metrocity

I will also add, you guys do have some really nice buses from the pics I see on here. Ours in Chicago are really beat down and old at this point. The train system (red line) is getting a huge nice overhaul though, which was badly needed, but the bus fleet has gotten pretty bad and old. My rush hour express bus service downtown on Lakeshore Drive is crappy old short buses that arrive occasionally if ever ( they disappear from tracker)and are packed and pass stops of people waiting. No new drivers, and unreliable old buses are the culprit. People are literally running into traffic banging on the door at the last stop before it gets on LSD but there is no room. I feel bad for the drivers.

This is all very exciting, and it would basically almost be a brand new system. I hope they consider adding more stops and creating TOD areas especially on the west side. The stops are too far apart IMO for such a small system!

I was just in Toronto a few weeks ago, and there is a one in a small vertial mall across from the Eaton Centre called "Little Canada". A German guy that moved to Canada and became a billionaire decided to build it as a gift to Canada. You start in Niagara Falls and move through the various cities of Canada. They take some liberties like adding a TGV train that Canada doesn't actually have. He lets the "makers" add little jokes and quirks all over the place, so not only is it cool to see but you could spend hours looking for the funny little jokes placed around and the staff is so happy to work there and point things out. One famous hotel had a cutaway of the rooms, and in the hallway was a little kid on a big wheel and the two little girls from "The Shining" for example. They put little moose all over with a maple leaf emblazoned saddle and challenge visitors to find all of them. Some details can only be seen from a childs point of view by design so kids can be proud to show parents cool things the parents can't see at their height. You could also be scanned in a machine, and they will 3D print a little you that you can buy and take home, or have them add you into the model. They let you visit the control center, and ask questions and also talk to the makers. The friend I was with was not very enthusiastic about going to it, but loved it. It cost about $30 CAD to enter I think. In tower city maybe RTA could show some aspirational visions of streetcars and things of the future in the model. https://little-canada.ca/ On a side note, they sold "Clearly Canadian" at the snack bar. I haven't had one of those since the 90's

That area is such a gem. Great neighborhood

I swear I had friends at Kent State that said they were from East Palis"stein"

This is such a disaster, glad the media is finally giving it the attention it deserves. Had it been in California we'd probabaly heard about it ad-nauseum. On a side note I grew up in NE Ohio and never heard it pronounced "East Palisteen". That was new to me.

Travelodge and Days Inn are like...hold the phone! 😉

And I always felt like that Galleria outdoor patio was a pretty awesome space right in the financial district Downtown

Yes, that is what I see. And honestly, those workers that do come in and engage and network (with co-workers, industry peers, clients) may be the ones retained if another layoff comes around. Some people are immune of course because they are stellar at their job, but there are a lot that WFH that will be expendable IMO. 5 Years ago, my industry was pushing sit/stand desks and more workstyles in the office and nobody was biting. Now it is the norm.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I think I'd rather roll off the hood of a low profile vehicle than slammed by a truck with a FORD emblem bigger than my head.

I work in the office design and commercial furniture spec realm. Companies are definitely de-densifying the pack-em-all in floorplate using benching systems that were all the rage prior to the pandemic. The focus now is giving people a reason to come to work. Height adjustable desks, fancy ergonomic chairs, more space, more separation/privacy, more and larger monitors, more loungy collaboration areas, more perks (fancy coffee machines...etc), more private heads down flexible space, more "wellness" rooms...and they all need to add floorspace to do this. And a lot are spending money doing it. The private corner/window office thing is kinda dead mostly though. They have them (law firms, banking), but they are more often designed as flex and can be used for other functions when the primary occupant is traveling, or they are free address for anyone to use if available. Can't even count how many former corner offices I have reconfigured into small collaboration/media rooms. One thing not mentioned, and I don't know exactly how this works, but a company can write off money spent on "furniture" after like 7 years? So many of these companies were at or past that lifespan of the interior office space furnishings once covid hit and are ready to buy new. You'd be shocked to see what companies just leave behind when they move. 10's of thousands of $ spent on custom boardroom conference tables, Aeron Chairs, $10,000 sofas...etc. Another lower rent company comes in and the real estate company that owns the building includes all of this used furniture that was left behind as an enticement. Or there are companies that charge to remove it all, and then re-sell it to lower rent companies. My company is busy AF and hiring like crazy for this trend of enticing people back.

On my recent attempt to drive home on the toll road to Ohio during the terrible bliizzard in Northern Indiana on the Friday before xmas, there were hundreds of vehicles skidded into the side of the road and in the median. Anything top heavy was on its side or upside down. I did not see one sedan that had flipped. Mind you traffic was lucky to be going about 20mph in those conditions so it wasn't speed. It was simply the downward elevation change from the road bed. Shuddered thinking about how those tall vehicles probably had children in them, as opposed to sedans with mostly one or two people in them.

Elevators are definitely late 80's, not mid century. I'm surprised they left them as is, they look really dated in a bad way. The rest looks good to me.

^I'm all for minimalism, but that is one depressing little ticky tack box of a food store there

My place in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago this happend a lot. But when I reported it to the city 311 website a new one usually showed up within a week...blue or black and they would mark it with your address.

