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Introduction
Cleveland (Ohio), the
second largest city in Ohio and
seat of Cuyahoga County, located
where the Cuyahoga River enters
Lake Erie. A major manufacturing
and commercial center, it ranks
as one of the chief ports on the
Great Lakes, and the city has
long functioned as a collecting
point for highway and railroad
traffic from the Midwest. In the
1990s Cleveland developed new
cultural, sports, and
entertainment attractions in the
downtown area and increased its
vitality.
The eastern part of the
Cleveland metropolitan area
lies on the Appalachian
Plateau at an elevation of
about 330 m (about 1,100
ft), while the western part
sits upon the Lake Plain and
associated terraces at about
180 m (about 600 ft). The
eastern area’s higher
elevation results in
significantly greater
snowfalls in winter. Annual
precipitation, measured at
Cleveland-Hopkins
International Airport in the
west, is 930 mm (36.6 in)
and falls evenly throughout
the year. Temperatures in
the city are moderated by
its location on Lake Erie.
The average high in January
is 0° C (32° F) and the
average low is -8° C (18°
F); average high in July is
28° C (82° F) and the
average low is 16° C (61°
F).
Cleveland is named for
Moses Cleaveland, who
laid out the city as
part of a survey in
1796. The spelling of
the name was later
shortened; one story
holds that it was done
by a newspaper editor in
order to fit the name in
the newspaper’s
masthead.
Cleveland and
its Metropolitan
Area
Most of the
northern and
downtown
sections of
Cleveland lie on
terraces between
18 and 24 m (60
and 80 ft) above
Lake Erie. These
terraces are
divided by the
valley of the
Cuyahoga River,
which flows
northward
through
Cleveland. The
valley, called
the Flats, was
once the city’s
main industrial
section but has
since been
converted into
an entertainment
district, with
numerous
restaurants and
nightclubs in
renovated
warehouses on
both banks of
the river. High
bridges across
the Flats link
the commercial
and residential
areas to its
east and west.
The heart of
the central
business
district is
Public
Square, on a
lake terrace
east of the
Flats. The
square
contains a
large
monument to
participants
in the
American
Civil War
(1861-1865)
and statues
of city
founder
Moses
Cleaveland
and of one
of America’s
greatest
reform
mayors, Tom
L. Johnson,
who served
from 1901 to
1909. Public
Square is
the focal
point of
several main
thoroughfares
and is
dominated by
the 52-story
Terminal
Tower
(1929),
which for
several
decades was
the tallest
building in
the United
States west
of New York.
Terminal
Tower’s
lower
concourse,
originally
the station
for the New
York Central
Railroad,
was
renovated in
1990 into an
open
three-level
development
of retail
stores and
restaurants
known as
Tower City.
Other
important
retail
complexes in
the downtown
are The
Galleria, a
collection
of stores in
a mall-like,
ultra-modern
building;
and the
Arcade, a
magnificently
restored
late 19th
century
three-story
shopping and
office
arcade
listed on
the National
Register of
Historic
Places.
Euclid
Avenue,
which runs
eastward
from Public
Square,
formerly was
the main
retail
concentration,
but its
shopping
influence is
today
greatly
reduced.
Eastward
along Euclid
Avenue is
the
University
Circle area,
a
neighborhood
of
educational,
medical, and
cultural
facilities.
In 1895
the
Cleveland
Architectural
Club
challenged
its
members
to
produce
a
“grouping
of
Cleveland’s
Public
Buildings.”
Out of
this
idea
emerged
the
Group
Plan,
patterned
on the
“city
beautiful”
concept
expressed
in the
redevelopment
of the
Chicago
waterfront
for the
Chicago
World’s
Fair.
Both
Daniel
H.
Burnham
and
Frederick
Law
Olmsted,
architects
of the
Chicago
plan,
played
key
roles in
developing
a mall
in
downtown
Cleveland
where an
impressive
concentration
of
public
buildings
was
erected
in the
first
third of
the 20th
century.
Structures
include
the
Federal
Building,
the
County
Court
House,
the
Cleveland
Public
Library,
City
Hall,
the
Cleveland
Board of
Education
Building,
Cleveland
Municipal
Stadium,
and
Public
Hall (a
combination
auditorium,
convention
center,
and
exposition
hall).
The
land
area
of
the
city
of
Cleveland
is
199.4
sq
km
(77.0
sq
mi).
But
this
represents
only
a
small
fraction
of
the
city’s
metropolitan
region,
which
spreads
over
Cuyahoga,
Lorain,
Lake,
Medina,
Ashtabula,
and
Geauga
counties,
with
a
land
area
of
7,012.4
sq
km
(2,707.5
sq
mi).
The
Cleveland
metropolitan
area
includes
the
communities
of
Parma,
Lorain,
Lakewood,
Elyria,
Euclid,
Cleveland
Heights,
Mentor,
East
Cleveland,
Strongsville,
Garfield
Heights,
Shaker
Heights,
and
many
smaller
communities.
