Cleveland: It's Not Bad, You Might Like It

New marketing campaign. Or maybe "Our economy's no longer based on Lebron James".

How about "We got big piles of salt" or

"Come see our waterfalls and learn what tent caterpillars are" or

"Sometimes it's sunny, and sometimes it's stormy" or actually Amtrak says it best:

Yes! To be honest, there are a lot of great things you can point out about Cleveland: disproportionately many big museums, good restaurants, and fine arts; sports and more sports; most people are nice; it's rather idyllic in the summer; and actually there are cool neighborhoods to live in. But unless you're trying to decide where to move, don't waste your time worrying about "which city is better."

Because it's not wonderful. It's got a lot of issues: car-centric sprawl, crime, unemployment, etc. But the flaws make it exciting to explore, and Cleveland's got lots of hidden corners. It feels bigger than it is. It feels huge. You can live in it for years and keep finding new parts of it. Not that you'd want to go back to, say, Garfield Heights all the time. But you might be there, and it'd be hot and bricky and there'd be restaurants with names like "Belly Backers", and then you drive north and you're in the land of historic big houses in Shaker Heights, and then a little further north you can hit up the Cedar Lee, Cleveland's main (only?) non-mainstream theater, in Cleveland Heights. Or you might be out with a friend who'd tell you about the hidden Whiskey Island/Wendy Park, right on the waterfront but hard to get to. These are nice things.