Ohio’s turnpike director explains the wacky toll system soon to be in place for drivers: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The 241-mile Ohio Turnpike is overhauling the way it’s charging tolls starting sometime this fall.

We’re talking about an interview with the executive director about the plan to charge mileage-based tolls only on part of the route and collect flat-rate tolls to enter and (in most cases) leave the state, 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:

After a couple of stories about the Ohio Turnpike’s confusing toll plan and its failure to bid contracts, reporter Jeremy Pelzer had an interview with the turnpike chief. Did he clear anything up?

Reporter John Tucker examined the overall car theft trend in Cleveland. It’s not just Kias and Hyundais that are being stolen. What did he find?

Chief politics writer Andrew Tobias examined Ohio’s abortion issue through the lens of Issue 1, the dramatic smackdown of Matt Huffman’s and Frank LaRose’s effort to block the majority of Ohioans from setting the state’s abortion policy. What did Andrew report?

We can also discuss the Supreme Court rejecting the latest challenge, which occurred late Friday.

This is not a sports podcast, but something happening in the sports world is pretty huge economic news with a big Ohio angle. The Big 10 conference where Ohio State plays football and basketball, is suddenly growing to 18 teams, making the conference title a little silly. Why is this significant, and what does it do to the legendary Ohio State-Michigan rivalry?

How much more expensive has it become to fly out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport since the pandemic, and how does that compare to the rest of the nation?

The Cleveland Metroparks are building a new park on the lakefront, with material dredged from the Cuyahoga River, and late last week the park system announced a pretty serious change of direction. What was it?

Maybe those higher airfares in Cleveland explain this story. How is Breeze Airways becoming the biggest flying out of Akron Canton airport?

Moody’s has given a negative outlook to some of the major banks that serve Northeast Ohio. If I have money in them, should I be worried?

It’s the 100th anniversary of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank, a landmark in the city. Reporter Sean McDonnell got an advance preview of a new exhibit, but it is the details of the building that stand out in his story. Lisa, the highlights?

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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: Laura Johnston’s back and it’s today in Ohio. The news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura, as well as Lisa Garvin and Courtney Alfi. Layla is taking the day off. After a couple of stories about the Ohio Turnpike confusing toll plan and its failure to bid contracts, reporter Jeremy Pelzer had an interview with the turnpike chief, Laura.

Did he clear anything

[00:00:29] Laura: up? I mean, yes and no. I didn’t come away completely understanding the new system, but I think it was great that Jeremy really pushed to get answers and that he did sit down and talk to him. So this is Zen. Um, Ahmed, he’s the executive director of the turnpike since 2019, and he thinks this makes perfect sense, this new complicated tolling system where we could charge a flat fee at either end and then don’t have a bunch of, uh, toll stations for 50 miles or so, and then start tolling again.

But we do know why the turnpike is [00:01:00] changing its tolling system, and that’s because it’s old from 2009. It’s going to become obsolete and good for them. They’re, they’re not waiting, unlike the state unemployment system, till it gets dire. So, That’s that part, but why exactly they’ve chosen this system is a little bit confusing.

The reason they’re not going completely to the overhead just drive 70 miles an hour underneath the sensors is because not enough people have the easy pass in Ohio. But you think then that they would start some kind of public awareness campaign to let everybody know how easy it is to get Epass and then they.

Be better off, but they can’t mail all sorts of bills to people based on license plates. So for right now, that’s why they’re keeping the toll plazas at most exits.

[00:01:46] Chris: I don’t know the, I get it. He had the percentage of people that use the turnpike and donuts. 60. Yeah.

[00:01:52] Laura: 67%.

[00:01:53] Chris: Yeah. Yeah. But I, but that still doesn’t work for me on why the first 50 miles on either side [00:02:00] have a different system and the rest of it, it, it really does feel like they’re trying to keep toll takers employed.

