The Flats in Cleveland, Ohio (1980's & 1990's)

Now that The Flats in Cleveland, Ohio no longer exist, here is a little video showing what they used to look like, and some personal history on my time and memories of The Flats.

[@jamesnobilio6247]

The Flats were awesome!!!! Miss circling the block a few times to check out the ladies before we parked.

[@user-zv7lm8uk7h]

Creep

[@garygary9310]

Omg 😳 this brought back memories… I can’t believe it’s all gone …

[@williamerazo3921]

Lol sure lol 😂

[@thedirtybubble9613]

Those river restaurants remind me of how the Miami river used to be back in the 90s.

[@jennabryce]

thank you for taking the time to do this! amazing to see how it used to look!

[@DreamdancerStudios]

You're welcome. Thank you for taking the time to comment. Looks like you're a fellow Cleveland girl out here in Los Angeles? Hope you're enjoying California. I've been here 16 years now.

[@lawrencepayteniii7915]

Even though people miss the old Flats the reason why everything was gone because the Wolsteins owned it and was planning to redevelop it, hence all the construction. Its much better in my opinion now. I worked at the Aloft Cleveland Downtown which was part of the first phase of development.

[@PerpetualArt]

Cool video! I played at many of the clubs down there from 88 through 99.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Nice. I was all about the underground/alternative stuff like Smart Bar and Alter House.

[@jlsc4125]

So sad to see it gone to developers. It was why Cleveland was getting a good name finally as people came here to party and hold meetings and conventions. All gone now, what a waste of a perfect opportunity. I remember the boats tied up 5 and 6 deep at the bars. When a freighter came through everyone had to move them in a mad dash.

[@337caprice]

I would love to see an update on this ... I live down here now and there's alot of new clubs and buildings in this same rubble area .. Check it out if you haven't.. Margaritaville, thirsty dog, True, Lindeys lake house, Punch Bowl Social, The 9, they have a water taxi, and more new buildings under construction.. I really liked this !!

[@phosmana1]

Thanks for posting! We used to hang out at the Phantasy!

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Yes, The Phantasy was a great club. Really had a lot of fun there.

[@ramjet-dm3tr]

We used to drive to the flats from Lorain all the time back in the 80s ya that place was hopping.

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

i blame the fucking news. i performed a few times down there and before that when i was a teen in the 90s it use to take hours just to drive form one end to the other because it was like a car show on the strip. the fucking news reported so badly on club shootings everything got so strict and lawsuits etc. i remember at the end i was performing at a place and they said i was out of dress code lmao. anyways, the casino came right in and nabbed everything

[@RadioPsychicAstrologyByPepper]

What did you do performance wise?

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

@@RadioPsychicAstrologyByPepper concerts/clubs

[@michaelt4706]

This video is incredibly dated. That construction area is now a completely built up with new clubs, offices and apartment buildings. It was trash before hand and is now one of the nicest areas of the city.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

The timelines are clearly mentioned at the start of the video.

[@michaeltabor9596]

Yes but the /80s/90s flats are a time capsule in life that will never come back!

[@jamescroy9464]

One mans trash…. 😁

[@MrBarksdale149]

True the area is built back up but the flats nothing like it was. The new flats is a attempt at creating a suburban atmosphere downtown boring not a national destination, like in the 1990s everyone in the USA knew about Cleveland flats smh

[@spudth]

Break my heart and tell me the Phantasy Nite Club in Lakewood is gone too. Several nights spent there watching Exotic Birds. 35 years ago........ oh my......

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

its not gone, they have a new owner and its running again

[@patrickbyrne9282]

Yes, it has been closed. It is now an after-hours ghetto club called Choreboy's House of Rocks. No more birds, though.

[@spudth]

@@patrickbyrne9282 Thanks for the update. Does it still have the pirate ship? I recall 2 venues there. A theater I never went to and the bar/night club.

