metrocity

Chicago has trucks that go around spraying all the hanging baskets and planters with water in the Downtown area. It's probably outsourced to a private company. Its the legacy of Maggie Daley...the wife of mayor Daley. She wanted it and it changed the perception of the city. That stuff needs lots of water. If you have landscaping that is mostly in the sun all day you know what that is like. Go out of town for a couple of days in the summer it all starts dying pretty quick without daily watering. I had a rooftop deck in Chicago that was sunny all day...it was constant watering daily in the summer. You have to be committed. I can see why the city would provide it but also want the property owner to help maintain it. A labor of love.

Very cool! I feel like in most of MAGA land this would be percieved as minorities bothering some white people...but in Vermont its a nice family 😃

Madison is wonderful...proof a city need not be tall skyscrapers to be great!

^ Exactly that! And gerrymandering. DeWine signed onto a group of Governors that don't want student loans to go away. Ohio is so damn backwards now. I hate it, it was not always this way. Ohio needs these people that grew up in Ohio, and the money they have that will pour into Ohio's economy once they have extra money to spend. https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122613813/student-loan-forgiveness-biden-states

Every new building should have a an RTA board like that if they are on a line. I know you can have it on a phone....but people living there might change their attitude toward taking it if they see it everyday.

In another thread I said freaking Davey Tree Expert Company is in freaking Kent OHIO! They know what to plant and where and how...including Urban areas. They are right nearby, its not a mystery. Why is this so hard. they are the #1 tree experts in North America...google it

Don't want to get into the tree discussion, but its worth mentioning that the largest tree expert in N America is in Kent...Davey Tree Expert Company. The city should take note.

100% this. Was at a backyard party yesterday on the NW side of Chicago, and "Ohio" was mentioned several times in a very negative light due to the girl that had to go to Indiana for an abortion. They think its more backward than Indiana, and that is pretty backward.

Cleveland Heights is a very special place in the USA https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-cuyahoga/cleveland-heights-mayor-raised-by-lesbian-couple-introduces-lgbtq-legislation-for-residents

Also happens nightly up and down DuSable Lakeshore Dr and throughout the Loop/ N Michigan Ave in Chicago on warm nice weather nights. I can see and hear it from my window on LSD.

Chicago and New York City both went through pretty bad decline in the 60's and 70's as well. Both are in full renaissance back to the city movement and have been for 20 years. Population and decline of it in cities has been discussed a lot on boards in here as not the best indicator of the health of cities these days. Larger households are moving to the burbs, especially the Mexican population in Chicago that moved into the cheap housing in the 70's. They have since gained affluence and bought larger homes in burbs for the kids. They are replaced by smaller more affluent households with less or no children. Logan Square, Bucktown/Wicker Park, Pilsen, Fulton Market, UIC, Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, Andersonville...the list goes on of where this happening. If dogs were counted as children, the population would be through the roof...haha.

Many huge companies are abandoning the Chicago burbs and moving into the city. Allstate and McDonalds most notably. The city is booming, and is in a state about as progressive as California and New York. The CTA is in full scale rehab going back to planning started years ago and is supported by the state. Chicago is fine and has no problem attracting talent. Backward Ohio and Missouri are the big problems holding back progress in the metropolitan areas within their boundries at this point TBH.

TBH, when the Merchandise Mart people were driving it, it did seem like a legit good idea with World renowned Cleveland Clinic nearby. The healthcare stuff was booming and MM did not have good showrooms for it. But MM has seen a lot of big name departures with Knoll, Herman Miller and soon Steelcase leaving for Fulton Market. That is like the anchors leaving a mall. Merch Marts future is also looking not too bright. I think it was timing and an outdated changing business model ....and lots of high hopes.

That is a good article, and May Company is the headliner. It made a good point that these old Dept stores are great for conversion, high ceilings and large windows are features that make a logical conversion to desireable residential units.

I went to Kent in the 90's and I'm really surprised at what they have done. I didn't think they would have ever had this vision of the future honestly. It's impressive.

Not to be Debbie downer....but dogs will poop and piss and kick it all over the place. My condo building has trees on the sidewalk with stones around them and the maintenance people have to constantly sweep them back around the trees because of dogs.

Is it overtime, since Akron and Cleveland are still more union? The Statehouse is on it! Quickly taking care of that with the new law they enacted recently.

I still think something big needs to happen (like Intel pulling out) to actually shake up the Statehouse, which coincidentally sits smack dab in the middle of a city with a large gay poulation that has the largest Pride festival in the midwest after Chicago. Its the failure to fix gerrymandering, abortion restrictions, hateful legislation...not just this.

This is another solution for a problem that didn't exist. Its not only this issue, the Ohio GOP will keep following lockstep with whatever other conservative cause du jour that states like TX, FL are pushing. Its become a pattern.

Ohio needs an image change badly to compete in 2022. This is the last thing a flyover, boring, backward state like Ohio needs to change its image. Columbus is pretty damn gay too. I hate Ohio, I wish I didn't, but this is not the Ohio I grew up in. I wish Intel would pull out, maybe the leadership might finally realize how stupid they are in preparing Ohio to compete in the future. Might turn Ohio back into an actual swing state, although Trump calling for a boycott on Goodyear didn't swing these people...so it might be hopeless at this point.

They should make it the worlds largest Cheescake Factory, add some faux paint textures here and there and some Egyptian columns and there you go

Why does Illinois whataboutism keep popping up for? There is no comparision here. Ohio citizens VOTED to end gerrymandering by a large margin, and it has been blatantly ignored by the party in power. Illinois has not held a vote yet, therefore there is no comparision to what is going on in Ohio.

Does anyone know if this corporate artwork at 45 Erieview is significant or not, or who owns it? The Alexander Calder sculpture in "Willis" Tower got caught up in Sears Bankruptcy litigation and ended up being removed from the lobby of the tower by the current owners unforunately. I hope this stays. I wonder if AT&T owns it (after Ohio Bell and Ameritech) and if it is worth anything, or by a famous artist 45 Erieview Sears Tower Sculpture:

That one person looking at their phone and not paying attention at a light, on a freeway at start and stop..etc and causing a few secods of lull in movement. Multiply it by how many times that is now happening. Our new traffic problem when we shouldn't be having one is hundreds of drivers not paying attention to actually driving and moving when its time to move. We are in a pandemic, everyone is working from home. Yet traffic is terrible. Notice all the slow response of people not paying attention to what is going on in front of them when you drive around....i don't drive much but I notice it when I'm in cabs or Uber.

That's a great video. "Cotton Pickin hands" though said by that lady...so cringy