Photo By John HoffHere's the contest and here are the rules:
Try to predict when (not if) the building formerly known as Uncle Bill's will meet its dusty doom in the not-so-tender embrace of a backhoe or wrecking ball. Pick the date, hour and minute that clanking heavy equipment meets brick facade with a shuddering "Booooooom!" while Lennie Chism (poor Lennie!) stands by and weeps bitterly at the death of his grand schemes.
Though that whole Lennie weeping thing is not an integral part of the contest. The point is to predict when demolition will happen...
Just use the comments section to post your prediction. I'd urge readers to use your "customary posting name" or your own name, one or the other, otherwise EVERYBODY will be able to claim victory if the contest is won by "Anonymous." Also, if your date passes without demolition, you are allowed to pick a new date.
I'll try to keep linking back to this post to keep the contest current and announce a winner when it happens.
What do you win? Just eternal blog-o-sphere glory at this point, plus my public urging that you become the recipient of free drinks from, well, whoever.
I'll post my prediction first: Monday, August 3, at noon.
Try to predict when (not if) the building formerly known as Uncle Bill's will meet its dusty doom in the not-so-tender embrace of a backhoe or wrecking ball. Pick the date, hour and minute that clanking heavy equipment meets brick facade with a shuddering "Booooooom!" while Lennie Chism (poor Lennie!) stands by and weeps bitterly at the death of his grand schemes.
Though that whole Lennie weeping thing is not an integral part of the contest. The point is to predict when demolition will happen...
Just use the comments section to post your prediction. I'd urge readers to use your "customary posting name" or your own name, one or the other, otherwise EVERYBODY will be able to claim victory if the contest is won by "Anonymous." Also, if your date passes without demolition, you are allowed to pick a new date.
I'll try to keep linking back to this post to keep the contest current and announce a winner when it happens.
What do you win? Just eternal blog-o-sphere glory at this point, plus my public urging that you become the recipient of free drinks from, well, whoever.
I'll post my prediction first: Monday, August 3, at noon.
15 comments:
Wed Aug 19 in the 9am hour.
Tuesday, 8/11 @ 10 am.
Did anyone ask where Lennie came up with the money to invest to buy the building?
Pick a date and time, buddy. A real developer could SNEEZE and one of their developer buddies would say, "Bless you. Oh, gee, here's $3,000 in my handkerchief."
Thursday, August 27th, approximately 11 AM.
If I win I want to get drunk w/ Johnny Northside!
The northside mafia will win this one.
Six months from now, after Lennie loses interest in this project, he will sell it to the owner of HandiStop (the convenience store that Matt Ditzler was trying to sell Uncle Bill's to back in February, when he was trying to use his seat on the zoning board to "fix" the zoning for his client), or possibly just sell it back to Ali Meschell. Maybe he can get a bidding war going!
I'd love to see the building saved and turned into something the immediate residents actually want. While that probably won't happen, I think there's going to be enough political maneuvering to keep the demo from happening until after the elections.
So I'm going to predict a Groundhog Day demolition. Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 9 a.m. sharp. If the backhoe sees its shadow, we could wait another six weeks.
I don't see how that corner gets developed at all by anybody, for anything commercial at least until the UROC thing on the next block is finished and successfully brings more commercial traffic to the area. There are too many derelict buildings and vacant lots in that area already. Zoning wise, it would probably be better suited to multi-unit residential but there isn't a need for that right now in the area with so much vacant housing.
I think with the new ownership of the block, there will be many opportunities for stalling the wrecking ball through legal means. My guess spring, 2010. One possibility that could move that up is a compromise where Lennie gets paid by the city to tear the building down himself (and retain ownership). Not long ago I remember him circulating an email on the WHO list where he was complaining about Northside businesses not getting the demolition contracts from the city. I assumed it was him he was talking about, even if he would have to subcontract every aspect of said demo-work.
If a business in this building does nothing but provide a safe haven to the area's drug dealers - then I say tear that building DOWN! I place my bet on Monday, August 31, 2009.
Anon 7:53 said -
"Not long ago I remember him circulating an email on the WHO list where he was complaining about Northside businesses not getting the demolition contracts from the city. I assumed it was him he was talking about, even if he would have to subcontract every aspect of said demo-work."
Oh god, so there is no downside for these guys is there?
There's only a few possible scenarios. Let's go through them.
#1 Project moves forward and Lennie doesn't secure the funding/management expertise necessary to pull it off.
OUTCOME- Becomes a nice little commentary piece for McFarlane/Stratten/Edwards to yet again bash the City and CM Samuels because there wasn't enough "support/funding from the government" for Lennie to bring the project to fruition
#2 Project does not move forward and demolition occurs
OUTCOME - see above, with one twist, McFarlane/Stratten/Edwards get ANOTHER commentary piece as "community watchdogs" because Lennie wasn't awarded the contract to demolish his own building at an inflated cost to the taxpayer. Somebody else was hired to do it at a cost of $25k less to the taxpayers.
Maybe a very relevant and specific question might be - to all of those that appear to support this fiasco, if you want to convince the neighborhood as to the worthiness of this project, why don't you lend Lennie $25-$50k each so he can convince the neighborhood residents of the projects' financial viability.
I mean, you were planning to use private monies to fund this venture weren't you?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
To 11:55; I think your predictions are pretty accurate, I'd add to them by saying that, in the process, a bunch of NRRC or City money will go towards one of the Usual Suspects for some vague consulting/window/research/whatever fee (One need look no further than JACC to see the pattern). Not sure how it will work, but somebody will make $$ from this scheme, whether the establishment ever opens or not. In all probability the WHO "Committee" will come back with a ringing endorsement to try and put the lipstick of "community involvement" on this pig and pressure Don Samuals.
It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.
July 31, first hit by 9 AM
That's great, but we need your name or at least some kind of internet moniker.
The winner appears to be the anonymous commenter who said Monday, August 31, 2009. That was the latest date picked--besides VERY late dates that were way off.
Congratulations on your eternal blog glory, which is, um, completely anonymous so almost anybody can claim to be the one who won!
Now we need to pick the exact day, hour and minute that Uncle Lennie files a lawsuit.
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