CLEVELAND, Ohio — An advisory legal opinion from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost could bolster public facilities seeking to block transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their assumed gender identity.

We’re talking about how Yost argues cisgendered men would take advantage of looser bathroom separation policies to “victimize women and girls” on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what we’re asking about today:

How are Republican Ohio legislators who engineered supermajorities in the Statehouse using their powers in something called pre-emption to dictate life in the largely Democratic cities?

Does Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost believe anti-discrimination laws block facility managers from setting rules about which bathrooms transgender can use?

How did a Bay Village Catholic priest’s rant about LGBTQ issues in a Sunday sermon end up with police being called to the church?

Every few years, Clevelanders get excited by the prospects for the subway deck of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which normally sits empty. The talk usually involves the temporary opening of the deck to tours. It’s happening again. Is there something different this time around?

It looks like the Republican field for U.S. Senate in Ohio will be a little less crowded than had been predicted. Who is out?

We’ve been talking this year about how childcare costs depress the number of women in the workplace, and reporter Gretchen Kroen illustrated that on the micro level with the story of one mom. What is that story?

Anyone who has worked in a newsroom has seen them – the often crazy court filings of prison inmates sitting behind bars playing lawyer. But we have a case of a guy who started as a prison lawyer and now is an actual lawyer, right here in Ohio. Who is he, and where does he do his lawyering these days?

Meadow City Nursery in Collinwood has a special collection of plants for sale. What is it?

Travel writer Susan Glaser took the new Cleveland-to-Ireland flight. What did she think of it?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

[00:00:00] Chris: It’s Wednesday. That means we have Courtney Alfi, the Cleveland City Hall Reporter on today in Ohio, the news podcast. Discussion from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Courtney and Lisa Garvin and Laura Johnston. And we’re gonna start with Courtney. How are Republican Ohio legislators who.

Engineered super majorities in the State House using their powers in something called preemption to dictate life in the largely democratic cities like the one you cover, Courtney?

[00:00:33] Courtney: Yeah. This is something, it feels like it surfaces every time. It’s just, it’s kind of sitting there on, on Cleveland shoulder.

On Columbus and Cincinnati’s shoulder, this concept of home rule, it is baked into Ohio’s constitution. It was added in 1912 and it really, it was set up to give Ohio cities the right to pass laws for themselves and, and that that applies so long as their ordinances are not in [00:01:00] conflict with the state’s general laws.

So let’s back up a little bit. Ohio cities obviously are overwhelmingly demogra, uh, democratic. They are pockets of blue in this increasingly red state. Like you said, the Republicans, a lot of, a lot of them representing the rural parts of the state have just this historic super majority control of the State House, and they’ve increasingly focused over the last 20 years on telling cities what kinds of laws they.

Can, and most of the time can’t place upon themselves. And, and it’s, it’s, it’s chipped away at this, this home rule concept that, that Ohio’s supposed to be governed by. And, and we’ve seen Republicans in the State House stop cities from enacting their own laws on, my goodness, so many different categories of topics here.

Puppies, fracking guns, minimum wage, plastic bags, red light cameras, I mean the list, the list goes on, and you see just this, this [00:02:00] tension and a growing tension and, and it does not appear based on Jake Zuckerman’s wonderful reporting in this story that this trend isn’t really gonna change anytime soon.

The State House is going to keep telling cities what they can’t do for themselves.

[00:02:15] Chris: Well, a as almost everything does now, this actually has some permanence for issue one. On the August 8th ballot, the the legislature, which is largely run by rural Republicans that don’t like cities, are passing laws that limit what cities can do.

The only. Option people who live in the cities have, if they wanna fight back, is to change the Ohio Constitution to to get what they need. To go to the Ohio voters and say, we think this issue should be X. And the Republicans in the legislature wanna stop that. That’s what issue one is about. They wanna make it nearly impossible for voters, the people who, who own the government [00:03:00] to change their constitution.

