Living in Cleveland

I’ve lived in The Forest City for two months now, here's my take

I wouldn’t call Cleveland a town that’s easy on the eyes. I think downtown has an odd smell to it and it fits well into the “rustbelt” category. Earlier this year I faced the decision to stay in Orlando Florida or come back to Ohio and buy a house in East Cleveland’s Shaker Heights. I chose Cleveland and since I’ve been here, I’ve been doing some intense exploration of this city. I also started working for a large hospital chain downtown, so I’ve been able to take in its culture from a few different angles.

I grew up 40 miles south in the even more dismal town of Akron, but my grandparents were all Clevelanders during most of their lives. My 95-year-old grandpa, who now lives in Florida, always mentions how "green Cleveland was during summer". He smiles when he says it probably because he loves to garden and was exceptional at it during his life there. It’s not hard to see how Cleveland got its nickname. Sadly, unlike sunny Orlando, Cleveland’s weather is capricious and outside of summer it's generally uncomfortable, I think. Thanks to Lake Eerie, Clevelanders are also subjected to an unfortunate thing called the Lake effect. In short-it adds an aggressive edge to the already excessive amount of precipitation we see here. There are many pros to living right next to one of this country’s great lakes. It’s the second smallest and in my opinion least scenic, but it does give an added plethora of things for Clevelanders to do here.

There are so many reasons we can laugh at the port city of Cleveland- My man General Moses Cleaveland straight up founded it, oversaw the construction of Public Square, then got the hell out. Why? Probably because his home state of Connecticut was a more interesting place, and still is if you ask me. The sports teams here are hilarious but oddly have this uber loyal fan base, and the Cleveland economy isn’t exactly innovative. It’s a place that often seems to try so hard and miss, like the downtown balloon fest in 1986. So why did I make this place home?

Here’s why-

I have an international airport here which is no longer a major hub so I can slide through TSA super quick compared to busier airports. So, it is quick but I can still fly anywhere. While using the train to get there I recently discovered C-towns well-developed RTA/rapid subway system, making getting around this city much easier than a larger town. With essentially 4 lines you can get anywhere in the city, and it runs continuously. Driving through Cleveland is also easy, way easier than Orlando was. The fact that it’s a moderate-sized major US city seems to give it the city life I wanted while bringing quite a few unanticipated pros. I'm a huge road biker, I've been biking around this city a ton and it is very cycle friendly, there are well-engineered bike lanes all over this city, much more so than Orlando had. I don't do trails a lot but Cleveland has a boatload of them which the city did very well in developing years ago.

With a metro pop of around two mill and city proper at 374,000 (still slowly declining), it’s still large enough to contain some hidden gems. For instance, its theatre district. Lots of people sleep on Playhouse Square, it’s still ranked the second-largest performing arts center next to NYC’s and it makes for a good night out. Cleveland has a super legit Art Museum; it's currently ranked the sixth-best art museum in the nation. It's one of the many things I love about Cleveland’s eclectic east side.

Cleveland has a lot to offer the palate and a thick ethnic food scene:

This brings me to a point, I hear a lot of people call Cleveland a "food city", constantly, usually someone who considers a Darden Restaurant good food. When I think of food cities, I think of places like Miami, NYC, Chicago, New Haven, etc. Can Cleveland hang with these cities in terms of food? No, but it’s not too far behind them and it is absolutely a food city when compared to other Midwest cities.

One pro of being a rustbelt city is the old architecture. Cleveland has some epic old buildings that showcase hundreds of years of well-built structures that in the age of tenuous housing developments and Ryan Homes really wow me. I find more and more aesthetic old buildings here each time I explore the city, southern cities simply don’t have stuff like that. My favorite view of Cleveland can be seen by taking 490 westbound, just after opportunity Corridor dead ends, and looking left (south) at the steelyards seeing the smokestacks bellowing out flames against the sunset or early morning sky. If you ask me that specific view just says Cleveland so perfectly.

The north coast does have three professional sports teams, and watching them lose downtown is fun. and again, they are easier to access and slightly are cheaper venues than some larger cities. The largest determining factor of why I came back from Florida is the cost of living. Living here I can afford a nice house in the city without having to sell one of my kidneys, I get the city life I wanted at a better value. Cleveland is affordable compared to other large US cities.

Cleveland cons:

Cuyahoga County has outrageous property taxes, I pay 4.09% in property taxes which is painful. A lot of Cleveland is ghetto. If you want an accurate report, the bulk of the east side and a lot of the southwest side makes me feel like I'm in Afghanistan. I know all cities have high crime areas, I usually enjoy checking those parts of a city out plus it's necessary to get a true feel for the personality of a city. Forbes magazine did a good study ranking the US cities based on crime and they have Cleveland ranked seventh in the US for the overall crime. Cleveland seemed to be in almost every top ten US city crime ranking I could find for the last ten years. Crime in a city is obviously important to mention while anticipating making a place your home. Cleveland weather can suck and is worthy of the con list-that being said watching the four seasons here can be very nice and the fall colors are exotic.

When talking about Cleveland my friend Vineeth always points out how "it has a ton of green space and parks", he also reminds me not all cities do. I'm guessing that might not have as much clout with others in terms of judging a city, but when I'm in a concrete jungle stuff like that makes me feel good. So it is important to me but also worth noting to describe this town. I think Cleveland is on the up and up and I think a lot of young professionals could thrive here. I remember it ten years or so back and it was unequivocally much less appealing then. If you’re going to live here, I think this is the time to do it and I'm wishful in hoping its upward trend continues. Comments are greatly appreciated.