TBideon

Good call on Little Saigon. Tank noodle is the place to go there. Plus it's a 10 minute walk to Andersonville, which is as fun a neighborhood (or is it a subneighborhood) as anywhere else in Chicago. Hopleaf for drinks!

Red Apple on Milwaukee/Belmont is an incredible Polish buffet in Logan Square, a very cool polish/Puerto rican neighborhood as well. Only a ten minute walk west from the Belmont blue line stop. Really inexpensive too.

The problem with Kumas is the line can be several hours long and there's really nothing to do in the neighborhood. However, if you go to Lockdown on Augusta/Western in Ukranian Village, you'll have the same unique food experience for a little less money and no wait. A cool place is also Logan Hardware on Fullerton/Western on the Logan Square/Bucktown border. It's a record store with a full fledged video arcade of maybe 25 games/pinball machines. All completely free. Try to spend some time in Hyde Park. The lakefront is gorgeous, U of C is beautiful, and there are some great indie book stores. One caveat: do NOT take the green line to or from there at night, after which you would have to take the 55 bus on Garfield. Drive, cab or bus (6 takes you downtown) is sufficient. Pilsen and Little Village are also neat areas in the city though a bit rough at night. Little Italy is pretty lame - avoid wasting your time there.

Good god they built that fast

Airlines utilize completely broken, money draining business models, but they have and do require subsidiations, because we would be far worse off without them. Same with the Post Office (just imagine transaction costs if it were fully privatized) Sometimes you just need to eat it. Even for broken business models

Since when do we have a free market. Face it, economic intervention is sometimes a necessity.

If there were nominations for best pictures on urbanohio.com, these would be among the frontrunners.

With Sudan and South Sudan practically at war, the Kurds beginning serious talks of secession, Iran hostilities growing worse, growth of China, utter failure of so many alternertive energy companies, etc, I would say oil prices could and should get far worse. Go for the hybrid.

I took the health line for the first time on Saturday morning. Picking it up at Public Square at 7:15am, i had to help a visiting (thorasic?) surgeon figure our those infuriating machines and have several street people ask for change. The street people - disappointing (especially as they were hanging alongside the casino's exterior) but harmless and no biggy. Those machines - makes you want to scream bloody murder. Amtrust debacle part two! Not a good impression and if there wasn't some graft involved somewhere, then rta truly has an incompetence problem. The bus itself is pretty nice though i did nickname it the mental health line based on the four or five clearly mentally ill patrons. Really no worse than what ive seen in other cities, except the ratio of ill-to-normal people was low. But again, the bus was fine and i made it to seidman in 15 minutes tops. Overall I liked it a lot. I can see east clevelanders and students taking it back and forth from the casino, though it would need some kind of armed security if that much cash is floating around.

Well, what can you say... First place!

Can't argue that. Economic realities have crippled the middle and low income classes.

Would Gilbert be allowed to keep both phase 1 and phase 2 casinos open concurrently, or can he only have one?

1. Gilbert is not responsible for Cleveland's rebirth. He's in this to make money, not ensure we get more retail along Euclid or that restaurants prosper on W6/9. 2. Many many of the casino visitors wouldn't come down to downtown Cleveland ordinarily, so they wouldn't be down there to spend money in other establishments in the first place. You can't lose what you never had. 3. A skywalk is appropriate for elderly or disabled in a snow-heavy, cold city 4. The casino is a uniquely located feature of downtown. It's no different than McNulty putting in another bar on W25. It doesn't cannibalize business but rather enhances it, making the entire area a draw. Christ, my sisters and parents and their friends are all talking about going down to check it out. What else has garnishes so much hype? The rock? tower city? 5. Gilbert deserves our faith. I dont see the Ratners or Jacobs doing jack for downtown lately. At least he's putting his money where his mouth is. Give him the benefit of the doubt. Isn't it nice having a successful businessman actually take an interest in the city?? 6. People are talking about this downtown casino in Chicago nonstop, and how exciting it is for Cleve. This could be a regional flats level draw, especially if phase 2 comes to fruition So stop worrying of xo loses business because of the casino. It is totally illogical.

Hmph, the files are too large. I gotta figure out how to condense them.

My dad hosted a 3-day conference/touristy stuff with the Ocular Heritage Society. About 40 doctors and their spouses from around the world attended and stayed at the Glidden House, and every one of them is now a fan of our city. Saturday morning we all met in the Ruhlman boardroom in the Lerner Center. And boy oh boy does University Circle look like something else from up there. [/img]

I think he meant RUG advertising - perhaps a guerrilla Crate & Barrell campaign?

I don't get the pessimism. Hell, I don't think I know anyone who goes to Thistledown (is this even Thistledown), or barely recognizes it beyond the commercials. I guess there's some kind of market, but the downtown casino is 10x cooler, sexier (just by what i've seen walking outside), and all hyped up on a regional and national level. it's like worrying that geauga lake (now there's a heartbreaker - god i miss that place. Between that, video arcades, blockbusters and dairy queen all virtually extinct, where do teens go for fun in Cleve anyhow) would caniballize cedar point's biz.

Just finished Cell and the 11?/63 (time traveler tries to stop oswald). Cell was terrible, just terrible; the kennedy book pretty good.

Or you could just, you know, ignore this thread. I'm finding it interesting and relevant to a number of other UO threads.

Home ownership equals neighborhood stability. Think of a business owner who owns the vast majority of his business compared to an owner who has relatively few shares and a crazy salary. The second guy has no real personal stake in the company, and may make decisions at the company's expense to his benefit. Whereas the first guy has to be loyal, has to make decisions that are best for the company, else he's f-d. Nothing good comes from foreclosed neighborhoods and uncaring renters. Homeownership helps remedy that.

Jesus Christ

Dead serious folks, but does anyone really feel like arguing this one. Five pages of back and forth followed by the posts deleted and the board frozen. Nah. My point is I like the mayor a lot, and he seems up to the task to bettering the city.

The mayor seems like a good man, unlike those twit council members, and I'd love him to start thinking outside the box. Imagine rich developers buying entire streets and blocks for dirt cheap, then developing enclosed neighborhoods and gated communities like what they have in south africa. Think of how many students, young professionals and retirees would love that access to UC and downtown while having a safe home to return to. A little urban, a little artificial - that could appeal to a lot of people.

Jerry, when you guys ordered the machines in the first place, were you, meaning RTA, surprised by their being .... of such quality? Did the vendor change the order on some level, or was RTA aware of their quality/difficulty to use prior to ordering? In other words, did RTA get what it paid for or are there other issues here we're not privy to.

^^Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Same old crap, different day.