Seen and Heard (4)

And you thought our Rating the Suburbs issue was controversial. In July, The Plain Dealer offered an advertising package trying to entice suburban communities to buy ads to lure well-off West Park residents out of Cleveland now that city workers aren’t required to live there. Reporter Roldo Bartimole of the online Cleveland Leader broke the story. And even if few people saw it compared to the PD’s readership, the newspaper still explained itself with a story in its July 25 edition. The newspaper claims an “aggressive” salesperson sent the offer to only one city official, and PD executives never gave their OK. Still, you have to wonder what that one person was thinking. Really, what the whole episode illustrates is that when we lost the Cleveland Press — a daily newspaper that advocated for, celebrated and pushed the city toward better governance — we also lost a lot of perspective. No matter where you live, it’s important to be an advocate for a strong central city ... especially if you work in the sales department of its only daily newspaper.