"If You Love Cleveland So Much, Why Did You Leave?"
No one has ever asked me the above question outright, but the comment from my previous post jumpstarted my recent blogging sloth a little bit. So, just in case anyone should ask it, here's my attempt at an answer.
OK. First, I have a guilty confession, and this goes out to all my Cleveland friends who have to lurk on RBCA to keep abreast of my goings-on because I'm lousy at returning phone calls or emails. This guilty confession is especially for you, Ruth, because I was actively deceptive with you last night on the phone, and a public apology is the only way I can clear my conscience.
I confess: I was in Cleveland last weekend and I didn't call any of you. I'm sorry. I wanted to spend all my time with Kevin, who was also in town, and whom I hadn't seen in over a year. I promise I'll call you all next time.
So. One of the first things Kevin and I did when we got in was go to Edgewater Park. Which was looking fabulous - much better and cleaner and less unwholesome than it did six years ago when I lived there. We walked out on the pier, and saw a group of old men grinning proudly and toothlessly around the biggest fish I'd ever seen come out of Lake Erie. We walked on the path around the picnic area, watched families barbecuing and more old men playing chess. We saw surfers and sailboats and couples flying elaborate kites and small children building sandcastles. We sat at a picnic table and watched the sun sink low over the water. And I said to Kevin, there is nothing I love more than this. There is nothing I love more than the Cuyahoga Valley in the fall, there is nothing I love more than taking a day trip to Holmes County just to get a loaf of bread and some pumpkin butter. There is nothing I love more than picking up the PD and seeing an outraged Clevelander frowning at me from the front page.
So, I asked out loud, why am I somewhere else?
There are the obvious reasons, like the fact that the library job market in Northeast Ohio is so glutted that I - having egregiously less experience than most library job seekers - wasn't able to get a new position to save my life. One has to survive, and I've been able to save more money here in the last year than I'd been able to save in my entire life. What would scraping by on a pauper's income in Cleveland really have proved?
Or, there are more complicated reasons, such as the fact that I want to see Cleveland be the best midsized city in the good old U.S.A., but that I feel somewhat powerless to help due to my lack of perspective. What do I know about positive urban rehabilitation? Apart from my year in Montana and my year+ in New Jersey, I lived in Cleveland my whole life. There's a big part of me that needs to explore how other cities "do it right" before I can ever come back and pretend to be the slightest bit wise. And over this past year, I've visited shining examples of doing it right: Baltimore, Providence, Portland, Red Bank (NJ), Princeton, Trenton (talk about a city that's had problems), Asbury Park, Philadelphia, New Haven, and even (begrudgingly) New York. I've also been very lucky to have a boyfriend who is as interesting in cities and urban revitalization as I am, who will point out articles I've missed, and who will get me books such as America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention? and Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods from the outstanding collection at the Queens Borough Public Library, which he has access to and I don't.
But. One thing I've learned over the past year is that after a certain point, relocation isn't as much of an adventure as it is just daily life in another place. Which can actually be more disappointing than the tedium of daily life at home. Perhaps, then, it's time for me to slap some calamine lotion on this constant itch to pick up and go.
So, here. As I told Ruth, who's always scheming to get me home somehow: find me suitable job to apply for in Cleveland and maybe I'll think about coming back. It doesn't have to be a library job. I'd prefer to work for a Cleveland-based organization that does good work in the name of Cleveland. I have a Master's degree. And although my minimum salary requirement is $40K, I could significantly fudge it based on the cost of living in Cleveland.
Maybe.
OK. First, I have a guilty confession, and this goes out to all my Cleveland friends who have to lurk on RBCA to keep abreast of my goings-on because I'm lousy at returning phone calls or emails. This guilty confession is especially for you, Ruth, because I was actively deceptive with you last night on the phone, and a public apology is the only way I can clear my conscience.
I confess: I was in Cleveland last weekend and I didn't call any of you. I'm sorry. I wanted to spend all my time with Kevin, who was also in town, and whom I hadn't seen in over a year. I promise I'll call you all next time.
So. One of the first things Kevin and I did when we got in was go to Edgewater Park. Which was looking fabulous - much better and cleaner and less unwholesome than it did six years ago when I lived there. We walked out on the pier, and saw a group of old men grinning proudly and toothlessly around the biggest fish I'd ever seen come out of Lake Erie. We walked on the path around the picnic area, watched families barbecuing and more old men playing chess. We saw surfers and sailboats and couples flying elaborate kites and small children building sandcastles. We sat at a picnic table and watched the sun sink low over the water. And I said to Kevin, there is nothing I love more than this. There is nothing I love more than the Cuyahoga Valley in the fall, there is nothing I love more than taking a day trip to Holmes County just to get a loaf of bread and some pumpkin butter. There is nothing I love more than picking up the PD and seeing an outraged Clevelander frowning at me from the front page.
So, I asked out loud, why am I somewhere else?
There are the obvious reasons, like the fact that the library job market in Northeast Ohio is so glutted that I - having egregiously less experience than most library job seekers - wasn't able to get a new position to save my life. One has to survive, and I've been able to save more money here in the last year than I'd been able to save in my entire life. What would scraping by on a pauper's income in Cleveland really have proved?
