Back when I was in college, the flats in Cleveland were a thriving center of clubs and restaurants. It wasn't really my scene, but Stephanie brought me along to this one place that played great music where the alternative station would broadcast from, and that was kinda neat (it was called Smart Bar and The Whiskey, among other things). In the years following we'd go see shows at this place called The Odeon, and I really grew to love that place.
The Odeon was a great place, and it survived longer than a lot of stuff down there, until the House of Blues opened up the hill in the warehouse district, which is the trendy area now. This shot of the old club makes me sad.
As you go down Old River Rd., you can see empty lots on the Cuyahoga. It's wild how the whole thing imploded, and it's kind of fascinating. I mean, people I know stopped going down there because they outgrew the whole clubbing thing, but I would assume people in their 20's would still be into it. Apparently not.
The weird thing is that there are all kinds of downtown housing projects around there, all very expensive. And now, there is a huge project to build on the east bank, where they're going to tear down all kinds of stuff. Apparently it's a combination of office space, retail, restaurants and more living space. Ernst & Young's CEO was in town today to say they'd be moving into a significant amount of office space down there a couple of years from now.
Cleveland has had such a strange roller coaster ride of vitality just since I was a kid. As much as I don't think I want to live in this area anymore, I do hope the city's core gets the facelift and development it needs.
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