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It’s been interesting exploring this new area in the month I’ve been here. Given the warm month, have gone to beaches a lot, both Edgewater and Bay Village. I’ve driven and walked all over Lakewood, Rocky River and other suburbs around here. I’ve taken the red line to Ohio City. Last week I had dinner with some folks in Little Italy and someone drove me to the restaurant and we were definitely in some sketchy neighborhoods to get there. I really want to go back to University Circle to visit the art museum, Western Reserve Museum, and Little Italy again, but want to feel comfortable getting there. I see the red line has a stop in that neighborhood......is that okay? Or is it better to get off in Tower City and transfer to the Health Line and go up that way? For the city itself I’d rather use train/bus as opposed to driving. And some day I want to walk around Shaker Heights and then move into Beachwoos to visit the Jewish museum (heard its good). Maybe it’s better to drive to those areas but I don’t want to end up in rough neighborhoods along the way. Mind you, I’ve lived both in the Boston and Hartford areas in the past but when you are familiar with the areas in a place, it’s a totally different feel. Also, what’s the deal with the fares on rapid transit? I buy tickets but no place to swipe and no one checks?
The Health Line is a lot sketchier than the Red Line. I recommend Red Line to University Circle. If going to Shaker Heights, take the Green or Blue. They both go to Shaker Square, which isn't in Shaker Heights yet, but still city of Cleveland. A lot of good stuff there. IF you chill at Shaker Square, I would recommend walking north into the Larchmere District. Also not sketchy. There are zero sketchy neighborhoods on the Green Line. I would recommend taking that to go over to the Shaker Lakes/SHaker Nature Center for a nice walk. Take Blue to go to the new stuff in the Van Aken District. The area off the blue line can sometimes feel sketchier, but IMO it isn't bad. Especially if you're going to Van Aken (you would be- there is really only residential buildings between Shaker Square and there.
When you take the Red Line down town you will have to swipe he card to ender Tower City, 100% of the time. Usually otherwise you're subject to a check by RTA police. Green and blue lines, if you get on at tower city, you swipe your card at the tower city turn styles. Then you get off wherever, no swiping. However, if you get on our off at stations other than tower city, you have to swipe your card when getting on. For example, if I am going inbound and I get on at Shaker Square,then get off at E 55, I will swipe my card at E 55. If I am going to Shaker Square from Tower City, I swipe my card at Tower City and then just get off at Shaker Square.
It's kinda needlessly confusing. Cleveland has very weak ways of doing fare collections and making payment easy. But after a few times you remember what the deal is and think nothing of it.
I take the Redline every visit to Little Italy. You walk out and you are IN Little Italy. I'll do this in about 2 weeks. LOVE IT! I have taken the bus as well. LOTS of college kids walking around and never felt unsafe.
I get passes each visit.
Glad you are getting around! I own a home just up the road from Bay V Beach area. However, I actually prefer downtown and then taking rail all over.
A majority of riders on the Healthline are African Americans, usually a large majority out of commuting hours; I don't feel uncomfortable riding it, but I'm not an older female. The Healthline is much more convenient for visiting University Circle attractions, including the art museum. E.g., the walk from Stokes Blvd. is much shorter than from either University Circle/Little Italy Red Line stations. Also, returning to the Little Italy station requires a short uphill walk on Mayfield Road.
Some attractions such as Galluci's, great for lunch, and Dunbar Tavern can only be visited using the Healthline. If you drive to Lake View, Galluci's would be a good stop.
Drive to Asia Plaza (Asian grocery store, Asian shops and restaurants, including Li Wah), and to St. Clair (Slyman's Deli) and Superior Ave. restaurants, including pho row (e.g., Superior Pho with parking in the back), other good Asian restaurants.
Chester Blvd. is the main driving route between downtown and University Circle. Parts may be a little sketchy, but it has lots of traffic and doesn't bother me. The main parking garage of the Cleveland Clinic is just off Chester. Euclid Ave. is slower because of the Healthline lanes. Carnegie is a another main route, and perhaps is a little sketchy, but it's largely business, industrial.
Buying a Cleveland Museum of Art membership is a great idea. You get free parking (admission always is free) and free exhibits, as well as a great monthly magazine (which you can read online), discounts at the café and restaurant, and gift shops. If you drive to Lake View, you might find metered parking very near the art museum. I often use street parking for short visits when in the area.
For a visit to Little Italy, the Red Line station is the best bet. From Little Italy, if you can handle an uphill hike, it's a good walk to Lake View Cemetery, and the Mayfield Road entrance is very close to the Garfield Monument and the Rockefeller gravesite. Perhaps you can print a Lake View map online. The Healthline has a stop at the main entrance to Lake View. The office is right there and during business hours provides maps and sight-seeing advice. Visit Lake View when both the Garfield Monument and the Wade Chapel are open. Because of the steep walks at Lake View, it's not a bad idea to drive when visiting there.
