Northeast Ohio Data Center Controversy, Cavs Advance to Eastern Conference Final: CLE Daily

🌤️ 89°; Partly Sunny

🥵 Heat Wave: Temperatures could approach record highs of 91 today and 88 tomorrow before potential Tuesday night thunderstorms.

🥊 Local Dream: Viral TikTok teacher balances kindergarten gym classes while pursuing a career in the UFC.

👮🏼‍♀️ Crime Rates: Cleveland has seen a rise in violent crime so far this year.

📈 The Next Gen: Case Western business school dean Andrew Medvedev says today’s students expect purpose and are entering a workforce on the brink of massive technological change.

🍿 Home Away From Home: Tickets for the Cavs' Game 1 (May 19) and Game 2 (May 21) Eastern Conference Finals watch parties at Rocket Arena are on sale now. 

ICYMI: The 350-acre Midline Priority Investment Area would transform long-vacant industrial land along the Norfolk Southern rail corridor into a connected district for advanced manufacturing, research, parks and workforce transit access.

Today's Trivia

The steamship City of Detroit II, bought and renamed by the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Co. in 1924 and used for trips between Cleveland, Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands, was the first ship with what name?

Inside one Ravenna resident's fight against data centers.

Business | By Annie Nickoloff

When new data center proposals rapidly bubbled up in Ravenna and other parts of Northeast Ohio in 2026, city resident Will Hollingsworth felt a push to get involved.

Will Hollingsworth: “I have moral obligations. I have environmental obligations. And as a tech person, I have ethical obligations to where I feel like I need to speak out on this.”

• Important Speech: Hollingsworth spoke at a Ravenna City Council meeting in April, sharing their perspective on data centers with council members and concerned residents. They detailed research about data centers’ energy demands on local electrical grids, extensive use of water used to cool servers and environmental concerns around the Great Lakes Basin amid a global rise in artificial intelligence use.

• Viral Moment: The speech resonated with viewers online, going viral on Hollingsworth’s TikTok channel with more than 600,000 views. It has circulated in a variety of posts and shares, and has been cited and covered by national media outlets like Futurism and Yahoo, bringing a national spotlight onto Ravenna’s data center battle.

“It was a stroke of luck. Suddenly, everybody has heard my speech,” Hollingsworth says. “It has proven that this might be one of the very first, in a long time — at least in the last 10 years — actually bipartisan issues where it's more important than party lines. This is more important than supporting a red or a blue candidate. This is about the environment. This is about our health.”

• Force of Change: After public comments and discussion, Ravenna City Council voted to approve a temporary moratorium preventing new data centers from being built.

• Growing Movement: It joins a rising number of towns with data center moratoriums in Northeast Ohio, including Lordstown, Painesville, Wellington and Twinsburg. (Hollingsworth also spoke at a Twinsburg City Council meeting ahead of its vote.)

• Data Center Development: Meanwhile, other parts of Northeast Ohio are navigating controversial data center plans. According to news reports, protesters have packed meetings in both Perry Village and New Russia Township, where data center megasites have been proposed.

• Centers Expand: According to Data Center Map, Ohio currently is home to 205 data centers, mostly clustered around Columbus. The Greater Cleveland area currently has 25 data centers.

Cleveland's own future with data centers is murky. A moratorium on data centers is being considered by Cleveland City Council, after proposals to construct or expand data centers in the city’s Slavic Village and Downtown neighborhoods. (On Thursday, May 14, the City announced that it rejected the permit application for the data center in Slavic Village.) 

• Ohio-Wide Issue: On a statewide level, Ohio Residents for Responsible Development is gathering signatures to put the data center issue on the November ballot. The proposed amendment would limit the size of new data centers that can be built in Ohio, banning anything larger than 25-megawatt data centers.

Read more about pushback on data centers.

Photo of the Day: USS Cleveland enters the fleet.

On Saturday, Robyn Modly, the USS Cleveland ship sponsor, gave the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”

At that moment, the commissioning pennant for the ship was raised, entering the USS Cleveland into the U.S. Navy.

Modly was joined by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Rep. Shontel Brown, Sen. Jon Husted, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and U.S. Navy Adm. Karl Thomas

Talk of the Town

After hitting their 2025 goals for digital literacy numbers and subscribers goals, the city of Cleveland approved $4.3 million in funding to DigitalC, reports Cleveland Scene. The nonprofit had missed its 2024 goals, prompting the city to withhold $1 million last year.

Cuyahoga County's capital facilities bonds received good ratings from S&P Global Ratings and Moody's. The bonds are to be used to construct a new jail and headquarters for the county sheriff's department. 

Ohio has awarded the West Side Market a grant totaling over $750,000. The grant will be used towards the $70 million renovation project happening at the market. The renovation adds a prepared food hall, courtyard, venue and teaching kitchen.

Spencer Lowe, a former North Royalton police officer is suing the city for alleged retaliation following the arrest of a fellow officer. Lowe alleged he was fired after arresting Orange Village police officer Patrick O’Callahan. Lowe says that city officials deleted part of his arrest report and that once he spoke up, he was fired. 

Cavs advance to the Eastern Conference Finals after a blowout Game 7.

Sports | Dennis Manoloff, Photo by AP Photos

What a weekend for the Cavs. After a flat, frustrating Game 6 loss at Rocket Arena that forced a winner-take-all matchup in Detroit, Cleveland responded with its most complete performance of the postseason, crushing the Pistons 125-94 in Game 7 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Knicks.

Here are three takeaways:

• The Cavs answered the pressure: Friday night’s home loss felt ominous, with Detroit bullying Cleveland and pushing the series to the brink. But instead of folding on the road, the Cavs delivered a focused, dominant Game 7 performance from the opening tip and never let the Pistons breathe.

• The stars finally aligned: Donovan Mitchell bounced back after a rough Game 6, James Harden controlled the game even beyond the box score and Evan Mobley delivered one of the defining performances of his young career. Cleveland’s top players looked like a team capable of making a real postseason run.

• Now comes the Knicks: The Cavs survived a chaotic, emotional seven-game battle and now shift to a massive Eastern Conference Finals matchup against New York. If Cleveland can bottle the intensity and urgency it showed Sunday afternoon in Detroit, this next series suddenly looks very interesting.

Cavs vs. Knicks: The Cavs face the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Watch DMan's Game 7 recap.

Friday's Trivia Answer

Nebraska native Bob Wells – who later became a co-host of late-night movies with Big Chuck Schodowski – came to Cleveland in 1965 as what rhyming character on the WJW news? Hoolihan the Weatherman

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

From the Editor

That's why you play the game. Man, Cavs fans, we were down Friday night. People I talked to, social media users — a lot of Clevelanders were counting this team out. Have we no faith? Have we forgotten the 3-1 lead? This series is a great reminder, especially heading into two tough away games to kick off against the Knicks, that down doesn't mean defeated. - Dillon Stewart, Editor