Ummm... yay? Actually, it is pretty bad here economically. Our (small) engineering firm is doing gangbusters work, but I know a lot of folks where I used to work are still looking for jobs. The city budget is still in crisis due to the large loss of jobs in the area and lack of income tax revenue. The city is quite polarized between the mostly white West Side and mostly black East Side, and is really suffering from urban sprawl to the suburbs. Sad, really. The thing I love about Cleveland is that it is a big city without being overwhelming. I feel like something is going to have to drastically change and soon for the city to survive.
"Lita holds a Stone Cold Steve Austin home pregnancy test. What will the Bottom Line say? “Hell Yeah” or “Eh-EH”?" - Raw Satire, 6/15/04
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush
Art Model = egotistical, moneygrubbing jerk (My cheap shot)
Seriously, growing up in Wooster OH (50 miles south of Cleveland), I learned to love the city warts and all. It has character and diversity that should be cherished. The trouble always seemed to be the difficulty in transitioning from heavy industry. But man the city has so much to offer, I hope you are wrong whatever.
Art Model = egotistical, moneygrubbing jerk (My cheap shot)
Seriously, growing up in Wooster OH (50 miles south of Cleveland), I learned to love the city warts and all. It has character and diversity that should be cherished. The trouble always seemed to be the difficulty in transitioning from heavy industry. But man the city has so much to offer, I hope you are wrong whatever.
Misguided though I think it is, Cleveland still supports their freakin' football, thank you very much Grimis.
Doc - Wooster? I grew up in Medina! (Currently, I reside in Garfield Heights.) It's really something to think of how things have changed over the years.
"Lita holds a Stone Cold Steve Austin home pregnancy test. What will the Bottom Line say? “Hell Yeah” or “Eh-EH”?" - Raw Satire, 6/15/04
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush
Art Model was a piece of shit that had a stranglehold on the city economy. Mike White all but kicked him out of the city, and began a major renaissance in Cleveland. Cleveland was a city on the grow between when Model left and when White decided not to run for reelection. Campbell is one of the worst mayors Cleveland has ever seen. She's cut the cops and the firemen, and every time she does it she mentions how much trouble the city is in. These are not actions that instill confidence in businesses and investors. Hopefully, the next mayor will be able to undo most of the damage she caused.
Originally posted by Tenken347Art Model was a piece of shit that had a stranglehold on the city economy. Mike White all but kicked him out of the city, and began a major renaissance in Cleveland. Cleveland was a city on the grow between when Model left and when White decided not to run for reelection. Campbell is one of the worst mayors Cleveland has ever seen. She's cut the cops and the firemen, and every time she does it she mentions how much trouble the city is in. These are not actions that instill confidence in businesses and investors. Hopefully, the next mayor will be able to undo most of the damage she caused.
It took a long time to undo the damage Voinivich and Kucinich did.
Drew Carey Show gets cancelled and the city goes into a depression.
Much like many on the article I got the illusion that Cleveland has been on a rebound in the past decade... Surprised Miami is on this list. On the other end, surprised Buffalo isn't, I live close to Buffalo and it's depressing just listening to their local news/talk radio. They are still considered a "big city" right, I mean Newark is on the list.
smark/net attack wienerville advisory holds at ORANGE alert - High (JBL is STILL WWE champion and now smarks arch enemy HHH is the World Champion. Major red threat, but the undercard seems okay. The alert holds... for now)- 9/19
There's a lot of bullshit behing "City on the rebound" stuff.
This generally means some mayor got a stadium or a big company or something downtown (probably mortgaging the capital budget in the process), and a little strip of the downtown area has gotten a couple hip restaraunts and some lofts. The neighborhoods where people actually live, however, are still as shitty as ever.
People need to follow the New York model. A lot of people have this erroneous conception that yuppies and artists are what have brought this town back. Not remotely. Ths town has always had yuppies and artists. What's happened is that the formally shitty infrastructure, neighborhoods, trasportation system, and stuff like that have been brought back - mostly thanks to neighborhood groups and immigrants, not "urban pioneers" or even the political leadership. Regular old working - and middle-class American values like hard work and owning your own home have brought this town back from the brink.
Cleveland - and all those cities - have got to go nuts and bolts before glamour. The following article really sums up the renessaince of New York, and what other cities need to do.
In case people don't know, DC has single tracks for their trains. If a train breaks down in a tunnel, then that line is shut down in that direction until they alternate directorns on the other track heading the other direction.
NY has just an underground FULL of tracks. Being 24/7 is nice too, and all those subway stops.
