Reclaiming Our Time
A lot of surfaces here are reclaimed. In the coffee shops, people work on top of wood slabs that once were floors; some have APOC, A Piece of Cleveland, branded into them. Once a factory floor, perhaps, on which men walked atop in steel-toed boots, the wood desks have been transformed into surfaces for the gig economy, propping up the laptops of the side hustlers.
It can be seen as either too much pressure or too little, the weight of all this reclaimed wood, all this history. Our third places are heavy with it: if not the coffee shop than the bar counter down the street is also probably reclaimed, upon which you can lean your elbows, wax nostalgic over beers, run your fingers across the grains were once were footsteps.
Ghosts, everywhere, trapped under varnish.
If, like me, you live in Tremont and are walking from the coffee shop to the bar, you might pass the Polish Daily News building. For awhile it was for sale, and I fantasized about buying it. It's gorgeous.
According to Cleveland Historical and the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, The Polish Daily News published from 1914-1966. Wiadomosci Codzienne was originally part of a Polish weekly, the Nationalist, which ran from 1909-1914. And get this: it was only one Polish daily newspapers in the city during the early part of the 20th century: it had a rival, Monitor Clevelandski (yes, that’s right: Clevelandski). Wiadomosci Codzienne acquired Monitor Clevelandski in 1938, and, well, there was a monopoly on daily Polish news coverage in Cleveland.
Lately, folks around town (I’m not saying hipsters, but) have been reviving Cleveland’s Eastern European ethnic celebrations; Dyngus Day, a Polish celebration of the end of Lent, is probably the most popular such festival, now going into its 9th year: “In Cleveland specifically, our goal is to not only make this a Polish Cultural festival, we also want to celebrate our Polka Heritage as well as the other Eastern European cultures still thriving in Cleveland,” the website explains. I will be honest: when I first heard about Dyngus Day I got a bit of a pit in my stomach; I’m Jewish, and celebrations of Eastern European heritage make me historically and culturally anxious "(“Hey, it’s your people used to kill our people day!”). But I got over that. And to prove myself wrong, I am here to let you know that the Polish Daily News was socialist and called Hitler a “madman and gangster” in the 1930s.
In that building on Fairfield Avenue they also printed the paper, and copies were sold at grocery stores and other places Poles hung out. In 1966, when it shut down, it had a circulation of 26,183.
The circulation of the remaining Cleveland daily, Polish or not, is declining, but that is true of all American newspapers. The staffs keep shrinking, everyone. But in Cleveland, the publishers and editors seem to sidestep too many important local stories, and, on one truly shocking morning, even publicly criticize their own reporters.
Over on Cleveland.com right now, the main stories are about:John Kasich, the Browns, what Cleveland looked like the day you were born, and headstones of people buried in and around Cleveland. There is nothing on the front page about an in-depth report on arguably the most important issue facing this city, lead poisoning, written by Rachel Dissell, that ran on Sunday. You can find out more about that report, and responses officials have made to it, over at Cleveland Scene, the alt-weekly, where, lately, it seems all political news is covered by one person, Sam Allard, who is preternaturally prolific.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, Rebecca Maurer is pretty upset about what is arguably the most important breaking news story, the slate of deaths at the county jail. Apparently, the County had a meeting this morning that addressed it, but there was no public notice in advance that it was happening. As soon as she heard it was happening, Rebecca ran down to the courthouse, but the meeting was ending. Rebecca tweets:
“It undermines the already deteriorated trust in public officials that there was no announcement about a meeting that covered jail conditions, bail, and had a public comment period. As far as I know, I was the only non-court-staff, non-media person who made it in the door. Judge Russo admitted there was no announcement to the public -- only media got word of the meeting on Friday. The meeting wasn't even posted on the @cuycommonpleas account like it had been in October. He said it was a "mistake." All I can say is this "mistake" looks a lot like the County actively wanted to avoid public engagement in a public meeting on a hot button issue. Russo said he would offer another comment period in the next two weeks. I hope he is true to his word, but that is only a start.”
It was not better before, in some golden Polish age: that is not what I am saying here. That move is too easy (I would likely have been extraordinarily uncomfortable at those grocery stores where the Monitor Clevelandski was sold, after all, and there were likely even fewer women reporters). Also: I absolutely adore old wood, and the patina of the past: the aesthetics of reclamation suit me. Nor do I think we build new newspapers, and newspaper buildings, of brick and glass; I am not naive. In fact, although I planned to spend a month discussing news and journalism in Cleveland, it seems I have only one point to make: it is disastrous and frightening how little news is being published in Cleveland right now. Maybe if I keep writing about it it will help in some small way to improve the situation, or at least call attention to it.
Thankfully, there are smart, invested, ethical individuals working their asses off, at the few outlets in town left, to do what they can, much more than my every-other-day musings. They deserve all the support and kudos and raises they can get. And the engaged citizens deserve all the oxygen we can give them to air their concerns, and have all the meetings posted publicity. Give us a chance to decide whether or not to become outraged or cynical or call others whiney. Before anyone can do that, we need to know what the issues are.
Let’s reclaim all that is valuable to remember in Cleveland’s heritage, not just the wood and beer and parties. Let’s look to the example of the cacophonous, competing, free presses that used to be here, too.
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