CLEVELAND, Ohio – While Ohio has embraced sports gambling on phones, Gov. Mike DeWine is warning about the evils of iGaming.
Why? We’re debating the difference on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi 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:
JD Vance could not have been more vocal in opposing the sale of U.S. Steel to a Japanese company. Now Donald Trump supports it. Has Vance changed his tune?
Mike DeWine has signed off on sports betting, which most people do by phone, but now he’s raising a flag over i-gaming on the phone. Is he explaining the distinction?
With a property tax crisis threatening chaos for Ohio, and with redistricting on the plate along with a bunch of other big Ohio issues, what is a Beachwood Democrat in the Ohio Legislature putting his effort into?
Ohio has a huge imbalance when it comes to diversity in science, technology and math education, but Donald Trump doesn’t care. How much is his administration cutting from an Ohio program to bring more balance in STEM education?
How big is Ohio’s biggest city now, and where are most of the other big cities in the state?
We got a hold of a memo from the Cleveland Clinic CEO to his staff about the financial condition of the hospital system and how he needs the employees’ help to make things better. What does it say?
We talked a few weeks ago about how Cleveland was about to lose millions of federal dollars that were targeted at the city’s notorious lead problem. Did the feds take the money away?
We don’t have many areas in Northeast Ohio that are booming. North Ridgeville is one of them. What do we know about the pace of its growth?
Should we be worried? What is now a trend at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:01.321)
We are into June on Today in Ohio, and maybe the weather will catch up with this finally. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Leila Atassi, Lisa Garvin, and Laura Johnston. Laura, JD Vance could not have been more vocal in opposing the sale of US Steel to a Japanese company. Now Donald Trump supports it. Has Vance changed his tune too?
Laura (00:27.978)
Of course, you’ve seen it’s like father like son, right? So JD Vance had opposed this potential sale of US Steel to Nippon because he co-authored a letter urging former president Joe Biden to block this deal. But then on Friday, Trump went to Pennsylvania to tout the deal that he announced the week before saying he’s going to allow US Steel to remain in the United States, keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh and this deal to go through. They say this is much different than the deal they originally opposed.
Chris Quinn (00:31.732)
You
Laura (00:57.078)
And Trump said for many years, United States seal was synonymous with greatness. And now it will be again, said it was going to create 70,000 jobs, add $14 billion to the US economy. And that would occur in the next 14 months. I’m not sure where exactly those numbers are coming from. Those are huge, huge numbers.
Chris Quinn (01:15.991)
Well, and as we know with this president, the numbers are often just made up out of thin air and there’s no facts behind it. Look at their Make America Healthy Again report that was based completely on fictional studies promoted by AI. You can’t believe a word he says. Look, this was one of those deals that was a 50-50 deal, that U.S. might have been kept healthy under the auspices of a Japanese company and we are pals with Japan in this country.
Laura (01:20.088)
Correct.
Chris Quinn (01:44.787)
And so a whole lot of people thought this was smart. Then there were the protectionists like JD Vance and Sherrod Brown saying no way, no how, this has to remain independent. And Cleveland Cliffs was in the running to buy it too. This seems like a complete waffling. And we don’t know enough about this deal to say whether it’s legit or not because you can’t trust a single word that comes out of this administration.
Laura (01:58.072)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (02:12.137)
This is an administration that seems to get bought and paid for all the time and you wonder what’s going on in the background here.
Laura (02:18.894)
Yeah, I agree with you. was just listening. I’m listening to this biography about the Bush’s because I’m going to Maine and Kennebunkport and it’s interesting to me and this idea that when George H.W. Bush became a congressman, he sold his business just because of a conflict of interest, right? He didn’t want there to be any questions that he was making money off of this oil business. And now look at we have the exact opposite in the White House and it just seems so quaint. But I agree with you.
Chris Quinn (02:38.613)
Yeah
Laura (02:48.14)
I mean, I don’t know enough about the deal to say whether it’s changed 100%, but we do know, we talk about all the time about politicians getting bought off basically. And there was a whole lot of fear about this deal in the past. And now we’re saying this is the best thing that could happen.
Chris Quinn (03:08.395)
I imagine that the national media, New York Times, Washington Post, and some others are digging into this because that’s the only way we get truth anymore is by independent journalists looking at it. And I’m looking forward to whatever they find out about it. I don’t believe for a minute it’s what we were delivered last week, but maybe the deal when you look at it in truth will be something that’s good. It’s just amazing to me how they have changed their tune because they were
Laura (03:28.748)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (03:37.323)
dead set against it. must be owned by an American company. It can’t be owned by a foreign company. This is too important to the future of America and now not.
