Public Comment

Dear Cleveland City Council, I am a resident of the Tremont neighborhood and am writing as an individual in my personal capacity to encourage you to join in celebrating Transit Equity Day on February 4th, 2023, which is observed each year in honor of the life and legacy of Rosa Parks on her birthday. I also encourage you to commit to the Clevelanders for Public Transit Transit Equity Day challenge by committing to ride public transportation for a week beginning that day. Experiencing public transportation first-hand is an important way to build understanding and empathy about the ridership experience, and to break down the "windshield bias" that develops from only experiencing life from behind the windshield of a car. When you try transit, you may also find yourself walking and biking more to get to/from bus or train stops as well - giving you more perspective about sidewalk and bike lane/trail conditions as well. There are great resources to learn about improving transit - two excellent books are Better Buses, Better Cities by Steven Highashide, and Human Transit by Jarrett Walker (who has a long-running blog by the same name: https://humantransit.org/) My family moved to Cleveland in May 2022, and we are thankful to be able to share one car while meeting many of our transportation needs by walking, biking, and using transit. We appreciate all of the efforts by the City of Cleveland to make walking, biking, and transit safe and convenient options, and we know there is more work to do. Thank you for efforts on Complete and Greet Streets, and Vision Zero. Sincerely, Andrea Hamre, PhD Tremont Resident andreahamre.wordpress.com

Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts. I am writing in support of the Mayor's desire to fund system, process & technology upgrades within the City of Cleveland that will streamline & digitize Cleveland's 311 Resident Request hotline. As a resident of Cleveland, I can say we desperately need a timely, responsive, and easy-to-access way to reach City Hall. As someone who conducted a small bit of research on the topic as a member of the Mayor's transition advisory team, I can say that this is a gnarly problem only a serious commitment will be able to solve. I hope the Mayor and his teams will also consider how to provide access to those who do not have internet access at home. It is time for Cleveland to step into the digital age, while intentionally including all of its residents. I am in full support of the Mayor's initiative and I hope that Council will approve this funding. Thank you for your consideration.

Week after week a person in my household watch the Recycle garbage be put into the regular trash by the garbage men. I have stickers on the cans yet they are lazy and put everything together. I work at a hospital and if I screwed up I would lose my job. Maybe some of these low lifes should also.

I would encourage the Council and Mayor to review the investigations into coordinated sabotage of public utilities in majority-black communities in North Carolina, Washington, Michigan, and elsewhere. My suspicion is these events are not isolated, but part of regional efforts to prepare for major disruptions of social order as part of white nationalist and/or anarchic extremist political groups in the run-up to the 2024 election. I would encourage Council and the Mayor's office to consult with the FBI and state and local law enforcement, and that the issue within the Charter be resolved to permit armed security at these vital sites.

Dear City Council, I am writing you today after reading that there is discussion of closing the Burke Lakefront Airport. I’m just a small time guy from central Pennsylvania who enjoys general aviation. My wife and I also enjoy flying to Cleveland several times a year and spending an evening downtown at Drury or Marriott along with dinner and a show at Pickwick & Frolic. After leaving we always look forward to our return. Flying into Burke is great with easy access to the city, not many places in the US that you can fly in park the plane and walk into the city within minutes. We also enjoy the water front area, especially the sub, having spent 4 years on SSN , neat to see the old ones. Anyway, I can confidently say that if Burke Lakefront Airport closes that I’ll probably never be back to Cleveland as it’s over a 5 hour drive (also same distance to NYC) but only a lovely 50 minute flight. Mike Cummings, Wellsboro Pa. N66VK

Why is there not a program for seniors or at least reimbursement for bags.