I, I’m glad he explained it. Um, I did, we did get some notes. From some people about the no bid contracts that really think there’s a red flag there and think we should dig deeper. They’re just not buying the no, and that’s the way it’s always been done line. They think something probably stinks and we need to keep

[00:02:23] Laura: digging.

He didn’t really get into it. He was just saying, you know, it’s good to do the overhaul and our practices are sound and we’ve been putting into the. Place the recommendations from the Inspector General. But what he doesn’t say is, I mean, he’s saying he doesn’t think anybody got bids that shouldn’t have, but, and I was gone when Jeremy published his first story, but I read it and it, it feels like the contractor said, Hey, this is what we wanna do.

And the turnpike said, okay, rather than the other way around. And so I think there needs to be more digging in there because there were still questionable things about people getting paid mileage and expenses that they shouldn’t have. That doesn’t get addressed here. I. [00:03:00] I, I, I don’t know. Yeah, we, there’s still a lot of questions.

We don’t know when this is going to start. The new tolling system, they said it’s based on testing. They’re still working on that. Apparently they did a customer survey. I use the turnpike quite a bit. I never got one. I assume you’ve never gotten one. Chris use it all the time.

[00:03:16] Chris: Yeah. I like, look, I just, I don’t buy it.

It’s confusing beyond words and I think. People are gonna have a hard time with it. Um, and if not enough people are using epass, change that, change that narratives, you know, start giving ‘em away. I mean, part of the reason people don’t use ‘em is that a lot of states have a fee, but there are states that don’t or didn’t, I haven’t checked lately.

Yeah, make it free, get people signed up. There’s still a lot of people that see it as the government tracking their movements and they’re never gonna go for it. Hmm. But,

[00:03:43] Laura: but it’s still, but I mean, they’re tracking their movements by license plate then. I mean, they’re gonna have a camera no matter what.

And you do save money when you have an easy pass. Like, I think it’s 10 bucks to get, at least that’s, you know, when we got it. But then you pay a dollar less. In a toll at one spot or, or, and, and it adds up. I mean, if you take it re [00:04:00] regularly, it’s very convenient and it ends up being

[00:04:03] Chris: cheaper. Well, for the people that wrote in saying they had some background on the turnpike and want us to look deeper, rest assured we will.

You’re listening to today in Ohio. Reporter John Tucker examined the overall car theft trend in Cleveland in this summer of car theft fueled crime. It’s not just Kia and Hyundais that are being stolen. What did he find, Courtney? I.

[00:04:27] Courtney: Yeah, this year’s halfway point, so through June, car thefts in Cleveland are double what they were at that same point last year.

So they are skyrocketing. We’re not imagining this. And like you said, it isn’t just Kias and Hyundais, although they are a huge contributor here to this spike. And so there’ve been nearly 3000 through June and Cleveland versus 1500 last year. And when you’re looking at Kias and Hyundai specifically, Through last year’s midpoint, they made up just about 11% of the car thefts in Cleveland.

This year they account for a whopping [00:05:00] 57%. So this is a big issue here, and let’s put it into context a little bit nationally so we know what we’re dealing with in Cleveland, but I. Tucker’s story looked at a Council of Criminal Justice report that looked at mid-year crime trends, including car thefts in 37 cities.

This list didn’t include Cleveland, but we found numbers here and it shows us that across the US on average, stolen cars jumped 33% from that period last year. So in Cleveland, we’ve jumped 99%. We’re still above the national average, but. I don’t know about you. I was pretty relieved to see we were not at the top of this list.

Usually we are, but a, according to this national data, Rochester, new York’s car thefts was up way more than us at, at 350%. Cincinnati outpaced tested 150% in places like Buffalo, Chicago, Memphis, Washington. Are all dealing with the issue too. So we’re not alone in this issue here in

[00:05:57] Chris: Cleveland. Think about that [00:06:00] 3000 times in six months, somebody went outside and found their car missing.

