My journey started with a delightful ride from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport to Shaker Heights, where I would be staying.
On the way to the airport transit station I passed this tribute to African-American aviators, and what might be the Hubble Space Telescope. I think that's Ron McNair on the bottom left.
This was my chariot for the first leg of the journey. It was a pretty OK train and a good ride. The Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority was actually named "North America's Best Public Transportation System" by the American Public Transportation Association in 2007. Too bad barely anyone rides it.
Along the train line I got to see a little of the industrial outskirts of Cleveland, whose economy thrives on the gear industry ...
The alt-erotic painting industry ...
And, as mostly seems to be the case, the abandoned buildings industry.
After a bit of a ride I got my first glimpses of the big city.
But after a transfer I was on my way back out to the east. This took me through some neighborhoods whose vitality matched that of the businesses I had previously seen.
After going through some inner-ring suburbs and seeing many vacant house lots, I made it to Shaker Square. It was the first time since leaving the airport that I saw something I would describe as "nice-looking" outside the train window, but even this one looked like it was trying too hard.
But any place that has its own House of Corned Beef can't be all bad.
This brought me into Shaker Heights, a suburb that is decidedly one of the nicer parts of Greater Cleveland but still not particularly active.
As I suspected, Cleveland is not really a walking town, but they do make some accommodations.
All right, since I already seem to be falling into the trap of characterizing Cleveland as a grim, cold hunk of urbanity, I'll spend some time showing off some of the more hip, fun hunks of urbanity to be found. This one is on Coventry Road, a cute little retail square near Cleveland Heights.
On the east side of town, a cozy little neighborhood around Tremont Street has elements that can be described as earthy ...
Lucky ...
Multicultural ...
Manly ...
Even gentlemanly.
Back on the other part of town, there are places so hip they can't tell if they're wine bars or coffee bars.
Back on Coventry, fun and moustaches are part of the scene.
Along with old hardware stores.
Happy talking vegetables.
And, again, fun.
This store actually is a lot of fun. It peddles lots of vintage 80s stuff, including Nintendo, Atari and Intellivision consoles and games. G.I. Joe seems to be a particular specialty. (Unfortunately, a few seconds after this photo was taken about half of these boxes fell off the wall.)
But the best part was that they had all of the Masters of the Universe action figures, vehicles and fortresses that I had as a kid. I hadn't seen them in years, and there they are now behind locked glass. I cried a little.
The rest of Coventry had some interesting stuff to look at. Here are some no-comment photos.
And just for fun, to say goodbye to Shaker Heights, we visit this old building with the coffee shop on the ground floor that everyone is pretty sure is a mob front.
But enough of the cute suburban stuff. Time to go downtown. (Feel free to scroll around.)
For me, downtown begins at Tower City, the place where the rapid transit lines meet – Park Street to those of us in the Metro-Boston region. But instead of coming to the surface and finding a vibrant downtown, you ascend into a mall.
The Tower City mall would be the most active place I would see during my hour in downtown Cleveland, with seemingly every office worker in town (and a few people were decidedly not office workers) spending their lunch break there. And why not? It has a fountain, a food court, a cinema, a Foot Locker, and even this walkway.
From the outside, this is what the ad poster for Tower City looks like.
This is what I saw – I was probably just catching it at the wrong angle.
And it is in a rather spectacular neighborhood.
Just to the north of Tower City is the Public Square, which is rather scenic.
Right there in the middle is Moses Cleaveland, "Founder of the City". If I were old Moses, I'm not sure what would make me madder: a) That no one really knows who I am, despite my founding a major U.S. city, b) that they misspelled my name when they named the city after me, or c) that the city I founded, and that they named after me, is Cleveland.
From the Public Square I ventured north along Ontario Street towards the lakefront. I seemed to be the only one doing so. Granted, it was February.
Pulaski Square, dedicated in honor of "the Poles of Cleveland", looks over the lake and all the sights along it. Of course, you still can't really get there from here.
But you can see the Browns Stadium and I believe you can walk to it via a long ramp, which I declined to use.
Pulaski Square also keeps the city well-defended against anyone who might want to attack the Browns, the science museum, or the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by sea.
Alongside this little park is Cleveland City Hall, which is a more modestly sized building than I expected.
Does it say something about a city that one of its major public squares is represented by a giant rubber stamp? (And yes I did get my finger in that shot, sue me.)
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was right there and so convenient to get to, with only two highways and an Amtrak line to cross. (Only one of them is an Interstate.) Again, on this particular February day, I seemed to be one of very few people making the journey on foot to see it.
Too bad I only had an hour in downtown, or I would have taken a look around. Since I had to get moving, I wandered around the lobby a bit, used the men's room, and wandered back out.
From the lakefront you get some impressive views of the city skyline. These Midwestern cities seem to take a lot of pride in their skylines. Unfortunately it tends not to be as impressive when you get up close.
Heading back through town on E 9th Street (part of which is now called "Rock & Roll Boulevard"), there are some areas where they have tried to add a touch of character, but for the most part it had a pretty grim, empty feel. Maybe it's the weather, but I tend not to think that's the only reason.
You know it's a tough town when you see public transportation being towed away.
There were some slightly warmer looking buildings, unfortunately they (like many of the buildings I saw) were largely empty.
There was also one example of well-designed urbanism that belongs to, you guessed it, the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
In case you can't tell what this artistic bench configuration says, it's shaped to read "WHO'S ON FIRST?"
That's right, it's Progressive Field, home of the former Jacobs Field, in turn home to the Cleveland Indians. Here is where they freeze their relief pitchers in carbonite to keep them fresh for opening day.
Unfortunately this was as close as I could get to the action.
The park seemed pretty empty but someone must be working there to update the sign.
On the other side of the field is the highway, and next to the field is Quicken Loans Arena, which I believe, by virtue of its name, makes the Cleveland Cavaliers eligible for a government bailout.
Land across the street from the arena should be a pretty hot commodity. You would think.
Plus it's located right next to the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater, which is conveniently accessible via a walkway that I was too scared to walk down even in the daytime.
Before I left, I got the closest view I could of the Cuyahoga River. This is the river that famously caught fire in 1969, a major event contributing to the environmental movement of the 1970s. Until reading Wikipedia, I didn't realize that it actually caught fire on a fairly regular basis over the course of about 30 years. At least they got the problem fixed eventually. Now that it's relatively flame-retardant (by river standards), maybe they can make it a nicer resource for the city. Maybe.
So that was my hour and then I said adieu to Cleveland, and Cleveland said nothing in return because, clearly, it doesn't speak French.
This old rust-belt dame has seen some tough times, and surely there will be tougher times ahead given the current state of the economy. It will be interesting to see how much it grows, or deteriorates, in the coming years. While part of me is intrigued to see what opportunities the people of Cleveland will be able to create from this mess, another part of me is secretly glad I won't be there to live through it.
