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Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan
Two Midwestern cities in the United States that um….well
Let’s just begin with this classic video: Come on down to Clevelandtown everyone. Here's the place where there used to be industry. This train is carrying jobs out of Cleveland. Cleveland leads the nation in drifters.
Here's a statue of Moses Cleveland. He's the guy who invented Cleveland, yeah!
Oh and the sequel: Come on down to Clevelandtown everyone. Under construction since 1868. See our river that catches on fire. It's so polluted that all our fish have AIDS. It could be worse, though, at least we're not Detroit.
It's actually a trilogy: Fun times in Cleveland some more! New Cleveland. Welcome to New Clevelandtown everyone. No river fires for over 50 years. Our hearts are swelling with pride and plus corn beef. Spend all your money and have fun while you're here. It could be worse, you could be in Detroit. Still not Detroit!
Yeah, so...the implication here is that sure, uh, Cleveland is bad, but Detroit is worse.
Google “Mistake on the Lake.”
Yep, that’s a nickname for Cleveland.
But Cleveland has more appealing nicknames, like The Forest City.
Detroit, of course is known as Motor City, or simply Motown.
Indeed, both cities have had their struggles in recent decades, and thus have developed
a reputation for being not desirable cities to live in.
When we often see Cleveland and Detroit in videos, we see huge abandoned buildings and
dying neighborhoods.
Now, fortunately, in the last few years both cities have made significant improvements.
Both actually rock.
(Clip of the Drew Carey Show theme of “Cleveland Rocks” by the Presidents of the United States
of America) (Clip of live performance of “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss) And yes, look at all
these things they have in common!
Both are in the Great Lakes region of the country.
While both are near Lake Erie, Cleveland is right up on it.
Detroit is actually right up on the Detroit River, but is also next to Lake St Clair,
which is not great.
Er, I mean, it’s not technically a Great Lake, but it IS part of the Great Lakes system.
The Detroit River is actually a strait, and divides the metropolitan area of Detroit from
Windsor, Ontario.
Indeederoo, Detroit borders Canada.
Downtown Detroit is about 110 miles from downtown Cleveland.
Driving by car around Lake Erie, the two cities are about 2 and a half hours apart.
Of course, you could take a 30-minute flight between the two.
Or even take a boat.
That’d take around two hours.
Or you could swim.
Eh, I don’t recommend swimming between the two.
Both have shrinking populations.
As far as the actual cities, the population peaked for both of them in the 1950s.
Back then, Detroit had almost 1.9 million people, and Cleveland had almost a million.
Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country, and Cleveland 7th.
Since then, however, both have steadily been losing people.
Today, Detroit proper has just 667,000 people and is the 24th biggest city in the country.
Cleveland is down to 379,000, and now the 54th biggest city in the country.
That said, Detroit still has the 14th largest metro population in the country with 4.3 million,
and Cleveland is 33rd with a metro population of 2.1 million.
Detroit’s metro population has gone up in recent years, but Cleveland’s has continued
to go down.
And this is why real estate continues to be just so darn cheap in both cities.
I recently found 697 homes in Detroit and 162 homes in Cleveland currently for sale
for less than $10,000.
Seriously, YouTubers and TikTokers, why are you living in L.A.? Detroit has about 20 square
miles of empty land within city limits.
Anyway, so yeah the cost of living in both cities is wayyy lower than most cities in
the country.
However, Cleveland has a much lower cost of living compared to Detroit.
Not only that, but Detroit has higher taxes.
Both are ethnically diverse.
In each city proper, the largest ethnic group is African American.
Around 79% of those living in Detroit identify as such.
Both continue to have some of the worst air pollution in the country, but Detroit’s
is slightly worse.
The water quality is also better in Cleveland.
That said, the Cuyahoga river has caught on fire at least 13 times.
I’m not joking.
It was so polluted due to folks just dumping trash, sewage, and oil into it.
Today, more than 40 species of fish have returned to the Cuyahoga thanks to massive cleanup
efforts over the decades.
Both have higher crime rates compared to most American cities.
Detroit has more violent crime, while Cleveland has more property crime.
Both have rival Major League Baseball teams.
Tigers fans and Indians fans just love to talk trash.
Their NBA teams, the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, are kind of rivals.
Their NFL teams are not rivals, mostly since the Cleveland Browns are in the AFC and Detroit
Lions are in the NFC.
