A nice sentimental look back at a lot of  :drunk:

 

The Flats' east bank again looks to revival

 

Nightspots were where Cleveland loved to have fun moment in the sun has faded

 

Sunday, February 26, 2006

 

Brian Albrecht

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

On a dead-of-winter Saturday night, the last dusty bottles of whiskey at O'Connor's Irish Pub were being sold in a $4-a-shot wake for the ghosts haunting this east bank corner of the Flats.

Wow, too bad!  What a great story!  So the city had little to do with this area becoming a hot nightlife attraction?

 

About the closest I've been to an environment like this was, was in Frankfurt Am Main, in Sachensenhausen, the neighborhood just across ther river Main from downtown Frankfurt..there was a street called the Drosselgasse that was just packed with people at night walking from bar to bar, or actually, hard cider wine cellars....it was a lot of fun just to hang out with crowds of folks even if you wherent drinking....

 

@@@@

 

But its interesting that the lite rail system built a station there...perhaps too late or just missing the nightlife era in the flats.

 

 

 

I think the article was a little unfair to city officials, who sought to support the Flats with business financing, street enhancements, parks and so forth. While cities should do those things to help spark a housing or nightlife district and then help it evolve, I'm leery of cities trying to invent such places. I recall cities like Toledo or Pittsburgh trying to create a Flats in their towns (see Portside in Toledo or the Strip District in Pittsburgh back in the early 1990s).

 

As for the light-rail Waterfront Line, it opened in 1996 near the end of the peak years for the Flats. But I recall the Flats staying busy into 2001 or so, when I did some videotaping down there with friends.

 

But it was nothing like the early 1990s, when the entire stretch of Old River Road was jammed with people and cars to the extent that it was virtually impossible to move anywhere. As a 20-something beer-drinking woman-chaser at the time, it was an awesome and wonderful place to be. The noise, the crowds, the new music and the energy was something to behold. It felt like you were part of a city's decade-long coming-out party, an awakening if you will, that gave a tremendous sense of optimism. Though admittedly, much of it was my own awakening to my own newly discovered social life that came during my college years. It was great to have a place like the Flats where it literally was Mardi Gras every weekend.

 

But all good things come to end. The Flats and I both aged and had to come to terms with our partying ways. I really miss the old place, but neither the Flats or I can ever be the same. But it sure was fun.

I think the article was a little unfair to city officials, who sought to support the Flats with business financing, street enhancements, parks and so forth. While cities should do those things to help spark a housing or nightlife district and then help it evolve, I'm leery of cities trying to invent such places. I recall cities like Toledo or Pittsburgh trying to create a Flats in their towns (see Portside in Toledo or the Strip District in Pittsburgh back in the early 1990s).

 

The more sucessful one will have something to build off of.  Memphis and Nashville being the most obvious examples. Others will try to make a mountain out of a molehill (Jackson, Ms; Shreveport), and others just want to throw something together because it looks cool (see KJP's examples).

I was too young in the early 1990s to take part in the drinking, but I definitely went to my fair share of shows as a teenager at the Odeon and Peabody's.  I also remember going down there on weekends as a group of kids who just wanted to be around all the excitement.  We never tried to get into the bars or get drunk (we had no money)... just walking the streets on those nights was entertainment enough.

 

I, for one, think that the future of the East Bank is very bright.  I think the Wolstein project is imperative, though.  If an effort this significant and with this much public support cannot come true, there will be a stigma on the neighborhood for many years to come and I'm afraid no developer will want to go near it.

 

I can't really speak for the City's involvement in the past, though I can imagine that their police efforts were a bit misguided (visit West 6th Street on a Saturday night for more of the same...people can fight in the streets to their hearts' content, but they'd better not double park!).  In the present, however, they've done much to improve public spaces and have pledged a great deal of money to Wolstein's project.  Add to that the contributions of the RTA and the Port Authority and you've really got a good deal of collaboration going into this project.  I think that's the best way to go forward.

Of course no one mentions that the area where nearly all of the vacancies are just happen to be where the developer is buying all the land with an eye towards demoing the entire neighborhood.

 

Also, the way they set up their map, it only shows where things were happening in 1988 and what is there now.  It doesn't show all the buildings that were vacant in 1988 that aren't now.  I'd be interested to know about that as well.  It might help the readers form a more accurate opinion of what's really happening in the Flats.