Cleveland Heights

Cleveland; unflattering at first glance, subsequent glances yield little improvement. Spontaneous weather patterns coupled with temperature extremes on both ends. A river that has caught fire, multiple times. Lackluster sports teams, large homeless populations, drugs in the streets and schools, gangs in the streets and schools. How do so many call this home? Many believe prolonged exposure to both emotionally crushing circumstances and hazadarous environment conditions create one of two situations. In the first of which, habitants develop a mild insanity, resulting in contempt for mediocrity, ability to hold unwavering hope despite sure disappointment, and adoption of “disgruntled“ as default mood. Most easily observed in Browns fans. In contrast, those immune often exhibit behavior known as lake effect migration, apparent in the existence of Columbus and Cincinnati.

Despite being the urban equivalent of a punch line, pride is strong and visible throughout Cleveland. However, much is still left to be desired. Diversity is among the scarcest of commodities. Those most insane accept and make sacrifices to live in Cleveland itself. Far more common is the borderline insane. Characterized by unwillingness to sacrifice personal happiness, while lacking enough motivation to move to Columbus, often move as far as the Cleveland’s suburbs. Cleveland Heights, an average sized suburb due south from downtown, stands in stark contrast to life within the city. Unlike the surrounding metropolis, diversity is in abundance and apparent. Crime is low, poverty is rare, and the most common gesture between strangers requires multiple fingers. Cleveland Heights gives residents the full Cleveland experience, in a safer, more appealing packaging . However, geographical and economic circumstances alike create occasional bleak situations, against which no city can fully defend.

Located on the shores of Lake Eire, the fondly named “mistake on the lake,” receives frequent rain and annual snowfall on absurd levels. This yearly bounty so generously presented is nearly believable as divine acts in response to area sports in general, or a sadistic blessing courtesy of a vengeful Mother Nature. Yet even when Old Man Winter is stuck on “rage,” Cleveland Heights residents are seldom intimidated. When the storm ends, neighbors begin to dig out sidewalks, driveways, cars, and houses. Next storm; repeat. Repeat until melt, repeat next winter. Many try to avoid anywhere “white death” can adequately describe current weather conditions, but to Cleveland Heights residents its simply part of life.

Unfortunately, everything within society that jeopardizes comfort and convenience can’t be moved with a shovel. Ripples from the most recent recession can be seen everywhere, tranquil suburbia included. Raising unemployment and overall economic instability hit Cleveland with force. Not among those hardest hit, Cleveland Heights still took a economic stutter-step, forcing many households to rethink the sustainability of their current lifestyle. During the darkest times, foreclosure imposed unexpected relocation on the few furthest down on their luck. More common was families who could no longer afford the tuition of their son or daughters high school.

Cleveland intercity schools are notorious for rampant violence, drug abuse, and gang activity among students. Junior’s peers at public school turning him into a heat packing, rock slinging, iced out goon on his grind rolling five deep in a blacked out Cadillac, is reason enough for most parents to avoid Cleveland City Schools. The simple solution is several private, often single-gender, schools woven into the cityscape along side public schools. Such is the scene in Cleveland. Theses schools, steeped in pride and tradition, simultaneously bread fierce rivalries and a sense of social exclusivity against neighboring private schools. Most enrolls come from the suburbs, with Cleveland Heights contributing its fair amount of eager young minds. Benefits against public school are numerous. Peer interaction rarely involves fist, maturity among students allows advanced curriculums and greater amounts of subject material. Athletically, private schools carry another huge advantage in the form of recruitment. Loopholes in tuition law allow private schools to actively scout and recruit young athletes. Cleveland’s private schools make full use of this. Cleveland Heights high school sports do consistently well much in the manner Cleveland professional sports do consistently poor.

Despite all the joking. Despite the only future certainty is winter and sucking will coincide. Despite horrid gang violence, likely behind last nights senseless murder or violent act, which being able to safely assume is itself a grim truth. Despite the existence of better places to live, most who call in or around Cleveland home do so proudly. Cleveland Heights residents are born with pride in themselves and the community at large that only grows over time. This pride is a Cleveland birthright. It is an environmental adaptation that allows this small percentage of humans live in an otherwise uninhabitable landscape. Residents of Cleveland Heights modeled their society to incorporate regional benefits, exclude unwanted characteristics that occur naturally in urban environments, and meet wants not met in the current society. Intense local pride, stemmed from mild insanity, natural adaptation, or of other origins, is essential to large-scale community improvement efforts. If Cleveland wasn’t such an underdog, if the Cowboys were laughably bad and Dallas jokes were commonplace, natural adaptations to area living conditions wouldn’t exist. Cleveland would still leave much to be desired just as before, however without individual pride, little would be done in the name of change. Essentially, living in Cleveland sucks. So much so, human beings adapted to deal with this sever suck. Those adaptations then facilitated the transformation of Cleveland Heights into an enjoyable, preferable alternative to Cleveland.