Watch "Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey: How to Fix The Mistake on The Lake And Other Once-Great American Cities" as a single video

Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey is an original Reason.tv documentary series that aired the week of March 15-19, 2010. Go here to watch at Reason.tv; includes single, 50-minute video file and episode guide and links to each individual segment.

Featuring sitcom legend, Price Is Right host, and proud Clevelander Drew Carey, each roughly 10-minute episode investigates and analyzes the problems that turned Cleveland from the nation's sixth-largest city in 1950 into today's "Mistake By The Lake."

Like all too many American cities, Cleveland seems locked into a death spiral, shedding people, jobs, and dreams like nobody's business. When it comes to education, business climate, redevelopment, and more, Clevelanders have come to expect the worse.

Is a renaissance possible? Of course it is, but only if the city's leaders and residents are willing to learn from other cities such as Houston, Chicago, Oakland, and Indianapolis. And only if they're willing to try new approaches to old problems.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie narrates and talks with educators, elected officials, businesspeople, policy experts, and residents from all walks of life. Reason Saves Cleveland maps a route back to prosperity and growth not just for Cleveland but for other once-great American cities.

Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday and Max Bowerman. Approximately 50 minutes long.

For downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video, and for a full episode guide and supporting links, go here.

To watch this series on YouTube, go here.

Comments

[Patriot Henry]

"Is a renaissance possible? Of course it is, but only if the city's leaders and residents are willing to learn from other cities such as Houston, Chicago, Oakland, and Indianapolis."

The others have at least some merits...but why is Chicago a city to learn from?

[VikingMoose]

when was the last time you were in chicago?

[Tulpa]

I have relatives in Chicago who complain about the parking business non-stop. It might be libertarian anathema to say this, but privatization without competition is often even worse than just letting the government run something directly, and the company Chicago sold the parking rights to has a 99-year monopoly.

[VikingMoose]

what's with the parking (we don't ever use metered parking)?

[capitol l]

Tulpa, I don't think it's antithetical to libertarian philosophy to think that corporatism can be as unjust and evil as socialism.

[Bartholomew]

great video ... and about that ''scene'' article ... It just confirm why Cleveland is in such bad shap : to much smart ass Government worshippers biletul zilei

[IceTrey]

Worse how and for whom? The public parking was subsidized by with taxpayer dollars. For people who didn't use the parking it was a bad deal. Now the privatized parking has to compete with other private garages. Sure the rates went up but now they are priced according to the market, which as mentioned in the video has reduced congestion and improved the qaulity of life.

[Tulpa]

From what they say it's hard to figure out which box you're supposed to feed for a particular parking space. (They don't have meters next to the spots, there are electronic boxes scattered along the roadside.) Also, the things freeze up periodically and then you're screwed. And the parking company isn't terribly responsive to complaints (surprising for a monopoly, I know).

Oh yeah, and when the city has to close down a street for a parade or a snow emergency, they're required to pay the parking company the amount they would have gotten if every space on that street had been occupied for the entire duration of the closure.

[Tulpa]

Oh, and what aspect of street parking are you claiming was "subsidized by taxpayers"? The street is going to be there anyway, unless you oppose having roads subsidized by taxpayers too. Enforcement is paid for by parking fines, which don't affect people who don't use the parking.

[Chicago Student]

I'm a student living in Chicago, and let me tell you, the parking situation here is a NIGHTMARE. It has nothing to do with private vs. public lots and everything to do the fact that the city's roads haven't been revamped since the early 20th century. There is just no space for anything, and the city has just continued to build upwards rather than widen the roads. The roads are narrow and obviously not designed for the volume of traffic in the city.

The city planners have done a horrible job of urban development. I use the Metra to go to class (which is a privatized train system), and it's way better than the public transit (except that my train only runs every hour, so if I miss it, I end up sitting at the platform reading). The only problem is that Metra's routes barely cover any of the areas of the city that I would like to go to.

