GrassIsGreener

Thought of this after I posted and didn't want to edit: I think the smaller footprint and paring back to being sewing-related might fix/solve a lot of their problems, because even though home garment sewing isn't as big as it used to be, it's still big and may be experiencing something of a resurgence (italics because I may be biased because I do some home garment making and so I want to allow for confirmation bias). That being said, both for being a store I use and one that's HQ-ed in Ohio, I hope for the best here.

I've read, in addition, that their attempts to compete with Michael's as a general craft store rather than being (in many areas) the only place to buy sewing supplies/bulk fabric hurt them more than it helped. True, home sewing isn't as big as it used to be but there are still a lot of people that do it, and often Joann is the only place to buy these supplies. A lot of smaller "sewing" stores are really quilting stores that may carry some supplies but generally don't carry the kinds of fabric and tools used for making garments. I hope someone figures something out because if they were to simply disappear it would basically kill home sewing for many/most. Ordering fabric online is less than ideal and will likely keep a lot of people, especially in smaller towns, from ever trying it in the first place.

I also don't that people working in an defense tech manufacturing facility are going to be dissuaded from moving to Ohio because of a sense that it's too conservative.

Great short. Beautiful image. Thanks for sharing! The comments on that IG post are funny. Either super celebratory or nasty/catty meanness. Some people are just determined to hate anything they haven't been cleared to like already. Also loved how some commenters were telling the people in the video (who are doing the thing and enjoying themselves immensely while doing so) that it sucks. 😆

All NY state parks are free to enter but you generally have to pay for parking, so I'm not sure I would call that "free" given that most are nearly impossible to get to without a car. From NYS website: https://parks.ny.gov/admission/ There are no entry fees for PA state parks, including parking.

I said "regional" parks, i.e. metro/county parks, not state parks. And even then I've lived in all 3 states and wouldn't say that PA/NY state parks are "far" better. In fact, in terms of facilities I don't notice a ton of difference. But, again, that isn't even what I was talking about in the first place so it's irrelevant.

The way Ohio does regional parks is, as a whole, noticeably better than surrounding states. Didn't know what I had until it was gone. NY had decent county parks and the ones in Pittsburgh are alright at best.

Logged in before I even click on the thread title because I planned to comment on Bill's even if it wasn't here already. Love Bill's. I spent a lot of my evenings in high school hanging with friends there (CHS '03). My son now asks whenever we're in Dayton to go down there. My super "scene" Brooklyn transplant cousin raves about them. It's a special place. Ohio gold!

And yes, I mean it when I say that TC is in a bad location. Because it is for most of the 1.2M people in Cuyahoga County, not to mention the surrounding counties, many of whom are not "big truck/gun lovin'" good old boys that haunt this forum's thoughts all day.

Americans outside of your caricature also don't seem to be going to malls as much anymore, either. Also, no one is "afraid" of anything. They just don't feel any obligation to deal with any level of inconvenience at all, ever, when they don't have to. That probably has more to do with TC being a mess than caricatures of rural whites being "afraid" of black teens. There are black teens in other shopping centers, including ones that are successful. Not Cleveland, I know, but Easton has a pretty solid mix of customers, including rural/suburban whites and urban blacks, and seems to be doing just fine without outbreaks of violence in any direction. TC is not a "In the Heat of the Night" race-war flashpoint, it's just a dated shopping center in the wrong location with a bad mix of stores. I would imagine many of the failing malls nationwide are. Not sure what is so surprising that people don't want to go shopping in a place far away from their house with the same mix of stores as every other that looks like it's from 30 years ago (or more) when they can just, you know, not.

And also it's a shame no one in Cleveland ever travels or has seen other cities before, in particular planners. If only they knew as much about development/economies as someone bold and out-there enough to move from Ohio to Florida. What a unique lifepath offering tons of insight into how those things really work.

This is absolutely delusional and motivated, racialized thinking. Big fat lol that wealthy Indians don't shop online and have some special insight into brick-and-mortar that (boo, hiss) white Americans don't. Just an ugly, silly thing to say.

I've been outdone with pedanticism.

Moment of pedantry: There are two Aldi companies: North and South. The above is an Aldi South. TJ is owned by Aldi North. They share a name but are entirely separate corporations. Just FYI in that it wasn't like Aldi just chose to use their Aldi branding instead of TJ to stick it to people in UA; Aldi South doesn't own the TJ brand.

