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| Welcome to Cleveland: RNC backdrop of poverty, tenacity and Cavaliers triumph | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Sipping a craft beer outdoors on a warm Sunday, Janna Greer reaches for her phone and plays a video shot a few weeks back. The scene is one of giddy euphoria as the people of Cleveland, Ohio, celebrate winning the national basketball championship – and ending their 52-year wait for a major sporting trophy. | Sipping a craft beer outdoors on a warm Sunday, Janna Greer reaches for her phone and plays a video shot a few weeks back. The scene is one of giddy euphoria as the people of Cleveland, Ohio, celebrate winning the national basketball championship – and ending their 52-year wait for a major sporting trophy. |
| “I get chills thinking about it,” said Greer, 37, with a sentiment recognisable to fans from Leicester to Kansas City who have tasted sporting success after a long drought. “We grew up as kids thinking we’d never see it. My dad was a sports reporter and before he died he said it would never happen. So I looked up and I said, ‘This is for you.’” | “I get chills thinking about it,” said Greer, 37, with a sentiment recognisable to fans from Leicester to Kansas City who have tasted sporting success after a long drought. “We grew up as kids thinking we’d never see it. My dad was a sports reporter and before he died he said it would never happen. So I looked up and I said, ‘This is for you.’” |
| An estimated 1.3 million fans poured into the streets last month for a victory parade by the Cleveland Cavaliers after they overcame the fancied Golden State Warriors. It was a much-needed morale boost for a city that suffered such industrial decline and decay it was branded “the mistake on the lake”. | An estimated 1.3 million fans poured into the streets last month for a victory parade by the Cleveland Cavaliers after they overcame the fancied Golden State Warriors. It was a much-needed morale boost for a city that suffered such industrial decline and decay it was branded “the mistake on the lake”. |
| Star player LeBron James, who grew up in nearby Akron, reflected soon after: “The struggles we’ve had over the last 52 years, not only in sports, but just in everything. Families losing jobs, communities, just poverty all over Cleveland. For us to be able to give a sense of hope to everyone that grew up in our town that we play in and the town we live in …” | Star player LeBron James, who grew up in nearby Akron, reflected soon after: “The struggles we’ve had over the last 52 years, not only in sports, but just in everything. Families losing jobs, communities, just poverty all over Cleveland. For us to be able to give a sense of hope to everyone that grew up in our town that we play in and the town we live in …” |
| The celebration, which passed almost without incident, was an image that residents would rather project than whatever troubles lie in store during this week’s Republican national convention. The coronation of Donald Trump as the party’s nominee for president will take place in a city that leans heavily Democratic. The mayor and all 17 members of Cleveland city council are Democrats. Barack Obama gained eight times the votes of Republican rival Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. | The celebration, which passed almost without incident, was an image that residents would rather project than whatever troubles lie in store during this week’s Republican national convention. The coronation of Donald Trump as the party’s nominee for president will take place in a city that leans heavily Democratic. The mayor and all 17 members of Cleveland city council are Democrats. Barack Obama gained eight times the votes of Republican rival Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. |
| The eyes of the political world are now on one of America’s poorest and most racially segregated big cities. Its proximity to Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga river and railways once helped turn it into an industrial powerhouse, especially in steel production, but deindustrialisation hit Cleveland harder than most. Factories emptied, the polluted river caught fire in 1969 and, with the city in default and a quarter of the population moving out, a popular T-shirt said, “Cleveland: You Gotta Be Tough.” | The eyes of the political world are now on one of America’s poorest and most racially segregated big cities. Its proximity to Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga river and railways once helped turn it into an industrial powerhouse, especially in steel production, but deindustrialisation hit Cleveland harder than most. Factories emptied, the polluted river caught fire in 1969 and, with the city in default and a quarter of the population moving out, a popular T-shirt said, “Cleveland: You Gotta Be Tough.” |
| At its peak in 1950, Cleveland’s population had been 914,808; now it stands at 388,072, according to the most recent estimate from the US Census Bureau in July 2015. The city is 53% black, 33% white, 10% Hispanic/Latino and 3% Asian, the 2010 census found. Two in five people live below the poverty line. Median household income is just under $25,000, or about half the median income statewide. Only Detroit has fared worse among major urban centres. | At its peak in 1950, Cleveland’s population had been 914,808; now it stands at 388,072, according to the most recent estimate from the US Census Bureau in July 2015. The city is 53% black, 33% white, 10% Hispanic/Latino and 3% Asian, the 2010 census found. Two in five people live below the poverty line. Median household income is just under $25,000, or about half the median income statewide. Only Detroit has fared worse among major urban centres. |
| But in recent years there has been a concerted effort to revitalise the downtown, nurture new sectors such as IT and biomedicine and attract young people with renovated warehouse apartments and new condominiums, arts and crafts in former industrial spaces and a host of new bars and restaurants. | But in recent years there has been a concerted effort to revitalise the downtown, nurture new sectors such as IT and biomedicine and attract young people with renovated warehouse apartments and new condominiums, arts and crafts in former industrial spaces and a host of new bars and restaurants. |
