By John Benson
We may love Cleveland but it often gets hard always acting like its press agent. You know, you’ll be defending the Rock Hall City to some blowhard in an airport who keeps rambling on and on about the “mistake by the lake.” We’ve all been there, but in some ways this stance is disingenuous when it comes to stopping urban sprawl and moving back to Cleveland proper.
One group hoping to plant a seed of rebirth is Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, which has scheduled its inaugural Cleveland City Life Tours taking place Sat 12/28 and Sun 12/29, as well as Mon 1/20.
Cool Cleveland talked to Cleveland Neighborhood Progress Director of Neighborhood Marketing Jeff Kipp about the goal behind his organization’s unique jaunts around the city.
Cool Cleveland: What’s the idea behind these unique tours?
Jeff Kipp: These are a new offshoot of the Live Cleveland Campaign and a new program from Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. Cleveland City Life Tours are done to showcase all of the progress and development momentum that’s happening in Cleveland’s neighborhoods. Our group’s mission statement is to foster communities of choice and opportunity within Cleveland’s neighborhoods. A lot of our marketing efforts are to promote the livability of the city of Cleveland and to improve people’s perceptions of what it means for city living and what urban amenities are.
With that in mind, what sort of barriers or hurdles do you face?
Perception is a key battle for us. We’re talking about a city that has lost an enormous amount of population over the last five to six decades. A lot of our marketing efforts are trying to counteract the effects of sprawl and what’s happened to Cleveland, dropping from a population of 900,000 to 400,000. We know there are some negative perceptions out there on urban living. Some just lack information on what’s going on in the city of Cleveland.
As far as the tours promoting Cleveland living, what is your target audience?
We’re focusing on young professionals, college graduates, empty nesters and boomerangers, people who have lived in other markets and they want to come back to Northeast Ohio. The other part targets suburbanites, people who have disengaged from the city of Cleveland, whether it is their generation or generations before them. We want to provide this charter tour so they can get out and see and experience our city neighborhoods. We’ve already been contacted by private companies looking for customized catered tours to take either their customers or sales staff, to educate them on what’s going on in the city around them.
Which areas of Cleveland deemed a success will be on the tour?
For starters, this is an introductory tour. We can’t touch every single neighborhood. These will last two hours and will start in Ohio City and cover the near West Side, Tremont, Gordon Square. You can drive across lakefront and see downtown and touch Cultural Gardens, University Circle, Little Italy and loop back through downtown and see development happening there before ending up back in Ohio City.
Why are you optimistic the bus tours will achieve their goal?
We’re optimistic because the feedback has been great both from general consumers, as well as from partner corporations and institutions in the city. Ultimately, research has showed that native Northeast Ohioans tend to be a little pessimistic. There’s also a very deep sense of pride in Cleveland. And while many people have left town or left the market or disengaged with the city, we do strongly feel there’s a desire to get back in tune with what’s going on in the city’s neighborhoods.
Wait a second. You’re hoping to eradicate the seemingly inherent and flourishing sense of skepticism and pessimism enjoyed by most Northeast Ohioans with a bus tour? That’s a pretty lofty goal. You might as well try to turn around our football team while you’re at it.
That’s our goal for 2015 [laughs]. No, we know that, but our approach for a very long time has been we need to create a broader base of ambassadors for Cleveland’s neighborhoods. We’re not going to change that perception and change that pessimism with family brochures and billboards and TV spots.
We need people to get out and experience and see firsthand all of the great cool stuff that’s happening in the city’s neighborhoods. We’re very confident once they do, they will have a change and improved perception of Cleveland. We just may be scraping the city but if we can take 30 to 50 people on a tour, we’re gaining that many ambassadors. They’ll share it with their networks and it will spread that way, but people have to get out and engage in the city.
The Cleveland City Life Tours take place at 11 a.m. Sat 12/28 & Sun 12/29, and 11 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. Mon 1/20. Buses will depart from the St. Ignatius High School parking lot located at the corner of Lorain Avenue and W. 29th Street. Cost is $12 (includes t-shirt). http://npi-cle.org/places/tours.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
Cleveland, OH 44113
One Response to “Take a Bus Tour & (Re)Discover Cleveland Neighborhoods @CLEProgress”
observer
THE few high dollar local crews left are gonna dominate debate,money,politico voices n choices,etc. HATE reinforcing THEM but its just THERE…way it is…what else can one say. SUSPECT SOME FEARS BIG $ stuff COULD go BANKRUPT,DUMPED on landbank/”County”, some kind of REIT bargain huntingvultures circle,stuck maintaining high cost stuff,vandalism,etc. and THEN GET ANOTHER AMERITRUST East 9th street politico horrorfest with all the travails associated with THAT…..