MayDay

"After Bay Village became built-out" I know what you mean, but I got a big chuckle from the notion that Bay is "built-out" i.e. a dense built environment. "And it makes me wonder "WHY"?" Honestly, people are incredibly myopic. I know people in Amherst who moved to a small subdivision off Oak Point Road who lament the fact that new subdivisions have basically surrounded them and ruined the "view of the woods", added to the traffic, etc. Their solution? "We're thinking about moving further out" - and when the same situation happens to them again in ten years... well, rinse, lather, repeat. :|

No info on the perp or victim other than what's on cleveland.com - but it happened around 3am. I don't think the area itself is necessarily dangerous - there could be a number of reasons this happened (drug deal gone bad, jealous spouse/girlfriend, road rage, family dispute, etc.). http://www.cleveland.com/crime/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/iscri/1149420785289000.xml&coll=2

^That would be the Williamson Building which was torn down. The Western Reserve Building is very much in use over on West 9th and Superior (no biggie, they both start with "W"):

AWESOME!!!!!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:

"For Jack Smith, that image is found in Avon's downtown, otherwise known as the French Creek District, rife with antique shops," Give me a break - sure, there are a few older historic homes but French Creek is HARDLY rife with anything worth mentioning, and if that area is a downtown, I'd make a great lumberjack! :roll:

"what's up with Lorain / Fulton area?" Look at any area that's gentrified in the past 10-15 years. The problems (poverty and crime which seem to go hand in hand) those areas faced have now moved to adjacent neighborhoods. Lorain/Fulton is adjacent to what? Ohio City proper (Market Square, West 25th). The potential continuation of the outward migration has raised a lot of concerns in outer-neighborhoods and inner-ring 'burbs.

Key Tower is 888 feet to the top of the "pyramid", and the spire is 60 feet which brings the official height to 948 feet. The pyramid contains 6 maintenance/storage floors (the Starbucks in the lobby uses the 59th for storage), the tower has a total of 57 occupiable floors (finished or not, 57 is occupiable) for a grand total of 63 floors. Wanna split hairs? 57+6. Terminal Tower is 708 feet. The flagpole is 70 feet, but not included in the official height - if it were, Terminal would be 778 feet. It has 52 floors, period.

@JDD - don't feel bad, in your line of work you earn every bit of rest that you get. Hopefully next time :-) @musky - no problem, musky jr. was quite a trooper and I'm glad we got to meet you both! @Mister Good Day - I counted about a total of 20 people during the peak, and we averaged around a dozen by the time we were done. @jar3232 - I think we probably will have a few small meets - they may end up just being a happy hour somewhere but y'know, I don't see anything wrong with that! :-D

A big thank you to everyone who made it for the tour - it was great to meet so many of you in person! What a great bunch of fun people - hopefully we can have more meets and whatnot in the future. Thanks again! :-)

Okay folks - I'm heading out for the evening and won't have access to the forum. Contact ColDayMan for my contact info if you need it - see everyone tomorrow!

Sounds like the weather will be hit or miss - ah well, we can always duck into a pub if it starts to rain :drunk:

Yes? :wave:

Call me kooky, but I'd prefer not to get close enough to use a stun gun (or have THEM get close enough) :-)

Well I'm never one to turn down a drink but it was hardly a near-assassination (... or should I milk it for all it's worth?) :lol: I kinda figured the thread would go off on a tangent but hey, it happens!

That would be great if you could stop by and I'll be happy to buy your (and your spouse's) first beer. I imagine most of us will go to Great Lakes (not that it's going to be enforced or anything). My S.O. may show up at some point and he's not a forumer. He met us for lunch at the last meet and enjoyed himself. It's really not any different from any other interest group where the spouses/S.Os tag along - they might not relate to *everything* but they have a good time seeing us among other geeks. I have to admit - when I explained to my S.O. about the forum, it was like coming out - again (if that makes sense). He was just glad that architecture/cities was my hobby rather than being a Trekkie! Honestly, everyone is usually really easy to get along with. I've been to meets in other cities and the extremely rare anti-social type that might show up, disappears within the first hour. At those same meets, other forumers have brought spouses/S.O.s and everyone had a great time. Sure, there were some forum references that they didn't get, but outside of this forum - we all have real lives (gasp!) and it's usually easy to find something to relate to (beer, food, jobs, sports, you name it). No secret handshakes, other than clinking a pilsener (filled with your beverage of choice) and saying "cheers!" :-)

Just a heads-up - the Indians will be playing a home game on Saturday, so those of you who are driving will want to park AWAY from Jacobs Field. I'd recommend parking north of Superior - that's usually far enough that parking lots don't charge the exorbitant "special event" rates.

You can diss me, but do NOT diss my coffee :whip:

Oh, we understand coffee just fine. There are quite a few locally owned spots that do a great job - the problem is that they're in the neighborhoods. That's great for the neighborhoods but when I spend eight-ish hours of every weekday in the CBD...?

Now that's just cool!

