College Town idea - Update

I knew UT Foundation bought the old NAPA store, but now they bought Mac's Motors as well. The real estate along Dorr is so CHEAP! As Krompac says, it is an untapped resource. Polling students is good, but I have a feeling many UT students don't know what they are missing. I hope the survey is guided by successfully blended campus/community settings like Ann Arbor and OSU.


Original Post - August 14th 2005:

As tonight winds down I can feel the energy around campus. Today I heard the UT marching band warming up. Students are trickling into the apartments. It won't be long until UT is back in full swing, I love that feeling.

I really wish the Dorr Street corridor would be developed with nothing but a college town atmosphere in mind. It is really a perfect strip of low cost and blighted land perfect for that purpose. UT has invested so much money in that side of campus, and it will be brimming with students this year upon completion of the huge new dorms. Two other large apartment complexes on Douglas/Westwood are finished now. And finally now the apartments near Dorr/Secor have finally been reclaimed for students. Last year I saw the changes taking place and it has done so much to spruce up the area (both grounds and inhabitants).

Designating a section of the city as College Town and focusing development around a student and young professional theme could work wonders for retaining some of those grads. Instead of thinking the town is one that dislikes them, they would think the town understands them and supports them. The area along Dorr does not conflict with the family oriented areas of Old Orchard and Ottawa Hills. It is within easy walking distance of the majority of student housing.

Larry Dillin, we need you! Follow Corpus Christi's lead and do something successful. Exploit the synergy of our beautiful, intelligent university with thoughtful, rational development!

pump up that ego

Yeah, so I'm in grad school and I have this math class that is actually making me think, hard. I thought this 8th grade quiz would be a fun diversion. Luckily I didn't embarrass myself.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

The Axis prevail...

Had a good 4 person match of Axis & Allies last night. I played Japan. It was a much needed respite from more difficult things like work, school, family. I made a new friend named Nick, who played Germany. We used good teamwork to put the squeeze on Russia. We had to call the game at 1am. Shamy was Russia and US, Allen was UK.

Am I a Libertarian?

According to this I'm pretty far into Libertarian territory.


Of course it was only about 10 questions from a libertarian web site. Still, all things considered their demographics of people taking the test were pretty balanced.

If you are a regular aaron.blog reader, take the quiz and let me know where you score. I'd like a survey of where my friends, family, readers, and detractors/lurkers stand.

Must have desktop Trebuchet

Since my cube nieghbors are much too nice to throw things at over the wall, I'm hoping someone buys me one of these nifty portable trebushets to launch some serious paper wads down the hall at my esteemed colleagues.

Ahh, the good old days at MCO... when the supply closet was always stocked with plenty o rubber bands.

weekend log

I had Friday afternoon off and so did Megan, so we had a nice 2 hour lunch together and then a long walk down the UT/Parks trail. I try to take those plastic grocery bags with me when taking a walk. I gathered up 2 bags full of litter on this expedition.

On Saturday I took the kids for a double header to COSI in the morning and the Zoo in the afternoon. We ate lunch on the patio at COSI, it was gorgeous weather. Its good that COSI (or the city) is finally repairing some of the concrete that has been flaking off that building. Its pretty sad that a building that new has problems like that. Quality isn't what it used to be. Take the Pythian castle versus the new buildings at Levis. You can see a photo of the Pythian in my downtown fire pics a couple weeks ago.

We also watched some of the rowing races down the river at the Docks. One of my colleagues said there were many visitors from out of town for the races. He also said they finally found the body of that missing doctor. So all of the visitors this weekend were greeted by a body floating in the river and race riots.

On Sunday Megan took the kids out so I could do some homework.

Downtown Fire

We had a view of the downtown fire from our office building today. Seeing the huge brick wall collapse was surreal. I'm assuming some cars are beneath that rubble. A colleague of mine took some photos and I fixed them up a bit for you.


I regularly walk by that corner (Monroe and Ontario) and it always smelled so bad from the dampness and the birds. At the beginning of the fire, you could see a couple hundred pigeons just circling above, not sure where to go.

