another city another entry

ah yes, here i am finding myself in the city of independence ohio, a suburb of cleveland to the near south. the first thing that i noticed about this city is that it has a very strict building code for commercial entities as well as a sign ordinance. i find cities like this to be very drab and uninviting despite its otherwise overtly antiseptic looks. And much like all other strict cities, it has the same "every building needs to be surrounded in standard brick colored in cat puke brown" feel about it. i was recently in the city of dublin, ohio and it too is like that, except perhaps more so. whats even funnier is that there is a two-story mcdonalds surrounded in that ugly brick that looks like something you might have found in some 1950's "the world is perfect now that the war is over" novel among houses with white pickett fences, mom, dad 2 and a half kids, and a golden retriever. I could never live in a city like this, and i'm convinced that the only reason people do live here is because they view their house as merely an economic investment and not a home and thus expect property values to sky rocket.

Could YOU live in a place like this? If so, tell me why - I'm truly interested!

fort wayne allen county government consolidation commentary

Much of the local media focus has been on the plan to consolidate the government of Fort Wayne with that of Allen County. If you ask me it isn't hard to see that this makes alot of sense. According to wikipedia, the estimated 2005 population of Fort Wayne is 248,341, while there are only 93,827 people in the rest of the county. Since the county government serves the un-incorporated areas, they would stand to greatly benefit from the increased buying power of a consolidated government as would Fort Wayne. Also, seeing as how Fort Wayne is the epicenter of commerce in northeastern indiana and some of northwestern ohio it is a no-brainer that we need to do what it takes to help the city to continue to thrive.

I'm getting really sick of hearing all these people from the outlying podunk towns whine about this as if Fort Wayne were like the borg and we're coming to assimilate them. I can assure you that this is hardly the case - if anything the services provided to our beloved rural communities stand to benefit from the increased services and gained efficiencies that will be realized by this consolidation.

craigslist fort wayne now online

This may be somewhat stale news - but to my fellow fort wayne readers that don't already know, craigslist.org now has a section for listings from the fort wayne area. enjoy.

ripoff report: the new coca-cola 20 pack

while browsing the grocery section of a local wal*mart i noticed that they recently started to stock cases of coke products that have 20 cans, yet are sold at the price point formerly occupied by the old 24-can cases. even worse is that the 24-can cases were nowhere to be found. i haven't yet seen these bastard children of the pop industry yet at other grocery or convenience stores, but i have a feeling its only a matter of time. since wally*world pretty much sets the industry standards anymore, i have a feeling that this may mark the end of 24-can cases everywhere.

lets just hope that breweries don't follow this trend... then again, the 30-pack is thriving in the beer industry - who knows, maybe by this time next year we'll be seeing $11.99 36-packs of PBR at wally.