The Flats

joey: 4th Sep 2006 - 20:17 GMT

these are some nice shots of the flats. do you live in cleveland? we were there last month.
it's been 30 years since i moved from cleveland to the west coast.
i was on the east side . . . see little italy . . .

EvilGentleman: 4th Sep 2006 - 21:53 GMT

I remember going through Cleveland on a greyhound and seeing some very large, abandoned freeways that were deteriorating pretty badly. Would you happen to have any shots of them?

David: 4th Sep 2006 - 23:57 GMT

Joey: yeah, i'm from cleveland repping the west side, more specifically Ohio City. Little Italy is my favorite ES spot to visit.

Jamie:I use an early 80's Ae-1. It's so simple and fun to use.

EvilGentlemen: I know Cleveland pretty well. It's surprisingly huge so I can't claim to know every inch, but those abandoned freeways don't ring a bell. I'd be interested to see them if they do exist. Did you stop at the Greyhound station when you there? It's an art deco beauty.

Jon: That fisheye was new at the time. I took these photos summer '05. Regretfully, the lens was dropped and destroyed last spring in the NY subway. By whom?, I won't mention any names.

David: 5th Sep 2006 - 00:08 GMT

Here's the Greyhound station. It was designed by Arrasmith in 1948. There are similar stations in DC and Erie, PA.

EvilGentleman: 5th Sep 2006 - 00:22 GMT

All I can recall is that in 1990, I was heading into the city on an elevated freeway coming from Chicago while riding on a Greyhound bus. The abandoned freeway was lower than us, and it was on my right. I seem to remember thinking that I probably would not have been able to see it, had I been riding in a car, but the higher windows on the bus allowed me a good view. The lines were still visible, but the pavement seemed to be pitted and cracked. It was 3 or 4 lanes wide each direction, and even had some rather complex abandoned multi-level interchanges. The freeway I was on was quite high off the ground.

As a side note, my grandfather's branch of the family left my hometown, the Mohawk Indian community of Kahnawake near Montreal, and moved to Detroit about a hundred years ago, in order to find work doing high-steel ironwork. Some returned, while most of the rest moved to Ohio during the 1920's. My great-grandfather fell 60 floors to his death while building the Terminal Tower in late 1929. My great-uncle spent most of his working life as a private detective in Cleveland, despite being 6 foot 8. Must have been really tricky for him to sneak around following people. My father was born in Berea in 1946, but moved to Brooklyn while he was still a baby, then back to Kahnawake by age 5. I still have many cousins in the Cleveland-Youngstown area, but I do not believe I have ever met any of them.

EvilGentleman: 5th Sep 2006 - 00:25 GMT

I remember the high ceilings inside that split-level Greyhound station, but that is about it. I know I waited 4 hours for the Pittsburgh bus.

colavitos ghost: 5th Sep 2006 - 04:43 GMT

evilg: i've lived in cleveland for 22 years and your story doesn't ring much of a bell with me either. however, in 1990 i was only 7 years old and i don't remember much at all from those days so perhaps such a highway existed back then and has since been repaired or demolished.

EvilGentleman: 5th Sep 2006 - 10:05 GMT

I am guessing demolished. This abandoned highway looked like something out of some post-apocalyptic movie.

little ukraine: 5th Sep 2006 - 14:29 GMT

nice pics, nice pics. i particularly like the first one, and the lift bridge in the third one. i love the faded color prints - i get a really similar quality on my 35mm, and i love it.

colavitos ghost: 18th Dec 2006 - 19:10 GMT

that dilapidated shack was known as the "bum mansion" or the "bum palace" or something like that because it was home to a lot of homeless guys. it was recently demolished, apparently to keep away the undersirables that had inhabited it.