Cleveland, Ohio

The city of Cleveland, Ohio, is located on the banks of Lake Erie. Once a center of manufacturing and business, its industrial base largely disappeared after World War II, and by the 1970s, the city's economy had failed. However, in the twenty-first century, a new clean image, new attractions, and a stable economy are again attracting visitors to this "New American City."

Landscape

Cleveland is located in northeast Ohio, about 200 miles west of Buffalo, New York, and 345 miles east of Chicago, Illinois. The city's 80-square-mile area includes about 31 miles along the southern shore of Lake Erie, although railroad lines obscure a good portion of the waterfront. The Cuyahoga River splits the city into east and west sides before emptying into the lake.

Various highways cross through or near the city, including Interstates 77, 71, 90, and 80. Cleveland's elevation ranges from 573 feet up to 1,048 feet. Most of the city lies on a flat plain beside the lake, but the southeast side ridge is several hundred feet higher. The lake moderates city temperatures but also brings "lake effect" snowfall and cloudy conditions. Average yearly snowfall is 63.6 inches, and average rainfall is about 38 inches. The city sees clear skies only about seventy days out of the year.

Average high temperatures in January are about 36, with lows averaging 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Summer brings more humid conditions, with July highs of about 84 degrees and lows averaging 65. Fall is generally the most temperate season with mild temperatures, light rainfall, and lower humidity.

People

Cleveland's population peaked around 1950 at more than 900,000. Like many other former industrial powerhouses of the Great Lakes region, Cleveland's population has declined since the turn of the twentieth century, as residents left for the suburbs or the Sunbelt.

Although it was the tenth largest US city in 1970, Cleveland fell to thirty-third place in 2000, with a population of 478,403. In 2022, it had an estimated population of 361,607, ranking fifty-fourth among US cities. Cleveland's metropolitan area is home to approximately two million residents.

According to the 2022 estimates, the city's ethnic mix is 46.6 percent African American and 34.4 percent non-Hispanic White, with about 12.5 percent Hispanic or Latino and 2.5 percent Asian. In 2022, the median household income was $37,271, with about 31.2 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Cleveland has an abundance of private religious primary and secondary schools, most of them Catholic parochial schools. Using Cleveland as a test case, advocates of school choice won US Supreme Court approval in 2002 for a voucher system that allows more than 4,000 Cleveland children to receive public funds to pay for tuition at private religious schools.

Cleveland seems to bring forth a large number of celebrities and talk show hosts. Phil Donahue, Arsenio Hall, and Drew Carey are all from Cleveland.

Economy

Originally a frontier supply town, Cleveland benefited from the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, and the 1832 extension of the canal to the Ohio River. However, the city earned its industrial reputation after the arrival of the railroad and the Civil War in the late 1800s. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland in 1870, and by 1880, more than one quarter of Cleveland's workers were employed in steel mills.

After World War II, big oil moved to Texas and other sites, and the steel industry slowly faltered in the face of foreign competition. The city hit bottom economically in the 1970s, but has since found an economic balance between manufacturing and service industries.

Large employers in the Cleveland area today include banking firms National City Corp. and KeyCorp., motion control technology firm Parker Hannifin Corp., industrial parts manufacturer Applied Industrial Technologies, and Sherwin-Williams paints. In 2022, Cleveland accounted for 117,800 manufacturing jobs, or about 17.8 percent of Ohio's total manufacturing workforce.

Health care has taken the place of steel-making as the city's top employer, with more than 32,000 people working for the Cleveland Clinic, and more than 16,000 at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Cleveland Clinic was ranked among the best hositals in the United States in 2023-2024 by US News & World Report. The clinic was named the top hospital for cardiology, heart and vascular surgery.

Education is another large employer, with Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University in the city, and Kent State and Cuyahoga Community College nearby.

Landmarks

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has come to symbolize the revitalization of Cleveland. Set close to the waterfront, the building is a six-story modern design by I. M. Pei, the architect of the famed late 1980s addition to the Louvre in Paris.

Next to the Hall of Fame is the Great Lakes Science Center, a 165,000-square-foot science museum that includes an IMAX Dome theater. Nearby is the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum, a restored bulk freighter nicknamed "The Ship That Built Cleveland," because of its shipments of iron ore and coal from across the Great Lakes to the city. Next to the Mather steamship in Cleveland Harbor and adjacent to the Naval Reserve Center is the USS Cod, a World War II submarine. The sub has seen little modification since its days of active duty, and visitors must climb down into the ship through crew access hatches.

Willard Park is famous as the home to a huge pop artwork known as the Free Stamp. The unusual sculpture is literally a giant hand stamp. The word "FREE" is displayed on the stamp in backward letters, as would be seen from below.

Willard Park also flanks FirstEnergy Stadium, formerly known as Cleveland Browns Stadium. Cleveland temporarily lost the Browns football team in the 1990s when they moved to Baltimore. When the Baltimore team was renamed the Ravens, the city of Cleveland built a new stadium for a new Browns team, first opened in 1999, and then renovated in 2014 and 2015.

