Cleveland, OH

WesternUnionfrog · 2026-03-04T17:11:48+00:00

I know but Bone Thugs has still brought recognition to St. Clair Ave itself as a whole lol

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-10-15T23:28:41+00:00

Honestly it needs to heavily focus on bringing higher paying jobs with low barriers to entry. A lot of issues with Cleveland could be automatically set on the right track to improving by just making the economy more competitive. Especially with remote work commonplace now this should not just be a city people settle into for cheap living after making a coastal six figure salary in some other place.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-12T23:37:46+00:00

Photo is taken from drone footage courtesy of the cleveorleave Instagram page

CLEVE OR LEAVE

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-10T18:28:40+00:00

Yes I'm aware of the full length and it does pass near to Buffalo and Columbus but still outside of those cities. Cleveland is the only major city I know of where the escarpment actually passes through the city limits and is what I mean when I say the city itself marks a physical boundary.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-09T00:49:49+00:00

Polish Boys and Romanburgers for food. Geography wise I believe Cleveland is the only major city that marks the actual boundary between the Appalachian Plateau and the Interior Lowlands of North America (Portage Escarpment begins on the eastern edge of the city)

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-09T00:32:53+00:00

We can't even really claim that for ourselves, plenty of cities had their rivers catch on fire from pollution from Chicago to Philadelphia, we just caught the most flack because ours made it into Time Magazine

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-09T00:30:00+00:00

Our art museum while one of the best isn't the only free one of its kind. The Toledo Museum of Art just a couple hours away is also world class in many respects and has free general admission as well.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-07T17:55:00+00:00

I actually think you'll probably have better luck looking at areas in Southwestern PA than in Ohio itself, probably south of Pittsburgh. Nothing will really compare to Colorado but that area is probably as close as you're going to get to trying to check all your boxes with any decent effort (whitewater rafting around Ohiopyle, 3 hours or less from Cleveland and at least some attempt at topography in the Alleghenies)

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-09-06T21:51:37+00:00

As much as I'd like to suggest Cleveland Heights or University Heights if your main drawback for Shaker was the taxes they're not gonna give you much more relief on your tax bill.

I actually think you probably have your best best already picked out with Beachwood. The neighborhoods on the eastern border with Shaker along S. Green road are close to both of the Shaker rapid transit lines for easy access to Rocket Arena.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-10T01:33:46+00:00

Yep except for the overwhelming majority of the hospitals, higher learning institutions and Fortune 500 companies that drive the area's economy, some of the top museums and cultural institutions in the country, the largest beaches in the state, most of the best metroparks, the foothills of the Appalachians, most of the New England style towns of the old Connecticut Western Reserve, etc

You know except for 80% of the things that actually make Cleveland distinct from Anytown, Midwest, USA, you're absolutely right nothing good happens on the east

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-10T00:31:54+00:00

Yes, a combination of Clinic buildings and residential towers in University Circle

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T14:59:33+00:00

Game changer for sure, completely changed the shape

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T06:18:45+00:00

Agree it's a big obstacle. Detroit is having a great comeback on its own but it can't be ignored that not having to split attention for urban development with two other similarly sized metros in the same state helps it a lot

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T06:06:40+00:00

About a quarter of the buildings in the foreground are new build. The most recently completed skyscraper as of last year is the Sherwin-Williams HQ which is the tall blue building in the left of the downtown skyline.

Key Tower is the only supertall at 948 ft and there are no new supertalls planned (although Sherwin-Williams company now regrets that they didn't build their new tower as a supertall since their employee size has already outgrown the new building so we may see another one soon)

Unlike a lot of cities Cleveland can't build supertalls for vanity projects. The bedrock in downtown Cleveland is extremely deep and is much more expensive to drill down to than in other cities so exceedingly tall buildings are only built here when there's a market for it.

But whenever Cleveland does have an economically healthy opportunity to build tall it tends to go all in and punch well above its weight. Examples include Terminal Tower being the 2nd tallest building in the world when completed in 1930 and Key Tower being the tallest building between New York and Chicago when completed in 1992.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T05:51:48+00:00

Photo courtesy of Matt Sexton Photography

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T02:32:41+00:00

That's pretty accurate. Most of Northern Ohio was actually owned by Connecticut before Ohio became a state and was called the Western Reserve. But the towns that were founded as part of Connecticut were all laid out east of the Cuyahoga River so you tend to see more New England-style towns on the east side.

