I'm a prime candidate for what Clevelanders call "brain drain." I'm 31, with a graduate degree and a highly-paid downtown job, and no wife or family in Cleveland. I'm connected, through professional colleagues and social connections, to jobs and housing in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Why haven't I moved already, like many of my grad-school colleagues?

Because Cleveland, for all of its failings, sits on the perfect spot on the bell curve: it has all the big-city culture features - world-class museum and orchestra, engaging theater, clubs, and nightlife - at an affordable cost of living. I recently bought a house in Cleveland Heights for just under $100K that would cost $225K in Chicago's first-ring suburbs, or $375K in suburban Boston, or don't even ask how much in suburban NYC. I can go out for dinner and drinks with a date for $100, something unthinkable in a larger city, and I can see the touring production of a Broadway show for $45, and if all else fails, I can actually GO to NYC for $150 and see whatever's there, without having to put up with the constantly absurd cost of housing and trains and taxis and eating out and going to clubs all the time.

That's the big difference, you see - if you want to shell out cash, you can certainly do it in Cleveland, with plenty of ritzy (and excellent) restaurants, expensive wine, box seats to concerts and baseball games. There's a support system here for wealthy and well-off people, and it's doing fine economically, as far as I can tell. But if you don't feel like dropping Chicago money every night, there are plenty of less expensive ways to have a great time. An intriguing film at the Cinematheque costs less than seeing Gigli at a multiplex in Boston, and in the meantime, I'm paying Cleveland housing prices, not Boston housing prices; that's worth a great deal. Many Clevelanders, even the so-called 'socially mobile' or 'sophisticated elite' ones, would rather live in a house with a yard, working in a city with people they like and a lifestyle they enjoy, and maybe even spend some money seeing Hindu bronzes and hitting nightclubs and going to shows, rather than spending 80% of their income on housing and food and transportation.

Plus, Cleveland's cultural heritage is long and distinguished. The old-school post-war Big Five American Orchestras - Boston, NY Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago - are still among the best on the planet, and although the other cities are all interesting destinations, only Cleveland and Philadelphia are mid-priced, livable cities. The old oil and technology money from the 19th century is still here, in large part, and even though lots of it is managed by out-of-towners, we still feel the charitable and cultural effects here. In the meantime, movie tickets are under $10, theater tickets are under $100, and housing is affordable for folks with a mainstream day job. What good reason is there to leave? From Cool Cleveland reader George Carr gcarr@gfsn.com (:divend:)