Martin Sweeney had a bill. He needed eight votes out of eleven. Tuesday, he counted the room and didn’t have them. So he pulled his own resolution off the agenda before anyone had to vote no.
Kenn Dowell was in the room in 2009 when Cuyahoga County rebuilt its government. He says Black leadership settled for an appointed sheriff because, at that moment, they didn’t believe they could win the seat outright — and that calculation doesn’t hold anymore.
A letter dated June 25, 2025 shows Cleveland Public Power offered a developer up to 125 megawatts of power a full year before City Hall said it was blindsided by the $1.6 billion data center proposal.
Part 2 of the Data Centers series names every official, developer, and institution with a stake in Cleveland’s $1.6 billion data center decision — and gives each one a direct question and a deadline.
Kenn sat down with the man doing intervention work in Cleveland’s most violent blocks. He says kids should carry. Kenn rejects the answer — and says the city owns the reason a 12-year-old believes he needs one.
Martin Sweeney had a bill. He needed eight votes out of eleven. Tuesday, he counted the room and didn’t have them. So he pulled his own resolution off the agenda before anyone had to vote no.
Kenn Dowell was in the room in 2009 when Cuyahoga County rebuilt its government. He says Black leadership settled for an appointed sheriff because, at that moment, they didn’t believe they could win the seat outright — and that calculation doesn’t hold anymore.
A letter dated June 25, 2025 shows Cleveland Public Power offered a developer up to 125 megawatts of power a full year before City Hall said it was blindsided by the $1.6 billion data center proposal.
Part 2 of the Data Centers series names every official, developer, and institution with a stake in Cleveland’s $1.6 billion data center decision — and gives each one a direct question and a deadline.
Kenn sat down with the man doing intervention work in Cleveland’s most violent blocks. He says kids should carry. Kenn rejects the answer — and says the city owns the reason a 12-year-old believes he needs one.
RealPower.TV is Cleveland’s Black digital newsprint — a Black-owned media outlet covering African American news, politics, health, business and culture across Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Ohio. Cleveland went years without a Black paper. We picked it back up.
Published by Strategic Moves Media Network, RealPower.TV also produces Black podcasts and radio out of Cleveland: the The RealPower Radio Show with Kenn Dowell and Dr. Heather E. Burton, live Tuesdays 12–1PM on 95.9 FM WOVU and streaming here; The RealPower.TV Podcast with Kenn Dowell; Sanctified & Stilettos with Dr. Heather E. Burton; and A-1 Conversations with Joe Little III.
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