Cleveland and Detroit Compared

Mr. Beat compares and contrasts two Rust Belt cities that, despite being on the decline in recent decades, are trying to reclaim their past glory.

Download Newsvoice for free here to support my channel

Shout out to @scottman895, a Detroit native, and @xylafoxlin (@BeautyandtheBolt), a Cleveland native, for looking over my script!

Produced by Matt Beat. All images/video by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Music by Joe Bagale.

Best travel videos about Cleveland...EVER:

I've seen it 15 times

I've seen it 20 timesOh and the sequel

I've seen it 10 times

Have an idea for two places Mr. Beat should compare? Your idea gets picked when you donate on Patreon

My book, The Ultimate American Presidential Election BookEvery Presidential Election in American History (17882016)

Donate on Paypal

Buy Mr. Beat Tshirts, coffee mugs, etc.

Mr. Beat's band

Mr. Beat on Twitter

Mr. Beat on Facebook

Mr. Beat on Instagram

Mr. Beat's Discord server

Special thanks to the AP Archive for additional footage for this video. It made a huge difference! AP Archive website

Creative commons credits:

Joanne

Urbex Dane

Avis Rambin

Detroit Video Daily

University of Michigan School of Natural Resources

Tim Evanson

Michael Righi

Andy B

Christopher Busta-Peck

Andrew Jameson

Ken Lund

Oydman

Eli Pousso

Nheyob

Dig Downtown Detroit

Shwalamazula

Dave Parker

Michael Barera

Erik Drost

Sources/further reading and watching:

#geography #detroit #cleveland

Indeed, both cities have had their struggles in recent decades, and thus have developed a reputation for being not desirable cities to live in. When we often see Cleveland and Detroit in videos, we see huge abandoned buildings and dying neighborhoods. Now, fortunately, in the last few years both cities have made significant improvements. Both actually rock. (Clip of the Drew Carey Show theme of “Cleveland Rocks” by the Presidents of the United States of America) (Clip of live performance of “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss) And yes, look at all these things they have in common!

Both are in the Great Lakes region of the country. While both are near Lake Erie, Cleveland is right up on it. Detroit is actually right up on the Detroit River, but is also next to Lake St Clair, which is not great. Er, I mean, it’s not technically a Great Lake, but it IS part of the Great Lakes system. The Detroit River is actually a strait, and divides the metropolitan area of Detroit from Windsor, Ontario. Indeederoo, Detroit borders Canada.

Downtown Detroit is about 110 miles from downtown Cleveland. Driving by car around Lake Erie, the two cities are about 2 and a half hours apart. Of course, you could take a 30-minute flight between the two. Or even take a boat. That’d take around two hours. Or you could swim. Eh, I don’t recommend swimming between the two.

Both have shrinking populations. As far as the actual cities, the population peaked for both of them in the 1950s. Back then, Detroit had almost 1.9 million people, and Cleveland had almost a million. Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country, and Cleveland 7th. Since then, however, both have steadily been losing people.