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It was Thursday night and the Cleveland Cavaliers were desperately hoping to squeak out at least one win to keep their first-ever trip to the NBA Finals alive.  Alas the Cavs lost, but I have another story to tell, one that illustrates what’s wrong with Cleveland.

Prior to last night’s game, I had occasion to be part of a conversation with an individual who came to town with dual purposes - one was to get a little business done, and the other was to provide a perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity for his son to see an NBA Finals game live and in person.  The man and his teenage son came to Cleveland from the east coast and arrived in town late Thursday afternoon.  Upon arrival, the man dispatched his son to a local lieutenant who was tasked with the responsibility of “showing the kid the sights”, while he attended to business.  They would meet up later after the man’s appointed rounds and his son had been shown the best our city had to offer.

I was involved in the business the man was in town to attend to, and in the midst of our meeting, his son arrived (lieutenant in tow) to announce - “the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame was closed.”

Unaware that the man had brought his son to town with him, we looked up in surprise and after the necessary introductions were made, a uniform “really?” was uttered by the group surprised by the revelation that our biggest sight-seeing venue was closed so early in the evening and disappointed for the young man.

“So was the submarine,” he said referring to the USS Cod Museum which is moored on the shore nearby the Rock Hall.

“Well you really didn’t miss much there,” I said hoping to raise his spirits.  I mean what more is the Cod than an old underwater tin can that gives claustrophobics the willies (I can already see the emails from offended submarining enthusiasts).

“Yeah, so we went over to the Science Center and it was closed too,” you could tell by the tone of his voice that he would have preferred the Rock Hall and the sub before resorting to the Great Lakes Science Center, but hey any port in a storm. 

Gee kid welcome to Cleveland.

The man looked across the table at my associate who’s actively involved in the business of our community and said something to the effect of, “what gives?”

To which my associate looked down at the table in disgust and said, “this city’s dying.”

We then spent the next hour lamenting as a group the demise of our once proud city.  We talked about how simple it seems to recognize that during this unique moment in Cleveland’s history, visitors would be coming to our town and  looking for additional entertainment prior to the basketball game.  Given that the game started at 9pm, you think accomodations would be made for major city attractions like the Rock Hall and The Science Center to remain open late.  You would think that with our crack “Cleveland +” marketing strategy, one of the geniuses in our community’s intelligensia ranks (are you listening Dennis Roche etal) would have figured out that a FREE shuttle running up and down 9th Street from Gateway to Voinovich Park (where the Rock Hall and Science Centers are located) to compliment the later offerings would be a no brainer.

But no, this is Cleveland.

Our city leaders are too busy flying overhead discussing the virtues of this region or selling the Euclid Corridor rather than doing the simple stuff that would make our city at least hospitable to those who visit.

What’s really sad about this is that the man we were meeting with has an incredible amount of influence in this country with political and business leaders.  He’s raised more money and made more money than most people will ever dream of.  A long time player in national politics, the man couldn’t even name the mayor of our city (not out of arrogance, but simply because… well, our mayor is  ”inaction Jackson” - and nobody knows who he is). The man we were meeting with has the power to bring money and business to this town, but apparently the mayor’s never bothered to reach out to him.

Our meeting was successful and the man accomplished what he had come to town to do, but today he’s flying home with a disappointed teenage son, because our city failed to accomplish what it is supposed to do.