By David Dalka
For the past two years, I worked in downtown Cleveland. I had previously lived in New York City and Chicago. Cleveland will always provide memories of a pleasant lifestyle which allowed a focus on personal growth and interactions with interesting people. Due to significant changes at the organization I was with in Cleveland, I recently relocated to Chicago where the majority of my family resides, but I want to be perfectly clear that I would be happy to build relationships that would bring me back to Cleveland or be involved in an extension of businesses with significant presence in Cleveland! The following are my fondest Cleveland memories:
1) People and Networking One thing I love about Cleveland is the time people make for one another. I reached out to many people I met through www.coolcleveland.com and other networking events, some of which I organized. People in Cleveland are pretty good about making the time to meet with you, explain what they are doing, show a sincere desire to learn about you and help each other. This is not true of every city I’ve resided and it is something that Clevelanders should treasure, be proud of and utilize more.
2) Pickwick and Frolic Owner Nick Kostas has built a wonderful restaurant and comedy club that would be a crown jewel in almost any city. In fact the large comedy club would be the largest pure comedy club that I know of in Chicago or New York City if it were to be located there. The old fashioned way Nick runs his business and his caring for other people are truly special. To be blunt, this institution should be a Cleveland icon and treasure, yet I’m constantly amazed how many Clevelanders I met who had never been there or had never heard of it. Today I ask for your help in changing that through viral marketing. Please reach out to friends you know who don’t read this publication and tell them both about Pickwick and Frolic and coolcleveland.com.
3) Outstanding Acoustic Guitar Music Northeast Ohio has great and vastly underexperienced treasures playing regularly in the great venues and vineyards of the region. This includes Brian Henke http://www.brianhenkeguitar.com and Neil Jacobs http://www.neiljacobs.com/ Neil’s next Cleveland area appearance is Saturday, February 11, 2006 at Oberlin College - 440.775.8279 - www.oberlin.edu/stunion/Cat.html I would highly encourage all of you to visit their websites, sign up for their mailing list and go see them, they both send out frequent updates on where they can be seen in the region. Please say hello for me the next time you see them.
4) Slyman’s Put simply, Slyman’s is quite possibly the best deli value on the planet earth. While Slyman’s may seem expensive by Cleveland standards, let me assure you that it charges a mere fraction of the cost of similar delis in places like New York City. Slyman’s is more than just great food. It is also special because of the family ownership! I once stood in line behind a guy who ordered thirty sandwiches and they informed him that for an order that size, it should be phoned in the future. They apologized to me for having to wait and they gave me a free ice tea at the register. As I returned in the future, through that mob that is their daily lunch line, the guy that makes the sandwiches remembered that I wanted a “lean corned beef (a “natural” in Slyman speak) hold the pickle.” It didn’t matter if I had been there four times that week or I hadn’t been there in over a month, he always remembered. With all the people he sees and special requests he receives daily he somehow remembered the incident and displayed consistent and sincere appreciation for my forgiveness and patronage. It is a great lesson in how to run a business the right way. Focus on what your customer wants, give them consistent value the way your customer wants it and show sincere appreciation for their business. Many businesses today could learn much from this simple, yet customer-focused philosophy.
5) Cleveland’s Concert Venues With the recent addition of the House of Blues, many existing venues have had to finally update such things as sound systems and the venues in general. The competition is a healthy thing. When combined with reduced national music act touring activity this is only intensified. Due to Cleveland’s demographics, to some degree it’s economy, it is rare for venues to be overcrowded and sold out when compared to the rate of sold out concerts in other cities. It also made my hobby, www.musicfrisk.com all the more fun.
6) Johnny Malloy’s The awesome burger and pizza specials served up by Johnny Malloy’s Lakewood owner Tim O’Malley and crew are both affordable and outstanding!
7) Lack of Traffic While people in Cleveland occasionally complain about traffic, they don’t know how good they have it in comparison to other metropolitan areas I’ve lived in around the nation. The area could use some optimization of traffic signals in some areas, but it is by no means at a crisis level.
8) Cost of Living and Natural Resources Overall, the cost of living in the region is quite low. Someday, this has to become an advantage to relocating companies. Cleveland’s proximity to the network of the world’s largest bodies of fresh water, the Great Lakes is also something that favors it as water rights become more and more important in the future.
9) Coolcleveland.com The work (and love) that Thomas (and others) put into this publication is simply amazing to me. As a newbie to Cleveland, it was tremendously helpful in discovering not well known but interesting things to do, learning about economic issues the region faces, the environment and about new and emerging technologies and companies. Then there are the fantastic networking parties that coolcleveland.com throws, I will have some fond memories of those!
10) Easy Airport Access Taking the RTA’s Red Line to and from the airport is so simple and easy. I’m amazed at how many people don’t take advantage of this gift and take expensive cab rides or pay large sums for parking!
11) Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Did you know that approximately 10,000 Cuyahoga County residents fought in the Civil War? Further, did you know that this was when the county had only 50,000 residents meaning that about 40% of the male population of the region served in the Civil War? The large participation in this nation changing event is something that all Cleveland residents should be proud of, yet how many of you have spent any time inside this monument? If you never have, please come see and support this Cleveland treasure. If you have a guest from out of town, take them there. It’s moving and the building is beautiful. The kind people that give the tour (please say hello for me) will also tell you that while the building was funded with a county tax, which is the only one ever rescinded! It would be noteworthy for this fact alone, but the monument means so much more than that. They are also seeking donations to complete a restoration, please inquire about this during your visit!
Some things I can’t say I will miss:
1) The Art Shortage Even with all of the wonderful art galleries in Cleveland, the closure of The Cleveland Art Museum for several years for renovations is frustrating to this art lover. The treasured Camille Pissarro’s and Claude Monet’s are not visible. Perhaps worse is that this great melting pot of human networking and interaction is basically out of commission. The only ray of hope I can offer here is that the exhibitions in the coming decade made possible from the loans that the museum is making around the world should be among the world’s best! I look forward to visiting at that time if I’m not living there!
I would be happy to interact and build relationships with anyone I had met through coolcleveland.com or who enjoyed reading this article. I can be reached at david_dalka4gsb@yahoo.com or soon via http://www.daviddalka.com, thanks for your time and I look forward to continued positive interaction with Clevelanders in the future!
By David Dalka david_dalka4gsb@yahoo.com
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