Cleveland’s population continues to shrink while other Ohio cities grow: Capitol Letter

Rumbles from the rotunda

Growth markets: U.S. Census figures for 2020 were released Thursday, and Ohio’s fastest population growth has been in the Columbus area: Delaware and Union counties grew by about 23% and 20% , respectively, over the past 10 years, according to Marc Kovac of the Columbus Dispatch. Franklin County also overtook Cuyahoga County to become the most populous county in Ohio, with 1,323,807 residents. Cincinnati’s population has grown 4.2% over the past decade – marking the first time since 1950 that the queen city has not lost people in the census, according to Dan Horn and Mark Wert of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Overall, the population of the state of Ohio grew by a modest 263,000 people.

Leaving the territory: For the seventh consecutive decade, Cleveland’s population has shrunk, falling to 372,624 people in 2020, a 6.1% decline since 2010. As Courtney Astolfi reports, the new US Census count means that the number of seats of the Cleveland City Council will grow from 17 to 15 in the next few years. Cuyahoga County has lost about 15,000 people since 2010, and Summit County’s population has also declined slightly, but Lake, Medina, Portage, Lorain and Geauga counties each gained residents.

No surprises: Researchers at Ohio University, who are analyzing census data for use by state officials as part of this year’s redistricting process, said the data released Thursday was in actionable form. , as they expected. They said they hoped to have a database compiled within two weeks, which would leave the Ohio Redistricting Commission just under a week to present an initial proposal for state legislative lines before the legal deadline of September 1. The data was months late, a delay that Census Bureau officials attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

Don’t go quietly: Matt Borges, the former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party charged in the House Bill 6 investigation, has caught the attention of federal prosecutors with his repeated public attacks on the case and prosecutors federal. As Andrew Tobias reports, Borges, who has claimed his innocence, filed complaints against two federal prosecutors in the case, including one during a December meeting in which he and his attorney said prosecutors had falsely hinted that they had evidence that Borges had bribed Attorney General Dave Yost. Federal prosecutors called the matter a “misunderstanding” and accused Borges of misrepresenting what were believed to be private negotiations on his Twitter page and in media interviews.

Case numbers: The Ohio Department of Health said Thursday that coronavirus cases per 100,000 people averaged 194.2. Almost every county has seen an increase in cases; last week’s number was 125.1, Laura Hancock reports.

Delta Flood: Nearly 100% of recently sequenced lab-sequenced coronavirus cases in Ohio are the highly contagious delta variant. Hancock reports that as coronavirus cases continue to rise, a state legislator has introduced a bill banning schools from having children wear masks.

Vaxxed vets: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will now require Veterans Health Administration employees, volunteers and contractors who work or visit VHA facilities to get a coronavirus shot, Julie Washington reports. The VA has already made vaccines mandatory for physicians and other health care personnel who work at Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities, or provide direct care to those the VA serves.

Giving a shot: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley is demanding that all current and future campaign staff be vaccinated against the coronavirus, her campaign said in a statement Thursday. The mayor of Dayton called on other gubernatorial campaigns to take similar action.

New conditions: State regulators told a meeting of Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee on Thursday that patients are already signing up for the drug under the three new conditions that were recently added to the list for which people can get cannabis. In early June, regulators approved medical marijuana for spasticity, terminal illnesses and Huntington’s disease. They announced that 27 people signed up for marijuana for spasticity, four for terminal illness, and one for Huntington’s disease. Some of those patients may have registered for medical marijuana under more than one condition, they said.

Buckeye Brain Tease

Question: In 1971, the Ohio media dubbed this county seat “Gilligan’s Island”, after the governor at the time. John Gilligan and other Democratic members of the Ohio Dispatch Board forgot to include it in the newly redrawn state legislative maps. What city was it?

Email your response to [email protected]. The correct first responder will be mentioned in next week’s newsletter.

Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s question:

Ohio, the nation’s seventh-largest state, will drop to 15 congressional seats starting in the 2020 election. That’s down from 24 seats for most of the 1960s, after the 1960 census. did Ohio rank by population in the 1960 census, and which were the only larger states?

Answer: Ohio’s 1960 population of 9.7 million ranked fifth nationally, behind only New York, California, Pennsylvania and Illinois. With 11.8 million people today, Ohio ranks behind, in that order, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Capitol Letter reader and frequent Buckeye Brain Teaser player Pam Manges, Ohio Vice State Senior Ambassador for the ACS Cancer Action Network, was the first to send in the correct answer.

Birthdays

Friday 8/13: Lewis Lainhart, legislative aide to State Representative Michael Loychik; Kevin Servick, American Petroleum Institute Central Region Campaign Manager / Attorney General Dave Yost’s 2018 Campaign Manager

Saturday 8/14: State Representative Thomas Hall

Sunday 8/15: Grace Yousefi, Legislative Assistant to State Rep. Beth Liston

Straight from the source

“Looking through Turner’s expense reports, it’s clear that the people who ran his campaign defaulted to the typical playbook of pouring far more money into TV and digital ads than into the painstaking work. of getting people to vote.”

-Steve Phillips, in an analysis in The Nation why he thinks Nina Turner lost to Shontel Jones in the Democratic primary for the 11th congressional district.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct and timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by the state government. If you are not already a subscriber, you can register here to receive free Capitol Letter in your e-mail box every day of the week.