also i wore purple tights, because, you know, go cats and all.
12 October 2007
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 the two-story corner barnes and noble where i would frequently nap, which has been replaced by a shinier version across the street?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.