Robert Pence

I'm not an ornithologist, or even a hard-core birdwatcher, but I'd guess your widowsill observer is more likely a Peregrine Falcon. The barring on the breast of a Cooper's Hawk is more orange. The dark barring on that bird looks a lot like pictures I've seen of Peregrine Falcons. The hawk who visits my patio pretty clearly is a juvenile. I've read that it's legal to take hawks to train for falconry if they're fully fledged but not yet of breeding age. I wonder of one could be trained to attack people that the owner tags with a laser pointer.

What I liked most/first about the first Star Wars film were the references to sci-fi classics like Frank Herbert's Dune. People who weren't familiar with those earlier epic stories would have missed the references entirely.

It's a young Cooper's Hawk, about 1/2 to 2/3 grown. Note the lovely talons; how would you like to be a small mammal in its sight? It hangs around my patio, perching on the fence and waiting for unwary smaller birds to come to my feeders. So far, the hawk and the squirrels ignore each other, because the hawk isn't yet big enough to take a full-grown squirrel. As it reaches full growth, I doubt it will hang around there because the space will be too confining for its three-foot wingspan. I had been finding smatterings of turtledove feathers, and thought the neighbor's cat was to blame. Now I know differently.

Watch the birdie, 'cause the birdie's watchin' you!

Latest updates; the local paper requires a paid subscription in order to access full text on line, so I'm posting scans of the articles from my print edition. I think the fire department issued its order just to protect the city from liability in case a trespasser gets hurt on the property. The city has been behind the property owner in all his work to this date, and I don't doubt that so long as he doesn't dally and demonstrates good faith, they'll back him in his efforts to rebuild. "Cautious optimism" describes my feeling at present.

This forum is not the place for pointless, cynical, hostile remarks intended to start arguments, nor is it the place for political attacks. Please keep a lid on your emotions. If that post generates a tit-for-tat that pollutes the thread with useless arguing, I will delete the post and everything that springs from it.

Perhaps that's true to some extent, but the shortage of decent homes in "convenient" neighborhoods exists largely because we have let existing city neighborhood infrastructure decline into disrepair and public order and safety decline into lawlessness as we redirected public resources into providing the insfrastructure and services demanded by well-connected developers who build and market sprawl. Just this afternoon I drove through some neighborhoods that were pleasant within my memory, but where I don't go in warm weather any more, or after dark at any time of year. The city's clean-up efforts directed against the drug trade have resulted in the demolition of many vacant or boarded up homes, and sometimes in entire blocks of vacant land where honest, hard-working people once lived. Those three-car garages in the countryside cost a lot. Even we who try to maintain a respectable, less-than-gentrified lifesyle in our established city neighborhoods pay for them.

Our rivers here aren't wide enough to create those incredible ice noises, but I hear a lot of grinding and crunching when the ice starts to break up and move. I remember one year when the city thought they were going to have to dynamite the ice dams that formed against the bridges, to protect the bridges from being destroyed by the pressure of the backed-up water.

Guys, there was some spillover from controversy in the 3C thread into personal interactions in other topics that I'm not going to re-hash here. I did delete one of those other-area posts because I deemed it to be a personal attack on a forumer. The thread hadn't yet reached ignition temperature, but it was beginning to overheat enough that a cool-down period was necessary in order to restore perspective. It'll be back.

Nice shot, Calvin. I need to get downtown and get some photos at the headwaters of the Maumee. It's not much of a river here, compared with Toledo.

