where are the liberal, family friendly suburbs? (Cleveland, Lorain: middle-class, renting)

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Kent70

This is not good for SH.

What are you referring to exactly?

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by ferraris

What are you referring to exactly?

Didn't think I needed to state it: EdChoice, the podcast topic you posted.

[ohioaninsc]

I live in SH and I can guarentee you won't find a friendlier suburb to live in or a more beautiful one. Great police department, and great schools...the diversity here is outstanding.

[Kent70]

Originally Posted by ohioaninsc

I live in SH and I can guarentee you won't find a friendlier suburb to live in or a more beautiful one. Great police department, and great schools...the diversity here is outstanding.

This new voucher program is not good for SH despite Dr Glasner’s belief that current students will not opt out of the system. Students may or may not opt out but the tax funding dollars will.

A long time ago SH had a top 10 national ranking and is now a top 10 NEO with an average ranking.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Kent70

Didn't think I needed to state it: EdChoice, the podcast topic you posted.

I know the state legislature was revamping how EdChoice would qualifications and funding would work sometime pre-COVID, but I never did find out what the final outcome was (or if there even was a final outcome). At the time of that podcast it was bad news for many school districts in Ohio, so there was a lot of political pressure around it.

I linked it because it gave some really good examples of how some of the metrics used are unfair, misleading, and misguided.

[cubsguy81]

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.

We too are moving to SH in July and saw this with schools, especially with the taxes. My initial thoughts were negative. For what the taxes are I am expecting a pretty high level of service, which sadly it appears I will be getting a lot less than we do here in SC.

However, I do agree with other posters that you can't judge schools by their report card or ranking. Some of the top schools in Chicago I am familiar with appear to get dinged for the same reasons SH schools are from what I am reading and they are among the best in the nation.

Nothing can replace being on the ground and knowing the districts. That's why we are going to get there, learn and make a decision in a couple of years before our son would start school. There are many good options in the area if we like something else better we can sell and move to it.

[sc471]

I would recommend Lakewood because it's left-leaning, diverse, dense, and walkable because it was built as a streetcar suburb. The streetcars aren't there anymore but it has a a great bus-rapid transit connection called the Cleveland State Line (# 55) to downtown Cleveland that only takes 15-20 min on most days. The drive by car is easy too. It has great amenities, its own downtown with a nice library, a laid-back atmosphere, beautiful streets with nice houses, and Lakewood Park is a scenic place on the lake where you can do all kinds of fun things. And you can walk or bike everywhere. The other places you mentioned are definitely long commutes to downtown, except for Rocky River. Rocky River is really pleasant with nice people but it's not a liberal or diverse place. Shaker could be consistently fast to downtown if you took the Rapid train system and lived/worked near where you get on and off, but Shaker isn't close to any highways and the drive could be a pain.
An under the radar option would be Berea, which is a small and scenic suburb that is home to Baldwin-Wallace University.
Next time you're in town I'd recommend taking a test drive/ride of your route to work from each of the places you're interested in and calling people who live in cities too to see what they say. And just walk around on foot and see what your impression is.

[kpl1228]

Originally Posted by teacherdad

We ONCE chose an area based on those "report cards." What a bad mistake that was!!! I am in education, but was not familiar with the area. I ended up working at a few schools in the District. The "low" school was by FAR superior because of the teachers and the relationships they fostered. The "test taker" school, had rude and shaming tactics with the kids. It was so bad.

I hate those school report cards. People make the school, not test scores. Go tour a few if you have time. Shaker has a GREAT rep going way back. It gets respect from colleges far from CLE, in fact. You can't beat the architecture.

No offense to my cousin in Solon, but I'd never live there. I prefer "neighborhoods" and older homes.

Report cards are maybe 15-20% of the equation. Great post. The school I teach at now is a C (and probably heading for a D) but the staff is terrific, etc. It's just a really tough group of (terrific, in my opinion) kids.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by sc471

I would recommend Lakewood because it's left-leaning, diverse, dense, and walkable because it was built as a streetcar suburb. The streetcars aren't there anymore but it has a a great bus-rapid transit connection called the Cleveland State Line (# 55) to downtown Cleveland that only takes 15-20 min on most days. The drive by car is easy too.

The Red Line Rapid Transit (train) is within walking distance to a significant chunk of western Lakewood, including the W. 117-Madison station which literally straddles the Cleveland-Lakewood border (the growing/trendy Birdtown neighborhood is directly served by this station). The Red Line's West Boulevard-Cudell Station to the NE is accessible to the northwestern section of Lakewood as well. Both stations, as well as Triskett further SW, have generous free parking of which many Lakewood residents take advantage of. RTA's #26 bus along dense/busy Detroit is a 24/7, fairly frequent route that directly serves the West Blvd station.

[schmave]

Personally I thought pretty much the entire Cleveland metro area was pretty liberal, especially in comparison to the rest of Ohio.
It's long been the most reliably Democratic area in the entire state, although Trump did well in much of northeast Ohio four years ago.