I always thought the architecture of that building (arches especially) gave it good potential for some renovation project like the Bartley Lofts.

weekend log

Friday night I was called in to work because my main database server was very sick. The data volume lost two drives from the RAID 5 team.

On Saturday mom took the kids for an overnighter. Megan and I spent some much needed quiet time together. We had lunch at Saigon Bistro, one of her favorites around town. I had the Pho Tai, which is a hot broth noodle dish with steak and green onions. They put sprouts, limes, and other various spices on the side for you to add to your liking. Later we went to see the Pibare Krishna Rasam by Sujatha Srinivasan, a beautiful collection of short Hindu poems and proverbs choreographed to live music and dancing. Absolutely fantastic! The dance school is based in Cleveland.



Sunday was the boring housework day, along with study time. I'm slogging my way through a differential equations course...ugh. Hopefully my fantasy football team will pull off an upset against my brother's team. The Tizzles are hungry for their first win of the season.

What is wrong with these people?

So we have had a roadmap for peace in Israel. Sharon withdraws from Gaza, taking great political and civil heat in doing so. I first thought the stories of settlers tearing down their structures before exiting seemed bitter and shallow. Next, Israel sent in troops to physically remove the remaining settlers from occupied Gaza. The keys to the kingdom are peacefully handed over. Then what happens? Massive chaotic Palestinians pouring into the areas, overwhelming their own police, with the extremists claiming the credit for making this day come true. Right, so if Arafat had lived just a bit longer this would have happened anyhow...my intuition says not. Palestinians torch the remaining synagogues and structures instead of dismantling in a civilized way. Now I thought THAT was really shallow and insulting as well. Now, just a couple weeks later, the militants are stupid enough to start shooting rockets/mortars into Israel?

News Link

Like they have a real chance at accomplishing anything? Unless of course what they are trying to accomplish is more occupation, more chaos, more physical retaliation, and less life. So the circle of violence grows and grows and grows. Darwin, where are you?

Basra Jailbreak

Today two British soldiers being held in an Iraqi prison were busted out by their comrades. What a shame the jail was destroyed and 150 criminals also went free. The Iraq situation gets crazier all the time! If there is control in Basra, why would this be necessary?

News Link

Pledge of allegiance unconstitutional?

Just in from AP "SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional Wednesday, a decision that could put the divisive issue on track for another round of Supreme Court arguments."

News Link

Michael Newdow, the same man who brought the case to the supreme court last year, is back with the same argument. How could this be? Because the court threw the case out on a technicality. I just rolled my eyes when I heard that reasoning. He is back with 3 families that have full custody of their children. Well, nothing like a hotly divisive issue to give Roberts a baptism by fire! They should have known the case would be back.

I actually believe the pledge should revert back to the original, without the words "under God". If you believe in God, great, praise Him, her, it, however you believe God exists. If you don't believe in God, what good is it to say you think the country is under God? Does it make them less of a citizen? Does it make them less patriotic to believe only in what they can see/feel/prove? Why drive a wedge into patriotism?

Similarly, why should someone swear in under oath with a Bible if they don't subscribe to that religion? It makes no sense at all. They should be swearing by their own integrity, under penalty of perjury. Bearing false witness is already a sin according to the ten commandments, so isn't this procedure sort of redundant for Christian's sake?

Nice shot Wilkowski

It is time to take down my yard sign. I guess the people of Toledo really do not want change from the last 12 years of relative economic and population decline. If the supporters of Ludeman and Wilkowski joined together under one candidate they would have amost tied Carty, and beat Ford by 10%. I support Ford in the final election. He balanced the budget in hard times, and does not throw damaging temper tantrums when things aren't going his way. Ford certainly had the grass roots support out in force yesterday. I was handed two pieces of literature when walking in to vote, had one on my door when I came home, and found TWO answering machine messages from him. All this and I'm a registered republican!!! I received nothing from the republican party during the entire season thus far. I always vote for the best candidate regardless of party, but I found this fact interesting.

