I don't know why they call it the Mistake by the Lake. (pics)

[Tobin S.]

Last edited Mon Jul 18, 2016, 04:33 AM - Edit history (1)

Cleveland is a great city and I would like to live there. Jen and I went up there yesterday. The plan was to stay in a nice hotel by the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame and then visit the Hall today. We bought tickets last week as a part of a package deal with the hotel. Well, we didn't get to go to the Hall of Fame. At the last minute, Trump changed his travel route for the RNC convention which closed the Hall of Fame today.

However, we did get a refund and we had a nice time there last night. We went on a little mini cruise on the Goodtimes III on Lake Erie and up the Cuyahoga River. Big city culture is very different from small towns like the one I currently live in. There were black people, white people, Asian people, Latino people, gay people, straight people, beer drinkers, and pot smokers on that cruise all hanging out together and having a great time. Here are a few pics from our adventure.


From the pier by the Rock-n-Roll Hall of fame. Our cruise ship is on the left.


Sunset from the pier.


The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


From the boat.


Yours truly.


My lovely wife. That's the convention center in the background where the Trumpenfuhrer will be this week.


The view from our hotel room this morning of the blockade being erected on Lakeside Ave.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Well, they have made some improvements...

since the last time they set the river on fire, I guess.

[Glorfindel]

2. Thank you, Tobin S. Those are great pictures.

Not at all the way I have always pictured Cleveland. A shame the Repukes have to be inflicted on a nice city, but they'll survive and maybe make some money in the process. You and your wife look like GOOD Democrats!

[First Speaker]

3. Great pics! I visited Cleveland two years ago for a ballpark trip...

...and can't wait to go back someday. Yeah--much of the city is kind of funky. But so much is lovely, it has great public architecture, a stunning library, and the Terminal Tower is just about the coolest skyscraper ever built. This city has overwhelming potential, and I really wish it well...

[awoke_in_2003]

29. You went to the downtown library?

Fantastic, isn't it?

[First Speaker]

33. I'd be perfectly happy living there the rest of my life...

The Phantom of the Stacks... I mean--I checked every author I knew in the fiction section, no matter how obscure...and they had just about the complete works of *every* one. Heaven, bliss...

[awoke_in_2003]

34. My grandmother was a legal secretary and worked downtown

During my high school years at least once a week my grandfather would drop me off at the Rapid. I'd go downtown, by a dog (always from the same vendor) and spend some time before I came home with her. Most of that time was in the library, but i also spent a lot of time in the Arcade. They had a great bookstore, plus a great CD shop. This was when CDs were relatively new. He had things nobody else had. Oh, and I lost my watch in a shell game once. I was watching "someone else" play, and I knew i could take the guy. I, of course, realized later that "someone else" was a player in the hustle. Oh well, it was a good life lesson, and no hard feelings.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Nice pics! Enjoy Cleveland. Then travel up to Erie...

Erie is the "mistake by the lake" as any Buckeye will concur.

[Springslips]

5. Someones wrong on the internet.

Yeah I a THAT GUY! Did you mean the Cuyahoga River? The Maumee is in Toledo.

Enjoy your stay in my State. We have some very underrated cities here. Cincy and Columbus are nice too. They are doing great work in Cleveland--making a comeback.

[Tobin S.]

15. 10-4 I'll correct that.

[irisblue]

6. It's nice you 2 got a weekend away.

Thanks for the pictures.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. I"m so glad you had a great time, my dear Tobin...

Several years ago, I visited Cleveland and WCGreen drove me around to show just how cool the city really is. (His words) It's so beautiful there.

We saw part of the park they call "The Emerald Necklace" and his various neighborhoods and schools, plus some of the locations for his blog posts. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in this lovely, clean city.

The traffic was light and so much better than in LA!

Plus the lake is beautiful.

And there are hardwood trees almost literally everywhere.

I hope you get to go back one day.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. The MetroParks are fantastic. nt

[catbyte]

8. I'm old enough to remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire because it was so polluted.

Cleveland was a real pit back then. However, it has come a long way since then, but nicknames are difficult to shake.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. I love Cleveland

I used to go up there from the Youngstown area every week to party and catch bands. One of the most endearing sights is heading West on 480 when the distant skyline suddenly appears between the trees on the right.

I've never been lost there or felt unsafe. The city is laid out in a grid, unlike many older cities where hilly terrain requires winding one-way roads that defy logic to get to point B.

If you get out for a night, W4th Street in the old Warehouse District is pretty happenin'. Easy parking and everything's a walk away. The House Of Blues is there and it's only a short distance from where you are. It should be exempt from traffic restrictions.

Myself, I always loved Wilberts by the Gund. If you find yourself near there you may want to pop in and sample some Tex-Mex and roots rock and blues:

http://www.wilbertsmusic.com/

[elleng]

10. Some may recall the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra with George Szell

[marble falls]

23. The roster throught the years have been astoundingly good:

1918-1933 Nikolai Sokoloff
1933-1943 Artur Rodziński
1943-1946 Erich Leinsdorf
1946-1970 George Szell
1970-1972 Pierre Boulez (Musical advisor)
1972-1982 Lorin Maazel
1984-2002 Christoph von Dohnányi
2002–present Franz Welser-Mös

[elleng]

25. Yes it has been;

one of the great symphony orchestras.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. If you are still there

You owe yourself a Cleveland exclusive
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Boy

[marble falls]

24. Better yet:

Been going there since the 1950's.

And when you're done walk up to Westside Market.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g50207-d272156-Reviews-West_Side_Market-Cleveland_Ohio.html

Be sure to click the photos on this site.

