Cleveland is My Home

By Rich Kozlovich

Cleveland, Ohio was at one time considered America's real second city, not Chicago, and was touted as the city everyone needs to visit back in the late 19th and early 20th century.  Many of the nation's great industrialists had there homes in Cleveland, including John D. Rockefeller.  

Travel guides touted Euclid avenue, which is the main street of Cleveland, as the place to see for foreign travelers calling it "The Showplace of America".   Euclid Avenue was commonly called "Millionaires' Row" because of all the mansions lining the Avenue, most of which are long gone.

I'm going to be 77 soon, and I've lived in Cleveland, or a Cleveland suburb, for over 50 of those years, and I've always loved Cleveland.  About 15 years ago or so I wrote a piece saying what a great town Cleveland is, noting we have more diversity than any city in the country per ratio, and for whatever problems we may have, we get along better than most others most of the time.  That's changed.  America's major cities are turning into crime infested disasters, and while it appears its not as bad in Cleveland,  it also appears Cleveland is heading in that direction.

Some things remain.  Any kind of food from any area of the world you may want can be found in Cleveland, and we have pierogies, which Bill Clinton first ate here and raved about them. 

 

We have what is considered one of the great symphonic orchestras of the world, The Cleveland Orchestra, and we have Severance Hall, where they perform. We have the second largest theatre district in the country.   When I was sixteen I saw the original traveling cast of Camelot at I believe was the Palace theatre, and it was a palace.  But afterward Cleveland went into a downward spiral and the Palace, and the other great theaters closed.   The Palace, along with others were restored and the Palace is still a palace. 

We have the science museum, a botanical garden (the botanical garden is beyond special), a natural history museum, an aquarium, and a wonderful art museum. And if it's your taste…the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.   Cleveland is one of the world's great medical centers.  We have some of the most fabulous medical facilities in the world, which is why the wealthy and powerful world over come here for treatment.  

We have plenty of great low cost golf courses and if you are into intramural sports we have all that also. We have water and snow skiing. We have plenty of great suburbs with great homes at a fraction of the cost of those in places like California and we are surrounded by a Green Ring of Metro Parks. And we have the Browns, the Indians and the Cavaliers, which Clevelanders rally around with great passion.   For me that's changed as I no longer watch any sports. 

I love this town and intend to spend the rest of my life here, but the fact remains, some things have changed, dramatically, and it's disturbing.  In 1965 Cleveland's population was 1,875,000. As of July of 2022 it was 361,607.  Whites make up only 38% of the population, blacks 47% and are still granted minority status. Violent crime in Cleveland is 17.4 per 1000.  In all of Ohio it's only 3.76 and nationwide it's 4. 

I fear going downtown now as crime is becoming a problem as thugs roaming the streets prey on those too old and weak to defend themselves.   I've always loved theatre, but now I simply refuse to go downtown for any reason.   But I do miss those wonderful theaters, and I can no longer golf, which I really miss.  

But as I've shown Cleveland has gone through this kind of stuff before.  From grandeur to mediocrity then grunge.  From grunge to restoration and optimism.  From restoration and optimism to mediocrity.  From mediocrity to a downward trend that's heading back to grunge.   I hope this downward trend will pass before I do, but this is my home. I still love it, and I can't imagine dying anywhere else.

Urban Reshuffle?

Remote work is accelerating a talent migration to cities with lower living costs and better quality of life.

 Michael Hendrix December 18, 2020

“I have moved to Texas,” declared Elon Musk this month. The auto and aerospace mogul is not alone. Podcaster Joe Rogan recently decamped to Texas, as did software giant Oracle and multinational IT company Hewlett Packard Enterprise. A slew of others, from financier Carl Icahn to software firm Palantir, have also fled pricey cities this year for cheaper, more livable locales across the country.

New data from LinkedIn suggests that working professionals are joining them. Changes in location on user profiles from April 2020 to October 2020 show a migration of talent to less-expensive hubs. According to a Bloomberg analysis, Austin, Phoenix, and Nashville gained the most talent during that period, while Hartford, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area lost the most. Far from causing the death of all cities, 2020 has breathed new life into some metros while leaving others on life support. Other winning cities include Tampa and Jacksonville, as well as Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, and Charleston, South Carolina.............

