"Miserable" Cleveland Makes Bike Riders Happy

Forbes Magazine recently listed the 20 Most Miserable Cities in America.  Some of the places are the usual suspects and locales one would expect to be on such a list: Detroit, Toledo, and Gary, Indiana...  Three states contributed the most cities to the list:  California (Sacramento, Stockton, Merced, Bakersfield, Vallejo and Modesto), Michigan (Detroit, Flint, Warren and Lansing) and Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach).  Miami was actually the number one most miserable city.  We have blogged about a great bike ride in Miami (read “An Art Deco Bike Ride—Miami USA” from January).  For the most part in each city three miserable things can be blamed: the housing bust, unemployment, and crime.  For Miami it is mostly the housing bust.  Housing in Miami has prices through the roof (no pun intended) leaving the working-poor and middle-class with few options.  In Detroit, the second most miserable city, it is all three: poor housing, an awful crime rate and skyrocketing unemployment.  When reading the list the SBT crew could see where Forbes was coming from on just about every city except for one: Cleveland.

Cleveland is getting bad rap.  Cleveland actually scores well in unemployment figures at 7.7 percent.  It beats the national average.   Home prices are stable with a rise of just over 4% in the last few years.  Forbes hammered the poor sports teams and yes the Indians, Browns and Cavs stink to high heaven.  Maybe it is time to bring back the long lost Barons of the NHL?   (Remember the jersey?  See picture). If the city can’t win in the other sports then maybe hockey is the next thing to try.  Forbes also blamed snow, the crazy “lake effect” stuff that dumps feet in minutes.   But the same snow falls in Erie, Pa and Buffalo and Rochester in New York and those cities escaped Forbes’s wrath.

Cleveland has the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some great Eastern European foods like kielbasa, pierogies and stuffed cabbage, the Metroparks system of downtown parks, and The Flats (pictured); a hip section of bars, shopping, restaurants and nightlife along the Cuyahoga River.  The best kept secret of Cleveland may be its bicycling options.  

Cleveland offers six fantastic bike trails and bike routes: Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway, Emerald Necklace Trail, Harris Dillard Bikeway, Morgana Run Trail, Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath and the Treadway Creek Greenway. In sum, it is over 182 miles of bike trail.  The O&E Towpath (pictured) alone is 88 miles.

Cleveland has developed an ambitious “Bikeways Master Plan” which includes a city loop trail and the completion of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath to Lake Erie (it will soon be 100 total miles).  The city is also developing connector trails and adding bike lanes throughout downtown.  Bike stations will be coming soon.  

Soon, with the completion of a number of regional bike trail hubs it will be possible to ride to Cleveland from as far away as Cincinnati.  The North Coast Inland Trail (NCIT) is another major Cleveland trail project soon to be completed.  Ohio is serious about bicycling and www.ohiobikeways is the website to visit.   

We have a number of updates on our website and  a video tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Visit www.stickybottleteam.net.