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Wright Thompson visits Cleveland to see what the city “actually thinks about LeBron James and his departure. To hang around town the week before the first Cavs game in late-October, talking, eavesdropping, leaning into bars, eating heaping corned beef sandwiches at Slyman’s.”

Thompson compares Harvey Pekar’s image for Cleveland to the one created by professional sports.  

From Pekar’s story titled, “Why I Haven’t Visited the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame”:

Reason No. 1 is because it’s supposed to exemplify Cleveland, the comeback city, the city that bounced back from the Cuyahoga River catching on fire. But Cleveland’s not a comeback city. So what if there are more clubs around downtown. That’s papering over the problems. Unemployment here is relatively high. There’s a lot of poverty, which leads to poor school performance and more poverty. I would hope the performance of Cleveland school kids, which was the worst in Ohio, would mean more to local residents than a rock n roll show in a football stadium. But it doesn’t. The connection between boosterism and the Rock Hall is nauseating.