Wonderful photos! Street-level everyday urban photography from that era is pretty scarce; most of what we see are a few shots with professional large-format cameras, or somebody's family snapshot of Aunt Tillie with a glimpse of a department store entrance in the background. What's old is new again. I see electric cars in some of those photos: - Second photo, parked on the left in the immediate foreground; the open door would have been the passenger side, because the car would have been right-hand drive (with a tiller, not a wheel, for steering). The car could have been a Columbia, built by the same company that made Columbia bicycles. - Fourth photo, approaching to the left of the more distant streetcar; - Sixth photo, parked on the left near the corner, below the streetlight. By 1914 horse-drawn carriages have almost entirely given way to automobiles downtown, although three appear in the photos. - Sixth photo, at the curb in the right foreground; - Seventh photo, two in motion, one on either side of the streetcar. Technical note: Charles Kettering's electric self-starter first appeared on Cadillacs in 1912, but wasn't offered on Fords until 1919. By 1920, most manufacturers offered it. Probabbly almost all the cars in these photos started with a hand crank. Because bearing materials that would stand up to high rpm hadn't yet been invented, many cars of that era used large-displacement, long-stroke, low-rpm four-cylinder engines. Atlhough compression ratios were low, often within a range between 3.5 and 5-to-1, the cylinders were big and it took some heft to start them. In winter, when the photos were taken, the cold-thickened lubricating oils and large bearing surfaces could more than double the effort required. On the left in the first photo, some clever motorist has put a blanket or tarpaulin over the hood and radiator of his parked car to conserve engine heat and make starting easier. The inconvenience and crude nature of gasoline autos were what made the electrics popular with genteel folk, and in particular with ladies. The electrics were expensive, but generally crafted to higher standards with touches of elegance on the interior, like flower sconces on the door pillars. They required no cranking and no storage of smelly, dangerous fuels, and didn't pose the risk of catching fire when starting. Their limited range made them well-suited for driving downtown, but precluded driving to the next city. Even for gasoline autos, the bad roads and poor tires made that a dicey proposition. That's what trains and interurbans were for. Mom related that even in the early twenties when they'd take a 20-mile drive in a Ford Model T to visit relatives, her dad took along two spares and a tire-repair kit. Often by the time the got back home, he had used both spares and the repair kit. Some of the fine homes of that era that still stand have drive-out basement garages. Those were built for electric autos, and had charging equipment installed for the cars' heavy lead-acid batteries. One wouldn't have parked a gasoline auto of the era in a space beneath living quarters because of the stink and fire risk when starting it. That's enough, Robert. STFU. </ :speech: >

Oh. OK, I've been there, but it's been a few years. It's a neat place, especially in summer.

Some neat shots. Cory, where is the dam? That viewpoint makes me want to hang onto something so as not to fall in. Andy, Jersey Shore looks amazingly dense with such tenuous mainland connections. That must be an evacuation nightmare in event of a hurricane warning.

ekcetera for et cetera.

For historical reference, here's the Amtrak station when it was almost new. It was bright, clean and well kept. Shortly afterward, it became a shared facility with Amtrak and intercity buses, and it went downhill fast. It soon looked more like a typical bus station, grimy, dirty, and stinking of stale tobacco smoke.

Light snow falling here this morning with no wind. It's kind of pretty to look at from the coziness of my home. I don't expect much accumulation, and the temp is about 30F right now, with a high forecast of 34. Probably won't last.

South Shore trains have no bar or lounge car, but they do have a BYOB policy; you can bring your own refreshment and consume it on board except at specified times. Some of the prohibited dates are around major public party events in the Loop (Taste of Chicago, Jazz Fest, etc.) when they'd rather not have raucous drunks bringing the party on board and annoying other passengers and puking on the seats. I looked for info on the alcohol policy on NICTD's web site, but couldn't find it. If I can, I'll contact them and ask about it.

Comparing the South Shore with the 3C probably isn't representative. The South Shore is commuter rail, with a maximum distance end-to-end of about 90 miles. But anyway, a little more info for comparison: Prior to urban removal in the 1970s, the South Shore did go all the way downtown. The station was at the LaSalle Hotel, and a small layover yard was just across the river. At the later Bendix location shared with Amtrak there was still a milepost with the number 2 on it, indicating 2 miles from the origin of the line. The Bendix neighborhood was terrible; it wasn't safe to leave your car there even during the day, let alone at night. Moving the terminal to the airport consolidated South Shore service with an intercity bus terminal, airlines, and South Bend Transpo city transit buses. Despite the distance from the city's core, ridership continues to climb; whereas trains east of Michigan City used to be two cars, in the past year I've seen four-car sets frequently at South Bend. South Shore commuters have the option of driving Interstate/expressway instead, and although trains attain 70-75mph, station dwell time brings the average down to about 39mph end-to-end, and on the western 50 miles of the line many trains are standing-room only. Much of the time, the South Shore operates at capacity. On Notre Dame game days, shuttle buses meet the South Shore trains. A similar service could be provided on a daily basis for 3C trains at Riverside or Sharonville, or wherever the stations turn out to be. Shuttle buses could run to/from multiple locations, like major hotels and a free or discounted secure parking facility for 3C patrons. Use nice buses with luggage bins, and drivers trained to provide a service that's a cut above local transit service.