Oh, um, yeah both the Lions and Browns do have a long history of not being good.
But people forget, both the Lions and Browns used to be unstoppable, way back in the 1930s
through 1960s.
I do feel for you lately, though, Lions and Browns fans.
Detroit has an NHL team, the Red Wings.
Cleveland hasn't had an NHL team for 42 years.
Neither city has an MLS team.
Both historically have been known for producing automobiles.
You know, cars?
Cleveland used to be an auto industry hub, but Detroit kind of stole the spotlight, becoming
the Auto Capital of the World.
Even today, the Detroit metropolitan area produces more cars than anywhere else in the country.
“The Big 3,” as they’re called-General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler-are all based there.
Both have a similar population density.
Both have similar climates (humid continental), with four distinct seasons.
Detroit gets a little hotter in the summer and a little colder in the winter.
Cleveland gets more snowfall, and more precipitation overall.
(D-33.5 in, 850cm, C- 39.1 in, 994 cm) It gets that lake-effect snow, and Detroit doesn’t.
Now let’s just focus on differences for the rest of the video.
First of all, Detroit has been around longer.
Before European arrival, the Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Iroquois lived in and near
the area that is now Detroit.
The American Indians who lived in the area that is now Cleveland were long gone by the
time Europeans settled it.
A French dude named Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Detroit as a fort in 1701.
The British took over the fort after their victory in the French and Indian War.
A dude named Moses Cleaveland and his team of surveyors from the Connecticut Land Company
founded Cleveland in 1796.
His surveyors named the town after their leader, Cleaveland, but hold up, that’s not how
you spell “Cleveland.”
What the heck?
Well, the theory goes that somebody messed up with the spelling of his name when they
made one of the first maps of the town, and the misspelling just stuck, especially after
The Cleveland Advertiser later dropped the first “a” since it didn’t fit on the
newspaper’s masthead.
Anyway, by that time both cities were under American control.
On June 11, 1805, a huge fire destroyed almost all of Detroit.
Still, they rebuilt, and the newly established Michigan Territory made Detroit its capital.
In the early 1800s, people tried to bring slaves to the two cities, but that didn’t
last long.
Both became abolitionist strongholds and stops on the Underground Railroad.
In fact, Detroit was often the last stop on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves,
who then went on to freedom in Canada.
The United States temporarily lost Detroit to the British in the War of 1812, while Cleveland
proved to be an important supply post during that war.
In 1832, Cleveland quickly began to grow after the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal,
and Detroit did also as a transportation hub due to its central location in the Great Lakes Region.
By the American Civil War, both cities had around 45,000 people.
During that war and the following decades, both cities became highly industrial, and
thus became two of the wealthiest cities in the country.
This attracted many entrepreneurs and immigrants, and the late 1800s and early 1900s were the
boom times in both.
Earlier I mentioned how both produced lots of cars, but it was Henry Ford who helped
make Detroit dominate the automobile industry.
He basically invented the assembly line at his Highland Park Plant in 1910.
He also revolutionized labor relations by paying his workers well and giving them a
five-day work week.
Later, General Motors came to town, and so did Chrysler.
From the 1920s to 1950s, well other than the Great Depression, Detroit was unstoppable when it came to automobile production.
Cleveland was also unstoppable, becoming the fifth largest manufacturing center in the
country by World War Two.
Suburbanization, the rise of people driving to work every day, and white flight caused
dramatic demographic shifts in both cities beginning in the 1950s.
The downfall of Cleveland and Detroit came around that time, mostly due to deindustrialization.
In the following decades, manufacturing went to other countries, where labor was cheaper.
In addition to becoming Rust Belt cities, pollution, political ineptitude, and racial
tensions further led to each cities’ decline.
Racial tensions were especially bad in Detroit, as seen by the 12th Street Riot in the “long,
hot summer of 1967.”
By the 1980s, most of the manufacturing jobs were gone, and since then both cities have
been in recovery mode.
Today, both continue to struggle with poverty.
The poverty rate is currently higher in Detroit.
(C-35.2%, D-37.9%) However, the median household income (C- $29,953, D- $31,283) and minimum
wage (C- $8.70 per hour, D- $9.65 per hour) is higher there.
Also, Detroit currently has faster job growth, and is the second-biggest source of architectural
and engineering job opportunities in the country.
Other than automobile manufacturing, other major industries in Detroit include bioscience
and technology.
