February 6, 201411 yr RANKED: Cleveland Named One of the Best U.S. Cities for Singles http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/02/06/ranked-cleveland-named-one-of-the-best-cities-for-singles
February 6, 201411 yr Just a point to note about Toronto's waterfront, they've managed to develop it in a way that we're all jealous of, yet still have their waterfront airport. Anyone got any lists? Like a published ranking of Great Lakes cities' waterfronts? :) Published lists, no. But from my perspective, Toronto probably has the best treatment of their waterfront overall. I like Duluth's treatment of I-35 blocking their waterfront. Chicago smartly used parks, though Lakeshore still barricades off the lake from the city. Buffalo has a lot of potential if they could remove or cap 190. I'm pretty sure Gary has the worst looking waterfront though.
February 7, 201411 yr ^though I do think Toronto has gone a little too extreme in attempting to erase its gritty past. There are so many glassy, boxy hi-rises near the waterfront that it actually detracts from the historic skyline (or what's left of it). They've created a bland yuppie ghetto with no real street life (at least as I observed a couple of years ago). Granted it's on the edge of downtown and a short walk to everything, but looks very unappealing as a place to live. http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
February 7, 201411 yr Just a point to note about Toronto's waterfront, they've managed to develop it in a way that we're all jealous of, yet still have their waterfront airport. Anyone got any lists? Like a published ranking of Great Lakes cities' waterfronts? :) Published lists, no. But from my perspective, Toronto probably has the best treatment of their waterfront overall. I like Duluth's treatment of I-35 blocking their waterfront. Chicago smartly used parks, though Lakeshore still barricades off the lake from the city. Buffalo has a lot of potential if they could remove or cap 190. I'd actually throw Detroit in there too. The Detroit Riverwalk is great, and Belle Isle is pretty damn unique. I can't think of many other cities with a beach on an island in the middle of a beautiful river. They are ahead of other Rust Belt cities in this area. And it's not just Detroit, it's the whole state of Michigan (they seem to mandate a higher percentage of public access to water than other coastal states). Across the river, Windsor is decent too. Where Ontario falls apart is in Sarnia and their side of Sault Ste. Marie. I think Port Huron and the American Sault Ste. Marie beat the Canadian sides. Obviously, I'm a Michigan fanboy, but I think they deserve credit where credit is due. Most of the model Great Lakes waterfront is located in Michigan. Despite Ontario's generally good reputation on the American side of lakes ("It's so clean! And their ghettos are nowhere as bad as ours!"), they have made same pretty big mistakes along the water. Where they have succeeded is in keeping their cities from turning into self-destructive slums. Despite ugly buildings for a good 30 years in Toronto, that development prevented a much worse situation- depopulation and urban prairies. Most of the new Toronto stuff looks very good, with some being exemplarily. Buffalo, Cleveland, and Toledo are nowhere near where they could be. In each of those cities, the waterfront access is too limited, and they all have had their fair share of missed opportunities. While Toledo was smart to protest most of its original freeway construction, including putting a halt to all plans to route sections of I-75 along the water, they still have that Marina District sitting as an urban prairie and almost all of Point Place and the Lost Peninsula of Michigan is completely cut off from the public. Toledo only really has a few good miles of public access. Ditto with Buffalo, and ditto with Cleveland. It will take a population boom, economic boom, and influx of tax dollars to really retrofit these waterfronts with parks and new urban development well-connected to the water, and not cut off by man-made barriers like freeways, coking plants, oil refineries, or superfund sites. Duluth is a mixed bag (when talking waterfront, the city itself is amazing). The Duluth Harbor area rocks, but parts of the city are relatively cut off. Still, I remember it being decent (this was at least five years ago). I can't speak much for Milwaukee, but it looks good in pictures. Green Bay I've heard is pretty bad. But yeah, Gary pretty much takes the cake for worst...unless it improved a lot in the last ten years... Generally, with an international perspective on major cities, Chicago and Montreal rank high. http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-top-waterfront-cities/13 When talking summer vacation rankings, Michigan always dominates the list: http://www.midwestliving.com/travel/around-the-region/small-town-getaways-on-the-great-lakes/ *Looking at more 1960's Toronto pics, I really do see a lot of Cleveland and Buffalo. There is nothing wrong with comparing Toronto to those cities. They may have taken different economic and demographic paths, but the waterfront transformation in Toronto is worth noting.