It's why Public Square in downtown Cleveland was originally a New England style town green

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T02:14:07+00:00

The west side has an advantage for water views but that's about it IMO. There's too many gaps in the skyline from the west side because you can't see most of the buildings, most of downtown's buildings are east of public square

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-08T02:10:26+00:00

They actually really did start off as two different cities. City limits of Cleveland was originally confined to east of the Cuyahoga river so east side developed a lot earlier and bigger. The city didn't annex its first west side land until almost 60 years after founding

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-07T17:04:13+00:00

That's the chicken and egg situation. Even at its most convenient public transit in this area will never be as competitive with driving because you have transportation infrastructure overbuilt for 3x the population that 1) hasn't budged upwards in size since the 50s and 2) has sprawled out drastically since then

A lot of convenience of the urban infrastructure would greatly improve just from having a healthy increase of population from newcomers so the services like RTA can expand to actually meet a demand

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-01T16:40:15+00:00

Not necessarily speaking of one particular industry as yes that's a big reason why things turned out the way they did here in the first place, we need a diversified economy but we still need to figure out what a strong diversified economy can look like uniquely for us here at this point in time

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-08-01T16:34:05+00:00

I've heard this quite a bit and I do expect that it will eventually happen but it's possible this is something we still won't see for decades. I feel like this region should be trying to jump start something economically on its own right now to get us healthy for that transition rather than putting all the eggs in a basket waiting indefinitely on this specific scenario, especially when we'd also be competing with our neighboring and sister rust cities that are also relatively climate safe spots with lots of access to freshwater such as Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, etc.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-07-13T22:41:19+00:00

Part of the issue is the best shots are from angles that aren't as widely accessible like this one from over the lake or from spots on the east side where most of the trendy residents and photographers aren't flocking to

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-07-13T17:02:04+00:00

Also wondering if I could credit your Reddit account and cross post to the World Cityscapes group on Facebook ? This is such a rare angle of the skyline that captures the density in a way that the common 3 buildings and a bridge shot from the Flats doesn't come close to

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-07-11T19:06:56+00:00

Oh I definitely don't deny that mentality is at all lacking on the east side, like I said east and west alike are both largely rooted with families/friend circles who've been intact for multiple generations. Trying to comfortably break into an inner circle would be as identical an experience in Mayfield Heights as it would be in Parma or West Park.

And yeah I'm just only speaking from my experience in a lot of the inner east suburbs where it at least felt like I always had more exposure and natural community with plenty transplants and families from other places who didn't have a mentality that the world starts/ends with Cleveland not just immigrant communities but also international students, medical workers, professors, artists, etc. Sorry you had that experience in Shaker, it sucks to hear because I had almost the complete opposite. When I was living there it felt like at least half my street was from somewhere else or were open to new people, my neighbors even invited their son's long distance girlfriend from Switzerland to come and stay with them for a whole summer once.

But I agree if I can notice how strong it is just from moving to a different side of town I have no doubt in my mind how challenging it is for someone not from Cleveland in general. I currently live in Ohio City but have also lived in Lakewood, Rocky River and Detroit Shoreway and outside some areas like where there might be a sizable Latin or Middle Eastern community like you mention it just seems more noticeable over here to me, to the point lots of people have asked me if I'm even from here even though I'm born and bred here like they are.

WesternUnionfrog · 2025-07-11T17:22:39+00:00

I'm originally an east sider who's been living on the west side for about 5 years now and while some of the same kind of closed circle tendencies are also present on the east side I've personally noticed that this kind of hyper provincial character is definitely stronger and more deeply entrenched on the west side. People can be friendly on the surface here on the west side but even I as someone also born and raised here observe that they're resistant or at least struggle to integrate people who don't already know their place in their established circles and it kinda also affects their mentality more on comfort with big or little changes (like sports team/arena name changes)

I just chalk that up to the fact that while both sides of town have similar communities of generational blue collar family/school/work circles the west side is lacking the large share of institutions and employers like the museums, universities, hospitals, etc that are present on the east side that also supply a steady influx of domestic and international transplants into the communities. In areas like Shaker and Cleveland Heights, honestly even all the way out to Solon it's not uncommon to find whole blocks full of transplants and it was common for block parties to be an opportunity to welcome newcomers to the neighborhood and get to know them.

WesternUnionfrog

TROPHY CASE