metrocity

Thanks for clarifying...now the real question...how does one go about getting a building permit to hang a makeshift balcony off the front of ones brownstone in New York City!

I had Sim City once...it took over my life and I had to join a Sim City 12 step program

That neighborhood can be a little creepy. I once took a wrong bus from Downtown Brooklyn trying to get to Williamsburg north of the bridge. When the bus started going east at some point I hopped off right in the middle of that neighborhood and walked a couple miles up Bedford. It was Passover and everyone was out. Packs of men and boys together dressed alike, and women and girls together with wigs on. Never men and women together. You feel invisible because no one acknowledges you at all. You really feel like a true outsider. Thanks for the tip on the weird balconies too, I wondered about the randomness of them, even in newer construction. Thanks for another good tour

FYI to anyone thinking of traveling to Chicago....American Airlines has a fall round trip fare of $98 from Cleveland and Columbus valid through travel December 10. That's a good deal.

^ It McBlows. That is the flagship of the company too. They had some really cool designs that they scrapped.

I think I need that jacket with the crest on it!

Outstanding! Good Show! Next time you are in town let me give you a tour.

That Fisher Price city was the coolest toy I ever owned

Very true, I never liked any of those malls on the mag mile though. I just never really saw any exciting merchandise there...it seemed pretty run of the mill department store fare (Polo, Tommy, Colors....etc). The ones in NY are more like the Sak's men's store for selection and higher fashion. A couple of years ago I needed a suit and asked them if they had any without pleated pants, and the guy thought I was crazy, "they don't ever make suits without pleated pants" he said.

Wow, I must be so out of it, I didn't even realize that Generator had repoened. It was changed to Rive Gauche years ago, and according to Metromix it was called that for 6 years. It had a straight mostly white crowd being that the neighborhood has changed. I guess the Generator is back, thanks for the tip! It looks like it was the same owners through all the changes. Let me know next time you are town and going there, i'd like to check it out again.

Nice job! Here is some info you might find interesting on your fav neo-classical building...35 W Wacker. It used to have an elevator for cars in it. http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/1064.php "Originally known as the Jewelers Building, it was created for the city’s diamond merchants and had an unusual security procedure – to reduce the chances that its tenants would be mugged walking between their cars and their offices, the building featured a central auto elevator. People would drive into this elevator and it would take them to the floor where their office was. Jewelers loaded down with precious stones and metals wouldn’t have to be exposed to a potentially hostile exterior environment. Though innovative, it was an arrangement that didn’t last very long. By the Second World War the auto elevators were abandoned and decked over to make more office space. Naturally, these kind of freight elevators required more mechanical space than regular passenger elevators, and the entire 24th floor was given over to that task, and as a maintenance shop for crafting replacement pieces for the building’s ornate terra cotta exterior and interior needs. This wasn’t reclaimed for office space until the very late 20th century. "

Hilarious! Esp since I was just playing that game(along with some other old favs) at Barcade in Williamsburg.

Sadly....The Generator is long gone. Spin is getting more of that crowd lately it seems. Every other Saturday is hip-house. I think there is also another place somewhere on the South Side...but without a car and sketchy cab service, that is not an option for me I agree with MTS...The Chicago Bloomingdales is really lame compared to NYC...even the small one in SoHo is way better for men's. The furniture store in the Old Armory building is worth a trip for the building itself. It was almost torn down at some point. Marshall Field's on State should have some good stuff on sale. They carried a lot of high end names that Macy's is ditching. I just hope that the Thomas Pink" shop isn't trashed...the shirts are hard to find.

Lakeshore Limited(CHI to NYC) and Capitol Limited(CHI to DC) Bryan, OH (BYN) Toledo, OH (TOL) Sandusky, OH (SKY) Elyria, OH (ELY) Cleveland, OH (CLE) Alliance, OH (ALC) Cardinial/Hoosier State(CHI to DC then NYC) Cincinnati - Union Station, OH (CIN) (When I rode this one to Cincy, I could have sworn it stopped in Hamilton...but the station is not listed on Amtrak's website)

I think most of Michigan's transit budget goes to subsidizing Amtrak routes to Chicago. They have 3 dead end routes (Pontiac, Detroit, Grand Rapids) that would probably be cut if it wasn't for the states heavy subsidy(Although I believe the Detroit route connects to VIA Rail Canada...so t's not really a true dead end). Ohio doesn't need to subsidize Amtrak because the routes pass through to points east. So comparing MI to OH is not really a good comparision.