This, this would just cement this representation, lack of representation. It’s taxation without representation that cities are the machine that generates all the money, that runs the state, and yet they have no representation anymore.

[00:03:16] Courtney: And it’s where most of Ohioans are, are concentrated in cities. So it’s, it’s.

It’s, it’s. A large swath of who Ohioans are, who, who can’t make rules for themselves under this, this kind of philosophy. And, and, and Jake talked to the executive director of the Ohio Mayor’s Alliance. We, we’ve seen a recent example of this play out in Columbus. There’s, there had been a couple weekends in a row in downtown Columbus where there was gun violence.

Over the course of two weekends, 10 people were shot. And the mayor there put in a curfew. He wanted to shut down street vendors and the, the idea there was to, you know, reduce violence by just reducing foot traffic and getting people out after a certain hour. Rural lawmakers almost [00:04:00] immediately introduced LA legislation on the heels of that Columbus move.

To outlaw curfews and, and that, that, that kind of puts this in, into a, into the right framing here because, because the state lawmakers who introduced that legislation to stop Columbus from doing what it thought it needed to do to take care of violence, one was from Huron. It’s a tiny town in Erie County.

I, I covered crime there. There is very, very little crime there. I’m not sure why, why they would be legislating this. And then another lawmaker from a very small township. Outside of Columbus, which is 45,000 people. So this really shows how that rural influence is legislating for the cities through this issue of home rule.

And, and the executive director of the Ohio Mayor’s Alliance asked to weigh in on this topic, said, You know, residents in cities are demanding action on, on a very concerning threat of public safety. Talking about this Columbus issue and the legislature has completely tied our hands, and then the legislature turns [00:05:00] around and blames us when violent crime runs a MK in our cities.

He described it as a very difficult challenge, and this is something to hear Mayor Justin Bibb talk about a lot. There’s a crime issue in Cleveland. Bib says we need Columbus to pass gun laws to help us out. It it’s just this cycle.

[00:05:17] Chris: Well, exactly, and it starts with gerrymandering. If, if the state legislature actually reflected the makeup of the state, they wouldn’t be super majorities and that the cities would have some sway.

But with the gerrymandering, which is illegal because we voted, 70% of us voted to change the system, to set up the legislature, and they defied it. They didn’t do it. If that had been followed, the cities would have a voice. That’s why issue one becomes so important. If it’s a gerrymandered legislature that’s out of sync with the state, the only option left is for a citizen initiative to get something onto the ballot in the constitution.

[00:06:00] It’s an interesting story by, by Jake. That really kind of puts it all in perspective, but, but it really puts it in the perspective of issue one and people ought to be voting on August

[00:06:09] Laura: 8th. You wanna know like why these legislators are like, you can’t have a curfew. I mean, it doesn’t affect them. Why do they think that they need to legislate it?

So many things. You look over that list from puppies to fracking, to gun violence to plastic bags. It’s like, if you don’t want it, Fine, but why tell someone else they can’t have it? I just don’t under what

[00:06:30] Chris: they’re bought and paid for. Well, I mean that, that’s the lobbyists, the plastic bag lobby didn’t want the the plastic bag ban.

So they go buy these guys off. I mean, if HB six has showed us anything, it’s that these guys are for sale and so they keep doing nonsensical things because they’re in the pocket of the lobby. It’s all connected. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Does Attorney General Dave Yost believe anti-discrimination laws block facility [00:07:00] managers for setting rules about which bathrooms transgender people can use.

Lisa, not really a surprise, although he did seem to go further than he needed to in making his case.

[00:07:12] Lisa: Yeah, attorney General Dave Yost issued an advisory opinion after Green County prosecutor David Hayes asked if state law or a recent Supreme Court of the United States ruling on L G B T Q discrimination prevents Ohio public facilities from requiring that transgender people use the bathroom for the gender.

They. Have at birth. So, uh, the state anti-discrimination law says that managers of public accommodations cannot deny anyone full access to facilities except for reasons that are applicable across all race, religion, and gender, you know, groups. So, uh, Yost said that, you know, separate sex bathrooms are not in violation.

