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Pittsburgh will be the obvious choice, they are always rated among the top in the “most livable cities” lists, the rest of the cities may only be on one of them if any at all. I used to live in the Pittsburgh area and it was one of the better big cities I have been to. Pittsburgh is one of those cities where you can actually enjoy a good quality of life to make it worth living in the city. Most cities are dumpy and blighted so people will move to a surrounding city but with Pittsburgh it’s much better than McKeesport or Braddock. I just wish Pittsburgh still had the streetcars that they used to have, I can’t say I enjoy driving there.
You are probably correct about the difference between the Asians moving to Akron and Buffalo. This is a couple years ago, but I was looking at ethnicity estimates of different areas and thought it was Buffalo that also had a big number of Nepalese/Bhutanese residents and figured (like Akron), it was one of the settlement cities. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another metro.
If it's more Bangladeshis than it's obviously a different group/immigration pattern.
I'm not an expert on Akron's history, but I think it was mostly Laotians/Cambodians that originally started immigrating to the northside in the late 90s/early 2000s. That created a small, tight-knit Asian community that grew substantially when Akron was named a resettlement city for those seeking refugee from Nepal/Bhutan. The current growth is probably a mix of high birth rates and secondary migration from other cities.
Either way, a neighborhood like Slavic Village could have became like Akron's North Hill if the city of Cleveland had embraced refugee resettlement 20 years ago. But the city leadership never made immigration an issue. Part of it had to with a mentality of "lets worry about our own before we take on others" and considering Cleveland still has a very serious generational poverty issue, that made for good campaign rhetoric. But seems like that mentality is changing and I'm guessing people seeing how the Asian residents in Akron's North Hill revitalized that neighborhood (without a negative effect on "their own") was part of the reason why the city of Cleveland has done more in the past couple years to attract immigrants than probably the previous 40-50 years combined.
You are probably correct about the difference between the Asians moving to Akron and Buffalo. This is a couple years ago, but I was looking at ethnicity estimates of different areas and thought it was Buffalo that also had a big number of Nepalese/Bhutanese residents and figured (like Akron), it was one of the settlement cities. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another metro.
If it's more Bangladeshis than it's obviously a different group/immigration pattern.
I'm not an expert on Akron's history, but I think it was mostly Laotians/Cambodians that originally started immigrating to the northside in the late 90s/early 2000s. That created a small, tight-knit Asian community that grew substantially when Akron was named a resettlement city for those seeking refugee from Nepal/Bhutan. The current growth is probably a mix of high birth rates and secondary migration from other cities.
Either way, a neighborhood like Slavic Village could have became like Akron's North Hill if the city of Cleveland had embraced refugee resettlement 20 years ago. But the city leadership never made immigration an issue. Part of it had to with a mentality of "lets worry about our own before we take on others" and considering Cleveland still has a very serious generational poverty issue, that made for good campaign rhetoric. But seems like that mentality is changing and I'm guessing people seeing how the Asian residents in Akron's North Hill revitalized that neighborhood (without a negative effect on "their own") was part of the reason why the city of Cleveland has done more in the past couple years to attract immigrants than probably the previous 40-50 years combined.
Buffalo also has a pretty large Burmese population, IIRC, though they've moved to a different set of neighborhoods.
The relatively small Bhutanese population in Cleveland is a bit perplexing because there's not only a notable concentration in Akron but also in Pittsburgh (where they've helped to stabilize the neighborhood of Carrick) and even in Erie. It kind of makes them the odd man out regionally.
What group is dominant in Asiatown in Cleveland, BTW?
Buffalo also has a pretty large Burmese population, IIRC, though they've moved to a different set of neighborhoods.
The relatively small Bhutanese population in Cleveland is a bit perplexing because there's not only a notable concentration in Akron but also in Pittsburgh (where they've helped to stabilize the neighborhood of Carrick) and even in Erie. It kind of makes them the odd man out regionally.
What group is dominant in Asiatown in Cleveland, BTW?
Good question. I think maybe still Chinese (historical population), but seems like it's more a catch all, small, Asian neighborhood.
Actually, it probably feels more Asian that what it is because the stores are mostly Asian, but demographics is probably as split as you find in Cleveland.
Probably close to 25 percent Asian, 25 percent black, 25 percent white, 25 percent Hispanic (there has been a long Hispanic presence there and think it was originally Mexican).
Last edited by ClevelandBrown; 07-05-2023 at 03:06 PM..
IiRC states more or less request to “host” refugees. Buffalo bring in NYS had a lot to do with it having a larger immigrant influx than Cleveland or St Louis which are in Ohio and Missouri in the last decade or so.
The state is kind of choosing to let swaths of Cleveland wither that let migrants refill those neighborhoods.
I feel like Cleveland is one of the most misunderstood cities in the country. I voted for Pittsburgh, fwiw.
I just got back from Buffalo two weekends ago and I enjoyed my time in the city. Cleveland and Buffalo are two very similar cities from their demographics, urban neighborhoods and built environment. If Buffalo grew last decade, Cleveland easily can, too. I know people on this site love to talk cultural amenities, parks, neighborhoods and transit, and Cleveland offers all of that. You can literally take rail from the airport and be in the city's downtown or it's thriving health and cultural hub where the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals is located. Their museums are highly ranked, the community continues to invest in them, and growth is happening in all directions in the city from east to west (not just one hot neighborhood). They have great inner ring suburbs many of which are connected by the light rail's blue and green lines and not far from some of the red line's (heavy rail) stations in the city.
University Circle is booming and several residential highrises have been constructed and are under construction. Cleveland also started early converting a lot of their older buildings downtown into residential and because of that, inventory is now limited resulting in new construction. Plenty of new office buildings, hotels and residential highrises have been built in downtown Cleveland over the last handful of years.
It seems like there has been a real momentum shift from certain neighborhoods to several neighborhoods around the city seeing new residential conversions take place. It is just odd to see the assets that Cleveland and also St. Louis have be so misunderstood.
There seems to be so much more momentum in Cleveland than what I saw in Buffalo. The foundation is there in Cleveland to reverse its population decline. Buffalo has really done a great job marketing itself to immigrants, and I think this is something Cleveland is really starting to do as well. Again, if Buffalo can do it, Cleveland right down the road can do the same thing.
Well said.
Last edited by TheProf; 07-05-2023 at 11:50 PM..
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