Mystery Partially Solved

So, the building I wrote about before has officially gone condo; there are now signs up advertising the new spaces -- which are exactly what this neighborhood needs, obviously. Off the top of my head, I can only think of half a dozen other condo conversions within 2 blocks of that one, none more than 75% sold. And hey, who needs affordable rental housing?

On the plus side, last weekend we saw them prettying up the outside of the building at the retail level, so maybe we'll actually get some new stuff in there soon.

Sometimes I leave Rogers Park

Sometimes I leave Rogers Park, and sometimes I take my car with me when I do so. Then I get confused by the fact that the highways in the area are generally all referred to by names, instead of by number. Thankfully, this article exists to help guide me, in case I ever need to figure out where the "North-South Tollway" is.

What's Up With This Building?

Hi, I'm Kate. I'm Al's girlfriend, and I'll be an occasional contributor here. I have a personal blog and a book blog that take up most of my time, but hey, who doesn't need another blog?

Self-promotion out of the way, I'm wondering if anyone knows the scoop on this building, at the northwest corner of Sheridan and Pratt:



When I moved here in 2005, all of the retail spaces you see along the bottom there were occupied: a hardware/convenience store, a hair salon, a storefront church, a taqueria, a video store, and a liquor/grocery(ish) store. Now, only the last two remain, and nothing's gone in to replace the others. (How the video store stays in business when the others haven't totally baffles me.)

I'm assuming the building's owner must be deliberately refusing to renew leases or sign new ones. It's not exactly prime real estate, but similar small businesses on Sheridan right around there seem to be doing fine--I'm sure those spaces could move if they were on the market. Anybody know why they're not? My best guess is, the owner wants to sell the building off to condo developers--but some of those storefronts have sat empty for over a year now. It doesn't make sense.

Al and I fantasize about all the things that could go in those spaces: jazz club, yoga studio, dog groomer, pub... Hell, I'd be psyched for another taqueria and beauty shop, and maybe a liquor store that's not quite as grotty as the existing one. But as it is, there's practically nothing on that side of that block, and there hasn't been in ages. What's up with that?

Spam in Rogers Park

Teaching people how to deal with spam, preventing spam, sanctioning spammers, is pretty much my full time job. So, I find it particularly disappointing that one of my neighbors seems to be spamming people with this DFA "open letter to Don Gordon," trying to get him to back off from his election challenge.

I'm reserving judgment on the whole Don Gordon aldermanic election challenge itself, for now. This isn't about the merits of the argument. This is about forcing your views on people who didn't ask for them.

Spam is wrong. It's the online equivalent of the unwanted garbage that litters our sidewalks. Why would somebody knowingly send spam?

Here's why I'm starting this blog

Rogers Park is a cool and vibrant community. It also has a lot of active bloggers. This is awesome, and I love it. The problem is, there's a subset of bloggers who post weird, abusive and over-the-top things to try to get a rise out of their neighbors.

I've felt deceived a few different times now. Sucked into reading an interesting neighborhood blog. Learning about the politics of the neighborhood, what's going on, who's who, etc. Then, out of nowhere, a blogger posts something offensive or insulting, to make it very clear that THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT and everybody else is ABSOLUTELY WRONG AND SHOULD BE PUNCHED IN THE FACE. I think a blog's credibility is damaged when this happens. I think smart people usually act (and write) in a reasoned and restrained manner. When a blogger is doing the opposite, it give me pause. I think that when I don't know a lot about a given situation, that misplaced vitriol, hatred and screaming on a blog are stumbling blocks to understanding. In short, it doesn't help, and it doesn't sway.

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with this, but here's where I'm going to start, by sharing a couple of the crazy things that I've seen lately on local blogs that I thought were just, well, lame.

Tom at Rogers Park Bench posted this loving tribute to North Korea and tyranny in general, entitled "The Left's Historical Support for Tyranny." He seems to have thought better of it and yanked the post back. It had already been pushed out via RSS, so I was able to screen shot it from my Google Reader feed. Gee. Thanks for implying that everybody with even slightly differing politics than your own must obviously be supporters of communism and tyranny.

In a disappointing display of "do as I say, not as I do," Tom documents an instance of this happening on Thomas Westgard's Rogers Park Rake. In this case, Westgard tried to subtly sneak in a Nazi slam against Don Gordon, according to what I saw on my RSS feed. He also had a change of heart, and pulled it back, but not before it was seen by multiple readers. In the post, he compares Don Gordon to Vidkun Quisling. A Nazi reference (even 'subtle' or indirect) is something that I consider to be an argument of last resort. It says that one has no more words, no more brain power, no more ability to actually deconstruct somebody, or their argument, through intelligence. It's the online discussion equivalent of an eight-year old flipping out and throwing rocks on the playground, mad because he can't get his way and doesn't have the words to explain why.

I've been on the internet long enough to already be familiar with Godwin's Law. Apparently not everybody else is.