A DCA operations director admitted that the boxes had been taken over the past several weeks and are now “in safekeeping” in the organization’s operations center on E. 16th and St. Clair. DCA is ready, they say, to “aggressively work with” Scene’s team to get the boxes back in their proper locations.
DCA is the only non-profit organization dedicated to improving downtown — “striving to make downtown Cleveland the most compelling place to live, work and play,” per the literature. Most visibly, it employs a team of ambassadors for street beautification and maintenance.
Heather Holmes, DCA’s director of marketing and public relations, told Scene late this afternoon that it was due to this aspect of DCA’s responsibilities — street and sidewalk maintenance — that the Scene boxes had been taken. Evidently they were becoming something of a hazard.
“Quite a few of them were flipped on their side, in the middle of the sidewalk, tipping over into the street,” Holmes said, “and so [our staff] took them back to our operations center for safekeeping.”
But why wasn’t Scene informed?
Holmes said that DCA was actually in the midst of compiling a “very detailed report” about all the boxes — how many of them, where they were taken from, etc. — but that she personally agreed that the staff waited much too long to reach out to us.
“We’ll fall on our sword on that,” said Holmes. “They should’ve called the moment they picked up the first one. At the time, they didn’t know exactly who to reach out to.”
Holmes said the DCA operations team wants to do whatever it can to help Scene’s distribution team more securely affix the boxes to the sidewalks. The bad winter weather had, according to Holmes, been wreaking havoc on our boxes.
But the scale still confused us. How could even the fiercest of winter winds knock over 26 Scene boxes (in at least three discrete sessions) while passing over all others?
“It could be snowplows,” Holmes speculated. “If the snowplow went by and it moved a little bit, it could knock [a box] right over. I’m not sure how they got knocked down, but they were down. They were in distress, if you will.”
An epidemic, to be sure. Readers, from this moment on: Please kindly apprise us when and where you see our boxes blowing higgledy-piggledy into downtown streets!
Scene was initially tipped off to DCA’s involvement when an advertiser called us this morning, after our article about the missing boxes, saying that he’d seen a DCA van (or truck?) taking a Scene box this past Saturday morning. When he asked the DCA folks what they were doing, they drove away. (He did not indicate whether the box had been in distress).
A DCA spokesperson told Scene, when we first inquired, that picking up news boxes was not something they would “typically do.” We certainly hope not. Those boxes are, of course, private property and permitted by (as in, with individual permits from) the city. Heather Holmes called us shortly after our circulation director, Don Kriss, spoke with their operations guy for nearly 30 minutes, begging for more transparency.
The DCA, which represents “downtown interests,” might not be terribly fond of Scene. This seems worth pointing out. Both Len Komoroski of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dan Walsh, Board Chair of Destination Cleveland — both of whom were among the handful of presenters at the Quicken Loans Arena Transformation Press Conference — sit on DCA’s 18-member Board of Directors, the rest of whom are comprised chiefly of big wigs from the worlds of real estate and finance.
Scene’s recent coverage of “downtown issues” — our outrage over the secretive financing deal at the Q and our refusal to call the Mayor’s gross mishandling of Public Square anything but an unmitigated disaster — might be just the sort of “unsafe conditions” that spurred the DCA to clean up their streets.
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2017.
I would hope the city prosecutor’s office would look into this case seriously.
Golly, I must have missed the news of a tornado blowing through downtown Cleveland, if the official story is that wind knocked over bottom-heavy 160 pound boxes. You should press charges on those lying assholes for theft.
Who is the idiot at DCA that needs to be fired?
Don’t let the turkeys get you down. Keep up the good reporting!
I’m glad the DCA is concerned about my safety. I might trip over some criticism while walking downtown.
Heather Holmes is the local version of pathological liar Kellyanne Conway.
I’m glad you found the culprit and this will be made right. Scene is one of the iconic Cleveland publications that I try always to get a copy of when I’m in town.
Are these new,high powered snow plows? I mean, this is the first winter this has happened, right? Wow… I’m shocked. Talk about trying to back peddle.
Oh yeah, we were gonna tell you. Sorry.
This morning at 11:30, I was biking down Herman Avenue (just east of W. 65th) when I passed a yellow DCA pickup headed westbound with several Scene boxes in the back. Don’t know what they were doing in this neck of the woods.
Scene should lawyer up and sue.
Maybe DCA is looking into use of Scene boxes as alternative housing for the homeless?
Apparently, Joe Marinucci’s hot air also blows large heavy metallic boxes.
I was gonna suggest that you guys lawyer up, but someone beat me to it about eight hours ago.
This is the same kind of crap that Daley the Elder used to pull, and one of those heavy-handed tactics I don’t miss about my native Chicago. Don’t let these bastards push you around! Push back and sue!
And if that truck was heading for a dump site, or to a warehouse to hide the boxes and hold them for ransom, get those lawyers to nail the DCA mofos to a cross!
