We’re taking a rare break from extolling the virtues of our beloved St. Louis in order to pay homage to another wonderful-yet-underappreciated Midwestern city: Cleveland.  STL-Style is a proud member of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE), which is a collective of urbanists from all over the Rust Belt who share strategies to improve our aging cities.  GLUE's annual conference was held last week in the great city of Cleveland! 

And what a gem of a town Cleveland is.  Anyone who loves St. Louis would undoubtedly love Cleveland, as the two burghs share much in common: similar metro populations; similar demographics; both have experienced startling population and industrial decline over the past 60 years; both have a wealth of cultural, educational and medical institutions; both are fierce supporters of their sports teams; both have limited but awesome rapid transit systems; both struggle with image problems, in national media as well as internally; both are home to passionate, creative and devoted residents.  Like St. Louis, Cleveland is a city of high culture and dive bars, beautiful parks and abandoned neighborhoods, a vibrant arts scene and dysfunctional government.  Saint Louis and Cleveland are two peas in a pod in so many ways.

One glaring difference between Cleveland and St. Louis is the housing stock.  Cleveland boomed a bit later than St. Louis, so it appears less dense.  While St. Louis is overwhelmingly built of red brick, Cleveland is predominantly comprised of wood frame structures.  St. Louis has alleys.  Cleveland has driveways.  Overall, Cleveland exudes a style that hinges somewhere between gritty industrial and leafy bucolic.  A distinctive mix indeed.  Cleveland does contemporary new construction much better.  St. Louis easily wins in historic preservation.  The comparisons and contrasts go on and on. 

But as with every city, Cleveland’s soul is best found in its people.  And what great people they are.  They aren’t flashy or pretentious; they are the genuine article.  The Clevelanders who attended the conference with us were extremely knowledgeable about their city and couldn’t wait to show off the town.  There’s no way to adequately express how impressed we were in a single blog post, but we thought this would be a good way to thank the good people of Cleveland for a great time.  Your city makes us love our city even more!