:(
Man this is some sad stuff. I don't know what my age range compares to others here (I am 25) but I graduated from Shaker in '99. At the time, to me and my friends Cleveland seemed like the shit! The indians were competitive, the browns had just come back, I think the cavs still sucked but at least the downtown scene was jumping! We used to go clubbing multiple times per week...millenium, trilogy (which changed names a million times, I lost track after Metropolis) Europa, Top of the Flats, whatever. It seemed like it was always jumping and somewhere to go. It was definitely a rough city but it still had positives. Randall was the spot to be!
Then I moved to Atlanta, the mecca of big city fun and entertainment and when I go back home now I am in shock. Everything I knew is closed down or gone, and it is one big ass slum. My mom is trying desperately to move down here with me, but she works for the city gov't up there. Its crazy how rough parts of Ohio are but people from other places never believe it! I have two good friends one from Brooklyn and one from Oakland and I bet each of them that Cleveland was rougher than either city and neither believed me. If you look at the top 25 roughest cities in the nation 3 are in ohio (new york isnt even on the list, last I checked it was on the SAFEST city list) and Cleveland was significantly higher on the list than Oakland. They were shocked!
I don't know what the solution to the problem is, but a lot of people are just giving up and leaving. An article from the plain dealer in '05 said 58,000 people moved from cuyahoga county in 2005 alone. If that number is consistent over the past few years its easy to see why things are getting worse.
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