I found a listing of theaters by Eberson here. That one isn't on it, although several in Ohio are, including the Shaker Square Cinema. It's wonderful to see smaller cities preserving treasures like that. So many have been lost to demolition or abandonment and neglect. Of the five grand movie palaces that were open in downtown Fort Wayne when I was a teenager, only one survives. Fortunately it has had a meticulous restoration and serves as a venue for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and many traveling shows.

CBC, I know you didn't mean to start anything, but given the atmosphere in that thread, any mention of it anywhere is bound to set some people off. The 3C thread is overheated enough. If any more of the vitriol shows up here in Urbanbar, I'll start wielding MayDay's bloody axe. Don't bring it in here, folks! Edit: Upon rereading your post, 327, I saw it as a personal slap directed at one of the moderators. I axed it.

Nice! Was the original design by John Eberson, by any chance? It sort of has some characteristics in common with some larger Eberson-designed theaters I've seen, like the Civic in Akron and the Embassy in Fort Wayne.

They'll plow the parking lot right down to the undulating acres of asphalt and push the snow onto the sidewalks. (I know that's slightly off subject, but it's a pet peeve of mine. More than a peeve, really.) I've been tempted to go out early on snowy mornings and patrol for that. I fantasize about catching a plow operator in the act, taking photos, and badgering the police via cell phone until they come and ticket the offender for violating the local ordinance that prohibits obstructing a sidewalk or crosswalk. I'm 70 years old and not very big, though; I fear for my safety from possible battery by a plow operator, and I'd want an intimidating-looking companion in order to attempt it. Ex-Ithacan, bring your shotgun and wear your security-guard getup! I got a gig for ya'!

Sounds like sweet gear. Give us an update after you've ridden on them a while.

In many states, state statute specifies how property taxes may be assessed. I think Indiana, the one I'm familiar with, is typical of many others. Property taxes for a particular parcel split the assessed value about 75% on "improvements," primarily meaning buildings, and about 25% on the land. When a building is razed, the three quarters of the property tax revenue from that parcel disappears. When a business acquires property and and then clears away the buildings/homes for customer or employee parking, tax revenues plummet while the increased availability of parking encourages more individual driving and increased burden on infrastructure. It doesn't stop there. While Federal tax codes place a specific limit on the amount a business can write off for subsidizing any employee's transit use, they place no such limit on the amount that can be written off for employee parking. The cost of maintaining, lighting, snow-plowing, and securing employee parking can be written off, along with property taxes paid on the land. In a small or medium-sized city with a central business district comprised mostly of offices, and many workers living outside the city limits, city residents end up footing a bigger tax bill to subsidize driving and parking for people who live in the 'burbs and outlying bedroom communities. As a side benefit we experience heavy, noisy, aggressive traffic created by people who regard our neighborhoods as slums and us as inferior beings.

I drive the new US 24 from Ft Wayne to Defiance quite regularly, and I think the new highway parallels the line you are talking about, correct? Between FtW and Defiance, it is single tracked, and there are rail cars parked along just about the entire length. It looks like it would take a total rehab to get this line in shape for any semblance of high speed rail. I think the line you're referring to, parallel to US 24, is the old Wabash Toledo line, now mostly Maumee & Western (MAW). Most of it doesn't amount to much. That's the right-of-way that's proposed as part of the Toledo - Fort Wayne segment of the high-speed passenger rail connection. Obviously, there's nothing useful remaining of the line except the right-of-way; all of the passenger line would have to be built from scratch except for surveying the route. The former PRR route I wrote about runs approximately parallel to US 30 both directions from Fort Wayne. Eastward it's parallel to US 30 at least to Lima; beyond that, I'm not sure of the routing. Back in the seventies when I used to drive to Lima fairly often, sometimes I'd see the Broadway Limited on that line. Westward from Fort Wayne the former PRR route that I showed in my photos passes through Columbia City, Warsaw, Plymouth, Valparaiso, and Gary. While the former PRR line has been seriously downgraded, it's in nowhere near as derelict condition as the parts of the Maumee & Western that I've seen.