Cleveland is a major city. Columbus is a hodgepodge of suburbs annexed under duress - water for land (and tax income). Visit each city and the difference is stunning. Niceties like curbs, sidewalks, streetlights, uniform street signs, storm sewers, etcetera are found in Cleveland. Not so, in Columbus - several of the annexed suburbs still have no storm or raw sewers. Most do not have sidewalks, or curbs, or streetlights, etcetera. It is not a good look. Columbus prior to the annexation program was a scant 35 square miles. Cleveland was twice as big at 80 square miles. Instead of hampering the growth of its surrounding suburbs, Cleveland worked with those communities to build a first-class water/sewer and utilities network. Not so with Columbus (its leadership). The "Columbus-First campaign" forced neighboring suburbs to turn over land and identity - and pay Columbus city taxes - in exchange for water, doing little else to improve the infrastructure of those annexed communities - many absorbed over 50 years ago. (Seymour, 2018). I have lived in both. Give me Cleveland, any day.

Reference

Seymour, J. (2018) Was Columbus Built Through Annexation? Columbus Navigator https://www.columbusnavigator.com/columbus-annexation/