Chuckles the Clown
Do they honestly think we believe that anyone is doing any city beautification? Please, the city looks like shit
This appears to be a serious violation of the First Amendment Right to Free
Speech…what would have happened had the Plain Dealer boxes been taken?
Nothing like little censorship! Jeez oh Pete, someone’s scared
HARRASMENT OF A CLEVELAND ACTIVIST BY DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND ALLIANCE STAFF
The news that the DCA (Downtown Cleveland Alliance) stole all the Cleveland Scene Boxes did not come as a surprise. Last summer, I was harassed by DCA staff.
As a Cleveland activist, I have been opposing the renovation of Public Square a bogus $53.5 million project, since August 2014. The square has been nicknamed the Jimmy Dimora Public Square because of corruption involved in the process. In March 2015 there was a 10-day long hunger strike to protest corruption in the project. So far there have been nearly 900 hours of demonstrations first with the LEAVE PUBLIC SQUARE ALONE signs and now with WELCOME JIMMY DIMORA PUBLIC SQUARE signs. The demonstrations continue unabated with the goal of educating the public about corruption in Cuyahoga County.
On the evening of August 19, 2016, I was threatened by a DCA staff member with police action for taking photographs in the renovated Public Square featuring the PechaKucha 2016 event. DCA was a partner in the renovation.
The PechaKucha event was free and open to the public and set up in the plaza area where the water feature is located. The water had been turned off to accommodate chairs for the event.
Wherever I go I take ample photographs for posts that I write on my Facebook groups, on my blog at REALNEO, and other sites.
I reached Public Square around 7:30 p.m. and started taking photographs.
Around 7:45 p.m. I was approached by a supervisor from DCA who told me that I was observed taking photographs of a private event and if I did not stop he would call the police.
I told the supervisor that the event was free and open to the public.
He wanted to know why I was taking photographs. I explained that I write for my Facebook groups and my blog (at REALNEO) and gave him a copy of my campaign flyer.
He kept on insisting that if I continued taking photographs he was going to call the police.
I asserted my rights and held my ground and told him that he was welcome to call the police and continued to take photographs.
As an activist, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. King and not intimidated by threats from corrupt establishments.
The supervisor took my photograph. Once I became aware that he had photographed me I posed for him with my Welcome Jimmy Dimora Public Square sign and he took another photograph.
I asked for his name, which he gave me. I photographed him as he walked away.
Next, I took my seat in the front row and continued taking my photographs.
About fifteen minutes later the supervisor came to my chair where I was sitting and thanked me and moved away. Not clear what I was thanked for.
No police officer showed up to question me.
The supervisor was polite during all the conversations.
I spoke with Michael Christoff who was in-charge of the PechaKucha 2016 event and confirmed that the event was free, open to the public, and there was no objection to taking photographs.
Some of the DCA staff have been hostile towards me ever since the renovated Public Square opened unofficially on June 24, 2016. There were three other prior incidents.
The first time — one staff member kept on taunting me for naming my sign after Mr. Dimora who he said was in jail. I explained that Mr. Dimora was in jail for corruption and as the renovation of Public Square was mired in corruption what better way to name it than after Mr. Dimora. After a few trips to Public Square the taunts stopped.
The second time, another DCA staff member who saw me demonstrating (usually I carry my sign and sing accompanied with a tambourine even though I cannot carry a tune) wanted to know how long I planned to stay. I told him politely it was none of his business.
A third time a DCA staff member asked why I take so many photographs. I gave him the same explanation that I have listed before. I also gave him a copy of my campaign flyer.
I have observed that the DCA staff are very dedicated to the work they do.
I recognize a few of them.
I walk all over downtown. Some of the DCA staff are very polite and will say hello when they walk or drive by on their bicycles.
The current incident left a very bad taste.
I sent an e-mail on August 20, 2016 to Joe Marinucci, President and CEO of DCA and requested a response.
No response was received. However, Mr. Marinucci has been quoted in the
Plain Dealer article of September 11, 2016: Cleveland’s Persistent Public Square Protester has No Plans to Stop by Michael K. McIntyre, as follows:
Marinucci said he agreed with Puri that a DCA ambassador was wrong last month when he threatened to call police if Puri kept taking pictures at a public event on the square. He said the organization has “made adjustments” so that it doesn’t happen again.
References, posts on my blog at REALNEO:
CLEVELAND ACTIVIST ON YOUTUBE TALKING ABOUT HARRASMENT FROM DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND ALLIANCE STAFF, August 29, 2016
CLEVELAND ACTIVIST THREATENED WITH POLICE ACTION FOR TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS IN PUBLIC SQUARE, August 21, 2016
Props simply for the use of the term “higgledy -piggledy.”
Amazing that both the wind and snow plows were able to bend the physical laws of the universe in order to direct all of that force between the PD boxes and Real Estate Times boxes to only knock over the Scene ones.