2023 in review

2023 was an active year which included adventures, challenges, and triumphs.

I continued with my quest for fitness and, although I still have a bit of a belly, my weight is at its lowest level since the late 1990s and my waist is six inches smaller than in 2020.   I've also become a bit more muscular although I have no desire to become overly pumped.  

Since 2020, my life has been increasingly centered at home, as I’ve been a remote worker since then.  Daniel and I celebrated 17 years as a couple and 15 years in our South Euclid home.  What we’ve learned in the last decade and a half is that the work on our 83-year-old house never ends.  This year we had new storm windows installed – the previous ones were probably about 50 years old and rattled whenever a large truck or music blasting car drove by.  Our primary reason for replacing the storm windows was for better protection from the extremes of hot and cold one encounters in our region.  It will take several more months before we can gauge the impact on our utility bills, but the reduction in street noise was immediately noticeable and most welcome.

A new storm window being installed.

The storm windows held up well against the massive storm that struck in August, which left us without electricity for 86 hours.    

No review of 2023 in Northeast Ohio is complete without the state’s voters resounding endorsement of Issues 1 and 2, which guaranteed reproductive rights and allowed recreational cannabis, respectively.  Although Issue 1 is a constitutional amendment, Issue 2 was a ballot issue and state Republicans have been trying to restrict its impact.  It will be interesting to see how Ohio voters react to political interference in 2024.    

Sadly, 2023 also saw the resurgence of the odious Donald Trump, to which I can only respond: Have the American people forgotten the non-stop issuance of virtual diarrhea during the four years he was in the White House?  Have they forgotten how badly he mishandled COVID?  How the economy suffered?  How the Federal deficit exploded?  How he enabled and even encouraged the most flagrant racism and even insurrection?  How many times must people hit their own heads with a hammer before they realize that they’d feel better if they stopped?  Sure, the last two years have had a few challenges, mostly due to the emergence from the COVID crisis and the revival of our supply lines.  The biggest challenge was inflation, which slowed throughout 2023.  The economy is strong, unemployment is low, and the Fed has indicated they are about to start cutting interest rates.  Life is not perfect, but it’s arguably better.  Even the problems at our Southern border are largely because America is the land of hope and opportunity – and it would be even better if right-wing obstructionists would just get out of the way.  

Cleveland’s Classical music scene has now fully recovered from COVID, and in some ways is even stronger than before 2020.  The Cleveland Orchestra continued with its savvy programming approach which included plenty of newer and unfamiliar older music alongside Classical favorites.  I went to too many concerts to go into detail here, but a highlight included Michael Sachs playing Wynton Marsalis’ new Concerto for Trumpet.   

Local business developments included the long overdue demolition of the Richmond Mall, to be replaced by Belle Oaks, a mixed-use development. 

Danny and I traveled to Palm Springs in the winter and New Mexico in the autumn, along with quick trips to Saugatuck in the spring and New England over Labor Day weekend.  The New Mexico trip was in part to scope out a potential winter home for when we retire, but the more I travel, the more I feel centered in Cleveland.  Life is so affordable here; everything we need – high culture, sports, cuisine, medical care – is within easy access; even the winters are becoming easier to manage.

Enjoying Maple Creemees in Vermont

I also made four solo trips: one trip to London which was, to be honest, not very enjoyable; and three trips to see family members from which I brought home happy memories.

In Florida with my niece and her son

With my sister and her husband.

This year also saw the continued evolution of a meaningful relationship with someone who had been in the periphery of my life until about two years ago.  We had some ups and downs in 2023, but the year ended on a high note and my friendship with this person has had a profound impact on my life – and I hope it has a positive impact on this person’s life.

On to 2024!

My review of Cleveland Quartet - the Complete RCA Album Collection

 Amazon has published my latest review, of the Cleveland Quartet's complete RCA recordings - which includes a very fine performance of Beethoven's complete String Quartets.  Click here to read it. 

My review of Artur Rodziński's Cleveland Orchestra recordings

My review of Artur Rodziński & The Cleveland Orchestra - The Complete Columbia Album Collection has been published.  The 13CD set provides much musical food for thought for those interested in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra.  Click here to read the complete review.

