Welcome to my Lakewood 'hood! This morning I went to breakfast on Detroit Avenue, so I walked from my condo building on Clifton Boulevard down Clifton Prado, next to (but not on!) the RR tracks, south on Fry Avenue, to Detroit Avenue. Then after breakfast I walked up Beach Avenue back to Clifton and my home. I doubt we'll have as many warm, sunny mornings like this for the rest of the year, with all of the green leaves and flowers, so this is a farewell to summer, too. Of course, the walks in fall, winter and spring can be very pretty too....

 

Welcome to my 'hood, starting at my condo building with the indoor swimming pool on top and the underground heated parking garage below. It's an ugly 1967-built structure on the outside, but you'll see later that it's very nice on the inside:

 

 

 

The alley below my windows:

 

 

Clifton Prado, home to low-income housing on a fascinating street. This was originally just a sidewalk to workers' homes for the distant Union Carbide plant. And nearly all of the homes are made of concrete. It looks pretty, but can sometimes be a source of nuisances:

 

 

 

I get just enough train traffic on this Norfolk Southern line to keep me entertained but not annoyed. This is 10 houses away from my condo building:

 

 

 

Fry Avenue, a street of smaller but nice homes. Very much working-class style homes that are common on the west side of Cleveland and throughout the eastern part of Lakewood:

 

 

 

Fry? Fry? Fry....?

 

 

 

Where Fry intersects with Detroit Avenue you meet the old "streetcar neighborhood"-type mixed-use and density, which has been added on to with an incomplete Rockport housing development. Those are new townhouses across the street which is still served by frequent 24-hour bus service using articulated buses:

 

 

 

Sorry, that's all of Detroit for now. I am now strolling back north, this time up Beach Avenue which has some larger homes than Fry. Most of these were built between 1900-1920. When you walk around this neighborhood, you can see inside the homes and notice that they have some terrific woodwork and leaded glass in them:

 

 

 

Most people take pretty good care of their homes and yards along Beach. There are a lot of immigrant families in my neighborhood, many with children. But sometimes when they have late-night parties, it's amazing to hear Middle-Eastern dance/electronica or Slavic-Rock playing. I like it as long as it's not playing after 1 a.m. on weekends or after 11 p.m. on weeknights. Most of my neighbors are pretty quiet:

 

 

 

More neighbors' efforts at keeping my hood pretty. Yep, it's MY hood. Lived here for 15 years and counting:

 

 

 

At the railroad tracks, my ugly building comes into view:

 

 

 

At Clifton, things start to feel much more urban:

 

 

 

My building, full-frontal:

 

 

 

Here comes a westbound #55 Clifton bus, passing the Days Inn across the 7-lane road from my abode:

 

 

 

Being close to the lake (this is 3 blocks from the shore) means lots of moisture and lots of vegetation. It also means hearing and seeing plenty of seagulls -- they are very pretty but mean-spirited birds:

 

 

 

The vegetation, aided by a wet spring and summer, hides the surrounding apartment buildings:

 

 

 

Well, not all of them. In fact, I looked at an apartment in this building when I moved out of my parents' house in Geauga County 18 years ago. But I settled in a pre-fab Cardinal Community apartment in Berea for three years before finally moving to the neighborhood I'd wanted to live in:

 

 

 

OK, this wedge view makes my building look a "little" impressive. The seventh floor is recessed a bit at the front. But the seventh-floor swimming pool windows are visible at the left side of the building. A seventh-floor party room is located at the front of the building:

 

 

 

Ooops, here comes an eastbound (downtown-bound) #55 bus. This route used to operate every 20 minutes off-peak and ran until 1 a.m. But thanks to budget cuts it's only hourly off-peak and runs only to 8 p.m. Yet, the rush-hour service is roughly every 3-10 minutes:

 

 

 

The view after walking up the front steps:

 

 

 

The entry way. See I told you it was much nicer inside:

 

 

 

And now I wait for my elevator:

 

 

Thanks for taking a walk around the block with me in my neighborhood.  8-)

Quite nice! As I recall, the lake has a tempering effect on summer temperatures in that area. When I used to visit there, there always seemed to be a nice breeze and it wasn't as hot as parts of the city farther from the lake.

 

That Norfolk-Southern line -- is that the old NKP mainline that crosses Rocky River on a viaduct above the marina? If so, I rode through there behind NKP 765 in the mid-80s on a deadhead move from Struthers to Bellevue via Ashtabula. We were barrelling past backyards with the whistle blasting for crossings, and it probably gave some older residents quite a start to hear that. To the younger ones, it would have been just another train. Where the line crosses W117th, if my memory is correct, there was a brick post office that had a carved-stone RPO logo over the entrance and the gantry where they used to hang mailbags for on-the-fly pickup was still beside a dock-level door on the side next to the tracks. There was a former Studebaker dealership nearby, too, with a nice white facade that included some terra cotta, I think. I'm dredging up memories from 1978 here, so they may be a little sketchy.

I live on the other side of Clifton about a block down.  Fantastic neighborhood, scenic and walkable, with the easiest commute I've ever had. 

Looks like a comfortable neighborhood.

...As I recall, the lake has a tempering effect on summer temperatures in that area. When I used to visit there, there always seemed to be a nice breeze and it wasn't as hot as parts of the city farther from the lake.

It tempers the temperature, but adds humidity, which only partially negates any temperature effects you might feel. The breeze though is the nice part of living near the lake. (I live about 20 miles east of here, but the get the same effect because I'm 1/2 a mile from the lake.)

