This archive article is selected from The Cleveland Pages, the city's only weekly independent journal of politics and opinion on the Internet. Find out all about the Cleveland Pages here, or check out the current issue.
The Free Times, in an article no longer online, called Cleveland Pages "Spicily independent... in the best tradition of citizen-journalist."
The Cleveland Pages is a somewhat-weekly commentary on what's new and why it's all happening in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. If what you read here is upsetting, you might prefer this simple-minded happy-talk instead.
Bookmark the Cleveland Pages at http://re.cleveland.oh.us. Bookmark this issue at http://re.cleveland.oh.us/archives/20000204.html.
A Cleveland Pages archive search will be available soon... Meanwhile, skip to the flat-file archive list! And read an overview of who's putting this thing out and what it's about.
Could they call this the "Duh" report?
A group called Cleveland Today (not to be confused with Cleveland Tomorrow) commissioned a survey to determine how people around the United States would feel about moving to Cleveland for a job. The survey was conducted in such a way that respondents wouldn't realize that the intent was to gather information about Cleveland; for example, Cleveland was always presented as just another city among a list of choices of where one might want to live.
Cleveland Today people admitted to being a bit taken aback by the results. "We were ranked last or close to last in nearly everything," said a Beachwood polling expert who oversaw the survey.
But nothing about that result should surprise anybody. The really good things about living in Cleveland get no national "ink," and the things that get hyped the most are available everywhere else.
Cheap houses, really really cheap houses. Money left over from the
mortgage, therefore, to buy cool things. Reasonable proximity to places
like Pittsburgh, Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago if you stretch a little.
Good clean, inexpensive water. A pace of life that's a little slower than
New York City but more exciting than the admittedly lovely and beautiful
Davenport, Iowa. Practically no traffic. Nice public facilities like the
West Side Market, a fine zoo, and a library system that is absolutely
incredible for the size of the city. Excellent parks just outside the
city limits. One of the best places in the world to get sick.
But practically none of this stuff is in the national media. If organizations like Cleveland Today want to attract educated professional people to the area, why not run ads that talk about "a ten-minute drive to work and extra money at the end of the month"? Or "I moved to Cleveland and saved enough money on the house to send all my kids to the best private schools!" Or a testimonial from someone who flew her aging father to Cleveland for a heart transplant at the Clinic, and while there realized how much she hated her hour-long commute on the Jersey Turnpike. Or even, "my family is from New York and my husband's family is from Chicago. Now we can visit either, whenever we want, on a nine-hour drive or an hour flight."
The Crain's article suggested that Cleveland's PR disadvantage comes from a relative lack of promotional spending compared to other cities. Gee--I don't suppose the real problems could be crime, poverty, infant mortality, and corruption, things that take a toll whether you see them or not.
You can advertise monkey droppings all you want, you can call them something else, you can get product placement on national media, but they're still monkey droppings. If Cleveland corporate leaders want to attract people to Cleveland, they're going to have to pay attention to the real, very serious problems that diminish our quality of life here. That means sustained efforts against racism, miseducation, political corruption, and underemployment. It means decreasing everyone's taxes by making freeloaders pay their fair share. And it means spending scarce public dollars on projects that actually benefit people who've made the commitment to live here.
Cleveland does not and never will have and appealing climate; does not and never will have the overwhelming energy of New York or Mexico City; does not and never will have the most exciting job market in North America; does not and never will have the best nightlife. These things belong to bigger and differently located cities. But we do have significant, less visible advantages that other cities lack and corporate types always want to overlook.
The Crain's article, for example, referred (in their words, paraphrasing the polling expert) "a frozen city that is home to rotund Browns fans and Drew Carey." As if that's a bad thing. Drew Carey has two, count them, two of the highest-rated network TV shows. People like watching him. They think he's funny. The old Dawg Pound was packed with people having fun eight Sundays a year.
Alarm bells should be going off now: the two things a business writer picks out to criticize about Cleveland's image are two things that people really like about Cleveland.
We're never going to be the most glamorous city. We're never going to have the biggest downtown or the greatest number of high-tech jobs. But we are nice people who genuinely enjoy life, make friends easily, and like to have fun. What could possibly be negative about that?
In that vein, let me propose some new slogans.
To the degree that promotional efforts and building projects are publicly funded, we have to demand that they benefit the public directly. That's just a form of paying attention to the customer.
Big downtown projects like the new Convention Center tend to get justified by complex rationalizations that just barely get around to a payoff for us, the funding source. The new center (over and above the huge investment in hotels and entertainment venues!) is required to bring in such-and-such number of meetings, which in turn will cause people to visit Cleveland, which in turn will cause people to have to stay overnight, which in turn will cause people to spend money at hotels and restaurants, which in turn will increase the profit base of those very few businesses that are closest to the center, which in turn will create some number of new jobs....
There was a time when people actually believed that wages were the return for an honest day's work. Now you have to do the honest day's work and support your employer's capital needs through taxes. That's not right. We shouldn't have to earn our paychecks twice.
And a taxpayer undertaking has to have more payoff than a vague perception that it might attract "better people" to Cleveland who in turn might buy some goods and services that might trickle down to the people who paid for it all to begin with.
The concern over Cleveland's image is nice, but reality is more important. We are kidding ourselves if we think marketing the city as an East Coast megalopolis is going to work. And we need to remind the promoters who have their hands out for stadium and convention center funding who's writing the checks.
Nobody should be shocked that marketing Cleveland as a glamour destination isn't working. Let's try selling Cleveland for what it is. If people want Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas... they know where to find them.
This document's template was last modified on Wednesday, 09-Nov-2005 18:51:58 EST. There is a new Cleveland Pages more or less every weekend. The entire Cleveland Pages website is © 1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003 by Mark W. Schumann, all rights reserved. Copyrights belonging to others on individual items are noted. Nobody else would take the credit or blame for these opinions anyway.
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