Anderson, Martinů, and Tchaikovsky at Severance

This weekend’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Severance Hall combined a US premiere, a local premiere, and a repertoire favorite for a most satisfying program.  The guest conductor was Semyon Bychkov.

The US Premiere was the Symphony No. 2, titled “Prague Panoramas,” by British composer Julian Anderson.  The work was not so much inspired by the city itself, which the composer didn’t visit until after the symphony was completed, but by a series of panoramic photographs taken by Josef Sudek.  The photos are of remarkable clarity, and so is Anderson’s comprehensive orchestration, which featured extensive percussion including a tuned Thai gong, ocean drum, vibraphone, marimba, and numerous types of bells – the latter a poignant reminder that during their occupation of Prague, the Nazis stripped the city of every bell they could find and sent them to Germany to be melted down for ammunition.  The work is more a series of textures and sonorities than a development of themes, and the composer’s approach is too cosmopolitan to confine the work’s inspiration to one city or nation.  It bears further hearing, particularly the central movement in which a desolate sensuality pervaded.  Bychkov, who premiered the symphony in London last year, led an assured, polished performance.  I've never seen Bychkov conduct before; it was a pleasure to observe how he conducted the orchestra and not the audience. 

Josef Sudek's panorama of Prague's Charles Bridge.

The Severance stage, 

showing the extensive orchestration for Anderson's Symphony.

Following intermission, conductor and orchestra were joined by duo pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque – the latter of whom is Bychkov’s wife – for Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos.  The work is dissimilar to other works in the genre.  Instead of contrasting passagework, the opening movement features the pianists doubling each other – a considerable challenge in coordination.  The central movement begins with some arresting runs on the pianos before settling into a narcoleptic spell – the sense of disorientation is enhanced by the fact that much of the piano part is written without bar lines.  The finale has an upbeat appeal, and the performance elicited an enthusiastic audience response.  The pianists offered an encore: a new rag-like work by Phillip Glass.

The Labèque sisters following the concerto.

What struck this listener most about Bychkov’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy was its musicality.  The conductor paid unusual attention to the lower levels of dynamics at the beginning – the little crescendos and decrescendos that bring music to life.  This was doubly effective as the fortissimos further into the piece seemed truly shocking.  Juliet’s theme was given an expansive, yet non-schmaltzy treatment.  Tchaikovsky revised the work over a decade’s time until he was satisfied with it.  It was a rare pleasure to hear the work played not as a well-worn warhorse, but as music worthy of respect.    

My review of Rudolf Serkin, The Lost Tapes

My review of Deutsche Grammophon's new issue, a previously unpublished recording of Rudolf Serkin playing Beethoven's Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas, has been posted.  Click here to read it. 

Willful Dvořák and stunning Tchaikovsky with Inkinen and Hadelich at Severance

Saturday evening’s concert at Severance featured guest conductor Pietari Inkinen making his Cleveland Orchestra debut, along with returning violinist Augustin Hadelich. 

The concert opened with Dvořák’s Othello Overture, Op. 93.  It’s not one of the composer’s well-known works, despite the familiar subject matter of Shakespeare’s play. Composed in 1892, it wasn’t performed in Cleveland until a century later – a noteworthy omission for an orchestra that has long championed the unfamiliar.  The chief problem is an overabundance of ideas, intended to depict specific scenarios within the plot, which are presented but not developed.  I was left with no desire to investigate this music more fully.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Op. 35 is, of course, another matter.  It’s a work which combines Tchaikovsky’s knack for memorable tunes, great passion, a dramatic through-line, secure architecture, and idiomatic writing which tests the limits of instrument and instrumentalist.  The composer was assisted by his probable lover Iosif Kotek, a gifted violinist who advised the composer on aspects of the violin part.  He was the initial dedicatee of the work until Tchaikovsky, cautious about his personal reputation, switched the dedication to Leopold Auer – who was initially uninterested in the piece.  Eduard Hanslick’s notoriously hostile review, in which he ranted that the music “stinks to the ear” and that “the violin was not played but beaten black and blue” has gone down as one of the most wrong-headed musical criticisms of all time.  Soloist Hadelich is no stranger to Cleveland.  He turned in a memorable performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto six years ago.  Hadelich has everything needed for Tchaikovsky: an immaculately superlative technique, a vocal – almost throaty – tone, plenty of temperament, and the inherent taste to know just how much to stretch a melody or push the dynamics.  All these gifts were put into the service of musical virtuosity and a bona-fide masterpiece – no doubt the finest of Tchaikovsky’s four concertos.  Hadelich was ably assisted by Inkinen and the orchestra, but one felt this was mostly the soloist’s conception.  A rousing ovation followed, and Hadelich gifted the audience with an encore – the name of the work was not announced, but it sounded like it was composed by Fritz Kreisler. 

