gbk0114

Culturally, I won't put up an argument that the east side is more east coast. The west side may be more culturally related to the Midwest, but lets clarify, the west side resembles the progressive Midwest ... Chicago. I was simply looking at it from demographic terms (although Chicago, demographically, is on par with East Coast metros). The west side of Cleveland, mainly due to the latino population, more resembles the East Coast metros than the eastside. For example, census tract 1017 (Cudell) is (demographically) as close as you will get to New York City in Ohio % White (alone) - 39 % Latino - 21.9 (15.1 percent being Puerto Rican, only .3 being Mexican ... ala East Coast) % Black - 22.4 % Asian - 13 % Multi-race - 6.8

Nope! For me it's the prevalent Appalachian culture in the area and the accents. And yes, a lot of native Cincinnatians DO sound southern to my New England ears, especially the blacks (.....waiting for assertions of racism). I'm black and Panamanian btw. The black communities in the two cities are pretty much the same. Accent-wise and politically. It's Southern (accent) and Democrat (politics) in both. IMO, overall, blacks throughout Ohio have maintained much more of their Southern roots than those in the Northeast, or West. The political voices, though, are louder in the Northern part of the state, IMO, because it is heavily Democratic. Not that it seems like you will, but I wouldn't move from Cincy to Cleveland just based on the black communities. They are the same. But from an overall diversity standpoint, Cleveland is a close as you will get to East Coast or Chicago in Ohio, especially the west side of the city. Just look at the demographics of the westside (Tremont, Ohio City, Cudell, Edgewater, Detroit Shoreway) census tracts. They are the most diverse in the state ... and in a lot of cases as diverse as anything on the East Coast. As for the overall city, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Cleveland is the only Ohio city that has at least one census tract that is more than 50 percent latino (a handful ... all on the westside), black (several ... all but a couple on the east side) and asian (the two that make up Asiatown ... near eastside/downtown). And yes, Cleveland has its advantages over Chicago and the East Coast cities in terms of cost of living.

I'll bump this thread since the Westerville set was posted. Is it just me or do Wadsworth and Westerville look like they could be twins? Also, while I'm at it, I'll update, for anybody interested, some of the things that are going on in the Great Oaks area (1-76). The Ponderosa is being replaced with a Panera Bread. The Blockbuster closed but Chipotle moved in. The restuarants on High Street have been torn down and a Dunkin Donuts and an Advanced Auto Parts are/or will be built there. The Giant Eagle (half of it) is now a Goodwill. The K-Mart is (and probably will be for the forseeable future) vacant. The BP is completely gone and the pumps have been torn out. Not sure if anything is slated to go up there. It's a horrible location because it's impossible to turn out of across traffic. Granted, all of those are suburban developments, but they are lessening what was starting to become "blight" in that area. Closer to downtown, their is a new CVS going up on High and Akron. But that's only shifting the CVS downtown (or just north of downtown) a 1/2 north. Plus, a small, semi-urban group of buildings (mom-and-pop shops) and three century homes were torn down to make way for it. I'm getting off topic, but just south of downtown, hopefully there will be development there. There are several old factories and street level buildings that have potential for reuse. This is an older article from a California newspaper, but looks like there is/was an attempt for redevelopment. The investor has a checkered past and had to file for bankruptcy. I'm actually not sure what's happening, if anything, currently. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/03/18/1072327/kelly-gearhart-just-keeps-on-developing.html

Westerville seems a lot like Wadsworth, in that it was once a small town that is now a "sprawl" city. The downtowns look very similiar, down to the historic theater's that are now used as something else ... an Amish furniature store in Westerville vs. a DMV in Wadsworth.

