"You Pay What For Rent?!?!"

     Page One Hundred Forty-One.
     I sometimes feel like Cleveland is a different country from New York, San Francisco or Washington DC. This is because of the rents.
     I recently read an article on the internet which was about the growing trend of "micro-apartments". These are super-small living spaces designed to be cheaper than normal sized apartments. In Seattle, you can rent a single bedroom with an adjoining bathroom for $800-something a month. You'd share a modest-sized kitchen with your neighbors and you have no other living space: i.e. living room, dining room, closets and so forth. And, the bedroom isn't really that big, either. This is in a new building where the apartment was designed to be this size. This isn't a retro-fit.
     In New York, there's a tiny space, again the size of a small bedroom, with a bathroom down the corridor. It has no closets and no place to "stretch and relax". The inhabitants, a married couple, say they don't cook and they're not home-bodies. In fact, they eat 100% of their food out.
     All these people say the upside is you get a spot in a terrific neighborhood for a fraction of the normal rent. Also, you learn not to live by your possessions. I don't disagree with these concepts at all. I'm all for lack of material acquisition and for living in a great area. I simply can't get over how different this is from the country of Northeast Ohio.
     Cleveland often is listed as one of the most affordable places to live in America. In fact, sometimes we come in at the #1 spot on those polls. I don't know why we're so inexpensive, but we are. Let me tell you about my apartment.
     I have a large two bedroom place in Cleveland Heights, a mostly desirable, inner-ring (old) suburb. Some Clevelanders are uncomfortable in Cleveland Heights because it's too racially integrated for their taste - too bad for them. That not-withstanding, the crime is within a reasonable range, there's much neighborhood shopping, you can walk to get your morning coffee or your evening dinner, streets are tree-lined and it's proximity to arts and culture is extraordinary. The schools are somewhat questionable nowadays, but some graduates of Cleveland Heights High School still go to Harvard, Yale and so forth. (But, Cleveland Heights has the highest percentage of children attending private schools of any city in Ohio.)The architecture here is also quite beautiful. Our most lovely districts could rival Beverly Hills, California any day of the week. Literally. And those homes are kept up stunningly. In the Orthodox Jewish section, many of the additions actually double the size of the homes. No neighborhood in Cleveland Heights is what you'd refer to as "run down".
     My two bedroom has the original hardwood floors in the living room and formal dining room. I have a fireplace (which doesn't work, but that's okay), a galley kitchen which is small but doable with it's large stove and even larger refrigerator, a normal front door and a backdoor onto a fire escape. The two bedrooms are located at opposite ends of the long apartment. Each bedroom has it's own decent-sized closet. Charm abounds. I have two storage units in the basement of this 1920's, brick, three floor walk-up. (I'm on the third,with my brand new windows looking out over evergreen tree-tops.) The two storage units are back to back and combined are 8' X 12' and 8' high. Essentially, my basement storage area is the size of the aforementioned micro-apartments. My rent includes heat and water. I'm in the Coventry neighborhood which is exceptionally desirable for young adults due to the neighborhood nightlife and close proximity to Case Western Reserve University.
     I pay $735.00 per month. My electricity and cooking gas are are another $45.00ish. I pay $100.00 every three moths for parking in a city-owned lot 75 feet from my building. I've been told that my apartment in Brooklyn, New York might be $3000.00 a month or more. ($4000.00?)
     I simply can't get over that. It's so alien to me. This is why I sometimes feel like it's a different country. I recognize the thrill of living in a city like San Fransisco, what with all it's nightlife and so forth. But, brother, Cleveland has nightlife too. It's just more subtle. We have gobs of arts and culture; much more than people realize. Also, Cleveland has trees and space; much more than most cities. This city is really a huge forest with stores, houses and buildings built inside it. According to out-of-towners, that's what's distinctive about Northeast Ohio. Also, it's cheap as all get out to live here.
     But everybody is different and wants different things out of life. So, there you go.