327

A friend of mine who lives along I-90 wants to put up a few smaller turbines by the freeway to power just his neighborhood. If 10 big ones in the lake will power 6000 houses, then what would it take to power about 40? Apparently they do make a range of sizes and he has quotes for what he wants, just needs the appropriate permission to get going. Not even sure where to begin asking.

You guys are right. That's the rendering I was looking at, and I like it a lot. I don't think it would take anything away from Detroit Ave to put, for example, an upscale grocery on the ground floor of one of those loft buldings. Something like that needs more contiguous square footage, and would complement the offerings of Gordon Square. Spillover from that might fill the storefronts faster. Also, love Gypsy Bean. Just saying that Battery Park, when full, represents a lot of people and they won't all fit into Gypsy Bean. The current D-S area, plus a completed BP, easily supports several coffee places. I live right by a Phoenix that's across the street from a Caribou, and they're both very busy all the time.

How would shaker square look if everything around it was 2 stories max, as far as the eye could see? There is an aesthetic value to height itself in an urban setting. Not scattered random towers-- I mean dense masses of moderate height. Like the roads leading into shaker square. The pictures on the website there show several large 4-story buildings, and I think I'll be a lot more into the whole project when those start going up. Still seems odd that not one of those would be mixed use.

Agreed about the brick. I keep hoping that this and other new developments will incorporate more mixed use and neighborhood retail. They're filling up all this land with residential and there's no corner store(s)? No coffee? No x_________? I also expected more height given the location. To me it's curious zoning for lakefront property a couple miles from downtown. Why isn't urban development more urban?

I lived in that area last year. It's not ready yet. There are cool people living in some of those buildings for sure. But it's short on amenities and crime was an issue. A little north of there, Asiatown, has a lot more going on.

That's them.

Sterle's is awesome. For Chinese, I really like Wu's Cuisine on Rockwell (& 21st?). Its in that old-school Chinatown block behind the Phoenix coffee that's on superior. The sign out front says "Shanghai." Man would I like to see that block fixed up, and complimented with something similar across Rockwell.

The broccoli, are seedum plants. They "flower" in the fall when the bushy part of the plants turn to a bright pinkish red. Thank you, those are the ones I meant. Regarding the concrete beds, people often mention how little sidewalk remains in many areas. If there wasn't ever going to be grass in these beds, I don't understand why they aren't flush with the sidewalk. They're going to be walked in whenever 2 groups of 2 have to pass each other, so there's no need for anti-ankle "lips" around the perimeter.

I thought the innerbelt plans had been thrown into flux by the condition of the current bridge. They were originally going to refurbish it at the end of the project, but then decided to do it first out of safety concerns. If that's the case, I hate to have the demo work done years before its needed. I like seeing both of those buildings as I go around the innnerbelt. Is the new freeway path set in stone yet? Why not leave these irreplaceable buildings up at least until the plans are certain. Just like the building at 105/Carnegie that my buddy calls "Gotham City Hall." The clinic has no business destroying it until they're ready to build on that site. Its as if they're afraid preservationists might win if they don't get it leveled ASAP...

When I first saw these, I assumed they were just waiting for the next shipment of sod. Why remove functional concrete (sidewalk) to create an off-limits area that looks like concrete? It might not be as glaring if these treelawn areas didn't contain grass seemingly everywhere else on the corridor. Its not as if gravel beds can't look nice, but this stuff seems too close to the hue of the sidewalk and too fine-grained ala kitty litter. Given the condition of some properties in midtown, I'm surprised that these landlords in the hi-profile CSU/JCF/PS area were the only ones so opposed to mowing that they got gravel treelawns. Also, some of the metal work on the corridor is weathering very poorly, to the extent that I'm curious about warranty terms. There are pictures upthread and some of it has gotten worse in a short time. Who recommended this metal for outdoor use? And one of the trashcans (E30-36?) was rolled thru the machine backwards, so that all the text came out backwards. One other concern-- how much of the dead median landscaping is expected to come back to life next year? I'm not a garden person, can't remember if that would be annual or perennial. But we have a grand opening coming up next month and some of the planters look very sickly. In the newer ones downtown, only the broccoli seems to be flourishing. I want this rollout to succeed and I want people to be impressed with the project's results, and I'm beginning to panic a little at t-minus a month or so.

According to the site's "residential" map, the upcoming phase includes one of the loft buildings. Are any of the lofts intended for rental?

It doesn't seem like regular buses could use the downtown EC bus lanes, at least not westbound. They would need doors on the left from 18th to the end. Right?

Can they please put some wheels on the caddy? That might help reduce some of the trailer-park vibe it gives off. As it is now, we have a car up on blocks in our front yard. I'm ambivalent on cadillac ranch-- it's not ideal for public square, it's borderline inappropriate, but it is really nice to see that space utilized. That much has been said here before. As far as tying in to gateway, isn't E4 part of gateway already? In location if not in theme? I think putting venues in the May Co. bldg is more helpful in linking E4 with W6. Anything that reduces the no-mans-land between them is a plus. I hate to say that about public square but that is how it functions at midnight on saturday. You can get a hangover walking from one stretch of nightlife to the other. Stark's project on Frankfort would help, and so would Jacobs tower, assuming there would be something open at night in the bottom of it. Most of what's on the square--skyscrapers, malls/atriums, courthouse-- is irrelevant to E4/W6. I actually wish we'd gotten a bar or restaurant in the Park bldg instead of Dollar Bank, because the bank is just one more thing that goes dark at 5. After sunset our downtown has too many nodes and not enough continuity. If only you could teleport from one mechanical bull to the other.