The Decline of a Once-Great City: Reason Saves Cleveland Wit

UPDATE, MARCH 2011: We're happy to announce that Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is a finalist for a digital National Magazine Award. Check back on March 16 to see if we take home the big prize! For more info, go to http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/15/rea...
Sixty years ago, Cleveland was a booming city full of promise, opportunity, and people.

Today, the city's population is less half of what it was in its prime and it ranks as one of the poorest big cities in the United States. Hometown hero Drew Carey reflects on how the city became the mistake on the lake and wonders about the city's future.

Is a Cleveland renaissance possible or is the city doomed to a long, slow death?

Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday and Max Bowerman.

This is the first of six episodes that will air between March 15-19, 2010.

The next episode, Fix the Schools, will go live at noon ET today.

Approximately 5 minutes long.

Go to http://reason.tv for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.

Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel and receive automatic notification when new videos go live.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Vlaxitov]

No offense, but It's a great thing when people leave a city over governence failure. It's one of the only things the general public has left to let politicians know that there actually can be consequences for their failings.

[ckliar]

This can only mean Drew will be running for a government office soon...

[bosshog7169]

Didn't know Drew Carey was a libertarian. Is there any better job for a free market lovin libertarian than host of the Price is Right?

[KnowledgeableBucket]

funny how only libritarian youtube and internet videos are good quality and actually do stuff, can someone find socialist videos that go around the country and give logical solutions to problems?

[HipHopRally]

Its absolutely absurd to say that a YouTube video will help revive a hell-hole of a city. I'm a St.Louis native and it is really sad to see these once great cities dying (Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, etc).... But there is a reason for their demise. Blue-collar jobs are FOREVER gone. Our horrible public schools have not armed the subsequent generations with the tools needed to foster innovation and growth. The ones that are capable/educated uproot and find jobs elsewhere.

[Amidat]

- no my point was that the population in Florida for example did not start to increase exponentially until there was reliable air-conditioning.  That is a fact of history. Yeah it sounds nice to say "low cost - low regulation"... but after a generation or two - that changes because then regulations are needed once the population reaches a certain level. Real estate goes by supply and demand. Once a place becomes popular prices go up... and then there is the "next best place".

[Damian DeLapp]

@Amidat I had no idea Nuclear Power was the only one that received subsidies..And you need to do a little research as to why corporations would relocate to a different state you just keep drinking the Coolaid of denial they don’t leave because air conditioning, they leave because of the bottom line/ burden of doing business, City and States drive away industry with their hungry entitlements when public employees make higher wages than the private sector your doomed!

[Amidat]

- yes - NYC experienced a similar type of renaissance as Sydney. Once NYC tackled crime it was able to re-attract investment... but that had much to do with it's strategic and symbolic importance. A lot of the investment came from overseas really. Some of the cities you mentioned may never be as strong as they once were.. but that doesn't mean that they have to be depressed. They just have to try to cultivate new industries.

[Amidat]

- i'm not sure if you were trying to be funny or not... but western Europe is spending a whole lot of money on renewable energy... and they also offer their citizens much more entitlements that most places in the US. If the US was a part of the "Euro zone" - it would be like Greece is now. People are moving south 1) because it is cheaper - just like when they went west. 2) check the availability of air conditioning and you will see after that the migration south started.

[Damian DeLapp]

Your right we should get rid of massive government subsidies and also entitlements. Nuclear Power all of Europe what do they know? (Those Ignorant foreigners) stop listening to media and vote on facts and performance and dump the feelings, understand the US is F0cked WHEN not IF we remove entitlements and subsidies, except the fact you need to have jobs for the slobs and lots of them. Cities die due to economic issues, why do you think people are moving south the Industry is gone!

[zyodei]

Two problems with your post: 1) Nuclear energy is not 'cheap'. It has only been economically feasible because of massive government subsidies, and because the government artificially limits the liability of the plant owners. In a truly free market, nuke energy would have never been built, because it simply isn't cost effective. and 2) The answer doesn't come from the top down - even if the problems DO ooze from the top down. EVERYTHING good in the world comes from the bottom up.

[angel55676]

The same thing happened to Sydney in the 50s. People began moving out of the city itself and into the suburbs, while the city itself suffered horribly. Sydney entered the 80s in a slump, but a "renaissance" happened, and now the city is back to its former glory. And one of the things they did was clean up the city and turn a lot of the abandoned buildings into office workplaces. And now people are moving back into the city. The same can happen to Cleveland, and St Louis, Pittsburgh etc.