[@VIRGONOMICS]

Wow I grew up in the area and played shows at the clubs you mentioned with a couple of different bands . Played there as a local and then played there when with NY based band - I remember the giant beam on stage . Pats in The Flats was awesome too - Thanks for the trip down “ Amnesia Lane “.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

You're welcome. And thank you for the *Dead Poets Society* reference.

[@andrewburke6964]

@14:26 I love the outlet floating in the air.

[@laurensweeny4513]

I remember going to the Flats to watch the air show from a bars deck/patio right on the river. I came out to find no cars at all on the street. Everyone was towed away! A guy I had been chatting with offered a ride to the the police impound lot. First time I ever on a motorcycle!

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Clearly he liked you. As a motorcyclist, I can tell you, we don't put ugly chicks on the back seat!

[@ScotlandTheBrave]

I remember hitting up Hooters for a meal and then sliding on down to the Circus a little later. The Circus helped to heal the sting of the 43-0 beatdown of the opener for the re-born Browns.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

I actually dated a girl who worked at the Circus. Never went there though.

[@candysmith8724]

I visited Cleveland in the mid 1990's and remember how cool The Flats was. I didn't know they were gone now.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Yep, totally different today.

[@Davett53]

10/18/21 Wow! I spent a whole day on Google Earth reviewing The Flats. I was shocked to see it was all mostly gone. I grew up in Cleveland, on the east side, and recall when it was the industrial center. I moved away to Columbus, Ohio in 1977, to attend OSU, for graduate school. But I still visited my folks through the 80s, 90s, and early 2000's. I was never into the club scene, I was in the Arts,.....and the Flats was supposed to be a new place for artists to exhibit their art. I recall art galleries going into the warehouse buildings, that I see are all gone as well. This was in the early 1980s when the gallery scene was being built,...and I knew people I grew up with, also fellow artists who attended The Cleveland Institute of Art,.....who were planing to rent warehouse space and create studios for themselves. Also I knew some dudes who were Punk rockers,.....who rented warehouse spaces to practice in. All those buildings are also gone. What the hell happened??!!!

[@user-zv7lm8uk7h]

some of its still there. Cleveland is a s hole tho

[@Davett53]

@@user-zv7lm8uk7h Ha!,....that's funny, a lot of people say that, but I think it has improved greatly since the old days. I haven't been back since 2007,....though I only live a couple hours away, in Columbus. I was more upset "they" demolished all the cool old warehouse buildings in the Flats. And like Columbus, (presently) there is absolutely no cheap rent anywhere, for artists or bands, to rent a studio in. The 70's & 80s, was when a lot of artists could rent an empty warehouse, for peanuts. Art studios sprang up everywhere. Since the landlords didn't give two fucks, as long as they got their cheap rent money,..we were on our own and could set up the space we rented as we liked. Creating illegal living spaces,....( illegal in the sense they were not "zoned" as dwellings). We'd have a legitimate art studio in most of the space, but we'd have a hide-away, place to sleep and eat.

[@skorpyo331]

Pretty sad all thats gone.

[@donbeck8835]

Back when the flats looked like a Scooby-Doo ghost town

[@zerozilch]

Kindlers by the tracks ..we built the rta line out to airport with the horseshoe bridge in 96 👍

[@spudth]

My friend Jim Ralston built the dock at Hooters in the 80s. Said he was the biggest contractor in the County at the time and was harassed by the union guys. Wasn't much going on in 1987

[@andreadeamon6419]

That's when we started hanging out down there. Stopped when all the troublemakes started coming in and ruined it

[@bjh6665]

I miss the flats Riverfest. Many brain cells drunken away and many paychecks spent in the flats.

[@M22OHIO]

Some of that has come back don't get me wrong it's not what it used to be and never will be again, but the east bank has had some life in the past 3 years recently pumped back into it. However your right absolutely right the flats went down hill pretty fast around 2001-2002.

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Times definitely changed from 1988.

[@briankelly9347]

@@DreamdancerStudios so what decently safe okay area?

[@deadcorpert619]

I would say it’s better off now than it ever was tbh.

