Suddenly Channeling Lewis Black

[saavedra77]

I won't say that the 500 block of Pine Street was paradise, but they did pave it and put up a parking lot.

For those of you unfamiliar with the neighborhood, the north side of the street between Belmont and Summit used to house the Kincora Pub, the Man Ray, Cha Cha, the Bus Stop, and Bimbo's Burritos--an Irish pub, a gay bar, a coupla dives, and a kind of ... kitschy Mexican Goth joint*.

Then some genius decided that what the neighborhood really needed were more condos. Because, you know, you can never have enough overpriced McMatchboxes for people to come home to after a long day at the cubicle.

So they booted all of the aforementioned swingin' hotspots out of there and razed everything to the ground.

I guess that plan seemed a whole lot less clever when the bottom fell out of the housing market.**

Absent any other immediate way of making a buck off of the property, they've now hit on the idea of charging people to park where they used to want to go.

I'm not bitter. The old block had lots of character, but I've moved on--literally. Hell, my new place is almost on Broadway, so it's not like it's ever gonna be boring.

Still, I sorta hope that the developers lose their shirts on this one.

*Bimbo's actually lives on in a somewhat more yuppified version over on Pike Street, which is I guess some consolation.
**OK, apparently it wasn't the housing market; it was ... cornices. See comments.

Comments

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

It gets better. Turns out, it's not a collapsing-market problem. All the financing was in place. However, the developer had to halt construction at the last minute because the local neighborhood crank filed a complaint against the city and the developer that's currently winding its way through the courts. The crank's complaint? Not enough cornices on the new building design. (Seriously.)

All sides are estimating that it will take at least a year for the court case to be settled, maybe more. Meanwhile, you have a parking lot.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

*Eyeroll* Well, I have to admit, that sounds like our neighborhood, alright.

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong of me to be amused at that?

It sounds like they bulldozed a whole frigging community to put up condos? Fuck 'em.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

S'what I'm sayin': fuck 'em.

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

the new bimbo's is annoying, though, because it's a bar now, and the burrito-to-go service is slower than molasses. woe.

the bus stop supposedly signed on a space on olive, i read on the slog.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure whether it's the slow service, the new layout, or both, but I feel a little uncomfortable waiting for my takeout in the midst of all of the sit-down customers.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

the bus stop supposedly signed on a space on olive, i read on the slog.

Your reporter has independently confirmed this piece of intelligence: a co-worker of mine who sometimes DJs there tells me that they've signed on a space near Apocalypse Tattoo. So there's that.

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

That fucking sucks times one million. GOD.