Laura (03:46.286)
Right and of course Sabrina Eaton asked the Vance office for comment. I don’t think we got any late Friday, but would you trust it anyway if we had it?
Chris Quinn (03:56.681)
No, no, I don’t trust anything they do. They’re completely untrustworthy. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Mike DeWine signed off on sports betting, which most people do by phone at all hours of the day and night. But now he’s raising a red flag over iGaming on the phone, something the legislature might propose. Lisa, is he explaining the distinction?
Lisa (04:07.119)
you
Lisa (04:19.567)
Yes he is and there are two bills right now in our legislature to legalize online gaming also known as iGaming. So in the Senate that bill requires an ID and age verification, there’s a $500 weekly wager limit and up to five hours a week spent online only. They also are including horse race betting and Ohio Lottery internet games as part of their bill.
The House bill is much more limited. says iGaming is really only for slots, poker, craps, and other table games. Both of them say that only Ohio’s four casinos and seven racinos would get the licenses, but they can choose the vendor to do the iGaming. So our governor, Mike DeWine says,
Anybody with an iPhone could basically have a casino in their hands 24 seven. There’s a massive potential for addiction, but he hasn’t said if he’ll veto the bill that comes to his desk later this year. House Speaker Matt Huffman is also concerned. He says with iGaming, you can sit on your back patio and lose all your money. And that’s a huge problem for addicts. But he says he’s a realist about iGaming expansion, whatever that means. So we’ll see how he handles these bills as they come together.
Chris Quinn (05:32.811)
There’s several things that call these comments into question. Sports betting is one of them. People can bet on sports betting all the time. And we’ve seen teenagers getting into it and others. so if if phone gambling addiction is a problem, why did they sign off on sports betting? But secondly, there’s a bunch of offshore casino gambling sites that people can use outside of the taxation system in Ohio. So I don’t see
where their objections are coming from. people want to do it, they’re already doing it. I suspect that these comments are more about the battle over how to fund stadiums. Mike DeWine wants to increase the tax on sports betting, double it to 40 % and use all that money for sports stadiums and youth sports. The legislature, which seems bought and paid for by the sports betting industry, doesn’t want to do that. They floated the idea of starting iGaming and Mike DeWine might still be pushing his plan.
This is another case like the first discussion we had where you can’t believe a single word coming out of these people. You can’t believe anything from the legislature because they don’t serve people. Do you really think Matt Huffman cares about the people of Ohio becoming gambling addicts? What has he ever done that has shown he cares about the people of Ohio?
Lisa (06:50.573)
Well, which is why I think, you know, he should get off the fence about this. has concerns and he says, I’m a realist about, know, what we’re going to do to regulate this. So I think he should take a stand and yes, it’s hard to distinguish between sports betting and I gaming, but there are a lot of people I think who do casino type gambling that don’t do sports. So it might be roping in a whole new, different, you know, clientele.
Chris Quinn (07:14.697)
Yeah, it might. It very well might. We’re going to look at Michigan, which legalized both at the same time to see if they have gambling addiction rates that are higher than in Ohio, because they for now, what, four years? I think they’ve had both where anybody in Michigan could do, well, anybody of age in Michigan could do sports betting or I gaming. to come. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’ve got a property tax crisis threatening chaos for Ohio and Ohio cities.
And we got redistricting on the plate with a bunch of other big Ohio issues. So, Layla, what is a Beechwood Democrat in the Ohio legislature putting his time into?
Leila (07:55.086)
That’s a great question. everything going on in Ohio right now, you might expect lawmakers to be laser focused on those urgent issues, but Beachwood Democrat Eric Sinnenberg has teamed up with Republican Gary Klick on a bill that would require public schools to start each day with a moment of silence. And this doesn’t allow a moment of silence, it’s required. So the idea they say isn’t about religion, Sinnenberg, who is Jewish, and Klick, a longtime Christian pastor.
pastor are both pitching this as a mental health measure. They say give students a chance to breathe, reflect, maybe even reset before the day begins. And the bill is vague. There’s no specified time, no script, just a moment. Still, there’s a lot of skepticism. The law says the moment of silence can be used for prayer, reflection, or meditation. And critics, especially those who fight for the separation of church and state, are warning that
simply including the word prayer can create pressure, especially for little kids. Think of a first grade teacher who says, now’s your chance to pray, reflect, or meditate. That kind of puts some weight behind it coming from an authority figure, and it may make some kids feel like prayer is the expected choice for that moment. And it’s worth noting that this isn’t Gary Klick’s first time pushing religion-adjacent legislation. He backed the released time.
a law that allows students to leave class for religious instruction. And he also sponsored the bill banning gender affirming care for minors, which is now being challenged in court.