Iosif Kotek with Tchaikovsky in 1877.

Following intermission, Inkinen returned to lead the orchestra in Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 – and this performance was problematic indeed.  First was the issue of tempo relationships.  The opening movement was overdriven so the merriment of the music sounded hard driven – as if the music was on cocaine.  The second movement adagio dragged, while the allegretto was missing the Mendelssohnian lightness inherent in the writing.  The finale featured a general pulling apart of the structure so that the final accelerando was anti-climactic.  Further, there was little of the transparency and attention to balance one is accustomed to hearing from this orchestra.  I was far from the only person to feel this way.  An unusually large number of patrons left after the second and third movements.

Still, the concert was worth attending for the Tchaikovsky. 

Ohio’s terrible politicians can’t keep it from moving forward

 

Yesterday, Ohio’s voters handed a decisive victory to those who believe that individual humans should have the right to control their own bodies. 

Both Issue 1 (guaranteeing reproductive rights) and Issue 2 (legalizing Cannabis) passed with 57% voting in the affirmative.  Doubtless most who voted “Yes” on Issue 1 voted the same on Issue 2; and there were some who split their vote.  But the issues both passed by a substantial margin, in the face of misleading claims from the opposition that bordered on hysteria.

The anti-Issue 1 group even resorted to illegal tactics, including placing their signs on polling center property, as shown in this video I captured Tuesday morning.

Ohio Republicans from Governor Mike DeWine to Secretary of State Frank LaRose (likely a candidate for Senate next year) to scandal-beleaguered Lake County commissioner John Plecnik beat the drums against these issues.  They lost. 

Ohio’s Democratic and unaffiliated voters must now band together to free Ohio from the iron-grip Republicans have inflicted upon our state.  DeWine is term-limited out.  We must not allow LaRose to defeat Senator Sherrod Brown in November.  LaRose would try to implement the same policies nationally as he was trying to do in Ohio. 

We can celebrate our victory for now.  But the fight is not over, and it never will be. 

A Trip to New Mexico

Daniel and I have prioritized our travel to explore places we’ve never been before.  Our latest trip was to New Mexico, which neither of us had ever visited.  Friends have been telling me about Santa Fe for years.  I originally planned to visit in the summer of 2021, but the Delta variant reared its ugly head and I decided to forego that trip.  We finally got around to visiting New Mexico this month, partly for leisure, partly to investigate a possible winter home.

If flying, the most efficient way to get into New Mexico is to fly to Albuquerque (ABQ).  Santa Fe has an airport, but it’s very small and we found if we were to fly there, the price would have been higher, and our layover would have gone on forever.  So, we flew into ABQ via Denver.  Upon landing in Denver, we had to wait 20 minutes before our gate was ready, then had to rush to the other terminal for our connection – only to discover that that flight was also delayed.  No worries, we arrived at ABQ’s charmingly westernized airport only slightly late, got our rental car, and enjoyed a leisurely drive to Santa Fe. 

By the time we got into Santa Fe, we were hungry, so we headed to Santa Fe Plaza, near the Palace of the Governors and parked our rental.  We selected Coyote Cantina, where I enjoyed some fine drinks, and I sampled my first ever Frito Pie.  Delicious!

A Frito Pie

Dan in a hare-ey situation.

We started Friday with a hike at Cerrillos Hills State Park.  Exercise was necessary, because we ate so much during our trip that we ran the risk of sabotaging our diets.  Then we headed to Meow Wolf, a sort of combination art gallery and funhouse, which was the highlight of our trip.  This is the kind of place that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and persuasions.

Outside Meow Wolf

Dan in the cotton candy room

We were unaware an annular eclipse was going to occur during our trip, so we neglected to bring solar viewing glasses and, despite looking at numerous places, were unable to find any.  We went to an empty parking lot Saturday morning and enjoyed it as best we could without harming our eyes.

