Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio not on your bucket list? It should be. Let me tell you why.

This was a family trip to spend time together because we missed Thanksgiving. I expected little from the city on this visit, as I’d been to Cleveland in the summer years ago. I am stressed by many issues: a website change, a book launch, and various things I should know how to handle, and didn’t expect a trip to Cleveland to change that. If you’ve been following along with my travels, you know that I’m a bit of a negative Nancy. I always find the things wrong with places before I discover what is right about a place.

My only goal for 2026 is to change that. While I plan to live thirty more years, I want to live it positively, not negatively. And this particular trip was different. Why? Well, the first night it started to snow. I grew up in the Deep South, Alabama. Snow is fascinating to me, as it only snowed where I lived once every ten years.

Yep, wet dirty snow on the sidewalks. Still, from Miami, its an unusual sight, and an uncomfortable realization that, other than my boots, I did not bring the correct clothing for snow. Yet it didn’t matter. We were togther and that is all that mattered.

And Cleveland is decked out for the holidays.

I mean fully decked out, even in the small neighborhoods like Little Italy. But it was the comment from my daughter that made me stop and think.

“Is this what America used to be like?”

We’ve lived in large cities and small towns, in American and overseas, but she was right. None of them looked or felt like Cleveland. We had a long discussion of what I remembered from my early twenties, and yes—Cleveland, Ohio, is what I remember America being forty years ago. Even though my experience is in the Deep South (I grew up on the edge of Appalachia remember). When I was young all small towns were a lot alike, and much like Cleveland. People liked being there. They had jobs. They were reasonably happy. Politics was not something regularly discussed or worried about.

(No, this was not the case in the South during the early sixties.1 Fast forward twenty years. And yes, memories always default to the positive rather than the negative.)

She had a point. People for the most part in Cleveland, as most small towns and cities, are pleasant, even in today’s partisan world. Life runs a little bit slower (well a LOT slower than Miami). The train system runs on time and is clean and there are branches, not just one line. The buses go everywhere and again are clean and the drivers were helpful. Yet the most important thing I saw was safety. I did not feel uncomfortable anywhere, even when we went to parts of town that in another city I would be.2

The best part? I got to skip the traffic of Art Basil / Miami Art Week and all the insanity it has become. It will take me a few more years in Miami to learn how to navigate and actually see the art. I got to slow my roll, enjoy my family and enjoy the snow.

I got the Christmas spirit for the first time in a decade.

Yes, as you can see, snow fascinates me.

So if you need some down time, leave your computer at home. Turn off social media. Tell your Marketing Genie that you will be away and can’t do anything if she emails or messages. Pick a somewhat small city or town and just go. It can be close to you or far away, whatever you prefer.

Don’t worry about the season. Give yourself time to relax and enjoy being around the people you love.

And thanks to the folks in Cleveland, Ohio — you made it a good choice.