Anyone ever do the "unthinkable" and move across the river to the other side of Cleveland? (Parma: big home, neighborhoods)

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by WRnative

If you're retired and don't have to pay municipal income taxes, the part of Cleveland Hts. adjacent to Little Italy and near University Circle is ideal for persons interested in high culture. You can take the Red Line downtown, to the West Side Market and Market District and to the airport. The 24/7 Healthline provides easy access to Playhouse Square.

This thread should be helpful. Read especially the thread linked in post 3.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...cleveland.html

Post 8 in that thread discusses the East/West divide, which certainly has cultural and even racial roots.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...questions.html

See also "Market District & Ohio City" in this travel article for a discussion of the "Bridge War" that also establishes an historical precedent for the East/West divide in Cleveland.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g....Overview.html

The West Side Market once competed with the Central Market.

https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/676

Supposedly, a new East Side Market will open some day.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/...n-opening-date

https://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-c...enovation.html

Certainly, many East Siders visit Tremont, Ohio City, Gordon Square and even Lakewood (especially Pier W), so in recent decades the emergence of these restaurant/entertainment districts have muted the East/West divide to some degree. I do know of East Siders who have moved to both the Market District and Tremont, but they are not personal acquaintances.

I also would check out Willoughby if interested in a charming downtown (which has some condos with personal elevators), access to a massive retail center (Mentor), Lake Erie beaches and natural areas, good mass transit (Laketran which offers point-to-point service to University Circle medical centers), great Lake Metroparks, Holden Arboretum and the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks, and easy drives to University Circle and downtown.

This thread has much information about Greater Cleveland, especially Greater Cleveland metropark systems.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...cleveland.html

This thread discusses many Cleveland attractions. Start with post 15 due to moderator deletions.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...ivities-2.html

Good luck!

This is very, very helpful! I really appreciate it.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by kpl1228

The only other city I can think of that has a psychological Berlin Wall like Cleveland's Cuyahoga River is the Chicago River, separating the north and south sides of Chicago.

I think it's a lot more common than that, actually. For example Pittsburgh has the North Hills and South Hills divide, which is pretty similar.

One thing that I do think is notable about the East Side/West Side divide in Cleveland is that it is almost completely inclusive of the city. It's not a description of which group of suburbs you live in, but more so which side of the county do you live on.

Detroit Shoreway, Lakewood, West Park, Cudell, and Brooklyn are all "West Side".

Lyndhurst, University Circle, Warrensville Heights, Collinwood, and Hough are all "East Side".

In contrast, only a handful of City of Pittsburgh neighborhoods qualify for the North Hills/South Hills designation, and even that is debatable.

[andrew61]

I just remembered that back when I was a kid (mid-'70s), my cousin and her husband moved from the West Side (Brooklyn) to Cleveland Heights. IIRC, the husband was a teacher somewhere on the East Side so I guess they wanted to be closer to his job.

They divorced in '79, and my cousin let her ex keep the house as part of the settlement. She moved back west, and later on (mid-'80s) he did as well, moving to Lakewood so his daughter could have "better schools," as he put it.

[TBideon]

I'd say Roosevelt is more a psychological boundary than the Chicago River. It's definitely a street of contradictions. One also can make a strong argument that 35th is the new boundary these days (with Hyde Park being an oasis, and Mt Greenwood/Beverly practically being suburbs due to their distance and demographics).

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by TBideon

I'd say Roosevelt is more a psychological boundary than the Chicago River. It's definitely a street of contradictions. One also can make a strong argument that 35th is the new boundary these days (with Hyde Park being an oasis, and Mt Greenwood/Beverly practically being suburbs due to their distance and demographics).

I think so too. I haven't lived in Chicago in decades but that more how I remember it.

Getting back to Cleveland, I have only lived here a little over four years. The first two on the east side, second two west side. I miss some things about the east side but I really like the west side. I wish they could be all in one place.

[Ohiogirl81]

And Cincinnati has I-75.

Most of my Cleveland friends are east siders who have stuck to the neighborhoods they grew up in; the exceptions are those who moved west to be closer to their jobs.

