Cleveland…yep still in Cleveland. I have been an absentee blogger as of late. I am honestly in that funk. I don’t want to write I just want to “do”. I love promoting the stuff I am doing and watching my stats graphs crash like the Great Depression Stock Market is kind of disheartening a bit. I have done a bunch of stuff as of late too and it’s time we speak on that a bit. After this short commentary. People ask me what happens when the 52 Weeks is up, and in all honesty once the 52 weeks is up that’s all there is. I did what I set out to do. I never intended on making this some sort of big business franchise that was going to go on forever. I’ll probably end up drunk on the streets laying some gutter begging for change saying I used to be the 52 Weeks guys. Right now it’s 32 Weeks of Cleveland and I am more than willing to cash in my chips and move on with the next chapter in my life but I am going to continue on of course. If I make the full 52 I will be surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I love the city, I love trying out new things. I love checking out the bands and meeting new people and I love promoting local area folks.
However, this has come at a price. Some has to do with my health as being on the go so much my body likes to tell me I am almost 40 years old. I am no spring chicken out there anymore, at best or worst you can call me an aging hipster. If you want spring chickens seriously check out ‘Tis Cleveland, Cleveland Crave or Katie O’Keefe. What you get from me is a love of this city along with a guy jaded by multiple lost championships a corrupt government and a majority of the city that could give a flying fuck less what is going on. I look at things like The Medical Mart and shake my head in disgust that no one really gives a shit what is really going on behind the scenes there. I look at other cities who build up their waterfront ala Pittsburgh while the city officials here make pretty garbage cans to line Euclid Avenue.
I drove down Euclid Avenue Saturday and I didn’t see progress. I saw the destruction of small business and a city abandoned outside of small pockets of life. I see the main drag of a city as a one lane nightmare that if there actually was activity downtown would be such a giant clusterfuck it would make any other main metropolitan city crippled. I thought to myself who actually rides this bus that is taking up a lane plus of traffic? I am sure during rush hour the bus is pretty packed but from 10am-4pm who rides the bus downtown? Do they take the bus to a trip to the Galleria Fashion Mall? Oh no, that’s closed, I forgot. Do they take it to the fancy high end shops of Tower City? Oh yeah, it is infested with thugs and the high end sunk to low class with kiosks selling fake bling and grills. There are multiple discount stores in there now and even a dollar store. Tower City which once was the crowning jewel and hub of the city turned into worse than an outlet mall in a matter of a few years. It sickens me to see the city in such a state of decline and no one is really doing anything about it.
West 6th Street is getting a black eye because one asshole owner is doing underage nights, and catering to kids who have no real business intermingled with the adults. It’s not hip hop, it’s not a race thing. I don’t buy that shit. I personally would rather hang with those hip hop “thugs” than hang out with the muscled up sideways visor douchebags at the “white” bars any day of the week. I stay out of that West 6th scene anyhow, it is just not my thing. I had my years in the Flats and I am over it. I don’t need round two to try to live my 20′s over again. I did it. It was fun. I don’t need to do it again. I don’t care what you do to entice me out there. I think I said this in the past but I’ll say it again. There are some great places to eat over there but after 9pm, fuck that I am out of there.
So what is the answer? I have no clue. I’m not here to solve the problems. That is what we elect these yahoos to do but rather than take care of the problem they turn a blind eye to it and become part of the problem themselves. Cleveland seems to love to put all their collective eggs in one basket. The basket they need to be putting their eggs in is the gorgeous lakefront we have. Develop Wendy Park, do something with that old Coast Guard Station. Get rid of Burke Lakefront Airport. Seriously what is the point of it anyhow? How much air traffic does it really get? Now all of our eggs seem to be in this whole Medical Mart bullshit which is all but a pipe dream. Why? What the hell is it really going to do for the city in the long run? These assclowns can’t even figure out where the hell they are going to put it and how many years have they been sitting there with their thumbs up their asses padding their pockets now? It is like a giant smokescreen. Ohhhhh look over there, something shiny. Naaahhh, the lakefront? Why would we actually want something that the entire community can benefit from? Medical Mart will bring jobs and answer all of Cleveland’s problems.
What else has got me down? As popular and glamorous as this life is it really isn’t. It’s fun. I like it and I met tons of cool people in doing this whole thing, but for as many people I picked up along the way the same amount of old friends don’t want to hang out with me. I don’t know what it is. I heard things like “if I don’t plan it, it isn’t cool.” Honestly that is just plain bullshit. It’s more like “if I don’t plan it, I’ll be sitting on my ass at home because no one likes to make plans more than an hour in advance.” Or it’s the thing I wanted to get away from, going to the same places over and over again. I know I got stuck on repeat on a few places. I love Brothers, Happy Dog, Beachland to name a few. They are great places with something to do, but when you have great bands playing and a hook of some sort I’ll keep on coming back. Big screen TV’s only go so far for me, I need a little more bang for my buck. So you know what? You can hang out where you want but at least show me some common fucking courtesy to invite me out to whatever. I’m always finding stuff to do, and inviting folks out…now granted no one shows up anymore but at least I extend the invitation. I can count on one hand the amount of times anyone has invited me out to join them in the last couple of months and on the other I can count the amount of times my old friends have hung out with me in the last 2 or 3 months. So, yeah this shit comes at a price kids and while it bugs me I know I am not the bad guy at least.
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While I’m a newbie to Cleveland, I hear ya. I feel the same way about my hometown of Richmond, VA. Lots of change in local gov’t but never any real change to the Downtown area. Never any progress to get & keep local businesses. Continuously failing to get & keep citizens in the city.
My husband & I bought a house in the city because we believed in the possibility of change. In the end, here we are…in Cleveland, OH. Which reminds me a WHOLE lot of Richmond, VA!!! Lots of talk, but not lots of action on the progressive side of things. I see & read about a lot of citizens doing great things. That’s what brought us here. The people. You guys love your city, you believe in it. When we came up here in December last year, we could see how much you love your city. We could see that you were a tight knit community that took care of it’s own.
I still feel that. We’ve been here for almost 3 months & I’m meeting more & more people that help keep the Cleveland spirit alive. You are one of those people. You have that dream of a better Cleveland. I commend you for all that you’ve done to promote this city. It certainly has done a great job with me. I love it here, as if it were home!!!