It’s 500 times a month. How many cars are being stolen a day in Cleveland and nobody. Is doing anything. We keep talking about this. There is no concerted effort that anyone’s talking about to stop this. And these stolen cars are fueling a youth crime spree because they have the cars to get around. I, it’s a staggering story.

When you read that and you look at the total number, it’s just, And it’s, you know, people come out and their car’s gone. It’s a huge nightmare. Usually they’re not in great shape if they get ‘em

[00:06:36] Lisa: back. I, I, I do wanna point out though, and the story said this, is that a pretty large amount of cars that were stolen had the keys inside?

[00:06:44] Courtney: Yeah. And we talked to a Cleveland State University professor who kind of cautioned against assuming these are all. Juvenile car thefts, and this is solely a juvenile thing. Okay? Maybe the Kias and Hyundais are a fad that have been exacerbated by social media and things, right? But [00:07:00] you know, when we talked to the experts, they said it’s almost like the same number of regular cars are getting stolen.

You just plop the Kia and Hyundai problem right on top of that. So it’s not like other cars have been less stolen. This is just like augmenting the numbers like crazy.

[00:07:17] Chris: Right. That makes sense. Because they’ve gone from 11% to 57%. So all of those extra cars or keys in Hyundais, what is the most stolen car that was in the story too?

[00:07:29] Courtney: Yeah, it’s a black 2020 Kia. And you should be on the lookout if you’ve got one of those vehicles.

[00:07:38] Lisa: The SS u V, right? The Forte.

[00:07:41] Chris: Mm-hmm. Just me. Is anybody else, anytime they see a key or a Hyundai on the road, do you just automatically wonder if it’s stolen? I.

[00:07:48] Laura: I just wonder why anyone buys them.

[00:07:51] Lisa: Well, because they’re not

[00:07:52] Chris: expensive.

They’re not expensive, and the newer models have the, the, the fix. It’s just the older ones have not been recalled [00:08:00] for the big fix. Great story by John. It lays it all out there. Check it out on cleveland.com and you are listening to today in Ohio. Lisa, back to issue one, but not really. Chief politics writer Andrew Tobias examined Ohio’s abortion issue through the lens of issue one.

The dramatic SmackDown of Matt Huffman and Frank Larose’s effort to block the majority of Ohioans from setting the state’s abortion policy. What did Andrew report?

[00:08:28] Lisa: He actually talked to several people on both sides of the abortion amendment issue and it was very interesting. But, uh, both sides are gearing up for November.

Um, it depends on what side you talk to, but they see the issue one results as energizing. I. For those who are for reproductive freedom and unsettling for those who are anti-abortion. So, uh, Andrew talked to executive director, uh, Sri Ti, who is the, you know, for Preterm Cleveland, which is a local abortion provider.

He [00:09:00] said, Hey, extremist through everything they could at us, and we won and we have momentum. For November, Cleveland Democratic consultant, Jeff Rusnak, who is advising the November campaign, he says this was a power grab that failed to prevent abortion rights from succeeding. And he said that the anti-abortion messaging is all over the place.

They’ve really failed to move public opinion, and he pointed out that a polling of 57% of those who favor reproductive freedom is similar. To the no vote in issue one and almost exactly actually. And Kyle Ick, who is a political analyst at the University of Virginia in a Cleveland or Ohio native, he says that the issue one vote suggests that the abortion amendment will pass.

But he did notice. There was partisan crossover. And Sarah Walker, who’s with the ballot initiative Strategy Center, she says bipartisan overlap in views on issue one, because some people who were for abortion voted yes on issue one, [00:10:00] and some people who were against abortion voted no. But she says the result should be a red alert for Republicans in November.

So, um, on the other side, they’re doubling down right to life, Ohio. Director Mike aka says This makes them wanna just work harder. Our work is not done. They’re laser focused on November, although they didn’t mention any strategies. Uh, governor Mike DeWine, he says he plans to paint this amendment as too liberal for Ohio.

