Sunday, May 16, 2010

The real Cleveland

On Friday, I volunteered at the therapeutic riding center that provides lessons to children and adults with disabilities. The usual crew was there, giving their time (and money) to this place that provides the community with a great service and provides about 36 horses with incredible lives.

In the evening, I rode across town to the Don Frey Art Opening at Studio 11 in Tremont. I passed Coventry, with its local institutions such as Tommy's, Big Fun, Mac's Backs, the Grog Shop, Coventry Cats, etc. Then though downtown, and into Tremont with its legions of locally owned restaurants and galleries, including the gracious Studio 11 yoga studio who hosted the event.

On Saturday night, a bunch of us got together to celebrate the graduation of Dr. Scott at the Happy Dog, the wonderful, locally owned bar and hot dog joint on the near west side.

On Sunday, the good folks from Chagrin River Cycling and Mountain Road Cycles sponsored the recently resurrected Chippewa Creek road race, which, as in years past, pretty much rules. In case you were wondering, putting on a race like this is a thankless endeavor with lots of hassles. It also takes way more work than "worth it" from a financial standpoint.

The purpose of this post is not to bore you with my weekend activities, but to point out something that struck me when riding home from Studio 11 and passing the (publicly funded) Quicken Loans Arena.

It is the real people of this area....the volunteers, entrepreneurs, artists, small business owners, and people who generally give a shit who make this town what it is. It has nothing to do with multi-millionaire sports mercenaries who whore themselves out to the highest bidders and, with a few exceptions, will sell out this town (and any other town) for a buck.

If only the papers would focus on the actions of the real people...the true assets of this town, instead of trying to track the movement of Lebron James over the next two months with GPS-like accuracy.

1 comment:

Jim said...

Interesting take (and all too true).