America's Declining Rust Belt Cities. Spotlight On: Cleveland

A lot of people like to talk about how Cleveland is little more than a dilapidated experiment in white flight and failed urban renewal, but I decided to give the “mistake by the lake” a chance. I read this piece from a local Clevelander about the “top 10 things to do in Cleveland before you die”: http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2004/09/14/ten-things-to-do-in-cleveland-before-youre-dead/

At first the list seemed simple enough, but then I realized that the list must have been a cleverly veiled challenge when I saw that I would DEFINITELY kill myself before reaching task 5 (a thrilling Saturday morning buying fruits and vegetables at the West Side Market!). A mainstay in Forbes’ top 10 worst sports cities list, Cleveland’s sports teams, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in Cleveland tax dollars toward new stadiums for the flailing clubs, are perpetually awful. I’m not attacking the failing sports teams so much, but the hundreds of millions of dollars thrown down the drain is CLASSIC Cleveland. As far as listless, gray, depressing rust belt cities go, Cleveland’s the pick! Throw in infrastructure that seems like it was drawn by a young Clevelander on the back of their Applebee’s kids menu with a crayon and weather that seems to be intentionally designed to force Cleveland’s hideous population to cover as much of themselves as possible and what you have, ladies and gentlemen, is America’s worst city.

Won't catch me in vans cuz they look like slippers, pimpin'.
-DTC