CLEVELAND, Ohio-Longtime WEWS Cleveland Channel 5 News  anchor Danita Harris, who's latest job was anchoring the morning news and who is also a spiritual leader in Northeast Ohio, is exiting the news station, effective Dec 21, leaving the station with no Black female anchors and raising diversity concerns among area women's rights groups.

Harris began her career at the station in 1998 and leaves News 5 after 24 years on the job. She grew to become a beloved and respected media figure in the Black community especially, and a voice for the Black community in delivering news. And the question remains as to what she will do next.

News five trails behind WJW Fox 8 News in popularity relative to Cleveland mainstream television news.

According to a 2019 Cleveland Scene Magazine story, a Pew Research Center survey of news dynamics in the Cleveland-Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area  found that Northeast Ohioans get their news, overwhelmingly, from Fox 8 and News 5, WOIO 19 News and WKYC Chanel 3 are not far behind.

Harris and station executives said publicly that  her leaving was her decision alone, though the station is reportedly going through a multi-million dollar restructuring process that saw evening anchor Courtney Gousman, who is Black like Harris, suddenly leave the station this past summer after purportedly getting laid-off, she said on Facebook. And Black anchor Dalaun Dillard, a man, announced late last month that he is leaving too.  Gousman replaced Harris as the evening news anchor in the summer of 2020  and Harris moved to a morning anchor slot. Now they are both gone as anchors, leaving only one Black anchor, Damon Maloney, who joined the news station in late 2019.

Station officials gave no explanation for Gousman's sudden departure.

" We wish Danita and Courtney the best of luck and want to know how News 5 Cleveland expects to remain viable in serving the majority Black city of Cleveland with no Black women anchors," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a longtime Cleveland activist, organizer and independent digital journalist who is Black.

Coleman said that community activists are  monitoring the local mainstream television media of Cleveland relative to their diversity practices, or the lack thereof, particularly regarding Black women anchors and reporters.

"We fill more comfortable when Blacks who support the Black community are upfront and behind the scenes and demand that all of our local mainstream media news stations also employ Black women as anchors, and we do not want Black women or Blacks in general to always be the first to leave as to any so-called restructuring process," the activist said.

"Too often Blacks are  the first to go from companies and entities when they restructure, particularly when there are no union protections" Coleman said.

About 1 in 6 U.S. journalists at news outlets are in a union, a 2022 Pew Research Center study found, and some 40 percent said they would join a union if given the opportunity.

Coleman added that "Black people want to see people who look like we do and who identify with the Black community when we watch Cleveland's news, and the absence of diversity, including Black women anchors, is nothing to take lightly."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

SS4A program grants go directly to regional, local, and Tribal communities for implementation, planning, and demonstration projects driven at the local level to improve safety and help prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways.

This first-of-its-kind program was created by President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is a part of the more than $14 billion in the law dedicated to roadway safety across the country.

In Cleveland, a majority Black major American city, the grant will fund safety improvements on St. Clair Avenue on the city's east side, as well as an extensive analysis of crash patterns in eight critical one-mile high-crash areas in Cleveland identified through the city's Vision Zero Action Plan and ongoing work.The immediate work in the St. Clair demonstration area will also be evaluated as a model for the other identified high-crash areas.

“We are grateful to our federal partners for this strategic investment in our Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic crash deaths in Cleveland by 2032,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb in a news release “This grant directly supports our work on clear, measurable strategies that provide safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for our residents.”

The SS4A grant is the latest in a series of investments in safer streets that include ARPA investments in the city’s successful speed table pilot program, a partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to improve pedestrian safety through the Pedestrian Safety Improvement Program, and a $1.8 million Federal SMART grant award.

“There are many layers to our efforts around safer streets and safer transportation--and that’s by design,” said Calley Mersmann, the city’s transit and mobility strategist. “Vision Zero re-frames safety in a way that focuses on the system through things like safer street design and speed management to prevent serious crashes. Human error is inevitable, but [some] traffic fatalities can be prevented.”

Mayor Bibb said that the city is also in the process of finalizing a contract with Toole Design Group to develop a citywide mobility plan that makes it easier, safer, more convenient, and more enjoyable to move around the city outside of a car.

Per the 2022 Complete and Green Streets ordinance, Cleveland is required to adopt such a plan at least every five years. city officials say the process is designed to meaningfully engage residents to build on recommendations from past comprehensive planning efforts, including the 2007 Bikeway Master Plan. It is also structured to guide bicycle infrastructure build-out, to identify needed improvements to pedestrian safety and accessibility, and to propose program and policy improvements for people walking and biking.

The citywide mobility plan process complements last year’s $50,000 technical assistance award to the city from City Thread, a national nonprofit mobility consultancy.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

COLUMBUS, Ohio– Today, Assistant Minority Leader Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus), Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood), and state Sen. Vernon Sykes(D-Akron) (pictured from right)held a press conference to discuss a new package of legislation introduced and designed to prevent gun deaths and gun violence in Ohio.

"Gun violence is out of control across our state and country, with nearly 80% of all homicides and over half of suicides involving a gun," said Craig. "These situations are preventable, but only if we have the courage to act."