little blog on the prairie

On today’s radar:

*If you’re a C-U newbie, or even an oldie, you might want to tune in Thursday to our very own public television network WILL-TV, as the newest season of Prairie Fires debuts at 7:30 p.m. This is the only newsmagazine in the world that gives a damn about Central Illinois.

* Cody Sokolski and the One Main gang are taking their act up I-74 to Normal, where they plan to build three mixed-use edifices akin to the downtown Champaign project. Wonder if that will go up before or after the Sokolski-backed boutique hotel planned for downtown Champaign.***

*I got take-out from the brand new Chinese place “Shanghai 1938” the other night. Let me preface this by saying that I’m no connoisseur of Chinese food; it’s my last resort for Asian cuisine. But I was craving some sesame chicken, and we were in the neighborhood, so what the heck. Here are my impressions: the food was decent, although the broccoli that accompanied my chicken was overcooked completely. The decor there is a little more upscale than your average Chinese restaurant around here; it’s probably worth another go.

*If you clicked on the link above about Shanghai 1938, you might have noticed the announcement that Papa Del’s will finally move into Village at the Crossing sometime “this spring.” Whatever.

*** UPDATE: In today’s N-G, Don Dodson reports that Sokolski has backed off the boutique hotel dream. He writes: “Over the past year, Sokolski has expressed interest in developing a “boutique hotel” in downtown Champaign. But he said that as of Tuesday, he’s been unable to identify a suitable site for it. A preferred site fell through, he said.”

We complained on Friday, so I won’t mention how bleepin’ cold it is outside. So when it’s cold, what do we do? We go to the mall. Well, it’s last chance to hit Stride Rite to get some pricey kids’ shoes.

Sources tell lbotp that the venerable shoe seller is closing up shop at Marketplace Mall. I presume that there wasn’t enough $54 baby footwear flying off the shelves, here in the Land of Three Super Wal-Marts.

But don’t fret — you can still buy Stride Rite shoes locally at Andy’s Shoes in Champaign.

Sources also tell lbotp that rumor has it that BR (we will not write out the name of the store until we see a signed lease,giggle) is now coming to Marketplace Mall. Of course, we’ve been done this road before. BR was one of the stores that was supposed to anchor the new “Courtyard” area of the mall where Ann Taylor Loft, J. Jill and Coldwater Creek now sit.

(To send me a tip, drop me a line at lbotp16(at)gmail(dot)com.)

It’s Friday, and for that I’m grateful and happy. But I have a boatload of complaints built up this week, and I’m going to share them with all of you, because it’s time to Speak Your Piece (our version of my favorite feature on WGN Radio’s Kathy and Judy Show).

1. What is up with the lackadaisical snow plowing around here? I could hardly believe the state of Windsor Road during rush hour this Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?).

2. Once again, people don’t know how to shovel their sidewalks, and now it’s like walking on a sheet of ice. Yesterday, the Killer Cockapoo and I both almost wiped out simultaneously.

3. Two words: tanning salons. No one is that dark in January.

Please join me and air your grievances to the world, no strings attached, and enter the weekend with that fresh feeling.

Longtime lbotp readers will recall my scary obsession with Starbucks — when was it coming to town? Where? How many? It was the 2004-5 version of blog pet Trader Joe’s, with one major difference. The quest for Starbucks wasn’t so much about getting good coffee — there are plenty of other places to procure that here — but just the symbolism of it that mattered. With a Starbucks here, this was actually a real place.

Our good friends from Seattle descended upon Champaign with gusto, opening three locations in just about a year. But somehow, they never crossed Wright Street. That will all change very soon, as Starbucks has discovered Urbana. As Deb Pressey reported on Sunday, the company is building a store at the corner of Main and Vine (the corner where the Schnucks strip mall sits). It sits within walking distance of an overflowing source of potential regulars with a lot of disposable income (the mafia of lawyers that dwell downtown) as well as in a high-trafficked corner — seemingly a fool-proof recipe for success.

That said, I can’t believe this will happen without at least one Urbana resident objecting.

Today’s list:

*The Seaboat is coming to the Kirby Avenue corridor, across from Hessel Park in the old Denny’s Cleaners building. Curious.

