November 19, 201014 yr It seems there is a lot of positive energy and optimism in Cleveland right now. There are several major downtown projects just about to begin and more awareness than ever about the problems that need to be overcome in this town. It also seems there are some concrete ideas on a way out of the mess our region has been in for the last several decades if not more. Will they work? Time will tell. But Cleveland is a survivor and she will survive. This is just a small reason why I'm a Clevelover!!
November 20, 201014 yr Clevelander Joe Eszterhas rips the city's critics in piece in Playboy Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 5:00 AM Michael K. McIntyre Native son Joe Eszterhas, the former Plain Dealer reporter and Hollywood screenwriter who moved back home to Bainbridge Township almost 10 years ago to raise his kids, has a big essay about Cleveland in the December issue of Playboy. "City of Broken Dreams," reads the headline. "Life will crush you if you're not careful. That's why you have to be tough to live in Cleveland." http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2010/11/clevelander_joe_eszterhas_rips.html
November 20, 201014 yr Way to go Joe! Take a look at his picture in the link. That guy screams "Cleveland" to me.
November 20, 201014 yr Joe is something else! FYI, for those that havent seen the movie "Telling Lies in America" see it! One of my favorite movies made in Cleveland, and indirectly Joe's life story growing up there.
November 20, 201014 yr Before and after seeing Billy Elliot last night, I definitely saw a lot of Cleveland love inside and outside the theater.
November 21, 201014 yr ^Yes, I went to the Cedar-Center Whole Foods Mkt (after Univ Circle co-op didn't have somwething I needed) just after sunset tonight. Anyway, my drive took me through a lively, vibrant Little Italy up through an equally vibrant Coventry with packed restaurants and shoppers. Whole Foods Mkt was quite crowded too as well as its in-store eating area. On my way home I drove through the newly busy (at least for me since I haven't been over here for a while) intersection of Cedar & Taylor due to the popularity of Melt Bar-Grille. I continued down to Cedar-Fairmount which had a good deal of pedestrian traffic too. Finally on my way home, Playhouse Sq was filling up with theater-goers, etc. I'm sure the relatively mild November night contributed to all of the people out and about. It was all good to see.
November 21, 201014 yr CSU basketball coach Gary Waters and his wife like to explore the whole city: My Cleveland Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 5:00 PM Sarah Crump, The Plain Dealer "People talk about 'the mistake on the lake,' " said Waters, 59, who lives in Westlake with his wife Bernadette. "But when they get here they realize that there's much more to the city than they ever imagined." http://www.cleveland.com/mycleveland/index.ssf/2010/11/csu_basketball_coach_gary_wate.html
November 21, 201014 yr Clevelander Joe Eszterhas rips the city's critics in piece in Playboy Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 5:00 AM Michael K. McIntyre Native son Joe Eszterhas, the former Plain Dealer reporter and Hollywood screenwriter who moved back home to Bainbridge Township almost 10 years ago to raise his kids, has a big essay about Cleveland in the December issue of Playboy. "City of Broken Dreams," reads the headline. "Life will crush you if you're not careful. That's why you have to be tough to live in Cleveland." http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2010/11/clevelander_joe_eszterhas_rips.html Does anyone have an actual link to the article, which should obviously be posted with a NSFW disclaimer if so? I'd like to read it.
November 22, 201014 yr I can't promise to only read the articles :) :wink: It really does sound like a good article, though.
November 22, 201014 yr In the age of the internet, the only reason to subscribe to playboy "IS" the articles ::) . I missed that when I browsed through this month's issue. Playboy has an annoying practice of only putting two pages of an article up front and then placing the remaining text over multiple pages in the back of the magazine, so it's easy to miss an article.
November 23, 201014 yr I just read it. Its a big fuck you..Not really flattering to Cleveland though...
November 23, 201014 yr From the bard who gave life to "Showgirls"? Say it aint so. LOL. I think I was around 17 when Showgirls came out and even as a hormone filled teenage boy I couldn't wait for it to be over. Although part of it was watching Saved By the bell's Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) whore herself out. It was kind of like going back to your high school reunion and finding out the quiet smart nice girl you were friends with but had lost touch with had ended up a coke head stripper.
November 23, 201014 yr Would like that, thanks. Are you in/near downtown at any point? It's totally inexcusable the last time I've made it to Cleveland or downtown. I would like to move back someday but until then I'll need to make the short drive the next time I visit my grandmother and take a look around.