He says, we will have a policy that’s accepted by the majority of Ohioans. Ohioans and he says the amendment that’s going on the ballot doesn’t do that. And one more, uh, protect Women Ohio. They’re not changing course either. They say, and a lot of people have been saying this, that issue one failed for tactical reasons.

They said that the opponents got the jump on early fundraising and the jump on TV ads. And they say that the biggest takeaway is to define the issue early, and they said that they’ve done that.

[00:10:57] Chris: The issue is abortion and the [00:11:00] amendment pretty much enshrines Roe. So I, I don’t get it. They think they can change people’s minds.

People made up their minds when he says, we’re gonna work harder. What are you gonna work harder at? People know how they feel about this issue, right? They’ve been debating it for 50 years. It’s a bunch of, of nonsense. And, and to, for Mike DeWine to say, this isn’t what people want. It actually is what people want, what people want.

And, and that’s why what LaRose and Huffman did was so despicable because they were trying to stop. The majority of Ohioans from setting this state’s policy. It was one of the most underhanded things I’ve ever seen politicians do. The majority would not have ruled on abortion, so we would’ve allowed a minority of the state to set the policy.

I I, the the, I wish we could just vote tomorrow ‘cause it’s gonna be so much screeching for the next three months and I don’t think a single person’s gonna change their vote. Well, and

[00:11:54] Lisa: even people on the anti-abortion side are saying that they don’t have a playbook. You know, they say that the opponent’s [00:12:00] playbook, those that are for reproductive freedom, their playbook is very clear, but the anti side doesn’t really have a playbook at

[00:12:06] Chris: all.

I think the, ultimately their playbook’s gonna be, this’ll pass in November and they’ll start trying to get new amendments onto the ballot. That whittles it away. Good luck with that. I think the people of Ohio are gonna speak pretty clearly. They certainly did last week. This is today in Ohio. This is not a sports podcast, but something happening in the sports world is pretty huge.

Economic news with a big Ohio angle, the Big 10 conference where Ohio State plays football and basketball is suddenly growing to 18. Teams making the conference title about 10. A little silly, or why is this significant? What does it do to the legendary Ohio State Michigan rivalry?

[00:12:50] Laura: So I really appreciated Andrew Gillis’s simple approach to this story, walking me and all the other ri uh, readers through it about why this is happening.

[00:13:00] So the Big 10, the conference at Ohio State Athletics has been in since 1912, had 10 teams for 40 years, so that made a lot of sense. They were all based in the Midwest. Penn State joined in 1990. They went up to 11, but. Now it’s changing incredibly fast as television contracts and shifting alleg, uh, alle allegiances make the landscape totally different for all sorts of conferences in football.

There’s a lot of money here, and the idea is if U S C and U C L A, they’re joining the conference and then Oregon and Washington, that was the really new news are joining. Then they have every corner of the state or every corner of the country covered and they get a lot more tv. Um, I guess interest basically.

And they can get a lot more money for each of these schools ‘cause they have Maryland and Rutgers too, which is something I didn’t grow up thinking about. Right. So they’ll have every bit of the country covered and they can sell those TV rights for the games for a lot more money.

[00:13:57] Chris: It’s amazing to me is we’re part of [00:14:00] Advanced local.

We have sister sites and almost all of them now are Big 10. We’ll have Oregon, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. The only one that’s missing is al.com. Maybe Alabama can leave. Oh

[00:14:12] Laura: God, its conference. I don’t know that the Big 10 wants Alabama in its conference. I feel like they wanna keep, you know, the idea of Ohio State being a really great football school and they.

Obviously, Ohio State is a huge football school, and that’s why people in Ohio care about this and who they’re gonna play is a big interest. So the way that they had decided to do this going forward, so this season it stays the same. There’ll be an East Division and a West Division next season. I. It’s gonna have to be figured out because this Washington, Oregon News is really new, but they do get to keep probably three like traditional rivals to play.

