The Cleveland Heights Domestic Partner issue passed by a 10% margin! This means that both Gay and Straight unmarried partners there can register and apply for property rights, employment benefits, and hospital visitation rights. Cleveland Heights is the first municipality in the nation to pass such a measure by referendum. Thank you, Cleveland Heights!
And to those who opposed it: if you don't like living in a progressive community, why don't you go live somewhere else, like Alabama?
The Lakewood West End development project was defeated by the narrowest of margins: 39 votes. I must confess to having very mixed feelings about this one. Lakewood is totally built up, with no land available for development unlike, say, Avon Lake. Their infrastructure is outdated and in need of repair, their tax base is inadequate. However, the way the developers and Mayor Madeline Cain shoved this proposal down the citizens' throats was inexusable, undemocratic and an affront to private property rights. The designaton of homes along the West End as "blighted" merely because they didn't have an attached garage and enough bathrooms was ridiculous--the mayor's own home fit the "blighted" description. Frankly, if there's any part of Lakewood that needs to be redeveloped, it's the area along the Eastern border of the city. But that's a discussion for another time.
Also in Lakewood, Madeline Cain was defeated in her bid for reelection, doubtless fallout from her endorsemet of the West End project. And gay city council candidates John Farina and Jeremy Elliot were also defeated.
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