Oh God, no

Tonight was the open meeting where the Cubs met with the neighbors to bounce a few ideas off of them and see how they felt about slapping up a hotel.

Judging by the local news tonight, the quiet dignity of Ronnie Wickers was a calming force on the meeting as no one was screaming or throwing things, so that's what we'll call progress.

While I agree that a hotel in the neighborhood would be a license to print money in that neighborhood, the real estate is too pricey to just start knocking down buildings to make way for the HoJo. Still, can you imagine the money that a hotel would pull down within two or three blocks of Wrigley?

If they had parking, too? It would be incredible. In fact, assuming you could find enough owners looking to sell, you'd have a hard time convincing investors that they wouldn't get their money back.

When you consider how much money the property owners are raking in, there's not a lot of incentive to sell. When I hear stories of how the neighborhood used to be a little rough around the edges, it baffles me that no one got in on the land grab just for this reason.

I'll keep looking around for pictures of the proposals, but I wasn't too impressed with the quick glimpses that were on the news. Imagine the shower stall condo setup, but replace "condo" with "hotel."

Hey, at least the Trixies will have a place to stash their parents when they come to visit from now on.

* If you want a cheap laugh, check out the weekly column and scroll down to the part that mentions the first night game in 1988. Some knucklehead who ran out of the field e-mailed in to say that the $50 ticket he got for sliding on the tarp was totally worth it.

I tend to agree at prices like that. The Cubs' beat reporter addresses this with a, "P.S. Fans should note fines have increased for disorderly conduct." Yeah, that's going to help.

Expect to hear, " I could have sworn that I read somewhere that it was $50 and no ass-beating to run out on the field..." at some point this summer. Maybe more than once.

Morning Update: Here is the link from the Tribune this morning that has some video from last night. One question remains - where will people buy crap if those shops are leveled in favor of these developments?

(Image from MetsGrrl.com)