Cultural District
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s downtown is modestly sized, but culturally, it’s as loaded with talent as the Steelers’ receiving corps. Our symphony regularly tours Europe, and our ballet and opera companies are top-notch. The district boasts three accomplished theater troupes, three grand performance halls, an art-house cinema, several cutting-edge art galleries, a comedy theater, and the newly reborn August Wilson Center, focusing on African-American culture. It’s got a nationally known museum of cartoon art. And every summer, thanks to Anthrocon, there are more furries on this little patch of real estate than can be found in some developed countries. (Bill O’Driscoll)
Cleveland
Playhouse Square is the largest theater complex in the United States after New York’s Lincoln Center. The theaters there — the Ohio, the State, the Palace — are not only aesthetic marvels; annually, they host more touring Broadway productions than any other city east of Chicago. The local theatrical energy is electric as well, with adventurous community theaters emerging in the past decade. That’s all alongside Cleveland Public Theatre, one of the country’s most highly regarded theaters for new and experimental work; and, of course, Karamu House, in Fairfax, the oldest African-American theater in the United States. In Pittsburgh, we understand they’ve given up on live theater because they all decided it was too hard to memorize their lines. (SA)
DIY
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s DIY scene has always evoked reactions of starry-eyed fascination. We’ve got artfully crafted flyers, plus venues ranging from houses to warehouses and galleries to bars plus a cooperative all-ages space. Local labels range from tape labels to full works with PR folks and marketing campaigns. There are so many good bands here, there’s not enough space to write about all of them. Any given night, there are multiple shows happening. How much time do you have? I’m just scratching the surface. I’ll sit here all day and tell you what I love about our DIY scene. It’s that damn good. (Meg Fair)
Cleveland
For a time, Cleveland played host to one of the great underground punk venues in the Midwest: Speak In Tongues, which now bears legendary status in local lore and which spawned several awesome DIY spots around town. We now hang out at Now That’s Class or any number of house shows, where dedicated guys and gals put up touring bands and pass around a beat-up Tribe hat for gas money. We’re not sure what passes for DIY in Pittsburgh, if only because we’re too busy cleaning up the basement from last night. (Don’t you Pittsburgh people all have toilets in all your basements? That’s actually pretty cool.) (ES)
Museums
The Andy Warhol Museum
As if it weren’t enough to celebrate the life, works and legacy of a native son who’s merely one of the most influential artists ever, The Warhol is North America’s largest single-artist museum. Visitors from around the world traverse seven floors of exhibits, ranging from archival material from Andy’s childhood to his epochal soup-can paintings and beyond. Catch his groundbreaking film and video works on demand, see temporary exhibits noting his inescapable influence on latter-day giants like Ai Weiwei, and even — if it’s rock ’n’ roll you’re into — learn about Andy’s crucial role in the career of a little band called the Velvet Underground. (BO)
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
We could go on and on about the literal district of museums on the eastside, but we’ll narrow the focus now to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Its iconic design (from world renowned I.M. Pei) is instantly recognizable to anyone who’s spent a night of teenage joyriding with the Stones on the stereo. It’s a Day-One agenda item for any visit to Cleveland, and we’re damn proud that it stands tall at the top of our city. Whattaya got? Warhol? A can of Campbell’s chicken noodle? If soup is art for you people, then maybe we should just get back to the football talk. (ES)
Music
Jazz
Where would modern jazz’s rhythm section be without Pittsburgh? Nowhere, that’s where. From the early work of drummer Art Blakey, bassist Ray Brown and a handful of pianists — Errol Garner, Horace Parlan, Sonny Clark — to modern drummers like ex-pat Jeff “Tain” Watts and hometown denizen David Throckmorton, the Steel City has contributed far more to the music’s foundation than the Mistake by the Lake. We’ve birthed countless horn players (which could fill this space), not to mention the musicians who nurture on and off the bandstand, from Roger Humphries and Nelson Harrison to Joe Negri. While the ’Burgh loves its past, we’re not resting our swinging laurels either. (Mike Shanley)
Rock ’n’ Roll
We’re known almost singularly on the national stage for rock ’n’ roll, and we back it up nightly in any one of our 174 music venues across the city. Hell, we even host shows in living rooms and basements and ad-agency offices. We’re home to one of the greatest concerts of all time — Springsteen in ’78 — and yet still our local bands very nearly outstrip the Boss of his title on the reg. We might not have Nashville’s Broadway Avenue, but neither does Pittsburgh. You guys might lay claim to some serious jazz heavyweight DNA, but we’re a blues town: We’ll always take our 12 bars with stiff drinks at 12 different bars — and we’ll do it in one evening. (ES)
Social Justice Leaders
Pittsburgh
Cleveland probably only has one important figure (like its one measly sports title in 50 years), but our social-justice reach is far reaching. Without Rachel Carson, it’s easy to imagine a world where everyone’s a climate-change denier. Carson’s book Silent Spring is often credited with kickstarting modern environmentalism. Without Pittsburgh native August Wilson, it’s easy to imagine a world with far fewer powerful black voices. Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning plays gave theater-goers empowered African-American characters willing to tackle racial stereotypes. And with the 1892 Homestead strike, the modern labor movement was born. (RD)
Cleveland
“No matter how events of the [1960s] are reported or analyzed, Cleveland will always be the first major American city to have elected a black mayor, and Carl Stokes will have been that first black mayor.” — Estelle Zannes. Mic drop. (SA)
Universities
Pittsburgh
Do they still have polio in Cleveland? Didn’t think so. You can thank the University of Pittsburgh’s Jonas Salk for that one, who developed the vaccine in ’55 and gave it to the world gratis (that means free, for our Ohioan friends). Down the street, Carnegie Mellon University is leading the world in robotics and artificial intelligence, while churning out Tony Award-winning actors. Credit where it’s due: Oberlin’s a pretty good school. Facts where they’re needed: It’s 40 miles outside the 216. Quite a reach there. Why not rope in Xavier and Ohio State while you’re at it? (Alex Gordon)
Cleveland
The university landscapes in Cleveland and Pittsburgh are remarkably similar, with one key distinction: Cleveland’s colleges are much better. Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon is ranked slightly higher than Cleveland’s Case Western in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, but nobody reads U.S. News and World Report anymore because it’s become a destitute sell-sword publication good only for stroking the egos of colleges and hospitals and used cars. Cleveland State is on the rise, while Pitt’s only claim to fame is being named after the smelliest body part. Oberlin, natch, is the wokest of the woke. (SA)
Waterfront Recreation
Pittsburgh
To be honest, we didn’t think a backward town like Cleveland would have such a cool new sport like standup paddle boarding, but after some research, it appears you do. But you know what you don’t have? Surfing. Oh wait — you have that too? And you do it on a lake with real waves instead of the manmade ones we create off the back of a boat? Whatever. Our three rivers still beat your one. And none of our major bodies of water have ever caught on fire. (RA)
Cleveland
Pittsburgh’s downtown is called the Golden Triangle, which is a truly aberrant sexual reference we’d rather not discuss just now. It’s got rivers. Big deal. Cleveland has a river too, and a lake. A Great Lake, complete with beaches and other lakefront amenities, like sailing. Like the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers in Pittsburgh, the Cuyahoga River offers watersports like standup paddle boarding, kayaking and the like. But Cleveland has an additional extreme-sports edge: Watercraft users get the thrill of dodging the Great Lakes freighters that chart their southward course toward ArcelorMittal Steel on a daily basis, making for sublime photo ops and a perfect blend of commerce and recreation that dramatizes the city’s diversified resurgence. (SA)
