Trib editorial on families leaving Chicago (Cicero, Oak Lawn: rent, high school, to live)

[MannheimMadman]

damn. that sucks - I really, really like eating there.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by MannheimMadman

damn. that sucks - I really, really like eating there.

Yeah. I've known about this for about a month now but I was sworn to secrecy.

Good luck in Texas, Jeff. Wish I coulda done more to help.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Drover

A few weeks ago the CPS mailed out their acceptance/rejection letters... A local resident I helped to navigate through the CPS application process got rejected for all 14 schools they applied for. This being the latest of numerous grievances, they will likely be pulling up stakes and leaving the state altogether for better opportunities. And if they do, the neighborhood will be losing a long-standing landmark business.

It sounds like they were leaving no matter what.

At this point nobody really knows what schools anyone has gotten into. Calls for waiting lists just started going out a couple weeks ago, and the next 4-6 weeks is the real time frame for finding out what schools your kid has gotten into. While in some ways that's a screwed up system, it's a direct result of allowing people to apply to 20 schools. We only got a direct acceptance into an SEES program, but got into 4 good schools off the waitlist by the end of May. We got more calls throughout the summer offering us spots.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Attrill

It sounds like they were leaving no matter what.

If that were the case, they wouldn't have bothered with wading through the bureaucratic mess in the first place.

Originally Posted by Attrill

At this point nobody really knows what schools anyone has gotten into. Calls for waiting lists just started going out a couple weeks ago, and the next 4-6 weeks is the real time frame for finding out what schools your kid has gotten into. While in some ways that's a screwed up system, it's a direct result of allowing people to apply to 20 schools. We only got a direct acceptance into an SEES program, but got into 4 good schools off the waitlist by the end of May. We got more calls throughout the summer offering us spots.

I asked about where they ended up on the wait lists. I don't remember the exact answer but I remember the lowest number was high enough that it was unlikely anything was going to change. I know someone who was #2 on the wait list at Disney II a couple years ago. She was so sure her daughter was going there that they started telling friends and family she'd be going there. She was wrong -- those two slots never opened up; or no more than one did. Another kid I know was lucky enough to be accepted into one of the dozen or schools her parents applied for last year. Fortunately they've been pleased with that school despite the fact that it wasn't their first choice, because they never did get a call from any of the other schools they were waitlisted for.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Drover

If that were the case, they wouldn't have bothered with wading through the bureaucratic mess in the first place.


I asked about where they ended up on the wait lists. I don't remember the exact answer but I remember the lowest number was high enough that it was unlikely anything was going to change. I know someone who was #2 on the wait list at Disney II a couple years ago. She was so sure her daughter was going there that they started telling friends and family she'd be going there. She was wrong -- those two slots never opened up; or no more than one did. Another kid I know was lucky enough to be accepted into one of the dozen or schools her parents applied for last year. Fortunately they've been pleased with that school despite the fact that it wasn't their first choice, because they never did get a call from any of the other schools they were waitlisted for.

A few (very few) schools don't call on the waitlist, but the vast majority do. If your friends applied to 14 schools the chances that they would be accepted by 2 to 4 of them by the end of May is very high. If you look at any of message boards about CPS the wait list calls dominate the discussions at this time of year. NPN and CPS obsessed have running discussions on what schools are calling and where they are on the lists. Plenty of good schools are already over 50 on the list, and many will definitely break 100 by the end of May. Ravenswood is in the mid 60's at the moment and I believe Burr has passed 100.

All of this is just part of the process, and has been for years.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Attrill

A few (very few) schools don't call on the waitlist, but the vast majority do. If your friends applied to 14 schools the chances that they would be accepted by 2 to 4 of them by the end of May is very high. If you look at any of message boards about CPS the wait list calls dominate the discussions at this time of year. NPN and CPS obsessed have running discussions on what schools are calling and where they are on the lists. Plenty of good schools are already over 50 on the list, and many will definitely break 100 by the end of May. Ravenswood is in the mid 60's at the moment and I believe Burr has passed 100.

All of this is just part of the process, and has been for years.

Why would "pretty good" schools already be over 50? If schools are going that deep into the wait list while others don't even go into double digits, what that tells me is that those schools are virtually nobody's first choice. I mean, into the 100s? How many kindergarten slots are even available at Burr to students outside the attendance boundary? 10? 15? Why are they having so much trouble getting those slots filled? Why do they even have open slots in the first place? Don't families who live within the boundary want to send their kids there? If not, why not?

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Drover

... and today, they've made it official.

"We will be closing soon and there will be a limited number of days left to toast a beer to one of Chicago's favorite German icons."

Mirabell - HOME

Sounds like they are selling to new owners?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by nana053

Sounds like they are selling to new owners?

They're selling the building too, and I doubt the new building owner will be interested in carrying on a restaurant serving a cuisine style that has fallen almost completely out of favor. Last I heard the two most likely scenarios are a) a new BBQ restaurant, or b) condos, depending on which interested party comes through with the best offer. Quite honestly the location is better suited for the latter because there's no available parking nearby. You can't park on Addison, and St. Louis (the cross-street it sits on) is 24/7 permit-restricted parking. That makes it a less-than-ideal location for a restaurant on a corridor that doesn't get a lot of foot traffic.

Why a street that is lined with SFHs from one end to the other all with their own two-car garages needs to have 24/7 permit parking is beyond me, and that sure didn't help Mirabell's business volume when the permit restrictions went into effect. They were able to strike a very favorable deal with K-Mart across the street to let customers park in the K-Mart lot, but that's something people aren't really going to know if they're just driving by the restaurant. What's more, that deal does not get passed on to a new buyer; in fact they had to fight to maintain the existing deal when some investment company bought the property that the K-Mart is sitting on. So it's just not a good place for a standalone retail or hospitality business with no parking lot of its own.

[Drover]

Ironically they were just featured on "Chicago's Best" the week before last:

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by Drover

They're selling the building too, and I doubt the new building owner will be interested in carrying on a restaurant serving a cuisine style that has fallen almost completely out of favor. Last I heard the two most likely scenarios are a) a new BBQ restaurant, or b) condos, depending on which interested party comes through with the best offer. Quite honestly the location is better suited for the latter because there's no available parking nearby. You can't park on Addison, and St. Louis (the cross-street it sits on) is 24/7 permit-restricted parking. That makes it a less-than-ideal location for a restaurant on a corridor that doesn't get a lot of foot traffic.

Why a street that is lined with SFHs from one end to the other all with their own two-car garages needs to have 24/7 permit parking is beyond me, and that sure didn't help Mirabell's business volume when the permit restrictions went into effect. They were able to strike a very favorable deal with K-Mart across the street to let customers park in the K-Mart lot, but that's something people aren't really going to know if they're just driving by the restaurant. What's more, that deal does not get passed on to a new buyer; in fact they had to fight to maintain the existing deal when some investment company bought the property that the K-Mart is sitting on. So it's just not a good place for a standalone retail or hospitality business with no parking lot of its own.

Where they trying to keep out people from driving there and parking there while they took the Blue Line? Hope to make it there before they close. If they knew they were closing I'm not sure why they would wait until a few days before they closed to make the announcement. It seems like an impending closing would be good for business in the short term, lots of people wanting to go there one last time.