Where Would I Live? Part Three: Cedar Fairmount
Living in Cedar Fairmount had never even crossed my mind.
Until, this afternoon, it did.
Cedar Fairmount has everything I want, with the exception of a library - unless I fancy a 2-mile round trip walk to the Coventry Library. Which wouldn't be too bad on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. I mean, heck, I used to walk from Shaker Square to University Circle! (OK, I did that once.)
Cedar Fairmount actually has more than everything I want ... I mean, I could walk to the dentist.
Public transportation: the 821 Circulator, the 7x, the 32X, and the University Circle Rapid Station down at the bottom of the hill - and lo and behold, it's the Red Line, which could take me both downtown and out to my parents' house in one fell swoop ... it's not easy to get to my parents' from the East Side. Not using RTA, at least. This may be the only efficient way to do it!
OK, so where could this all go horribly wrong ...
If anyone has any experience living in Cedar Fairmount, please let me know....
Until, this afternoon, it did.
Cedar Fairmount has everything I want, with the exception of a library - unless I fancy a 2-mile round trip walk to the Coventry Library. Which wouldn't be too bad on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. I mean, heck, I used to walk from Shaker Square to University Circle! (OK, I did that once.)
Cedar Fairmount actually has more than everything I want ... I mean, I could walk to the dentist.
Public transportation: the 821 Circulator, the 7x, the 32X, and the University Circle Rapid Station down at the bottom of the hill - and lo and behold, it's the Red Line, which could take me both downtown and out to my parents' house in one fell swoop ... it's not easy to get to my parents' from the East Side. Not using RTA, at least. This may be the only efficient way to do it!
OK, so where could this all go horribly wrong ...
- What is the UC rapid station like? Is it the nastiest, vilest station ever?
- Is Cedar Fairmount really too nice for me? I mean, will all my neighbors be pinot-drinking snobs?
- Is it too expensive? A hastily-executed Craigslist search left me feeling skeptical. I'm not really looking in the $700-800 range.
- Are the streets clogged with semi-drunk twentysomethings most evenings?
- Would my friends ever come over from the West Side and visit me? Nobody ever visited me when I lived in Coventry. It was very, very lonely.
If anyone has any experience living in Cedar Fairmount, please let me know....
Labels: Where Would I Live
posted by Christine Borne at 6:34 PM
6 Comments:
The UC rapid station isn't too shabby. No worse than most others and certainly better than some.
AFAIK, it's mostly a Case student area (and grad students at that -- though that may have changed). So, some drunken debauchery, but not huge amounts (not that CHeights would ever allow too much...).
Still, nobody will visit as the west side remains infinitely superior to the east side. ;-)
Seriously, driving to and through Cleveland Heights, especially on weekend evenings, can be a pain in the ass just because cops there are such bitches. Cedar-Fairmount isn't too shabby as it's kind of on the fringe, but stil...
Thanks for the insight, Jim. I was wondering if Cedar Fairmount was more of a young professionals kind of area or a Case student kind of area. Coventry was, of course, definitely a Case student kind of area, and the drunken debauchery was not something I'd like to repeat!
I have a friend who has a really cute apartment in that area. She didn't have a car for the first 1 or 2 years there and found it very difficult to get to anywhere besides work (CMA). I can give you her email if you want to chat with her.
Hi Holly - That'd be really nice ... it's always good to have perspective from an insider. If you want you can give her my address... christineborne AT yahoo. thanks!
Christine,
I found this doubly interesting, both because it shows you're beginning to seriously consider moving back, and because that happens to be the very neighborhood my wife and I chose as our first place to live after moving back from Chicago. It has all the amenities and old neighborhoody feel we'd gotten used to in Chicago's wonderful Lincoln Park area, where we had lived previously. And I think if anything, it's only improved slightly since then, with the addition of a couple of coffee shops. The tiny but splendid Apple Tree bookstore, owned by a semi-retired woman who used to teach at Case, is among its leading charms. You could do a lot worse.
There are also circulators that run close to that neighborhood. As someone who is familiar with the yuckiness that once was the UC rapid station (I graduated from John Hay High) -- it's a bit less yucky since renovation though holding breath on the elevator is advised.
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