ballot would be a block on public funding of private schools. You really are getting a sense of anger from people across the state about how much money they’re giving to private schools with no checks and balances. And it’s growing and growing. I think that’s the most likely thing to get on a ballot. But we’ll to see if somebody raises the money to put it there. It’s hard to do.
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. When an Ohio legislator proposed forcing kids to spend more time in schools, we debated on this podcast whether the number of days of classes had dropped over the last 20 or 30 years ago. You might remember I basically assigned that story in the podcast. So Lisa, we checked. What’s the answer?
Lisa (06:12.432)
Yeah, so our reporter Laura Hancock, she looked at the calendars for four school districts going back several years. She looked at Berea, Solon, Richmond Heights, and Cuyahoga Heights. And she found that some schools do have a longer winter spring break, winter or spring break, this school year compared to the 2004-2005 school year 20 years ago. Some schools are also giving more religious days off than they used to.
but most of the additional time off for students is due to teacher work and development days. So in Cuyahoga County, Cuyahoga Heights Schools, one teacher workday was the norm in 2004, 2005. Now it’s five teacher workdays. They also added to the Thanksgiving week and they add a day to their winter break as well. Berea has six spring breakdays. That was back in 2005. Now it’s only five. So they actually lost one.
Richmond Heights back in the day had nine day winter break. Now it’s 12 days and they added a day when teachers are updating their student records. In Solon, they’ve actually given more religious holidays off. Typically the holidays you get off in school are Christian. So people in Solon are off for Rosh Hashanah, Diwali and Eid al-Fitr, I don’t know if I’m saying that right, and other non-Christian holidays. and in 2004, 2005, this
student days had decreased from 181 to 177 in 9 to 12 and 176 days in K through 8.
Chris Quinn (07:48.057)
Yeah, the upshot is they’re spending less time in school, which is what the premise of this legislator had been. did. The state did make it difficult to figure this out because they’ve changed the way they count school time from days to hours. But there’s no mistaking that kids are home more days than they were 20 years ago. And if they’re not in the classroom, we all know they’re not learning. So maybe this will be a decent piece of legislation to get people back.
Lisa (07:54.192)
Right.
Lisa (08:00.646)
to hours.
Laura (08:12.722)
Okay.
Lisa (08:13.392)
Yep. Well, so representative Adam Byrd, a Republican from Cincinnati has a house bill, 145. He wants to increase the minimal instructional hours. As you said, they count hours now instead of days. And he wants to increase from seven through 12. He wants them to have 53 more hours in class, K through six, another 53 hours there.
Half-day kindergarten, they want to add 27 hours to that school year.
Laura (08:44.499)
This is where I chip in and I say I was wrong. I fought Chris on this. I was like, I’m going to be right. And I was surprised by this. But I did feel like the answer here is that teacher work day because they have required more time off for the kids for something like teacher conferences, right? And our teacher conferences are in November. The kids don’t go to school the Thursday or Friday, a week or two before Thanksgiving.
Chris Quinn (08:48.091)
you
Laura (09:14.149)
and the teachers get it off and they don’t even have conferences full days those days. And so if they are going to add 53 hours to the school day, which, you know, more school is, or sorry, to the school year, which I, you know, that would be good for kids. Then I hope that they look at all of these teacher off days because I don’t want my kids going to school till the middle of June or starting school at the beginning of August.
Chris Quinn (09:24.709)
to school day? That’d be one long day.
Chris Quinn (09:42.469)
Well, the other thing that we’re not talking about is the long breaks and how they interfere with the momentum of a school year. We all know when we were kids that when you came back from the Christmas break, you had to go backwards a little bit to catch up. That’s a long period to be out. If you also have the entire week of Thanksgiving off, in addition to the spring break, how many fits and starts do you put a kid through? You lose the continuity.
