Many of these families moved to neighborhoods around West 7th Street and Payne Avenue, but Italian communities continued to occupy the Upper Levee and Swede Hollow until the houses were razed by the city in the 1950s.

[7] The residents of the flats were responsible for establishing churches in Northeast Minneapolis, Cedar-Riverside, and Prospect Park, and traveled to the city center and beyond for their jobs.

Members of the community likely attended Americanization classes at nearby centers, such as the Pillsbury House[8] in Cedar-Riverside or the Seven Corners Library.

For those at the Bohemian Flats, spring floods often meant packing up your belongings and temporarily living with friends or family; there were even reports of the residents camping out in the abandoned Noerenberg Brewery until the water subsided.

The river would also carry belongings away, including sheds and wood piles, and chickens would be found drowned after the water receded.

One of the most devastating floods in the Twin Cities area took place in April 1952,[10] leading to the evacuation of the entire Upper Levee community and portions of the West Side Flats.

In 1890, the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company ordered that the City of Minneapolis stop dumping their garbage directly into the Mississippi River, giving them only a few days to find a new place to dispose of waste.

Barred access to the river, Dr. Kilvington, head of the Minneapolis Board of Health, and his sanitation committee found a loophole by depositing trash on the banks of the Mississippi instead.

It was determined that the flats beneath the Washington Avenue bridge would provide a satisfactory location for the dump, "away from the settled city."

This article noted that city residents had been dumping their "cess-pools" (toilet waste) beneath the bridge in addition to trash.

In 1931 the city evicted the residents of Bohemian Flats just north of the municipal levee and built a coal barge facility.

A concrete grain loading facility was constructed near the southern end of the levee by Archer, Daniels, Midland Company.

[15] Much of the bridge debris was temporarily stored at the Bohemian Flats as part of the ongoing investigation of the collapse; it was removed to a storage facility in Afton, Minnesota, in the fall of 2010.

[19] Recreational amenities at Bohemian Flats include biking path, garden, picnic areas, river cruises/private charters, and restroom facilities.