I live on the east side of Cleveland. I grew up on the (south) West side. I went away for college, law school, and my first job. When I returned, unlike many, I had absolutely no desire to go back to my old stomping grounds. The reasons are personal and complext. But the easiest, and the most easily accepted by those around me, is that the East Side reminded me more of the good things about living in New York City than the West Side did. No one, not even my family still on the West Side, questioned that.

As Steve Gleydura wrote in the December 2004 issue of Cleveland Magazine, "We all know the refrain. The East side is blue blood, cultured, liberal and diverse. The West side is blue collar, new money, conservative, ethnic, white. East Side streets are impossible to navigate. The West Side has no character. East Side means shopping, good school, and high society. West Side means bowling, neighborhood bars and big hair."

Those stereotypes make people accept it when I state my reasons for choosing the east side, even though a few friends who live on the west side won't visit me. In fact Gleydura hit the nail on the head when he wrote: "The wide Cuyahoga Valley - with its steep slopes, sheltered lowlands, and narrow river - run deep, both topographically and pyschologically. As the transition betwen the Allegheny Plateau and the Great Plains, it puts some teeth in the old saw that the West Side is really the Midwest and the East Side is the East Coast. But all too often I've heard, 'It's just different over there,' as if a trip across I-480 transports you into a foreign country, compete with passport jokes."

And the interesting thing is, he's not exaggerating. I hear the passport jokes when I'll invite people over. All of my current friends are East siders. It seems that the only place that the people agree are right in downtown Cleveland. Of course, no one other than young professionals actually live IN downtown Cleveland. Bad schools, no grocery shopping, no parking. Close (within walking distance) to all the office buildings downtown and the warehouse district bars, but that's about it. But when you meet someone, one of the very first questions to ask is where they live. Sometimes, it seems like a relationship with someone from another state is more stable than one with someone from the other side of town. I'm not sure why this great divide in Cleveland, separated by the river. We all hate the weather, obsess about our sports. It's actually quite amusing to other cities, because while it is to a certain degree, the division is not merely by race.

While I bought a house on the East Side, I'm not opposed to crossing the river again back to the West Side. Only a few neighborhoods would I consider though. Most of it is a bunch of conservative, new money yuppy...I guess I'm part of the problem...