Buy in NoMi on Small Business Saturday

Post and image by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image initially from the West Broadway Business & Area Coalition.

If you believe the big box retail industry, customers are clamoring for earlier and earlier opening times for Black Friday.  And in their benevolence, they have responded by taking their employees away from their families on a holiday so that stores can open at midnight as Thanksgiving turns to Black Friday.  Remember, they're doing it just for you!

Or if you're like me, you can express disgust by closely tracking which stores open at midnight, and vowing not to shop at any of them in between November 25th and December 31st.  And if that's the case, you may be looking for deals at your local small retailers.  If any other local businesses want to be written about here, use the comment section or contact me.  The West Broadway Business Coalition sent out an email listing deals from NoMi businesses on Saturday, November 26th.

The deals are as follows (click for more, as the deals aren't fully shown in the image above)...

Proposal for BJ's Site Get an Upgrade

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photos by Pat Carney.
Editorial note:  This post is appearing on NXNS instead of Hawthorne Voices because there has not yet been time for the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council to review Land Ho's proposals or take an official position on them.  It's clearer, then, that any opinions expressed here are mine only, and not necessarily formal positions of HNC.

The developers for Land Ho, which is moving forward with a plan to acquire and develop the current site of BJ's, came before the Hawthorne business committee last week.  One of the first things I noted when they gave their proposal was that the name on the bottom of their design plans had changed from "North Loop Gateway" to the far more bland "W Broadway & Washington Mixed Use Development."  I consider this to be at least a small sign that they are paying more attention to our community.  Some of my neighbors had agreed with my expressed concern that naming the project after a neighborhood where the development wouldn't even take place was, at best, insensitive to the Hawthorne and Near North communities.

As it happens, the name won't be prominently displayed on the constructed building; it's just a tagline for the proposal as it moves forward.

The other area of concern that I had was in regards to how well the current proposal fits in with the West Broadway Alive Plan.  The initial site drawings for the development really did not take enough of that Plan  into account.  As Land Ho has gone to various community groups and committees at the city council, it appears that their plans have come more and more into conformity with West Broadway Alive.  Are they close enough for approval?  That remains to be seen, although I have to admit to being pretty impressed with what was presented to the HNC business committee.

Where things really get interesting is in a dispute between...