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You may be missing the boat on today's Cleveland. It's big, bold, and beautiful, and along with Kansas City, it is about the only place left of any size or stature that still offers a reasonable local cost-of-living. One could easily be worse off in pitting a big coastal paycheck against all those big coastal expenses.
Wishing is a waste of time...be happy with when you were born. I was born in 1938 and I've seen MOST of the hard times and now see the huge huge waste in the 2000's...those born before the great depression, they've seen it ALL and more.
I think I would have liked to have played the dating game before HIV/AIDS was a concern. That must have been fun.
My parents were in college in the 60s/70s, and from what they described, it just sounded more fun. Their college experience seemed to be a lot more introspective and meaningful based on how they described it. They had philosophic conversations about civil rights, changing the world, etc..
When I was in college, pretty much everyone was a hustler, anxious about what kind of job they were going to get... that was everything. . By the 2000s when I hit college, the student loan crisis was already ramping up, the dot-com boom had just busted so recent grads were crying about it, 9/11 had happened so we were concerned about terrorism, Iraq happened and we were mad about it. Everyone I knew hated taking any class that they didn't think was going to directly relate to their job, because they knew it was adding months to the time students loans would have to be paid back.Then as I was exiting the recession hit, and everyone just deflated even further.
Above all we were just anxious about the world out there, not very excited about it. We had the idea that the only way the world was going to go was down... that America had hit its peak in the past and we were going to inherit the downward slope. The worst was the powerful notion that there was nothing we could do to change or fix it... our job was going to be to manage the decline.
My parents described a kind of palpable excitement about getting to meet the world head on. They really did have a "we can change the world" mindset; a "the world is going to get better, not worse" mindset. I never felt that.
Unless your buying a home in a ghetto, your not buying a place for 60k in Cleveland. Cleveland is actually an area that's looking much better these days, as is many small to mid size cities in the Mid-West. The opportunity now I totally agree is in the middle of the country. Its still relatively inexpensive to live, and not nearly as much competition for good paying jobs as in the coasts.
My parents described a kind of palpable excitement about getting to meet the world head on. They really did have a "we can change the world" mindset; a "the world is going to get better, not worse" mindset. I never felt that.
Well, they had the Cold War and Vietnam to deal with. Including the draft. Racial, gender, and other forms of bigotry and violence as well. And of course the whole "free love" thing has been way, way way overdone in the media. Be a grown-up and realize that life has never been easy.
You may be missing the boat on today's Cleveland. It's big, bold, and beautiful, and along with Kansas City, it is about the only place left of any size or stature that still offers a reasonable local cost-of-living. One could easily be worse off in pitting a big coastal paycheck against all those big coastal expenses.
I was just there. Downtown is fixed up nicely, but my old neighborhood (Euclid-Green) still looks like a ghetto. The trace of gentrification in North Collinwood will never crawl up the hill to the 1000 square foot mid-century slab houses because they suck. They sucked in 1950 and they suck much worse now.
The west side is gentrifying; the east side is still on a down slope. On the east side in the city, only Murray Hill has any life to it. It's the tiniest of neighborhoods, but you can pretend you're not sandwiched between two ghettoes (East Cleveland and the area west of Case) if you want. Even Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights have troubled areas.
Kansas City has a large nice area in the city, roughly from Troost west to the state line, south from downtown to well beyond Country Club Plaza, that has no equivalent in Cleveland. It is more like the north side of Chicago.
To sum up then, both Cleveland and Kansas City can boast of the sort of attractive areas and neighborhoods that young professional types might well be looking for while still being more "old school" and certainly lower cost-of-living areas than what would typically be found along the coasts.
There are after all none of those coastal cities either that does not have its own share of as yet unresolved problems and problem areas.
Born 1982 here....By the 2000s when I hit college, the student loan crisis was already ramping up, the dot-com boom had just busted so recent grads were crying about it, 9/11 had happened so we were concerned about terrorism, Iraq happened and we were mad about it.
...My parents described a kind of palpable excitement about getting to meet the world head on. They really did have a "we can change the world" mindset; a "the world is going to get better, not worse" mindset. I never felt that.
Roughly a decade ahead of you... When I entered college, it was only a few years since the drinking-age was raised to 21. The bar-culture for undergraduates had collapsed (this was before it became common to be a “fifth year senior”). It was just starting to become important to have internships and co-curricular activities to pad one’s resume, for post-graduation workplace prospects. While I was in college, we had the “Peace Dividend”, and then Gulf War One happened. I majored in aeronautical engineering. Just as I was graduating, it was the worst aerospace recession since the end of the Apollo program (so at least pronounced the old-timers). Between the end of the Cold War, and the fabulous success of American military technology in Iraq, who needed aerospace/defense anymore? Yet somehow I stumbled into a job.
As for optimism and buoyant feeling of progress… likely, that had already passed. Investors were expecting another stock market crash, repeating that of October 1987. Trade-deficits and budget-deficits were already swelling. There was already fear of an entitlement-crisis. The Social Security tax-rate had just been raised (and has held steady ever since), and defined-benefit pensions has started their inexorable path to oblivion.
Born in the mid-80's, I'd like to have been born about 15 years earlier. My only concern really is that 15 year gap might make the difference between a comfortable retirement, and possibly not being able to have one at all. I have a set plan, and goals should be reached fairly easily, but I still have concerns.
Oh please. I was born in the mid-70s and there are tons of Gen Xers in the same situation as Millennials.
Unless your buying a home in a ghetto, your not buying a place for 60k in Cleveland. Cleveland is actually an area that's looking much better these days, as is many small to mid size cities in the Mid-West. The opportunity now I totally agree is in the middle of the country. Its still relatively inexpensive to live, and not nearly as much competition for good paying jobs as in the coasts.
Did you click on the Zillow link I posted? It's in Puritas-Bellaire and it's $69K, not $60K. Far from being a ghetto, it's a stable white working-class area.
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