So I think they’re always gonna get to play Michigan. And it’s possible there could be a Big 10 championship with Ohio State and Michigan in it if they go the way they think they’re thinking.

[00:14:58] Chris: Well, but, [00:15:00] but beyond that, you could have Michigan and Ohio State play their final game of the year together and then play for the national championship, which people are worried about.

But you don’t wanna take that Michigan, Ohio State game away from that Thanksgiving weekend. It’s been there. Right. Forever. It’s, it’s the whole season leads up to this clash of these titans. Fascinating stuff. That’s why we decided to do it as a general interest news story. It was only playing on the sports pages.

And you’re right, Andrew did a

[00:15:30] Laura: great job with it. Well, I think when people tune into college football starting Labor Day weekend and they see that they’re gonna be super confused so they can go tune to Andrew’s story and it even explains the PAC 12 and everything else going on in the landscape. So yeah.

Good read.

[00:15:43] Chris: You’re listening to today in Ohio. How much more expensive has it become to fly out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport since the pandemic, and how does that compare to the rest of the nation, Courtney? Yeah,

[00:15:57] Courtney: airfare at Cleveland Hopkins is up a little [00:16:00] over 10% since 2019. So, We’ve seen the impact, you know, the pandemic years have played here and during the first quarter of this year, that brings our average fair here in Cleveland to about $350.

That’s the highest Cleveland sat at airfare wise in nearly a decade. But the good news here, which Susan walked us through in her story, Is that Cleveland Stilson definitely lower than the national average, which is hovering around $380. The local picture is kind of all over the place, and fares at Hopkins have fluctuated quite a bit since about a decade ago, that’s when United Airlines shut down its hub and, and back then in, in 20 13, 20 14.

Cleveland Fairs were among the highest in the us. They were hovering right around $450. So even though we’re up a bit since 2019, we’re still doing pretty good overall for our recent history here.

[00:16:56] Chris: Yeah. And you had to think as demand returned that the prices would [00:17:00] go up. So it’s not all that big a surprise, and certainly passenger traffic is returning there very steadily.

Yeah,

[00:17:06] Courtney: and you know, you think of low cost airlines like Frontier and Spirit that’s brought costs down over the past decade or so. And when you look at us on the national scale, or at least regionally, we’re doing pretty good. Uh, Cleveland is, like I said, around 350. The Detroit Airport’s average is about a hundred dollars more than Cleveland.

In Columbus, the average is about 50 bucks more than here. And at Pittsburgh it’s sitting at about $375. Cincinnati’s around the same. The only outlier where, you know, consistently beats Cleveland’s prices is the Akron airport. Their fares have just dropped dramatically. Yeah, and, and they’re at under 300

[00:17:46] Laura: bucks here.

Here’s my question, since we’re talking about all these low cost airfares, is this the flight cost that we’re talking about, or once you like pay for a bag because that can add like an extra a hundred dollars to your cost.

[00:17:59] Courtney: You know the [00:18:00] story talks about airfare. I’d be curious to know what that breakdown includes as well.

[00:18:03] Chris: Yeah, it’s a good idea. If it doesn’t include all that, we probably should do a total cost. And where that stands compared to three years ago. You’re listening to Today in Ohio, the Cleveland Metro Parks. They’re building a new park on the lakefront one with a kind of silly name, with material dredged from the Cuyahoga River.

And late last week, the park system announced a pretty serious change of direction for the park. Lisa, what is it?

[00:18:28] Lisa: Yes, the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy, also known as Cheers. It’s a $300 million project. The original plan was released in 2021, but it’s been redesigned kind of significantly after new studies of wind and wave.

Patterns at that area. And you know, last week for the first time, I had gone to the Lakefront Nature Preserve, and there’s an outlook that looks right over where this project is gonna be. And boy is that water choppy there. The original plan was 79 acres behind new stone or [00:19:00] concrete dykes south of the shipping channel and an offshore island built with dredge material that would have like rounded edges in areas for like little bays and harbors.