The parking and driving situation is so bad that I don't even go downtown or uptown anymore, because it's way too big of a hassle. There's nowhere I can park that doesn't cost $20 just to drive in, and taking public transit would mean taking a train, a bus, and then another bus (and this is the first city I've lived in that charges you to transfer buses). You can argue for the free market adjusting my behavior all you want, but from my perspective, not being able to go uptown on the weekends sure as hell isn't improving my quality of life.

[Tulpa]

Also, the city was making $20M each year in fine revenue over and above the costs of enforcement. So the meters would have brought in $5B over 75 years, but the city sold the rights for only $1.2B.

[Warty]

In a stunning surprise, the local commie free newspaper doesn't like you. I know Drew's heart must be broken.

[Gabe E]

They do point out some of the video's more obvious flaws like Gillespie's "interviews" with Carey and overly relying on anecdotal observations.

[ed]

The article is not without its merits. But the writer does seem to have a disturbing fascination with Carey's ass.

[Carey's ass fan club]

big and flabby!

[Tulpa]

The Reason video blithely ignores the obvious, market-based question ? if charters are so great, why aren't they rapidly replacing traditional public schools everywhere? ? and even implies that teachers' unions are to blame for keeping this revolution in check, without ever presenting their point of view.

So the video ignores the question (blithely, indeed!) while giving an answer that the author doesn't like (and is of course obvious). Quite an accomplishment.

[Sam]

What's his deal with Carey? Too much information, I say. :p

[Timon19]

I didn't think Scene was that full of assholes.

[Warty]

The pretentious communists who run most other free papers are such nice people, you know?

[Timon19]

I guess I never looked at Scene as "communist" (and I know that's an intentional exaggeration) per se, just the usual indie hippie, snarky BS.

Wait...I think I see your point.

I rarely get the chance to read Scene, so I guess I just figured they were mostly innocuous and concerned primarily with concerts and "alternative lifestyle" personal ads.

[Seen]

This same edition of the Scene has a stupid cartoon using a visual of the burial tomb (resurrection) of Christ for some kind of attempt at humor.
Mocking the sacred belief of a religion is about as rotten as it gets.
(I'm not Christian and I was offended. Do a cartoon about Mohammed and see what happens).

[The Price is Wrong, Bitch]

I haven't had an opportunity to watch the ReasonTV series on Cleveland yet (although I plan to), but I did chance upon that Scene article: What Timon19 said. Beyond bilious.

The Scene review is a perfect example of the cynicism that is so pervasive of the region (and, perhaps, many other places in the world).

[Tulpa]

I wouldn't call it cynicism. The author seems to be a true believer in government solutions. It's just the normal "your side sucks nyyaaaaahhh" that our political culture has degenerated into.

[$]

I think it far simpler, though wrong, to blame a culture. That is really just misanthropy in disguise. The author's true failing is that he fails to recognize that his preferred problem-solving mechanism has been in force for the past 50 years, and has done nothing. Ironically, the youth-oriented alt-weekly clings to the politics of the old.

[capitol l]

It is the same old fallacious argument that free market ideas have been tried and do not work. When the truth is quite the opposite; monstrous bureaucracies and heavy handed state intervention have been tried and failed miserably.

[Pendulum]

"Beyond bilious"? Really?

I clicked on it expecting the worst, and instead found that most of its criticisms of this series to be right on target - the absence of engagement with critics, the use of anecdotes to prove asserted generalities, and the overall "the answers are *so* obvious" attitude that is characteristic of the worst of libertarianism. Didn't find much 'bilious' at all.

[Jimmy 'Crack' Corn]

+2

[Timon19]

True about the cynicism, but I guess it's all in where you apply it. I'm cynical as all hell (and I'm sure Warty is, too, judging by the posts), but I'm not idiotically so (like those who write for Scene, it seems).

[Richard]

After Sunday Reason can do a series called "Reason Saves America"

[PIRS]

If Obamacare passes that may not be possible.

[Rhywun]

if charters are so great, why aren't they rapidly replacing traditional public schools everywhere?