Laura (09:58.077)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (10:10.391)
It seems like it’s gotten out of control and at least we have one lawmaker who recognizes it. Maybe he’s the guy we should get all the information to about green energy. Maybe we have one who has some common sense. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’re seeing more and more protests of what the Trump administration is doing and the invisibility of our Republican congressional delegation, especially our two senators. Laura, what’s behind it?
Laura (10:36.765)
Well, there’s a couple of things. People are really angry at what the Trump administration is doing, including cuts to programs like the VA and the national parks. And like you said, people are having a hard time reaching their representatives. So if they feel like they can’t get through to their representatives, they’ve sent the email, they’ve tried to call, they’re not getting any true feedback where it’s specific to what they’re calling about. They are feeling like they have to put their voice somewhere. Actually, it’d be interesting to see if we’re getting more letters to the editor.
because people want to have their say. So they are speaking out more in protest. They’ve had at least a dozen of various sizes around Northeast Ohio since Trump took office in the latter half of January. And the experts say there are more, there are some differences between what’s happening today and what happened last time Trump took office eight years ago. That tactics are a little more sophisticated. There’s an increased feeling of urgency and desperation among the participants.
And they’re talking to each other to make sure they’re not overlapping and that people aren’t getting burnt out because they want this to be sustained. They want it to grow. They don’t want to be like flash in the pan and just everybody’s shrugging their shoulders and being like, I guess we’re going to go home now.
Chris Quinn (11:47.715)
Well, the trick is the people in the middle. There’ve always been anti-Trump protesters. There’s always been, since he arose as a politician, pro-Trump protesters. But it’s the people in the middle in all these swing states that determine the election. And will they show up? Will they become animated enough by the destruction of our democratic government that is continuing every night to stand up and say no more?
Laura (11:58.919)
Mm-hmm.
Laura (12:16.742)
Yeah, I mean, we don’t know where these are going to go, but they’re focusing on these smaller pop-up protests and not just doing the big one, although I guess the International Women’s Day March, which obviously was happening internationally, Market Square in Cleveland got up to 1,500 people. That’s a whole lot of people.
Lisa (12:31.331)
market clearance.
Chris Quinn (12:37.711)
Market Square in Cleveland? It was... I see, I see. All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cuyahoga County has announced it will no longer accept Cleveland inmates at its jail unless they are charged with crimes. So, Leila, how many people does Cleveland arrest without charging them, and how unusual is that?
Laura (12:39.495)
Well, down across from West Side Market, Market Square Park.
Leila (12:54.51)
Thank
Now this is kind of a stunning situation. Last year Cleveland police arrested nearly 7,000 people and booked them into the Cuyahoga County jail and of those more than a thousand people, about one in seven, were never charged with a crime. They were held sometimes for days and then just released because prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough to go on. And it turns out that’s pretty unusual in the county.
Cleveland’s rate of uncharged arrests is more than double that of any other law enforcement agency in Cuyahoga County. In fact, nearly 95 % of the people who were booked into the jail and later released without any charges came from Cleveland Police Department. No other department in Cuyahoga County even comes close to that. To put it in perspective, there are 87 law enforcement agencies that bring people to the county jail. Only nine of them had cases last year where people were later released without charges.
and Cleveland accounted for the vast majority of those. That’s why the county is now drawing this line and saying no more. They’ve announced they won’t accept anyone from Cleveland into the jail unless they’ve been charged. The county’s argument is pretty simple. They say if there’s enough probable cause to arrest somebody, there should be enough to charge them. And if there’s not, people shouldn’t be sitting in jail cells waiting around for a decision. Cleveland officials are pushing back on that. They’re arguing that it’s not.
always that simple. Sometimes victims can’t give statements right away and they need more time to build a case. They’re also suggesting the county’s move has much to do with money as it does with justice. There’s an ongoing tug of war over how much Cleveland pays the county to house its inmates and this timing has raised some eyebrows. But the problem is Cleveland’s numbers on this are way out of step with everyone else and that’s what makes this makes a standoff such a big deal.
