TBideon

I've been marathoning Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("DS9"). It's better than I remember, but the Bajoran and prophet nonsense, at least in the first 4 seasons, makes me roll my eyes. Thos episodes are booooooooring. Thank god for the Dominion War; it totally saved the show. As much as I love the Next Generation ("TNG"), DS9 has far more complex, nuanced characters, in particular the Ferengi and Cardassians. Also, Worf is completely different from TNG. A huge upgrade, real character involvement.

Those tenants will be very lucky to live so close to CIty Tap. My goodness they have some decent specials. $3 crafts 8-9pm, at least back in the day.

Is there something about billionaries wasting $40 billion and still remaning billionaires? It must be a magic number. Musk gets a lot of well-deserved scorn for his $44 billion dollar Twitter purchase, but I'd say Zukenberg's $40 billion "investment" is far more damaging since (a) Twitter was cancer before Musk, so I encourage its death (2) Tesla, SpaceX and Boring are all successful, (3) Facebook/subsidiaries are all that Zukenberg has. Meanwhile, all the Facebook/Meta money, time, effort, talent, R&D, promotions, articles, demos is gone -- and now they're supposedly focusing on AI. As though that's going to be the game-changer that Zukenberg, and ONLY Zukenberg, thought the Metaverse would be. It's all bollocks. Metaverse is dogsh-it and will be for multiple generations, if they continue to support it, that is. And AI is all hype but with limited application. At least Zukenberg abandoned minting/selling/sharing NFTs, so the guy is 1 for 3. That'll get you an AL batting crown these days. It isn't that hard. The big thing, the game-changer innovation that we all want, is NOT AI, is NOT Matrixverse, is NOT crypto/NFT nonsense. It has been and is augmented reality. That's what Facebook/Meta, and other tech companies, should have been focusing their attentions on for years. Google Glass' failure scared some, but if you really think about the value of augmented reality, my god, that's the new iPhone 2007. If Facebook/Meta were to focus on that, now we're cooking. But not AI. Sorry Zukenberg. In less than a year, AI is going the way of NFTs, 3d movies and tvs, Yolo, MP3 players, AOL IM, Blueray Players, Microsoft Kinect, Google Plus, Vine, Grady Sizemore, Pat Listach, New Pepsi, beanie babies, Doc Martens, Pac Man, etc.

I had no idea until I looked at my thermostat.

Maybe. There are just so many stagnated projects all over Chicago - to be fair I'm sure everywhere - and Michigan Avenue and 2 of its 3 malls are struggling a great deal. That said, the Tribune building is now residential and slightly expanded, which must have been an enormous undertaking. I'm a bit bearish with this one.

One thing I read was new commercial high-rise construction will have to be designed in a way that residential conversion would be doable and relatively painless. Makes sense.

Why even have FDIC insurance ceilings of $250k if the argument is taxpayers need to compensate retail depositors at greater amounts? If this bank and inevitably others need help from this contagion, then nationalization or some kind of equity-based relief should be the remedy. If any business is too big to fail, then the private sector is no longer the appropriate market.

First Republic is going to have a rough week. It's unclear how far the contagion is spread. Regardless, say it with me, NO BAILOUTS!

Accuweather has it up. Don't know if its estimates based on previous years or they have some legit forecasts

Good grief, how many acres is that? It's hard to get a sense of scale.

A game was delayed due to sunshine? That's a new one to me. April 7th is a high of 51 at the moment. And we're playing, my god, Mariners STILL? It'll be like Santana is on the Indians again.

Businesses have to get serious and not assume things will normalize alone. If staffing shortages are the problem, compensation must be restructured to incent quality talent. For example why can't businesses offer equity, profit-sharing, commisions, or other incentives at fast food, sit-down restaurants, retail, etc. Remember how great Circuit City used to be; their associates were trained and received healthy commissions; once it got selfish, there go the commissions, there goes the talent, there goes Circuit City. As for encouraging demand with the hope of expanding hours, businesses should at least try new strategies. Better and longer happy hours (example, lower prices but mandate 2 or 3 drinks), hire models to make a destination more desirable, employ visible, proactive security, build adjacent smoking lounges, offer free wifi, offer Rewards plans, have ticketed special events, throw out aggressive customers for bad behavior and conduct, etc. These are just bandaids, of course.

Low of 38 degrees with some rain. Always fun to see domed games.

Babylon came to Zanesville, and the contractor gave up miles before the finish line.

Hah, I feel safer already

That is one sexy rooftop too. Wow

It's tricky and requires competent city leadership and business leaders with civic pride and awareness, both of which are in short order. But at the end of the day, a city government needs a city to function, which requires a sizeable workforce population. Otherwise, the city is just a slowly sinking ship. And some of these companies might as well go to the suburbs if they're no longer meaningfuly contributing to the city in the first place. That threat, often empty, shouldn't disincent city leaders from exploring ways to encourage people on the streets and in buildings.

