Poor Cleveland. Home base of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, for decades on either side of the turn of the 20th century Cleveland was one of the biggest and heaviest of all the Great Lakes heavy industrial giants. Despite losing half its population, and spending much of the past 60 years reeling from Rust Belt decay, the city does seem to be coming back to life, energized by the sporting success of LeBron James’s Cavaliers and baseball’s fan-friendly Jacobs Field.
Cleveland’s old heavyweight lakefront industrial district, known as “The Flats,” has undergone a successful facelift: overlaid by a network of bridges (drawbridges, lift bridges, swing bridges, all kinds of bridges) that form a feast for the eyes of any post-industrial amateur archaeologist, with water taxis running back and forth across the river, linking the bars and restaurants that now fill gigantic old mills, factories, and warehouses. The primal force behind the area’s rebirth has been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (daily; $21; 888/764-ROCK), housed in a striking modern I. M. Pei–designed building; 50,000 square feet of galleries fill a 165-foot tower with a barrage of multimedia exhibits tracing the roots and branches of the rock family tree. (Q: Why Cleveland? A: The Hall of Fame was located here because it’s a Cleveland DJ, Alan Freed, who is credited with naming the music “rock and roll,” way back in 1951.)
At the heart of downtown, Jacobs Field is the place that made Cleveland feel like a winner: the Cleveland Indians (216/420-4200) baseball team won the American League championship for the first time in two generations the year the stadium opened, and success has inspired a general renaissance of civic pride. “The Jake” is packed full every game, so buy tickets as far in advance as possible.
