Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Led  by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, the city of Cleveland is seeking proposals for a vendor to lease, revitalize, and manage operations of the historic Highland Park Golf Course at 3550 Green Road, which is located in the largely Black village of Highland Hills but is owned by the city.

Vendor responses are due by Oct. 20.

First opened in 1928, Highland Park Golf Course is a 36-hole golf course operated by an external management company. The mayor wants a tournament-ready course and a leader in community impact and sustainability.

"This course has a rich history of promoting diversity in the sport of golf," said Mayor Bibb, the city's fourth Black mayor and a progressive mayor who took office in January by beating the old guard. "As the golf course nears its centennial, this is an opportunity to elevate it as a premier public course for locals and a destination for golfers across the country,"

Operating costs for the pay-to-play golf course have climbed from $120,000 in 2018 to $683,000 last year, city officials say,  closer to the $1 million a year needed to maintain and operate the place. The golf course began gaining momentum last yearafter a slump where the city was losing money on the facility.

As the only public course near Cleveland's east side, Highland has historically been a welcoming course for minority players in an overwhelmingly White sport. The Sixth City Golf Club, which was established in1946, and Forest City Golf Club were two pioneering African American golf leagues that played primarily at Highland Park.

The course also hosted the inaugural PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship in 1987, at which African American golf stars, including Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford, Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, and Renee Powell, held free golf clinics for the community. Sifford, known as the "Jackie Robinson of golf" and first black golfer to play and win on the PGA tour, claimed Highland Park as his home course for a time.

During the PGA Tour's Cleveland Open in 1964 and 1965, the course welcomed golf greats like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tony Lema.

"As a young man, this was the first place I played golf," Mayor Bibb said. "It would bring me immense pride to restore the course and create a professional tournament-level course while maintaining it as a space for Black golfers, both aspiring and seasoned, to enjoy."

The city is seeking innovative ideas to re-imagine the golf course for the next 100 years and for the course to continue its history of promoting diversity in golf by opening doors to the sport for new, young golfers from Cleveland and the greater Cleveland area by honoring its past as a predominantly Black golf course.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and 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.

Pictured is Cleveland Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina -Led by second-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who is Black, the Cleveland Browns won their season opener against the Carolina Panthers and lead quarterback Baker Mayfield 26-24 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina Sunday afternoon, the first time the Browns have won an away season opener in 28 years.

Rookie Cade York kicked a 58-yard field goal with only eight seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter to give the Browns their first Week 1 victory since 2004, which was when they defeated the Ravens.

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was ecstatic as he joined his players in the locker room after the game where he said determination was key to winning.

"What did we talk about Saturday morning?" asked Coach Stefanski. [We talked about] from start to finish, and we finished because we believed."

The Browns made the first two touchdowns of the game and were ahead 17-7 at halftime. But the Panthers, after trailing the entire game, rallied to a 24-23 lead by the end of the fourth quarter, York's last minute game winning field goal shocking Mayfield, and the stadium crowd.

Sports pundits said after Sunday's loss for Mayfield, 26, that it spoiled the Heisman Trophy winner's last chance at revenge against the Cleveland Browns.

It was an exceptional loss for Baker Mayfield in fact, given his checkered history with Browns franchise bigwigs. The Browns chose Mayfield first overall in the NFL 2018 draft and in 2020 he led the Browns  to their first playoff appearance since 2002 and victory since 1994. This was before the team traded him in 2022 due to a sloppy 2021-2022 season and inconsistent play and conflict with Browns management.

The Browns also played on Sunday with a new quarterback at the helm.

Jacoby Brissett, 29, was traded to the Browns this year from the Miami Dolphins. He played as the stand-in quarterback for Deshaun Watson, whom the Browns secured last year from the Houston Texans and handed a five year contract worth $230 million, though Watson is sidelined and is serving an 11-game suspension for violating the NFL's sexual misconduct and ethics policies.

Although running back Nick Chubb did not make any touchdowns like he usually does, he was a force for the Browns, finishing  with 22 carries for 141 yards. And Kareem Hunt compiled 34 yards on four carries plus 25 yards on two catches.

NFL superstar Myles Garrett, named to three Pro Bowls and two first-team All-Pros during his NFL career, was the defensive star of the Cleveland game. He has two sacks was a dominating force, particularly in the first half, pundits said.

