OompaLoompa

Grrr is right. I was at Starbucks chatting with a friend and suddenly realized it was Wednesday night, and we both said, "Oh my gosh, we're missing ANTM!" and rushed home only to find it was preempted. :whip:

They are definitely planning to open Lola by the summer.

As I mentioned in another thread, there should be some cool things going on on E. 4th this summer, stay tuned.

Does anyone know how sales are going for Rockport Square? I've seen the same signs in the windows for months. 2 units are sold, one of which is occupied, the other still has the "sold" sign up, and one unit is "reserved." I haven't seen any change since the signs first went up in the fall.

That's good to hear about Christophier's, I saw the clearance sale signs and I was afraid they were going out of business, but it sounds like they are expanding. It will be nice to see that vacant site utilized. Hopefully their old location won't sit empty for long. And as to the E. 4th sidewalk patios, there is actually a lot more to those plans if it can be worked out with the city, but I am not sure whether any of it is public knowledge yet, so I won't say anymore except keep your eyes open for some really cool stuff going on on E. 4th this summer.

Maybe the proposed theater in Detroit-Shoreway can be incorporated into the film fest eventually too. I unfortunately always seem to have a million things going on whenever the fest is here and I never make it to a film. Here's to next year... Abandoned old theaters always depress me. And the one in Little Italy seems like such a great location. I like the idea of taking old theaters and making them mixed-use, like the Ground Floor Theater. Because unless you have multiple screens, I would guess it's almost impossible to make a go of it as a movie theater. And most theater groups have a lot of downtime between shows when no performances are going on. So maybe if some of these old theaters housed a theater or improv group, and when it's not being used for that, it could have comedy, concerts, second-run movies, art shows in the lobby, etc. I know the old theater in Kent does a mixture of uses. Sorry, this is off-topic and could probably be a thread of its own.

I liked Nik better too. I also thought Lisa took great pictures, even though she was nuts.

Dude, I love America's Next Top Model! It is my guilty pleasure. And I was so p*ssed when it wasn't on last week. Will they repeat it anytime soon? And all I have to say about last season is - Nicole is the winner???? I don't get it.

I have a friend who was in that Edge of Seventeen movie. (I guess I should really see it...)

I wonder if the term "urban" is avoided because so often the word has been used in ways that give it negative associations, as in "urban crime" "urban blight" "failing urban schools" "crumbling urban core" and so on. When most of us hear "urban" we probably think of someplace interesting, diverse, lively and cool. But I'll bet a lot of non-city dwellers hear the word "urban" and think of someplace dirty, crime-infested and scary.

Shaker Square is set up pretty much the same as public square isn't it? They get plenty of traffic through there, and it does pretty well. The main differences seem to be that it is smaller, the streets are a bit narrower, traffic is a little slower, street parking is available (which we can debate might be more detrimental than beneficial), and the entire square is ringed with mixed-used retail, entertainment, dining and offices. Also there is tons of residental adjacent all around the square. Plus, for festivals and the farmer's market they regularly close off the streets that cross through the center of the square, turning it into one large space. So I don't know if closing down the streets would make the difference, but it would be nice if they could close them for special events. On weekends, traffic should certainly be divertable. I think Public Square would come back to life if people were living around it and there were good dining and shopping options ringing the square. But as to the general concern of where traffic goes when streets are closed, I remember Jane Jacobs writing about this in Dark Age Ahead. A road through a park near her home (I think) was closed after being hotly contested by those saying the traffic would divert to adjacent streets and clog them, but instead traffic throughout the neighborhood decreased and no one knew where it went. I wish I had a quote to reference, but there's an interesting article here which discusses some of the current thinking in traffic engineering and how more streets beget more traffic.

Glad to hear it! :clap: I think I remember they had really good milkshakes too...

Dan, you might want to post this on http://www.pluggedincleveland.com it's a good source for apartment hunters and landlords and it's free. A friend of mine posted an apartment there and had it rented by the next day.