Growing up in a suburb of Akron, my father never liked malls and always took us shopping for anything in Downtown Akron and I always loved it. I also realized around 4th grade that my Mom would loosen up and buy name brand merchandise if I got her to go to Downtown O'Neil's because she was nostalgic about shopping there as a little girl. Going to Brown's/Indians games when I was a child and coming into Cleveland and driving up E 9th was the most awesome thing I had ever seen...so many tall buildings. Toys...Legos, Girder and Panel building set, Erector, Fisher Price Downtown...loved them all. Also always liked studying maps and looking at how big Cleveland, LA, Miami and such were on maps. Going to Atlanta as a child and taking the new Marta train all around. We came home and I used a wagon to play Marta, and pulled my friends around. Getting my drivers license was all I needed to hop in the car and go to other cities for no reason except to go and be thrilled about going there. Pittsburgh, Cincy, Columbus, Toronto, Detroit...anything close enough to drive in a few hours without my parents knowing. The final epiphany came when I went to school at Kent and was bored with the small town feel. I had a lot of friends in Cleveland, and would go up there all the time. Bored with my major at Kent, I transferred to Cleveland State when someone gave me a class listing and I saw the Urban Affairs College. Living in Shaker Square and Ohio City during college was the final realization that I hated driving everywhere, and liked walking to get everyday things that I needed. My goal then was to never have to rely on driving again.

How was the street fair? Market Days is supposed to be the largest street fair in the Midwest and it looked pretty crowded from the pic. I was in NYC this year and missed it.

I tried to find the photos that they printed, but I can't find them on the website. Sorry

Didn't see this posted yet... http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0608050262aug06,1,2679756.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed Cincinnati with friends A visitor gets some help in the Queen of the West with a touch of the South Story and photos by Phil Marty Tribune staff reporter Published August 6, 2006 --Phil Marty Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0608020179aug02,1,5113794.story?coll=chi-news-hed Americans' love for cars on the skids Associated Press Published August 2, 2006 Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

That's cool, I know at least one girl in the office that will be happy. She usually takes Amtrak home to Toledo and gets dropped off at 3:00 am or so. Mark, if you need any tips let me know, although I won't be in Chicago to provide any personal tours this weekend. Though maybe I will if my flight to NYC gets cancelled again today. Damn O'hare....and weather.

Yeah, I agree with what everyone is saying. I thought the film was interesting because we(urbanists) tend to forget how or why this all started, and to see a film like this puts history back into perspective. Originally the growth was warranted because cities were too crowded because population was booming, and the suburbs served as the pressure release valve. Also, don't forget that cities were horribly dirty and polluted. Find an old picture of Pittsburgh at high noon on a sunny day and it looked like night time. I also remember a teacher of mine in 4th grade telling about his mother that lived in Slavic Village in Cleveland, and windows had to be washed all of time because of the black soot from the industrial valley coating the entire house. Also, modern medicine at the time believed that all of that bad air was the reason for most ailments. Now, people still blame those causes for leaving the city...pollution, crowds. But now add to that the affect of suburbanization....moving of jobs, shopping choices, deteriorating schools.... that have led to massive outmigration that has occured non-stop since the 50's. Now that cities have somewhat dealt with the cause...the affect is what keeps people away. Also add into that an entire huge generation of Americans that have made(and are making) a hell of a lot of money on this way of development and sprawl, and it is no wonder why the government's policy is so skewed in this fashion of development. And while the original suburbs were generally lacking in architecture, they were not that horribly designed. Walking and public transit were still in fashion so you still saw sidewalks, through streets, walkable public schools/shopping and a denser form of development compared to the horrible super-suburbs of the 80's and 90's.

A promo film for Redbook magazine that chronicles the new suburban life of young people in the US....an interesting historical snapshot for those of us that were never alive before there were suburbs. The optimism and newness of it all must have been very exciting. It really stresses the 'young' adults in the suburbs concept and how they demand new and convenient things and are rabid consumers....unlike the old people in the city I guess. http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2006/07/retro-video-in-suburbs.html Once you click on the link scroll down to find the video. It's 20 minutes long.

East St Louis is where a lot of people go to drink and party all night when the bars in St Louis close. I think the Missouri drinking law is 3:00 am...and in Illinois it's like 6:00 am. I am surprised how bad it is because there is a waterfront and Metrolink access. It makes no sense. Mid America airport was built in Illinois as a reliever to Lambert and to try and boost the economy on that side of the river but it was a complete failure. With TWA gone, Lambert is half empty. I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time when St Louis was a big hub.