Comments on: A Strip Mall Is Born, EVB Has The First Renderings

By: zz4j9m

zz4j9m — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:00:00 +0000

True…Aroma is highly accessible to pedestrians: ‘L’ riders, bus drivers and riders, folks needing to eat before shopping at the Jewel (me), neighborhood residents. No navigation of a parking lot…yet there is plenty of parking, too, very nearby!

By: Alex Oconnor

Alex Oconnor — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 18:41:00 +0000

Terrible. Just terrible.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:47:00 +0000

Transforming (or retaining) vast swaths of the community area’s space into concrete emptiness removes density, creates negative space that discourages residence, and caters only to motorists, who aren’t from the area and aren’t participating in the area’s commerce anyway.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:44:00 +0000

I have no evidence for the theory, but Aroma is after all available to walk in from the sidewalk. That is a different access setup than in most strip malls, with the parking lot’s dead space between pedestrians and the storefront.

By: plusorange

plusorange — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:56:00 +0000

So very sad. This building is heinous — it looks straight out of the suburbs. And this 1-story business along Broadway is really keeping the area down. Density is key. Parking lots and 1-story buildings are not!

By: Tone

Tone — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:50:00 +0000

No, this place will be occupied by crap in about five years.

By: gscan

gscan — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 16:32:00 +0000

I have consistently found better customer service at “big box retailers” (and online retailers) than at locally owned stores. For instance, I have never been interrogated for why I was returning a product (and called a liar when I’ve given the explanation) at Amazon or Best Buy. Its happened to me at one of your wonderful Andersonville boutiques. Of course, when you live in a world of stereotype and bias, facts are a mere inconvenience. Keep wearing those skinny jeans, hipster!

By: ChicagoRob

ChicagoRob — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 14:18:00 +0000

Reality is, they rebuilt a space that was vacant for a long time. That corner was dead. They did not displace smaller, local businesses. And my family owned small businesses for 40+ years, competing with larger grocery stores, Home Depots, etc. People who believe in small business with pay a little more and purposely chose local, if the service is great. WOW your customers. Give them a reason to return. And if you are considering starting a small business, we are at capacity with antique stores, bric-a-brac crap stores, nail salons, thai restaurants, and pet places.

By: Jorge Cruz

Jorge Cruz — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 20:45:00 +0000

I have friends that worked for locally owned businesses in Uptown and Andersonville- a bar that rhymed with Mild Jug and men’s clothing store near Clark and Berwyn. They both went out of business giving their employees very little notice, left a lot of unpaid bills with local suppliers that supported them and left their local investors with a complete loss on their investment. Then they moved on and opened new “local” businesses. So this bias that somehow a locally owned business isn’t going to screw over their employees is a myth. Most can’t offer benefits because they don’t have the corporate size to support the cost like a chain retailer does.

By: Zach Walz

Zach Walz — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 18:59:00 +0000

Isn’t Petsmart already competition though? They have their Unleashed store at Broadway and Berwyn.

Jameson will be fine, they are a great business run by great people. I feel good every time I go there, and it’s worth the price premium. Now Ruff & Stuff, on the other hand…

By: Josh Soffer

Josh Soffer — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 18:52:00 +0000

No, it’s both adding ugliness AND it’s encouraging growth. It’s ludicrous to suggest that an empty , decaying building, no matter how notable the architecture or scale, is an improvement over an ugly strip mall that increases consumer traffic to the retail area.

By: Jim Dababneh

Jim Dababneh — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:59:00 +0000

Im a supporter of food service and my industry. As a family we eat out a lot. I have no problems supporting corporate eateries as long as the product and value are good. I don’t get the fascination with Chipotle. To me, its crap.

By: E in Chicago

E in Chicago — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:32:00 +0000

Yay worker-exploiting big box retailers, are you nuts? Chipotle sucks. Stripping the rainforest so a bunch of obese suburbanites can have their oversize burritoes. Very short sided attitude, gscan. As for the local retailers, they have the goods and there’s such a thing as customer service that you don’t find at the big places.

By: zz4j9m

zz4j9m — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:32:00 +0000

We were really hoping for Trader Joe’s, but those hopes were dashed some time ago. I like Chipotle but will probably continue visiting the one near Loyola. Had to go online for cat food, though, as our locally owned shop opted not to carry our cats’ favored brand any longer (Fromm’s).

By: E in Chicago

E in Chicago — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:30:00 +0000

That old funeral home was a really well designed Moderne building. I prefer looking at that empty, awesome building than another soul-less, suburbanish, hodge podge assemblage of CRAP that this thing will be. No taste, no finesse . . . this not growth or gentrification, this is adding ugliness to an already unattractive area.