Yeah, they tried for 3 years to get Monday nights going, but it's just always a slow night and it's too expensive to keep the place open for the little business that comes in. If the neighborhood ever finally turns into a 7 nights a week hotspot, I'm sure they'll expand hours again.

Is the 49er in Slavic Village still around? That place was a favorite for cheap, authentic diner grub after the swing dances I used to go to at the Bohemian Hall. A great place for excellent, super cheap Vietnamese food is Minh Ahn (sp?) on Detroit somewhere around the Detroit Shoreway area.

There's been a lot of work going on at this house. All the bushes and brush have been cleared out for new landscaping I presume.

That will probably be a good move for the city. I lived right off of State Road up until about a year ago. State Road is kind of a mess, but particularly that shopping center. There's not much they could put there that wouldn't improve the area.

Cool! I've been anxiously awaiting the retail part. Too bad it doesn't open until 2007. Here's keeping my fingers crossed for a bookstore...

I get most of my lowdown on the E. 4th neighborhood from Nick Kostis at Pickwick. I was originally told that Lola was going to open in November, then it got pushed back to January, then to March. Last I heard, Lola was still set to open this month and due to the film crews shooting for the reality show, the opening date is set in stone and has to happen. But who knows, maybe they pushed the date back again. It doesn't look like they are close to being ready.

Would you believe he's getting his own TV show? I received the following on a performing arts mailing list I'm on: Auditions for the “Mark Norton Show” will be held at: North Coast Casting 4913 Storer Ave Cleveland, OH 44102 216-651-5441 On Feb. 19th from 5 to 9 PM / Open Call! Mark Norton is the owner of Norton’s Furniture in Cleveland. You may have seen his commercials on channel 19. Deep voice and pony tail! Has already developed a strong following! The show to be aired on PAX TV channel 23 and PAX seen on numerous cable channels. Looking for 18 and over males and females all types, no age limit (total of 10 to 14) for scripted and improve comedy sketches! Show format will be similar to Saturday Night Live. Bring photo and resume and be prepared to do improv and interview. Deferred pay.

I live in Lakewood, and the things that regularly bring me downtown are work, dining, live music and entertainment, and just hanging out with friends at a bar or dance club. I have occasionally shopped at Tower City, but only because I had some time to kill while downtown, it's not much of a destination in and of itself for me. Most of the things I do downtown I can do outside of downtown, and I often do, but like most people I am always interested in new experiences, people watching, and I like to go to places where lots of people are, and the more diverse and eclectic the people, the more interesting and stimulating the experience. Those who prefer to be comfortably unchallenged and need to be surrounded by others just like themselves probably have no need or interest in venturing out of the suburbs, but I think most people get bored of that. Ironically, my parents grew up in Cleveland and we lived in Old Brooklyn until I was 4, then we moved to Stow for my Dad's job transfer, but we visited Cleveland fairly frequently and I always got the feeling my parents still consider Cleveland home. Now that I live up here in Lakewood and work downtown and they are in ultra-suburban Munroe Falls, I think they are a bit envious. P.S. Pope - I love your new avatar...

I'm so looking forward to a Cedar Lee for the west side. But I assume the Capitol Theater will have one screen, one large theater only? That seems like a serious drawback to be able make a viable business.

"The Plain Dealer. The undisputed leader in promoting perceptions of inadequacy in Clevelanders since 1842."

I was curious about this, because I saw two existing "Clifton Courts" as I was out walking yesterday. But I checked their website, and it's actually "Clinton Courts", 5 townhomes they are proposing for Ohio City. The website said this about the Franklin site: "Rysar purchased this environmentally-contaminated property and will acquire Clean Ohio funds to finish testing site and clean it up. Rysar is in the process of designing a new project for the site, something very cool, so stay tuned."

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was my favorite book as a kid, and Oompa Loompa is just fun to say. I use it as my screenname everywhere. It's interesting though that unless I introduce myself as a female on forums, I'm always assumed to be a male. I guess you never did see any female Oompas... at least not in the movie. There must have been some girl OompaLoompas somewhere though... :wtf: