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also i wore purple tights, because, you know, go cats and all.

12 October 2007 | maura dot com | 11 Comments

in honor of homecoming, which i am attending in terms of airfare and hotel-room receipts but not in terms of any of the actual events, i put on a waffle-knit long-sleeve and a “funny” t-shirt and a pair of clunky boots and stomped around evanston this afternoon. (i also spent an ungodly amount of money on accessories and shoes, but that’s a discussion for another time.) the burg has unquestionably changed a lot since i was last here for more than a couple of hours–about the only things still standing in their original spot from my time as a “student” are the unicorn cafe, the starbucks where i had my first goddess-branded caffeine drink, the taco bell, and williams shoes, which (probably predictably) had a bunch of ’save our store’ propaganda up behind the register. oh and the flat top grill but that place was never really that good, right?

but what struck me, aside from the fact that the parking garage connected to my nowhere-near-ryan-field hotel has a big sign saying FOOTBALL PARKING outside and seriously wtf is that all about, was how many empty storefronts there were. the two-story corner barnes and noble where i would frequently nap, which has been replaced by a shinier version across the street? for rent. the former home of cereality, a chain that i guess worked better as a highdea than as a business model? empty, even though i don’t think it was even open when i was here for a quick brunch with colleen in january of ‘06. it’s like this weird combination of ghost town and overdeveloped suburb, and i doubt the sizable number of storefronts doubling as advertisements for (very very very ugly glass-box) condos will help the overall vacancy rate in the long run.

it makes me sad, because when i was here for college there were a lot of great little (and not-so-little) stores that got shoved aside for a lot of now-departed shinier things: the store where i would frequently stock up on underwear and tights, and where i bought my first really nice, not stern’s-nice, party dress; second hand rose, which helped me stock my library thanks to its rows and rows of $2 paperbacks; chicago compact disc, which i romanticize for reasons that should be self-explanatory (hi levi/bob, see y’all tongiht); shoot, even the blockbuster where i’d wait outside for tickets on raw saturday mornings. it got so bad that when i saw a window in le peep that had been papered over i gasped, thinking that the rents had gotten to it, too.

11 Comments

  1. mts said on 12 Oct 2007 at 14.40:

    Cereality is still going strong here at Penn… but they say Midwesterners are practical folks, after all.

  2. Levi Stahl said on 12 Oct 2007 at 15.04:

    First they came for Hoos Drugs and Jim’s Charbroil . . . .

  3. Stacey said on 12 Oct 2007 at 16.00:

    Oh Evanston. It’s depressing, isn’t it? At least Clarke’s is still there. Hrumph.

    Say hi to Levi and Bob for me. :) xoxo

  4. Jim said on 12 Oct 2007 at 16.24:

    I’m told the Burger King across from Rebecca Crown is still around as well.

  5. Ariel said on 13 Oct 2007 at 18.40:

    I’m glad to hear Unicorn is still there. Lots of good memories from that place. And I still have one of their travel mugs.

  6. thatbob said on 13 Oct 2007 at 20.07:

    Ooh, the wide-bottomed no spill travel mug? Mine disappeared long ago, breaking my long run of collecting a coffee mug from every place I worked. (Hi maura.)

  7. chickpea said on 14 Oct 2007 at 15.27:

    Hoos?!?! omg. I forgot about that place. Unicorn still makes surprisingly good coffee (given how my tastes have changed), as I recall from my last jaunt through town, though I lost my travel mug on Caltrain in 1999. And Clarke’s! Yum. … that Blockbuster? I won a Reality Bites contest there freshman year.

  8. DK said on 16 Oct 2007 at 8.56:

    JK Sweets? Please say it’s there; I might have to cry if it’s not.

  9. eliina said on 16 Oct 2007 at 20.46:

    Although I graduated from NU later than you did (I’m pretty sure I first read your blog while I was in college and living in CRC), I’m also amazed by how much the place has changed, just in the past 5 years. At least Kafein is still there. And Al’s Deli.

  10. jeq said on 5 Dec 2007 at 14.32:

    Clarke’s? You mean “Gable’s on Clark”,
    or something else?

    I knew that as Emer’s Hut. Great place to get a slab of cheese on a bowl of chilli, and the runs the following day…

    Yes, things have changed.

  11. Mac said on 10 Dec 2007 at 15.06:

    Didn’t stop by Tommy Nevin’s or head south for a early morning drink at the Mark II Lounge?

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