In an Los Angeles Times article titled “Cleveland has been on the rebound even before LeBron James news,” writer Alana Semuels details our town’s renaissance, explaining that the city has been hard at work getting back on the map long before the recent media attention as a result of LeBron, Manziel, and the GOP convention.

“The GOP and LeBron are going to grease the skids on a process that's already started," Richey Piiparinen, a senior research associate at the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University, is quoted in the piece. "People are realizing it's not your grandpa's Rust Belt anymore."

Semuels writes, “Changes are already evident in the city, where new construction is booming. Hammers and drills sound at all hours on the Flats East Bank, a onetime hip area that fell into disarray a decade ago and is experiencing a renaissance. Downtown, a new convention center just opened, and developers are rushing to build hotels and luxury condos to keep up with demand. Ohio's first casino opened downtown in 2012. And restaurateurs are following in the steps of Cleveland native and James Beard Award winner Michael Symon, opening bistros where you can get entrees such as frog legs and rabbit pie with Parmesan and prosciutto crust.”

Semuels goes on to explain how the changes occurring in Cleveland are attracting young people that had previously fled to larger, trendier cities.

“But as those cities became more crowded with transplants, costs began rising and many people were priced out. Now, he said, there's a push-back against the Brooklynization of these big cities, and people are moving home. And not just to Cleveland -- to Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Buffalo, N.Y., as well.”

Read the rest of the article here.