November 24, 201014 yr sounds like the article isn't very good anyway. How about scanning and emailing it to me?
November 24, 201014 yr I'll try to get to around to it. Playboy usually posts the articles on their website a month after the hard copy is published. So hopefully we'll be able to link up to it eventually.
November 24, 201014 yr If someone gets the paper copy, I'd like to read it. I won't be going to Playboy's website on my work computer and we have a no-porn-sites rule on our home computer, no matter what site it is, after porn sites killed two of our computers with viruses.
November 24, 201014 yr After porn sites killed two of our computers with viruses. ::) ::) ::) ::) but anyway back on topic..
December 1, 201014 yr Amazing article if you love Cleveland IMO... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland
December 2, 201014 yr Amazing article if you love Cleveland IMO... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland Saw that earlier today.. havent heard better words since Anthony Bourdain! [and it made my signature!]
December 2, 201014 yr Absolutely loved that article linked by tradition7. I emailed it to all my non-Cleveland friends who don't understand the passion we Clevelanders have for our sports teams and the city as a whole.
December 2, 201014 yr Amazing article if you love Cleveland IMO... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland A great follow-up article: http://www.fearthesword.com/2010/12/1/1848951/a-reaction-to-the-espn-believeland-story-on-lebron-cleveland-hope-and "I know Cleveland is the laughing stock. I know no one wants to go there. I know people find nothing redeemable about a city that on the outside looks barren and forgotten, like the half-life of a Carl Sandburg poem. I've been in other cities where the mere mention of Cleveland brings a scowl or a smirk. "Where are you from?" "Cleveland." "Why the hell would you want to live there?" Then the anger and pride rise up. Because that's where I'm from and it's who I am. Because I love this place, from University Circle to the Metroparks, from Cedar-Lee to Little Italy. And as crazy as it sounds, I always think to myself about that person, "You don't deserve Cleveland." Because there is something more to this city. There's creativity and ingenuity springing from that hope. There are great people trying to cry out and break free. You can see it--in Michael Symon's cooking, in the work of Harvey Pekar (RIP), in the Cleveland Clinic, in the work of graphic designers and artists from Tremont to Cleveland Heights, in the stories of Dan Chaon, hell, even in Peyton Hillis. "
December 2, 201014 yr Amazing article if you love Cleveland IMO... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland A great follow-up article: http://www.fearthesword.com/2010/12/1/1848951/a-reaction-to-the-espn-believeland-story-on-lebron-cleveland-hope-and "I know Cleveland is the laughing stock. I know no one wants to go there. I know people find nothing redeemable about a city that on the outside looks barren and forgotten, like the half-life of a Carl Sandburg poem. I've been in other cities where the mere mention of Cleveland brings a scowl or a smirk. "Where are you from?" "Cleveland." "Why the hell would you want to live there?" Then the anger and pride rise up. Because that's where I'm from and it's who I am. Because I love this place, from University Circle to the Metroparks, from Cedar-Lee to Little Italy. And as crazy as it sounds, I always think to myself about that person, "You don't deserve Cleveland." Because there is something more to this city. There's creativity and ingenuity springing from that hope. There are great people trying to cry out and break free. You can see it--in Michael Symon's cooking, in the work of Harvey Pekar (RIP), in the Cleveland Clinic, in the work of graphic designers and artists from Tremont to Cleveland Heights, in the stories of Dan Chaon, hell, even in Peyton Hillis. " I'm kind of tired of people writing that "Cleveland is a laughingstock" and "no one wants to go there." I realize that this is a pro-Cleveland article, but I still find that attitude outdated and backwards. I live in LA because of work, but anytime I mention Cleveland here, I do not get a bad reaction.
December 2, 201014 yr ^ yeah articles that start off with negativity and apologies are real turnoffs. thankfully that old self-mocking peedee, minister of culture micheal heaton, free weekly alternative paper, etc., type of writing is pretty much passe anymore in cle and elsewhere. personally i've only heard positives about cle from ny'ers. in fact even all this very week everyone has been saying "hillis!" when they see me at work. everyone loves that guy.
