Yes, I read the great article on the Herbalife work from home scheme, thanks to the link at Pound. It was great. I hate street spam. Now bear with me for a rather rambly segue way to a real point.

Now you may also know that the Chicago Bears are playing their home games at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois this fall, whilst construction continues (we assume) on Soldier Field. I�ve previously mentioned my supreme approval of the Bears. That�s not the issue. The thing is, the city seems to be on crack. Chubby or not. I suppose I should think it�s nice that they�re trying to clean up the city, but I can�t help resenting the fact that they�re only doing all of this so that the city looks nice when the Bears fans come to town.

What�s the point? Don�t give me that �we want campus to look nice to help attract students� crap. There�s no shortage of students, even with the rising tuition costs. And making the facades of the buildings all look uniform is not going to change the fact that students don�t spend lots of time in campustown. Maybe to eat or to go to the bars, but since they all have cars, they�re still going to drive out to the North Prospect mess, where they can shop at Abercrombie, catch a dull mainstream film at the multiplex and then buy cheap groceries at the Meijer.

Have I mentioned the parking woes on campus? Well, let me tell you this: I pay $345 per year to park somewhere on the street a good quarter of a mile from my building. And I�m fairly lucky. The thing is, for all these cars on campus, student parking seems to be a priority. Yet encouraging students living on campus to have cars gives them greater freedom to shop elsewhere.

What have we left? Well, a campustown with new, dull, matching building facades, businesses not doing very well, and no incentive to go down there, since parking is difficult and expensive (all meters 75 cents an hour). So now we�re going to eliminate the concert posters and other assorted signs that litter all college campuses, the things that both inform and give an appropriate feel to the area and inform and draw people to businesses. Yes, let�s create a ghost town!

Okay, but my real beef with all of this is the obvious need to make things pretty for the Bears fans that will flock to town this fall for the games. Has anyone around here ever been to Chicago? I think we fare pretty well in comparison.

Let me clarify�I think I�m so upset because we�re not trying to make the area look unique and interesting�we�re trying to make it look generic and suburban. And in the end, I suspect the visitors will flock to the chain restaurants on North Prospect, near their hotels. Maybe go to the mall, if they want to shop at the same dull stores that are in all the suburban malls. Do we think they�re going down to campus to shop at the independent record store? To pick up cheap gyros?

I�m all for wider, cleaner sidewalks, but that�s as far as I approve. I want the university to consider ways to encourage students and townspeople to use the campus businesses. I want more convenient public lots or parking spaces at cheaper prices. I want neat old building facades and nice businesses. I want the Co-Ed Theater back, not high-rise luxury student apartments. Character and accessibility should be what we have to offer, not the same things suburbanites can get at home.