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In reply to the discussion: I don't know why they call it the Mistake by the Lake. (pics) [View all]Auggie
(31,272 posts)The Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire in 1969.
In 1972, Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk set his hair on fire during opening ceremonies for the American Society for Metals convention. Perk also suggested that a study on pornography be conducted by municipal sanitation workers. Both events made national news.
Employment and population plummeted as the manufacturing/industrial base (steel, automotive) was decimated from off-shoring and imports.
The city defaulted in 1978.
Organized crime reportedly put a "hit" on "Boy Mayor" Dennis Kucinich for refusing to sell Cleveland's publicly owned electric utility to private interests.
"Mistake On The Lake" is also associated with old Cleveland Museum Stadium and the perennially losing sports franchises of the 1970s: the Cleveland Indians, the Cavaliers (struggled so as an expansion team in the ancient and crime-ridden Cleveland Arena that coach Bill Fitch once quipped "we may be in last place in the NBA but we're first in stolen cars" and, of course, the Browns.
That said, the city has mounted a comeback in the past few decades as you note.
But the winters still suck.
I grew up just slightly east of the city in the 60's and 70's. It was just business as usual to us.