February 8, 201411 yr ^Agreed on Detroit, Montreal & Sault Ste. Marie. I had ignored them because I tend to think of them as more river fronts than lake front cities. Erie belongs in the discussion too. The water feels cutoff a little by Bayfront parkway, but it appears they're making an effort.
February 8, 201411 yr Top 100 Best Places to Live Only considered cities between the size of 25,000-350,000. They say there were 1,700 cities under their consideration. 1 - Palo Alto, CA 2 - Boulder, CO 3 - Berkeley, CA 4 - Durham, NC 5 - Madison, WI 6 - Miami Beach, FL 7 - Rochester, NY 8 - Salt Lake City, UT 9 - Eugene, OR 10 - Reno, NV ... 14 - Ann Arbor, MI 28 - Lexington, KY 73 - Cincinnati, OH 80 - Pittsburgh, PA 100 - St. Louis, MO The only Ohio city to make the list is Cincinnati.
February 8, 201411 yr Palo Alto?! Not all of us youngins are Twitter/Spotify/Facebook/Snapchat/Craigslist CEOs...but anyway...
February 11, 201411 yr Durham must've gone under some type of major transformation recently It's a mediocre place still, but it does have jobs.
February 13, 201411 yr Some of those "cities" are in my opinion, essentially suburbs that could not exist in a bubble. Also 25,000-350,000 is a huge range and means that they're really comparing des pommes avec des oranges.
February 13, 201411 yr I really like Palo Alto and Berkeley, but it's important to keep in mind how high rents and housing costs have gotten there in the past year. The situation in San Francisco is spreading metro wide. If money is no object, I'll get behind Palo Alto (no BART, but you do have Caltrain). I've always liked the friendly vibe of that town (smart, healthy people, no hipsters). It's a totally livable city with perfect weather.
February 13, 201411 yr Some of those "cities" are in my opinion, essentially suburbs that could not exist in a bubble. Also 25,000-350,000 is a huge range and means that they're really comparing des pommes avec des oranges. This is due to all the mega-suburbs out west. Keep in mind major Western cities can have suburbs of 100,000 to 350,000 people. Small Ohio cities like Sandusky are way more urban and "city" than these places. Some major cities out west have downtowns smaller than Sandusky...or no downtown at all. In some ways, it is possible for a place of 300,000 people to be small town. They're just giant blobs of suburbia with a tiny historic district in the middle...
February 21, 201411 yr Aaaaaaaaaaand GO: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/19/most-dangerous-cities-in-america-2013_n_4816774.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular 8. Cleveland Crime was up by more than 7 percent in Cleveland year over year during the first six months of 2013. Murder and aggravated assault were both down, but rape, under the FBI's broader definition, and robbery were both up.
February 21, 201411 yr ^ I would call that list: "List of top ten cities where crime-spiked-in-two-arbitrarily-compared-time-periods-in-which-definitions-have-changed in America!"
February 21, 201411 yr ^ I would call that list: "List of top ten cities where crime-spiked-in-two-arbitrarily-compared-time-periods-in-which-definitions-have-changed in America!" The took the rankings from Law Street who took their information from FBI stats and used the same changed definition of rape universally. Cleveland was #8 in 2012 and #9 in 2011 on the same list. It's a natural consequence of not expanding city limits as the region sprawled; most of the cities on the list did the same and have relatively small limits.
February 21, 201411 yr http://www.movoto.com/oh/best-places-in-ohio/ being from OHIO'S #1 PLACE (click to discover where) this was making the rounds on my FB feed today
February 21, 201411 yr ^^Hmm, the Western side of Lake County sure looks nice by their messed up criteria.
February 21, 201411 yr ^ One of their main criteria is weather. WTF? Makes sense to me, being near the lake is natural AC in the summer, limits those stagnant hazy days found in Central & Southern OH.
February 21, 201411 yr ^ One of their main criteria is weather. WTF? Makes sense to me, being near the lake is natural AC in the summer, limits those stagnant hazy days found in Central & Southern OH. Ranking places within Ohio by weather seems akin to splitting hairs. Maybe the lake does offer some relief from the heat of summer, but Northeast Ohio also has harsher and longer winters, and shorter spring and fall seasons. Seems about a wash to me.
