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I think most people would beg to differ, esp when it comes to I diversity of things to do; things to do involving nature and natural areas, things involving cultural activities and the arts, things involving boating or on-the-water activities, things involving a wide variety and quality of restaurants (Cleveland has oft been touted as a major American (and rising) foodie city. The other 2 places aren't even on the radar, etc, etc, etc...
Sure, if all you want to do is plop down at a sports bar downing beers and chomping on hot-wings, maybe your right, but if you want to do more ...
Cleveland is highly compact and with excellent mass transit compared to many major cities, and much easier to visit than represented by you.
I dunno. I mean, in Columbus all of the walkable areas are in a tight band running from OSU's campus down to German Village. Similarly, you could easily walk in Louisville from Downtown to NuLu to Bardstown Rd over the course of a day. Cinci is also compact. You could get into downtown and explore Over-The-Rhine on foot, then cross the bridges and check out Covington and Newport as a pedestrian.
In contrast, the walkable nodes in Cleveland are spread out. I've walked from Downtown to Ohio City before. I suppose you could walk to Tremont or Detroit-Shoreway as well. But if you want to visit the Eastside or suburban nodes, you have to drive or get on transit.
Cleveland is highly compact and with excellent mass transit compared to many major cities, and much easier to visit than represented by you.
And considering just major league sports and cultural activities and quality, both Louisville and Columbus are deserts compared to Cleveland. For a visitor preferring horse racing and/or blue grass music, Louisville would be an excellent choice. For those interested in shopping, Easton Town Center in Columbus is one of the top shopping meccas in the Midwest, and Columbus is tough to beat for those interested in university sports given Ohio State's excellence.
Consider that the likely top tourist attraction in Columbus is the Columbus Zoo in Powell, which is at least a 20-minute drive from downtown and sometimes much more in heavy traffic and with no good mass transit option. Do you consider that compact??? Cleveland's University Circle, with some of the nation's top cultural institutions, is a 12-minute drive from Public Square with excellent mass transit connections.
Anybody considering a visit to the three cities should click on "Things to do" for each at tripadvisor.com, select the "traveler ranked" option, read reviews, and make up their own minds which city they would prefer to visit. Admittedly, different travelers may have different priorities.
Also, the OP eventually likely will visit all three cities. So what is most important is that he's provided with accurate information about what is available and what to expect in all three cities. I've well documented everything that I've said about Cleveland.
Bluegrass music and horse racing? Your jealousy of Louisville shines through in every post about it. Louisville is a top tourist destination and is growing. Cleveland is not. It's that simple. In fact, I can't think of a single place in Louisville that plays nightly bluegrass. Oh, and that little "horse racing thing?" KY derby and the 2 weeks before it are a massive festival that draws MILLIONS. Yes millions. There is nothing even remotely close in the state of Ohio. Thunder Over Louisville alone draws 750,000 people in good weather. Oh, and Downs After Dark is just as fun if not better than an Indians baseball game...Horse Racing and baseball are boring as heck, but at least a tourist in Louisville can GAMBLE at Churchill Downs and there are live DJs.
Louisville has FOUR music festivals that blow anything in CLE out of the water. Louisville has the 3rd rated art show in America in St James. Louisville is now a top destination for millenial travelers for festivals like Forecastle, Bourbon and Beyond, Lounder than Life, and the new Hometown Rising.
Louisville has one of the largest St Patrick's parades and a top 5 Zombie walk.
Cleveland has lots of great stuff too but Cleveland's desire to be "east coast urban" isn't fooling anyone. And outside downtown CLE which is nice nut NO nicer than downtown Louisville as of March 2019.
Louisville has nearly contiguous urban development and walkability for almost 6 miles from 9th and main along east market through Nulu and Butchertown and up Baxter and Bardstown Rd to nearly I-264. Columbus has a similar vibe from German Village on south High walking straight up north High all the way to campus. UofL's campus is half the size of OSU but UofL still has 25k students or so....a very virbant campus scene adjacent to the largest Victorian neighborhood in the USA. Louisville's theatre scene is just as robust as CLE...we may not have all the theatres as concentrated as Playhouse, but we have all the same Broadway shows and MULTIPLE live theatre venues all around downtown. Actors theatre and the Humana Festival of New American plays is WORLD RENOWNED and just as well known in theatre cricles as Playhouse. The expanded Speed museum isn't significantly inferior to any CLE museum...it still looks and feels like a mid sized city museum. People who want REAL museums are going to skip these listed cities all together and you know it. Like CLE, Louisville has several unique museums interesting to certain tourists.
And back to CLE...it is VERY hard to get to all these cool areas....getting from Little Italy to Ohio City using a car takes easily 30 mins. Using the train takes over an hour! You act like Cleveland's rapid citculates every 5 mins like a big city! Outside rush hour the Rapid is not user friendly and frankly SCARY to most normal tourists who'd never think to take it like they would a in a true east coast city that CLE dreams of being.
And, you are forgetting Louisville's ultimate Trump card...BOURBON. 8 distilleries opened in the last two years alone and the bourbon boom is insanely growing. Cleveland cannot match an authentic brand like Bourbon. It's a big deal even if you can't see it and is a large reason why Louisville has built 30 hotels in the last 3 years and many more coming.
