Placelessness
I've been quiet because I haven't been thinking much about Cleveland lately; it got to a point where despite all the good things going on, all I could see was bad. I'm not sure why this should happen all of a sudden, but it did.
I read about something like the Beck Center possibly moving to Crocker Park and think I've woken up on Backwards Day. I took acting lessons there when I was a kid, yoga classes there when I was an adult, and have seen countless performances there over the course of my life. The best thing about the Beck Center was the fact that I could walk there, I could take the bus there. There wasn't a huge parking lot out front with an invisible banner reading "traverse at your own risk." I guess I'm being cynical in using the past tense, given that it hasn't gone anywhere (yet). I know I'm deliberately overlooking this excerpt from the article:
But I don't trust Northeast Ohio anymore to hold onto its cultural institutions, keep them where they matter. I don't trust those cultural institutions to know why it matters that they stay where they are.
Who am I to say, anyway. Cleveland really isn't my place anymore. It belongs to the people who live there, and I don't. Most of the feelings I've got tied up in Cleveland are just nostalgia--brittle and crumbly and ultimately disappointing.
I read about something like the Beck Center possibly moving to Crocker Park and think I've woken up on Backwards Day. I took acting lessons there when I was a kid, yoga classes there when I was an adult, and have seen countless performances there over the course of my life. The best thing about the Beck Center was the fact that I could walk there, I could take the bus there. There wasn't a huge parking lot out front with an invisible banner reading "traverse at your own risk." I guess I'm being cynical in using the past tense, given that it hasn't gone anywhere (yet). I know I'm deliberately overlooking this excerpt from the article:
Finding a new home in Westlake is an option. But Unger said another is to redevelop the current site into a mixed-use retail/restaurant/cultural complex where parents could drop off their children for arts classes and then shop or eat nearby.
But I don't trust Northeast Ohio anymore to hold onto its cultural institutions, keep them where they matter. I don't trust those cultural institutions to know why it matters that they stay where they are.
Who am I to say, anyway. Cleveland really isn't my place anymore. It belongs to the people who live there, and I don't. Most of the feelings I've got tied up in Cleveland are just nostalgia--brittle and crumbly and ultimately disappointing.
posted by Christine Borne at 6:33 AM
5 Comments:
that was a depressing post. i thought you were going to run for mayor.
i guess not!
Cleveland is still beautiful. I never thougth I'd end up back here but I accepted a job offer and a month later here I am living a couple of blocks from Edgewater in a beautiful old building with wood floors and hexagon floor tiles in the bathroom.
Christine, I earnestly hope that someday you will find a true home -a place where you can be an engaged part of your environment and a place in which you can be happy.
I just read somewhere that the Beck Center is staying put after all!
-Jackie
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