I'm a city-boy, born and bred; I disagree with much of the anti-urban commentary around here (Yes, Stossel, Houston IS ugly)... but this is just plain retarded. Just goes to show you shouldn't judge a town by the ravings of its weekly arts rag writers. The long lines of parents trying to get their kids into better (often charter) schools is proof that "traditional public schools" aren't the answer.

[PIRS]

This is the very first time we have seen this topic mentioned in Reason's Hit & Run blog.

[Andrew]

A balanced look at Cleveland can be seen in these tourism videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

[PIRS]

Those videos make it almost look like it was built by Soviet-Era East German architects.

[$]

The intellectual lightweights at your standard alt-weekly are routinely airheaded 21-year-old journalism majors, who could not get real jobs. What else do you expect of them?

[samuel]

great video ... and about that ''scene'' article ... It just confirm why Cleveland is in such bad shap : to much smart ass Government worshippers

[Episiarch]

Cleveland isn't a city, just like Rochester isn't a city. They're big towns. I hate to bring the "NYC rules all" shit here (no I don't), but that's a city. Paris is a city. Barcelona is a city. Cleveland is...where is Ohio again?

(please bring the hate, I'm bored)

[PIRS]

"(please bring the hate, I'm bored)"

You are the one who brought the hate. Some of us prefer to live in places where horns do not honk the second a light changes. Some of us prefer to live in places where apartments are larger than a restroom in most states. Some of us prefer to live in places where children can safely play in the fron yard. Some of us prefer to live in places that have front yards. But others do not, I know. I do not hate New Yorkers, I hate rude people and people who look down on others because they do not understand them or have no experiences that they do. Not all New Yorkers are like this - I have met some.

[Only]

stupid people get bored.

[Episiarch]

Horns honking the second the light changes is a sign of people getting places, dude. And there are no front yards in New York.

Besides, you say hello to JohnSukiBot. Why would anything you say be taken seriously?

[$]

And where do you live now?

[Episiarch]

Seattle's not bad. It's...a semi-city. It's big, and to be honest, has great, NYC-rivaling restaurants. Is it filled with Pacific Northwest dipwads? Yes. But there are a ton of transplants here too. All in all, not bad.

[$]

Not a city, though. If I have manged to divine your esoteric definitions, anyway (sounds like a density fetish).

[Episiarch]

To be honest, my definition is based more on how big the city's "downtown" is. Seattle's is moderate. Manhattan's is...huge. London's is huge. Tucson's is tiny. And so on.

[zoltan]

By that definition DFW is not a city. Their downtowns suck.

[Tulpa]

Manhattan definitely isn't a city.

[Jimmy 'Crack' Corn]

Episiarch -

Thanks for your blessing "Seattle's not bad" on Seattle. It's transplants like you that bring the very PC 'diversity' that we hicks need.

[Shannon Love]

I don't suppose you've noticed that the once great American cities of the northeast have undergone a progressive loss of population since the 1960's? They're dying.

New York used to be the place where things happened. New York used to be a creative engine of capitalism that churned out entire new industries almost weekly. People migrated from all over the country to be part of all that creative riot.

But today? Where is the energy? What businesses move to New York (either the city or the state?) None. In fact, businesses are moving out in droves. There is no reason for any business to be in New York anymore. Even the financial sector has been fleeing in droves.

New York has all these great cultural attributes because of its past as a the greatest commercial city in human history. All that wealth supported a vast population of artist of all types who entertained the wealthy and everyone else benefited from the trickle down. Now however, the money is leaving and eventually the culture will leave as well. Even bohemian artist have to eat.

Your veneration of Paris and Brussels reveals your blindness to the death of New York. Those cities are little more than museums and government workers. They suck wealth from their countries. Tellingly, McDonalds is spreading like wildfire in Paris because the sterility of the city has destroyed even the once great Parisian restaurants. Unless you're wealthy, Paris is less and less a great food city. Culture follows commerce and when commerce dies, the culture of an area might stagger on for a decades but the end is inevitable.