Hurricane Katrina

I heard about the shoot to kill orders this morning. Officials already know the majority of the people left behind at this point are impoverished, many of whom are blacks. Now that many those remaining have been forced to live like animals, you say you are thinking about killing some of them? What does an animal do when backed into a corner? Not only have they opened themselves up racial backlashes, retaliatory attitudes, and lawsuits, they've practically invited others to join the rioting. With any luck, people will be too tired to take this approach, and just be thankful for finally getting rescued.

There are armed thugs, armed vigilantes, armed people teetering on both sides of that fence, and even unarmed people still roaming the flooded streets. Police always have the right to respond with deadly force when they are attacked; there is no need to tell people watching TV that they are sending in troops ready to kill. That message is being stated for the benefit of the world disgusted by the reports of looting. Let me ask, with 2 million without power across that region, how many people in New Orleans are watching CNN?!? Declairing the will to use deadly force, whether they intend to kill or not, is a foolish strategy, because the people you are going to kill are not even hearing the message. The people hearing the pre-meditated message are bound to hear stories of injustice, and they will put the two together making a conspiracy out of it. The rhetoric will fly.

4 civilians were killed at Kent State in a protest 40 years ago and we've never stopped hearing about it. Think of that, combined with an element of desperate survival and throw the race card into the mix...if the guardsmen open fire on anyone publicly perceived as innocent you could have LA riots all over again. Lets pray for calm.

weekend log

Saturday I worked around the house...put the finishing touches on my son's new bedroom. It is lofted with a nice cozy reading corner. He is quite happy with it except that we haven't brought his computer in yet. My daughter is desperately holding on to it in her inherited room. Its alright, I have another one to build up that just needs a monitor. Using a program like GameDrive makes kids computers so easy to maintain. A virtual CD drive keeps the software thinking the CD is installed even though it is safely tucked away from the mangling hands of youngsters.

On Sunday we went over to the first annual art fair at Levis Commons. It was very comparable to UT's Art on the Mall. Not quite as scenic as campus, but has more eating venues and good parking. I didn't see two of my favorite artists "Mr Atomic" aka the Kersey brothers. Their vibrant works can be seen all over Toledo, at the Docks for instance (Tango's, Old Navy Bistro). I have one of their paintings by Mark at home called "Computer Man".

Weekend log

On Friday my brother came up to help me install nice new baseboard trim around the new room downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. Having that 18v Dewalt cordless nail gun sure speeds up the job!

Saturday I installed new gutters along the front of the house.

Sunday I finished the jacks for voice/data/cable wiring for the new downstairs family room. The centralized wiring closet is working out nicely. In my first escapade with X10 home automation, I wired my cable modem and firewall router to be rebooted remotely via the computer. Later I returned the favor to Rion and helped him install crown molding in his country mansion. I guess its not a mansion yet, but you could fit my house inside his with room to spare, plus mine has two kids in it and his has none.

A new start for Westgate

I hope Costco makes it happen in Westgate:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/BUSINESS10/508090348

Westgate's demise has really bothered me, coupled with the empty retail around the closed Food Town on Secor. A Costco in place of the old Dillards is convenient to the city dwellers and will be an incredible improvement to the area. It is an anchor that will revitalize the whole retail district around Central/Secor. I'm sick of having to go to the burbs for decent big box shopping (and don't jump on the "why Walmart and every other big box is evil" bandwagon with me, I disagree).

I just hope they improve the look of the shopping center to mesh better with the classic neighborhoods. I think Home Depot did a decent job of that a few years back. I doubt they would have put in the money and effort if there wasn't so much community "involvement" during that ordeal. Yes, we'll have to deal with some juggling of retail space regarding the surrounding shops. In the end there will be room for all of them I'm sure, even if it means moving across or down the street a short ways. They will all benefit in the long run (probably even short term as soon as Costco opens).