| A pioneer in 1988 was Great Lakes Brewing Co, the first microbrewery in the state, which took the plunge in Ohio City, then a rundown neighbourhood where few set foot. It displays giant silver tanks and contains a beautiful tiger mahogany bar from 1901, complete with mirrors, Irish flag in stained glass and a bullet hole caused, legend has it, by the Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (now, with some irony, a lager is named after him). The downstairs bar is evocative of a speakeasy from the era. | A pioneer in 1988 was Great Lakes Brewing Co, the first microbrewery in the state, which took the plunge in Ohio City, then a rundown neighbourhood where few set foot. It displays giant silver tanks and contains a beautiful tiger mahogany bar from 1901, complete with mirrors, Irish flag in stained glass and a bullet hole caused, legend has it, by the Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (now, with some irony, a lager is named after him). The downstairs bar is evocative of a speakeasy from the era. |
| Drinking at an outside table, Greer, a fundraiser, said she had grown up in Cleveland, moved away in 2006, but has now come home. “Cleveland to a lot of people is a joke, but when they come to visit, they leave saying, ‘They’re doing a good job. The river isn’t on fire. There’s a lot to do.’” | Drinking at an outside table, Greer, a fundraiser, said she had grown up in Cleveland, moved away in 2006, but has now come home. “Cleveland to a lot of people is a joke, but when they come to visit, they leave saying, ‘They’re doing a good job. The river isn’t on fire. There’s a lot to do.’” |
| John Hogsett, 37, who works in IT, added: “In 1988, when this place opened, you wouldn’t come down here. But in the last 10 years this has been a hub. It’s grown. It’s a destination.” | John Hogsett, 37, who works in IT, added: “In 1988, when this place opened, you wouldn’t come down here. But in the last 10 years this has been a hub. It’s grown. It’s a destination.” |
| Attractions include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and leading chef Michael Symon’s restaurants, along with cuisine reflecting a history of immigration from eastern Europe: stuffed cabbage, wiener schnitzel, pierogies. Lake View Cemetery contains the graves of former residents including Standard Oil founder John D Rockefeller and President James Garfield, assassinated in 1881 after only 200 days in office. | Attractions include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and leading chef Michael Symon’s restaurants, along with cuisine reflecting a history of immigration from eastern Europe: stuffed cabbage, wiener schnitzel, pierogies. Lake View Cemetery contains the graves of former residents including Standard Oil founder John D Rockefeller and President James Garfield, assassinated in 1881 after only 200 days in office. |
| Cleveland was founded in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland; the spelling changed in 1831 when the “a” was dropped to fit the city’s name on a newspaper masthead. It has given the world Oscar winners Paul Newman and Halle Berry, while poet Langston Hughes grew up here. In an association that Trump would perhaps savour most, it was the home of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman; there are now plans to erect a giant stainless steel statue of Superman on the city’s lakefront. | Cleveland was founded in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland; the spelling changed in 1831 when the “a” was dropped to fit the city’s name on a newspaper masthead. It has given the world Oscar winners Paul Newman and Halle Berry, while poet Langston Hughes grew up here. In an association that Trump would perhaps savour most, it was the home of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman; there are now plans to erect a giant stainless steel statue of Superman on the city’s lakefront. |
| But old divisions remain. Many neighbourhoods east of the river are at least 90% African American, with more than half of children living in poverty. Grand old Victorian houses can be seen in various states of disrepair: some with boarded-up windows, a few with collapsed roofs and walls. On Sunday evening a group of young men roared past, racing each other on motorbikes and quad bikes through the cracked streets. Relations with police were shaken by the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014. | But old divisions remain. Many neighbourhoods east of the river are at least 90% African American, with more than half of children living in poverty. Grand old Victorian houses can be seen in various states of disrepair: some with boarded-up windows, a few with collapsed roofs and walls. On Sunday evening a group of young men roared past, racing each other on motorbikes and quad bikes through the cracked streets. Relations with police were shaken by the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014. |
| John Grabowski, a local historian, said: “It is a city still conflicted by race. It’s one of the most segregated cities in the nation.” | John Grabowski, a local historian, said: “It is a city still conflicted by race. It’s one of the most segregated cities in the nation.” |
| Grabowski, based at Case Western Reserve University, tries to remain optimistic but added: “The one thing that seems to elude the city is the education system. They’re trying to retool it. Young people are asking, where’s the hope?” | Grabowski, based at Case Western Reserve University, tries to remain optimistic but added: “The one thing that seems to elude the city is the education system. They’re trying to retool it. Young people are asking, where’s the hope?” |
| For now, however, there are the triumphant Cavaliers, who drew a crowd that even Trump could only dream about. Erin Cikra, 33, a risk management strategist, said: “LeBron is the leader of our town. We march to his drum. We do whatever he says right now. He is the leader of the town and he can do no wrong.” | For now, however, there are the triumphant Cavaliers, who drew a crowd that even Trump could only dream about. Erin Cikra, 33, a risk management strategist, said: “LeBron is the leader of our town. We march to his drum. We do whatever he says right now. He is the leader of the town and he can do no wrong.” |