Discussion: Can One Young Guy Pull Cleveland Out of the Gutter? (No, Not LeBron James)

TPM Article Topics
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Discussion for article #234610

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That’s funny. I lived in Ohio City during law school. I had ‘gentrified’ place on W. 50th near ‘The Big Egg’.

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Good lord. This guy is the new king? There are a wealth of neighborhood and downtown investors and developers, not to mention institutions like the Cleveland Foundation that have worked very hard to make Cleveland a better place. Not only is this an intellectually lazy piece with no depth to the many recent success stories Cleveland’s had, it devalues the effort everyone besides Veysey has made.

I can google “brooklyn sucks” and be just as lazy. Either take the time to get to know all components of a story or don’t write about it. Otherwise you’re just looking down your nose at something you don’t understand to justify your own existence. We’re not New York and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Eh I was in Cleveland a couple weeks ago and nothing can make that place not suck, sorry.

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I’m going to hate on any place that sells over priced BS and kicks out low income folks. Sorry, that’s just how I roll. These will be the same customers who talk about the “bad areas” of town, which is simply a euphamism for “low income, minority, different, etc”. Don’t care where it is.

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I have to agree with Eddy. Long before this guy came along that neighborhood was perking up, with apartments being developed across Detroit Ave., an art conservation lab renovating a major building on the block, a brand-spanking new jazz club and a new health club within one block. That he was conveniently able to ride others coattails doesn’t make him the leader you portray him to be. Dig a little further and find the real catalysts.

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Wow I thought you meant Dan Gilbert! I know he’s done a lot for Cleveland too. Gilbert has done a ton for Detroit. He owns over 70 buildings Downtown. He’s brought thousands of Quicken Loans workers to fill many of those buildings. Tons of re-habbing is going on. I work Downtown and the changes are mind blowing.

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Yo- all of my tea isn’t five dollars. You can get a cup of ginger tea and many others for $2.50, or a whole pot to split between two or three people for 4 dollars. All classes of people come into Cleveland Tea Revival for a cheap place to sit and drink tea. Flippantly referencing my shop as the “5 dollar tea joint” is inaccurate, as are many other references in this piece.

Mike George
Cleveland Tea Revival

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What the heck did I just read. To echo the other comments above: this article is terribly written (especially irking is the overuse of qualifications, e.g. ‘I expected this, but didn’t find it…’) and poorly conceived. If this were my student turning in a research paper, I’d say: look, it’s clear your research didn’t turn up anything, too bad but it happens. Don’t try and squeeze water out of a rock because that just wastes everyone’s’ time.

And shame on TPM for proceeding with it. I mean, really?

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Good luck with your business! Everyone could use more tea in their lives.

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The better question – Could a few good journalists keep TPM from sliding down the suck?

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Cleveland Tea Revival is a fantastic joint, and I agree with the post, even though you certainly can have a marvelous $5 cup of tea, there are plenty of excellent choices in the $2-4 range.

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Surprised the article doesn’t mention Rising Star Coffee, which has been in Hingetown for 3 years.

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Mike, can you let me know which other references are inaccurate?

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I too have to agree with eddy on some points (but not all). I live in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs, my wife works in Cleveland and we shop in the aforementioned Ohio City nearly weekly. I did not like the tone of the article early on.

Cleveland has come a long way, particularly in the last 10-15 years. There is still a ton of poverty but there are pockets of success that are building and have nearly even reversed the half century long albatross of urban flight here.

The article picks up on a lot more of this in the second half. There are lots of Williamsburg analogs in Cleveland: Ohio City, Tremont and University Circle to name a few. I like that the article at least touched on the gentrification issue. That is a problem that needs to be addressed both here and in most rebounding rust belt cities.

Overall, I like the article by the end but the early “Let’s make fun of Cleveland” type of tone is getting very old to us in Northeast Ohio.

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Next up: Can Its Two Good Articles Redeem The Slice’s History of Suck?

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