Chris Quinn (09:30.229)
Look, if Ohio was running smoothly, fine, you could have a discussion about this, but the state’s falling apart. We talk about these issues every day on this podcast, major threats to the future of Ohio. And this is what they’re talking about. It tells you everything you need to know about this legislature being out of touch with people. And I think it also explains the anger people have.
Leila (09:48.026)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (09:55.433)
which is why I think this property tax thing could actually pass, which will turn the whole state into chaos. This is not what they should be spending their time on. We all know that. We know what they should be spending their time on, and they’re not.
Leila (10:08.206)
Yeah, mean, plus I’m not so sure how benign this is really. mean, yeah, if truly it’s just a neutral moment of silence with no nudging toward prayer or any implied expectation, sure, okay. But, you know, if that’s the case, it’s pretty meaningless too. What are we talking about? 10 seconds, 20 seconds of quiet time before attendance? I mean, if lawmakers are really concerned about kids’ mental health, there are far better ways to achieve that. So.
Chris Quinn (10:27.37)
Right.
Chris Quinn (10:33.195)
Indeed, indeed there are. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio has a huge imbalance when it comes to diversity in science, technology, and math education, but Donald Trump doesn’t care. Laura, how much is his administration cutting from an Ohio program to bring more balance in STEM education?
Laura (10:55.448)
This is $4.7 million just in Ohio, and it had allowed 10 colleges and universities to recruit and retain racial and ethnic minorities in STEM programs. And this is actually part of a national program, and it’s all named after Louis Stokes, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Most states had at least one of these programs, which aims to diversify science, technology, engineering, and math. Those are obviously the acronym for STEM. And basically, I think
There’s the stigma about STEM that it’s too hard. And so there’s been a big push for girls to get into STEM programs. That’s why the Girl Scouts just built this $8 million center at Camp Ledgewood for STEM and the need for a program for minorities to say, hey, you can do this. We want to encourage you to enter these fields. It doesn’t have to just be a brainy white guy in engineering, right? There’s room for everyone. So.
This was a program that had been going on since the 90s in some states and because it’s for diversity and for specific populations, the Trump administration says, no way, that’s it.
Chris Quinn (12:01.727)
What the Trump administration has done has made it all or nothing when it comes to diversity. Anything in the federal budget that in any way says anything about diversification is dead, which fails to recognize there are clear places of inequality in America. This was a program meant to encourage people that are not considering STEM to get into STEM.
It’s an absolute good thing because right now, like you said, it’s a stigma, but this bulldozer approach where you wipe out everything is doing some real harm. These were good programs. This was a good idea. It wasn’t that expensive, but it doesn’t matter. The only thing that Donald Trump cares about is stuff that helps white people, specifically white men.
Laura (12:52.142)
Well, the thing is, it’s not that much money, $4.7 million across the state in one year. It’s not going to plug a hole in the federal deficit. But it wasn’t detailed either. It wasn’t like, let’s take a look at these programs and see if we could spend this money in a better way. I want to see the outcomes. Where are the statistics? No, it’s like Elon Musk’s chainsaw, right? We’re just going to buzz all these programs away. And so it is sad.
Cleveland State won’t have this anymore, Cuyahoga Community College, Ohio State had a program, University of Cincinnati, Miami. There’s 10 schools total. So no more.
Leila (13:32.334)
And very counterintuitive for an administration that claims to be putting America first, right? I mean, these are the career fields that we will just be bulldozed by competitors in other nations if we don’t build that pipeline into those fields.
Laura (13:38.392)
Right.
Laura (13:49.304)
Good point.
Chris Quinn (13:50.389)
Look, the message here is I only want white people in these fields. That’s what he’s doing by cutting this money. I don’t want minorities or women in STEM, just people that look like me. It’s really horrifying what he’s done here. This was a good thing. And like Laura said, it wasn’t that expensive. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Leila, how big is Ohio’s biggest city now and where are most of the other big cities in the state?
