Lake Erie’s Hallowed Ground

What places do you consider best to be left preserved as is? 

“Nostalgia makes hallowed from mundane places.” (Caroline George)

During this week’s road trip visit to my birthplace home of Cleveland, Ohio, I sense that the downtown shores of Lake Erie remains a living vestige of nostalgic wonder. For fond memories still exist for me of those youthful visits to those pleasant oases of walk friendly, Ohio lake shores whereby people of all ages could gather together in the spirit of sheer fun. So now I read with disgust at a popular proposal to move the Cleveland Browns stadium to a suburban location. I must emphasize in this regard  that the present stadium’s destruction could radically lead to a less desirable landscape shore. 

Perhaps I’m conditioned by my unappealing South Florida experience of watching speculative motel /condo and shopping center spread along the beaches from Palm Beach to Dade County at the expense of open space enjoyment. So in the case of Cleveland, the existing stadium along with the adjacent Science Museum, Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and nearby Edgewater Park represent major hubs of pedestrian friendly activity in downtown Cleveland. So why mess with this workable formula of this compatible land use strip that entices both tourists and locals to spend much of  their leisure quality time downtown? 

Wouldn’t it then make more sense then to make needed physical upgrades to the existing stadium along with improving public mass transit access to such previously noted places of public interest by the lake? Cleveland deserves better!