Quite nice! As I recall, the lake has a tempering effect on summer temperatures in that area. When I used to visit there, there always seemed to be a nice breeze and it wasn't as hot as parts of the city farther from the lake.

 

Sometimes in the summer the hottest time of the day is the late evening until midnight. That's when you get a reverse lake breeze as the inland areas "exhale" and blow across all of the buildings and pavement which was heated by the sun throughout the day. I have seen the temperature rise into the upper-80s and low-90s by 10 p.m. and stay there fore a couple hours.

 

That Norfolk-Southern line -- is that the old NKP mainline that crosses Rocky River on a viaduct above the marina?

 

That's the one. There is a post office on West 117th called the Edgewater branch but it's several buildings south of the tracks. There is a small commercial/warehouse space with a loading dock immediately south of the tracks that has had several different users since I became aware of this neighborhood in the 1980s, but it's never been a post office. It was Norton Industries until the early 1990s, which is the oldest user I'm aware of. But I'll look at the building a little closer the next time I walk by.

 

The Studebaker dealership building still stands and still has the logo above the doors. It has been an Air Rite retail/repair outlet for at least two decades.

very nice, i have thought of a thread like this before but never did it. we should all do a 'walk around our block' thread!

Cool idea. Imitation truly is flattering!

i doubt im only other person to think of doing a thread with this theme, but far as i recall you arethe first to do it. kinda surprising actually.

Welcome to my Lakewood 'hood! This morning I went to breakfast on Detroit Avenue, so I walked from my condo building on Clifton Boulevard down Clifton Prado, next to (but not on!) the RR tracks, south on Fry Avenue, to Detroit Avenue. Then after breakfast I walked up Beach Avenue back to Clifton and my home. I doubt we'll have as many warm, sunny mornings like this for the rest of the year, with all of the green leaves and flowers, so this is a farewell to summer, too. Of course, the walks in fall, winter and spring can be very pretty too....

 

Welcome to my 'hood, starting at my condo building with the indoor swimming pool on top and the underground heated parking garage below. It's an ugly 1967-built structure on the outside, but you'll see later that it's very nice on the inside:

 

 

 

The alley below my windows:

 

 

Clifton Prado, home to low-income housing on a fascinating street. This was originally just a sidewalk to workers' homes for the distant Union Carbide plant. And nearly all of the homes are made of concrete. It looks pretty, but can sometimes be a source of nuisances:

 

 

 

I get just enough train traffic on this Norfolk Southern line to keep me entertained but not annoyed. This is 10 houses away from my condo building:

 

 

 

Fry Avenue, a street of smaller but nice homes. Very much working-class style homes that are common on the west side of Cleveland and throughout the eastern part of Lakewood:

 

 

 

Fry? Fry? Fry....?

 

 

 

Where Fry intersects with Detroit Avenue you meet the old "streetcar neighborhood"-type mixed-use and density, which has been added on to with an incomplete Rockport housing development. Those are new townhouses across the street which is still served by frequent 24-hour bus service using articulated buses:

 

 

 

Sorry, that's all of Detroit for now. I am now strolling back north, this time up Beach Avenue which has some larger homes than Fry. Most of these were built between 1900-1920. When you walk around this neighborhood, you can see inside the homes and notice that they have some terrific woodwork and leaded glass in them:

 

 

 

Most people take pretty good care of their homes and yards along Beach. There are a lot of immigrant families in my neighborhood, many with children. But sometimes when they have late-night parties, it's amazing to hear Middle-Eastern dance/electronica or Slavic-Rock playing. I like it as long as it's not playing after 1 a.m. on weekends or after 11 p.m. on weeknights. Most of my neighbors are pretty quiet:

 

 

 

More neighbors' efforts at keeping my hood pretty. Yep, it's MY hood. Lived here for 15 years and counting:

 

 

 

At the railroad tracks, my ugly building comes into view:

 

 

 

At Clifton, things start to feel much more urban:

 

 

 

My building, full-frontal:

 

 

 

Here comes a westbound #55 Clifton bus, passing the Days Inn across the 7-lane road from my abode:

 

 

 

Being close to the lake (this is 3 blocks from the shore) means lots of moisture and lots of vegetation. It also means hearing and seeing plenty of seagulls -- they are very pretty but mean-spirited birds:

 

 

 

The vegetation, aided by a wet spring and summer, hides the surrounding apartment buildings:

 

 

 

Well, not all of them. In fact, I looked at an apartment in this building when I moved out of my parents' house in Geauga County 18 years ago. But I settled in a pre-fab Cardinal Community apartment in Berea for three years before finally moving to the neighborhood I'd wanted to live in:

 

 

 

OK, this wedge view makes my building look a "little" impressive. The seventh floor is recessed a bit at the front. But the seventh-floor swimming pool windows are visible at the left side of the building. A seventh-floor party room is located at the front of the building:

 

 

 

Ooops, here comes an eastbound (downtown-bound) #55 bus. This route used to operate every 20 minutes off-peak and ran until 1 a.m. But thanks to budget cuts it's only hourly off-peak and runs only to 8 p.m. Yet, the rush-hour service is roughly every 3-10 minutes:

 

 

 

The view after walking up the front steps:

 

 

 

The entry way. See I told you it was much nicer inside:

 

 

 

And now I wait for my elevator:

 

 

Thanks for taking a walk around the block with me in my neighborhood.  8)

 

Nice pics

 

very nice, i have thought of a thread like this before but never did it. we should all do a 'walk around our block' thread!

I walked around the square.