His  first time in a Cleveland Browns uniform, Brissett completed 18-of-34 attempts for 147 yards and one touchdown for the Browns as its season opener quarterback and Mayfield as a newcomer to the Panthers was 10-for-19 for 101 yards with four balls ripped at the line of scrimmage.

The Browns will play their season home opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sun., Sept 18 at 1:00pm at FirstEnergy Stadium in downtown Cleveland.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief (Coleman is a former biology teacher and a seasoned Black journalist, and an investigative, legal, scientific, and political reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio).

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and 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.

Pictured are Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel M. Brown (D-OH) (wearing blue suit), whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, former Ohio senator Nina Turner of Cleveland, NAACP National President and CEO Derrick Johnson (wearing eye glasses), and United States President Joe Biden

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Ohio Congresswoman Shontel M. Brown (OH-11), a Warrensville Hts Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, released the following statement after President Joe Biden's announcement  of his executive order that relieves federal student loan debt for millions of Americans up to $20,000 per eligible person.

"President Biden realized another promise that will bring student debt relief to millions of Americans, including the nearly 1.8 million people in Ohio burdened by student loans," said Rep. Brown, one of two Blacks in Congress from Ohio. "Collectively, Ohioans owe $62 billion in student debt, which has limited millions of working families in our state from achieving the American dream of home ownership and generational wealth."

Brown's praise of the president's student loan debt relief initiative follows criticism by the NAACP, led by its CEO and president Derrick Johnson, that $20,000 does not go far enough and that the president has reneged on a campaign promise to America's Black community to do more. Former Ohio senator Nina Turner, who co- chaired Sen Bernie Sander's unsuccessful campaign for president in 2020 and ran unsucessfully for Congress in the 11th congressional district last year when Brown won the seat and again this year for a Democratic primary election that Brown also won, agreed.

Also a former Cleveland council woman, Turner, 54, said that Biden did in Black women in failing to relieve a substantial amount of student loan debt and referenced it to "structural racism."

A staunch Biden ally who campaigned for Congress last year by branding herself a strong supporter of the president and Turner as an anti-Joe Biden candidate, Brown, 48, said that the president's plan will ease the burden of student loan debt particularly felt by low-income and marginalized communities who bear the burden the most.

"It is a step forward in the right direction to address racial and economic injustice, and I hope it helps to create a more fair and equitable country," the congresswoman said.

The NAACP, the nation's oldest Civil Rights organization for Blacks, says that racism and politics remain barriers to Blacks regarding debt relief for student loans, or for loans in general, some of them plaqued with high interest rates and unfair and illegal collection fees in the thousands.

“Our continued focus remains on closing the racial wealth gap and we will continue to press for scaled solutions,”  said Johnson, who has been national president and CEO of the NAACP, which is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, since 2017.” We encourage the biden administration to grant qualifying borrowers the promised relief quickly, without the red tape and bureaucracy that prevented millions from receiving public service loan forgiveness. The NAACP will continue advocating for equitable relief for the millions of borrowers who are caught in the student debt crisis."

Rep. Brown joined Reps. Tony Cárdenas (CA-29), Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown of Cleveland (D-OH), and a coalition of one hundred members of Congress in penning a letter in July to President Biden and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona requesting an extension of the student loan payment pause to provide relief to American families.

The president publicly announced the student loan forgiveness program, which is only applicable to federal student loans, late last month from the White House, saying "I made that commitment and I am honoring it today." He also extended the federal government’s pause on student loan repayments during the pandemic until the end of the year.

The long awaited initiative, which liberal critics say is hardly enough to address the country's student loan debt during a debilitating economy, would essentially cancel up to $10,000 of qualifying federal student loan debt and $20,000 for those who received pell grants. Also to qualify, an individual's annual  income must be $125,000 or less  with married couples capped at $250,000.

The initiative would instantly eliminate all outstanding federal student loans for up to 32% or 14.6 million borrowers who held less than $10,000 in debt as of the end of last month It  will also erase at least half of the student loan debt held by the 20.5% of borrowers who owe between $10,000 and $20,000, and will serve to  reduce $20,000 to $40,000 owed by another 21.4% of borrowers.

More than 40 million Americans are in student loan debt for seeking an education, owing a cumulative $1.7 trillion. But Republicans in Congress, fueled by conservative mainstream media pundits, say that Biden is fiscally irresponsible and too generous with taxpayer money, and that it is not the role of the federal government to forgive its high-price student loans with “handouts.” Republicans call the initiative "a $300 billion student loan bailout."