^Agree. And sometimes people also just want to un-ironically enjoy a 1300 calorie piece of cheesecake with a group of their friends and not worry how "on message" their life is, regardless of whether it's in OH or not.

^^This is very true and actually Nashville is one of those hot areas in terms of health IT. I was considering moving there as a matter of fact when I was looking to leave NYC, but just wasn't that impressed with what I saw and figured without a crazy offer I would bypass. Pittsburgh made me a better offer and now I'm here! ? But you're right, there are some industries, especially entertainment and some niche tech areas, where culture may not be the main reason someone moves to a place.

Agree. Am gay and agree that while there are places with more open and welcoming gay life, I was guilty of making assumptions about people that weren't fair as well.

Now we're like 99% in agreement, but I just have to pedantically add that this is a big part of my point. It's not so much that these people may be afraid of change/new things, but more that they don't care or find newness or novelty important, and that there are plenty of people in other areas and of other backgrounds that are like that. Agree with you that that isn't for everyone (that's the reason I also no longer live in my own hometown).

Also, it's funny, but having ColDayMan like one of my posts makes me feel like I've "made it" on this site haha. I have been on here for ages (2003) and am on my like 3rd screen name (each time the server crashes or after a long break and can't remember my login). ?

I agree with you there and think our positions are far closer than not. And moving out of Ohio is part of what it took to make me realize that. Hence why I made the comment about assumptions because I was totally that guy and realized I was helping to propagate that by feeling like it was ok for me to judge people back home in a way that I would never be comfortable judging people that weren't "like me", so to speak.

I guess if anything this conversation sort of proves the point. That behavior that exists in many places is somehow less acceptable in some areas than others. There are a lot of people in big name cities that don't give a shit about culture or whatever. They have their lives and what they're into and are fine with that being that. Does having your address in Brooklyn or the Bronx or a trendy city like Nashville really make that more acceptable than if you lived in Fairfield, OH all because you live around more people that don't look or sound like you?

I know, I'm one of those people. So are a lot of others, including in Ohio. And maybe some of those people singing a song they remember from high school in Blue Ash were too. Did you ever consider that? That you didn't actually know any of those people and were making assumptions about them that were more about proving that you were more cultured than they are? Additionally, you know that there Olive Gardens and TGI Fridays in the city, right? Or how about Dallas BBQ in NYC? Walk in to one some time and look around. It ain't all rubes from the suburbs, it's actually mostly Latinos that live in the city. Go the to a Cheesecake Factory in NJ and see what the people sitting in the booths look like. My point is that eating at a Vietnamese restaurant a couple of times a month doesn't make you any more cultured than having nostalgia for your past makes you uncultured. Or that being in an urban neighborhood means that you're not around racists. Ask a group of black or latino kids how they feel about kids that aren't of their background. Their answers may sound familiar to what you would hear in Vinton County.

I think what all this comes down to for me is a sort of "essentialism." As if moving to NYC/LA/Nashville/wherever somehow makes you essentially different from other people or the person you considered yourself to be before you got there. Or where your parents/grandparents came from is determinate in deciding what you like or think. Like, I'm not saying that cultural differences don't exist, but in order to feel a part of something people often exaggerate what makes them different in a way that goes beyond what's truly there. So, again, not that everyone is the same, but that the contours are less extreme than people want to believe they are for whatever purpose that may be.

I'm frankly not convinced. Like, viscerally, sure, but not as much as one might imagine. And this is based on years of living there. You're welcome to have your own opinion, but my own lived experience is that it just wasn't that different at the end of the day. Restaurant menus and use of public transportation aside, those conversations in Spanish/Creole going on around me were about pretty similar stuff as the ones in English and by the second generation there really wasn't much of a difference at all. The brown kids and the white kids on the trains all talked about the same shit.

Additionally, I would be surprised to hear that such things weren't going on in the suburbs of other cities. Frankly, go to a mall in Long Island/NJ and it's exactly like Ohio but with more visible diversity. I won't even say ethnic diversity because is it really so different if you're shopping at a mall and eating at BW3s if you're of Indian descent vs European? Other than people looking different, I didn't feel like the suburbs of NY are all that different than the ones in OH, and I mean that in the best way possible. Outside of a relative handful of zip codes most places in the US aren't hugely different from one another and that's what frustrates me about OH's reputation.