What are the positives of living in Greater Cleveland (Columbus: transplants, theater)

[WRnative]

Here's a thread discussing what's positive about living in Cleveland.

[bjimmy24]

In my opinion, the biggest positives are:

- unpretentiousness.
- accessibility to great events, institutions, concerts, sports games etc
- even though it could be better, Cleveland's transit still is pretty decent and comfortable.
- stronger sense of community than most other major cities.
- Metroparks, Lake Erie, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

[WRnative]

Cleveland is renown for the quality of its healthcare, highlighted by the presence of the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals systems.

Yet it's shocking that Greater Cleveland's five counties have seven hospitals given five-star ratings by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) -- Cleveland Clinic, Hillcrest, Lutheran, Marymount, Parma Community, Southwest General, and St. John Medical Center in Westlake. UHHS Memorial Hospital of Geneva would make an eighth, but it's located in Ashtabula County, just outside of Greater Cleveland.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.co...-from-cms.html

Hillcrest, Lutheran, and Marymount are part of the Cleveland Clinic system.

Many states have only 1 five-star hospital, if any. The states with one five-star hospital include Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming, and, shockingly, New York. Some states have NO five-star hospitals -- Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Vermont.

Greater Cleveland has as many or more five-star hospitals than the entire totals in several highly populated states (more than six million population cut-off; Greater Cleveland's population is 2.06 million), including New York, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Washington, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Nationally, the ratio of population to five-star hospitals is 1.11 million/1. In Greater Cleveland, the ratio is 0.294/1.

Individual hospitals can be checked here:

https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html?

Many remaining Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital hospitals, include the UH main campus, have four-star ratings. There are 1,086 four-star hospitals in the U.S., according to the above-linked Becker article.

[QCongress83216]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

In my opinion, the biggest positives are:

- unpretentiousness.
- accessibility to great events, institutions, concerts, sports games etc
- even though it could be better, Cleveland's transit still is pretty decent and comfortable.
- stronger sense of community than most other major cities.
- Metroparks, Lake Erie, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Definitely agree with you on all your points; Clevelanders are not a flashy bunch or care to be seen like NYC, Chicago, L.A., Vegas, Boston, D.C. and most of the coasts. I definitely wish the transit was better her in CLE (i.e. 24-hour transit). Or, better transit to the suburbs but folks in a lot of those suburbs won't go for it because they don't want the riffraff from Cleveland coming in and they feel they can function without Cleveland IMO, which is false. And, Cleveland has a very strong sense of community where almost everybody knows everybody and is willing to help each other plus CLE doesn't have a lot of transplants (some people feel that's a bad thing). You're a living witness that the reason why other major cities don't have a stronger sense of community because it's so transient like your current city Boston.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by QCongress83216

Clevelanders are not a flashy bunch or care to be seen like NYC, Chicago, L.A., Vegas, Boston, D.C. and most of the coasts.

IMO Clevelanders could use a little more flash. It's depressing for me to have to look at dumpy, ragtag peasants all the time, everywhere I go. I want to see people I can aspire to emulate.

(I never found Chicagoans to be particularly "flashy". But they are a mite more put together.)

[HueysBack]

- Healthcare is definitely superb. Not sure natives really understand how good it is here.
- Major city amenities. Great museums, 3 major sports teams, a ton of great shopping options. A big library system. Festivals. Decent transit.
- Small town feel. It's not crowded in the least bit. Also doesn't feel transient which equates to a real "hometown" vibe.
- Downtown. I know it's not huge and has lots of room for development, but it's laid out pretty well and there are some beautiful buildings down there.
- Metro Parks. Honestly, one of the best intentionally designed park systems I've seen.
- Lake Erie.

[QCongress83216]

Originally Posted by andrew61

IMO Clevelanders could use a little more flash. It's depressing for me to have to look at dumpy, ragtag peasants all the time, everywhere I go. I want to see people I can aspire to emulate.

(I never found Chicagoans to be particularly "flashy". But they are a mite more put together.)

Well if you wanna emulate other people then you don't have any style or originality of your own.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by HueysBack

- Healthcare is definitely superb. Not sure natives really understand how good it is here.
- Major city amenities. Great museums, 3 major sports teams, a ton of great shopping options. A big library system. Festivals. Decent transit.
- Small town feel. It's not crowded in the least bit. Also doesn't feel transient which equates to a real "hometown" vibe.
- Downtown. I know it's not huge and has lots of room for development, but it's laid out pretty well and there are some beautiful buildings down there.
- Metro Parks. Honestly, one of the best intentionally designed park systems I've seen.
- Lake Erie.

This for me as well. Adding to it:

- affordability. Because I didn't want to wind up becoming a street person in Portland.

- The abundance of opportunities for senior citizens. From financial, to health to social.

Sometimes it helps to have lived in other places in order to appreciate the place in which one presently lives.

[216facts]

Originally Posted by HueysBack

- Healthcare is definitely superb. Not sure natives really understand how good it is here.
- Major city amenities. Great museums, 3 major sports teams, a ton of great shopping options. A big library system. Festivals. Decent transit.
- Small town feel. It's not crowded in the least bit. Also doesn't feel transient which equates to a real "hometown" vibe.
- Downtown. I know it's not huge and has lots of room for development, but it's laid out pretty well and there are some beautiful buildings down there.
- Metro Parks. Honestly, one of the best intentionally designed park systems I've seen.
- Lake Erie.

I'll add:
- CVNP = 33,000 acres of woods, trails, hills, waterfalls, between Cleveland and Akron
- Solid funding for metropark systems of all counties in the area, we're not a low tax state with dirt roads and no parks
- Solid funding for cleaning our water systems (rivers and lakes)
- Solid funding for the future: Cleveland Foundation is #7 on this list Survey Results | CFInsights Columbus Survey
- Music from R&R to pop to classical. From Blossom to Severance to Beachland to Brothers Lounge to wherever - quality live music that is reasonably priced

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by HueysBack

- Healthcare is definitely superb. Not sure natives really understand how good it is here.
- Major city amenities. Great museums, 3 major sports teams, a ton of great shopping options. A big library system. Festivals. Decent transit.
- Small town feel. It's not crowded in the least bit. Also doesn't feel transient which equates to a real "hometown" vibe.
- Downtown. I know it's not huge and has lots of room for development, but it's laid out pretty well and there are some beautiful buildings down there.
- Metro Parks. Honestly, one of the best intentionally designed park systems I've seen.
- Lake Erie.

Agree on nearly all points... I might add, culture here, in general, is exceptionally high overall -- Cleveland, despite being a moderate-sized metro area, punches way above its weight class culturally, often/usually competing with NYC, Chicago, DC, etc... In addition to great museums, orchestra, art/theater/music venues, etc., our public library holdings are among the largest in America (surpassing several in cities much bigger)...

Transit? Despite its problems (mainly due to our stingy state's lack of funding), I believe Cleveland's transit infrastructure is better than "decent" given the city's size and density. The fact we have rail rapid transit (including a heavy rail/subway type), there's the much-admired Health Line BRT, CSU BRT Lite, the excellent (and free) downtown trolleys and our extensive Park 'N Ride freeway flyers -- considerably more extensive than most cities Cleveland's size.

Quality of Housing/living: Cleveland has a vast variety of high-quality living in a variety of settings, including lakefront, exclusive Westchester County-like (on the Heights) and country/semi rural, and even New England equivalent(s), within 30 minutes of downtown.