AS OUR ANNUAL Rating the Suburbs issue attests, we get the obsession with rankings. But do we really need to share every time our town makes someone's best list of this or that?
Jennifer Rome, attorney at Bravo Wellness and author of Why CLE?, a blog about why we're here
yes // Jumping on Facebook and Twitter to spread the news that the Greenhouse Tavern and Red, the Steakhouse made Forbes' 15 Most Memorable Restaurant Meals of 2013 or that Lakewood made Movoto Real Estate Blog's 10 Most Exciting Small Cities in America gives us an instant way of comparing Cleveland with other towns. It provides the satisfaction of knowing Cleveland has something worthy of national attention. We know we have museums, theater and food that can stand up to offerings in New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles, but we're not always so sure everyone else knows it. Sharing these lists provides a quick shot in the arm for a town that still struggles with an (unwarranted, in my opinion) inferiority complex. Even making the list of the world's Top 10 Most Beautiful Snowy Cities made me feel better about winter, if only momentarily. So share on! Perhaps next we'll make the list of Top 10 Cities That Share Top 10 Lists!
Jason Brill, assistant editor at Cleveland Magazine, a magazine about why we're here
no // Easy on the sharing. Every time a national publication hails our corner of Ohio as the next (fill in the blank), Clevelanders share it everywhere they can, from Twitter and Facebook to Myspace. The sharing reached a boiling point when Gogobot, which sounds more like a forum to compare collections of knockoff Transformers toys than a travel site, ranked Cleveland No. 4 on its list of Rising Star travel destinations. That's behind Tbilisi, Georgia; Accra, Ghana; and Medellin, Colombia. Good company. Tbilisi was under attack by the Russian Air Force as recently as five years ago. Medellin, home to Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, was once considered the world's most dangerous city. But I hear Accra is nice this time of year. I understand the concept of spreading the pride that comes from being called the next Brooklyn by the folks at Fortune, but it's all starting to feel like a condescending pat on the head from our big bros in Chicago and New York City. We know we're awesome. Why can't that be enough?
