The eastside/westside divide in Cleveland has alway been so interesting to me. I grew up on the westside, but made my first eastside friends in high school and started hanging out on Coventry. Back then the eastside seemed so much cooler than the westside. You mentioned people out on the streets, and I think that is what appealed to me most. There was nothing like Shaker Square or Coventry with an out door area to hang out on the westside. The westside has improved since then -- especially in suburbs like Lakewood and in Cleveland along Clifton. I now appreciate things about both sides of town and I am eager to introduce  westside friends to cool places on the eastside vice vs.

I remember 27 years ago when I first moved here driving to the Beck Center in Lakewood. Though I was traveling with a Clevelander, we got lost and ended up in Tremont. Given the address on Detroit, the gentleman at the gas station directed us to take the Abbey Road Bridge to Lorain and take W25th north to Detroit. Turn left and drive west. Needless to say, it was a long drive. I remember passing a store front in the Detroit Shoreway area that had a swastika in the window. We made it to what I came to know from other eastsiders as Lilly White Lakewood by curtain time.

Later I discovered that Lakewood was home for many of my gay friends --a good reason to go there along with the beautiful housing stock and lovely boulevards. The other side of the river also became a destination for antiquing on Lorain and second hand shopping--it is a mecca for second handers.

But when James Levin began his Cleveland Public Theater Empire and Thomas Mulready presented the Performance Arts Festival there in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood the cross-town traffic was invigorated. The largest zip codes for mailing to arts audiences have traditionally been 44106, 44118, 44120 and 44122 -- all eastside. I wonder how this has changed over the years and how many travelers on the shoreway on a weekend evening are coming or going from CPT. We certainly put on the miles back in the 80s and 90s.

Now Jim moves his Ingenuity Fest downtown, and hopefully, he will be as successful as he was with CPT in redeveloping our urban core. Downtown is after all where east meets west.

   Nothing symbolizes the "can do, get the work done" attitude of the west side better than a muscle truck. The food at Bangkok on Warrensville in South Euclid is delicious.  And the company is oftentimes delightful.