{"id":287367,"date":"2026-09-16T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287367\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:54:11","slug":"official-who-filed-to-rename-lake-erie-admits-its-shockingly-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287367\/","title":{"rendered":"Official Who Filed To Rename Lake Erie Admits It\u2019s \u2018Shockingly Dumb\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stretch of Lake Erie within Cleveland<\/a>\u2019s boundaries has been renamed the “Gulf of Cleveland” in a move designed to mock recent renaming campaigns that have included President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s push to rebrand Lake Ontario as “Lake America” and a Pennsylvania Republican’s proposal to rename Lake Erie itself.<\/p>\n

The motion passed in a 13-1 vote after Councilmember Kris Harsh brought the emergency resolution that is not legally binding.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Newsweek, Harsh said the proposal was intentionally absurd. “It’s shockingly dumb. And that’s the point,” he said, adding that after recent efforts to rename major bodies of water, he decided: “If everybody gets to rename something, then screw it. We’ll make it the Gulf of Cleveland.”<\/p>\n

Read More on U.S.<\/p>\n

Has Lake Erie Been Renamed? <\/p>\n

No, the lake has not been renamed. Rather a symbolic resolution vote by Cleveland\u2019s City Council has given a 2-mile stretch of water from the city shoreland the name \u201cGulf of Cleveland.\u201d <\/p>\n

While it is not a legal renaming, the order does require the city clerk to notify Apple and other national mapping companies about this new name.<\/p>\n

What Is the Gulf of Cleveland?<\/p>\n

The “Gulf of Cleveland” is the name given by the city to the section of Lake Erie that borders Cleveland’s shoreline. The designation, which is not legally binding, applies only to the Cleveland waterfront area and does not create a new body of water or alter the official name of Lake Erie outside city use.<\/p>\n

\"AWhy Did Cleveland Rename Part of Lake Erie?<\/p>\n

Harsh told Newsweek he introduced the measure as a satirical response to what he sees as growing political attention on renaming geographic locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a convenient distraction for [Trump] to cover up the fact that he started a war that he can’t win but we’re all losing… Americans need to stop thinking that this is all a joke and start to realize that this is real and I know the constant daily circus distracts people from that reality but that’s what I was trying to cut through. I know the Gulf of Cleveland is a stupid idea. I’m fully aware of that,” he said.<\/p>\n

During the council meeting, Harsh argued that Trump’s recent renaming efforts had “emboldened” him to make his own proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s orders to assign new names without reference to history, tradition, and other acts of Congress have opened the door for United States officials to rename other geography,\u201d Harsh said. \u201cThanks to him, this is a man who clearly isn\u2019t afraid to say what no one is thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep in mind, there\u2019s a very real person in Pennsylvania right now who wants to rename it the Lake of Pennsylvania,\u201d Harsh said. \u201cWe cannot, as Ohioans, let the Pennsylvanians get a jump on us. It\u2019s our lake.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to potential pushback that the lake itself is not a gulf, Harsh provided a deadpan response: \u201cI say, \u2018Who cares? Listen to me very carefully and jot this down: Words don\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.<\/p>\n

\"CouncilmemberIs Lake Erie Being Renamed?<\/p>\n

While the City of Cleveland\u2019s symbolic vote was designed to poke fun at the renaming of locations, Republican State Representative David Maloney, who represents Pennsylvania\u2019s 130th Legislative District in Berks County, said last week that he wants Lake Erie to be renamed \u201cLake Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOhio has plenty of shoreline. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others,\u201d Maloney said, arguing that Pennsylvanians travel to the lake for boating, fishing and family visits, spending money along the state\u2019s shoreline.<\/p>\n

Maloney’s office told Newsweek when contacted for comment: “The press release explains how Pennsylvanians\u2019 care of their great lake draws other lake state residents to it for recreation and world class fishing. Be proud and own it.”<\/p>\n

Despite Maloney’s suggestion, there are no current plans to rename Lake Erie. Lake Erie\u2019s name comes from the Indigenous people living along its southern shore when Europeans reached the area in the early 1600s, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.<\/p>\n

What Has Trump Renamed?<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has announced the renaming of several prominent geographic features in the last year as part of a broader effort to emphasize American identity.<\/p>\n

His administration directed federal agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,”<\/a> a change that was later reflected in U.S. versions of some major mapping services.<\/p>\n

Trump also signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America”<\/a> for use by the U.S. government, despite opposition from Canadian officials and some politicians in the Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n

The president has since made suggestions about further re-naming efforts, including changing New Mexico to “New America<\/a>,” something the state’s New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham later said “isn’t up for debate.”<\/p>\n

Places renamed by Trump are generally binding on the U.S. federal government, but not on states, foreign governments, private companies or the public.<\/p>\n

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood <\/a>and Emma Lee-Sang<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stretch of Lake Erie within Cleveland\u2019s boundaries has been renamed the “Gulf of Cleveland” in a move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[76,76962,34,136,138,137,119345,119346,260,119570],"class_list":["post-287367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-city-council","tag-donald-trump","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-gulf-of-cleveland","tag-kris-harsh","tag-lake-erie","tag-trump-renaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}