Cavaliers Ownership Is Shaping Downtown: CLE Daily

☀️ 66°; Sunny

🎭 Great Lakes Theater Opens Its 65th Season Tonight: Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale kicks off the new season at the Hanna Theater in Playhouse Square, with playwright Tracy Young offering a modern translation of the 1600s original. The show runs through Oct. 11.

⚾️ Guards Are Playoff Bound: A 1-0 win over the Boston Red Sox Thursday night clinched a third-straight playoff berth for the Cleveland baseball team. The AL Central has not yet been decided, and the Guards sit atop the division by half a game.

🚣 The Cuyahoga's Biggest Race Turns 30: The Head of the Cuyahoga Regatta returns Saturday for its 30th year, sending thousands of rowers down a 4,770-meter course through the industrial valley in one of the nation's largest single-day rowing events. The Cleveland Rowing Foundation says the race — free to watch, starting at 8 a.m. at Rivergate Park — has grown alongside three decades of riverfront revival and now pumps more than $1.5 million into the local economy each year. 

ICYMI: Remember yesterday's item on the threatened Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital strike? It happened: about 200 SEIU 1199 workers walked off the job Wednesday at noon after no deal was reached, and no new bargaining dates have been set.

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Today's Trivia

Warner and Swasey in Cleveland were instrumental in the development of what firearm, which was said to have made the Roaring '20s roar?

News: Rock Entertainment Group's Grading Itself a C — On Purpose.

By Dillon Stewart

The company behind the Cavs released its annual Impact Report on Thursday, and CEO Nic Barlage calls it a "report card" the org will never let itself ace. The 113-page report touts $450 million in direct and indirect spending, $15 million in philanthropy and 2,839 jobs — all while doubling down on a Downtown-first vision that contrasts with the Browns' move to Brook Park.

• The big number: Owner Dan Gilbert's family of companies has invested $1.1 billion in Cleveland and $4 billion across Northeast Ohio, with three major projects anchoring the strategy — the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, Cosm Cleveland and a planned 6,200-seat riverfront amphitheater.

• The self-critique: Asked about the report's Bs and Cs, Barlage pointed to restaurants closing, hotels struggling and food insecurity in the community. "I think we have to grade ourselves always as a C," he says.

Worth noting: Rock Entertainment Group wants to draw 5 million people to its properties by 2030, betting on what Barlage calls a "365-day-a-year city" built around experiences over material goods.

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

Ohio's new Medicaid work requirements start hitting residents' mailboxes now, even though the rules take effect Jan. 1. People ages 19 to 64 who get Medicaid through low income will need to prove 80 hours a month of work, school or community service — or qualify for one of several exemptions — or risk losing coverage.

Ohio lawmakers are coming back from their election-year break to vote on a 90-day gas tax holiday. The bill, expected Sept. 30, would suspend Ohio's 38.5-cent gas tax at an estimated cost of $600 million-plus, with Republican and Democratic leaders sparring over how to pay for it.

A new exhibit recreates Louis Stokes' congressional office, down to the desk. "Louis Stokes: From Poverty to Congress" opens today at the Cleveland History Center, built with his daughter Lori's help. He was Ohio's first Black member of Congress, elected in 1968 and serving 30 years.

The Guardians just hit an attendance milestone in another playoff push. Cleveland's ballpark culture has transformed alongside the team's sustained contention.

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma just hired its first-ever Ohio-based employee. Jennifer Aultman started in March with a mission to build and deepen the tribe's relationships across its ancestral homeland, more than a century after Shawnee removal from the state.

Akron-Canton Airport is owed $46,500 for ICE deportation flights. The regional airport has become a hub for deportation charter flights since ICE relocated operations there from Youngstown-Warren this spring, with landings climbing to 167 by mid-September — but three charter companies, Eastern Airlines, Global X and Air Wisconsin, are behind on landing fees, some dating to May. 

Sports: The 80-Year-Old Mystery of Brownie the Elf.

By Vince Guerrieri

The Browns were named for their first coach, Paul Brown — which left them needing a mascot, so a Plain Dealer artist sketched one in 1946: a stiff-armed elf. Brownies had a rockier ride than you'd guess for a guy on the midfield logo.

• The exile: When Art Modell bought the team in 1961, he reportedly wanted to "get rid of that little f---er" because of its ties to Paul Brown, and Brownie disappeared for decades.

• The comeback: New owner Al Lerner revived Brownie when the team returned in 1999; the Haslams brought back an elf mascot in 2015, and fans voted to paint Brownie at midfield in 2022.

Worth noting: Team historian Steve King says the hand-drawn charm is the whole appeal: "You can't look at it and not smile. It's like nothing you see anywhere else." 

Read the full story.

More Things To Do This Weekend

🌹 The Cleveland Rose Society Rose Show brings its finest blooms to Holden Arboretum's Corning Visitor Center Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., judged for scent and appearance; outside, Holden's Skeleton Grove display has returned with 12-foot decorated skeletons. 

🎨 Cleveland Botanical Garden goes floral this weekend, with a gallery opening tonight from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for landscape painter Jules Webster, watercolorist Tim Myrick and plein air artist Jeff Suntala, plus the Ikebana International Cleveland Chapter's Japanese flower-arranging display running Friday through Sunday.

🎶 Cleveland Chamber Choir's "Path of Miracles" traces the centuries-old Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain in a program combining multiple languages, with performances Friday in Lorain, Saturday in Cleveland and Sunday in Canton. 

🎡 Euclid Beach Park Day relives the lakefront amusement park's heyday Saturday, noon-4 p.m. at the Collinwood Recreation Center, with rides on the Rocket Ship Car and exhibits on the park's history. 

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street were the site of the first one of these in 1914. Electric traffic signal

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

This week gave us two very different bets on Cleveland's future.

Rock Entertainment Group released a 113-page report bragging about $1.1 billion sunk into Downtown — a Cavaliers practice facility, an amphitheater, Cosm — while CEO Nic Barlage insists on grading the company a C, citing restaurants still closing and food insecurity persisting. 

Meanwhile, the Browns keep building toward their new stadium in suburban Brook Park, betting on land over density. 

Same region, opposite theories of where a city's heart should beat. Only one of them is publishing a report card.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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