*The people folk have been begging the News-Gazette to join the rest of the modern newspaper world and put more stuff online. Well, be careful what you wish for. I just discovered that, without warning, the N-G has put their Web archives behind bars. For $2.95, you can have your story. Of course, this archive is not comprehensive. I’ll have to check what that means for my many links to N-G articles.

*Speaking of our friends at the N-G, perhaps they hired a new copy editor who is not familiar with the area. That’s the only logical explanation for the goof in the silly header above Saturday’s story that read “Urbana County Board.”

*Three cheers for the folks at the University of Illinois, who realize that although they can’t seem to lease retail space underneath the parking garage across University Avenue from Perkins, C-U doesn’t need another tanning salon: 

Any time you create a new shopping district, even if it’s a small one, no retailer wants to be the first, McConaha said. “We didn’t want to sell ourselves short. We didn’t want tanning salons. We wanted something that really added value, that provided not just a revenue stream, something that would help existing staff and researchers,” he said.

AMEN.

*Wonder if there are really that many Colts fans around here. Come on people, this is Bears country, orange-and-blue, tried and true. Da Bears. Ditka. Payton. See you in South Beach on Feb. 4.

My Jolly Roger story: Mr. lbotp and I went there exactly once. The only reason it was memorable (certainly the food wasn’t, in my humble opinion) is that there was this really super LOUD woman who might as well have been sitting at our table. Her voice was pretty recognizable, otherwise we would have probably asked her to peep down.

It was none other than Champaign’s very own Olympic superstar, Bonnie Blair.

I feel sorry for the employees who went out of their way to keep this place in business, only to get burned by the owner, who last year faced drug charges (later dropped). But let’s let sleeping dogs lie …

Schnuck’s recently announced that it is cutting prices on “10,000″ items (whatever that means) in an effort to compete with megagrocer Wal-Mart, which is waging war on the St. Louis staple. This article from the Post-Dispatch says that Schnuck’s will be cutting prices at its stores in the St. Louis metro area along with Springfield, Ill, but will leave its artifically inflated prices at stores in C-U.

Shouldn’t the Champaign and Urbana stores be worried about the Wal-Mart roll-out locally? In the past five years, no less than three Wal-Mart boxes have opened in C-U. Of course, around here, Schnuck’s is the “upscale” grocer, with little competition for the higher-end market (no Whole Foods, I think we’ve been over that once or twice). One wonders/hopes that these price cuts will spread …

Colorful signs announcing “the future home of” big box stores are now officially a trend in the former Big Grove. I think I’ll go stake out a random Urbana field and put up a sign announcing the future home of the little blogger on the prairie.

Speaking of Urbana, how did we miss out on this blog for so long?

(*what else is new)

• It’s your last week to avoid the crowds in Campustown for awhile. Check out Tout Sweet if you haven’t already.
• The way the Illini have been playing, there might be good seats available later on this season as the bandwagon jumpers fly off.
• It’s interesting that there’s also a “budding” black market for Ebertfest passes on the Chambana Craig’s List, if you can call it that — not many people selling, but a lot of wannabe buyers.
• How come I never knew about this place until today? Might be worth a trip to Bloomington with the Killer Cockapoo in tow. If I had known about it a couple weeks ago, we would have gotten her a doggie birthday cake. She’s now the ripe old age of three.
• Via Champaign of Blogs, you have to see this for yourself. Warning: probably NSFW (not safe for work, depending on your boss.)

In baseball, the hot corner is a euphemism for third base. In Champaign, the hot corner for retail outside of North Prospect was Kirby and Mattis, home of Old Farm Shoppes.

Maybe it’s losing a little of it’s luster. In the last couple of weeks, Elliott’s Meats, a deli that also catered and PYOP, the paint-your-own-pottery place, both shut down.

Both of these places were stores that I didn’t have much use for right now, but I was glad they were there. I imagined one day taking my daughter to the PYOP place and having a fun activity to do together on a rainy day or a snowy afternoon. Perhaps another, more “trendy” paint-your-own-pottery business could do well here. It seems to be all the rage to have bachelorette parties there (I’ve been invited to three like that, all in Chicago. In fact, one of them is tomorrow).

And someday, damn it, I was going to have enough money to afford to have Elliott’s cater a fancy party at my house for all my not-so-fancy friends. Now the dream will defer to Michael’s.

It’s sad to have more locally-owned businesses go out, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. That corner has become more and more corporate in recent years, with Joseph A. Bank and Chico’s taking over large spaces.