Brewed Fresh Daily

I'm a prime candidate for what Clevelanders call "brain drain." I'm 31, with a graduate degree and a highly-paid downtown job, and no wife or family in Cleveland. I'm connected, through professional colleagues and social connections, to jobs and housing in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Why haven't I moved already, like many of my grad-school colleagues? Because Cleveland, for all of its failings, sits on the perfect spot on the bell curve: it has all the big-city culture features - world-class museum and orchestra, engaging theater, clubs, and nightlife - at an affordable cost of living. I recently bought a house in Cleveland Heights for just under $100K that would cost $225K in Chicago's first-ring suburbs, or $375K in suburban Boston, or don't even ask how much in suburban NYC. I can go out for dinner and drinks with a date for $100, something unthinkable in a larger city, and I can see the touring production of a Broadway show for $45, and if all else fails, I can actually GO to NYC for $150 and see whatever's there, without having to put up with the constantly absurd cost of housing and trains and taxis and eating out and going to clubs all the time.