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Thank you, helpful info on the current insurance issues and thank you Kyle for the suggestion on listings - they're great. Interested to dig in more about Oscar(?) and CC/UH.
Cleveland is not the worst place for LGBTQ... but it's not the greatest, either.
Cleveland's laws are certainly progressive enough in that regard. But much of the populace is still backward.
As a gay man, I have not seen a that in the populace...at least in the Hts and the areas of Beachwood/Pepper Pike/Solon that I'm in a lot. Plus of course we have a very good LGBT Center in Gordon Square on the west side...Lakewood is also very LGBT friendly but the Heights communities would be closer to the Clinic & UH.
Cleveland is no SF or even Chicago/Columbus on the LGBT friendly scale...but I find it to have a very good community and a mostly accepting metro.
Maybe areas like Parma/Berea/North Olmsted that are a little more conservative...or the more ghetto like areas such as Maple Hts, Garfield Hts, or East Cleveland or some of the inner city neighborhoods which are also high crime areas wouldn't be very LGBT friendly.
What we don't have is the most flamboyant community maybe compared to Columbus or Chicago..and we don't have that true LGBT neighborhood w/ C'bus w/ Victorian Village or Chi w/ Boystown.
Thank you, helpful info on the current insurance issues and thank you Kyle for the suggestion on listings - they're great. Interested to dig in more about Oscar(?) and CC/UH.
If you have to get your Health Insurance off the Gov't Healthcare.gov exchange, Oscar is the only option there that has the Clinic in it...I have my Insurance thru the Exchange and mine allows UH but CC...thankfully I'm good w/ that.
There are plans you can purchase from other INS companies that aren't in the exchange...they may cost more and you may not get all the benefits of being in the exchange.
Of course once you get to 65, and get on medicare, CC will always take that.
Thank you all so much, you really gave some great information that's helpful in my search & planning. Not all responders do this so I just want to say thanks so much especially for addressing the real estate/neighborhoods, the LGBTQ community and the health care piece.
I moved from MA four years ago (single lady, middle aged). I'll let others chime in on LGBTQ space, since they are more knowledgeable.
The good:
-Healthcare at the Clinic has been very good, not quite up to the levels of Partners in MA (MGH) but very, very good.
-Greater C food scene is VERY good for a town this size, cultural life is pretty happening, but sidewalks tend to roll up at 10pm (getting a good meal after 9pm can be downright impossible).
-The Metro seems pretty LBGTQ friendly, but less so the farther out you get (again, others MMV).
-Lake is very nice to look at, but smells (you might miss the ocean, I do).
-Housing prices are insanely cheap compared to the coast. In many cities, properties are beautiful, but property taxes are way out of whack.
-Cuyahoga Valley National Parks and Metroparks pack a lot of green space into the metro area (tho many of them are very narrow parks along busy roads, but whatever. Easy to find some very pretty walks within 30 minute drives). -For east side diverse neighborhoods:
--Shaker is a very outgoing, welcoming, inclusive, politically active but surprisingly insular city (I'm fourth generation Shaker, Shaker is the best, why have more commercial development). City is well run, services good, nice park system, pretty darn good facilities (the outdoor pool is awesome), schools are good so property values stay fairly high. City is very residential, but with some good dining/shopping, and most everything you might need (including TJs, Costco, other big box/national retailers) no more than 20 minutes away (and easy drives, not like the 405). Cleveland Heights is similar to Shaker, more diverse (good and bad) in every aspect. I've been told the community spirit is not as high in CH.
-Finding a house in Shaker under $150k is tight, but doable. CH easier to find, but neighborhood choice is important....northern and northwest sections of the city can have some safety concerns.
Things that are depressing as h$ll.
-The gray winters are awful. 30 less days of sun, annually, than the coasts. And little snow nowadays to break up the winter doldrums by skiing/snowshoeing
-The 3Cs blue bubble is real. You drive 10 minutes outside of 271 (heck even the southern end of 271) and you are in some heavy R leaning towns. OH is so gerrymandered and the GOTV so poor that the state leans evermore rightward, which impacts you every day (terrible roads, local taxes high to make up for state shortfalls, future of women's healthcare is scary as %%%).
-You can't escape to the beach or the mountains like you can on the coasts (tho the mini mountains of the Alleghenies are 3 hours away and good beaches on MI's west side are 5 hours).
-Cleveland is one of the poorest cities in the nation, along with the attendant crime rates, poor services, poor street maintenance. I live in a fairly affluent areas, and we hear gunshots regularly in the summer and a neighbor woke up up to a bullet shot thru her windshield within the last month. It's depressing to drive thru some of the CLE neighborhoods (and East Cleveland, forget it). That being said, the city is working hard to try and turn things around...but it's like steering the Titanic (with so many folks resistant to gentrification, which just floors me).
Good and Bad. PM if you have specific questions.
Last edited by TechieTechie; 02-19-2024 at 09:12 PM..
I moved from MA four years ago (single lady, middle aged). I'll let others chime in on LGBTQ space, since they are more knowledgeable.
The good:
-Healthcare at the Clinic has been very good, not quite up to the levels of Partners in MA (MGH) but very, very good.
-Greater C food scene is VERY good for a town this size, cultural life is pretty happening, but sidewalks tend to roll up at 10pm (getting a good meal after 9pm can be downright impossible).
-The Metro seems pretty LBGTQ friendly, but less so the farther out you get (again, others MMV).
-Lake is very nice to look at, but smells (you might miss the ocean, I do).