But the new plan is 63 land. Land acres and 39 acres of sheltered coves and bays inside the break wall, the island that they’re going to build will be slimmer like a peninsula. It will be more natural and it will connect to Gordon Park near East 72nd Street via a bridge. So they’re moving ahead. With applying for funding on the 18th of this month, the Port of Cleveland is applying for $44 million from the Federal Highway Administration for 965 feet of linear break wall that would protect I 90 from storms.

Um, odot, the Port and Metro Parks will supply the rest of the money needed for that $56 million project, so about 12 million from them on the 21st of this month. Metro Parks is seeking $60 million from noaa, the National [00:20:00] Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for what they call a bio-engineered break wall that would protect 17 acres of new Parkland East Northeast of East 55th Street.

Marina. So the, this is a, you know, a project for a park, but it’s also trying to fix like a very vulnerable part of the lake right by I 90. So this project would extend the beneficial use of dredge sediment from the Hiya Cuyahoga River, which they dredge every year. The Cheers plan absorbs 20 years worth of.

Sediment and this will protect the shoreline next to I 90, where 20 foot waves shut down the highway in Superstorm Sandy back in 2012. And then of course, it adds new parkland and new connections to majority black neighborhoods that were cut off by I 90, including, uh, St. Clair Superior and Glenville.

[00:20:49] Chris: Although I think I, the big change though that we’re talking about is they spent money studying those, the water and the wind. Correct. And they’ve reoriented the whole [00:21:00] thing to better baffle those weather phenomenon, right?

[00:21:05] Lisa: That’s correct. Yeah. They had, they spent about 6 million in planning grants to study that, and they found that they needed to change the plan based on that.

And like I said, I’ve never been to the nature front. You know, pres lakefront Nature preserved before, and that little cove there is that, it’s really, really choppy and it’s right up against the freeway. There. There’s a

[00:21:24] Chris: nice, uh, artist rendering of the latest plan that runs with Steve Lits story on cleveland.com, and you can really get a nice idea for how welcoming of a park this is going to be, unlike the dike 14.

Park that was, which you’re talking about the nature preserve, Lisa. Right. That was built with big steel walls planted into the seabed. Mm-hmm. And the dredge material was just shoved inside. This park will have nice sandy beaches. It’ll be much more accessible. You are listening to today in Ohio, maybe those higher airfares in Cleveland, [00:22:00] explain this story.

How is Breeze Airways becoming the biggest airline flying out of Akron Canton Airport, Laura?

[00:22:07] Laura: Well, this airline didn’t even exist before 2021, and then it started at Akron Canton with three destinations. Now we’re up to seven. It’s gonna have eight starting this fall. Drawing travelers from throughout northeast Ohio, they’re mostly leisure.

Destinations, they have deals on their prices and they don’t go even every day necessarily. They just go when the travelers want to go. So I actually took breeze to New Orleans in February. I think they only did about three weeks of trips to New Orleans right before Mardi Gras, and they would leave on Friday night from Akron and get back, I think Monday.

So it was just exactly what people wanted and that’s how they’re positioning themselves is. They’re gonna have full flights every time, but they’re gonna go when you wanna go, where you wanna go.

[00:22:53] Chris: I guess being the biggest airline at a out of Akron Kenton isn’t really much to boast about because it has been so [00:23:00] decimated by all of the airlines that left there.

It was

[00:23:04] Laura: never a big airport. Right. I mean, when I was in high school, I remember taking my best friend at the time, she lived in Georgia there, and it was like one hallway with four. Gates and it’s much bigger now. It’s much nicer. It’s a great place to fly out of because you can park yourself, wheel your bag in, walk right on.

And there’s never any line. So it’s great. But yes, it was never an international airport. It’s, it’s made for people going on fairly short flights to, you know, New York or Florida.

