Gun Shy
I get all pumped up about how great Cleveland really is and how I should go home immediately and then I do something stupid like look at cleveland.com, and realize that Cleveland is not only full of people who have lost perspective on what's important to complain about and what's not, but there's an icky underculture of fratty sports-bar type young people who I seem to have either romanticized or forgotten about (or blocked out, more likely).
The suggestion that city leadership concentrate on carting in cool people from elsewhere used to piss me off, but maybe a little bit of that wouldn't be so bad. Or maybe there should be a concerted effort to send young people away for a tour of duty elsewhere. I just get a little gun shy about coming home when I remember that Clevelanders can decry a 50-cent raise in RTA fares (look, I make less than $27K, so don't accuse me of being a rich New York snob, but I've lived in 4 different states and $2 a ride is not unreasonable) and the state of Cleveland public schools with equal intensity. Regardless of what you think RTA's motives are, urban revitalization efforts like the Euclid Corridor Project don't pay for themselves, and decaying urban cores don't get better without urban revitalization efforts.
What's more, I'm starting to be grossed out by the obsession the Plain Dealer has with young people staying in Cleveland. Youth doesn't automatically equal creativity or enthusiasm. There are an awful lot of really dull-eyed, uninteresting young people out there with no good ideas whatsoever. Is it worth slobbering over Jenny and Johnny Gen-X who haul their Scion in from Avon Lake for a few overpriced novelty martinis in the Warehouse District? Maybe this has something to do with my Saturn Return, but I've decided to look for answers amongst the older and wiser right now.
The bottom line is, when I come back, I'll need to surround myself with intensely pro-Cleveland friends. If not, that old cocktail of feeble wannabeism (wannabe Chicago, wannabe New York), lack of perspective, and negativity is just going to clamp onto me like a Dementor's Kiss.
The suggestion that city leadership concentrate on carting in cool people from elsewhere used to piss me off, but maybe a little bit of that wouldn't be so bad. Or maybe there should be a concerted effort to send young people away for a tour of duty elsewhere. I just get a little gun shy about coming home when I remember that Clevelanders can decry a 50-cent raise in RTA fares (look, I make less than $27K, so don't accuse me of being a rich New York snob, but I've lived in 4 different states and $2 a ride is not unreasonable) and the state of Cleveland public schools with equal intensity. Regardless of what you think RTA's motives are, urban revitalization efforts like the Euclid Corridor Project don't pay for themselves, and decaying urban cores don't get better without urban revitalization efforts.
What's more, I'm starting to be grossed out by the obsession the Plain Dealer has with young people staying in Cleveland. Youth doesn't automatically equal creativity or enthusiasm. There are an awful lot of really dull-eyed, uninteresting young people out there with no good ideas whatsoever. Is it worth slobbering over Jenny and Johnny Gen-X who haul their Scion in from Avon Lake for a few overpriced novelty martinis in the Warehouse District? Maybe this has something to do with my Saturn Return, but I've decided to look for answers amongst the older and wiser right now.
The bottom line is, when I come back, I'll need to surround myself with intensely pro-Cleveland friends. If not, that old cocktail of feeble wannabeism (wannabe Chicago, wannabe New York), lack of perspective, and negativity is just going to clamp onto me like a Dementor's Kiss.
posted by Christine Borne at 3:22 PM
5 Comments:
LMAO at them complaining as much about the bus fairs as they do the school system, although I didn't hear that many complaints about the school system except for the people with kids actually in it. No one else cared. Its a wonder I survived.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
(Hi, I wandered over from BrewedFreshDaily.com)
I think the important thing here is: public transit in cleveland is a JOKE.
I'm sure there would be many fewer complaints about the fares if you could actually rely on it to get where you need to go and in a timely fashion.
Every time I've been to NYC I didn't miss having a car one bit, but I couldn't imagine living without a car in Cleveland.
I live BY Cleveland and I completely agree with everything you said.
It IS a joke.
I've stumbled across this blog from time to time over the past year and I want to commend you on your smart, well-written posts. Rest assured, interesting and quirky people (young and old) remain in Cleveland amidst the frat-guy masses and we're looking forward to the return of you and others like you. I grew up here, went away for college, lived in NYC for seven years and returned last year to start the master's in urban planning program at Levin College at CSU. Definitely look up us Levinites when you return... there's a lot of great ideas for Cleveland floating around among the professors and students. Get in touch if you like sometime: blinker1_2000@yahoo.com -Justin
P.S. To all those complaining about Cleveland public transit: move closer to downtown! I live in Ohio City, near the Rapid and at least six bus lines. There's a price to be paid for living in Avon Lake, or even Cleveland Heights or Lakewood.
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