Definitely familiarize yourself with the downtown trolleys. They are good options for visiting Heinen's, Playhouse Square, etc., if you don't have an RTA day pass.
Use Google Transit at the RTA home page.
If you can climb a short ladder, try to visit the U.S.S. Cod before it closes for the season at the end of September; it's one of the best attractions in Cleveland. You can take the Waterfront Line to the East 9th station and take a short walk from the Rock Hall east on the North Marginal Road to the Cod and the International Women Air & Space Museum in the lobby of Burke Lakefront Airport. A walk north on East 9th St. to Voinovich Bicentennial Park also is very nice on a good day; it offers great photo ops, especially of the inner harbor. Check hours for the Steamship Mather, also a great attraction next to the Rock Hall; its part of the Great Lakes Science Center, which has a good NASA exhibit and Imax movies. Perhaps take a Goodtime III cruise.
Definitely check out Leaf Turn locations. A Botanical Garden/Holden membership is a good deal. Visit Holden during the week to avoid Canopy Walk and Emergent Tower crowds (bring your own binoculars). A visit to Ohio Amish Country during the week (to avoid weekend crowds) is a great day trip during Leaf Turn, and perhaps stay overnight to visit the Hartville Marketplace or other attractions. Ditto with Malabar Farm State Park.
Good for you in getting out there and exploring the area and using public transit. In general, I would say Cleveland's transit system is A. better; easier to get around the city than most, and B. no more sketchier or dangerous than any other city. As I'm sure you know, being a former resident of Boston, and I'm sure veteran of it's extensive subway & bus network, there are certain routes and times where you have to keep your head up than others, like if you were catching a bus from the Silver Line down Washington Street or riding a bus down Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury or Dorchester, and you probably wouldn't want to do this late at night if you didn't have to...
.. as you did, many people ride the Red Line to Ohio City, which is Cleveland's trendiest and hottest in-city neighborhood outside downtown, itself. While Cleveland's train and bus system is superior all those in Ohio and most most of the ones in the Midwest, it is far less extensive or utilized than the T... in large part because Boston is much, much denser than Cleveland and the seat of a much older and larger metro area that remains largely transit friendly/dependent, while Greater Cleveland is moderate and lighter density and car friendly... That said, when visiting Cleveland, esp going in town, Shaker Square, the Flats, E. 4th, North Coast Harbor (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), all Cleveland pro sporting events, Playhouse Square, the Warehouse District, Ohio City and, more recently, Univ. Circle/Little Italy, (am I leaving something out?... oh yeah, Lakewood's Birdtown), I almost always walk or drive to a Rapid station leaving the car behind for an entire afternoon or day with no problem whatsoever. Once downtown, you can either take the Waterfront Line to hot spots along the Cuyahoga River (most notably the new and expanding Flats East Bank) or the aforementioned North Coast Harbor, ride the FREE green Trolleys (actually small buses made up as cute, wooden-bench old time streetcars from yesteryear), ... or walk.
As I'm sure you're seeing, downtown Cleveland is very compact and easy to get from place-to-place on foot; plus pedal power is far more interesting! ... I neglected to note that, as is the trend in most big cities, rent-a-bike stands are all over the place and many folks swipe their credit card and bike around downtown. If you use RTA, especially, or are walking around popular areas of the city, you'll note that Cleveland has become a very Bike Friendly city -- many bikers use the Rapid where there are designated no-seat areas for them, and all buses have front-end bike-carrier racks. Cleveland even has a downtown bike center, at E. 4th Street and Huron Rd, where you can lock your bike up indoors and even take a shower!... NOTE: there is a recent trend of the rent-able small powered scooters being left around street corners, but a horrible scooter fatality downtown late summer moved lawmakers to ban them for now...
... On most buses and trains, people are behaved and are commuting to work or some other desired place. But there are some knuckleheads from time to time. Mostly kids and/or young adults. Many are African American but I've seen my share of white idiots as well. People are often social on transit here; some talk loud on their cellphone or try and start conversation with you. While sometimes annoying, they are harmless. I chalk it up to being in a big city; this stuff is usually limited and isolated, but it does happen. RTA does have an extensive police force which sometimes rides the trains or hangs out at key Rapid stations like Ohio City, at times, but their presence can be spotty --
more transit cops spend more time (waste more time, imho) at the main Tower City Rapid station hub downtown adjacent to Public Square. ... While, as somebody noted, most Health Line (bus rapid transit) riders are African Americans, there are a lot of College kids (most of them white) and downtown/University Circle young people who ride the Health Line during daytime hours, esp in around the 2 main university districts the HL serves.
... Cleveland unfortunately has larger pockets of poverty than Boston, but is more typical of Midwestern cities like St. Louis or KC or Milwaukee or even Chicago -- however Cleveland's poverty or devastation is nowhere near what it is in Detroit. Cleveland's poor areas are more in-tact than Detroit's where there are acres and acres of empty fields in many areas. Most of Cleveland's sketchy areas are on the East Side -- Euclid Avenue itself, which is the core transit corridor the Health Line BRT uses, has been largely restored to the extent there is very little blight along Euclid anymore. However some of the areas that shoulder Euclid beyond the Cleveland State University campus town area out to Cleveland Clinic's city-within-a-city beginning around E. 89th street, are a bit sketchy.
