Vanishing things in Cleveland...the REAL "five things to see now" (before it's too late) (Parma: house)

[kpl1228]

I truly think that there are five good reasons to visit Cleveland, per an earlier post with a Fodor's tourism link. But totally different than the other post that describes things to see in Cleveland "now" (because they're fun), I think it's more for what is endangered and/or vanishing rather than what is regionally tourist-y, and here's the five you need to visit now (before it's too late):

1) Ellis Island-era immigrant neighborhoods. A couple of years back, I saw an VERY old Italian woman walking thru Little Italy in black veil mourning. All I could think was "Last of the Mohicans." There's a few of the Ellis Island group left in Little Italy, Clark-Fulton, Slavic Village, E.55th/St.Vitus, near W.65th and Detroit, and even in Collinwood. But as the neighborhoods become more "hip," or continue a downward slide, and old people do what they do (pass away), a big part of Cleveland history's gonna leave forever. Remember, most of the big Ellis Island immigration ended around around 1920. And their kids inheriting the house aren't necessarily gonna continue the traditions. And they're usually just not foreign-born. It's different. It's all been mostly gone for the past twenty years now, but the few that hang on (usually in their 90's or pushing 100) are dying and that will be the end. (The Polish Constitution day parade becoming primarily a Parma thing, instead of a Slavic Village thing, is very telling, for example.)

2) Bridges. The bridges of Cleveland are OLD. Many will be knocked down due to age and cost and point-of-no-return.

3) Old seedy neighborhoods. I tent to think much of the Cleveland "renaiassance" is way overblown. It's not "the new Brooklyn NY", but saying that, parts of it are changing dramatically. There are parts of Cleveland that are older, beaten up, rundown, but nevertheless give it character. And if they get replaced by a fedora store or a hipster restaurant that only sells breakfast cereal, something will be forever lost. (Mahall's bowling alley in Lakewood is all fixed up now, but I do miss the old one in all its 1950s glory).

4) Industry. The industry that's left that is. from mom-and-pop welding shops to steel mills, it will be interesting to see what remains from Cleveland's industrial power as we become more service-oriented. Not to mention the closed down factories that will soon be knocked down and cleaned up.

5) statuary/monuments. many statues, (esp. bronze) have been vandalized, damaged, or sold as scrap metal. Many are weathered beyond the point of recognition, esp. in parks. I'm thinking the Conrad Mizen memorial in Edgewater Park, for example (which looks to have been somewhat rehabilitated). And if not weathered or damaged, than surely forgotten and neglected bigtime.

The last thirty years have really done a number on all of the above. But a bit remains. However, see it all now............before it's gone!

[SquareBetterThanAll]

If you spend any time in the city outside of Downtown it would be hard not to see many of those things!

[ohioaninsc]

4) That is the one that hits the hardest...this country use to make stuff...now we don't. Very sad.