The city opened Jacob's Field in 1994 as the home of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. In 2022, the team was renamed the Cleveland Guardians after the Guardians of Traffic statues on the city's Hope Memorial Bridge. Jacob's Field was rebranded Progressive Field (after the insurance company) in 2008, it is known as one of the most intimate and attractive ballparks in the United States.

In the center of the city is Public Square, anchored by Terminal Tower. Completed in 1930, the fifty-two-story tower is the city's oldest skyscraper. It is surrounded by Tower City, an office and shopping complex. The tower overlooks both the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, and the complex borders the city's historic Gateway Neighborhood

East of the downtown area is University Circle, home to Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals. This area is also the cultural heart of the city, with facilities for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Museums of Art and Natural History, and the Cleveland Playhouse.

The city is circled by a park system known as the Emerald Necklace, which encompasses 20,000 acres and 100 miles of parkway.

History

The area along the shore of Lake Erie was long the home of various Native American tribes, including the Ottawa, Huron, and Iroquois. The Iroquois often fought with other tribes for control of the region. In colonial times, the area was part of Connecticut, and known as the Western Reserve.

General Moses Cleaveland first came to the area in 1796, although Lorenzo Carter is credited with being the first permanent settler in the area, arriving one year later. The population of the village of Cleaveland was about 600 in 1820. After the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 made for easy passage from the Atlantic, immigrants began to flood the area, many from the British Isles or Germany.

In 1831, the town was renamed Cleveland. It was incorporated as a city in 1836. The population had grown to 6,000 by 1837, but after the railroad first came to the waterfront in 1851, the population grew exponentially, hitting 40,000 by 1860.

Cleveland was called upon to supply steel and manufactured goods during the Civil War. Following the war, the city's steel and oil industries entered their golden age, and by 1910 Cleveland's population was 560,000, well over its population as of 2000. Industrial success led to the establishment of various cultural institutions in the city, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Playhouse, both opened in 1916, and the Cleveland Orchestra, established in 1917.

After World War II, Cleveland went into an extended period of decline, as people and businesses began leaving the industrial cities of the Great Lakes region. The city population became increasingly African American, as whites moved to the suburbs. In 1967, Carl Stokes won election mayor of Cleveland, becoming the first African American to lead a major US city. He went on to serve for thirty years in the US Congress.

Cleveland's decline culminated in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire because it was so polluted. In 1978, the city could not meet its obligations on some municipal notes and was forced to declare bankruptcy, becoming the first US city since the Great Depression to go into default.

The bankruptcy was a wake-up call to the entire region. Various community groups worked with business and political leaders to clean up and revitalize Cleveland. The success of these efforts is marked by the renewed downtown area, the new sports stadiums, and the increased tourist traffic to the city, thanks to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Science Center, and other city landmarks and attractions.

Trivia

Cleveland was nicknamed the "Mistake on the Lake" and the "Burning River City" as its economy faltered and its polluted river caught fire. It now advertises itself as the "New American City."

Television's The Drew Carey Show was set in a Cleveland department store.

Notable Cleveland-born actors include Paul Newman, Burgess Meredith, Dorothy Dandridge, Jim Backus, Ruby Dee, and Joel Grey.

Henry Mancini, the composer of "Moon River," the "Peter Gunn Theme," and the "Pink Panther Theme," was born in Cleveland in 1924.

In 1898, Cleveland resident Coburn Haskell invented the modern golf ball. While visiting a friend at the nearby Goodrich Rubber plant, he got the idea to wind rubber threads around a solid inner core, thus giving golfers an extra 20 yards off the tee compared to previous ball designs.

Cleveland high school classmates Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster became famous as the creators of the comic book character Superman.

Jesse Owens, who moved to Cleveland when he was eight, won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.

Bibliography

"Cleveland City, Ohio." US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/clevelandcityohio/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve U, 2017, case.edu/ech/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Exner, Rich. "Cleveland Population Loss Slows; Find Latest Census Estimates for Every U.S. City, County and State." Cleveland.com, 23 June 2016, www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2016/05/cleveland‗population‗slows‗fin.html. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.

"Major Employers." City of Cleveland Economic Development, 2024, makeitincleveland.org/this-is-cleveland/major-employers. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Miller, Carol Poh, and Robert A. Wheeler. Cleveland: A Concise History, 1796–1996. 2nd ed. Indiana UP, 1997.

Smith, Zachary. "It’s ‘Manufacturing Day,’ and Yes Ohio Is Still a Big Player." Cleveland.com, 6 Oct. 2023, www.cleveland.com/data/2023/10/its-manufacturing-day-and-yes-ohio-is-still-a-big-player.html. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Suttell, Scott. "List of Cuyahoga County's Largest Employers Proves Cleveland Is a Health Care Town." Crain's Cleveland Business, 25 Aug. 2014, www.crainscleveland.com/article/20140825/FREE/140829853/list-of-cuyahoga-countys-largest-employers-proves-cleveland-is-a. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.