That evening, we took a break from our sightseeing to take in the new Exorcist film.  It was totally unmemorable. 

Sunday morning, we packed up and headed to Albuquerque for the last two days of our trip.  Instead of taking I-25, we took state route 14.  This proved to be interesting as it took us through the tiny town of Madrid, once a mining town, later a filming location for Wild Hogs, now mostly an artists’ colony.  Continuing our journey south, we took a detour and drove to the top of Sandia Crest, then back down again.  By the time we got into Albuquerque, our appetite needed to be satisfied and we stopped at the 66 diner.  The experience was more notable for its vintage Route 66 décor than for the ordinary Chicken Fried Steak I ate. 

On our way to ABQ from Santa Fe

Comfort food

Albuquerque is quite a bit larger than Santa Fe – its population is greater than municipal Cleveland, yet it retains a small-town feel.  With the roads largely laid out in a grid pattern, it’s easy to navigate.  (Just about every road we encountered in New Mexico was far superior to Ohio’s counterparts.)   Old Town was quite crowded on Sunday, with vendors and activities aplenty.  Yet we found most were selling the same things as in Santa Fe. 

Monday was our last full day in New Mexico.  Dan had been wanting to try blue corn pancakes, so we headed to the Range café for an early breakfast.  Although I’ve been on a low-carbohydrate diet since 2021 (and have lost almost 40 pounds), I tried the pancakes and greatly enjoyed them.  We then headed to the Sandia Peak Tramway for a ride to the top – some 10,679 feet.  Yes, our ears popped on the way up and on the way down.  Unfortunately, due to a minor injury I wasn’t able undertake a hike to the Kiwanis cabin, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  Still, the vistas from the peak made it one of the highlights of our trip.

View of ABQ from Sandia Peak

We flew home Tuesday, connecting at George Bush Intercontinental Airport – a fine, well-run airport.  During our brief connection, I had the need to use the restroom and walked in to hear Beethoven’s last string quartet on the overhead speakers.  One wonders what the Master would think to have his music playing in such a place.  

Mozart, Staud, and Tchaikovsky at Severance

Daniel and I headed to Severance last night for our first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra season.  Conductor Franz Welser-Möst and guest soloist Christoph Sietzen provided a program that combined the somewhat familiar with the brand new. 

The news that Welser-Möst will be receiving follow up treatment after the recent removal of a cancerous tumor has been on my mind.  But there was no sign of ill health in either his appearance or his conducting last night.  The opening work, Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201 was given a lithe, elegantly propulsive performance.  As is customary with Welser-Möst, tempi leaned toward the brisk side, particularly in the second movement Andante, which went at a pace more closely resembling an Allegretto.  But no one would quibble with the superb balance and transparency that conductor and orchestra brought to the piece.

Following a longer than usual stage change, guest percussionist Christoph Sietzen took his place for Staud’s Whereas the reality trembles, receiving its world premiere performances this weekend.  The work calls for a supplement of percussion instruments large enough that the stage extension had to be employed.  The percussion included, among other accoutrements, a Chinese opera gong, cowbells, bongos, woodblocks, crotales, thunder sheets, along with an oil barrel provided by Broadway Scrap Metals and Terracotta pots courtesy of Petitti Garden Center.  In essence the piece is a concerto for percussion and orchestra, which concerns itself more with texture and instrumental effect than thematic development.  Sietzen worked up quite the sweat as he navigated from instrument to instrument.  As this was a world premiere, I have nothing to compare this performance with, except to state that soloist, conductor, and orchestra were totally committed.  Despite the work’s relative modernity and atonality, the audience responded with an extended ovation.  Sietzen gifted the audience with an encore – a short, contemplative piece composed by a friend of his. 

Before and after the Staud work.

Following intermission, Welser-Möst and the orchestra returned for Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17.  For over a century, the work has been titled (courtesy of a music critic contemporary of the composer’s) the “Little Russian,” owing to Tchaikovsky’s use of three Ukrainian folk songs as thematic material.  Some Western orchestras have now retitled the work “Ukrainian” in a justifiable response to Vladimir Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.  (Truth be told I resist the use of all nick-names in musical compositions unless given by the composer himself: thus the “Heroic” Polonaise and “Revolutionary” Etude of Chopin are titles I don’t use, but the “Pathetique” Sonata of Beethoven is one I do.)  Whether titled or not, the Second Symphony is an engaging work where the composer’s mature style begins to emerge – although it must be pointed out the symphony was revised seven years after its premiere in 1873.  As with the performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony last April, Welser-Möst avoided the temptation to lay on the work’s folk themes in favor of musical architecture – and his approach worked.  The coda, with a superbly controlled accelerating crescendo, was particularly effective. 