[00:23:33] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to today in Ohio, Moody’s has given a negative outlook to some of the major banks that serve Northeast Ohio.

Courtney, if I have money in them, should I be worried?

[00:23:44] Courtney: Well, reporter Sean McDonald kinda walked us through how we should think about this. Now, Moody’s is one of the big three credit rating agencies and it, it says it has that negative outlook now. On several banks that includes P N C, Huntington, fifth, third, and Citizens.

So I, I [00:24:00] imagine folks in northeast Ohio are keeping their ears peeled for news. But you know, we talked to some experts and on the average consumer level, you know, one assistant professor of financing and banking at Case Western told us these changes don’t necessarily mean a bank’s in trouble. She said the ratings do change over time.

The stock market will continue to react around this, and, and it already has. This could lead eventually to costlier loans and more interest on deposit accounts for con for customers. But when Moody’s looking at this, it, it’s looking more kind of big picture and a negative outlook means a bank is kind of on the radar, on their radar there.

It may have some weaknesses and it could see a credit downgrade in the future. You know, Moody’s and, and some experts we talk to are signaling that, that some of these bigger regional banks, like the ones with the negative outlook here, [00:25:00] they maybe have, uh, a less diverse kind of business. Maybe they have more loans tied up and I.

Commercial real estate. And as that market changes, Moody’s is keeping tabs.

[00:25:11] Chris: You know, for anybody that saw the movie, the Big Short, any news like this has gotta be anxiety inducing, right? You gotta think there’s some people in back room somewhere going, uhoh, this is all gonna collapse, so, so when Moody’s does something like this, it’s that.

Uh, oh moment. Like, are we on the verge of another 2008? What’s going on? And you, you just, if you’re not an expert in the field, I don’t know what, what to think. It was a great movie and it’s very scary. You’re listening to today in Ohio. I. It’s the hundredth anniversary of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank in Landmark.

In downtown Cleveland. Reporter Sean McDonald got an advanced preview of a new exhibit, but it was the details of the building that stood out in his story. Lisa, what were the highlights?

[00:25:56] Lisa: Yeah, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland opened on [00:26:00] August 23rd, 1923 at East Sixth and Superior. After two years of construction, its original building was 480 square.

480,000 square feet. They added a 270,000 square foot annex in 1997. So the hundredth anniversary exhibit in the Education and Learning Center, which is formerly the Money Museum Opens today, it’s free to the public. And as you said, you know, we got an exclusive tour and photos are on cleveland.com. It’s beautiful if you’ve never been inside the building.

So the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created. 12 Federal reserve banks as a guard against financial panics like the 1901 recession. So the one in Cleveland is designed like an Italian palazzo. It’s, it’s supposed to convey security and stability on the outside and the wealth of the region inside. If you go into the lobby with the vaulted ceilings, it’s just beautiful.

But there are statues at the main entrance. That were created by the same sculptor who did the [00:27:00] guardians of traffic on the bridge. Well, these statues have machine gun slots in them just in case, you know, they have to protect the building and, um, the, uh, on the inside, you know, the way they’re like holes in the glass, you know.

So for rifles, just in case, you know, something happens inside the bank,

[00:27:18] Chris: This is my version, my Cleveland version of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. I grew up outside Philadelphia. Never saw the Liberty Bell till years after I moved away. I’ve never been in this building and it just sounds such like a, such a fascinating thing to do.

Uh, the pictures of it were, were striking and it, it is a beautiful building in downtown.

[00:27:39] Lisa: And they managed, you know, the original building was clad and Georgia pink marble, and when they built the annex in the nineties, they were able to get marble from that very same quarry for the annex. So the buildings do match visually on the outside, but like I said, an Italian palazzo, if you can imagine what that looks like on the inside with just a very ornate

[00:27:58] Chris: lobby.

Yeah, good [00:28:00] story. Check it out. It’s on cleveland.com. That’s it for the Monday version of today in Ohio. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Courtney. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back on Tuesday.