Chris Quinn (14:45.019)
Look, let’s just make it clear. Cleveland is flat out wrong on this. You cannot deprive people of their liberty without probable cause. I was a crime reporter here before I became an editor years ago, and I was stunned when the police would go to a scene, say there’s six people in a room and somebody was shot and nobody was talking. They take every witness in and say, well, we can hold them for three days. Maybe that’ll shake them up and get them talking. You can’t do that. That is not what the purpose of arrest is.
If you’re arresting somebody, depriving them of their liberty, you have to have probable cause that they committed a crime. And that’s not what police do. And clearly the numbers demonstrate it. Everybody we talked to for this story said, my, no, we don’t do that. That’s a red flag. You should never do that. So when Cleveland is, making these claims about, the witness statement and, and this is about money. No, it’s not. It’s about you are violating people’s rights in gigantic numbers and you should stop it.
right now no other city does this.
Leila (15:47.212)
right, there’s already a class action lawsuit playing out in federal court over this exact issue. I that lawsuit accuses the county of overdetaining people at the jail, at least 298 inmates who were held longer than they should have been, including some who were never charged at all. And, you know, so while Cleveland and the county point fingers at each other, the lawsuit argues that both sides are violating people’s constitutional rights by holding them without cause. So it is in everyone’s best interest.
to stop this practice.
Chris Quinn (16:18.489)
Well, in that case, the county’s wrong. They should have a system that the minute you’re supposed to be released, you’re released. And sometimes it would take them two days. But in most jails, the people who brought in are charged with crimes. So you don’t have this release issue because they’re never charged. Cleveland is, it’s been bad the entire time I’ve been here. When I lived in Florida, you were charged if you were arrested. The police did not put the cuffs on you.
unless you were charged with a crime. That was it. You were not going into the jail unless you carried charges with you. And Cleveland just doesn’t do it. It’s a lazy kind of sleazy tactic that they use to just sweep people up. And really Mayor Justin Bibb, who ran as a progressive, should be first in line to say, we’re stopping this right now. The county is absolutely right. His law director is so far out of line that it’s hard to believe.
Leila (17:13.784)
Yeah. And when someone’s stuck in jail, even for a couple of days without charges, the impact on their life can be devastating. We’re talking about people who can lose their jobs because they didn’t show up for work or parents who, yeah, they were their kids. They, know, folks can’t miss rent payments and, end up evicted because of something like this. for, people struggling, those couple of days can send their entire life in a tailspin. So, you know, we’re not just talking about an inconvenience. We’re talking about people being locked up in a place where
Chris Quinn (17:24.271)
Or they’re kids.
Leila (17:41.88)
you know, even their safety and their health and their future can be at risk because we all know that the jail has a history of dangerous conditions. So, you know, all before they’ve even been charged with anything. Insane.
Chris Quinn (17:49.467)
for like for
In this country, freedom is sacrosanct. You should not be deprived of it without cause. And I salute Chris Ronane for taking a stand on this. Somebody finally is taking a stand that should have happened a long time ago. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Remember malls? When’s the last time you were in one? Well, Layla likes to sleep in them every year, but everybody else. How is North Olmsted fighting retail trends by trying to keep its mall going, Lisa?
Lisa (18:15.302)
you
Yeah, we’re talking about Great Northern Mall, which is 70 years old this year, but it was enclosed as a mall in 1976. They currently have 80 tenants, but they have 17 vacant storefronts. There’s a Bed, Bath & Beyond there that’s been closed since 2020. And then they just recently lost Joanne and Big Lots stores, both of them going out of business. Mall marketing manager Dan Crandall says, you know, we have 1 million square feet of space.
how do we bring people back when they put their thinking caps on and got to work? So there’s an ongoing transformation at Great Northern Mall. Last summer, they opened a 10-screen Phoenix theater that drew 200,000 people. They have a New Texas Roadhouse restaurant coming and a large indoor play area. And they’re also hosting several shows like trading cards, craft shows, autograph shows, brings a lot of people. They said 2024 was a really good year for shows at the mall.