By contrast, Rust Belt cities—the “comeback kids” of the past decade in downtown growth—don’t appear to have attracted these same talent flows, according to LinkedIn. Chicago ranks fourth among cities losing workers (and the Windy City is the largest source of new migrants to Nashville), followed by Cleveland (fifth), and Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh (eighth through tenth place, respectively). If anything, sunshine is continuing to power urban growth..........To Read More.....

"Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War!"

By Rich Kozlovich

The nation is now being rocked by barbarians intent on insurrection.  Stop calling what's going on protests or demonstrations, it's revolution, and is a current secondary effort to destroy America along with this hysteria regarding this coronavirus.  As I've watched this unfold two things kept occurring to me. The Frankfurt School and William Shakespeare.

Let's start with William Shakespeare.

This phrase came down to us from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and was part of s a speech by Marc Antony:  ‘Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war’.

Shakespeare was well aware of what that phrase meant as during the Middle Ages.  The definition of word ‘havoc’ remains the same today as in Shakespeare's day.  Havoc embraced all the distruptive forces:  "Chaos, confusion, disorder, devastation, turmoil, turbulence and lawlessness", and we, to this day, understand it in the same fashion.  When a commander cried "havoc" the troops under his command were being let loosed like attack dogs.   It meant the people of the city, or area they conquered, were going to be plundered, raped and murdered with impunity.

That brings me to the Frankfurt School.

I'm supposing everyone knows who Herbert Marcuse and the rest of those academician losers were from the Frankfort School.   Right?  No?  Really?  That's unfortunate, the history books have a lot to say about them.  Of course that means reading history books.

They embraced and promoted a chain of thinking that played a large role with the anti-war drug using students of the 60's, including the violence that followed.  Their thinking permeated these kids minds to the point they could no longer control them in the classroom or campus.  They cried “havoc and let slip the dogs of war” as spoken of in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

The left has now “cried havoc and have let slip the dogs of war’, and now there’s not controlling them without violent means.  If they shoot a few, and arrest a lot more and put them in prison, the rest will slink back to live under the rocks from whence they slithered.  After the Kent State shootings there was not another campus riot in the United States if I remember that correctly, and there, the rioters were largely non-Kent students. 

Throughout this mess they also burned down black owned homes and businesses?  And here you thought this was a response to years of racism and injustice?  That narrative a load of crap to help promote the racist industrial complex!

But let’s not dwell on all that negativity regarding rioting, burning, plundering and murder. Let's try and see the positive aspect of all this burning, rioting, murdering and plundering.  This has now created a wonderful opportunity to expand our horizons and embrace diversity. Right?

Now that these people have destroyed the homes and all the businesses around them, they'll need to find a new neighborhood to move in to, with government support or course.  They've going to move into your neighborhood with government housing, welfare and food stamps.  Oh, and a gigantic rate of illegitimacy creating another generation of out of control children who refuse to go to school, and when they do, violence and havoc follow.

Isn't that just great? I just hope all the "racists" living in these neighborhoods who are against crime, violence anf irresponsibly behavior are driven out!  Replaced with barbarians, and wouldn't that just be great?  Of course it would! 

So, then, okay, let’s see a show of hands of who wants barbarians in their neighborhood!!!!!!  Come on now, step forward!!!  Walk the talk!!!!  No One? 

Of course we must take different viewpoints into account, because everyone's viewpoint is equally valuable.  Right?   I wonder?  Is it possible the black owner of a small business who has worked like a dog to build something that serves both his community and family, pays his taxes, raises his children to have a good education, and teaches them those same conservative values does not have a better viewpoint than another black man of "The Streets". who's rioting, burning and destroying the community, or a left wing white college kid who believes burning down a city is freedom of expression, neither of whom may live in the community they're destroying?

Are we to believe a man who lives on government doll, never pays taxes, never positively contributes to society in any way, and who tells the CNN reporter that he's there for the loot and whatever he can carry, as the former's business is torched to the ground, has a better persepctive? 