He says what it does is it ensures that no one [00:08:00] loses. The right, but he says, separating by sex and not gender identity stems from an inherent right to privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms and other such public facilities. But he went further, as you said. He said he was concerned that cisgender men would take advantage of these loose bathroom policies and victimize women in girls.

The advisory opinion is non-binding, but it does act as legal authority in the court system.

[00:08:26] Chris: The idea that cisgender men would use this to go in, in aal, women who are in the stalls to begin with, that, that’s the ridiculous part of this. It’s, it’s needlessly inflammatory. He and he didn’t need to do it.

It’s just think about it, that’s illegal. You’re not allowed to go in mm-hmm. And invade people’s privacy now. Mm-hmm. So, so it wouldn’t change anything. But it’s there. It’s culture war stuff. It’s, it’s just Dave Yost. Every once in a while he goes down that road and it’s shameful. Because it, [00:09:00] he didn’t need to say it.

He had made his legal case for why this does not violate the law. Why add that?

[00:09:07] Lisa: Yeah. That actually is surprising to me because he doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of virtue signaling in my case. That’s, in my opinion, that’s out. Side the law. But yeah, this is, and of course, you know, I, this whole transgender bathroom thing started in Texas and I was a reporter back then when it happened.

And that’s exactly what they jumped on. They had a commercial showing this little girl sitting in a stall and the door opening and her looking frightened. I mean, so from the very beginning they’ve used this. Straight men are gonna go into bathrooms to

[00:09:35] Chris: hassle people. I, yeah, I know. And again, he didn’t need to do it, so shame on him for doing it.

You are listening to today in Ohio. How did a Bay Village Catholic priest rant about L G B T Q issues in a Sunday sermon end up with police being called to the church. Laura, we’re still trying to get more details on this one, but this is an interesting story out [00:10:00] of Bay Village. Yeah,

[00:10:01] Laura: this is the Reverend Timothy Garrow.

He’s the pastor of St. Ray Fields in Bay Village, and at the end of his homily, which was on Sunday, which was Pentecost at the end of the Easter season when the Holy Spirit’s supposed, you know, that’s what it’s about. It’s about the Holy Spirit. He went off on a tirade about the Community Hero Award given by the Los Angeles do Dodgers for service to an L G B T Q group, to a group of like fake nuns, basically that.

Satirized, the Catholic Church, and he said that it defames the name of every Christian here on Earth. Burns a hole in my heart, angers me and em bitters me, and it should you. This was being streamed online, but that video since been taken down and then it, it’s called The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

They’re based in California. So not a local group, but he was obviously incensed about this. And a person stood up in the congregation, said that queer and trans people also call carry the Holy Spirit. And that was very hurtful and [00:11:00] then left that, and it sounds like the whole thing kind of devolved people went out to the parking lot to co.

Comfort. This person, the police were called. It’s been, uh, a lot of conversation on the Bay Village Facebook page with people sticking up for the priest and people condemning what he said.

[00:11:16] Chris: Well, what, what this person did is they went up to the microphone to say, Hey, I was baptized by you. Mm-hmm. And this is supposed to be a church that’s about loving messages.

And what you just said isn’t about loving. It was a brave thing to do. And then three parishioners got up and, and he went out. Others had left this because they were offended and they were consoling. This person who, as I understand it, was crying in the parking lot when another parishioner came out and was so aggressive that police were called and we’re gonna get the body cam footage.

Shame on Bay Village Police. They gave us a almost blank police report. They’re not talking about it. They’re supposed to work for the taxpayers. They’re supposed to work for the people and to cover this [00:12:00] up. Up the way they’re trying to do is completely bogus. It won’t stand. We’ll get the body cam footage, we’re going to get the information.

So it’s a false attempt by Bay Village Police, but it’s shameful that they’re trying to cover it all up.