December 2, 201014 yr Amazing article if you love Cleveland IMO... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland A great follow-up article: http://www.fearthesword.com/2010/12/1/1848951/a-reaction-to-the-espn-believeland-story-on-lebron-cleveland-hope-and "I know Cleveland is the laughing stock. I know no one wants to go there. I know people find nothing redeemable about a city that on the outside looks barren and forgotten, like the half-life of a Carl Sandburg poem. I've been in other cities where the mere mention of Cleveland brings a scowl or a smirk. "Where are you from?" "Cleveland." "Why the hell would you want to live there?" Then the anger and pride rise up. Because that's where I'm from and it's who I am. Because I love this place, from University Circle to the Metroparks, from Cedar-Lee to Little Italy. And as crazy as it sounds, I always think to myself about that person, "You don't deserve Cleveland." Because there is something more to this city. There's creativity and ingenuity springing from that hope. There are great people trying to cry out and break free. You can see it--in Michael Symon's cooking, in the work of Harvey Pekar (RIP), in the Cleveland Clinic, in the work of graphic designers and artists from Tremont to Cleveland Heights, in the stories of Dan Chaon, hell, even in Peyton Hillis. " I'm kind of tired of people writing that "Cleveland is a laughingstock" and "no one wants to go there." I realize that this is a pro-Cleveland article, but I still find that attitude outdated and backwards. I live in LA because of work, but anytime I mention Cleveland here, I do not get a bad reaction. I was just down in New Orleans for Halloween. I told several people where I was from. Three stood out to me: The first person said "If you want to see what hell is like, go to Cleveland." This was an older gentleman from Nashville. The second said "You're from Cleveland? By choice?" He was a 30 year old from Dallas. The third said "Do you like it?" I said "I love it." He said "That's all that matters." Everyone's experiences are different when you tell them you are from Cleveland, but if the national media coverage of LBJ leaving tells you anything, it is that the nation has a poor representation of this city as a destination, but not of our heart.
December 2, 201014 yr I think this is a great article from people from the outside. I believe it has been posted here before. Most of the comments are nice to read, besides the few by people who once lived in Cleveland. Kind of sounded like the Cleveland.com posters. http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-aug-elements-of-urbanism-cleveland
December 3, 201014 yr Richard Longworth doesn't love Cleveland. There's little reason to go to Detroit except to gamble or to Cleveland except to visit the Rock and Roll Museum or see a game, and no reason at all to stay there once the gambling and the games end. http://globalmidwest.typepad.com/global-midwest/2010/12/beating-the-tourist-drum-too-softly.html
December 3, 201014 yr It is kind of ironic that his whole argument is that the midwest (great lakes states, actually) could benefit from his attempts to expose to the world the wonderful tourits destinations of the area, but then thinks the only thing to do in Cleveland is to vist the Rock n Roll hall of fame. Sounds like another "the urbanist"
December 3, 201014 yr ^Do you mean the Urbanophile? If so, that's what came to my mind to. Sigh, if only Cleveland could offer visitors as much as Devenport, IA.
December 3, 201014 yr Yep, that is what I meant. Davenport! Man, start smaller, without the rock hall the only reason to stop in Cleveland would be the BP station on 9th and the innerbelt, but only in emergencies. With all these self described urban experts, its funny the person who captured the past, present and future of the city was a sports reporter for ESPN.
December 3, 201014 yr And that BP Station is always bussin' heads with me! Lawd, don't get me started! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
December 3, 201014 yr Wow, there are incredible contradictions throughout. He follows this: "There are probably several reasons for this, but the main one is the terrible job we do -- or rather, that our states do -- in promoting the Midwest as a tourist destination" with his statement about Detroit and Cleveland, and then states things like: "Most Midwestern cities, even those in decline, retain fine orchestras, ballet companies, art museums." Maybe I'm just sore that the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Museum of Art have difficulty competing with the Peoria Philharmonic and the nature exhibits at Ted Nugent's bowhunter's paradise in Jackson, Michigan.
December 3, 201014 yr arenn is not a Cleveland hater. Nor is he a Detroit hater, for that matter. My bet is he would take issue with what Longworth said there. I think Longworth doesn't like Ohio in general. The contrast between Renn's and Longworth's focal points, as suggested by their blogs, highlights how the Midwest is just too big to be addressed as one entity. Longworth seems to generally focus from Chicago/Indy/Columbus(IN) west, while Renn seems to focus from Chicago east. You could probably find someone else in, say, Omaha, who claims to be a Midwest blogger and considers Chicago to be outside of their sphere akin to NYC for Renn.