Population
According to the national census, the population of Cleveland was 505,616 in 1990, a decline of 11.9 percent from the 1980 population of 573,822. The decrease continued into the 1990s, falling a further 5.4 percent between 1990 and 2000. The population was 478,403 in 2000. The decrease is attributed to a continuing flight to the suburbs, begun before 1970 and fueled by racial polarization and public school problems.
In 2000 blacks were 51 percent of the population, whites 41.5 percent, , Asians 1.3 percent, Native Americans 0.3 percent, and people of mixed heritage or not reporting race 5.8 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 178 at the time of the census. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 7.3 percent of the people.
The city of Cleveland has long been stereotyped as a community of two halves: a black eastern half and a white western half. Although a gross over-simplification, this perception has been widely accepted and has governed many community attitudes and actions. In reality, the city of Cleveland and much of the larger metropolitan area consists of distinct ethnic neighborhoods or communities. In large part this is a heritage of the employment opportunities available to blacks from the southern United States, whites from the Appalachian hill country, and immigrants from eastern and southern Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The population of the metropolitan area in 1980 was 2,278,000, but by 1990 it totaled 2,202,000, or a decrease of 3.3 percent. The trend reversed in the 1990s. In 2000 the population was 2,251,000. Accurately characterizing the population of the metropolitan area is difficult because the fastest growing regions in 1990 actually were outside the officially designated area. For example, northern Summit County, while in Cleveland’s economic and cultural orbit, is counted as part of the Akron metropolitan area.
Education and Culture
Cleveland’s principal universities include Case Western Reserve University (1826), an internationally known school, especially for engineering; Cleveland State University (1964), particularly known for its urban-oriented curriculum; and David N. Myers College (1848). The Cleveland Institute of Art was founded in 1882, and the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1920. John Carroll University (1886) is in suburban University Heights and Baldwin-Wallace College (1845) is in Berea. Cleveland is famous for medical research and treatment, led by the Cleveland Clinic and its outstanding heart surgery program. The University Hospitals, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University, also enjoys an international reputation for high quality medical services.
Most of Cleveland’s cultural, educational, and medical institutions are located in the University Circle area, 6 km (4 mi) east of downtown. Leading cultural institutions include the Cleveland Museum of Art, with one of America’s best collections of Asian art; the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, with fossils of dinosaurs and human ancestors; and the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum, containing exhibits on the Western Reserve from the late 18th to early 20th centuries, and the adjacent Crawford Auto and Aviation Museum, including an exhibit on automobiles built in Cleveland. Of particular interest to families are the Health Museum of Cleveland and the Cleveland Children’s Museum. Also located in University Circle is Severance Hall, the home of the world-acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra. Nearby is the Cleveland Play House, with three large, restored theaters and one of the largest non-profit professional theaters in the country. Downtown is Playhouse Square Center, with four recently restored theaters, home to the Cleveland Opera and the Great Lakes Theater Festival. On the waterfront is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, opened in 1995 and exploring the rich history of rock music. Next door is the Great Lakes Science Center, an interactive science museum. A popular cultural event in the city each spring is the Cleveland International Film Festival.
Recreation
Cleveland possesses an outstanding collection of parks, including Edgewater Beach State Park and Gordon Park along the Lake Erie shore, and Rockefeller Park and the Rocky River Reservation extending inland along ravines leading back from the lake. The city is nearly encircled by woodland parks, with interconnected trails, nature centers, and picnic grounds. To the south, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, administered by the National Park Service, is one of the most visited national park units in the country. Professional sports teams in the city include the Cleveland Indians (baseball), the Cleveland Browns (football), and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Rockers (men's and women's basketball). In 1996 the owner of the Browns moved the team to Maryland, where it played as the Baltimore Ravens. In 1999 a new football franchise, also called the Browns, began play in the newly constructed Cleveland Browns Stadium. The other professional teams also play in stadiums built in the 1990s: the Indians in Jacobs Field in downtown Cleveland and the Cavaliers and Rockers in nearby Gund Arena. The Cleveland Grand Prix automobile race is held in early summer at Burke Lakefront Airport, which is also the site of the Cleveland National Air Show on Labor Day Weekend.
Economy
Manufacturing provided the historic supports to Cleveland’s economy. But heavy industry in the city was hard hit in the later part of the 20th century, with aging plants unable to compete with cheaper goods from overseas. Manufacturing employment declined by about one-third from the 1970s; today it accounts for only about one-fifth of the labor force. Nevertheless, manufacturing remains important and will likely stay a central part of the economy because the city is within a short transportation distance of many of the country’s people. Since the 1970s the economy has also diversified, adding business services, high technology, and tourism to its traditional base. This helps the city weather downturns in any one industry.
