Went to Cleveland on Monday

[Duncan]

Just a day trip with the family. A few items relevant to this board:

Big Fun is a retro/collectible toy store with 2 locations in Cleve; we went to one. Nice selection of '60s-'90s toys, including a few Megos. However, the service was non-existant, so we left without being able to buy anything or find out how much the Megos were.

B A Sweetie is a candy warehouse / retail store. They carry a huge inventory of current & nostalgic candy. We spent about 90 minutes in there, and came away with a 8 plastic grocery bags full of candy. They're on-line at b.a. Sweetie Candy Company - Contact Us.


Other random thoughts:

• The natural history museum is pretty cool. Nice BIG dino skeletons, etc. The kids had a good time.

• We were after Polish food in the neighborhood called Slavic Village. Sadly, most of the places we were looking for were closed/boarded up/gone. We found only one place that was open, and didn't have time left to go in.

• The Italian Village neighborhood is doing OK, but looks like it's becoming trendy at the cost of its authenticity. It made us uncomfortable and we didn't want to stop.

• Overall, the parts of the city that we drove through were pretty empty. No traffic, even at rush hour, though it was a holiday for some. Still, we didn't see many people out doing holiday stuff, either. It's a shame - it looks like everybody moved away.

I'd seen the news reports about Cleveland, and foreclosures, lost jobs, etc., but it didn't really hit home until I drove through. Here's this full-size city, and all of the infrastructure...and it's not being used. Scary. I hope we just happened to pick a bad time to go, or maybe went to the wrong areas. However, we had some fun and the kids were entertained, so it was worth the trip.

[Goblin19]

You were about 3 minutes from my house when you were at B.A Sweeties. The service at Big Fun is usually good, but they know me and my family so maybe that makes a difference. Unfortunately, you weren't there on a bad day. The actual city of Cleveland is competely dead. Everyone headed to the suburbs years ago. I'm glad you enjoyed the city.

[Mikey]

We were after Polish food in the neighborhood called Slavic Village. Sadly, most of the places we were looking for were closed/boarded up/gone. We found only one place that was open, and didn't have time left to go in.

It's the same around these parts compared to years ago.

I don't think it's so much the economy - it's the new generation not wanting to take over and run the businesses.