[00:12:12] Laura: It is, and it’s been a really interesting response. I mean, there’s been a former parishioner and a member of this group called Bay Village Anti-Racism Network, wrote a letter saying that he let loose and brought the cultural war war into the pulpit that he should apologize the.

The priest did not wanna comment for a story that Molly Wal Walsh wrote, but the Diocese of Cleveland completely stuck up for the priest and basically said that he was preaching. And, and, and should be supported. I mean, I was actually taken aback by the diocese response, said that people are not allowed to disrupt the holy sacrifice of mass to express their opinion.

And that if you want to defend the church, you should do so lovingly and without any way threatening or committing violence. But it didn’t sound like a loving message from the priest in the first

[00:12:58] Chris: place. Well, but, [00:13:00] but they’re right. You’re not supposed to go and interrupt. The mass, that’s not part of what congregates at a Catholic mass do.

So this person was breaking with tradition, but I think they were so offended by what the priest said. They felt like they had to stand up. Right. We should say that the object of the priest scorn does have very offensive to Catholic names Ted Diet in wrote an entire column about the, the idiocy of the Dodgers in this.

Thing first, they, they wanna honor the group. Then when the Catholics get mad, they decide they’re not gonna honor the group, and then they, they get pressure again. Now they’re gonna honor the group. It was, it’s a mess. Mm-hmm. But it, but, but it is offensive. I mean, it’s, it’s kind of surprising that the Dodgers would honor a group that uses names that I’m sure are satirical that.

Are offensive to Catholics, but the whole idea is it’s a pride event. And so for a priest to stand there and say, the Dodgers have this under assault, when this is all about Pride month and pride week, it it, it [00:14:00] does offend people that are L G B T Q.

[00:14:03] Laura: Yeah, I, I completely agree. I, I don’t agree with this. The sisters are perpetual, whatever, indulgence, and, and I, I do think that’s offensive and I feel like the Dodgers should have done their homework a little bit more before they decided to honor them.

But I don’t think that gives the priest. The reason to bring politics into this homily No, no. And, and offend people in the church because it seems like, and I was not there, and I don’t know how it was delivered, but it, it, it offended people who were there to be part of the Christian community. And that is the whole basis of Christianity, right?

Treat other people as you would like to be treated. Acceptance love. I mean, forgiveness. It is not an embittered religion, right? It’s not supposed to be.

[00:14:47] Chris: No, that’s, it’s not supposed to, to, to be what it was. I just, I have this dread that it was Ted’s column that set this priest off, and I hope we’re not the cause of all of this You’re listening to today in Ohio.[00:15:00]

Every few years, Clevelanders get excited by the prospects for the subway deck of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which normally sits empty. The talk usually involves the temporary opening of the deck to tours. It’s happening again. Courtney, is there something different this time around?

[00:15:17] Courtney: Definitely something different this time around.

So as the county prepares to open up that second, uh, often closed level of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, those events are gonna be open to the public June 23rd and 24th. But it’s interesting to note that first day it’s open, there’s going to be a community conversation hosted. They basically want the public’s feedback here about.

What are your ideas for keeping this permanently open? How do you wanna see this bridge reactivated and reopen to pedestrians in line with what you know? County executive Chris Ronna has, has kind of talked about, he envisions more for the bridge instead of just that once every few years opening to the public.

He wants that underside. Open for future [00:16:00] pedestrian use. He talks about, you know, the concept of a park in the sky. There’s lots of big projects going on in the flats below the bridge. And, you know, folks who are interested in breathing new life into the second level of the bridge, really wanna seize on that and make it a destination.

[00:16:16] Chris: It seems like a place, you could even have a restaurant or some sit down places to get a drink or get something to eat it. I just, um, every time it comes up, it’s okay. You can tour it and then it. Stays shut for the next two years. I don’t remember when the last time Have you, have you been

[00:16:32] Laura: in it before? I have not

[00:16:34] Courtney: Courtney.

No. I, I wanted to, I missed the one in, in the last time, I believe was in 2019.