North Olmsted Economic Development Director Max Upton says the city has a vision for Great Northern Mall that would make it kind of a lifestyle center. It’s a 138 acre site. They envision retail, residential, dining and entertainment. They want to cut down on the parking and have more green space.
Chris Quinn (19:32.155)
Yeah, I just don’t know if it’s going to work, right? mean, there the malls, there used to be a bunch of them and they’re mostly gone. Beachwood continues to thrive because it’s got some, I guess, unique stores. There’s only Saks and then Geographic Area.
Lisa (19:44.24)
Yes, in Nordstrom. Yeah, aren’t any others within a hundred miles of the Beechwood place, so.
Chris Quinn (19:51.739)
But when’s the last time you were in a beachwood place?
Lisa (19:54.162)
Mmm... I’m not a mall person anyway. I mean, I go to the container store, but it’s not quite attached to the mall, but it’s there.
Chris Quinn (19:58.296)
Yeah
No. Laura, when’s the time you were in a mall?
Laura (20:03.687)
The thing is there’s so much room for retail, right? And people like the outdoor lifestyle center right now. Legacy Village last time I went looked like a ghost town too. And they just put a new Macy’s at Crocker Park, like a small footprint Macy’s. So I can’t imagine the one in North Olmsted, which is like four miles away, is going to stay open.
Lisa (20:09.084)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Leila (20:23.022)
Can I ask though, in this climate, why would anyone prefer to shop outside than to be inside? You would think that the evolution would be the other way, that we started with outdoor malls and then we advanced to indoor malls because we’re snowed in for most of the year. I actually like malls a lot. I hadn’t gone to them in a long time and then my kids are interested in them.
Lisa (20:34.706)
Mmm.
Chris Quinn (20:45.657)
That’s why you sleep in them.
Leila (20:50.978)
They love to like pretend they’re in the nineties and shopping, but I don’t, they’re great. Like I love the idea of it. I’m sad that they’re going away because I, and I just don’t quite understand that other than shopping in general has declined because of Amazon, but.
Laura (20:54.759)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Laura (21:05.902)
Right and you can order anything online right you just go to the mall to return it.
Leila (21:08.392)
What is why why are these like outside centers thriving? Why? What’s cool about that?
Lisa (21:14.642)
Maybe it’s a perception thing. don’t know. Maybe, know, like you said, malls were like, you know, that was my childhood. Severance Mall was the place to go. And then all of a sudden they turned into these lifestyle centers. But I don’t know. I think it’s an issue of perception maybe more than anything else. Don’t really know.
Leila (21:22.989)
Right.
Laura (21:32.945)
Maybe just that they’re newer and so they seem they have better stores if that’s what you’re looking for. mean, there’s a Lego store about Beachwood place. I think still has a Lego store at Crocker.
Lisa (21:43.504)
Well, and also too, at a lifestyle center, you know, or an outdoor mall, you get to see all the storefronts at once. In a mall, you have to enter the mall before you see the storefronts. So you don’t always maybe know what’s in there. So that might be one of the difference.
Laura (21:52.135)
Mm-hmm.
Leila (21:57.486)
Hmm.
Chris Quinn (21:57.795)
Okay, hot topic. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We talked last week about federal research dollars potentially drying up and this next story is about the kind of thing that would not happen if we lost the money. What if cancer researchers at Case Western Reserve University and university hospitals been testing that could be a game changer?
Laura (22:21.277)
This is a non-invasive esophageal cancer screening technology. And the idea is that you could test the abnormal cells in your esophagus, the ones that could develop into cancer, during a routine doctor’s visit. So they’re going to test multiple technologies invented by both and Case Western Reserve. And they’re using a something developed by the New York-based biotech firm, LUCIG Diagnostics. That’s what the technology is from.
and they got $8 million from the National Institutes of Health for this. That’s a lot of money. So they’re targeting this condition called Barrett’s esophagus. That’s a change in the cell lining of the esophagus. And they’re typically caused by gastroesophagus reflux disease or chronic heartburn. And that’s what can lead to the cancer. So they just began the trial. It’s 800 participants recruited from the University of Colorado, Johns Hopkins, University of North Carolina, and the Cleveland Clinic.
and they’ll do that over five years. So will likely have 300 patients from those who come in for the routine screenings.