Two-fold. First, it's really expensive. Ignoring all zoning and administrative noise, commercial-to-residential conversions generally cost $100-$500/square foot. That's quite the crazy range, right? So Key Tower, at 1.5 million square feet, would cost $150 million-$750 million. Someone's got to foot the bill. Second, commercial tenants pay a lot more money indefinitely, so commercial owners would rather let a buidling and space sit empty during the bad days, then make it back when things pick up when/if white and blue collars return. A restaurant in downtown Chicago pays $50,000/month or so in rent for 8000 square feet or so. That's a pretty appealing number, even if the building is empty for months when a restaurant doesn't make it. Some generalities above, but you get my drift.

One thing is for sure: emptying cities are not ideal for people who are pro-city, and remote work/hybrid is a major contributor to decline. Cities have to respond with higher property taxes or other tax schemes to make budget; meanwhile, workers, residents and tourists encounter higher crime and derelicts, as there are fewer normal people taking trains and walking the streets. Restaurants, retail and ancilary businesses close or have reduced hours, residential conversions are financially unattainable in many cases, and so on. Who wants to work in a half empty building or walk around a depleted city full of For Lease signs and little else? You need people on the streets and in buildings; otherwise, it feels abandoned. I can't blame mayors compelling Suite C types to bring in people. COVID really f-d up the ecosystem.

As long as the current stadium isn't falling on anyone's heads, they should keep playing there. And if Jimmy and Dee want a new stadium, then they need to work with the NFL so that the public gets equity or some kind of advanced profit sharing. None of this $6 mill a year in rent and whatever the tailgating idiots supposedly spend downtown. Let them move if Jimmy and Dee make the threat. Frankly, the Browns never really came back. And now with the serial sexual predator and his enablers on the field for 5 years, I certainly have no love for them anymore.

So... the bombshell is good news then.

162 games in the regular season. Some games begin in snow, some World Series end in ice. Double headers are back to being 9 innings. And THIS is how they'll expedite games? Mind-boggling. You need a phD to understand all these pendatic rules. I mean, what the f-k is this??? https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-2023-rule-changes-pitch-timer-larger-bases-shifts "PITCH TIMER In an effort to create a quicker pace of play, there will be a 30-second timer between batters. Between pitches, there will be a 15-second timer with the bases empty and a 20-second timer with runners on base. At last check, the pitch timer had reduced the average time of game in MiLB by about 26 minutes. This rule, which includes limits on throws to first base, has also increased stolen-base attempts. With this rule in place in the Minors this season, steal attempts per game have increased from 2.23 in 2019, at a 68% success rate, to 2.83 in 2022, at a 77% success rate. The pitcher must begin his motion to deliver the pitch before the expiration of the pitch timer. Pitchers who violate the timer are charged with an automatic ball. Batters who violate the timer are charged with an automatic strike. Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark or else be charged with an automatic strike. With runners on base, the timer resets if the pitcher attempts a pickoff or steps off the rubber. Pitchers are limited to two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per plate appearance. However, this limit is reset if a runner or runners advance during the plate appearance. If a third pickoff attempt is made, the runner automatically advances one base if the pickoff attempt is not successful. Mound visits, injury timeouts and offensive team timeouts do not count as a disengagement. If a team has used up all five of its allotted mound visits prior to the ninth inning, that team will receive an additional mound visit in the ninth inning. This effectively serves as an additional disengagement. Umpires may provide extra time if warranted by special circumstances. (So if, as an example, a catcher were to be thrown out on the bases to end the previous half-inning and needed additional time to put on his catching gear, the umpire could allow it.)" And I'm not even going to rant about the defense shift changes because I didn't understand them before the rule change. Shorten the f'ing season. Have ties. Limit games to 3.5 hours. There. Problem solved. And get rid of that ghost runner abomination.

Game 1 folks!

I started re-watching Picket Fences. As a kid I remember this show being watchable, watching with my parents, and I liked Fyvesh Finkel and MEIN GOTT Lauren Holly. The woman from Poltergeist too. As an adult, I can't tell if it's a comedy misidentified as a drama, a less abstract Twin Peaks, or just a quirky experiment to see what David E Kelley could get away with. The show is surprisingly open, even relaxed, about rape, abortion, torture, good guys calling women whores, threesomes, serial killing, sodomy and FISTING(!?!?), and other touchy issues - and that's just the first two episodes. Watching the show with whole new perspective as an adult. The only issue -- Hulu's MADDENING commercials

Wow... all those Huletts gone. Polish neighborhoods gone. Plants gone. Blast furnaces gone. Flats mostly gone. Bridges gone. Small businesses, churches, temples and homes gone. Hotels gone. People gone. Hippo gone. Cleveland Press gone. Freighters gone. Beautiful and depressing. An ode to decay, of better days in most ways.