Sometimes, things aren’t as they might seem.
Cleveland, Ohio — yes, that Cleveland, has spent decades on and off as a punchline. Perhaps it’s because the Cuyahoga River, which winds through it, regularly caught fire in the 1970’=s. And, of course, ahem, there are those Cleveland Browns.
But as we found out on a recent family trip there, that image couldn’t be more wrong. Cleveland, roughly similar in size to Boston, is a spectacular visit — a beautifully laid out and managed city with many, many attractions, distractions and satisfactions. It is really a tale of two cities — the financial and waterfront downtown, with two modern stadiums, several museums, great restaurants and municipal buildings — connected by a low density, rural corridor to its University neighborhood, dominated by Case Western Reserve University and at least five major museums that knocked our socks off, well-known French restaurants and the best, thinnest linguine ever in its Little Italy neighborhood.
Back in the day, Cleveland sprouted several hugely successful captains of industry, in railroads, finance, stockyards, oil, and, most spectacularly, paint. Paint? Yes, the Sherwins and Williamses, Mr. Glidden and others began to dominate the industry and the money flowed right into the city. All three families made it their quest to both guide the city’s development in a moderate and sensible way — especially in the University district — and not allow complete sprawl to overrun Cleveland. They built The Cleveland Museum of Art into an international powerhouse, plus a world-class natural history museum, a botanical gardens, a fascinating City of Cleveland museum (with a working 125-year-old carousel and 50 huge antique cars). Here, several I.M. Pei modern buildings had been tastefully integrated with the older, classic buildings — as has been so well done in London.
A forested corridor ran along a byroad linking the two city centers. This corridor boasted statuary representing country after country in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America, replete with family enjoyment zones, playgrounds, barbecue pits and room for outdoor sports. Really enjoyable visuals as you sped by. We saw an amazing special visiting Impressionistic painting show on the collaborations of Eduard Manet and Berthe Morisot at the Cleveland Art Museum with over 60 works. In the beginning, he was the mentor, but before long, she would paint a subject first and he would follow. She was married to Manet’s brother and was the first woman to break into the tight club of top French painters (she has 10 paintings hanging in Paris’s top museum, the D’Orsay, in a room with Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet and Manet) and hung with all those superstars of her day, many of whom were part of the regular Cleveland collection. Ironic that it was mostly paint industry money that paid for them.
But that’s not all. The Rock and Roll Museum and Hall of Fame lurk down by the waterfront in the financial district in an I.M. Pei-designed crazy colossis resembling a set of collided pyramids on steroids. It was fun but confusing to navigate. The first-floor museum was the main focus for three hours, but it was a little dumbed-down and didn’t include The Police, The Band, Steely Dan, The Clash, Tom Pretty, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, The Bee-Gee’s, Boston, Jeff Beck, Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Cars, Van Morrison, or The Allman Brothers in their exhibits! But there were roomfuls of punk female singers I’ve never heard of (Poly Styrene?) and the likes of Freddie & The Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, Soundgarden and Wanda Jackson,and the female Elvis (?!) Apparently, we learned later, way up on the 5th floor were the actual Hall of Famer’s that presumably did include the missing, but the way out and the way up were side-by-side and after 3 hours, we joined the folks exiting.
Outside was a myriad of science museums and Navy, Coast Guard and lake boats to be visited, including the sister ship of the Edmund Fitzgerald of Gordon Lightfoot song fame. It was so gigantic, it was impossible to conceive of it sinking as it did. But just down the way was Progressive Field, home of the Indians/Guardians and I snuck off to catch a day game. It was fun and Fenway small with a happy fan atmosphere, a zillion fan distractions and was so uncrowded, after two innings, I ambled down to the front row and four innings later, another seat jumping couple began dancing between innings and all three of us got picked up on the Jumbotron. Ha! But not only was there no box office, the entire downtown was “cashless” for everything. They had to convene a team of experts to print me out a ticket cuz I have a flip-fone. Double ha!
Cleveland is a great city to visit. It felt like a European city and I kept thinking how good everyone’s English was. Most everyone seemed to be having a great time living there, even the worker bees. It was beautiful, clean, well laid out and less expensive than East Coast cities to eat and stay. I couldn’t recommend it more.
And, oh yes, the Indians won.
Gloucester resident Gordon Baird is an actor and musician, co-founder of Musician Magazine and producer of “The Chicken Shack” community access TV show.