Climate Action Contest: Check out the second and third place winners (pg. 7) Friday, October 6, 2023 Volume LV, Issue 7 Est. 1969
CLIMATE ACTION CONTEST
[1st Place] Resilience, renewal and the power of nature: No disaster too big Alexandra Pérez-Robles Contributing Writer When I was eight years old, my brother and I planted two rainbow eucalyptus trees in our hillside backyard. My dad said he wanted the seeds to grow alongside us, getting taller by the year just as we would. I remember observing the neighboring shrubs, trying to spoil what my tree would look like someday. A few years later, my mother revealed her fondness for the flamboyan that took root in front of our porch. Referred to as a flamboyant or peacock tree, when its flowers bloom the vibrant red colors dance on every inch of the surrounding landscape. My mom told me she looked
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forward to it every year because she knew that regardless of what the tree endured, it would always bloom. It puzzled me then, the way she referred to a plant as resilient when earlier that week one of my classmates had trampled over delicate flowers when retrieving the soccer ball he had kicked out of bounds. Growing up in such a green environment like Puerto Rico, it was easy to take nature for granted. No amount of onomatopoeia can mimic the sounds of Sept. 20, 2017. On that day, my home was ravaged by Hurricane Maria. The whistling wind and sound of clanging branches provoked a fear I had never experienced before. During the storm, the flamboyan cracked—almost divinely—and its ever-solid trunk fell to the ground.
As the red flowers scattered, they were overtaken by all the other greenery razed by the hurricane. The once towering rainbow eucalyptus became another obstacle in the wreckage that littered my neighborhood streets. The aftermath consisted of picking up debris from the shattered windows and collapsed ceiling of my life-long home. My family spent six months without electricity or running water. Others on the island lost much more than just material possessions. Over 250,000 Puerto Ricans were displaced as a result of the natural disaster, not accounting for the thousands more that migrated later. An islandwide blackout left us with no means of communicating with loved ones and no way of knowing who survived.
It took me three days to contact the first few friends and family members. It took another two weeks to contact relatives who lived further away from the metropolitan area. Experts noted that the crisis was increasingly devastating due to the effects of climate change. With each passing year, higher activity is expected during hurricane season. It is no longer a matter of if there will be another catastrophic storm to devastate my community, but when. This fact should urge humanity to take action, to prevent any more homes and loved ones from being lost. Continue reading on page 7
Coventry Street Festival highlights revitalization efforts Zachary Treseler News Editor
On Sept. 30, Coventry Village hosted a street festival, drawing visitors from all around Cleveland, including Case Western Reserve University. The event showcased efforts to implement a revitalization campaign in the wake of COVID-19. Walking down Coventry Road, various stores hosted pop ups on the sidewalk, local artists were selling their crafts and various free giveaways were taking place. From a local ink printer to the Heights Tropical Sno, the street fair provided ample time for the CWRU community to reconnect with the local area. Efforts at creating a lively community in Coventry Village are becoming more difficult. Cleveland Scene reported that onethird of all commercial properties in the area are vacant. This is in combination with competition from other areas of Cleveland, from Tremont and Ohio City to CWRU’s University Circle, which have seen an uptick in investments and visits. The city had previously spent funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on Coventry Village, having been awarded approximately $39 million from the federal government in 2021. At the start of August, the Coventry Village Special Improvement District (CVSID) began lobbying for a proposal to allocate $400,000 from the city’s ARPA funds to their district. This was proposed in the run up to a City Council meeting where many business owners made impassioned demands for these funds. Just before their speeches, the council approved a motion from the Mayor of Cleveland Heights Kahlil Seren, declaring the need to create a public works plan for the neighbor-
hood. “These vacancies impact morale, diminish street traffic and sales and dilute our unique cultural identity,” Mallory Kent, executive director of the CVSID, said in a statement intended for August’s city council meeting. The discussion surrounded where money to Coventry Village should come from and how much it should be. In September, Kent noted that the city never fully disclosed “how much money is available for allocation.” The CVSID originally requested $60,000 from the ARPA. The CVSID’s vision was not fully realized. On Sept. 5, Seren introduced his own legislation to give just under $175,000 this calendar year and roughly a similar amount for the next four years, totalling just over $900,000, to the CVSID. Money would not come from the ARPA, but instead from taxes that will be collected by the city in the future. On Sept. 24 it passed unanimously. “The City of Cleveland Heights is committed to Coventry’s success, and the recent steps we’ve taken—including reauthorizing its Special Improvement District, implementing our Shared Spaces program and reinvigorating our capital investment activities—will help it thrive,” Seren said. The legislation itself states that this is an “emergency measure necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety of the inhabitants of the City of Cleveland Heights.” Councilperson Gail Larson mentions how this proposal is set to evolve in the future. “This legislation is a normal piece that we approve when the Coventry Special Improvement District (SID) asks for an advance on the money that is collected from the property owners in the Coventry Business District,” Larson said. “Council expects to have one more meeting to hear one more time
The Coventry Street Festival engages students with local businesses and street performers. Courtesy of Coventry Village from the Non-profits, like Coventry Village, who are seeking ARPA funds before we finalize our allocation.” Councilperson Tony Cuda emphasizes the utilitarian nature of the legislation. In his view this is not something special and geared towards Coventry Village, but a procedural matter for the city as a whole. “What this legislation does is to give the Coventry SID their share of tax dollars up front so they can spend them on the basic needs of the business dis-
trict [without] having to wait to collect them,” he said. “The actual tax dollars are then paid back to the city once collected. We do this for all SID’s, not just Coventry.” Cuda said that the City Council is dedicated to helping businesses thrive. “We do that by allowing our SID’s to get their tax dollars up front to expedite improvements, and more recently, dedicating precious ARPA funds to revitalize Coventry and our other commercial districts.”