The Flats Will Rise Again

All right, so, now that we've had our introductions, and I've told you what my favorite music is, let's get down to some business, hm? This site may not be all about Cleveland, but it will certainly be a frequent topic. There are quite a few projects going on, or that are about to get started, in Cleveland. The biggest, and most ambitious of which is The Flats.

The Flats are basically the banks of the Cuyahoga River where it spills into Lake Erie. Moses Cleaveland landed there when surveying the area in 1796. Lorenzo Carter, one of the first settlers, built his home there. During the industrial revolution, it was a hub of manufacturing and shipping, which caused the city to swell with activity.

In the late 1980s, the area became a very popular entertainment district. Bars, resturants and music venues lined both banks of the river. It remained so until about 2000, or so. A series of drowning-deaths and other unfortunate incidents started a domino effect that deterred people from coming there and strangled the establishments along the river, forcing them out of business.

In the eight years since, most of the flats have been a boarded-up ghost town, with the occasional shooting or stabbing to liven things up.

Lots of people still remember how bustling the flats were just a short time ago, including me, though I was a bit too young to really enjoy everything there was to enjoy down there. The problem is, I don't have the money, or the resources, or the skill to do anything about restoring it to what everyone remembers.

Scott Wolstein does, though.

Wolstein is driving a $500 million project to re-vitalize the East Bank of the Flats. Instead of a strip of bars and music venues, though, Wolstein's plan includes a mix of office space, apartments and condos, shops and entertainment. If you're reading this and live in the Cleveland area, the plan seems similar to Legacy Village, in Lyndhurst or Crocker Park, in Westlake. It's supposed to be more family friendly. I think, given that it doesn't rely on just one niche (entertainment, business, or whatever), it has more sustainability than before. Given what happened, before, I'm sure that safety precautions will be taken to ensure that water-accidents don't happen again (in fact, from the concept I saw, it seems that no establishment is actually on the bank -- it's set back quite a ways).

A lot of projects get talked about in Cleveland, but seem to never happen, or take forever and a day (Euclid Corridor, anyone?). This is happening. Groundbreaking is in June. From what I've read, the plan is to have most of the project done (save for a residential building) by late 2010. That's a little over two years from now for you time-challenged folks.

This, combined with other projects that I'll talk about in the coming weeks, are vital to Cleveland. They must happen. Cleveland was such a great city for quite a long time. Except for a brief period in the early-to-mid 90s, suburban sprawl and poor management have all but killed it. I think that this is an important time for Cleveland to re-vitalize it's core Downtown area because (among other things), gas prices are going to get worse before anything gets better (meaning, we cut our addiction to oil), and people are going to want to live and work in the same place so that they don't have to travel as far. That's why I've done it. That's why others will.

The image above shows what will be built on the East Bank site. You can find a larger image here. All of the buildings in white will be finished by 2010. The red buildings in the lower-left corner will be finished some time later.

Here're some places you can go to learn about the Flats and Wolstein's project:

• A brief primer on The Flats.
• Cleveland's Plain Dealer has a great collection of Flats-related news

What do you think? If you live in the area, share your thoughts. If you don't, what does your city do to ensure the vitality of its downtown area? What resources (like a river or lake) can it take advantage of?