My City—Cleveland, Ohio
The birthplace of Rock and Roll—and me!
I was so excited when I received a note inviting me to write for Medium’s publication ‘Show Your City’. But then I started contemplating exactly what to highlight. If I wanted to keep my piece inside a reasonable word count, I couldn’t include half the things I could boast about my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Narrowing it down would not be easy.
Visually, there’s nothing spectacular about the city itself. Yes, there’s some cool architecture, access to nice beaches and spacious public parks, and lots of neat residential areas in and around downtown. But again, nothing spectacular. That didn’t stop me from hanging a photograph of the Cleveland skyline over my mantle when I was in my twenties and first moved away from home.
And Cleveland has certainly been the butt of criticism over the years. Cleveland weathers suck, and the polluted Cuyahoga River did catch fire in 1969. The unfortunate nickname Mistake on the Lake stings, but it originated somewhere.
But there are so many great things about the City of Cleveland. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Westside Market. The Flats. The Cleveland Orchestra, Museum of Art and Metroparks Zoo. The city is rich in history and culture, known for its good people, eclectic neighborhoods and diverse selection of top-notch…