[ExMathMajor]

I spent the first 22 years of my life on the east side, 17 of them in Cleveland Heights. Prior to college the only times I remember going to the west side were for school trips to the zoo and maybe once to the West Side Market. (Where was the Dan-Dee factory? We went there when I was in third grade. It was cool to see how potato chips were made...)

I didn't visit the west side as an adult until I became good friends with a couple of classmates who lived in one of the western suburbs, I forget which but it wasn't one of the fancier ones. This was long before smartphones so I needed them to draw me a map. Also, there was a club on the west side that my girlfriends and I used to go to. I never drove there myself so I couldn't tell you exactly where it was...all I remember were all the mixed drinks I tried, lol. If I recall correctly the drinking age was 18 or 19 back then...There was also the Flats, which I never thought of as "west side" for some reason.

After I graduated college, I moved to Chicago, where I proceeded to live and visit all over the damn place. North, south, west, suburbs, I did them all...and in the beginning I was surprised at how little native Chicagoans knew about their own city. Then at some point I realized Clevelanders were largely the same way. Pot, meet kettle.

Since moving back to Cleveland I've explored more of the area than I ever did as a young person. I've made many trips to the west side. I now understand why people love Lakewood so much, and I'm amazed at what Ohio City has become. I also like what they've done to the Edgewater area. I've even been to Parma, which will always be wedded to "Polka Varieties" in my memory, lol. However, my job is in Mayfield Heights, and my years in Chicago have ruined me for long commutes, so I'm back in the Heights again.

Honestly, though, even if my job were in Strongsville or Rocky River or some such, I'd still be back in my hometown. Life experience has taught me (along with many of my childhood friends who grew up in the Heights in the 70s and 80s and left for other cities, countries, and continents) that it was an exceptional place to be a kid. Now that I'm closer to grandma age, I'm enjoying all the things I took for granted back then.

Now...maybe if I had school-age kids I might think differently. I doubt it though...because to me "education" isn't just what happens on weekdays during the school year. The pressure today's parents experience making sure their kids meet every single metric of "success" in this society is insane to me and I'm glad I don't have to deal with it. Whole other subject...

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by TBideon

I'd say Roosevelt is more a psychological boundary than the Chicago River. It's definitely a street of contradictions. One also can make a strong argument that 35th is the new boundary these days (with Hyde Park being an oasis, and Mt Greenwood/Beverly practically being suburbs due to their distance and demographics).

As a Clevelander turned Chicagoan, I'd remind everyone that Chicago has three sides - north, west, and south. 35th is not the boundary between the north and south sides, it's pretty deeply into the south side. However, it's something of a boundary between the white/Hispanic and black parts of the South Side, again with Hyde Park, Beverly/Morgan Park, and Mount Greenwood being exceptions (white or racially mixed in a black larger area).

[ExMathMajor]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

As a Clevelander turned Chicagoan, I'd remind everyone that Chicago has three sides - north, west, and south. 35th is not the boundary between the north and south sides, it's pretty deeply into the south side. However, it's something of a boundary between the white/Hispanic and black parts of the South Side, again with Hyde Park, Beverly/Morgan Park, and Mount Greenwood being exceptions (white or racially mixed in a black larger area).

When I moved to Chicago in 1988 I was told "Never go south of Roosevelt." My response: "**** that."

Around the time I left that boundary had moved south to 18th or Cermak, I forget which.

I'd like to remind everyone that Chicago is a VERY BIG CITY and the vast majority of its citizens are decent, hard-working people.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by ExMathMajor

When I moved to Chicago in 1988 I was told "Never go south of Roosevelt." My response: "**** that."

Around the time I left that boundary had moved south to 18th or Cermak, I forget which.

I'd like to remind everyone that Chicago is a VERY BIG CITY and the vast majority of its citizens are decent, hard-working people.

"Very big" doesn't even describe Chicago fully... Ginormous is more apt... People in Cleveland don't realize how good they've got it in terms of intra-urban travel compared to a place like Chicago. Just getting downtown to the Loop from even many "close in suburbs" takes longer than getting from one far East Side Cleveland burb to a far West Side one. Growing up on the south East Side and in Shaker, we always said no trip is more than 10-15 minutes. Going downtown was only slightly longer.