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Not on Youtube: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head. It happened in Cleveland, "within a 10-minute drive of the city's skyscrapers, sports venues and tourist attractions."

Back in the 1990s, people started telling me how nice Cleveland had become. "They've really developed their lake front nicely. It's a great place." I was surprised, recalling the jokes about Cleveland in the 1980s: "How do you describe Cleveland? Answer: Detroit without the glitter." I finally visited there in the summer of 2006. I wasn't impressed. The lake front was nice. The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame was nice. Jacoby Field looked nice. But go more than a couple of hundred yards from those places? The city started looking pretty grim, like a place you could get your head urinated on.

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