where are the liberal, family friendly suburbs? (Cleveland, Lakewood: houses, neighborhood)

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by on3

As a result of this pandemic, I wonder if people will be moving out of the city where the chance to get any future virus is lower? It's not hard for people to look at what has happened in New York city and draw some simple conclusions. I wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in suburb sprawl in the future.

The current pandemic was bound it happen, it's called the history of mankind.

What were people thinking before the current pandemic? This is at least China's 2nd pandemic the past 17 years. How and why do people today think we're above all this?

Getting China to actually play by the rules will decrease the likelihood of future pandemics, after all, they've been putting out pandemics since the bubonic plague 1,500 years ago during Roman times.

Like post-9/11, when we would never see skyscrapers again and people were buying parachutes for their offices, let's wait and see a bit about an increased exodus to the suburbs.

Suburban growth has been higher in the 'burbs for a long time so perhaps this pandemic will thin-out some cities with an increase to the 'burbs...or not, it's a wait and see how things play out right now. Pandemic or not, the suburbs keep growing more so then urban centers/cities.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by on3

As a result of this pandemic, I wonder if people will be moving out of the city where the chance to get any future virus is lower? It's not hard for people to look at what has happened in New York city and draw some simple conclusions. I wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in suburb sprawl in the future.

I think your's is a gross overreaction. As the poster above noted, some thought 9-11 was the death of the American skyscraper, but yet they have been flying up in cities across the country since that time (Philly alone has just built 2 Comcast towers!). Let's just see how this COVID-19 stuff shakes out before we reach any rash conclusions. The last thing we need in this city and country is even more suburban sprawl. The day cities and close-in character suburbs, like Shaker, Lakewood and Cleve Hts lose their charm to places like Medina, that day will be far worse than the pandemic itself.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by TheProf

I think your's is a gross overreaction. As the poster above noted, some thought 9-11 was the death of the American skyscraper, but yet they have been flying up in cities across the country since that time (Philly alone has just built 2 Comcast towers!). Let's just see how this COVID-19 stuff shakes out before we reach any rash conclusions. The last thing we need in this city and country is even more suburban sprawl. The day cities and close-in character suburbs, like Shaker, Lakewood and Cleve Hts lose their charm to places like Medina, that day will be far worse than the pandemic itself.

After the Spanish flu, 100k moved into Cleveland in the following 10 years. Lots of prisoner of the moment thinking from people who have nothing but time and zero day to day worries speculating about future doom and gloom, completely missing the real disaster which is happening now in real time with mass unemployment. The silver lining is that there really isn't a better place to be since the whole country is pretty much equally impacted (actually we are likely better off due to lack of dependence on tourism and hospitality) so there really isn't a place everyone will move away to.

Suburban sprawl is actually the opposite conclusion people should be reaching. More cars, more pollution, less walking, worse immune systems... to combat respiratory illness? In what world does this make sense?

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by dr_j_planning

Dear OP,

I wish you all the best in your relocation decision. I encourage you to explore the quality of a school district not merely based on State Report Cards and Great Schools Ratings. Consider, for example, the variation in State Report Card grades for the top ten school districts in metropolitan Cleveland-Akron based on the total number of National Merit Semifinalists each district has produced over the past decade:

SCHOOL NAME 10-YEAR TOTAL 2018-2019
NMSF REPORT CARD
Solon 214 A
Shaker Heights 98 C
Hudson 77 A
Westlake 68 B
Revere (Richfield) 57 A
Brecksville-Broadview Heights 53 B
Rocky River 41 A
Orange (Pepper Pike) 41 B
Copley 32 B
Mentor 32 B

Take the time to dive more deeply into course offerings, extracurricular and athletic programs, community commitment, funding, teacher and administrator interviews and parental feedback.

Welcome!

DR J

Wow, SH is a C grade district? All those taxes for a C level school district? Such a nice community but with that kind of average ranking for schools, no wonder the population is declining there.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by Kent70

Wow, SH is a C grade district? All those taxes for a C level school district? Such a nice community but with that kind of average ranking for schools, no wonder the population is declining there.

