Quote:
Originally Posted by spyguy
That honestly sounds like the arguments NIMBYs made against the Toyoko Inn project by Union Station ("The rates are so low it'll attract homeless people"). Even though the rooms are small, the lowest price for random dates seems to be over $200/night. Yes that's New York, but I don't think rates will differ enough that in Chicago Yotel will attract a "bad element."
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Presumably the Toyoko and Yotel etc. developers do their homework to avoid room prices falling too much, but I would still hesitate to criticize as Nimby a local who is concerned about siting for this. There is no shortage in history or today of big cities having undesirable areas persist around things like bus stations (or say the Pacific Garden Mission on Wabash until recently), and the Toyoko site is two blocks from Sears Tower and the old post office and is in a yet-to-boom part of the West Loop, not to mention the spot we hope HSR and Union Station will flourish. In fact, at worst any city pushback ought to result only in them moving a bit further away to cheaper land, which still should fit well with their general business model. Of course it is unlikely a new hotel would go so far as to morph into something resembling Pacific Garden Mission, but I couldn't help noticing there's already something called "Beggars Pizza" on the block where Toyoko was proposed, hehe...
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Demolition alert -- actually, "demolished" alert -- a bunch of very old industrial buildings on Elston at Leavitt, next to the Home Depot. Google Street View still has them, but it looks today they have virtually completely disappeared seemingly overnight.
Until their demise they looked decrepitly uneconomical enough (look at the yellow "For Lease Cheap!" sign in Street View) that there was probably zero hope for them, but maybe there was some historical value to them. (Anyone know?) At a minimum, they were a sight for sore eyes (scraggly, but quaint and pleasing in a way) on the suburban sewer big-box stretch of Elston between Fullerton and Diversey.