The City Club of Cleveland

login Create an Account

private events
go

Not a Member?

Our members are champions of free speech. Join today!

join

Account Login

login

Forgot Password? Create an Account

Forgot Password

submit Cancel

Update Password

submit

blog

Want to know what is on our minds? Find blog posts written here, by the City Club staff, members, and partners. Every week you can find a new edition of #FreeSpeech in the News — a collection of related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century that’s making the news. You’ll also find takes on current events, past forums, and issues surrounding Northeast Ohio. Read on for all things City Club.

« back to blog list

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Your Thursday Night Debate Watch Party

Your Thursday Night Debate Watch Party

For a few reasons, we wanted to make sure you had a sense of what to expect for our debate watch party on Thursday night. The debate doesn't begin until 9 p.m., and our doors open at 6:30 p.m.. This is going to be great, and you'll want to be here for the whole thing. 

Getting here
Downtown is going to be a bit of a mad house. We heartily recommend public transit. The RTA has a free trolley bus that runs from Public Square to CSU and back again, which can help. Also, the Health Line is a pretty excellent choice, too. Also, bikes and feet are also pretty reliable. If you do drive, our friends at The 9 have a valet that's pretty useful and costs $25. Self parking in our lot will be pricey, too. (It's Cleveland's night to shine in the national spotlight, so hey, you may as well splurge, right?)

What to expect
In collaboration with our partners at the Cleveland Foundation, the Cleveland YP Senate and ideastream, we've planned an evening of engagement, civil, civic dialogue, informed analyisis, and, well, no small amount political theater.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and so does our cash bar. We'll have some snacks (but you should probably plan on eating dinner elsewhere). At 7 p.m., we'll start an hour of roundtable dialogues on the national issues that are shaping the election and also seem to be the most important locally (education, climate, immigration, race, economic development, foreign policy, and healthcare). Those roundtable dialogues will be facilitated by volunteers from the Cleveland Foundation and the Cleveland Young Professional Senate (YPS), with a different topic for each table. You'll have a chance to table hop, too, so you might start thinking about your top three issues.

At 8 p.m., we start our panel conversation, which will air live on WCPN. Ideastream's Nick Castele will moderate the dialogue, and the panelists are Karen Beckwith of Case Western Reserve University's political science department, John Green of The University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, and Jakiel Sanders of Cleveland YPS. That panel will be like every other City Club forum - 30 minutes of moderated dialogue and 30 minutes of Q&A with the audience. We'll wrap that up as the debate introductions get underway (with ten candidates to introduce, Fox News will start those intros at 8:50 p.m.)

At 9 p.m., the debate starts! 

A final thought
Very little gets people quite as engaged and passionate as politics, and you can anticipate that among those joining you at the debate watch party will be people who might disagree with you on some issues. With that in mind, it's worth reminding ourselves what a Free Speech forum is all about--bringing people together to hear from all sides and to engage in spirited, civil conversation. The words of one of our founders, Ralph Hayes, might be worth recalling. He penned the Creed of the City Club, which opens, "I hail and harbor and hear men [and women] of every belief and party, for within my portals prejudice grows less and bias dwindles." So, when we find disagreement, let's hail, harbor and hear from all, let's ask questions, and let's enjoy the engagement and see if our bias dwindles.

Please login to post a comment

Want to know who is speaking next at the City Club? Sign up here.

Slice 1 Created with Sketch.

Our New Address

1317 Euclid Avenue, Suite 100
Cleveland, Ohio 44115

The City Club of Cleveland building
x

Photo Gallery

1 of 22