As dr J indicated, I wouldn't put a lot of stock in those "grade" rating. Shaker schools are high quality in many of the most important metrics, not the least of which is the number merit scholarships earned and Shaker's extremely high college placement rate.

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by TheProf

As dr J indicated, I wouldn't put a lot of stock in those "grade" rating. Shaker schools are high quality in many of the most important metrics, not the least of which is the number merit scholarships earned and Shaker's extremely high college placement rate.

I was really surprised though that, despite the number of Natl Merit Scholarships, SH still ranked a C grade. SH a long time ago was a top 10 system. Now it's a NEO ''C'' grade system in NEO. It's very surprising.

SH is such a nice and nationally known community otherwise.

[TechieTechie]

Originally Posted by LongTrail23

So we went through some of the same things you are going through, but were more worried about being in a liberal-leaning suburb than encouraged by it.

Either way, we ended up deciding the brutal and unnecessarily punitive taxes of Shaker Heights were something we would deal with given the other positives of the community. I will also say specifically the Fernway neighborhood in SH was the only one we wanted after doing our research. While money is always a factor, it was not why we chose the more humble Fernway neighborhood over places with larger homes like Malvern, Boulevard, Onaway, etc. More home = more taxes as well...

I'm obviously biased here, but not sure I have ever been in a more welcoming, friendly place like Fernway. There will be a brand new (re-done) elementary school which is opening up in the fall, which kids all can walk to. There are an unbelievable number of young families here and it's a joy to see everyone out and about. For us, we saw the density of housing as a feature, not a bug. Plus we love the "charm" of older homes. Access to RTA is a very nice to have, the new Van Aken District really does change things, and you can not beat the overall beauty of the SH/CH area. Seriously....just get in your car and drive around Fernway. It really has unparalleled charm.


As the other posters have said, I would be cautious of school rankings. SH is a unique place and deserves a closer look, given the features you say you are looking for.

If you want to go private after elementary school, many of "the best" privates are located nearby as well.

Best of luck!

I have to agree here. I am moving back to OH after 25 years in Boston....Onaway neighborhood in SH is similarly welcoming (I'm moving there in July). I think SH combines the best of all worlds. Family friendly neighborhoods, beautiful architecture, easy access to diverse retail & restaurants (Shaker Center, Van Aken, Shaker Square, Larchmere) very good schools, great town amenities, nicely situation between downtown, University Circle, the Lake and the retail belt on Rt 271.

The reason Shaker's performance is probably a bit lower than many suburban belt towns is because of the diversity of Shaker's population. Which is a PLUS. Your kids will be exposed to a more diverse student population while also having access to some of the finest public school college prep courses in the Midwest. A win win, IMHO.

Good luck.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Kent70

Wow, SH is a C grade district? All those taxes for a C level school district? Such a nice community but with that kind of average ranking for schools, no wonder the population is declining there.

It’s Our Society That Has An Opportunity Gap

This is an article written by a Shaker teacher that addresses a part of the problem with school ratings. Shaker and its broad demographics are pretty uniquely disadvantaged by the metrics that the ratings use.

According to “Measuring What Matters,” we are the 17th most educated community in the nation. That puts us squarely in freak territory: the top tenth of the top one percent of the 40,000 American cities and towns. We have many kids who come from families in which not only both parents have advanced degrees, but all four grandparents went to college. Most of these kids are going to be good students. Many will be superstars. And when you throw high income into the mix, the superstars are issued capes and wrist web-shooters and bullet-deflecting bracelets.

We do a tremendous disservice to our students—in any disaggregated group—when we compare them to these outliers

[ferraris]

If anyone wants to do a deeper dive into this, the "Hey Shaker!" podcast has a few good episodes on the school district. The one covering EdChoice gets into a lot of the nitty gritty around the school ratings.

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by ferraris

If anyone wants to do a deeper dive into this, the "Hey Shaker!" podcast has a few good episodes on the school district. The one covering EdChoice gets into a lot of the nitty gritty around the school ratings.

This is not good for SH.