Coming from Buffalo, very impressed with Downtown Cleveland on my visit (Westlake: houses, neighborhood)

[mttzakr87]

I took a drive to downtown Cleveland yesterday morning, and I must I am very impressed with how the downtown area looks.

Maybe it's because i was coming from Buffalo that the downtown area seemed so great to me? A trend of the rust belt cities of late, including Detroit, has been revitilzation of the core areas.....all of the rust belt cities have made some improvements to their core. But after seeing Cleveland, it's very apparent Buffalo still has a lot of work to do. Buffalo has made some strides but is incredibly hindered by being under the umbrella of NYS in my opinion and in terms of the economy here, we are no where even close to even Cleveland.

The first thing I noticed about Downtown Cleveland was how there actually quite a bit of people in the downtown area....the majority of our downtown with the exception of the Chippewa area still looks pretty empty, and another big difference is that we really dont have anywhere the corporate presence that Cleveland has, both downtown and in the metro areas....the only fortune 1000 in our area is M&T bank....Cleveland has Key Corp, Progressive, Huntington etc....and many more in the metro.

Another thing is when I ventured out into the Suburbs to see Legacy Village and then eventually Crocker park, you really have to drive quite a ways to get out of the city limits....I didnt realize Cleveland's limits covered that much territory

The Flats at East Bank was one of my favorite things I saw, along with the Playhouse square area.

I'd say Cleveland has a pretty bright future ahead, as well as the other two Ohio "C"cities

[WRnative]

Thanks for your observations! I've seen several persons on C-D equate Buffalo and Cleveland, a comparison that I never understood.

Cleveland proper has a relatively small land area compared to many other cities, but it is significantly larger than Buffalo.

E.g., Crocker Park is in Westlake, a couple suburbs removed from Cleveland.

Ditto with Legacy Village in Lyndhurst on the more eastern side of Greater Cleveland.

Both of these shopping areas are in Cuyahoga County, however, of which Cleveland is the downtown area and county seat.

One big advantage of Cleveland versus Buffalo is having three major league pro sports venues downtown, for the first time in Cleveland's history. This relatively new reality (since the building of the Q and Progressive Field as part of the Gateway project), combined with the rise of PlayhouseSquare, has tremendously boosted downtown as a residential neighborhood.

[WRnative]

Here's a related thread comparing Buffalo and Cleveland.

Opinions on Buffalo after visiting for the first time

[mttzakr87]

I dont get the comparison either, it's not even close IMO....There are some similarities, in terms of some of the architecture, and history of industry but I think it's because Buffalo has the big cities amenities like the Sports teams, but Greater Cleveland is really just a much bigger area.

Cleveland definitely has some run down areas though when you get out of the downtown area, it's no different from Buffalo there. But the immediate downtown area is nice.

The three biggest developments in Buffalo right now that have happened and are ongoing, are the Harbor center, which is more geared towards sports and recreation, Solar City, and the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus which is erecting a new children's hospital opening within the next year,....but the problem is, it's not anchored by a healthcare super giant like Cleveland Clinic, or even Case Western Reserve, it's not anchored by a large university medical center....but by a Kalieda Health system which is average at best and trying to turn around financially....doing a good job of it though, but they've laid a lot of people off over the past five years.

Solar City is supposed to be a "game changer", it will help our area, but a real game changer would be getting a major corporation to relocate major operations here, which is a tough sell because of NY states porus business climate to truely bring the area back. We only have one fortune 1000 company in downtown Buffalo and all of WNY and thats M&T Bank. Rochester, NY, down the I-90 used to have more of that but over the years companies have been leaving to get out of NY State. Our tallest building, One Senca Tower is 95% vacant and there doesen't appear to be a suitor to occupy it anytime soon, and needs a lot of modernization and updates.

Regionally, I still has more of an uphill battle economically....When you visit the Cleveland area, you really see how far behind the area is. It definitely has more going for it right now IMO.