[awoke_in_2003]

27. I've gone to WSM

but not the hot dog joint. I always got mine on the street

[Rhiannon12866]

13. These are great photos, Tobin! Thanks for sharing!

So glad to hear you both had such a great time - and that Trump didn't spoil it for you.

I've only been to Cleveland once - and that was only the airport.

[qnr]

14. I've always liked Cleveland. I used to visit it back in the eighties when I 'worked' for Compuserve

(as a SYSOP in a few areas). Glad you guys are enjoying it.

[IronLionZion]

16. Great photos!

It looks like a nice downtown. Last time I went must have been at least 15 years ago, to the rock and roll hall of fame.

[malthaussen]

17. And here I always thought it referred to Cleveland Muni Stadium...

... now a casual Google tells me it is used to refer to the whole city.

Hey, I grew up in Pittsburgh, what can I say?

-- Mal

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Usually, it's because they are from Pittsburgh. :^)

Both big sports fan towns, and within driving distance of each other's stadiums -- makes for fierce rivalry and plenty of trash talk.

[awoke_in_2003]

30. You'd be surprised

how many Steelers fans are there (at least during the 80s). My grandfather"s church was pretty close to half Steelers, half Browns fans.

[eppur_se_muova]

36. Yeah, only two hours' drive -- people move back and forth with the ebb and flow of the job market...

Of course this leads to some "mixed marriages", which make for fun Thanksgiving dinners !

[awoke_in_2003]

37. Yep...

I knew kids who were products of "mixed marriages". Love can even overcome football rivalry. Of course, I don't recall any OSU/Michigan marriages- that is a bridge too far

[PassingFair]

19. Our family visit to the Rock & Roll museum remains one of the...

best mini-vacation surprises I've ever had.

Didn't really know what to expect. We were driving back from picking up some
furniture and decided to pass thru Cleveland on the way back. Stopped and
bought tickets to the museum... I was VERY surprised at how much fun it was
and how much I learned. Truly something for everyone! My two girls loved it too!

Don't miss the fantastic retrospective of music from "inductees". Shown in an
imax type theater, I thought it was the highlight of the museum!

You should definitely go back!

[blm]

20. Grew up in suburb of Cleve - it's a very under-rated city. Culturally significant and way more fun

than most realize.

[No Vested Interest]

32. C-SPAN had a show highlighting the history of Cleveland yesterday or Saturday.

It spoke of the mansions of Euclid Ave. and the magnates of who lived there, including John D. Rockefeller.
The program also spoke of the Cleveland symphony, art museum, and other cultural features.

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. Small bit of racing trivia

When the Indycars ran at Burke Lakefront Airport, it was the only road course in the world where the entire circuit could be seen from every single grandstand seat.

Some of the best racing of the season took place there because the track was so wide

[Auggie]

22. "Mistake On The Lake" is reference to a chain of events from the late 1960s though the early 1980s

The Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire in 1969.

In 1972, Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk set his hair on fire during opening ceremonies for the American Society for Metals convention. Perk also suggested that a study on pornography be conducted by municipal sanitation workers. Both events made national news.

Employment and population plummeted as the manufacturing/industrial base (steel, automotive) was decimated from off-shoring and imports.

The city defaulted in 1978.

Organized crime reportedly put a "hit" on "Boy Mayor" Dennis Kucinich for refusing to sell Cleveland's publicly owned electric utility to private interests.

"Mistake On The Lake" is also associated with old Cleveland Museum Stadium and the perennially losing sports franchises of the 1970s: the Cleveland Indians, the Cavaliers (struggled so as an expansion team in the ancient and crime-ridden Cleveland Arena that coach Bill Fitch once quipped "we may be in last place in the NBA but we're first in stolen cars&quot and, of course, the Browns.

That said, the city has mounted a comeback in the past few decades as you note.

But the winters still suck.

I grew up just slightly east of the city in the 60's and 70's. It was just business as usual to us.

[No Vested Interest]

28. A friend from Erie PA used the term "mistake by the Lake" in the mid-50's,

so the term has been around a lot longer than the late 1960s.

She said it referred to Erie, but perhaps the term was used derogatorily about any city on the Great Lakes.

[Auggie]

31. It's likely neither city had much to brag about ...

but like I said, we didn't know any better so for most of us it was normal.

[DarthDem]

26. Fantastic Pics!

"Mistake by the Lake" more refers to the old combo baseball/football stadium where the Browns and Indians played, Municipal Stadium (now replaced by a beautiful baseball stadium right next to the NBA arena where the Thugs are huddling and by a really nice lakeside football stadium), but sure, the city was in terrible shape in the 1970s. Both ballparks and the RRHOF significantly revitalized downtown, which is evident in your pics.

I can always tell, modernly, if someone has never been to Cleveland or Pittsburgh if they mock either city or call it a dump, etc.

[OriginalGeek]

35. Never been but I'd like to go some day

I have been to Cincinnati but that's all the way at the other end. My dad took me to a Reds game - to give you an idea how long ago that was, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench were players. It was bat day and I got a Bobby Tolan bat. I was 5 or 6 - can't remember much other than I wish I still had the bat.

Dad confiscated it after finding me hitting rocks with it.

Into the sliding glass doors of some unfinished apartments being built nearby.

I got in trouble but not as much as I thought I was gonna because it made my dad laugh when I said it wasn't my fault - the devil made me do it. I don't remember WHY I said that but I do remember saying it. But mostly I remember it was fun to make my dad laugh.

[bvf]

38. As a lifelong Clevelander

I can say that tourists figure heavily into the reason for the epithet, undeserved as it is.

[mdbl]

39. It's a great town unless you have a job working outside

in 5 months of winter and 3 months of rain . Of course, with global warming, it might change.