Points re: Hastily Made Tourism Video and Regina Brett
I won't recap for you because you can listen to it yourself online, but this morning on The Sound of Ideas, Regina Brett (aka the PD columnist who makes me feel like I'm 14 and being scolded by my mom) asked us to join her, Mike Polk, Samantha Fryberger, and fellow columnist Mike McIntyre with our "thoughts on Cleveland as America's pinata."
OK.
1. Cleveland is NOT America's pinata. That's Canada. Canada is America's pinata, and possibly even the northern hemisphere's pinata.
2. I'm amazed that there's anyone who doesn't yet understand that learning to laugh at yourself is like getting an express ticket to Enlightenment.
2a. These people have obviously never been to New Jersey.
3. I don't want people to know about how great Cleveland is because then annoying hipsters will move here in limp, effeminate droves.
4. I don't mean to sound parochial, but when people from the outer suburbs say they love living in Cleveland, I feel like tapping them on the shoulder and saying, "When you live in Long Island, you don't live in New York." It especially irks me when people say things like "Cleveland has great schools," or "Cleveland is a great place to raise a family" because what they really mean is "I'm glad there are suburban schools to send my kids to, while at the same time I can dress up in spangly clothes and hang out in the Warehouse District with my other yummy mommy friends a couple times a month."
Look, I like living in Cleveland because it's like living in the pages of The Onion. Or in a Twin Peaks where the folks are fatter and slightly more ethnic-looking. This place - like life - is full of hilarious, wretched absurdities, which makes it primo for creative types who are prone to dwelling on the darker side of human existence.
There's no Sex and the City here, believe me. Personally, I like it that way.
OK.
1. Cleveland is NOT America's pinata. That's Canada. Canada is America's pinata, and possibly even the northern hemisphere's pinata.
2. I'm amazed that there's anyone who doesn't yet understand that learning to laugh at yourself is like getting an express ticket to Enlightenment.
2a. These people have obviously never been to New Jersey.
3. I don't want people to know about how great Cleveland is because then annoying hipsters will move here in limp, effeminate droves.
4. I don't mean to sound parochial, but when people from the outer suburbs say they love living in Cleveland, I feel like tapping them on the shoulder and saying, "When you live in Long Island, you don't live in New York." It especially irks me when people say things like "Cleveland has great schools," or "Cleveland is a great place to raise a family" because what they really mean is "I'm glad there are suburban schools to send my kids to, while at the same time I can dress up in spangly clothes and hang out in the Warehouse District with my other yummy mommy friends a couple times a month."
Look, I like living in Cleveland because it's like living in the pages of The Onion. Or in a Twin Peaks where the folks are fatter and slightly more ethnic-looking. This place - like life - is full of hilarious, wretched absurdities, which makes it primo for creative types who are prone to dwelling on the darker side of human existence.
There's no Sex and the City here, believe me. Personally, I like it that way.
posted by Christine Borne at 6:15 PM
7 Comments:
Well said.
Cleveland is NOT America's pinata. That's Canada. Canada is America's pinata, and possibly even the northern hemisphere's pinata...2a. These people have obviously never been to New Jersey.In order for Cleveland to be more economically successful (i.e. to maybe get to net growth instead of net decay), it has to participate in the national economy and the national culture, and the national culture having a generally bad opinion of the place gets in the way of that. Whether Cleveland is better off or worse off than Canada or New Jersey in this respect is pretty much irrelevant.
If I have to choose between an influx of hipsters and continued decline, I'll take the hipsters. Of course, we're probably not going to get that particular choice anyway.
Re: The Warehouse District: Look, I work with a bunch of normal suburban guys in Mayfield Heights, and they mostly live in Lake County and never come into the city of Cleveland for any reason whatsoever, except maybe to see a baseball game. Is that really better than having people come downtown for meals every couple of weeks?
I'm not convinced that Cleveland's image has much to do with its economic growth. I don't know if it has enough of a national image to even get any negative attention anymore.
In my years living outside of Ohio, I've never really experienced anyone expressing a negative opinion of Cleveland. Particularly in Montana, where no one knew anything about anyplace east of Bismarck. In New York, I mostly ran into other displaced Midwesterners who were fondly nostalgic or who intended to go back someday. Or just people who said, "I don't know much about Cleveland. What's it like?" I have never, ever have heard a burning river joke (in fact, I was 18 before I even knew about the burning river). I think that era has passed. The most I ever heard was, "Is it like on the Drew Carey Show?" And I had to say, yes, yes, it kind of is.
Yeah, when I said I was from Cleveland I never got much reaction. When I said I was from Ohio, however, that was a different story.
And as long as the hipsters stay off my front lawn, I guess I can put up with a few of them.
Yesterday, I was in Tremont, getting a cup of coffee at Civilization. As I was walking out, an older Caucasian with a well-coiffed head of white hair went driving by in a candy red convertible, blasting some early 80s keyboard funk. A black guy hanging out with his friends in front of Civilization pumped up his fist and said "YEAH!" as the guy drove by, followed by, "Only in Cleveland." That's what I love about this town.
Well, I have heard burning river jokes, and I've seen a lot of nastiness about Cleveland in particular on the net, and I've got anecdotal evidence that people in the Washington area, at least, still get a kick out of making fun of Cleveland. Maybe that's Washington's own inferiority complex kicking in, I don't know.
As far as Cleveland's image not having an effect on its economic growth: well, I hope you're right, but I'm afraid you aren't. I'm not sure Cleveland has what it takes to succeed economically without having at least a few people who weren't born here willing to come here and stay.
I wonder how much of the earnest Cleveland-bashing you're hearing is just disgruntled ex-CLevelanders who are pissed off that the "outside forces" let their city "go down the drain." There was a really good "Around Noon" about psychoanalyzing Cleveland a few months ago, and they touched on this idea. Everyone I know who came here from elsewhere either likes it or they're afraid to tell me otherwise. Probably somewhere in between.
I'm really talking more philosophically here than economically because I'm not in economic development or business - I was an English major! So maybe we're not quite on the same page, but we're close to it.
Philosophically, I think self-deprecating satire is a step in the right direction, because it helps. Without being too cliche, this is really what lurks deep in the heart of every comedian - some psychological wound that the subconscious is, like an oyster with a grain of sand, trying to goo all over in order to make something that's tolerable to the oyster (and hey, maybe even beautiful to someone else, after a little polishing). So when Cleveland learns to laugh at itself - which it doesn't do well just yet - the path is clearer for other forms of renewal.
New Jersey is really, really good at defiantly embracing its flaws. That was, to be honest, the first thing I noticed about NJ - within a week of living there. It's got a thicker skin, undoubtedly from decades of getting picked on by New York.
Well I couldn't help myself. I signed up for the contest. As much as I think the Mike Polk videos are (painfully) funny, I still love my town.
Please help me win--give me 5 stars and pass it along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2_Fwhsl7i8
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