Exactly. Ohio is backward AF at this point. I'm tired of defending it TBH.

These people are so dumb. Here's a street view in Uptown Chicago, Million$+ mansion next to a double tower 29 story high rise. One adjacent street south is all turn of the century mansions, the north adjacent street is all 3 story walk up apartment/condos...all mixed in with high rises along Dusable Lakeshore Dr. It can all co-exist in an urban enviroment where it makes sense!. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9596078,-87.6467413,3a,90y,265.6h,85.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBYPYiDERp-w84Wlv8vi2Tg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

Thanks for looking for me. Kato has a North American HQ supposedly in suburban Chicago, but nobody around here has much either. The North American version has the streets striped for the opposite of Japanese drivers. They mainly have two lines Unitrak and Unitram. I am looking for the Unitram tracks with the street sections. You never know in some of these old dusty hobby shops what they might have.

Hey everyone, I thought I would revive this topic. I had a train layout when I was a kid, and I recently started up a small one to put up for Christmas. Wanted to do a modern city one, not your typical old timey layout. Came across a Japanese company, KATO which makes modern streetcars and commuter lines. Its pretty cool, but I am just getting started. It's n scale, so doesn't take up too much space...yet. If anyone knows anything about the KATO Unitram system, or has seen it in a store somehwere let me know. The N American version of the embedded street tracks are hard to find and mostly sold out online.

Sunny and -8 today in Chicago with clear roads this morning and I excitedly picked up my rental car to drive to NE Ohio today at noon. Everything was great...until just after 94/65/90/80 split, the IN toll road was a sheet of ice under the snow and I was pretty much going 15mph with hazards on, sometimes not even seeing the vehicle 20 feet in front of me in the white out conditions. 94 to Detroit was closed (should have been my first clue). So many cars and semis in ditches, some with people in them. Made it to South Bend IN in about 4.5 hours (usually takes 2). Called my Mom and said I was going try and get a hotel in South Bend, nothing available so I turned back. Arrived at my place back in Chicago at 7:45. Almost 8 hours round trip to South Bend and back. Usually takes 5.5 to 6 to get to my folks house in NE Ohio. $600 for a 3 day car rental and I sit in my own house with my cats tonight. Gotta love weather. I might try again tomorrow...haha.

I live in a high rise in Chicago on Lakeshore drive built in 1962 as a rental and went condo in 1977, and the demising walls are thick drywall (and maybe plaster on top of it) metal studs with that "s" shaped plastic baffling between units. The interior unit partion walls are weirdly 2" thick solid concrete that are plastered over (removing them is a beeatch!). I rarely hear neighbors. A friend of mine lives in Marina City (iconic corncob) built that same year and his is also super quiet and built the same way. Try hammering a nail in the wall and it will bend. The union had something to do with this building technique then. I should note that no interior walls are load bearing, all floors are concrete slab column/core supported. The windows were replaced on mine in 2007 because 40yo windows are not covered by insurance. If one pops out and kills someone, the condo assoc is on the hook. Anyway, even when I had the old (single pane) windows I didn't have frost or frozen shut balcony doors and neither does he. We both have "in wall sleeve" AC units and snow and frost don't come in. You don't have to go back 150 years, even in the 80's the buidlings were built better. A friend that has a high rise condo built in 2004 in the South Loop is a mess and he has special assessments out the ass. This might be a concerning trend with how these buildings are being built since the mid 90's and up till now. If they are shoddy, todays hot building becomes a hot mess in the future.

Great tour ink! Its worth noting for those not familiar with Chicagoland, that Elgin is probably half Mexican or Latino immigrants. Same with Aurora, Waukegan, Joliet and other farther out decent sized cities in the metro area with actual Downtowns. As with the hot neighborhoods in the city like Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Logan Square and Little Village, and old burbs like Berwyn, that population not only helps invigorate some of these once dying areas with new life, new retail commerce and a new generation of children, but it puts them on track to be desirable and relevant into the future. Also all the areas I mentioned are all well served by CTA or PACE/METRA, something that new immigrants valued when they settled there.

I was in town over the summer and two friends came down from Toronto. We rode the Red Line from Madison over to Little Italy and they both said that the stations on the line were spaced too far apart and they needed to add quite a few more. That location would be perfect spot.

Jewel-Osco is owned by Albertsons directly competing with Marianos (Kroger) in Chicago. Most of the Jewel stores in the city are old and outdated and the Marianos are much nicer. I think Albertsons owns Acme Fresh Market in NE Ohio. Kroger has never been able to survive in NE Ohio but they have tried. I kinda remember one in Kent and Fairlawn. This was a Kroger in Canal Fulton in the 80's when I was young. They all looked like this style. Most of the others have been remodeled, but this one looks exactly like Krogers did. It became Apples after Kroger pullled out of the market, then Giant Eagle which it still is today.

Interesting little city. There is a National RV Hall of Fame and Museum there, but its on the Toll Road. I always kinda wanted to stop on my way back to Ohio but never have.