The conductor will be taking some time off for his cancer treatment.  We wish him a speedy recovery with a minimum of discomfort, followed hopefully by a return to the podium. 

2023 Election Endorsements

November 7, 2023, will mark an off-year election in Ohio.  Turnout tends to be low in this type of election, so each vote is especially important.  Vote by mail and early in person voting starts on October 11. 

Issue 1: Reproductive rights – YES

Officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety," this proposed Constitutional Amendment is listed on the ballot as Issue 1, having been certified despite the efforts of Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose and other extremist Republicans and pro-birth activists.  The centerpiece of this issue is allowing women to control their own bodies, including the right to have an abortion. 

These same activists, having failed in their attempt to raise the bar for passage to a nearly impossible level, are kicking up quite the fuss over this proposed amendment.  They are claiming that passage will lead to a rash of partial birth abortions and underage people obtaining gender reassignment surgery.  To use a polite term from another era: Poppycock!  Even Ohio’s Republican Attorney General, Dave Yost, has pointed out that there is nothing in the text of the amendment that even references gender reassignment or transgender people.  Read the complete text for yourself here.  Besides, is there an epidemic of young people in Ohio, or anywhere, seeking gender reassignment?  How would those wanting such a change even pay for it?  I don’t imagine the hourly wages at McDonald’s or wherever young people work would be sufficient.  As for partial birth abortions, the proposed amendment guarantees the right to an abortion during the time the fetus is determined to not yet be viable, as decided by the woman’s physician – unless that physician determines that continuing the pregnancy poses a danger to the woman’s life or health.  Less than .2% of abortions nationally have involved intact dilation and extraction and have generally been performed following a miscarriage.

I’m a gay man.  The chances I would get a woman pregnant are, well, basically zero.  But when it comes to allowing women to control their bodies, I stand with the vast majority of women.  I also believe that, as former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop did, the only way to lower the number of abortions is to lower the number of unwanted pregnancies – which means better access to contraception.  Not coincidentally, this is also something pro-birth extremists are trying to curtail.  Ultimately, whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is a decision best left to the individual woman in consultation with her physician.  Do Ohioans and Americans in general want to align themselves with countries like Yemen, Myanmar, Pakistan, or Nicaragua – or would we rather stand with Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States before Roe v. Wade was repealed? 

I strongly favor passage of Ohio Issue 1.

 

Issue 2: Recreational Cannabis – YES

In 1975, the Ohio legislature passed, and Governor James Rhodes signed a bill decriminalizing cannabis – making Ohio the sixth state to do so. 

In 2016, the Ohio legislature passed and Governor John Kasich signed a bill allowing Medical use for Cannabis to treat 21 health conditions, and setting up rather byzantine regulations for creating Cannabis dispensaries.  It also severely restricted licensing for cultivation of medical cannabis.  By 2021, only 20 cultivators had been licensed and 125,000 patients approved for medical cannabis.

The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol initiative, to be listed on the ballot as Issue 2, will legalize recreational cannabis within Ohio, subject to the following:

• ·        Legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of concentrate for adults 21 years of age and older.
• ·        Allow the cultivation of six plants for personal use, with a maximum of 12 plants per home by adults 21 and older.
• ·        Allow the sale of cannabis at licensed dispensaries, with a 10 percent sales tax imposed.
• ·        Divide tax revenue between social equity and jobs programs (36 percent), localities that allow dispensaries to operate (36 percent), education and substance abuse programs (25 percent), and administrative costs (3 percent).
• ·        Allow landlords and business owners to prohibit use of cannabis within their property.