Cleveland is a snapshot of New York's future. Adam Smith said, "There is a lot ruin in a nation" and there is a likewise lot of ruin in a great city. Just because you can't see the dramatic shift in months or years doesn't mean that there isn't a serious long term trend. All the trend lines of regional health in New York have been trending downward since the 60's. It slowed but did not stop in the last 15 years.

New York is dying. Enjoy it while you can.

[Episiarch]

Dude, lighten the fuck up. Seriously. I don't think you even know what a sense of humor is, let alone have one.

[Kolohe]

I don't suppose you've noticed that the once great American cities of the northeast have undergone a progressive loss of population since the 1960's?

NYC is not one of these

Manhattan has more residents today than it did in 1970. (but less than the early 1900's when families were a lot bigger)

The five boroughs combined have more residents than any time in history.

[Shannon Love]

New York's population gains are entirely owing to the immigration with some migration from northern New York State (which is in even worse state.) Internal migration to New York from the rest of America is almost non-existant. This is a massive reversal of the pattern that ruled for two centuries.

If it wasn't for New York's long standing function as an immigrant gateway the city would be ghost town.

[Kolohe]

Because heaven knowns, immigrants are never a creative engine for capitalism or anything.

(BTW, when Mahanhattan was 2 million people at the beginning of the 20th century, most of those people didn't come from 'the rest of America')

[JoshInHb]

(please bring the hate, I'm bored)

you're not bored, You're bring

[IceTrey]

I just wonder why they keep electing the same bureaucratic loving morons who are standing in the way of improving the city.

[Student of History]

Read 'Cities and the Wealth of Nations' by Jacobs. Some of it is a bit dated now, but a central point is that cities exist as a place to do business, thus anything that hurts the ability to actually do business strikes at the very reason the city exists.

How many cities have earned the reputation as being 'business unfriendly' if not down right 'business hostile'? How many city politicians really treat business as a cash cow to be milked for all that can be gotten? What they are (and have been) doing is slaughtering the cow, and once it is dead the city will starve and the people who can leave will leave. This is what is happening in every city I know from personal experience.

The solution is obvious, but very hard (politically) to do. The first step is to stop blaming the businesses for dying or leaving, and start looking for what killed them or forced them out.

[Matt Tomatillo]

When you criticize Wal-Mart you're not criticizing Capitalism! You're actually criticizing Socialism! Wake up Reason writers! Wal-Mart supports Obamacare! Wal-Mart uses taxpayer money to grow! Wal-Mart is an extension of the government being used as a wrecking ball in the true-free market... the little left that still exists.

http://walmartsubsidywatch.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIq_R_gFnag

[Daniel Miller]

Screw Cleveland! THe best they can do is host a nazi-info-center that hands out camera tickets (for example, someone in Va. Beach got one for LEGALLY turning right on red but tried to frame the cars as having run the red light) for nazi-palities around this increasingly useless country.

[Susan Faulkner]

I was born and raised in Cleveland and now I am in Flower Mound Texas. I have been back to Cleveland in order to help the PAL organization help the cities Ten thousand Kids at Risk. Cleveland may need help but the City officials are the ones holding this City down. If we do not help these kids first NO ONE will want to go back to Cleveland let alone have or start a Business there

[abercrombie milano]

The parking and driving situation is so bad that I don't even go downtown or uptown anymore, because it's way too big of a hassle. There's nowhere I can park that doesn't cost $20 just to drive in, and taking public transit would mean taking a train, a bus, and then another bus (and this is the first city I've lived in that charges you to transfer buses). You can argue for the free market adjusting my behavior all you want, but from my perspective, not being able to go uptown on the weekends sure as hell isn't improving my quality of life.

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[Pehari]

How many cities have earned the reputation as being 'business unfriendly' if not down right 'business hostile'? How many city politicians really treat business as a cash cow to be milked for all that can be gotten? What they are (and have been) doing is slaughtering the cow, and once it is dead the city will starve and the people who can leave will leave. This is what is happening in every city I know from personal experience.
Pehari

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[Leighton]

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