Recon Mission
So, I was in Cleveland for two days. Sorry I didn't call you, but we were enormously busy with obligatory family time, interviews (not mine), and scoping out places to live.
Here are some observations (remember now, I haven't been in Cleveland for about a year):
1. My understanding of Cleveland geography has deteriorated considerably. I realized I have no idea how to get from West to East without using the Interstate. In fact, we saw an awful lot of the Interstate, and vowed that when/if we live in Cleveland again we will figure out how to live without it.
2. Neighborhood continuity is good. There's probably an economic development term for this, but let me describe what I mean: in Cleveland, there are tiny pockets of revitalized business districts ("neighborhoods"), with rings of decay all around. Ideally, you should be able to walk from one neighborhood to another. Granted, we may be wrong - but the only place we saw that you can really do this without feeling like you're venturing into sketchy territory was the juncture of University Circle - Little Italy - Coventry - Cedar Fairmount.
3. Deadness after dark is bad. As Jim's cousin pointed out, one of the worst things about the death of Truffles in Edgewater is that, rightly or wrongly, you felt safer walking down the street at night because there was always a throng of people sitting outside. I gotta tell ya, too, that I was surprised and disappointed at how dead Lorain-W.25th was after dark on a Friday night. Although I'm not even a nightlife person, it effectively wiped it off the map for us. I want to believe in Cleveland, but there was just such a marked difference between after-dark Cleveland and after-dark, not-terribly-chic-or-interesting Queens (on our bus ride home from Laguardia) that I'm a little hesitant....
4. Train service between Cleveland and New York is good. I was really happy to find out - much later than everyone else, for sure, about this.
5. Liberty Books is good. This relatively new independent bookstore in Rocky River has virtually no web presence, but it's the biggest that I've seen in the Cleveland area. It has a freaking huge magazine selection - what "could be the biggest selection of magazines between New York and Chicago," according to the Friday Magazine.
6. The wine selection at Dave's Supermarket in Cedar Fairmount is good. Or maybe we were just super-excited to be able to buy wine in a grocery store again. (Also, I was happy they had my Weetabix.)
7. The food selection at Dave's Supermarket was lackluster. Disclosure: I'd never been to a Dave's before. Although I'm excited about a walk-up local supermarket, I confess I was hoping it wouldn't be what one might call a store full of aisles and aisles of processed junk food. (It was.) Although there was organic milk, there was no local milk, no local meat, and the produce section was clean but limited and nothing was local so far as I could tell. I'm willing to live with these tradeoffs, perhaps.
8. I don't care what anyone says, I have always thought, and still think, that downtown Cleveland is really beautiful, layout and architecture-wise. Even with the orange barrels. I've always enjoyed the downtown feel, like I'm part of an actual place, panhandlers and all. I still think this, having spent the greater part of my waking hours over the last two years in Manhattan. This should count for something. In fact, it's better than Manhattan, because there are no tourists clogging up the sidewalk. Downtown Cleveland oozes such potential that I just can't see it going anywhere but up.
I may be adding more observations over the next few days as I remember them, but these are the main ones for now.
Thoughts?
Here are some observations (remember now, I haven't been in Cleveland for about a year):
1. My understanding of Cleveland geography has deteriorated considerably. I realized I have no idea how to get from West to East without using the Interstate. In fact, we saw an awful lot of the Interstate, and vowed that when/if we live in Cleveland again we will figure out how to live without it.
2. Neighborhood continuity is good. There's probably an economic development term for this, but let me describe what I mean: in Cleveland, there are tiny pockets of revitalized business districts ("neighborhoods"), with rings of decay all around. Ideally, you should be able to walk from one neighborhood to another. Granted, we may be wrong - but the only place we saw that you can really do this without feeling like you're venturing into sketchy territory was the juncture of University Circle - Little Italy - Coventry - Cedar Fairmount.
3. Deadness after dark is bad. As Jim's cousin pointed out, one of the worst things about the death of Truffles in Edgewater is that, rightly or wrongly, you felt safer walking down the street at night because there was always a throng of people sitting outside. I gotta tell ya, too, that I was surprised and disappointed at how dead Lorain-W.25th was after dark on a Friday night. Although I'm not even a nightlife person, it effectively wiped it off the map for us. I want to believe in Cleveland, but there was just such a marked difference between after-dark Cleveland and after-dark, not-terribly-chic-or-interesting Queens (on our bus ride home from Laguardia) that I'm a little hesitant....
4. Train service between Cleveland and New York is good. I was really happy to find out - much later than everyone else, for sure, about this.
5. Liberty Books is good. This relatively new independent bookstore in Rocky River has virtually no web presence, but it's the biggest that I've seen in the Cleveland area. It has a freaking huge magazine selection - what "could be the biggest selection of magazines between New York and Chicago," according to the Friday Magazine.
6. The wine selection at Dave's Supermarket in Cedar Fairmount is good. Or maybe we were just super-excited to be able to buy wine in a grocery store again. (Also, I was happy they had my Weetabix.)
7. The food selection at Dave's Supermarket was lackluster. Disclosure: I'd never been to a Dave's before. Although I'm excited about a walk-up local supermarket, I confess I was hoping it wouldn't be what one might call a store full of aisles and aisles of processed junk food. (It was.) Although there was organic milk, there was no local milk, no local meat, and the produce section was clean but limited and nothing was local so far as I could tell. I'm willing to live with these tradeoffs, perhaps.
8. I don't care what anyone says, I have always thought, and still think, that downtown Cleveland is really beautiful, layout and architecture-wise. Even with the orange barrels. I've always enjoyed the downtown feel, like I'm part of an actual place, panhandlers and all. I still think this, having spent the greater part of my waking hours over the last two years in Manhattan. This should count for something. In fact, it's better than Manhattan, because there are no tourists clogging up the sidewalk. Downtown Cleveland oozes such potential that I just can't see it going anywhere but up.
I may be adding more observations over the next few days as I remember them, but these are the main ones for now.
Thoughts?
posted by Christine at 10:29 PM
6 Comments:
Truffles is gone! I'm been so busy the last month or so that I hadn't noticed.
Truffles is only temporarily gone, according to a story I read a few weeks back. It's going to come back with a new name, I thought sometime in November. So, that space will reopen soon.
I also heard that about Truffles, that it was going to be reborn as something else...but have since heard that it isn't going to come back at all. Who knows. Rumors can be deadly.
What's wrong with living in a neighborhood that is 'sketchy territory'?
Millions of poor people (like you and me) live in neighborhoods like this. They are perfectly safe, it's just that myths are propogated about them about being bad places to live to keep out rich folks and keep rents down.
You'd be a great addition to a poor Cleveland neighborhood. You could organize community organic gardens, become a friend of the public library, get to know your neighbors... none of this sort of thing happens in the rich neighborhoods.
side note: check out Zagara's in cle. hts. next time....i would say its a definite step up from dave's!
I used to shop at Zagara's quite a lot when I lived on Hampshire - thanks for reminding me (I even saw Harvey Pekar there once - pretty exciting, huh). The big thing for me is that I'm going to attempt to rely on walking and public transit, so Dave's will probably end up being my daily-use supermarket. (It wasn't bad. I mean, at least it was clean.) But knowing Zagara's is nearby is extremely comforting.
As for neighborhood-sketchiness: it takes a lot for me to consider a neighborhood sketchy. Property crime, like randomly bashed-in car windows or petty burglaries? Not something I'd put on my Christmas list, but OK. Guy following you down the street threatening you with a gun because you're on his turf? I'll draw the line there. (This happened to a friend of ours recently - not in Cleveland, but in another crime-ridden downtrodden American city.)
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