It’s Always Slummy in Cuyahoga

September 15th, 2011 by Mau Lanese

I went for a semi-circumnavigating photo safari of the county yesterday. The dog and I dropped off the wife at work by Brookpark and 140th and headed east to my mom’s house in Lake County. Taking Brook Park down to the valley and up to the Garfield Reservation provided some very bucolic vistas of post war homes and surrounding greenery. Then came poor Maple Heights. The economically depressed Southgate Mall/ Thistledown area was a shame to behold. I remember when I was young and this area was bustling. My dad used to play pickup indoor soccer at the Force training facility in this area. I loved it there. They had a bar/eatery upstairs for post game noshing. And you could see the field from up there. That and the old ice cream parlor at east 200th and Lakeshore started my love for night time metropolitan eats and drinks.

From there we took Emery out to the Brainard/Chagrin area. Still pretty wooded and laid back out there. Brainard took us north to Lake County for a crisp fall day of dog romping and hanging with newly retired mom. What a life she leads!

At 2pm we set back out for Brook Park. We took the industrial Lakeland/freeway route(my former train graffiti stomping grounds) to the Euclid reservation to the Green/Mayfield area. This is home of Warehouse Beverage. A great beer purveyor rivaled only by Simone’s in Lakewood. I used to stop in all the time when I lived out there. From there we meandered through Shaker along Fairmount and all the giant mansions I hadn’t seen since I drove for Hillcrest Ambulance back in 2005. Down Cedar Hill into University Circle and down a very congested Carnegie into downtown. Hung a left at 55th and inched down to Woodland during what seemed like the longest traffic jam ever(I’ve driven in Chicago and LA and not been so frustrated). The day ended with a quick shot down 77 to 480 and back to our starting point. A feast for the eyes and a real jogging of the old memory banks.

Category: Miscellaneous
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