Sorry, but with the exception of pro sports, CLE offers not much of anything that Louisville and Columbus don't...its why the latter two cities are growing and CLE is not.
I dunno. I mean, in Columbus all of the walkable areas are in a tight band running from OSU's campus down to German Village. Similarly, you could easily walk in Louisville from Downtown to NuLu to Bardstown Rd over the course of a day. Cinci is also compact. You could get into downtown and explore Over-The-Rhine on foot, then cross the bridges and check out Covington and Newport as a pedestrian.
In contrast, the walkable nodes in Cleveland are spread out. I've walked from Downtown to Ohio City before. I suppose you could walk to Tremont or Detroit-Shoreway as well. But if you want to visit the Eastside or suburban nodes, you have to drive or get on transit.
Finally some common sense from someone who has visited all cities like me. CLE is not walkable across neighborhoods. Not even close, and in fact, in many cases you have to cross some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the Midwest ie East Cleveland.
I dunno. I mean, in Columbus all of the walkable areas are in a tight band running from OSU's campus down to German Village. Similarly, you could easily walk in Louisville from Downtown to NuLu to Bardstown Rd over the course of a day. Cinci is also compact. You could get into downtown and explore Over-The-Rhine on foot, then cross the bridges and check out Covington and Newport as a pedestrian.
In contrast, the walkable nodes in Cleveland are spread out. I've walked from Downtown to Ohio City before. I suppose you could walk to Tremont or Detroit-Shoreway as well. But if you want to visit the Eastside or suburban nodes, you have to drive or get on transit.
Edgewater to Detroit-Shoreway to Tremont to Ohio City to downtown to Asiatown is a way bigger area than OTR and downtown or the one street Columbus has.
And back to CLE...it is VERY hard to get to all these cool areas....getting from Little Italy to Ohio City using a car takes easily 30 mins. Using the train takes over an hour! You act like Cleveland's rapid citculates every 5 mins like a big city! Outside rush hour the Rapid is not user friendly and frankly SCARY to most normal tourists who'd never think to take it like they would a in a true east coast city that CLE dreams of being.
You are very ignorant about Cleveland. I documented in post 12 how easy it is for a tourist to get anywhere in Cleveland, which has a vastly superior mass transit system to Louisville. As in any city with good mass transit, why would anybody want to walk when they can take a rail or bus rapid, or a regular bus, between destinations? Cleveland RTA days passes are $5.50.
As in any major city, tourists don't jump back and forth across Cleveland. They visit one neighborhood and exhaust their stay there before moving on to the next neighborhood.
The Red Line will get anybody from Little Italy to the West Side Market in less than 20 minutes, with five minutes of walking additionally to and from Red Line stations. Search "Google transit Little Italy Cleveland to West Side Market." The trains generally run every 15 minutes. Claiming that it takes over an hour to get from Little Italy to the West Side Market on the Red Line is preposterous deceit.
The 7-mile drive from Little Italy to the West Side Market takes 18 minutes, according to Google, not your easily "30 minutes," and candidly, on Carnegie Ave., I could make the trip in less than 18 minutes on a weekend.
Anybody can check the schedules for the Healthline bus rapid, and the rail rapids, and note that your claim that these mass transit arteries aren't user friendly outside of rush hours is not accurate. E.g., the Healthline operates 24/7. The Red Line schedules were linked in post 12.
Downtown Louisville does have a good walk score, but with a transit score much lower than downtown Cleveland which is deemed to have excellent transit. Cleveland's free bus trolleys and Healthline bus rapid, enable downtown Cleveland visitors to keep their walking time to a minimum.
You are very ignorant about Cleveland. I documented in post 12 how easy it is for a tourist to get anywhere in Cleveland, which has a vastly superior mass transit system to Louisville. As in any city with good mass transit, why would anybody want to walk when they can take a rail or bus rapid, or a regular bus, between destinations? Cleveland RTA days passes are $5.50.
As in any major city, tourists don't jump back and forth across Cleveland. They visit one neighborhood and exhaust their stay there before moving on to the next neighborhood.
The Red Line will get anybody from Little Italy to the West Side Market in less than 20 minutes, with five minutes of walking additionally to and from Red Line stations. Search "Google transit Little Italy Cleveland to West Side Market." The trains generally run every 15 minutes. Claiming that it takes over an hour to get from Little Italy to the West Side Market on the Red Line is preposterous deceit.
The 7-mile drive from Little Italy to the West Side Market takes 18 minutes, according to Google, not your easily "30 minutes," and candidly, on Carnegie Ave., I could make the trip in less than 18 minutes on Carnegie on a weekend.
Anybody can check the schedules for the Healthline bus rapid, and the rail rapids, and note that your claim that these mass transit arteries aren't user friendly outside of rush hours is not accurate. E.g., the Healthline operates 24/7. The Red Line schedules were linked in post 12.
I would like to point out a flaw in using city limits for walkscore is Louisville city limits are 300 sq miles and Cleveland is 78. As much as Large city limits skew extensive properties (namely Population) small city limits skew intensive proporties like Density or walkscore by simply omitting outer more suburban neighborhoods.
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