” But I have lived in Cleveland.
Nothing I’ve ever seen or heard would cause me to think that someone would prefer to live in Baltimore.”
You should have opened the drapes and checked out the fire on the lake. Yes, that was many years ago, but it is even worse now. Cleveland is a Detroit wannabe.
You actually LIVED in Cleveland, and didn't know it was the Cuyahoga River that caught fire (along with the Mayor's hair, but that's another story)????
The Cuyahoga River is pretty clean now, and so is Lake Erie. Most of the steel mills along that river are no longer spewing their waste into the river, and a lot of all that steel production has also been moved to China.
Still, the City of Cleveland, is NOT where anyone would want to live, just like ANY Major City (Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, etc.) that's deteriorated as the decent people have long ago fled to suburbia.
Visited Cleveland again a few months before 9/11. The city was cleaner, livelier and much more upbeat.
Took the family for walk in the parks of the Emerald Necklace, and later enjoyed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame down by the pristine harbor and adjacent to the towering Browns stadium.
The next day we drove up Euclid Avenue. We first passed bustling Cleveland State University with its business and engineering colleges and law school and further along passed Case Western Reserve University and then the world-remowned Cleveland Clinic. Before long we were at University Circle where we visited the superb Cleveland Museum of Art. We only had half a day though so could only see part of it -- and didn't get to the other fine museums in the vicinity.
It was summer so we missed the Browns and the world famous Cleveland Orchestra was out of season; but we did catch an Indians game at beautiful Jacobs Field on a glorious summer evening and walked back to our hotel downtown in the clean warm night air.
Then spent two fun filled days at Cedar Point. Nothing like riding on what was then the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster high above the sparkling blue water of Lake Erie.
Of course, when I resided in Cleveland I heard many many people wishing they lived elsewhere. Some went to New York, one moved to Georgia. I, and others, “split for the coast”.
But never in my 17 years in the Best Location in the Nation did I ever hear any one say: “Gee I wish I lived in Baltimore”.