[@michaeltabor9596]

M22OHIO flats were great till late 1990s. & started to die about 2001-2OO2 Thank god I was just old enough 1998 I was old enough to go Even Bartended down there The time capsule that ended 2001-2003 is long gone Amazingly the west side especially Shooters had success way after the East died was dead

[@glenrust8109]

@@DreamdancerStudios Yeah. I use to go to the flats every other weekend in 80s. Sometimes both friday and saturday nights. Good times. Most bars you had to fight your way to the bar for drinks. Before I moved away from Cleveland, I decided to go check out flats around 1999 one last time on a Sunday. Wow, there was nobody-it was dead. Went into small bar next to Circus-forgot name. Maybe 8-10 people there. On the small stage there was Jewel singing a couple songs impromptu with friends at one of the tables. Those were the days!

[@mikeoxlong5843]

It used to be worth the 5 hour drive from Toronto to the Flats to go party, and pick up drunken American girls :)

[@James-tp4nc]

They are building it back up now. I only wish they would get rid of that giant waste of space airport (Burke) its ridiculous.

[@Mountainrock70]

The first time I went to the flats to party was in ‘85. Soon as we got there 2 dudes were beating the hell out of each other lol I miss those days..

[@MaxSabbath666]

i love when old photos and videos are overlayed with how the subject currently looks. ive seen the tail end of the 90s flats and the current version. this is really nicely done and i appreciate your hard work. where can i find your book?

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Thanks for the compliments. My books are available everywhere. Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Books-A-Million. Lulu. Smashwords. You name it. They are easy to find. Search for "Eric Muss-Barnes" at any major bookseller and you'll find my stuff. Everything is available as an ebook, paperback, or hardcover.

[@HillBillyBrown]

If you live in north east Ohio you have the same house as your neighbor

[@DreamdancerStudios]

Ha! Very true. I had 3 friends on the opposite side of the street with identical floorplans.

[@spudth]

wtf peabody's downunder is gone???

[@andreadeamon6419]

Everything that was fun is gone

[@MaxSabbath666]

"nothing remains". you got that right, buddy. in the end there will be nothing left. i guess its kinda freeing once you realize that

[@chrisolson3240]

The Basement, the Paladium for new years and Fagans for lunch! .....

[@slmunney7760]

Good video, but the East side flats needed to be tore down. It was well into decline by the mid-to-late '90s, and by the early 2000s, it was a public hazard and embarrassment to the city. I know people had some good times there for about a decade, but at the end of the day, it was an ill-conceived attempt to pump some adrenaline into the local economy that didn't work out in the long run.

[@williamerazo3921]

What replaced it?

[@slmunney7760]

@@williamerazo3921 Initially, it was the warehouse district centered on W 6th Street and then the hot spot became East 4th and arena district. I've been away from Cleveland for sometime, but E&Y sponsored a new office building about a decade ago where the parking lot used to be on North side of the East flats. The downtown area seemed to be doing well about 5 years ago. I haven't been back since COVID and the related riots.

[@williamerazo3921]

@@slmunney7760 lmao. I be there all the time since I’m a rideshare driver in the area and development that replace it looks very very good. Proper high money entertainment district. Still a lot of parking which they should just develop into a cinema/ retail restaurant. And no the riots didn’t effect Cleveland lol. Covid did the worst but businesses are coming coming back.

[@slmunney7760]

@@williamerazo3921 Good to hear. I did not mean to imply otherwise or that COVID destroyed downtown. I just haven't been to Cleveland since, so I did not know.

[@Peterpiperofthes]

Christie's!

[@BunneRabb]

The flats don't exist now. Just a few streets with some stuff on them.

[@williamerazo3921]

Front got new building and very expensive clubs

[@jakejacobs7584]

Depoo's

[@OtBe]

I kno you, sir.

[@bigfrank1010]

Violence punks lots of fight remember road House movie good people won't go to a place with violence 🚓

[@briankelly9347]

Speak English dumbass