Maybe if we had a 24/7 subway that actually made it into most suburban areas, we'd actually have a rocking night life down here. (The subway closes at like 2:30am down here.)
That's a good point about the city infrastructure, but under the White administration, they really were rebuilding the inner city neighborhoods. I mean, I don't know if White was doing it or who was behind it, but they had really started to pick up the pieces. Especially in the areas that were going to be crucial to the city. Where I went to school, Case Western Reserve University, is in an area called University Circle. The symphony, museums, and botanical gardens are all in that area, but it's really close to one of the bad parts of town. Just in the four years I was in college, I could see how they were cleaning up the area, mostly with rebuilding projects and an increased police presence. Cleveland really was on the rebound, right up until the new mayor.
The Northeast Ohio area had a golden opportunity with the polymer industry. Not only would it have revived the manufacturing sector, but brought numerous R&D, white collar, and tech jobs to the area. But where Akron U, built a world re-known polymer school, intended to revive the area after steel and rubber left in the early 80's, no one in Columbus has put any effort in trying retain the talent coming from all over the country and world. So, where we should be calling Cleveland, Akron, Caton "polymer valley", it's now the valley of the damned.
With Taft, things have gotten much much worse. This educating hating asshole has made Ohio's in-state tuition the most expensive in the country. So those in my age range have either moved out of state (Ohio's 18-30 population is per capita 49th of 50), bounced between dead-end temporary factory jobs, or worse, turned to crime.
By the way DrDirt, when did you leave Wooster? My dad is just up the road in Orrville, I spent some summers down there as a boy. Unique area with the factory towns, big farms and amish, always good for a Sunday road trip.
Originally posted by ZeruelI wish we had a NY style subway system down here.
In case people don't know, DC has single tracks for their trains. If a train breaks down in a tunnel, then that line is shut down in that direction until they alternate directorns on the other track heading the other direction.
NY has just an underground FULL of tracks. Being 24/7 is nice too, and all those subway stops.
Maybe if we had a 24/7 subway that actually made it into most suburban areas, we'd actually have a rocking night life down here. (The subway closes at like 2:30am down here.)
You're not alone - for a lot of reasons, the multi-track NYC structure that allows for express trains, easy reroutings, and a 24/7 system is completely alone in the Subway World. There's a couple lines in Chicago that go 24/7, but other than that there's no other system that goes 24/7. Almost all of the world's systems are essentially patterned after the London Underground.
NYC got lucky - it's next to impossible politically and expense-wise to build our kind of system nowdays.
Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe. - Euripides
Originally posted by Tenken347That's a good point about the city infrastructure, but under the White administration, they really were rebuilding the inner city neighborhoods. I mean, I don't know if White was doing it or who was behind it, but they had really started to pick up the pieces. Especially in the areas that were going to be crucial to the city. Where I went to school, Case Western Reserve University, is in an area called University Circle. The symphony, museums, and botanical gardens are all in that area, but it's really close to one of the bad parts of town. Just in the four years I was in college, I could see how they were cleaning up the area, mostly with rebuilding projects and an increased police presence. Cleveland really was on the rebound, right up until the new mayor.
Well, remember at the time that the economy in general was so good that Ohio also had a "rainy day" fund that was just sitting there. Since then, things have soured so much economically that the state and city treasuries have been decimated. Even if Mike White were still mayor, I can't imagine things being much better. However, I very much agree that Mayor Campbell has been very ineffective. I also cannot stand Taft. As he was running for governor, Hagan pointed out the huge money problems coming down the pike. Taft denied them until he won his re-election, then "Whoops! Look at the budget problems we have!"
The local paper was running a series of articles proposing a merger between the local city governments, to make a metro-regional style givernment in order to pool the resources of the city and the suburbs. Apparantly Buffalo is also looking at a similar possibility.
"Lita holds a Stone Cold Steve Austin home pregnancy test. What will the Bottom Line say? “Hell Yeah” or “Eh-EH”?" - Raw Satire, 6/15/04
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush
Originally posted by ZeruelI wish we had a NY style subway system down here.
In case people don't know, DC has single tracks for their trains. If a train breaks down in a tunnel, then that line is shut down in that direction until they alternate directorns on the other track heading the other direction.
NY has just an underground FULL of tracks. Being 24/7 is nice too, and all those subway stops.
Maybe if we had a 24/7 subway that actually made it into most suburban areas, we'd actually have a rocking night life down here. (The subway closes at like 2:30am down here.)
It could be worse. Atlanta's subway/rapid transit system shuts down at close to 1:00 AM. But then again hardly anyone uses the MARTA there...