Union and Parkwood

Sunday, December 22, 2024 (11:45:32 PM)

My name is Robbie Schneider, and from June 2001 until October 2003, I lived at 53 North Union Street, Apartment 4, Akron, Ohio 44304: Union and Parkwood. This was a four unit brownstone, two on top and two below, on the corner of Union Street and Parkwood Avenue in downtown Akron. My apartment was on the top floor overlooking Parkwood Avenue. It was Section 8 housing, but I didn't realize this until I'd moved in already. It was the first apartment that I rented alone, though, my girlfriend at the time moved in with me. The apartment helped to facilitate the destruction of that relationship. By September of that summer, she was a graduate student in Vancouver, BC, and I never saw her again. As much as I hated living in the building, I look back at the time fondly. Once, my cat, Arais, who hadn't yet been fixed, jumped-out the 2nd floor window for a night on the town. I found him the next day, quite battered and bruised, ready to come back inside. When the summer arrived, every weekend featured domestic violence pouring into the streets and neighborhood brawls with the vagrants wandering up from the train tracks towards the local shelter. I remember having to establish new sleeping arrangements with each new tenant below me because they were noisy in different ways. At the end, the dining room was my bedroom, and I would awake with the sun blazing in through the bay windows. Since then, I've reluctantly slept in a closed bedroom. In the summer of 2002, my Russian landlords informed me that the city of Akron was looking to raze the entire neighborhood to make room for the University of Akron and a local car dealership. The process took over a year, but in the autumn of 2003 I was paid $6500 to move into a new apartment in a pleasant neighborhood in Akron's Highland Square. Now, nothing remains of the old brownstone at Union and Parkwood, but there will always be a place for it in my heart and mind. RIP.

February 2002: 59 North Union Street. I lived in Apt. 4 in the top left.	February 2002: Taken from the roof of my office building. U&P can be seen slightly below and left of center.
February 2002: Looking north up Union Street from front steps.	February 2002: Looking south down Union Street from front steps.
March 2002: The lot behind my building.	March 2002: East up Parkwood Avenue.
March 2002: Shot south from the corner of Perkins and Union Streets.	March 2002: Sun behind.
March 2002: Sun above.	March 2002: My favorite shot in color.
April 2002: Drunk and disorderly pick-up at night.	April 2002: The police made regular stops to my neighborhood.
June 2002: The Goodyear blimp turns...	June 2002: ...and turns above the building.
October 2002: The first of many to be torn down as the city cleared us out.	December 2002: My building at night.
November 2002: Muddy.	November 2002: And rainy.
December 2002: Freezing ass on the way to work.	December 2002: Didn't see the grass for two solid months.
February 2002: The bay windows of the dining room.	February 2002: From across the street.
April 2004: Deconstructed #1.	April 2004: Deconstructed #2.
April 2004: Deconstructed #3.	April 2004: My favorite shot, sans the building.
April 2004: Deconstructed #5.	April 2004: Deconstructed #6.