Why I've created the Miramar Scar
Heights residents should know that they can't get the straight truth from their local leaders and media.
There are some issues that are of public interest that cannot be adequately addressed on social media. In particular, Facebook and NextDoor have become cauldrons of anger where Heights residents go to complain to and about each other. I don’t pretend to be the one to change that; in fact some of you that know me would probably say I’ve contributed to the problem! I’ve lived in the Heights as a child, tenant, homeowner, and now a husband.
Like many of you I hardly took an interest in local electoral politics and I often found the discussions about the direction of the city to be beyond any effect that my participation could have. However, after buying a home in 2017 I noticed that much of the contention about local politics centered around school levies and the high property taxes that our homeowners pay. Central to this ongoing controversy was not only whether more spending was warranted on CHUH Schools, but also who has the right to object to such spending. Supporters of the levies see themselves as guardians of the public schools and the parents and teachers that depend on them to provide an essential resource accessible to all families regardless of traits such as race, class, gender, disability, or sexuality. On the other hand, levy opponents are often motivated by their concern that the poor management of school funds and excessive taxation will drive away residents and lead to economic ruin within the community.
The fault-lines in the debate are not black-and-white, but do follow a pattern of religious and racial affiliations. The people that I hear most stridently speaking out against levies tend to be homeowners, often Orthodox Jewish or Catholic. I meet parents and grandparents like these all the time, often being welcomed with my wife by them into their homes for meals. Indeed I do think that the leadership of the district in both its rhetoric and its decisions is hostile to parents like them due to a religious bias, but that’s just a small part of the larger issue.
Heights Schools cannot be reformed and changed for the better solely in the name of rectifying unkind attitudes and policies towards religious residents. So my research and work has focused on how the district is corrupt, and how its Lay Finance Committee included members that are self-dealing. In the first TMS article I exposed how the Plain Dealer was utilizing uncritically information from a dark money Super PAC in Columbus in order to paint school board candidates in CHUH falsely as being against Critical Race Theory and the LGBT communities in their platform. The second article appearing just before the election was to highlight the illegal filming of a campaign commercial on district property by an LFC member.
My objective was never straight advocacy on behalf of Maureen Lynn, Charles Drake, or Mordechai Rennert. As of this writing I’ve never met any of them for more than a quick second or a brief phone call. I think that from a critical perspective all three had very regrettable moments from the campaign. On Tuesday night it was clear they were defeated, and I think a lot of the blame for that defeat isn’t on the district or the media but on themselves. Nevertheless, it was a real dash of cold water across the face to see how the incumbents were so easily reelected and not held accountable for their incompetence and abuse of power. But the DLR trio did help in one way: For the first time CHUH residents did have an alternative. In 2017 Heintz, Lewis, and Sourini were elected with only one other competitor, Tiera Briggs. This year almost ten thousand more votes were cast between the seven candidates. When averaging the supporting votes between the two slates (3279 DLR vs. 6792 HLS), the challenger slate won 33% of the vote. Small consolation, but consider the fact that every one of those votes represents someone who can potentially build the next level onto this effort. There will be new city councils in both cities that may include worthwhile allies in our efforts. (Unfortunately I don’t predict the same from the victors in the mayoral elections).
This November your neighbours were successfully fear mongered. The divide and conquer strategy worked, but look at how much effort the incumbents and their enforcers had to go through, including at some point having to urge voters to include them when voting voting for Mario Clopton-Zymler. And that brings me to the question of what to do now. As I told one friend the issue of Heights BoE has moved beyond electoral politics. We have a municipal resource being exploited for the benefit of a small in-group of parents, employees, contractors and other connected people. A simple change on the school board will not change that. Even if the three challenger candidates had swept the board election they could not have cleaned house completely. What I hope that the writing presented here does is create an information source for those of us frustrated with the goings on at 2155 Miramar Boulevard. The school district you pay for or send your kids to shouldn’t disparage you based on what church or synagogue you attend (if at all) or your racial background. It should value the difficulties of special needs children and their parents rather than treat them as a nuisance. And on top of those things, it ought to be financially transparent and not use divide-and-conquer rhetoric in order to shield its poor academic performance and mismanagement of resources.
So where do you come in?
You have the information here, now share it and organize with a group of neighbourhood friends.
Network with your other groups from outside your small circle to create alliances and exchange ideas.
Write your own articles (here would be welcome, but you can start your own newsletter really easily too) and share them with others to help with points 1 and 2.
Go to the school board meetings as a group. If the board members do not give you the floor, organize a protest meeting outside with as many people as possible.
Help keep this BoE accountable by inquiring about district spending through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests or Public Records requests.
Report any discrepancies found in step 5 to the Ohio Auditor of State.
This course of action doesn’t have to be taken in order nor in whole, and you’ll find that maybe there’s one step on it that is just for you. But if a critical mass of residents continue to put pressure on the district in this way, it will become to ignore and a consistent public image will be painted of the BoE and district that’s reflective of it true corrupt nature.
Help start a prairie fire: Share the Miramar Scar via direct message to friends or social media postings. Subscribe to this newsletter and comment on the article. Get your voice out there before the next levy rather than just get mad when you find out about it.
To put it bluntly, those liberals are bigoted against the more religiously observant Christians and Jews. This I know from my close relatives and classmates.