[00:16:40] Laura: Yeah. Yeah. And they had all sorts of light installations in it. Yes. It was really cool cuz you went at night and, and it’s a lot bigger than you’d think. Like there’s a lot of room in there.

[00:16:50] Courtney: I mean, it, it, it held the original streetcar station and tracks.

I mean, you’ve gotta. You gotta believe that there is some ability to put some weight on there. Like you were saying, [00:17:00] Chris, some, some destinations grab a drink or I, I wonder if that could be its future.

[00:17:05] Chris: Yeah. It’s just such wasted space and it’s primo space with great views. W I hope this does work this time and we do something.

Thing with it. Uh, what are the two days people can go

[00:17:16] Courtney: and tour it? Yeah, so on June 23rd is that opportunity to do the community conversation about what you wanna see in the future. And then June 24th is when it’s just kind of open. You can go on your own and kind of explore and, and not really be having those kinds of conversations.

But whichever you’re interested in, you can venture down to the bridge and, um, details, parking, all those kinds of things are available on cleveland.com.

[00:17:40] Chris: Okay, you are listening to today in Ohio. Looks like the Republican field for the US Senate in Ohio will be a little less crowded than had been predicted.

Lisa, who’s out?

[00:17:51] Lisa: Warren Davidson, the US Congressman from Troy, Ohio announced he will not be running for she Brown’s Senate. Seat. He says instead [00:18:00] he’s gonna run for reelection to the US House. He was elected to, uh uh, in 2016 to replace former house speaker John Bayner. And he’s also a member of the Hard Wright House Freedom Caucus.

And he said that running for Senate would’ve removed him from the fight in the house. And for one and a half years while he’s campaigning and fundraising, and he says the narrow majority in the house means that his vote will be essential on important party line issues. Davidson was on everybody’s lips.

Everybody was waiting for him to announce. He, uh, did have a, like a. You know, he created a campaign committee and everything, but if he had run, he probably would’ve gotten the support of a DC anti-tax group called Club for Growth, club for Growth. Spent 11 million backing Josh Mandel in the Senate primary for Rob Portman’s seat last year.

So the question is, who are they gonna back

[00:18:53] Chris: now? Yeah, I, it’s a good question because it sounds like the field will be Matt Dolan, Bernie [00:19:00] Moreno, the the car dealer, and possibly Frank LaRose, the Secretary of State who’s trying to destroy democracy in the state of Ohio. Not a great field. I don’t know which one would get that support.

[00:19:12] Lisa: Well, and you know, with, and of course they’re all angling for Trump’s endorsement except Matt Dolan. Um, you know, so, um, will he endorse Bernie Moreno? I mean, he’s backed him before, so we’ll see. But yeah, this is interesting because we had seven, I believe, for Portman’s seat, which was a Republican, you know, seat.

Um, so it’s interesting. Maybe they think that she, brown is not as beatable as everyone is saying

[00:19:37] Chris: that he is. Yeah. Well, I think it’s going to be a hard fight to take out sharid. It’s possible based on how the state leans, but I think you’re right. Some of some people are probably thinking, I’ve got a safe seat where I am.

Why mess with it? Interesting development, though. That was not what we had been expecting from Mr. Davidson. You’re listening to today in Ohio. We have been [00:20:00] talking this year about how childcare costs depressed the number of women in the workplace. And reporter Gretchen Crowin illustrated that on a micro level with the story of one mom.

Laura, this was a, a story that just crystallized the issue. What is the mom’s story?

[00:20:14] Laura: Yeah, absolutely. This is Elizabeth Bailey and when we started our Rethinking Childcare series, she emailed me and was basically like, this is spot on. So, Uh, she has a college degree work experience. She’s 30 years old and came outta Covid with a job she loved as a payroll expec, uh, specialist.

She said she was successful, she felt supported, appreciated and was on the track for advancement, but it didn’t pay more than her childcare cost. So she has three kids and after four months she had to switch childcare and her cost went up. She was making about 600, sorry, $760 a week. Before taxes and payroll deductions like health insurance and the cost of her childcare was $800 a week.

