torgo

So glad that Lil Sebastian will be able to hang out at Grand Rapids' very own Ponte City apartments.

That green crane they are using to build the tower crane is friggin' yuge.

I am not sure what you mean, but "residential and walkable" is exactly what they should be striving for. If you want a vibrant, thriving downtown with lots of stuff to do, you need residents. Lots and lots and lots AND LOTS of residents.

So is the door of GR's new mini-fridge going to open to the left or to the right?

Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed. The BRT station, which will contain actual live humans using mass transit, surrounded in all directions by cars, cars and more cars. What a pleasant experience that will be. Ugh.

I agree. Finding parking is (and always has been) easy if you are willing to walk a few blocks. I have no idea how this would work, but would also like to see our fair city figure out a better way to deal with shared parking arrangements. Existing parking lots should be filled 24-7 before more is built. Otherwise it seems awfully inefficient, and it makes everything more expensive.

I blame the Red Wings. You can't get outplayed for 50 minutes and expect to win. Sports gods tend to frown on that sort of thing. Ah well, they should be in good shape for the next several years...

I too was very disappointed to see that this failed, although it is not difficult to see why. Ever take a look at the Route 1 bus, or any bus for that matter, anywhere near the suburbs? No one rides the damn thing. Sure, it fills up as you get closer to town, but I'd bet that a lot of people think that they are not getting enough bang for their buck with the current system. Why then, would they fork out more money for another bus line that will two-thirds empty most of the time? The Rapid's ads have been horrible for a long time. They have a great chance in their advertisements to really talk about benefits of mass transit. This time around, they could have talked about how the Silverline would have addressed some of the problems people have with the regular bus system (i.e. it takes too long, etc), but instead we got whiz-bang cartoons for a fleet of shiny new buses that can somehow control stop lights. I agree with others here that people need to stop getting pissed off about this. The sustainability/urbanism proponents are already viewed by many as a bunch of elitists looking to ram one-sided public policy down everyone's throats, acting like they know what is best and unwilling to listen to other points of view. Getting all indignant over the rejection of BRT in a community that, generally, has widely supported mass transit until now, is only going to enhance that opinion.

So what's everyone thinking about the draft for their favorite teams? It sounds like Stafford has been impressive in his workouts, so I'm guessing Detroit is going to take him at #1 overall, even though I think they would be better off with one of the left tackles or Aaron Curry.

candy

His highness Tim Tebow said today that he's coming back in '09. Florida will be absolutely loaded next year, and will be heavy favorites to run the table.

Good game, kind of sloppy and surprisingly low-scoring. Oklahoma kind of blew this one if you ask me. They had two first half possessions inside the Gators' 10 yard line and got no points out of it. One they turned it over on downs, the other Bradford threw a interception at the goal line. Add in the blocked FG and the interception in Florida territory in the 4th quarter, they never really gave themselves a chance. Florida will be just awesome next year, they should return 9 or 10 starters on defense and most of the offense too... not to mention that Tim Tebow might come back as well.

Another BCS showing, another loss for Ohio State. At least they were competitive in this one, coming back to take the lead in the 4th quarter before Texas marched down the field and scored with less than :30 left. It was a pretty entertaining game if you ask me. Who's gonna win the BCS title game on Thursday? I'm going with the Gators by about 10 in a relatively high-scoring game. Oklahoma's defense isn't going to be good enough to pull through.

I agree. Texas should be ahead of Oklahoma because they beat them, and it exposes a big flaw in the way the Big 12 handles things. The SEC does a better job with tiebreakers; their rule says if there is a tie and the 2 teams are within 5 rankings of one another, the tie goes in favor of the winner of the head-to-head matchup. However, its hard to say who's the better team...keep in mind the Sooners just crushed the same Texas Tech team that (narrowly) beat the 'horns. I would think that if Texas and Oklahoma played 10 games on a neutral field, each team would probably win 5.

I read an article that said that ND is hamstrung by its high admission standards, just like Vanderbilt and Stanford are. While there might be something to that, I don't really buy it since sites like scouts.com and rivals.com have consistently rated ND recruiting classes right up there with Florida, LSU, Texas and the other big schools. I just think that Weis isn't a very good college coach. Developing and coaching a bunch of 19 year old students is a lot different from developing and coaching the New England Patriots. Florida should be really good next year, but I'll be a lot of underclassmen will turn pro in 2009 due to the likelihood of a rookie wage scale being instituted in the NFL in 2010.

Well Oregon State lost to Oregon in the Civil War, setting up a USC-Penn State Rose Bowl if USC beats UCLA next weekend. Should be a good game, Penn State's "spread HD" going against the best defense in the nation. Against USC, Notre Dame managed 9 yards of offense in the first half and only 91 yards for the game. They didn't even get a first down until the last play of the 3rd quarter! I wonder if Weis survives till next season? Alabama-Florida looks like it will be a #1 vs #2 SEC title game, should be a classic; both teams are playing really well right now.

So Oklahoma blew apart #2 Texas Tech 65-21, setting up a 3-way tie for the division and BCS confusion. But in all reality, its pretty simple. Texas Tech should drop pretty far down because they weren't even competitive, and Texas should be ahead of Oklahoma since Texas beat them. More interesting is what to do with the other teams that have lost one game they shouldn't have: Florida, USC and Penn State. My top 6 would be: 1. Alabama (undefeated) 2. Texas (beat Oklahoma) 3. Oklahoma (trounced Tech) 4. Florida (tough conference) 5. USC (I think they would beat Penn State head-to-head) 6. Penn State

I think GR needs a zombie walk. Linky Another linky

...Both of which were (sort of) upsets as Texas beats #1 Oklahoma, Florida crushes LSU. Also, #2 Missouri lost to Oklahoma. How bad is Michigan this year? They lost to a lousy Toledo team 13-10 after the kicker missed a chip-shot FG to send the game to OT. The streak of 33 straight bowl games is probably going to be over this year, as I don't seem them winning more than 1 or 2 more games this season.

Crazy weekend... USC and Florida get surprised by teams they should've beat easily. Georgia got whupped by Alabama, and Michigan's comeback over Wisconsin was a real surprise. It's like the Wolverines suddenly remembered how to play football after going in to the half down 19-0.

The Detroit Lions fired GM Matt Millen today

Wow, the refs completely blew the game between San Diego and Denver. Cutler's obvious fumble was ruled an incomplete pass, and could not be overturned because the whistle had blown. Tough break for the Chargers. Rumor has it that Raiders coach Lane Kiffin will get axed soon, despite a win over KC.

Michigan looked horrible against ND, fumbling seven times and giving up 21 in the first quarter. #1 USC crushed #5 Ohio State, 35-3. USC remains #1, Ohio State fell to #15/15 in AP/Coaches polls.

Wow, Tom Brady is out for the year. Such is life in the NFL.