Leila (14:19.258)
Well, Columbus being the biggest city is now pushing 933,000 residents. That’s according to the latest 2024 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s by far the largest city in the state. It keeps growing. But even with Columbus dominating in size, Northeast Ohio, we’re still holding our own. Five of the state’s nine largest cities are in this region. Cleveland is still second overall with about 365,000 residents.
And here’s an interesting detail. While it’s much smaller than Columbus population wise, Cleveland is actually more densely packed. Over 4,700 people per square mile compared to Columbus’s 4,200. After Cleveland, the rest of the top five are Cincinnati at just over 314,000, Toledo at about 265,000, and Akron rounding it out at nearly 190,000. Others in the top 10 include Dayton, Parma, Canton, Leraine, and Hamilton.
And if you zoom in on Northeast Ohio specifically, there’s a long list of mid-sized cities adding to the region’s urban footprint, like Youngstown and Elyria, Lakewood, Euclid Mentor, Cleveland Heights and Strongsville. They all have more than 40,000 residents. So while Columbus keeps climbing as Ohio’s population giant, Northeast Ohio is still the state’s most urbanized region with this dense cluster of mid to large cities keeping the map pretty full up here.
Chris Quinn (15:45.279)
A couple of things to think about. One, Columbus is now almost 200,000 bigger than Cleveland at its heyday in 1950. But Columbus also is what it is because it absorbed suburbs using its water system. I talk about regionalism all the time. If we ever turned Cuyahoga County into the city of Cleveland, it would be far and away Ohio’s biggest city. It would be an economic powerhouse like no other.
and we would move in a clear direction. The balkanization of Cuyahoga County is what has us not thriving like Columbus is. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We got hold of a memo from the Cleveland Clinic CEO to his staff about the financial condition of the hospital system and how he needs the employees’ help to make things better. Lisa, what does it say?
Lisa (16:40.291)
Yeah, CEO Tom Mahalovic sent this memo to employees back in April and it outlines their financial woes and they say they need to cut costs by $402 million by reducing waste and better innovation. So this equals about 2.5 % of their expected total revenue this year, but they’re operating on a 1.7 %
margin. So that’s extremely thin according to Mahalivik. He said the clinic did not meet its 2024 goals while serving more patients than ever before. Potential Medicaid cuts and hospitals are spending more than they’re taking in are part of the reasons for this. Mahalivik says it’s unlikely they’re going to see higher reimbursement rates anytime soon. So there are no plans to close any hospitals or departments or lay off any staff.
He did urge all employees to look for ways to cut costs. And he said, this is kind of ominous, caregivers need to be laser focused on achieving daily targets, which probably means more patient volume. They’re also talking about expanding night and weekend hours to get more patients in. But Mohalovic says the Cleveland Clinic is in a slightly better position. All the other major hospital systems in this area, Metro Health, University Hospitals, Summa Health.
and Southwest General Health Center all had losses last year.
Chris Quinn (18:02.411)
They’re all a product of our aging population. It’s a lot more expensive for hospitals to treat aging populations because Medicare doesn’t reimburse them the way insurance does and it’s costly to treat older people. I was surprised at the level of detail he shared in this memo. It seems like he really was trying to get people to understand the challenges they face to enlist them in being more careful about their supplies. I hope it doesn’t lead to
Lisa (18:19.385)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (18:31.775)
dangerous cutting back using your surgical gloves more than once or something. But he did seem to be saying, please look at everything you do. We need to get tighter here. I’m surprised that he’s saying I won’t close any hospitals because if you talk to people in Cleveland, a lot of these systems grew by absorbing other hospitals. And so there is some redundancy. And you would think that if
they really looked at efficiency. might want to close some of the hospitals or centers they have to try and be more efficient.
Lisa (19:09.163)
Or, you know, of course they’re also rolling out these ambulatory outpatient care centers now. That’s kind of the new model. So you’re right. Can you repurpose these old hospitals for outpatient care? I don’t know, but that’s a good question.
Leila (19:22.798)
Well, I think also, I mean, you need those beds. You can’t just close those inpatient facilities. There’s no way it would cause a crisis, I think.
Chris Quinn (19:22.825)
Yeah.
Lisa (19:29.423)
Hmm.
