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I bet FCE would get a lot more public support if they offered pix of MayDay's Scranton Peninsula joke-plan instead of the generic CC image posted on their signs throughout Tower City... which were still up yesterday.

If that bank branch is in the middle of the block surrounded by parking, I will be very angry. I worry because some of the most offensive structures in that area are bank branches. Please, please don't blow this. I kind of think anything built on that corner should be no less than 4 stories, but that's just me.

Well, a championship would definitely help. I feel like the media too often compares us with Detroit, which is inaccurate and unfair. But we have so many "pathetic points" that it still seems rational to them to equate the two. Winning a sports title, like Detroit seems to be able to do, may actually help us separate from them in the national perception. It might allow us to be judged for what we are instead of what we're not.

I've been slipping, but this is one reason I prefer cash at the bar. The other reason is I can leave at the exact moment I want to.

So you mean: live by it, die by it?

Oh for heaven's sake... another pet peeve is people refusing to acknowledge a problem and thus prolonging it. We have ruins all over this place. Objectively.

And mostly they do it without shooting each other over territory. Few of them are doing it as a profession, while many in the inner city lack other gainful options.

In a world where people are being stabbed on street corners, I find speed enforcement to be a tragic misuse of police capacity. If all the land near 480 was in ruins because of speeders, I could get behind expending resources to stop it. But we have an inner city that is in ruins, and violent crime has a lot to do with it, so we need to concentrate state and local resources on combating that.

On the other hand (and I'm no economist either) I remember something about Enron getting into trouble with this kind of thing. They trumped up values for worthless assets, by falsely attributing present vaules of estimated future revenues they imagined those assets might produce. This is not to say that it couldn't be a valid way to price these mortgage bundles, but it sounds like they're doing it once again because it raises the value of a questionable asset from "squat" to "something other than squat."

Sure. But there are times and places for moseying, and there are other times and places when people should move along to the extent they are able. We live in a society.

That reminds me of a giant pet peeve: people who go under the speed limit, for no earthly reason. Makes me insane. If you're out driving, and you're going slow, and someone behind you is beeping the speed limit to you in morse code, that's me. "beep beep beep... beep beep beep beep beep" means you're supposed to be going 35, not 20, you moron.

So what did you do about that beam? Floor jack?

Look, you need to talk about sprawl and you need to do it ironically. Right now. You're talking about social dynamics possibly underlying sprawl's creation, which is completely different. The father's role is to provide. Whether they can or not they're expected to. Put jobs in the inner cities, jobs sufficient in themselves to support a family, just like people had during idyllic eras when nobody complained about families or dads, and see what happens. I bet it works itself out.

It'd be like hitting yourself in the face with a hammer, non-stop since the mid 60s, and then one day you can finally quit.

Less people parked, less people turning left from a straight lane. Time of day has a lot to do with it.

We need this FBI cleanup maneuver, and then we need good people to step into the void. All is for naught if we get another set of the same goons, seeking to establish the same setup.

Dig! Let's dig, as soon as the RRHoF thing is over. Get this show on the road.

Great tie. Although I'd prefer one with an entire train going vertically.

The other 3 are along the red line tracks in Cudell. Not sterling examples of the form by any means.

All the same-- if you make a daily ritual of the reading the Onion, you'll be glad you did.

KJP, you're often thrown by Onion references. Everything it produces is facetious. That "cartoonist" is a parody of conservative views, like a Stephen Colbert.

I've often wondered about the logistics of having a victory parade on Euclid. Wouldn't the BRT apparatus get in the way? I guess it would have to be on Superior, like St. Patty's Day.

That's a good point, and I don't have a good answer for it. I will offer this: another NYC comparison. At what point do they need to give up on their financial sector? It's practically destroyed commerce as we know it. How's that for failure. And in hindsight, it's been failing for a long time too. Gramm Leach Bliley was passed to ensure that NYC's financial sector couldn't be destroyed by foreign competition. How much of a failure would Detroit be if similarly protected? Will we get to find out? And is the south also expected to give up its auto plants? What about California? Chicago does (or at least did) produce all the Tauruses, so is that something Obama would feel good about losing? Plenty of opportunity for community activism on the south side after that happens...

I don't think it's crazy. People keep track of championships for a reason. Would gateway have worked out nearly as well if the Indians never got good during the 90s? I doubt it.

True. As noted before, though, Ohio and the rest of rust belt, have been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn after already having been hurt by the demise of the steel industry. The Obama administration has shown a strong interest in the Midwest and in Ohio, in particular. The North East is already targeted for the bulk of the money. I'd be surprised if the Ohio Hub or Midwest High Speed Rail initiatives weren't given at least a bone to chew on. The Democratic majority in both houses may not be so secure if there isn't significant economic recovery before the mid-terms. I would disagree that Obama has shown a strong interest here. We need him to, and sending us AT LEAST our cut of the rail money is paramount. The midwest should be targeted for the bulk of the rail money, because we've seen so much less national investment than the coasts and because we stand to gain the most from rail expansion. The east and west coasts already have functinonal passenger rail.