Or, there are more complicated reasons, such as the fact that I want to see Cleveland be the best midsized city in the good old U.S.A., but that I feel somewhat powerless to help due to my lack of perspective. What do I know about positive urban rehabilitation? Apart from my year in Montana and my year+ in New Jersey, I lived in Cleveland my whole life. There's a big part of me that needs to explore how other cities "do it right" before I can ever come back and pretend to be the slightest bit wise. And over this past year, I've visited shining examples of doing it right: Baltimore, Providence, Portland, Red Bank (NJ), Princeton, Trenton (talk about a city that's had problems), Asbury Park, Philadelphia, New Haven, and even (begrudgingly) New York. I've also been very lucky to have a boyfriend who is as interesting in cities and urban revitalization as I am, who will point out articles I've missed, and who will get me books such as America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention? and Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods from the outstanding collection at the Queens Borough Public Library, which he has access to and I don't.
But. One thing I've learned over the past year is that after a certain point, relocation isn't as much of an adventure as it is just daily life in another place. Which can actually be more disappointing than the tedium of daily life at home. Perhaps, then, it's time for me to slap some calamine lotion on this constant itch to pick up and go.
So, here. As I told Ruth, who's always scheming to get me home somehow: find me suitable job to apply for in Cleveland and maybe I'll think about coming back. It doesn't have to be a library job. I'd prefer to work for a Cleveland-based organization that does good work in the name of Cleveland. I have a Master's degree. And although my minimum salary requirement is $40K, I could significantly fudge it based on the cost of living in Cleveland.
Maybe.
Labels: Cleveland
posted by Christine Borne at 8:00 AM
8 Comments:
Your comment about minimum salary made me think about your postings on my blog about wanting to barista (is that a verb?) again. I figure coffee culture in Cleveland would really explode if baristas starting making $30K minimum. Although with tips and benefits, some of our baristas are already over that. In Italy baristas make good money... same with other big metro areas here in the states. In order for coffee to be a profession rather than a fall-back job, I think I have to find a way to raise the salary standards. Not sure how this is relevant exactly to your post, but I figured you'd be interested in the challenge that paying baristas $20 per hour would present.
hey, $20 an hour is $7 an hour more than I made as a professional librarian in Cleveland....
speaking of Cleveland coffee culture exploding, I've been meaning for a long time to write about the Dunkin Donuts invasion into Northeast Ohio. (Mostly I've been in denial about it.) DD is like a disease out here in NJ, like giant fluorescent orange and pink rat droppings *everywhere*. Hmmm. I think I'll finish writing that today.
Christine,
I didn't get to know you that well in grad school, but we had a lot of the same friends (2-fisted librarians). I just happened upon your blog.
I have recently had this thought that I want to leave NE Ohio. After seeing your last couple of posts, I'm thinking that maybe that isn't such a smart thing. I appreciate your comments about Cleveland (even though I'm from near Youngstown) and about that sense of a place being home.
Christine,
You say so well why the market for librarians is so freakin' screwed up in Ohio. HeidiL and I have not been having the best of luck. I just had a slap in the face from NASA Glenn for a cataloging position there today (#96). After Johnstown going south, Canada telling me to go away, and the matter in the Bayou just being so weird that it self-destructed...I have been questioning whether I am in the right profession.
Then again, while serving as education director out here in Virginia at camp I have found that I can apparently preach halfway decently. Visiting ministers who have seen my chapel presentations have asked me why I am not a minister of any sort. I still have two weeks left out here with that incredibly tough age group...TEENS!
Why not a minister? That is the question I face right now. And ya know...I have no good answer to it!
I had a conversation with a stranger on the train Monday, and the funny thing was that we both agreed the unofficial motto of Cleveland is "Cleveland--a great place to live if you can find a job!"
And as a NJ aside, I'm surprised that you like Red Bank--I don't know, but when Prown's (Prown's sells everything) and the Book Pit and Pyramid closed, I think it hit a tipping point of commercialism. It's like a mall now.
Oh, and Dunky D's? I know they say they're trying to upgrade the coffee selection and be a competitor to Starbucks and its ilk, but that's just talk. The doughnuts aren't even that good. The purpose that DD fulfills is that you have to leave your house at 6:30am to get to work by 8, but looky--you're making good time and there's no cars in the lot so you can stop and grab the caffiene and a sugar rush. Which is why DD won't work here, because everyone commutes on highway, and everyone brews at home. There's not so much need for the emergency pitstop. So unless you import a lot of East Coasters (like my mom, who came out to visit and was slightly puzzled that there was no DD around) I doubt it will catch on out here.
Did you grow up in Cleveland, if yes...where did you reside?
I grew up in Fairview Park, actually, which is on the west side if you aren't familiar with Cleveland.
Christine,
Your post was very interesting to me because I came to Cleveland for a job, did not know anyone or anything about the city. I have found that this is a really good place to live and I am kind of an expert on relocation having lived in many places in Europe, Canada and the US.
I have to admit that the city of my birth still has a big piece of my heart and I often muse about going back there to live. But then I think that it has been so long that it might only be another move and that one based on nostalgia.
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