Consolidated Cleveland-Cuyahoga Pro's and Con's (Parma, Lakewood: housing, wealthy, nicest)

[Chef Boyardee]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

Sounds like a city that doesn't understand the role of government, but enjoys wealth redistribution at the expense of non-residents.

In that regard, Linndale is not unique. If you get a ticket in The City of Cleveland, they do not rebate the proceeds to your city of residence

[jam40jeff]

Originally Posted by Chef Boyardee

In that regard, Linndale is not unique. If you get a ticket in The City of Cleveland, they do not rebate the proceeds to your city of residence

The difference of course being that the city of Cleveland gives far, far, far less tickets per mile of highway in their city than Linndale does.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by jam40jeff

The difference of course being that the city of Cleveland gives far, far, far less tickets per mile of highway in their city than Linndale does.

And speeding tickets aren't the sole source of funding for Cleveland's budget.

[Chef Boyardee]

So what

[jam40jeff]

So your smack in the head emoticon, and implying Cleveland does the same thing, in response to Clevelander17 saying that Linndale "enjoys wealth redistribution at the expense of non-residents" was pointless.

[andrew0816]

I am not sure if it was mentioned here (it was mentioned on UrbanOhio), but isn't it possible to make the whole county the city of Cleveland yet maintain the neighborhoods identity (like how NYC has many different boroughs)? Also, not all of the school districts would have to be made into one. However, some suburban school districts should be combined.

[jam40jeff]

That is exactly what Toronto did.

[Clevelander17]

I think Lexington (or Louisville?) did the same thing, but as a citizen of an older, historic inner-ring suburb, I would hate to see it lose its identity. I would be in favor of consolidation that leaves some level of autonomy up to individual municipalities, but to what degree is important.

Interestingly enough, yesterday I took a drive up Union Avenue to Kinsman Road which turns into Chagrin Boulevard. I find it fascinating that while yes, some of Chagrin in Shaker Heights has become blighted, it's still nowhere near as bad as most of Kinsman is further west in the City of Cleveland. I can't help but be convinced that the otherwise seemingly arbitrary border between Shaker Heights and Cleveland is helping prevent the spread of blight. The same type of an "eye test" can be made driving west to east from Cleveland to Shaker Heights along Shaker Boulevard. I hate to say it, but I truly fear that if all of the borders are erased, that blight will have nothing impugning it from moving further east. I don't think that making more of Cuyahoga County look like the worse parts of Cleveland is necessarily a good thing for the region.

[BelieveInCleve]

Clevelander17, I noticed that a lot as well and its pretty obvious that the invisible line dividing the city of Cleveland with the suburbs is whats keeping them from becoming like whats on the other side of that line.

Not saying that every area of the city of Cleveland bordering an inner ring suburb is horrible like that, but many areas are especially on the Eastside. If that line was erased you can bet that the part that was outside of the city of Cleveland before would become like the Cleveland side sooner or later.

The city of Cleveland being seperate from the suburbs has slowed down the changes dramatically, and sometimes stopped it all together. Cleveland Hts. for example is going downhill very slowly compared to what it would be if part of East Cleveland or the city of Cleveland.

[jam40jeff]

So what explains East Cleveland? You give all these examples but then act as if East Cleveland is a part of the city of Cleveland as well. The Shaker Heights/Cleveland Heights border is a whole different beast. Shaker Heights was completely built out about 90 years ago as a wealthy suburb. Thus, the housing stock is much larger and nicer. That is why it has remained nice, not because it's not a part of Cleveland. How about Edgewater? That area borders Lakewood and is NICER than Lakewood. Isn't that a counter-example to Cleveland/Shaker Heights? Also, there's Westpark/Fairvew Park and Brooklyn/Parma/Old Brooklyn, all areas where it's very hard to tell whether you are in Cleveland or not. Also, on the east side is Little Italy and University Circle, which is a stark contrast to East Cleveland and MUCH NICER even though it is within Cleveland. It's not the city limits that cause the problems, it's the character of each individual neighbrohood. That would not change with regionalization (especially if school district boundaries did not change).