So basically she was losing money by working, so she decided that she had [00:21:00] to take a step back. She eventually wants to work. She hopes there’s gonna be more manageable childcare costs in the future, but for right now, she’s taking care of the kids full-time and her husband’s the sole wage

earner.

[00:21:10] Chris: What, what I loved about this story is we’ve been talking on the macro level about how women are not.

Is robust in the workplace because of the cost of childcare. We talked about how in Quebec they’ve greatly increased the number of women in the workplace because they subsidize childcare. Well, here’s a perfect example. Mm-hmm. She would be a worker. I mean, employers everywhere are crying that they cannot get enough qualified applicants for their positions.

She’d be one. If we did something to help with childcare costs, this crystallizes it. So for this should be a conservative issue as well, is a liberal issue. If you wanna increase the number of people in the workplace, cuz it’s good for the economy. How about helping people help their childcare? Yeah,

[00:21:53] Laura: it is good for the economy.

When you look at Quebec, they went from about 67% of women employed to about [00:22:00] 82%. And that amount that they generate from the payroll taxes of those women working is enough to pay for the entire childcare system in Quebec, which is. Mind boggling, but makes a lot of fiscal sense, right? If you are just looking from a fiscal perspective, women who want to work should be able to work and we should support them because it’s good for the entire economy.

And when people take the time out, even if she goes back to work, eventually, she might be taking a. Big hit for the entirety of her career because of the wage gap she’s missing out on, on growing her career and getting raises and getting more experience, and she’ll never be able to get that back. And just to put this in perspective, the annual average cost of childcare in Cleveland is about $11,160.

That’s for one kid. That’s a lot of money.

[00:22:46] Chris: Well, this should be a John Houston issue. He’s the guy that’s constantly going on and on about all the unfilled positions, and we need the workers. Here’s a quick path to getting them. They just have to put some money behind it to get the investment started.[00:23:00]

You’re listening to today in Ohio. Anyone who has worked in a newsroom has seen them. The often crazy court filings of prison inmates sitting behind bars with nothing else to do but pretend to be lawyers. But we have a case of a guy who started as a prison lawyer and now is an actual lawyer right here in Ohio.

Courtney, who is he and where does he do his lawyering these days? What

[00:23:23] Courtney: a guy, what a phenomenal story. This, this story is about Damon Davis and, and the story kind of opens with him. Starting his law career. So back in 2008, he was in a federal prison in Kentucky. He was serving out a sentence for cocaine possession, intent to distribute weapons charge, and that’s where an older inmate took him under his wing and his law career started.

The older inmate taught him how to pour through trials, transcripts to find issues that could be appealed, that could help other inmates, you know, shorten their sentences and get out and, and, [00:24:00] and Davis. Took to it and, and he kept working at it. He was released in 2011. He put himself through law school and now at age 48, he was in the class of Ohio’s newest lawyers this year standing up there with the Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice and he was admitted to the bar.

He’s now working as a municipal trial council in the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office.

[00:24:25] Chris: It’s an interesting story cuz so many of the prison lawyers. Are not good. We, we get these handwritten, scrolled motions and things in the mail. They copy us on, on a lot of them. We get ‘em fairly regularly. Um, this is cool that he actually, you know, put his nose to the grindstone, figured it out and is actually a lawyer now.

[00:24:48] Courtney: Yeah. And, and you know, he kind of, he, he talked about his path here, how he, how he. How he got into jail. You know, he was working at an Amazon warehouse. It [00:25:00] sounds like he needed a knee surgery. He didn’t have short-term disability with that job. He was facing eviction and he, he started selling drugs. But like you said, I.

He then ran with it when he found this talent in, down in Con, the Kentucky Prison. And when he came out he, he got a job at a GIF peanut butter plant in Lexington, and that happened to offer him full tuition reimbursement. You know, there’s the discussion of it’s not that easy to, of course. Do this kind of bootstrap kind of thing.