February 22, 201411 yr ^^Hmm, the Western side of Lake County sure looks nice by their messed up criteria. Geez, what's wrong with the Eastern part of Lake County? Never mind, I know all too well! LOL (Maybe it shows up somewhere on the next 10 best places to live :|) http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
February 22, 201411 yr ^ One of their main criteria is weather. WTF? Makes sense to me, being near the lake is natural AC in the summer, limits those stagnant hazy days found in Central & Southern OH. Ranking places within Ohio by weather seems akin to splitting hairs. Maybe the lake does offer some relief from the heat of summer, but Northeast Ohio also has harsher and longer winters, and shorter spring and fall seasons. Seems about a wash to me. Many people enjoy winter where there are things to do like downhill & cross-country ski, tubing, and snow mobiling. You can do all of those things in NEO, especially in the far northeast. Most HS's for example have ski clubs and the slopes (though small) are always packed. Not everyone believes that snow is the devils cotton. This is unlike C & SE Ohio where the winter may be a little less harsh but nothing to do (outdoors) in generally 35-40 degree weather.
February 22, 201411 yr ^ One of their main criteria is weather. WTF? Makes sense to me, being near the lake is natural AC in the summer, limits those stagnant hazy days found in Central & Southern OH. That contradicts the fact that #2 is in Southwest Ohio and they also comment on its nice weather. Weather is pretty consistent from one municipality to its neighbors, so I guess they ranked weather by regions? I'd like to see a map of those rankings. Apparently NEO and SWO are at the top. If they were ranking regions, then weather ranks could make SOME sense (as opposed to making claims like Montgomery has awesome weather and Mason's sucks). But I agree w/ edale that ranking weather in Ohio is splitting hairs.
February 22, 201411 yr judging by the pictures, they place a large amount of emphasis on how the city's 11U travel baseball team performs. As well they should. San Dimas High School football rules!!
February 22, 201411 yr This is unlike C & SE Ohio where the winter may be a little less harsh but nothing to do (outdoors) in generally 35-40 degree weather. False. I was in ski club in middle school and high school too. Perfect North is the local ski place, and it's hills are generally comparable to what is available in NE Ohio. They also offer tubing, and I've seen plenty of people cross country skiing in the parks and golf courses around Cincy. Hyde Park Country Club actually has a cross country ski team. I will give you that the ski/winter sport season is probably longer in NEO, as we generally get about 2-3 more weeks of Spring and Fall.
February 22, 201411 yr ^ Having grown up in SEO, and then moving to NEO I can confirm that the spring up here is quire short. However Fall actually stretches more than you would think, thanks to the rather warm lake. This is especially true very close to the lake, some of my best boating days always seem to be in the Fall. Also, regarding ski clubs, while there are some in SEO, there seem to be a larger portion here. I think all schools have some type of ski club that is pretty well organized. Also being close to the larger hills of Western NY makes finding entertainment in the winter is easier. Also, Ice fishing around the Islands on Lake Erie is popular too.
February 22, 201411 yr I was so flummoxed when I first saw this list that little did I realize there were 163 more cities to follow. Much to my surprise Painesville was ranked #1 for weather :wtf: Apparently it is now the "New San Diego," in some alternate universe :drunk:. But funnier still is that P'ville, with an abysmal #139 ranking in quality of life, is actually four places above Shaker Hts (at #9 in this category) in the overall ratings! lol Which leads me to wonder the all-important question: What constitutes "quality of life" in SH? The number of servants you have? Are they "live-in?" Is your gardener multi-lingual? Does your majordomo have an MBA? From an Ivy League institution?... :wave: http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
February 22, 201411 yr ^ Ooh, I didn't notice the spreadsheet list of cities, ranks, atc. So Blue Ash ties for 5th for weather, but Sharonville is 53rd. Wat. They share a border! Cincinnati comes in at #2 for weather, just behind Painesville! Pretty much paradise. (Also #2 for amenities, behind Columbus (which scores #71 in weather).) Cleveland ranks Amenities:21 Weather:5.
