A Tale of Three Arcades Part 1: The Arcade
In which I realize that my fondest dream would be to open up a business in that little shop under the stairs. Years (and years) ago, I visited the 5th Street Arcade during lunch with some people I worked with. It was loud, packed, overwhelming and yet underwhelming at the same time. A lot has changed since then. A few weeks ago, I revisited the arcades on Euclid Ave. And loved it. Let's start this recap at the turn of the 20th Century. Cleveland had a problem: nobody wants to shop when it's negative thirty-million degrees outside. A couple of area architects, proposed a daring idea: What if there were lots of stores...inside?? The design of the arcade was inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II that had been built a few decades earlier in Italy. "It doesn't need to be anything too fancy. This looks alright." Thankfully, they adapted the design to the bone-chilling death wind that blows in off the Lake, so the Cleveland version is warmly ens