Lisa (23:25.638)
This is a big deal because esophageal cancer, people don’t realize this, it’s one of the worst cancers you can have, esophageal cancer. And a lot of people who have acid reflux, know, Barrett’s esophagus, as you said, is a precursor. So yeah, this loss could be a big deal.
Chris Quinn (23:25.915)
OK.
Laura (23:40.475)
Should have given that question to Lisa.
Chris Quinn (23:40.676)
It seems like
And it seems like it’s increased. It seems like maybe it’s just because of my age, but it seems like we see more and more people dealing with it. And like you said, it’s a horrible one to deal with. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Today is St. Patrick’s Day, as we mentioned at the top of this episode, and the big parade steps off in the afternoon. But Leila, that parade’s future is clouded. How come?
Leila (24:07.15)
Yeah, it all comes down to a big street redesign that’s in the works. so here’s what’s happening. Starting in 2027, the city plans to build this massive raised bike plan or bike lane right down the middle of Superior Avenue, right where the parade marches every year. It’s part of this $25 million project called the Superior Midway. The idea is to make the streets safer and to slow down traffic and give cyclists a protected path. But once it’s done,
going to squeeze the road down to 24 feet wide on either side of this bike lane. And that’s where the parade organizers are running into trouble. They’re saying 24 feet isn’t wide enough to run the parade safely. So we’re talking about the marching bands and the floats, police officers on horseback and motorcycles, chaperones for the kids who are walking in the parade. The whole operation, they say, needs more room to move and keep everyone safe. They’ve asked the city
to give them an extra six feet of road space on one side. And that would cut into that buffer between the cyclists and the street traffic. But Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration has said no. Bibb’s team argues that the narrow lanes are part of the point to keep drivers in check and make the streets safer year round. So unless something changes, the parade may need to find a new route starting in 2027. Patrick Murphy, who’s been running the parade for years,
says they’re looking into other options, but nothing has been decided and why they, while they’d love to stay downtown, they’re even considering moving the parade outside of downtown altogether. Now city councilman Kerry McCormick, who is a very proud Irish man himself, has said he’s not in favor of redesigning an entire street for an event that happens once a year. He promised that there will always be a St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown, even if the current organizers move it elsewhere. He has said,
Irish Clevelanders would pick up the mantle if that’s the case. So there’s a little bit of a showdown over this issue.
Chris Quinn (26:06.765)
It wasn’t always downtown though. mean, the history of it is in the story we published and it hasn’t been on Superior for even 20 years yet. It would be so easy to move it a block over to St. Clair. I don’t understand all the foo-for-all. And they said St. Clair is too far from Public Square. It’s not really. I mean, if you go all the way down St. Clair and then hang a left in Ontario, you’re going to be at Public Square pretty quick. I’m surprised they’re having this much of a fight. Look, the Superior by
path has some design issues that I think might get some bikers hit by cars. There’s some kind of frightening parts of it, but at least it’s an effort to create a bike path. We worked on Superior and things a mile wide and it’s just a wasteful use of space that could be so much better used and fighting over a once a year parade isn’t worth it.
Leila (27:00.758)
Yeah, the street is that wide because I believe it used to accommodate street cars back in the olden times. And, just don’t, I just don’t understand, know, you just to accommodate a parade that happens one day a year, you cannot suggest, you know, changing that bike plan that was, that was very thoughtfully engineered for a specific purpose. And I’m totally with the city on this.