December 3, 201014 yr ^What reminded me of arenn in this Longworth post was the very low substance to knowledge ratio. I had never heard of Longworth before now, so haven't explored his blog, but like most urbanophile.com posts, that Longworth post, while well written and full of information, is devoid of practical insight, IMHO. Then again, I find most of the marketing/regional econ development chatter to be unconvincing, so I'm pretty dim on the whole industry and its commentators.
December 3, 201014 yr Hello, commentors. I work with Richard Longworth and his blog, and I would encourage you to bring your thoughts to him directly by commenting on his posts. He appreciates your insights into Cleveland, and we just held our annual Global Midwest conference in Cleveland this past October. We will be posting this conversation stream as a comment on the blog and hope to continue the conversation there as well.
December 3, 201014 yr ^^ Fair enough, but I sympathize in that it's really hard to churn out a product at the rate some of these guys do while consistently offering paradigm-shifting policy proposals. It's interesting to get some analysis, even without profound insight regarding "what to do about it". Maybe someone will read their work and come up with solutions. It's worth noting that a lot of people put out analysis that is just pure crap. Renn is one of the few that keep my attention. Some may not like the way he creams his pants for Indy all the time (the most common complaint I hear), but at least he has an interesting perspective, and he backs it up with information. I don't think, even on a bad day, he would dish out some crap like Longworth did in his post. And Renn is way more prolific.
December 3, 201014 yr Since we have outside attention, I will be charitable and say that Longworth probably offers the best analysis out there if you are interested in non-urban Midwest issues.
December 3, 201014 yr I don't understand why anyone would bring their thoughts to this Guy who is abviously ignorant about Cleveland. If he has visited the city and only thinkg the RRHOF is the only thing worth visiting then he shouldn't be talking about the city at all. It's so annoyting when we have to read such drivel like his. Why should anyone of us need to educate this person? Hello, commentors. I work with Richard Longworth and his blog, and I would encourage you to bring your thoughts to him directly by commenting on his posts. He appreciates your insights into Cleveland, and we just held our annual Global Midwest conference in Cleveland this past October. We will be posting this conversation stream as a comment on the blog and hope to continue the conversation there as well.
December 3, 201014 yr Well, lets not be rude. But substintavely I have to agree. Globalmidwest, read this article if you want a single, yet accurate, perspective of Cleveland. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland And to dismiss the cultural assets of Cleveland and to say, well every city has an art museum. (much like what urbanphile says) It's like saying the Louvre is equivalent to The Paine Art center in Oshkosh WI. To me, it seems like he is not interested in the same things as people who live in cities or people who enjoy visiting cities.
December 3, 201014 yr "Other Midwestern cities miss out on even this modest bonanza. Some, let's face it, are challenged. There's little reason to go to Detroit except to gamble or to Cleveland except to visit the Rock and Roll Museum or see a game, and no reason at all to stay there once the gambling and the games end." This guy sounds like a complete nitwit. If he doesn't understand, much less appreciate, the distinction between the Rock/Roll Museum and the distinctiveness of the Cleveland Museum of Art as one of the best in the nation (failing to even mention it!), then he's woefully unqualified to be pontificating on this topic. And to lump the Cleveland Orchestra--lauded again and again (for generations) as one of the very top in the world--in with those of any other town in the Midwest (except Chicago, and to a lesser extent the Cincinnati and Minnesota Orchestras), he clearly hasn't done his homework. As a matter of fact, he sounds like a complete Philistine! No offense. http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
December 3, 201014 yr Richard Longworth doesn't love Cleveland. There's little reason to go to Detroit except to gamble or to Cleveland except to visit the Rock and Roll Museum or see a game, and no reason at all to stay there once the gambling and the games end. http://globalmidwest.typepad.com/global-midwest/2010/12/beating-the-tourist-drum-too-softly.html This guy really doesn't know what he's talking about if he mentions Milwaukee's and Minniapolis' food scenes but says nothing about Cleveland's, arguably one of the best in the US. He obviously doesn't read food blogs, know who Anthony Bourdain is (for his love of the city), know about our Top Chef, or read anything by Michael Ruhlman who has one of the best food blogs out there and is Cleveland-centric. Yet he celebrates Des Moines. I've been to Des Moines. There is nothing downtown and every building is connected by a skyway. The suburbs were nice, though:) Just an ignorantly sweeping statement about Cleveland, a city he obviously knows nothing about.
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