Shankland disturbs me...

In the August 3-9 issue of Toledo City Paper Terry Shankland (a candidate for City Council) claims COSI is dead, dark, and dingy. He says it cannot support itself financially so it makes no sense to keep it. That way it can be a shopping center again, albeit a heavily subsidized one ("we can't kill the stores with high rent"). Does anyone see a contradiction here? Further more, to say it should die because it doesn't break even is nonsense. Using the same logic we should shut down the libraries, parks, and public transportation.

COSI is a huge success and asset to this region. Believe it or not, it helps make downtown a destination, not just for Toledoans. Educated, creative families want venues like this, the zoo, the stadium, the metro parks, the museum, etc. Thousands of children come to our COSI each year to prop up their science curriculums and build enthusiasm. We all know Toledo schools could use all the help they can get. Many progressive cities have science museums for their children. We have a great one that should be maintained, improved, and encouraged.

About COSI being dark and dingy, it is not by any means dark unless you consider the areas that are SUPPOSED to be dark. Dingy may be true, I've commented on some of the dust accumulating in certain areas to the COSI administration. They said they were going to pose a funding issue to the voters a while back, but the Ford administration asked them to hold off to be part of an overall arts improvement budget. It seems to me they should just bring it to the voters independently. The independent venues that are supported directly by customers, voters, and benefactors seem to be the most successful. When city politics get involved, enthusiasm and progress seem to come to a grinding halt. I'm thinking of successes like the Zoo, Metro Parks, Museum of Art, Rep, etc.

As for having more retail space downtown, there seem to be plenty of other vacancies. Leave COSI alone, better yet, support it.

ROADTRIP!!!

Mom picked up the kids on Friday night so Megan and I split. We decided make Chicago our destination. Traffic was nasty getting there so we pretty much arrived at the hotel and crashed. Saturday was so beautiful...we had a leisurely morning of eating and shopping. Megan couldn't miss the Sanrio store, and keeping pace I required a trip to the Lego store. Later in the afternoon we walked around Oak Park. We saw FLW's Unity Temple, an awesome venue for a UU congregation. The town is gorgeous, we walked around the neighborhood admiring the old homes. For Toledoans, it is like the Old West End on steroids. It had a very lively main street, very pedestrian friendly and alive with activity. We ate at the Khyber Pass Indian restaurant, it was excellent.

Today I wired the downstairs for cable, telephone, and data (the gigabit backbone grows). I creatively snaked it through the stairwell by popping off the top step, down to the central wiring closet. 5 of the 9 rooms are wired now. 2 more will happen later in the fall. Also, its time to begin X10 experimentation.

An amazing journalist/blogger

Its too bad I learned of Steven Vincent's blog only in death. He was a terrific writer and seemed to have little restraint in his investigative work.

http://spencepublishing.typepad.com/in_the_red_zone/

I've always felt that turning Iraq into a democracy would be handing its future to a heavier political influence from Iran (via religion), and after reading parts of SV's blog I feel my predictions are partially verified. Not exactly a step in the right direction, or at least in the intended direction.

weekend log

On Friday night I mowed the grass for the first time in 6 weeks. Later we killed some time out at Media Play and Target.

Saturday we puttered around the house in the morning. Megan made these awesome baked pan cakes with fruit compote for brunch. We stuffed ourselves at Shorty's BBQ in the afternoon...great patio setup there. In the evening we went to a park in Perrysburg and poked around downtown. Because of the temperature and relative niceness of the day, it would have been sacrilege to not have ice cream somewhere. We went down to Maggie Moo's at Levis, and once again it was terrific. I thought it might have just been a fluke when they opened up but no, its some of the best ice cream I've ever had, aside from some of the home made batches we've made.

Sunday was spent painting, cleaning around the house, and paying bills. Not much excitement but made some great progress on the room downstairs. In the evening I planted a willow tree from a start my mom gave. Its only about 5 feet tall now, I really hope the transplant takes. Also I started reading The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals by Ken Henderson.