Again, as with any American big city, Street Smarts are a necessary tool.
I think the four of you are amazing and this is a wealth of information that I couldn’t get in a guidebook or online write ups. I’ve taken some notes on the contents��. Back in the day, I was an everyday T rider in Boston and also use subways when in New York or D.C., so I can really key into Prof’s analysis. WRnative, thanks for the travelogue .....definitely yes to Amish Country! I am a “youngish” retiree and try to keep active, (Huntington Beach has 70 steps but by the 5th flight I’m really breathing lol) so a walk uphill is doable and I think that USS Cod would be interesting, will check out. Lake Erie is truly a treasure. I’m so glad I’m living here during an era when it’s getting cleaner —- stewardship of natural resources is so important!
Lake Erie is truly a treasure. I’m so glad I’m living here during an era when it’s getting cleaner —- stewardship of natural resources is so important!
Actually, Lake Erie has gotten dirtier in the last two decades, greatly due to Republican protection of the massive corporate livestock industry that has built up in the Maumee River basin. Animal manure is simply pumped onto saturated fields and allowed to wash into the Maumee River and than Lake Erie.
Most stories, like the one above, detail the problem, but focus on individual family farms but not the massive corporate livestock farms. This story is better, but still doesn't adequately quantify the problem caused by the expansion of livestock operations in the Maumee River basin.
<<Meanwhile, the Ohio task force report noted that animal feeding operations in the Lake Erie region have become far bigger and denser over the years — with more animals packed into spaces. Cattle and pig manure is another significant source of phosphorus.>>
It's sad that the Democrats haven't been much better at attacking the problem.
Only after the Trump administration came to power did John Kasich declare the western basin impaired, the prerequisite for intervention by the federal EPA. Unfortunately, the Trump administration EPA is against regulating agricultural pollution. They've tried to roll back the Chesapeake Bay compliance program that helped improve water conditions there. Rather than implement a similar program for Lake Erie, the Trump EPA has said that it the responsibility of the individual states to implement solutions.
Of course, Ohio's regulations are inadequate, and Indiana, whose economy and water supplies don't benefit from Lake Erie, has no incentive to eliminate the agricultural pollution.
Edgewater Beach has been cleaned up, but it was largely neglected under the Kasich administration when the state still controlled it. The Cleveland Metroparks took it over, but also increased its tax rate to maintain and improve all of the Cuyahoga County lakefront parks that it took over from the state.
I think the four of you are amazing and this is a wealth of information that I couldn’t get in a guidebook or online write ups. I’ve taken some notes on the contents��. Back in the day, I was an everyday T rider in Boston and also use subways when in New York or D.C., so I can really key into Prof’s analysis. WRnative, thanks for the travelogue .....definitely yes to Amish Country! I am a “youngish” retiree and try to keep active, (Huntington Beach has 70 steps but by the 5th flight I’m really breathing lol) so a walk uphill is doable and I think that USS Cod would be interesting, will check out. Lake Erie is truly a treasure. I’m so glad I’m living here during an era when it’s getting cleaner —- stewardship of natural resources is so important!
If you go to Holden, the Emergent Tower has benches at least every two stories (from memory). It replaced an old growth tree that was one of the largest at Holden. The idea is to provide a tree's perspective of the forest. See also Bole Woods below.
Don't discount Malabar Farm; personally I enjoy it as much as Ohio Amish Country. The Big House is extraordinary, especially if you're a fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood (Bogart and Bacall were married there), but so is the autumn experience. After visiting Malabar Farm, and perhaps dining at the Malabar Farm Restaurant, a locavore pleasure, head north or south on Route 603 to exploring the rolling hills of central Ohio countryside. It's sublime during harvest season. You also can visit Loudonville and Mohican State Park, which has great trails through another National Natural Landmark. Mohican also has a famed covered bridge, and a fire tower offering good fall colors views.
Ever been to a barn dance? Perhaps stay overnight at the Malabar Hostel.
You also can take Route 95 south through Butler and, at Ankenytown, go up the hill and visit once was a small farm town with a grain elevator and stores on a now abandoned railroad. It's a near ghost town, but still has a couple country churches. Continue on 95 to Fredericktown, now the area's surviving farming center. At Fredericktown, Route 95 heads west to an interchange on I-71 at Mount Gilead.
The Dittrick Medical History Center is another good University Circle attraction. It's surprisingly relatively unknown and visited by few Clevelanders.
It's a little over-rated, but I think the pricing is reasonable.
Last edited by WRnative; 09-22-2018 at 08:35 PM..
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Word-class fall colors experience in Holmes County