Lisa (19:33.839)
Yeah, I think you’re right. Cause every time I took my mother to the Ahuja ER, it was like packed and she couldn’t even get into a room for a couple days. So yeah, I think the need is there.
Chris Quinn (19:44.331)
Except I asked the hospital CEO, I’m not going to say which one, because it was an off the record conversation about that, because we do stories about hospital capacity all the time and they’re never full. And I said, how can that be? Because I know every time I’ve gone to the hospital before my mom died, every time when I was in there, there’s no beds. And the answer was you’re talking about staffed beds. They don’t have enough staff.
to serve all the beds they have in the hospital. So there are beds that are empty because they don’t have teams to do it, which raises lots of interesting questions. The first time, it’s like the light went off. okay, I get that now. So while you say you’re out of beds, the official report shows you have capacity. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
We talked a few weeks ago about how Cleveland was about to lose millions of federal dollars that were targeted at the city’s notorious lead problem. Laura, did the feds take the money away?
Laura (20:45.792)
No, thank goodness they saved in the nick of time. We have the money. Now we just have to fix the problem, which is the tougher part of that equation. So days before the dollars expire, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development gave Cleveland another year to spend the $7.6 million that is meant to remove lead from homes so that kids are not poisoned because no level of lead is safe in kids. Like once there’s lead in it, that’s it. That’s the danger that kids.
Chris Quinn (20:51.582)
you
Laura (21:14.638)
have all sorts of issues from behavioral problems to their brain’s not forming correctly and asthma issues, all sorts of things. Cleveland won two federal grants in 2020 and 2022. It’s worth $15.4 million total. We were talking about the $9.7 million 2020 grant that we still had $7 million to spend. We still have another from the 2022 grant that’s $5.7 million, expires September 1st.
So I hope they save this one as well. And Layla knows this issue better than anybody else, and she’s written about it, so I want to throw it to her. But this has been a cycle year after year after year where they say they’re solving the problem. They’re just painting over it literally. And we need to actually use this money to solve the problem.
Chris Quinn (22:02.955)
We talked about gambling at the top of the podcast. Anybody want to bet me that we’ll be talking about this exact same grant a year from now?
Laura (22:12.418)
again.
Leila (22:12.912)
No, I’m not gonna…
Chris Quinn (22:13.919)
I mean, our story said they’re having trouble spending it because they don’t have enough houses that actually qualify for it with some bizarro rules. But it’s mind boggling that this money continues to not be spent. It really does send a message to the federal government. My bet is they may spend some of it, but I’ll bet that a year from now they’ll be in danger of having to give some of it back.
Laura (22:38.542)
Can they rework what they’re spending it on? Because what they were doing literally wasn’t working.
Chris Quinn (22:44.553)
Now, if they got it under certain rules from the federal government, they would have to get the government to change those rules. We’ll see. I just don’t have it. We talked about this for 20 plus years, and yet they never fix it. And look, this is a small part of the problem. The Lead Safe Commission is the big part of the problem. They have a hundred million dollars that they’re not spending to clean up lead. And we’ve given the Cleveland Clinic hell because of its donations to
to the community and it’s give back to the community. They got the biggest chunk of money in there and they’re wondering why it hasn’t been spent. But the city has been lagging all these years. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Let’s talk about population again, Layla. We don’t have many areas in Northeast Ohio that are booming. North Ridgeville is one of them. I think you grew up there. What do we know about the pace of its growth?
Leila (23:35.682)
Yeah, you’re right. Booming growth isn’t something we really see a lot of in Northeast Ohio these days, but Ridgeville is a clear exception. Since 2000, the city has grown a whopping 68 percent. It’s now home to more than 37,000 people, which makes it the fastest growing city in northern Ohio. But with that growth has really come some growing pains, especially around public safety, because despite the surge in residents, staffing for police and fire hasn’t really kept up.
Fire calls alone have nearly tripled since 2000, but the number of full-time firefighters has barely budged. And the city has two fire stations, but they’re both on the east side of the city, meaning that the newer west side neighborhoods where most of the development has happened can face emergency response times of 11 or 12 minutes. And that’s a long time to wait when you’re facing an emergency. There’s been talk.
backed by residents and even the former mayor about building a third fire station on the west side. The city even owns the land. But the current mayor, Kevin Corcoran, says the real challenge isn’t building the station, it’s paying for it. Or it’s paying for the staff. His line in the story is, equipment is a one-time purchase, but people are forever. So Corcoran also pushes back on the idea that the city is still growing wildly.