It was, he overcame so much to get here. He enrolled in community college later, went to the University of Kentucky, worked through the night, went to class the next morning and, and then he eventually started working with the Ohio Innocence Project, and I gotta throw this out there. I thought this was such a great idea.

While he was working with the Innocence Project, he wrote a paper proposing the idea of. Contactless policing. So you know those situations where officers pull, a lot of times, young black men over for minor traffic violations turns violent. In the [00:26:00] case of, for example, Philando Castile dead, you know, and so Davis’s idea to remedy.

Those situations escalating. He’s like, just, just issue citations by mail and then they’re, then there’s no need for a conflict. Right? We’ve,

[00:26:13] Chris: we’ve talked about that recently. We’ve talked about that with the seatbelt thing. I mean, that’s what they should do. They have your plate just send you the ticket, don’t pull you over for tinted windows, for broken taillights, all that stuff.

There’s no reason to pull people over for that. It’s interesting that he’s pursuing that because that would reduce the risk to both police and the drivers. You’re listening to today in Ohio, meadow City nursery in Collinwood has a special collection of plants for sale. Lisa, you’re a gardener. What is this place doing?

[00:26:45] Lisa: Yeah, and all my Facebook gardening groups are all a buzz about this. They’ve posted links to the cleveland.com article, so Mead Meadow City Nursery is at East 150 second in Waterloo, in the North Collinwood neighborhood. It was founded by Julie [00:27:00] Slater and Alyssa. Is yearly, Slater is a, has a graduate degree in ecological restoration.

So she got permission from private landowners in northeast Ohio to collect seeds from undisturbed and intact woodland and meadow ecosystems. So they’re gonna take. These seeds, and they’re all Ohio natives and they’re growing them for sale. So they have things like blue-eyed grass, Jacob’s ladder foam flower, lots of different as Joe Hwe and so forth.

And Zli developed an app that allows them to document the locations of the parent plants from which they collected seeds so they can have an exact. Pedigree of all the seeds and plants that they sell. Um, they have an education and outreach specialist there. Dave Thomas Shefsky. He’s also a birding expert, so they’ll be leading free workshops on planting natives, decreasing your lawn space and using more native plants in your landscape.

And this, these, uh, events and workshops will coincide with the Waterloo Arts district’s. First Friday, Friday Gallery hops. [00:28:00] So, yeah, I’m excited to go down there and check out what they have. I looked online to look at their plant catalog and it’s, it’s very interesting. And, you know, we talked as a corollary to, no, Moe, we talked about planting more Ohio natives.

So this is very timely.

[00:28:15] Chris: Well, what’s nice about this is that the local pollinators, this is what they’re familiar with. So you’re, you’re increasing the number of pollinating plants that mm-hmm. That the local pollinators. Already used. And you’re right, the, the NoMo me was silly and goofy. This is the much smarter way to go if you wanna help create more pollinators in northeast Ohio.

These kinds of plants. I’m fascinated by this one. And you said that, uh, your gardening sites are filled up with, with links to it.

[00:28:47] Lisa: Oh yeah, I’m on a couple of different Facebook gardening sites and I looked this morning and, and two of them had posted that cleveland.com article and everyone’s like, oh, when are we gonna go?

Let’s go together. So yeah, the excitement’s there. This

[00:28:59] Chris: was a Susan [00:29:00] Branstein story, right, Laura? I. Yes, it was. Yeah, she’s great. She just comes up with no end of interesting gardening pieces. And the re, she’s

[00:29:09] Laura: very plugged in and I do like how she writes and that she’s, she was comparing her to Johnny Appleseed, right?

Like maybe we’ll call her Julie Meadow seed at some point.

[00:29:18] Chris: Yes. Yeah, very, very cool. Check out the story. It’s on cleveland.com. That’s it for the Wednesday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Courtney. Thanks everybody for listening. We’ll be back Thursday. I’m sure there’ll be some new news to talk about.