If anyone actually wants to get into these businesses, I’d be happy to write up a business plan — for a commission, of course.

• Many declining rust belt cities are filled with gorgeous turn-of-the-century buildings: Victorian mansions, of course, but also industrial lofts and sometimes even Deco skyscrapers. These are exactly the same kinds of buildings that have become so scarce in many other cities (notably in booming Sunbelt cities which had little building stock to begin with, but also in economically healthy northern cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, or Toronto) that developers have resorted to building copies of said buildings. Prices may have, in fact, risen so high that it may be economically feasible to barge entire buildings, or at least fa�ades thereof, from one city to another.
• One downside of having such dense concentrations of ethnic businesses within certain neighborhoods is that the rest of town is strangely bereft of good ethnic restaurants. Sure, Chicago is laden with excellent tacquer�as, and noodle shops (or their South Side counterpart, the circa-1960 chop suey stand) are an entrenched presence on most retail streets. But where are the Indian restaurants? More particularly, where can I get curry in Wicker Park, land of vegetarians and wannabe Brits?
• Similarly, not all travelers want to stay downtown. B&Bs are a charming option in many neighborhoods, but come with their own constraints: they’re hard to find and don’t offer as much flexibility as many people need. A few strategically placed neighborhood boutique hotels might do a good trade; again, Wicker Park is an excellent option, since it’s between O’Hare and downtown and offers most of the usual hotel services in close proximity. One potential lender might be Corus, which financed The Standard Hotel in a decidedly marginal location south of downtown LA. Of course, lining up an operator is usually the most difficult part. The Northwest Tower is without any real economic use but offers tremendous views. The stupid cell-phone store on the ground floor could be booted, or the adjacent storage building converted to the usual ancillary uses (lobby, restaurant, bar, meeting rooms). Or maybe a striking new “entry pavilion” could be built nearby (next to the tracks, on those short lots on North?) with the “tower” room elevators accessed by keycard only.
• Needless to say, I’m intruiged by the possibility of densifying under-used sites, like parking lots in urban neighborhoods. A little bit of ingenuity and skill can wedge twenty new townhouses atop a small parking garage on what was a half-acre parking lot. Or, to put it another way, strip malls could accommodate a lot of new residents — all the projected population growth of Orange County, California [PDF] over the next 20 years, for instance. Underused parking lots, both public and private, flank dozens of rail stations citywide, even at some of the busiest stations: Chicago & State, Division & Milwaukee, Fullerton & Sheffield, Chinatown, 95th. Some of the freeway median stations offer great opportunities for decked development, especially as land values rise; Halsted-UIC, 35th (as part of a Comiskey Village entertainment area), and Jefferson Park come to mind.