He says that the bulk of the expansion happened before he took office in 2020 and the growth has slowed under his watch. But records show that the city still has been approving over 200 new home permits a year. So the sprawl hasn’t exactly stopped. And beyond emergency services, the schools are feeling the strain too. We did a story on this. The high school is operating at nearly 50 % over its capacity. Roads are getting more traffic and the city’s financial model, which leans heavily on new development, it might be hitting a wall.
As growth slows, the revenues stop rising, but the cost of maintaining everything built during the boom years keep going up. So there’s a lot of frustration from residents. They’re concerned about safety and not getting meaningful responses from the city.
Chris Quinn (25:38.943)
The story said that the town has one of the lower income tax rates, but all those additional houses have people who have some wealth. It’s not an inexpensive place to live. So it is extra income taxes that are being collected with all those new residents. And I’m surprised that that money doesn’t pay for the services we’re talking about. You definitely have more money coming in.
And so yeah, you have some extra trash collection and things, but I don’t get how there’s not enough money for the public safety part with all those new residents paying income taxes they didn’t used to collect there.
Leila (26:18.0)
That’s true, but their income tax is only 1 % and that is pretty low comparably. They have tried in the past to increase that income tax rate, but it failed. One of the things that they had planned to do with that money was build that third fire station. To some degree, some of the blame lies with the voters.
Laura (26:44.044)
Well, I feel like they moved to North Ridgeville because there was low property for properties or income taxes, right? And so they’re like, that’s why I moved here.
Chris Quinn (26:44.149)
Yeah, they’d.
Leila (26:47.354)
That’s right.
Right. Right. That’s one of the draws to Lorraine County in general, but also specifically to Ridgeville is that the taxes are low. so, but you’ve got to support your town. You’ve got to support the growth. It’s a real catch-22.
Chris Quinn (27:08.413)
It would be interesting to chart the revenue they’ve collected for income tax over the years and look at how they’re spending it. You just get the feeling that are they squandering it? The picture of that city hall looked pretty nice. Did they build a new city hall?
Leila (27:17.839)
Mm-hmm.
Leila (27:24.842)
I don’t know. That’s a great question. haven’t looked at that. But I know that there’s a lot of controversy over some aesthetic aspects of the town. They put a bunch of money into these very beautiful welcome to North Ridgeville signs that residents see as the most obvious sign of squandering money when they should be spending it on public safety.
Chris Quinn (27:39.475)
you
Chris Quinn (27:48.331)
We used to go to a vet over there and over the years we were going there, I couldn’t believe how much that place boomed. So it’s just surprising to me. I lived in Florida. Florida always is booming. So there’s always extra money coming in. Eventually when it tops out, I don’t know, are they ever going to pay for anything? But I would have thought that the boom years just kept giving them extra revenue that could carry them until they top out. Interesting story by Hannah.
Leila (27:54.362)
Right.
Leila (28:14.35)
Well, one of the, I’m pretty sure the city spent about 60 million on a major expansion of Center Ridge Road. And so that very well could have been where all of their income taxes went for a while to pay that off.
Chris Quinn (28:32.285)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, should we be worried? What is now a trend at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport?
Lisa (28:37.314)
you
Well, sort of a trend. mean, you know, so April passenger numbers at Hopkins were down 2.3%. That’s only the second month of this year so far that they’ve been down. I think February was the other one. So year to date, Hopkins has seen just over 3 million passengers. That’s down less than 1 % from 2023. So April, the month of April saw 832,904 passengers pass through Hopkins.
and officials are still predicting 10.4 million total passengers for this year. That would be 2 % higher than last year. And we do have some summer routes that are launching or have launched. Frontier is adding destinations to Bosxton and Nashville. Spirit is going to Nashville as well. And Aer Lingus has actually upped the number of flights to Dublin from four times a week to six times a week. So obviously some demand there.
Chris Quinn (29:34.931)
Is anybody on this podcast flying anywhere this summer? I’m not. Or is not. No, all right, well, you might be. I don’t think Leila Laura doing that for vacation, so we won’t have to go through that credit airport. You’re listening to today in Ohio. That’s it for the Monday episode will be back Tuesday. Thanks Leila. Thanks Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thank you for listening.
Lisa (29:38.959)
Maybe to California, but no.