Legalizing recreational cannabis does not equate to approval of same.  It’s simply an acknowledgement that people use cannabis, just as they smoke tobacco and drink alcohol.  Use of these is a decision best left to the individual, and regulations should be consistent: just as one is not allowed to smoke tobacco in public buildings or airplanes, cannabis use should take place where others will not be impacted by second-hand smoke.  Just as one must be over 21 to legally drink, cannabis should be similarly restricted.  The proposed issue makes provisions for all these matters.  As a homeowner, I will continue exercise the right to ask visitors to step outside if they want to smoke tobacco or cannabis.  Who is going to be harmed by passage of this issue?  Drug traffickers who profit over the semi-illegality of cannabis in Ohio. 

I favor passage of Ohio Issue 2.

 

Issue 5 – Cuyahoga Community College tax levy

I have stated elsewhere that I am in support of free community college for all who seek it.  While this property tax levy does not reach that goal, it helps keep the costs of a college education under control for the modest cost of an additional $14 per year for every $100,000 of taxable home value.  It’s a bargain which only the sociopathic would oppose.

 

South Euclid Mayor: Georgine Welo is running unopposed for her sixth term as mayor.  Just in case someone tries to mount a write-in campaign, let us review her accomplishments.  Welo became mayor in 2004.  During the decades before she took office, none of the previous administrations tried to stop the local slide in population, quality of life, or local amenities that began in the 1980s.  Here are just a few of the developments which have taken place since Welo became mayor:

·        Complete replacement of Cedar Center North shopping center.

·        Construction of Oakwood Commons shopping center.

·        Partial replacement of the May-Green shopping center.

·        Creation of the Food Truck Park.

·        Cutters Creek housing development.

·        Removal of several troubled houses on Greenvale Road; additionally, multiple decaying, unoccupied homes were torn down during and after the Great Recession – many since replaced by new homes.

·        Creation of several pocket parks.

·        Multiple infrastructure improvements on Green Road and South Belvoir Boulevard, with smaller improvements on side streets.

For the first time in recent memory, nearly every store front in South Euclid is occupied.  Further, home values are up, and South Euclid is now a sellers’ market.  There was a house Dan and I considered buying several years ago, and in retrospect I wish I had because it is now out of our reach. 

Mayor Welo wants to continue to build on these successes, and deserves to continue in the job.

 

South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board

There are four candidates running for the two open seats on the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board.  I endorse Cathy Covarrubias for one of the two open seats. 

 

Farewell, Richmond Mall

Like many locals I have numerous memories of Richmond Mall.

The first was from not long after my family moved to the area in the early 1970s. My father and I went to Woolworth, which was near the center of the mall. I wanted to explore the toy area. My dad consented but warned me to stay there while he went to get whatever he was looking for. Soon I became bored and wandered Woolworth looking for my dad. Failing to see him there, I stepped outside the store and saw him, with his back to me, talking with someone else. I walked over to him and grabbed his hand. He turned around and asked me “How can I help you, little boy?” It was NOT my dad. I screamed bloody murder.  My dad, who had been looking for me, heard my scream and retrieved me.

Despite my misadventure, I made regular trips to the mall, with my parents or sister at first, and later on my own with my high school friends. Richmond Mall seemed to have everything. A small second level near the mall’s center included a magic shop which I found fascinating.  I saw King Kong at the theater there - the mural outside the theater was more memorable than the movie. My grandmother and I frequently dined at a fancy restaurant there. I bought my first suit at Diamond’s men’s store. Shortly before graduating high school, I got a job at the Waldenbooks there.

The central fountain at Richmond Mall

Until I was about ten, there were two local malls: Severance Center and Richmond Mall. They were separate and distinct entities with different stores, restaurants, and cinemas. Initially, Severance was the more upscale of the two, boasting Higbee’s and Halle’s as anchors, while Richmond Mall had Sears and JCPenney.  Severance was my mother’s mall of choice, Richmond Mall was my father’s preference.

The Geranium room at Halle's

From Severance I remember Halle’s, which had a restaurant called the Geranium Room where my mother would buy me lunch as a reward for not misbehaving as she did her clothes shopping. There was also a small deli near the mall’s center, where my mom would get us sandwiches, and we would sit near the fountain and watch the water show as we enjoyed our food. When I was ten, I saw Star Wars three times at one of the two theaters at Severance. After graduating from high school, I worked at The Music Box - a classical and jazz record store recently relocated from Shaker Square.  I left Cleveland shortly thereafter.  Returning in the mid-1990s, I was struck by the deterioration both at Severance and Richmond Mall.