Major industries in Cleveland also include bioscience and technology, but additionally
healthcare.
The median age is lower in Detroit.
(C-35, D-31) More in Detroit are single.
Marijuana is legal in Detroit, since it’s in Michigan.
It’s not in Cleveland, although Ohio does allow marijuana for medicinal use.
Cleveland residents are more religious.
Detroit residents are more left leaning.
That said, residents of both consistently vote for the Democratic Party.
Detroit has worse traffic and higher commute times.
Well lucky for them, public transportation is cheaper there.
Major attractions in Cleveland include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes
Science Center, and West Side Market.
Major attractions in Detroit include the GM Renaissance Center, Motown Museum, Henry Ford
Museum, and Campus Martius Park.
Just like several other parts of Michigan, Detroit uses a Mile Road System to name different
roads and streets.
Probably the most famous of these is 8 Mile Road, which separates Wayne county from Macomb
and Oakland counties.
Over the years, it has been seen as a cultural divide, with generally more white, wealthier
residents in the suburbs to the north, and generally more black, less wealthy residents
in Detroit to the south.
There’s even a film called 8 Mile, loosely based off the life of Eminem, who grew up
in the area.
While both cities used to have a magnificent network of streetcars and tore them down in
the 1950s and 1960s, Detroit recently brought back a street car, the QLine, which runs along
Woodward Avenue.
Detroit has an arguably better music scene.
And don’t forget that Motown Records started there.
According to the website Walk Score, Cleveland has a higher walkability score.
On September 27, 1986, Cleveland residents released almost 1.5 million balloons into
the sky.
It was supposed to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt to return a positive light
to the city, but sadly it ended up being a disaster, causing traffic problems and polluting
Lake Erie, even preventing the U.S. Coast Guard from finding two missing boaters.
Detroit was the first city in the country to pave a road with concrete.
Cleveland was the first city in the country to successfully demonstrate electric lighting.
Detroit was the birthplace of techno.
Cleveland was the birthplace of not rock and roll, but at least the term rock and roll.
Cleveland was also home to the first shopping mall.
Detroit mayor Coleman Young once gave Saddam Hussein the key to the city.
What the heck?
Ok, so you may have noticed several negative facts I’ve said about both cities throughout
this video.
Well, fortunately, the future for both cities looks incredibly bright.
Cleveland Rising, a community-driven initiative to dramatically improve the city, has set
goals of making it easier to start businesses there, making the city more environmentally
friendly, increasing access to healthier food, raising the minimum wage, and making mass
transit and internet access free.
Cleveland has also already attracted many biomedical and tech startups away from the
East and West Coasts.
There’s even this winery there on formerly vacant land.
Oh but Detroit now also has a winery on formerly vacant land.
Detroit’s downtown has also experienced a renaissance, with dramatic redevelopment.
It also has attracted tech startups away from the East and West coasts.
In conclusion, stop making fun of Cleveland and Detroit.
They are both wonderful cities with fantastic opportunities, and the recent rebirth of these
two Rust Belt cities will only continue for years to come.
If you’ve been watching my channel for awhile, you know that I've had several videos sponsored by Newsvoice.
And it's a good match. It makes sense.
I teach media literacy, for a living.
It's a good resource to get my students to critically think about the news.
It’s a free app that is breaking people out of those news bubbles and is revolutionizing
the news landscape.
Newsvoice gives you a personalized news feed by aggregating major news sites, including
international and independent media.
The best part about it?
It shows multiple sources for the same stories, and tags the bias and perspective of each
source.
You can upvote stories you find interesting and add stories or links that are missing.
So dig deeper, and try Newsvoice by clicking the link to download it in the description
and pinned comment.
Thanks to Newsvoice for sponsoring this video.
A shout out to Scott, who lives in Detroit, and Xyla, who lives in Cleveland, for both looking
over the script for this video. Scott has a YouTube channel called Scottman895. I've been watching it for awhile.
It's quirky. I love it.
Check it out. I put the link in the description.
And Xyla also has a channel. It's just her name Xyla Foxlin, but she also has a channel called Beauty and the Bolt. Check them both out and subscribe.
So which city is better?
Detroit or Cleveland? As always, I especially want to hear from you
if you are actually from one of those two cities.
And, I love to read your suggestions in the comments for future cities to compare for this series.
And here’s a gentle reminder to follow my social media stuff.
Twitagram.
Facetok.
All of it. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for watching!