"q: why oh why the overpriced charbucks over local caffeine?" Why? As someone who goes way the f#ck out of my way to support local businesses, I'll tell you why I pay a whopping $2 twice a day for my coffee fix - better yet, I'll ask you (rhetorically): Why does Stone Oven at the Galleria make me ask for skim, and why is it handed to me in a gallon jug which is awkward to pour and easy to spill? Why does Stone Oven at the Galleria not offer Splenda? Why, oh why do the servers at Stone Oven at the Galleria not understand the concept of "room for cream". Why, oh why do servers at almost ANY locally owned place get snippy if I ask for a medium in a large cup? Why does Stone Oven not train its coffee-slingers to try SMILE? :-D Oh, that's right - smiling isn't cool for the under-25 crowd. Why did I go to Arabica in the Standard Building three times, and each time the person behind the counter just looked at me rather than saying "can I help you" or "what can I get you?" Why did I go to that same Arabica and didn't see anyone at the counter, but then when I peeked, the barista was sitting on the floor STUDYING! Why aren't City Roast, Phoenix, Talkies, or anyone else worth mentioning located remotely close to Public Square? Why did it take the people at Starbucks only three times to remember "my" drink - that's both hot and cold weather, thank you! Why does Starbucks have Splenda and skim readily available? Why does Starbucks employ disabled people whose specific job is to keep the condiment counters clean, and they keep them spotless? Why does Starbucks employ people who are congenial - what does it tell you when I know the names of all the baristas who have been there longer than three months? Why does Starbucks offer occasional tastings promotions of new drinks along with new pastries? There's one exception - Cork and Beans in the Huntington Building. They're great people, they have great product, they get the "skim and Splenda" thing. However, they are a little out of my way but I suppose I can try to give them my business every now and then. So my friend - I will continue to support Daves (groceries), Great Lakes Brewing (nectar of the Gods), Camera City (photo printing), Frame Center Gallery (framing), Celene's Cuisine (dessert trays/bakery), and dozens of other locally owned spots. Until the other java people in the CBD get their act together, I'll keep getting my required fix at Starbucks. /rant :-)

peabody, rest assured any ladies who attend the event would be safe. Believe me - there are so few women on this site, so the ones that ARE here and actually attend meets are going to have a bunch of camera-toting geeks protecting them! And if any of those geeks get out of line, they'll have one bitchy Queen on their ass! :wink:

"I'm not a photographer by any means" For not being a photographer, I'd say you did a great job! :clap:

That's the thing - the guy was just far away enough that confronting him would have involved me screaming like a madman. I have no qualms doing that, unless I'm at work and my co-workers already think I'm looney enough :wink:

So I'm out at lunch today, coming back with my Indian food (chicken makhni and chicken tikka) and my coffee (venti iced americano) and I'm near the entrance to the hotel that's attached to my office building. I noticed a younger-ish guy walking towards me - I didn't think anything of it until I noticed he had turned around almost immediately after making eye contact as we passed. I figured he must be a hotel guest and must have forgotten something. So I walk into the hotel lobby (to cut through like I usually do) and he's now trailing me so of course I think he's a hotel guest and he'll obviously stop once he gets to the hotel elevators. Now here's where things get weird - really f#cking weird. To get to my building from the hotel, you have to go through a small lobby, a really ooong corridor and an atrium. I glance back - he's still trailing me - now, mind you I have a tendency to walk fast so the fact he's kept pace this whole time is freaking me out. We're talking over the distance of a full city block, folks. I get to my buildings elevator bank and thankfully an elevator is waiting. I turn around ... and there across the lobby is him staring at me. Fortunately one of my co-workers was also getting on - even he remarked that I was being either cruised or stalked. What really bothers me is that I've never seen this guy before in my life. There are a few people who are shall we say - less than fond of me, but I KNOW very well what they look like. I'm just glad I have my pepper spray - I'm just hoping it's a case of mistaken identity (which has happened to me before). Yeesh... talk about creepy!!! Has anyone else ever had this happen? Btw, if I'm not at the forum meet on Saturday, call the vice squad! :-(

"No offense but I usually avoid girls who hang out with a lot of gay guys. They always seem to pay more attention to them than you. But since women don't rationalize anything else they do I certainly don't expect to ever hear from them a reasonable explanation for why they do this." Of course not - that's one of the reasons God blessed humanity with gay men - so we can translate for you 'hets. ;-) We tend to give more of a sh!t about how we present ourselves - thus we're easier on the eyes. The heteros who learn our way become metrosexuals - we don't like them any more than you do - they confuse us and throw off our gaydar. We enjoy shopping - thus we have a common interest. End of story. We enjoy checking out guys - thus we have another common interest. The gals can feel comfy objectifying people just like you guys ;-) We tell them how they REALLY look in that outfit - thus we're immune to their threats of withholding, and we help them look better for you guys. If you ever meet a gal who talks about her gay friends and she STILL has VPL (visbile panty line), she's either lying or hanging out with lesser 'mos. If she says she doesn't like getting flowers (the only exception being allergies), kick her to the curb. We like to go dancing to GOOD dance music - and they can join us and not worry about some slobbering idiot spilling their Bud Light on them. They know we would never suggest going out to a club to end up sitting around and talking. We would never let our galpals settle for some garden-variety slob who can't keep them in a lifestyle they should be accustomed to. Those are just for starters. Trust me - I'm doing MY part to make sure quality gals are doing THEIR part to get hitched with quality guys (or if they already have one, to be bloody grateful) - if you guys can meet us halfway, it'll be all good! :-)