February 24, 201411 yr ^Some Ohio suburbs have historic cores that are decent. Perrysburg does kind of stand out in Ohio. Its downtown is pretty nice, it has knockout parks along the Maumee River, and its historic neighborhoods are walkable and livable (the sprawl stuff by the highways is terrible). The core of Perrysburg is like some sort of utopian image of small town America. It pulls a good chunk of the limited "yuppie crowd" in metro Toledo and sadly might be better for single 20-somethings than anything in Toledo outside of Downtown/Warehouse District. Most of Toledo's urban neighborhoods are still remarkably ghetto...and still getting worse (the economic situation in Northwest Ohio/Southeast Michigan is really holding back development and repopulation). Until things really hit rock bottom and start recovering, some of the better Ohio streetcar suburbs are bound to outrank the limited urban redevelopment areas in the core cities (when talking stats). My own prediction? For the next 5-10 years, suburbs will continue to steal the thunder from the central cities in Ohio. I think after that, things may overall turn around in the central cities and populations start to go up a little beyond the downtown areas. Of course by that point, this will be the case in every metro area in America...Ohio is late to the game. The problem is the lifestyle in some of the decent urban neighborhoods isn't all that different from the older streetcar suburbs. Does one give up much living in Lakewood? And why doesn't Lakewood rank higher? *I don't think a place like Perrysburg can really be compared to a place like Blue Ash. Perrysburg is more historic, has geographic advantages, and has a small, halfway decent nightlife district (by non-college town Ohio standards) with single 20-somethings. **And of course, since it's more of a real city, Findlay beats all of these places in the top 10. It sounds like this list was designed for suburban families. The only suburb on there I think a single person should even remotely consider is Perrysburg...that's more by chance than any of their ranking criteria... ***Blue Ash probably ranks high because it's basically the torch bearer for suburban offices in Ohio. Tons of good jobs are located in Blue Ash. The employment base is huge considering the population. Still, no way in hell I'd want to live there...if I had a job there, I'd live in downtown Cincinnati and reverse commute.
February 24, 201411 yr The problem with the "most dangerous cities" ranking this year (besides the annual concern that it compares cities that are just cores versus those that incorporate suburban areas) is that the definition of rape was expanded, but cities were not forced to change how they counted this crime. So the crime of rape meant different things to different cities.
February 28, 201411 yr Go read the "25 most dangerous cities" thread on Topix. It's a wonder that somebody hasn't sued them yet. If it isn't personal libel, some "inside information" getting out etc. Yikes.
March 3, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ Holy Sh!t!!! Of the top 100 cities in the country, Cincinnati's the 3rd safest and Dayton's the 2nd!?! Front page news!
March 3, 201411 yr Holy Sh!t!!! Of the top 100 cities in the country, Cincinnati's the 3rd safest and Dayton's the 2nd!?! Front page news! No, they're supposedly the 98th and 99th most dangerous out of the 100 cities listed. There are way more than 100 cities of 25,000 people or more in the US, which was the cutoff
March 3, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises.
March 4, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises. you always dismiss these lists as "advertorials" created for such-and-such business interests (and in many cases that's seems to be true), but if the statistics they cite are accurate, how does that invalidate their conclusions? http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
March 4, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises. you always dismiss these lists as "advertorials" created for such-and-such business interests (and in many cases that's seems to be true), but if the statistics they cite are accurate, how does that invalidate their conclusions? I won't claim that they're created for real estate purposes (though I do think that these "studies" are created in part to attract eyeballs), however there are serious inconsistencies with the statistics that they cite. As I noted above, the definition of what constitutes a "city" varies and the definitions of certain crimes also varies. The way to fix this is to compare urban or metropolitan areas against one another and to make sure that cities are reporting crime statistics accurately and uniformly. The first step would be somewhat easy-ish to do; the second not so much.
March 4, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises. you always dismiss these lists as "advertorials" created for such-and-such business interests (and in many cases that's seems to be true), but if the statistics they cite are accurate, how does that invalidate their conclusions? Because they are used to sway opinion and many times the stats are inaccurate.
March 4, 201411 yr Lima? New Orleans doesn't even make the list? They don't call it Compton in a Cornfield for nothing...
March 5, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises. you always dismiss these lists as "advertorials" created for such-and-such business interests (and in many cases that's seems to be true), but if the statistics they cite are accurate, how does that invalidate their conclusions? It's not that the stats that are inaccurate (though they sometimes are), it's the choice of which stats to include and how they're weighted that tends to show bias.
March 5, 201411 yr http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ another advertorial created by or for real estate enterprises. you always dismiss these lists as "advertorials" created for such-and-such business interests (and in many cases that's seems to be true), but if the statistics they cite are accurate, how does that invalidate their conclusions? It's not that the stats that are inaccurate (though they sometimes are), it's the choice of which stats to include and how they're weighted that tends to show bias. True.
March 6, 201411 yr http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/visit-ohio_n_4866946.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=2864921b=facebook A horrible list supposedly highlighting Ohio...
March 6, 201411 yr Oh good. I see Akron already has the hamburger festival covered. Maybe Cle+ can set up the parking festival in Gateway.
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