Cleveland Suburbs Ranked for 2026, 5 Stories of Community Impact Across Greater Cleveland: CLE Daily

☀️  68°; Sunshine

🎁 Local Gifts: This Father’s Day, celebrate dad’s craftiness and wise spirit with unique products from Cleveland-area businesses.

⛵️ First Look: Cleveland Metroparks gives a first look inside the new $18.5 million waterfront campus ahead of its June 23 grand opening.

🏠 Moving Out: Former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has finally sold his Rocky River home.

ICYMI: The Browns have traded franchise cornerstone Myles Garrett to the Rams, ending a nine-year run that began with the No. 1 overall pick in 2017.

Today's Trivia

What was the name of Cleveland’s team in the short-lived National Women’s Football League?

What makes Greater Cleveland a great place to live? Good neighbors. 

Home & Style | By Cleveland Magazine Staff

There’s a word Fred Rogers kept coming back to, one that sounds simple until you sit with it: neighbor. 

Northeast Ohio, it turns out, is full of good neighbors. We found a few.

Bags of Hope: Rising costs are pushing working families in Cleveland's suburbs to food banks in record numbers. Despite government cuts, volunteers and organizations like the Greater Cleveland Food Bank serve over 400,000 people annually — proving that community-driven "neighbors helping neighbors" remains a vital lifeline against growing food insecurity.

Lawns Go Wild: A Berea woman transformed her lawn into a thriving native garden, then co-founded a nonprofit to inspire neighbors across Greater Cleveland to embrace Ohio's natural ecosystem together.

From One Girl to Another: A Chagrin Falls boutique quietly doubles as a donation hub, connecting neighbors' gently used bras and hygiene products to local women's shelters — proof that community care thrives when it happens organically.

Community Fit: A Liberian refugee found community and purpose at Common Threads, a thrift store where neighbors helping neighbors isn't just a motto — every purchase funds Cleveland nonprofits serving those rebuilding their lives.

Coffee Connection: In Mentor, Calico Jack Coffee Roastery's monthly cupping classes are turning neighbors into a tight-knit family — bonding over loud slurps, wild tasting notes, and a shared love of craft coffee.

This Year’s No. 1 Suburb: In Chagrin Falls, generations of neighbors have built something rare — a walkable, tight-knit town where kids walk home safely, businesses back each other, and everybody genuinely knows your name.

• The Numbers: If you look at the data, Chagrin Falls is No. 1 in our education rankings, No. 9 in our safety rankings and the community's walk score is one of our best, plus you have tons of food options. 

Overall Top 25: Joining Chagrin Falls in our best places to live are 24 other communities. Some have been in the top 25 for years; others are jumping back in.

• The Next Four: Rocky River (No. 2), Pepper Pike (No. 3), Hinckley Township  (No. 4) and Bay Village (No. 5).

• Turning Tide: After ranking No. 7 in 2023, Westlake suffered bad luck and fell out of the top 20 by last year. But this time it’s back in the top 20.

  • Joining Westlake are Medina (No.21), Macedonia (No. 22), Lakewood (No. 24) and Middleburg Heights (No. 25). All five of these suburbs improved to join the top 25.

Read the rest of the top 25 list here.

Talk of the Town

Cleveland City Council passed legislation on Monday to lower Downtown street parking fees. Parking in the area can cost between $1 and $3 per hour, with Sunday parking free except on game days and other special events.

In Cleveland, short-term rentals like Airbnbs are now required to be licensed by the city. Those licenses can now be revoked by the city if three or more nuisance calls occur, after one incident of rioting, disorderly conduct or assault, or if there are weapons/explosives violations that happen at the short-term rentals.

The Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity is receiving $1.4 million from the state to purchase, rehabilitate, or construct 13 homes. The state money comes from the Welcome Home Ohio fund, with four other Cuyahoga County organizations also receiving funds. 

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

This Canton native worked briefly at WGAR in Cleveland before becoming The Tonight Show host in the 1950s? Jack Paar 

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

If you read the editor's column for this issue from Dillon Stewart, he walks you through the changes we made to the data by adding new categories (entertainment with restaurant and liquor license numbers) and tweaking how we measure walkability, and why we made them. 

I am the one who gathered all the data. I reached out to 76 police departments and over 80 city, township and county officials; I pulled education and liquor license data from state, census records from the federal goverment and reviewed walkability scores from WalkScore. It was four long months.

All of this is public data. You have the right to it. But what makes this issue special is that Cleveland Magazine put it all in one spot for you, our readers, to easily find and make decisions on where to live, send your kids to school, start a business or grab a bite to eat. - Jaden Stambolia, Editorial Assistant