The west entrance to Richmond Mall.  

This striking architectural feature was removed 

when Macy's was added as a third anchor in the 1990s.

Richmond Mall underwent a major remodel in the late 1990s, being rebranded as Richmond Town Square.  But the traffic never returned to the levels it enjoyed during its heyday of the 1960s and 70s and the stores became increasingly generic.  Mall rents were simply too high for the independent retailers that were there before.  Once the Barnes & Noble there closed, I had little reason to goto Richmond Mall.  B&N became a Planet Fitness which Daniel went to until a new branch opened at Cedar Center.  

Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Severance was essentially turned inside out and reopened as Severance Town Center, with entirely new stores: Borders, Home Depot, Walmart, a grocery store, a Bally’s gym.  Again, generic stuff you could find anywhere else.  Borders died during the Great Recession and the Bally’s location became another gym.  Walmart moved to Oakwood Commons in 2013.  Severance Town Center suffers from low occupancy, with some of the outlying buildings, including the former IHOP, shuttered.  Somehow, it continues to limp along despite poorly maintained and nearly empty parking areas.

A certain type of person will blame the demise of Richmond Mall as the result of “urban” culture ruining the shopping experience. Others will blame online shopping.  I won’t wallow in nostalgia for an era that was not objectively “better.”  Both Richmond and Severance both started going downhill after Randall Park Mall (claimed to be the world’s largest shopping mall when opened, now torn down and replaced by an Amazon warehouse) and Beachwood Place opened. By the 1980s, I noticed the carpeting along Richmond Mall’s long corridors was looking frayed.  This was, obviously, long before online shopping became an option.  Truth be told, there are only so many shopping centers that can be supported in an area with a declining population.

This begs the question: should older, out of date shopping centers like Severance and Richmond Mall be somehow protected when newer and arguably better shopping centers like Legacy Village and Pinecrest are serving the area’s consumers?  I believe not.

As Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) said in Field of Dreams: “America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again.”  That is what is happening near the northeast corner of Richmond and Wilson Mills Roads.  The new development, Belle Oaks, is arguably the best use for this parcel of land.  After years of delays, I look forward to seeing the finished product. 

 

*Photos courtesy Cleveland Historical Society and Cleveland Memory

86 hours without electricity

In August of 2003, while working as a piano store manager, I saw the lights dim for about 30 seconds, then flicker, finally failing entirely, unaware that I was experiencing the first moments of a blackout that covered much of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.  The area on the west side of Cleveland where I was living and working saw its power restored within 24 hours.  Many others experienced a far longer period without electricity.

Almost exactly 20 years later, just after midnight on Friday, August 25, 2023, I was awakened by a howling noise outside our home in South Euclid, Ohio.  Noticing my electricity was out, I looked out my bedroom window and saw branches on the two large oak trees on our front lawn bending with the wind in a manner I did not know was possible.  Unaware that tornado warnings had been issued locally, I took no special precautions, but went back to bed, confident that power would be restored in short order. 

When I awoke again shortly before 5:00am, I looked out my window again and saw darkness.  Grabbing a flashlight and stepping outdoors, I spotted our recycling bin upended on my neighbor’s property.  I gathered the scattered recyclables, returned them to the bin, then returned the bin to its proper resting place.  Branches of varying sizes were scattered throughout the property.  I heard a work crew nearby.  Following the sounds, I saw they were dealing with a fallen tree one block over.  Walking back to my own street, I saw a tree leaning on a power line. 

Clearly, this was no ordinary storm. The Cleveland area received a record number of tornado warnings within a short space of time – with several touching down and one causing extensive damage in Cleveland’s Midtown district.  Our area is used to winter challenges, summer heat, and seasonal thunderstorms – multiple tornadoes, not so much.  As I wrote in an email to a young relative: Some people will just say “Oh, the climate has always been this way.”  But I am more and more inclined to believe that Mother Earth is pissed-off at us humans, and I don’t blame her.  Beyond a doubt, we are the primary cause of climate change.  Tornado warnings were almost unknown in our area – but we’ve had several in the last 10 years, last night’s caused a lot of damage, and the number of severe storms has increased exponentially.

