I Have Six Weeks of Vacation and No Plans Yet
This year, I want to use part of my obscenely generous vacation time to explore American and perhaps (gasp!) Canadian cities that Cleveland could learn something from. Cities that might be of a similar size, or have a similar history. Or that are just cool places doing cool things.
For those friends out there who aren't from Cleveland, like Marielle, here's the best succinct description of Cleveland I can squeeze into the five minutes before I have to leave for work:
The bad:
Cleveland is a mid-sized city whose industrial heyday is long gone, leaving in its place a crumbling infrastructure, rampant poverty, an abysmal public school system, and a sprawling ring of upper middle class suburbs whose ancestors fled the city because of racial tension, and whose current residents all seem to know what's best for Cleveland yet staunchly refuse to move back within city limits.
The good:
Cleveland has astonishingly beautiful and underused geographical assets, world class cultural institutions, ethnic diversity that some places could only dream of, low cost of living, and a dedicated (though at times, factious) network of people who want to see it truly develop into the Comeback City.
What do you guys think? Where should I visit? What cities have really turned themselves around and become cool people havens?
For those friends out there who aren't from Cleveland, like Marielle, here's the best succinct description of Cleveland I can squeeze into the five minutes before I have to leave for work:
The bad:
Cleveland is a mid-sized city whose industrial heyday is long gone, leaving in its place a crumbling infrastructure, rampant poverty, an abysmal public school system, and a sprawling ring of upper middle class suburbs whose ancestors fled the city because of racial tension, and whose current residents all seem to know what's best for Cleveland yet staunchly refuse to move back within city limits.
The good:
Cleveland has astonishingly beautiful and underused geographical assets, world class cultural institutions, ethnic diversity that some places could only dream of, low cost of living, and a dedicated (though at times, factious) network of people who want to see it truly develop into the Comeback City.
What do you guys think? Where should I visit? What cities have really turned themselves around and become cool people havens?
posted by Christine Borne at 7:39 AM
4 Comments:
Factious?! Us?
Wow! Six weeks!
Baltimore's Inner Harbor is inspiring, with the water taxis.
Are you off all caffeine or just coffee? There are some really cool tea houses in New York that I could tell you about. Leadership Cleveland went to New Orleans to see what was to be learned from their economic development model. I just visited Chicago, and right near Navy Pier they have an old warehouse complex that got turned into an art center that was a wonderful tourist attraction. I love that idea for Cleveland... turning old buildings into art spaces.
Hmmm, Seattle sort of fits the bill.
When I moved there from San Francisco as a kid in the 1970s, Seattle struck me as a cultural backwater - industrial in a seaport kind of way, not a lot of ethnic diversity, a really seedy downtown. Hell, I went to junior high with kids who lived in trailers.
Fast forward to around 1990, and things started turning around. Some would call it gentrification and would mean it in a bad way - me, I see it as a positive thing. Even though that means my chances of buying real estate up there if I move back are pretty slim.
Seattle used to be Boeing Aviation, and that's about it. Now it's great eating, great shopping, clean streets, museums, fabulous outdoor spaces... And of course, there's that new library!
Duluth, Minnesota, might be interesting to you. It was largely an industrial town that served at the innermost port of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the area has a history of taconite mining and shipping. The Ariel Lift Bridge is cool - it is the entrance to the Duluth Harbor and the bridge deck raises when a freighter comes through. In the past 20 years the downtown has really revived, and there are some really cool places to visit. (Including the Maritime Museum if you're a big geek like me.) And the best part is that Duluth is the gateway to Minnesota's "North Shore" the part that runs up Lake Superior to the Canadian border. It is beautful with great camping, and gorgeous views, and sleepy little towns (like Two Harbors, Grand Marais, etc.) in between. (Of course, these towns largely rely on the tourist trade now, but they still can be pretty.)
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