Chris Quinn (27:05.149)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris Quinn (27:25.933)
Yeah. I mean, it was on Euclid and then the health line bumped it to Superior. Now it’s going to get bumped again. It seems like there are some decent choices they can have without getting all upset. As I recall, they got pretty upset about getting bumped from Euclid. This feels like deja vu to me. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Eaton Corporation remains one of Northeast Ohio’s significant employers and it just bought another company in the energy sector. Lisa, what is it?
Lisa (27:54.95)
Yeah, the Ireland based Eaton Corp, which has its North American headquarters in Beechwood is buying Fiberbond. It’s a Louisiana company that designs and builds modular power enclosures for industrial, utility, data center and communications use. Sale price is $1.4 billion. The sale will close in the third quarter of this year. Eaton spokesman Mike Yelton says Fiberbond has a reputation for engineering excellence and customer focus, especially with multi-tenant data centers.
It’s 2025 projected revenue for the 12 months ending in February is 378 million. So this is a going concern.
Chris Quinn (28:34.561)
It’s good news. Good news to see one of our local companies expanding and being healthy. We need more of that in Northeast Ohio. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Laura, your latest column is about perfectionism, something we don’t subscribe to on this podcast, obviously. I imagine a lot of people identified with it. What was your theme?
Laura (28:54.235)
didn’t really get a lot of feedback on this, which is surprising because I found this like a eureka moment, the understanding of perfectionism, which I have identified as a perfectionist since kindergarten-ish when the lead of my column is that I used to smooth out this bedspread with this plastic Happy Meal submarine toy. Like it had to be totally smooth. Everything had to be in its place. Everybody would drive me nuts from childhood all the way through college by just
moving things in my room, I’d walk in and just seat it and just completely fix it. So 30 % of Americans are considered perfectionists. This trait is more common in women than in men, and it’s more common now than it was in the 1980s, according to a study of college students. But it doesn’t just mean that you want things to be in their place all the time. There’s a lot of different kinds of perfectionism, and it could be
You could be a perfectionist in one area of your life and a total mess in another. You could be a procrastinating perfectionist or you could be like me who cannot stand to let things go. I just need to get it done so I don’t worry about it. And this idea of a restlessness to achieve, excel, and advance and to always want to be progressing and the idea that perfectionists are euda- euda-monic. I’d never heard this word before, but it’s the
opposite of hedonism and it means finding happiness in meaning and purpose. And when you look at it that way, it feels like a gift that you are happy working toward a goal.
Chris Quinn (30:23.48)
I’m a firm believer in 90%.
Leila (30:24.024)
I am a hedonistic anti-perfectionist. Just kidding. No, I said I’m a hedonistic anti-perfectionist, apparently. I’m just kidding.
Chris Quinn (30:28.027)
I say that again later on.
Chris Quinn (30:33.987)
Haha.
I’m a 90%. You get to 90%, I’m good. That last 10 % is, is, takes a whole lot of effort to get to perfect. I’m surprised you didn’t get more of a response because I thought it would resonate with people who have that. I mean, that example you used of as a kid, having every wrinkle out of your bedspread and your parents worrying about you kind of said it all. It makes a whole lot of sense for your vacuuming Tuesdays.
Laura (31:00.947)
I don’t vacuum on Tuesdays anymore. I switched that up. The schedule is different now. The thing is perfectionism is related to some multiple health disorders such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, personality disorder. But I just wanted people to know that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You can be in control of it and if you think about it differently, it can really make your life feel engaged.
Chris Quinn (31:04.059)
I
Laura (31:28.753)
this idea that people would always look at me and be like, why can’t you relax? What’s wrong with you? It’s like, but I don’t enjoy relaxing. I don’t, don’t enjoy that. I want to be working towards something that accomplishment makes me happy. It brings me joy.
Leila (31:42.306)
think it’s just funny to imagine little Laura opening her Happy Meal and being like, I got a bed smoother.
Chris Quinn (31:50.299)
Okay. Check out Laura’s column. It’s on cleveland.com. You can also subscribe to it at cleveland.com slash newsletters. That’s it for the Monday episode. For the St. Patrick’s day episode. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back Tuesday to talk about the news.