This blog has moved to Elginite.org

The Elginite blog has moved to...

Elginite.org

Be sure to update your bookmarks!

Elginite.org

OK, we haven't officially launched it yet, but you guys can get a sneak preview of the Elginite.org site. What I like about it is that it has a Elgin forum. We've created some categories, and if there are others we should add let us know. One of the categories is Neighborhoods, and we have forums under that for Downtown Elgin, the Far West Side, and so on. Hopefully that will help people share information about what's happening in their neighborhood.

In the process of migrating the archives in Blogger over to the blog on the Elginite.org site, we've inadvertently destroyed all of the old posts on this Blogger site, but they're available at Elginite.org. If you want to search for old posts and comments, you'll have to do it at Elginite.org

Hope you like the new site!

Webshots

So it seems Flickr is not the only place to find pictures of Elgin.


by imritac

Lost Elgin

Check out http://www.thereusedtobe.org/ to see pictures of buildings in Elgin, Illinois that have disappeared.

Elgin search terms from the AOL leak

Dontdelete.com lets you peer into the search logs of 658,000 AOL subscribers, data that the giant ISP "inadvertently" leaked earlier this month. It highlights what little existing controls there are for what ought to be private information, guarded with a high level of security.

Fortunately, it's possible to use the data without infringing on anyone's privacy. You can type in a keyword on the Dontdelete.com site to see how many people used that term. You can do that without actually seeing what else they may have been looking at.

I typed in "elgin," because I was curious to see what Elgin-related search terms are being used. By number of queries, here are some of the top ones:

51 elgin community college
34 elgin watches
29 elgin pocket watches railroad
20 elgin courier
15 elgin crosswind options
14 elgin railroad pocket watches
13 elgin high school
12 elgin illinois
10 elgin il
10 elgin
8 elgin courier news
8 elgin crosswind
8 elgin condo for sale
8 elgin photos
8 elgin street sweeper repair help
8 elgin sweeper
7 elgin pocket watch
7 elgin mental health center
7 elgin sports complex
7 elgin crosswind sweeper
6 elgin casino
6 elgin symphony orchestra
6 elgin world time manual
6 elgin west
6 elginwatches
5 elgin wrist watch
5 elgin sweepers
5 elgin sweeper crosswind
5 elgin watch bands
5 elgin pocket watches
4 elgin crosswind retail prices
4 elgin clocks-7 jewels 8 day
4 elgin pocket watches railroad
4 elgin pocket watch co
4 elgin il police department
4 elgin watch co
3 elgin watch instructions
3 elgin watch manual
3 elgin high school elgin illinois
3 elgin national watch company
3 elgin illinois jobs
3 elgin river boat

So ECC is number one. I wouldn't have guessed it. The other interesting thing is that the Courier is high up on this list, while the Herald makes no appearance...

Crocker torn down for nothing?

In late 2004, the developers of River Park Place were expecting to break ground on the eight-story, 60-unit condominium building planned for the northwest corner of Grove Avenue and Prairie Street by spring of the next year.

Twenty months later, the Crocker Theater, which formerly occupied a portion of the site, has been torn down, but construction still hasn't gotten under way. (Elgin Courier News 8/21/06)

Though they need only 5 more buyers to begin construction, it's been a long time since they announced that they needed only 5 more buyers. At this point--with the real estate market as it is--it seems that without major prodding from higher powers, this condo may never get built. If the Crocker was torn down in vain, I think there are going to be some angry voters come next election.

The longer this drags out the less likely it will ever get built, because the real estate market will get worse before it gets better. The council should keep that in mind. Afterall, it was less than three weeks ago that Centex pulled out of the Woodfield Gardens project in Rolling Meadows, citing a softening real estate market and increased building costs.

Eli & Josh at Schuba's