Travelling Hopefully - Rachel's Special Cleveland Edition

Before I left on my travels my dear friend Rachel set me a task.  Find something interesting about Cleveland.  At the time I thought it a difficult, nay, impossible task.  However it's turned out to be quite easy.  Rachel my dear, the interesting thing about Cleveland is that it still exists.  Cleveland is one those old steel/manufacturing cities that pretty much lost their reason for existence when the major employers in town realised there were third world countries out there that had never heard of work safety regulations and didn't care whether you paid your employees a living wage.

It's fair to say that Cleveland was smashed.  Industry had collapsed.  Poverty, unemployment and the social problems that go with them were rampant.  The city's population dropped from close to a million to less than four hundred thousand and the river was on fire.  To hammer in the final nail the owner of the Cleveland Browns planned to move the franchise to Baltimore.  Cleveland was your stereotypical rust belt hell hole.

I can't say they've completely turned it around but Cleveland is off the mat and fighting hard.  There are still parts of the city you don't want to go to and the population drop has given the whole place a hollowed out slightly deserted feel (unless you're downtown when the Browns are playing).  On the other hand there are deer (and squirrels) in the suburbs, downtown looks great, the lake is beautiful and public transport is pretty good.  They have one of the best hospitals in the United States, a world renowned symphony orchestra and a pretty decent dining and entertainment area.  All this plus a science centre that's open whenever the Browns aren't playing at home.  Speaking of which, the Browns may be struggling but the Cleveland Cavaliers brought the NBA Championship home this year.

I don't know if Cleveland will survive, times are tough for cities like this but I do know Cleveland will not go quietly into the night.

So there you go my dear, all sorts of interesting stuff about Cleveland and there's plenty more that I can't remember or was too lazy to write about.