-Housing prices are insanely cheap compared to the coast. In many cities, properties are beautiful, but property taxes are way out of whack.
-Cuyahoga Valley National Parks and Metroparks pack a lot of green space into the metro area (tho many of them are very narrow parks along busy roads, but whatever. Easy to find some very pretty walks within 30 minute drives). -For east side diverse neighborhoods:
--Shaker is a very outgoing, welcoming, inclusive, politically active but surprisingly insular city (I'm fourth generation Shaker, Shaker is the best, why have more commercial development). City is well run, services good, nice park system, pretty darn good facilities (the outdoor pool is awesome), schools are good so property values stay fairly high. City is very residential, but with some good dining/shopping, and most everything you might need (including TJs, Costco, other big box/national retailers) no more than 20 minutes away (and easy drives, not like the 405). Cleveland Heights is similar to Shaker, more diverse (good and bad) in every aspect. I've been told the community spirit is not as high in CH.
-Finding a house in Shaker under $150k is tight, but doable. CH easier to find, but neighborhood choice is important....northern and northwest sections of the city can have some safety concerns.
Things that are depressing as h$ll.
-The gray winters are awful. 30 less days of sun, annually, than the coasts. And little snow nowadays to break up the winter doldrums by skiing/snowshoeing
-The 3Cs blue bubble is real. You drive 10 minutes outside of 271 (heck even the southern end of 271) and you are in some heavy R leaning towns. OH is so gerrymandered and the GOTV so poor that the state leans evermore rightward, which impacts you every day (terrible roads, local taxes high to make up for state shortfalls, future of women's healthcare is scary as %%%).
-You can't escape to the beach or the mountains like you can on the coasts (tho the mini mountains of the Alleghenies are 3 hours away and good beaches on MI's west side are 5 hours).
-Cleveland is one of the poorest cities in the nation, along with the attendant crime rates, poor services, poor street maintenance. I live in a fairly affluent areas, and we hear gunshots regularly in the summer and a neighbor woke up up to a bullet shot thru her windshield within the last month. It's depressing to drive thru some of the CLE neighborhoods (and East Cleveland, forget it). That being said, the city is working hard to try and turn things around...but it's like steering the Titanic (with so many folks resistant to gentrification, which just floors me).
Good and Bad. PM if you have specific questions.
What “affluent” area do you regularly hear gunshots?
What “affluent” area do you regularly hear gunshots?
I'm on the edge of Shaker Hts....close to Heinens and the intersection of Chagrin and Lee...I occasionally hear gunshots from what is probably the area Kinsman and say E 150th to E 130th which is probably just over a mile from my place.
I don't worry about it because it won't get into Shaker (although the area around Menlo and Milverton does have a bit of crime)
As a gay man, I have not seen a that in the populace...at least in the Hts and the areas of Beachwood/Pepper Pike/Solon that I'm in a lot. Plus of course we have a very good LGBT Center in Gordon Square on the west side...Lakewood is also very LGBT friendly but the Heights communities would be closer to the Clinic & UH.
Cleveland is no SF or even Chicago/Columbus on the LGBT friendly scale...but I find it to have a very good community and a mostly accepting metro.
Maybe areas like Parma/Berea/North Olmsted that are a little more conservative...or the more ghetto like areas such as Maple Hts, Garfield Hts, or East Cleveland or some of the inner city neighborhoods which are also high crime areas wouldn't be very LGBT friendly.
What we don't have is the most flamboyant community maybe compared to Columbus or Chicago..and we don't have that true LGBT neighborhood w/ C'bus w/ Victorian Village or Chi w/ Boystown.
Elaborate. So, are you saying that Cleveland is homophobic?
As a gay man, I have not seen a that in the populace...at least in the Hts and the areas of Beachwood/Pepper Pike/Solon that I'm in a lot. Plus of course we have a very good LGBT Center in Gordon Square on the west side...Lakewood is also very LGBT friendly but the Heights communities would be closer to the Clinic & UH.
Cleveland is no SF or even Chicago/Columbus on the LGBT friendly scale...but I find it to have a very good community and a mostly accepting metro.
Maybe areas like Parma/Berea/North Olmsted that are a little more conservative...or the more ghetto like areas such as Maple Hts, Garfield Hts, or East Cleveland or some of the inner city neighborhoods which are also high crime areas wouldn't be very LGBT friendly.
What we don't have is the most flamboyant community maybe compared to Columbus or Chicago..and we don't have that true LGBT neighborhood w/ C'bus w/ Victorian Village or Chi w/ Boystown.
I concur with ohioaninsc's assessment. I'm also a gay man in Shaker but I used to live in Ohio City (2004-2006) and the Near West Side/Lakewood was the closest thing Cleveland ever really had to a "gayborhood." The past 20 years have been primarily positive in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, but as tolerance and acceptance increased (along with communication technology), there has been a general decline in the need to concentrate together. In the past, gay clubs, bars, gyms, coffee shops, book stores and other physical establishments were more plentiful and co-located to help gays have a safe, comfortable space to meet one another and socialize.
[quote=dr_j_planning;66492388]and the Near West Side/Lakewood was the closest thing Cleveland ever really had to a "gayborhood."
A huge difference between Lakewood and the Near West Side. Also, Lakewood may be gay friendly, but I don't see any part of it as being what you'd describe.
West of downtown, that area to me would be Clifton between W. 110 and W 117.
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Interested to dig in more about Oscar(?) and CC/UH.