And there are the disguised black garbed, masked (oh wait, that is now a sign of virtuous Social Distancing responsibility) Antifa rabble that is organized, trucked in, and paid. Don't forget the pallets of bricks ready to throw every few blocks. They goad angry blacks to confront police while In the background they smash windows, throw Molotov cocktails, and organize looting.   But it's OK because we have to allow the expression of a diversity of opinions, all of equal value since no one's opinion is worth more than any other's.  Right?

Meanwhile, the black owned local businesses are gone and unlikely to be replaced, the looters go home with their flat screen TVs, which they've looted from the stores they destroyed, and the Antifa's slink back into the darkness, never to be investigated, and lie in wait for the next opportunity.  Meanwhile, MSM ominously reports that anonymous sources tell them that ten Unidentified White Supremacists may have been lurking in the shadows. Which becomes the next headline.

What a mess.

Recently this headline appeared, 'We Weren't Goin' to Sit Back and Let It Happen': Italian Bakery Owners Welcome Cleveland Looters with an Impressive Arsenal, but this is Cleveland, not Minneapolis:

What began as a peaceful protest in Cleveland on Saturday—over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer— turned violent as the day progressed, prompting Mayor Frank Jackson to issue an 8 p.m. curfew and to request National Guard reinforcements to protect the city from rioters. Corbo’s, a tiny family-owned bakery in the city’s historic Playhouse Square district, took matters into their own hands, brandishing their firearms when rioters came calling.

Even so, there was still a lot of violence and destruction, but it hasn't happened again, and I believe it's because Mayor Jackson and the locals sent a message they're not going to tolerate it.

Cleveland's my town and like an owner, I love Cleveland. This store is in an area known as Little Italy! I've been to his store, I've eaten in many of the restaurants there. Little Italy is one of my favorite parts of Cleveland for a number of reasons. One, great food! Two, absolute safety! You can walk around the streets and go into the art galleries with your wife and friends and feel comfortable you'll get home without incident.

This kind of crap has played out in the past about ten years ago where a bus load of young black thugs went into Little Italy and planned on causing trouble. They were met with locals who had a different view. The local papers called the locals racists and more, and some claimed they'd never return to Little Italy for dinner again.  But others took a different view. No one was going to come into Little Italy and destroy it, and attack the people living and eating there.

Rioters try forcing way into bakery, but owner and sons meet them at door with guns — and rioters take their hard day's work elsewhere

"They came at us with bats and threw rocks at our windows ... and then I was like, 'Alright''

Dave Urbanski June 01, 2020

Rioters in downtown Cleveland "systematically smashed out windows and looted stores, restaurants, and bars" on Saturday, WJW-TV reported. But family members who own and run Corbo's Bakery weren't about to let rioters have free rein upon the business they worked hard to build over the years.............when rioters tried forcing their way into the bakery using bats and other weapons, owner Joe Corbo and his two sons armed themselves with guns, met the rioters at the door, and said — in effect — just try us.

By and large the protesters kept a move on after seeing the firepower they were up against, but livestreamed video of the incident caught one of the bakery's windows being broken — and that apparently was the extent of the rioters' courageous stand.........To Read More....

My Take - Cleveland's my town and like the owner, I love Cleveland. This store is in an area known as Little Italy! I've been to his store, I've eaten in many of the restaurants, and Little Italy is one of my favorite parts of Cleveland for a number of reasons. One, great food!!!!! Two, absolute safety! You can walk around the streets and go into the art galleries with your wife and friends and feel comfortable you'll get home without incident.

This kind of crap has played out in the past in Little Italy where a bus load of young black thugs went into Little Italy and planned on causing trouble. They were met with locals who had a different view. The local papers called them racists and more, but one thing was made clear. No one was going to come into Little Italy and destroy it.  If Ohio’s restaurants weren’t shut down by our idiot governor, I doubt this would have gotten as far is it did.  

How Democrats Protected a Democrat Who Beat and Murdered His Wife

Is it any wonder that Lance Mason believed that he could get away with killing his wife?

