It Must Be Love... You Moved To Cleveland!

A lot of what I post about on Cleveland City Living has much to do with MY personal Cleveland experience and MY personal choices on what makes living in CLE great. However, Cleveland City Living is not MY personal blog! Which is why CCL has been featuring some guest posts as of late. Below we have a lovely guest post from Tammy Colson, who I happened to meet at the last OBA Blogger event. I have invited her to share her story on her road to Cleveland. Thanks Tammy!

As a recent transplant from the deep south, my Mama had one thing to say when I told her I was coming north, “Honey, it must be love... you moved to Cleveland!”

I first came here for a beautiful May weekend. We did the tourist thing – the Rock Hall, the beach... I had no idea Cleveland had beaches... There was great food from the talented chefs and mom and pop restaurants throughout the city. And then there was a beautiful vista from the deck of a house in Tremont. In only a brief time, I fell in love with Tremont as much as I fell in love with the man who grew up in Lakewood and had returned to make Cleveland his home.

When I moved to Cleveland lock, stock and barrel in the Fall of 2010 – there were Indians games, concerts at Blossom, and a very cool, eclectic neighborhood to walk in on cool evenings. And wow, the West Side Market. A foodie mecca. Not to mention so much pride and history, I couldn't believe I'd never been here before.

Leaving the south, where I'd lived most of my life, for what is really the largest city I've ever lived in, was a tough decision made easier by the fact that the people who make the City of Cleveland home have so much passion and promise. I've met enthusiastic entrepreneurs, hopeful students, hard working blue collar folks and starched business executives in my neighborhood, and each of them sees what Tremont and downtown can be. They protect that dream, and in so many ways they live it.

Work in my field was scarce, so I decided to take my small part time wine business and devote the effort to growing a Cleveland based clientele for tastings, pairing events and eventually, the first public Wine and Cupcakes event in October, 2011. The restaurants, wine bars and bakers and caterers here in the city have been mostly welcoming and helpful as business has grown to include private, corporate and monthly public tastings. When I rebranded the business in the summer of 2011, I chose a name that reflected my adopted state of Ohio, rather than the southern roots that are so obvious in my speech. MissWineOH has been welcomed with open arms.

Folks back home ask me all the time why I'd move to a city that tends to freeze over in the winter – a city with political corruption, crime, and well, issues. I say they don't know Cleveland.

Problems exist in every city – but not every city is investing heart and soul, and dollars, into the future. Cleveland is revitalizing, and taking steps to do it well. Friends who visit here like it and want to return. Boomerangs are returning in large numbers and companies are drawing new talent to the area.

Entrepreneurs across many industries are flourishing here. There are all sorts of business owners just like me, making it happen with the help of an incredibly vibrant, diverse and supportive population. There is room for more – and with hard work and the gritty determination Cleveland is known for – much like southern women – city living is everything it should be. It is love. For a Cleveland man, and this city on the lake. There's no mistake here.

Tammy Colson is a transplant from south of the Mason-Dixon who loves Cleveland just as much as she loves her Kentucky Wildcats and North Carolina mountains. She can be found at @tlcolson on twitter, or at MissWineOH – where unique wine events are her specialty.