Cleveland’s Midline project looks to revitalize East Side, create jobs | Reporters Roundtable

Can hundreds of acres of abandoned industrial land on a neglected section of Cleveland's East Side become an economic engine, providing accessible jobs where employees can walk or bike to work on new multipurpose trails. That's the strategy behind the Midline, an ambitious redevelopment project announced this week. From aspirational development to unwanted development, namely a data center in Slavic Village. Cleveland denied a permit for what would have been the largest hyperscale data center in the city, on 35 acres in the Slavic Village neighborhood. Cleveland joins a number of communities where data centers are being protested or rejected. It's an issue state lawmakers are paying attention to. A new bi-partisan committee of the legislature will focus on data centers as public concerns grow around the mega sites' use of energy, and the data industry pushes back. Cleveland's Planning Commission will get a look Friday at a new plan for University Circle that looks to make the area known as Cleveland "second Downtown" more accessible and safer for pedestrians and motorists alike. Sherwin-Williams finally cut the ribbon this week on its towering new headquarters in Downtown Cleveland. The building is the fourth-tallest building in the city and the sixth tallest in Ohio. The company announced plans for a new headquarters in 2019 and for a brief time considered moving out of state. The opening was slowed by construction delays. The Tenth District Court of Appeals in Columbus will decide whether using public education money for private school vouchers violates the state constitution. A three-judge panel heard arguments this week in a lawsuit filed in 2022 by a coalition representing more than half of the state's school districts. The monitor overseeing the U.S. Justice Department's consent decree with Cleveland meant to improve policing offered an 11-point plan to get Cleveland in compliance with the federal decree. Last week, just after we finished this show, a federal judge rejected the city's bid to exit the 11-year-old consent decree, saying more work was needed to reach compliance. These stories and more will be part of this week’s discussion the “Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable. Guests: -Abbey Marshall, Local Government Reporter, Ideastream Public Media -Matt Richmond, Criminal Justice Reporter, Ideastream Public Media -Karen Kasler, Bureau Chief, Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau