Friday September 3, 2021
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Online Zoom Meeting
Dear Colleagues:
Greetings, and I hope that you and yours are healthy and safe in this better but not quite better enough time for the world, our nation, our community, and Case Western Reserve University.
Our “Friday Lunch” continues as an online-only event. Students have returned and the first week of classes has mostly gone well. But the spread of the Delta variant and somewhat expected news that protection through vaccination appears to decline over time still leave reason for caution. I do not see how the kind of distancing and care that public health would recommend can be combined with a large group of people having lunch in a fairly crowded room. Perhaps in a few weeks there will be less reason for concern, and we will revisit whether we can meet in person later in September. Please e-mail me if you have suggestions about other approaches – for instance, does it make sense to do “Friday Lunch” without, well, lunch? My e-mail is joseph.white@case.edu.
This Week’s Program
However we meet, there is lots to talk about this semester, and our next topic is rather urgent. On September 14 Cleveland will hold a nonpartisan primary to choose two candidates for Mayor in the general election on November 2. The primary seems wide open, and whether the leader wins the general election will depend a lot on who finishes second so is running against the leader. The victor will succeed Cleveland’s longest-serving mayor, Frank Jackson, who was first elected in 2005.
There will be voters who cannot remember any other mayor, and the choice will influence the future of the city and region for years to come. Mayor Jackson is leaving a city that has been losing population, has close to the highest poverty rate of any large city in the country, and faces myriad other challenges – so much so that some might wonder why anyone would want the job. Nevertheless, there are seven candidates and six arguably have a shot to make the final two.
So who are these candidates, what do they stand for, who seems likely to support them, and what seems most likely to happen? They range from someone who has held the job before, with a very long career in politics, Dennis Kucinich, to Justin Bibb, a relatively new face, endorsed by the Plain Dealer in the hope he might be another Michael White but suddenly facing concern about financial disclosure forms. Outgoing City Council President Kevin Kelley is endorsed by Mayor Jackson, and State Senator Sandra Williams by Cuyahoga County Executive Armand Budish. Former and longtime City Councilman Zack Reed finished second in 2017, and Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones is having success in fundraising to support his reputation as a dynamic speaker.
It’s a challenging set of choices, and Ideastream has been covering the race in depth, including as co-sponsor, with The City Club of Cleveland, of debates on August 10 and August 17. Join us as Nick Castele reviews how the campaign has developed so far and what to look for going forward.
Signing In
This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long. Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website: fridaylunch.case.edu.
If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwoduCorjopHtBybWHhyWWKDYo5AcfHlBns
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Nick Castele is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and has been a reporter and producer for 90.3 WCPN and WVIZ/PBS Ideastream, Cleveland’s public radio and television stations, since 2012. His work focuses on politics, government and a variety of other issues in Northeast Ohio. He’s covered the local costs of the opioid crisis, Cleveland’s history of never-realized transit plans and a high-rise in East Cleveland that’s stood vacant for years. Ideastream has joined with the City Club of Cleveland to sponsor two mayoral candidate debates.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
September 10: Ohio’s Redistricting. With Mark Salling, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Research Associate, Northern Ohio Data Information Service and Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.
September 17: After the Pandemic… A roundtable discussion with Maxwell J. Mehlman, J.D., Distinguished University Professor and Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law; Mark Turner, Ph.D., Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science; and Joe White, Ph.D., Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy.
September 24: Civilian Oversight of Police. With Ayesha Bell Hardaway, J.D., Associate Professor of Law and Deputy Monitor, Cleveland Police Monitoring Team.
October 1: What’s Happening in the Labor Market? With Bruce Fallick, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
October 8: A Conversation with Scott Cowen, Ph.D. President Emeritus and Distinguished University Chair, Tulane University, and Interim President of Case Western Reserve University. (October 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021)
October 15: TBA
October 22: The Biden Administration’s Immigration Policies. With Aleksandar Cuic, J.D., Director of the Immigration Clinic, Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center, CWRU School of Law.
October 29: TBA
November 5: Redeveloping Buckeye/Woodhill. With Taryn Gress, MSSA, Strategic Director, and Debbie Wilber, Assistant Director, National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities.
November 12: Can India Survive as a Secular Democracy? With Ananya DasGupta, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History.
November 19: TBA
December 3: President Biden’s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change. With Juscelino Colares, J.D., Schott-van den Eynden Professor of Business Law. |
