George E. Condon

"Cleveland is a formidable city. It is a city with the biceps of industry and it has a rough-hewn manner that is indigenous to the Midwest of America. Cleveland also has some of the charm and grace of an old European city and, withal, it shows indisputable traces of its New England heritage as no other city west of the Alleghenies does."

"I cannot forget the words of a New Yorker who ventured as far west as Cleveland a few years ago. He looked at the vast sweep of the forested city, the soft gray-blue lake lapping at the foot of the high bluffs, the ubiquitous placement of beautiful residential neighborhoods and parks, and he blinked. 'This Cleveland,' he said, pondering, 'has to be the best kept secret in the United States.' What he meant to say, of course, was that it was a secret to other Americans. Not the Russians. That is one thing you have to say about those Russians – they are quick to notice a good thing like Cleveland."

"For all practical purposes, though – and hang the technicalities – everything east of the [Cuyahoga] river constitutes the East Side. Everything west of the river can be considered the West Side. That is the realistic view taken by Clevelanders. When two Clevelanders meet for the first time, they fence conversationally until the vital question of East or West is answered. Knowing which side of town a new acquaintance comes from makes a subtle difference."

"It may be said that the people of Cleveland are opposites to the people of Texas; instead of boasting about the city's attributes, they dwell eloquently on its deficiencies to the extent, often, where outsiders feel compelled to take up the Cleveland cause in a curious reversal of normal American procedure."

"The Cuyahoga's serpentine course and narrow physical limitations did not blind early observers to its special credentials and its great potential. Among the far-sighted ones were Benjamin Franklin, who in 1765 saw the military advantages in the establishment of an army post at the place where the Cuyahoga flows into Lake Erie, and George Washington, who recognized the practicability of a trade-and-travel connection of the Ohio River and the Great Lakes by way of the Cuyhoga and the Muskingum rivers and foresaw the day when a great city would rise on the site."