After Dan left for his job, I headed to my employer’s campus to work (I’ve been largely working from home since the early days of COVID).  As information came in about the extent of the storm and blackouts, I decided to book a hotel for Friday night.  But I was hopeful, as the total number of customers lacking power had gone from over 224,000 without power at 8:00am to 160,000 by 4:00pm.  After work and before heading to the hotel, Dan & I spent about an hour cleaning up the yard.  Fortunately, there was no damage to the house – including to our new storm windows.  A few days before, a major rainstorm confirmed that our street’s newly refurbished water runoff inlets were functioning well, with none of the flooding on our street we’d become accustomed to after even small rainfalls. 

After awakening in our hotel room Saturday morning, Dan & I headed back home to see power was not restored, largely as I expected given that I was following the outages listed on First Energy’s website.  I took advantage of the relative quiet on our street to make some piano recordings – fortunately, my old Mason & Hamlin upright does not require electricity.  

Piano by candlelight

We spent the rest of the weekend seeking out places to go where we could pass the time in relative comfort: walking in some parks, dining at restaurants, seeing a film – while periodically checking to see if power was restored.  While driving around, we saw the damage in Midtown.

Damage at the Dunham Tavern Museum

  

I also perused social media, posting information where useful, and observing posts and comments from various people.  A long-held belief of mine was confirmed: An appallingly high percentage of people have no idea how the world around them works.  I saw posts blaming the mayor of my municipality and those of other municipalities for everything from the time they were without power to the presence of flooding.  In our area, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is responsible for maintaining the sewers; if your street floods, contact them.  If your local creek floods, well, that’s what creeks do when it rains, and if you made the decision to live next to a creek, that’s on you.  If your power hasn’t been restored yet, the mayor has no control over that.  For what it’s worth, I will comment that the South Euclid services department was at work clearing branches as soon as the weather had cleared; further, the city advised that people could come to city hall if they needed to charge their devices.   

I have no complaints about the line workers from First Energy who worked long hours to get power back online – to say nothing of the many workers who came from outside of Ohio to help.  They worked their butts off.  The problem, as it often is, stems with poor management, from the CEO on down – which puts profit over providing a service which people rely on.  They did not prepare, and their communications were poor.  For example, I signed up to their automated system so I could be informed when my power was restored.  Within a few hours, I received multiple communications giving conflicting information.  First, I received a text that power would be restored by 2:00pm Monday; a half hour later, another text stated the power would be restored by 8:00pm Wednesday – followed by an automated phone call stating the same; 40 minutes later a further text stated that power would be restored by 4:00pm Monday, followed by another text 20 minutes later that power had been restored.  It had been out for 86 hours.

Make up your mind.

Here are some lessons learned from the past week’s experience:

Northeast Ohio’s tree canopy needs to be better managed, especially in more densely populated communities.  Our tree canopy is a wonderful thing – relatives and friends who have moved out of state have told me how much they miss it.  The two oak trees on my property, which I spend plenty of money to keep trimmed, provide enough shade to keep my electric bills at a reasonable level.  But in communities such as South Euclid, trees should not be permitted to grow without a plan for management – especially those trees which are near homes or power structures.  The repair of our localized loss of power was delayed because a large tree fell onto an unoccupied house, taking down several power lines and a transformer with it.  

Tree damage at a nearby house

The other item is something I’ve believed for years: The United States should embark on program to upgrade, modernize, and protect our energy grid from hazards including weather events and hacking.  Wherever possible, utility lines should be moved underground.  A colleague of mine did not lose power, largely because her community is newer and their power lines are underground.  Those of us who live in older communities, and who pay the same for electricity, should enjoy the same reliability.  The nationwide migration of utilities underground would be a massive undertaking, but no more than the building of the Interstate Highway system or the infrastructure created during the New Deal.  It would require cooperative efforts from Federal, State, and Local governments along with utility providers.  The biggest obstacle is the lack of leadership in both parties to lower the hammer and make it happen – because an effort of this magnitude would require at least partial public funding, which would require a tax increase on the wealthy.  So, a project such as this, which would have the added benefit of greatly improving aesthetics in our neighborhoods and commercial districts, will likely not happen in my lifetime. 

As I said in the email to my young relative: Our climate is changing.  We’re not going to be able to conserve our way out of the climate crisis.  We need to be prepared.