November 22, 2018 Daniel Greenfield

On the way back from a funeral, Judge Lance Mason beat his wife so badly that he broke her orbital socket.  A woman who called 911 had described a horrifying scene of “fists flying” inside the car.
Their two children, ages 4 and 6, were in the SUV when their father assaulted their mother, choked her and bit her on the ear and the cheek. According to Aisha, Judge Mason "struck me in the face, yanked my hair, slammed my head into the dashboard and armrest of the car."

She later called the police, telling them, "I'm afraid he's going to hurt my daughters.”

Aisha had to be hospitalized and required reconstructive surgery to repair the damage to her face..............Judge Mason couldn’t escape jail. He was sentenced to two years. But when he got out, the Ohio Democratic party did not abandon its favorite son. Instead Ohio Dems, who condemned President Trump for not caring about “women’s rights”, gave him a plum position as the Minority Business Development Administrator for Cleveland despite beating his wife so badly she needed surgery............

Mayor Frank Jackson defended hiring Mason as part of Cleveland’s second-chance for felons program. “We hire many ex-felons and almost all of them turn out well because we have second chance as a part of what we do as a policy in the City of Cleveland,” the Democrat insisted.......... Mayor Jackson suggested that domestic violence cases were too complex to lay blame..........The political party that claims to protect women got a woman killed. The faction that claims to love “women of color” helped put one in the ground............To Read More......

Police: Taco Bell Employees Fatally Shoot Armed Robber

September 7, 2017

CLEVELAND (AP) – Police say three employees of a Cleveland Taco Bell opened fire on two armed robbers, killing one.  Police have said two masked robbers entered the restaurant early Wednesday and ordered three employees to lie on the floor. Police say three other employees pulled out handguns and opened fire, shooting one of the suspects six times. The other suspect ran off......To Read More....

My Take - How much to you wanna bet that's the last time this store is robbed?  Cleveland is the greatest town in the world, but Cleveland is a tough town.

Cleveland!

By Rich Kozlovich

I've lived in the Cleveland, Ohio area for most of my life and I intend to spend the rest of my life here. Cleveland is a great town!We have so many things here that are so unappreciated, even by our own citizens.

We have a large cultural venue here in Cleveland:

• Did you know that Cleveland has the second largest theater district in the country? Probably not!
• The Cleveland Orchestra is considered one of the finest orchestras in the world. Severance Hall is clearly one of the best orchestral halls in the world.
• We have a natural history museum
• An art museum
• A first rate garden center
• The Great Lakes Science Center
• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for those inclined in that direction.
•  We have three major sports franchises
• We have big league farm teams in the area We have tons of intramural sports
• We have all the sports and recreational activities that go hand and hand with being on the shores of Lake Erie.;
• We have snow skiing in the winter A large metro parks system that surrounds Cleveland like a green necklace, which extends into the next county. All providing recreational services including great golf courses that are all reasonably priced
• Houses in the Cleveland area are reasonable priced compared to comparable houses in other areas Cleveland is one of the world’s great medical centers. All of those Arab sheiks weren’t coming here for treatment because they couldn’t afford to go somewhere else
•  As for diversity; we have more diversity in Cleveland than any city per ratio to size 
• Virtually every kind of food found anywhere else in the world will have restaurant cooking it in Cleveland And we have pierogi’s, which Bill Clinton never heard of and loved 

The big knock on Cleveland is always the weather. The joke here is if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute; it will change. We have tough winters, and hot summers. But that is what makes us strong, but there are days when the weather is so fabulous you feel pity for those poor people who are trapped inside all day long, especially in the spring and fall. And we have never lost as many people, or had so much property destroyed by all the winters in the last 100 years, as hurricane Katrina did in one year.

In the past we have been the brunt of late comedy show jokes, we have been laughed at, snickered at, and ridiculed because our river caught on fire. But that is a mischaracterization of my town, and now all the national politico's love Cleveland. They just won't stay away. We just can’t seem to get them to stay away. We resent it when celebrities can get tickets to see an Indians World Series game over season ticket holders and we really hate to have our traffic all tied up to accommodate outsiders.

Does that attitude offend anyone? If so....get over it because we really don't care! This is Cleveland!