Cleveland is the home of many large manufacturers—among them are TRW (transportation components), the Eaton Corporation (vehicle power train components, electrical equipment, and controls), Sherwin Williams (paints and varnishes), Parker Hannifin (motion control components), and American Greetings Company (greeting cards). Hundreds of smaller manufacturing plants, led by the makers of machinery and machine tools, transportation equipment, electrical equipment, fabricated metal products, and plastics and polymers, are located throughout the Cleveland metropolitan area. Research and development in Cleveland includes biomedical engineering drawing on university and hospital research programs, and polymer research based on years of experience in plastics and rubber manufacture. The John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is situated near Cleveland’s airport.
Cleveland is a distribution center and a market for raw materials. Large quantities of iron ore, limestone, sand and gravel, iron and steel products, petroleum products, and cement pass through the city’s port annually. Diversified international trade is steadily becoming more important, in part a consequence of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which opened the city to oceangoing ships. Leading exports are chemicals, industrial machinery, and electronic equipment.
Cleveland is a principal transportation center of Ohio. It has major railroad and airline facilities, as well as shipping lines, trucking companies, and bus lines. The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority serves the entire metropolitan area with bus and rapid transit service. Commercial air transportation is through Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, an airline hub. Interstates 80 and 90, combined as the Ohio Turnpike, fork at the western reaches of Cleveland, with Interstate 90 passing through the heart of the city along the lakeshore and Interstate 80 collecting traffic through the southern suburbs. The city is the northern terminus of Interstate 71, from the southwest, and Interstate 77, from the south.
Government
Cleveland’s government consists of a mayor and a 21-member city council. All are elected to four-year terms, with voters electing the mayor city-wide and council members by ward. The Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority was the first such government agency in the United States and a model adopted by other urban areas.
Cleveland has had a long but intermittent tradition of reform government, beginning with Tom L. Johnson, who was elected in 1901. Noteworthy among Johnson’s reforms were the introduction of public transportation and the establishment of a publicly owned power plant, which still operates today. Another Cleveland resident, Florence E. Allen, became the first woman to serve on a state supreme court. She was subsequently appointed a federal judge. A colorful chapter in reform was inaugurated in the late 1920s when Eliot Ness became commissioner of public safety; Ness is best remembered today for fictionalized accounts of his battle against organized crime. In 1967 Carl Stokes (the great-grandson of a slave) defeated Seth Taft (the great-grandson of a U.S. president) to become the first black mayor of a major American city.
History
Northeastern Ohio was once part of the Western Reserve, a tract of land that Connecticut claimed under its colonial charter. In 1795 Connecticut sold most of the territory to the Connecticut Land Company, which sent out a surveying party headed by Moses Cleaveland. In 1796 Cleaveland laid out a public square with radiating streets on the site of the present-day city, east of the Cuyahoga River. The settlement was named for him and was incorporated as a village in 1814.
Completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832 transformed Cleveland from a frontier community to a commercial center at the head of an important waterway connecting the Ohio River and Lake Erie. With the completion a few years earlier of the Erie Canal, connecting the lake to the Eastern seaboard, Cleveland stood on the principal transportation route between the Midwest and the country’s urban centers. Population more than tripled by 1836, when Cleveland was incorporated as a city. The first railroad arrived in 1851. Ohio City, a community on the west bank of the river, was annexed by Cleveland in 1854.
The American Civil War (1861-1865) created a demand for Cleveland’s iron and steel products and stimulated the city’s growth. This industry, in turn, formed the basis for other heavy industries. By 1900, for example, six major automobile manufacturers were operating in Cleveland. The city’s industries created vast fortunes for industrialists, notably John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller and Marcus Hanna, a steel and shipping king and political boss, were classmates at Central High School. Another pair of classmates, at Glenville High School in the early 1930s, developed the comic book character Superman.
A strong tradition of citizen participation exists in Cleveland. The first modern Community Chest was founded in Cleveland in 1913, developing a way of dispersing funds that became a model for the United Way. The Citizens League of Greater Cleveland has acted as a civic spur to improve government for more than a century. The City Club is recognized as the oldest forum for political and community dialogue in the country. The Cleveland Foundation was the first community-funded civic foundation in the United States.
Beginning about 1960 Cleveland entered a long period of decline. Aging industrial plants, high labor costs, outmoded municipal facilities, the migration of population, and increasing racial tensions all contributed to political strife and a deteriorating economy. In 1978 the decline culminated in Cleveland becoming the first municipality to default on its debts since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Cleveland was earning an unenviable title of “The Mistake by the Lake.” By the 1980s a renaissance began. Civic pride was restored by solid examples of confidence in the community, such as the redevelopment of the Lake Erie shoreline and the building of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, combined with intangibles such as the inauguration of the Cleveland Grand Prix and a league championship season for the Indians baseball team. Challenges such as improving public schools remain, but Cleveland has replaced its old nickname with “The New American City.”
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