From the south, you can see downtown (the Big 3) from the Pine Hills Golf Course which is on W. 130th on the Hinckley/Brunswick border in Medina County. That's a good 25 miles south. In the same general area, there is a pretty good view a mile or so north on Boston Road/W. 130th on the Strongsville/Brunswick border. From the west, I know there are views from Avon Lake near the power plant, which is on the far west side of the city, so another good 25 miles away. Believe it or not, Eastlake and Pine Hills Golf Course are almost exactly the same distance from Public Square (right around 16.7 miles as the crow flies). The power plant in Avon Lake is a little further at 18.5 miles, which is almost identical to the distance from Public Square to Gildersleeve Mountain in Kirtland, which I believe is widely considered to have the best long-distance views of downtown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gildersleeve_Mountain I wasn't taking into consideration "crow's" distance with Pine Hills, but still would've guessed that's further than 17 miles. Anyway, that distance shot from Kirtland is amazing, way better than Pine Hills. As for Avon Lake, from the ground the view of downtown isn't as great as the one from Kirtland. But if you "cheat" and go on the roof of the CEI (or whatever it's called now) plant, the view from Avon Lake is arguably better. Of course not everybody can get up there, but my uncle worked for the company when I was in high school in the 90s and took me on a tour of the facility. That was was great in itself, went on some catwalks atop the building that was scary but great at the same time. But I digress. We also went on the roof (again was pretty scary because the wind was whipping off the lake) but the view blew me away. It's pretty similiar to Kirtland, obviously from west to east instead of vice versa, except you have the Gold Coast in the foreground, which is the trump card. Too bad I can't get back up there or I would take some pictures. It wasn't just downtown Cleveland, look west and there are some views of Lorain that show how expansive the Ford and U.S. Steel plants are/were in that city.

ColDayMan brought up MichiPitts. That's actually something I've argued with friends and colleagues for years about on the topic that Northeast Ohio needs to regionalize. I don't disagree with a unified NEO, but regionalization shouldn't stop at county or MSA borders. In areas like SW Michigan, NW Ohio, NE Ohio and SW Pa., which are already pretty interconntected, officials need to enter into Economic Development agreements with each other to bring companies to those areas, even if it means finding creative ways of sharing the taxes. Compared to the rest of the country, land is cheap in all those areas. The infastructure is already in place. And there is an exisiting population that is eager to do the labor. They just need to pull their resources together to make it worthwhile for companies to bring back jobs that are going out of the country or to the Sun Belt. From a Cleveland-centric standpoint, something like a Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland-Akron/Canton-Youngtown-Pittsburgh unified region may actually benefit the city most because it's essentially in the middle and could become the capital of this psuedo state. As it stands, Cleveland is already a split between Pittsburgh (steel) and Detroit (automotive). Keep that base here and expand the medical (already strong in Cleveland and Pittsburgh), new technologies (Pittsburgh) and alternative energy fields (something that the Toledo area has embraced.)

Here's a question. Where was this video shot, specifically the block after block of abanonded apartments starting around the 2:10 mark? It's a shame this area has become desolate beyond repair, because in its heyday, there had to be close to 20,000 people per square mile living there. Now, it rivals North St. Louis and Detroit in terms of dilapidation. Edit: I should've read the comments. Looks like area is off Euclid in East Cleveland. Still a damn shame that neighborhood was allowed to be ruined and will never return.

I was going to mention the turnpike over the Cuyahoga too, but the above places are probably further than either.

From the south, you can see downtown (the Big 3) from the Pine Hills Golf Course which is on W. 130th on the Hinckley/Brunswick border in Medina County. That's a good 25 miles south. In the same general area, there is a pretty good view a mile or so north on Boston Road/W. 130th on the Strongsville/Brunswick border. From the west, I know there are views from Avon Lake near the power plant, which is on the far west side of the city, so another good 25 miles away.

Sounds like a progressive plan by leaders of Jackson Twp., Canton and Stark State to regionalize and bring out of state (country) jobs to Stark County. http://www.indeonline.com/newsnow/x775081891/Jackson-Canton-economic-development-pact-can-move-forward

First time poster, but have lurked on here for over year. I was going to mention Wadsworth on the thread of missing Ohio cities. My wife and I moved out here about a year ago (three blocks from downtown). It's not a town for 20-somethings, but now that I'm 30, it works for me. Did you only shoot downtown or did you go through any of the neighborhoods? The older neighborhoods are pretty standard, but there are some interesting older streets with some architecturally appealing homes (Highland, Woodlawn and Crestwood avenues). Also, while there is a lot of suburban growth, Wadsworth has always been a big manufacturing town. 20 percent of the population is in manufacturing, which ranks 5th in Northeast Ohio and 16th in the state. There's a massive old factory just south of downtown (I take it its the old Blue Tip factory, though I'm not sure). If anybody is interested, here is the history of the town. For what is thought of a small town that has become an Akron exurb, it has a rich industrial history. http://www.wadsworthcity.com/index.php?Itemid=43&id=4699&option=com_content&task=view As for there being no "black" people. I know for a fact there is atleast one.