Opinion
Why We CTB
September 23, 2008 - 11:00pmAre you familiar with the place “Where everybody knows your name … and they’re always glad you came?”
Oh C’mon! Are we all a bit too young to remember the show Cheers? (It’s OK. I was born in ’86 and at the time, I was more concerned with Mr. Rogers and Thomas the Tank Engine).
Cheers took place in a Boston bar called Cheers and aired on NBC from 1982-1993. The show followed friends that met to drink and have fun (sounds pretty familiar to our daily lives, no?).
No twists. No crude humor. Cheers taught us to enjoy the finer things in life. It was plain and simple.
I’m not here today to talk to you about TV shows that have been rerunning on TV Land since the infancy of the Bill Clinton Administration.
No, friend. I’m here to help you reflect on the place that enables us to recalibrate, meet with our friends, and help us see that “our troubles are all the same.”
That place is something I’m afraid some of us take for granted…
That place is CTB.
And that is exactly somewhere that Cornell needs to be using its funds to add to its real estate portfolio, as well as adding a viable revenue generator and enhancing the quality of life for faculty, staff, and students.
Our mornings begin at CTB. We’re able to pick up our favorite college-daily, grab a coffee and a cream cheese bagel and make that trip to campus.
In the snow, sleet, rain, and sunshine, CTB is there. It doesn’t close because of weather. It’s a constant in our lives.
Sometimes, our afternoons bring us back to the corner. We’re able to get that Turkey Hill BLT, share a pitcher of Sangria with some close friends, and exchange stories from the day.
After a night of socializing, the warm atmosphere welcomes us back for a sandwich, a bagel, or just some company.
There is no other place in Collegetown that truly brings all together. Those who are 21 and those who aren’t are always welcome. Unlike the bars, we are provided with a place to sit, drink (alcoholic beverages or non) and break bread.
When I look back at my four years at Cornell, I’ll reflect fondly upon a lot of things. But I’ll most fondly back at the times I sat on the CTB patio, had a drink with friends, and people-watched.
Hell, I’ve had some of my best ideas outside on that patio.
Herein though lies the problem, fellow CTB patrons:
I have a minor in real estate, but it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that the valuable piece of land on that corner could go at any time, if the price is right. The undeveloped patio represents three stories of potential apartments in a prime location.
Currently, according to PropertyShark.com, the building is owned by Student Agencies and is appraised (for tax purposes) at just over $1 million. I guarantee you that the fair market value of the land and the building is over that amount. But the hefty price tag is not only worth it, it will save (and potentially, make) money for the University.
Why would Cornell want to buy CTB’s building, you might ask?
Well, in recent years, there has been a lot of talk about building a Collegetown Community Center.
What more perfect location to have one? In addition to incorporating the still-independent CTB and the patio into the new community center, the upper floors can be used as a gym facility, study area, and meeting room space. Additionally, CTB — in gaining C.U. as a landlord — would protect itself against the dangers of rising rents or even of having its building sold out from under it.
What a smart investment! In one swing of the bat, Cornell would solve the “need for a campus pub” discussion, which my friend Ryan Lavin ’09, President of the S.A., has been fighting for since he was a sophomore in high school.
Cornell would also add to its already impressive portfolio of à la carte dining facilities that would not only accept Big Red Bucks, but that would also generate additional sources of revenue for the University.
With the large percentage of Cornell students residing in Collegetown, the new CTB Collegetown Community Center would be a much more convenient and viable option than Noyes Community Center, or any facility on North Campus.
CTB is more than a place that has a social atmosphere. CTB is the place that brings academic endeavors together with social endeavors.
Fellow Cornellians, when you come back in 25 years with your child, a prospective Cornellian, you may not recognize the buildings. Your fraternity house might have been renovated or shut down. Your Collegetown apartment may have been demolished.
But how devastating it would be if you walked through Collegetown and instead of a friendly patio and bagel shop, there was a group of large, ugly apartment buildings.
CTB is a staple in Collegetown and its something we need to protect.
Let’s hope that generations of Cornellians to come, including our children, are able to enjoy it as much as we do.
C.J. Slicklen is a senior in the School of Hotel Administration. He can be reached at slicklen@cornell.edu. Closing Time appears alternate Wednesday’s this semester.
very forward
very forward thinking...because what you write is exactly what happened to us: 1978 grads who came back 28 years later with our prospective Cornellian, only to find a concrete jungle of mid-rise apt buildings on the corner where my favorite coffee hangout (U-Deli) used to be. CTB began our year, few doors down from its current location, a simple, single-product Brooklyn-style bagel bakery. Obviously the real estate even inside a bagel store became too valuable and eventually gave way to the more modern Zabar's era. (As for an on-campus pub, as the drinking age was 18 we had "The Thirsty Bear Tavern" in resplendent red decor in the North campus Union, now RPC, and a pub in Noyes). Trying to hang onto a collegetown icon that works for all is a worthwhile thing. Get organized and talk to the collegetown planning board. Otherwise, as your article alludes, and with history is a judge, all's fair in love and war and real estate.
don't...
The best way to screw up everything you like about CTB is to bring it under the wing of Cornell Dining.
Very naive... you have a real estate minor? REALLY?!
Very naive to think Student Agencies would even want to sell… and if they could be so motivated… that CU would be willing to pay the price (as you note, surely over $1 million). Not to mention that CU is tax exempt and purchasing land that is not already under CU domain would likely be blocked (or greatly resented) at the state and local level.
That building will require HUGE renovations to do what you suggest (to renovate and update the aging structure)… add that cost to the cost of simply the purchase and it becomes even more naive a suggestion on your part.
And what do you suggest is done about the prime resident locations at that site? Collegetown is already under a housing shortage, driving up demand and prices… and you want to remove living space in one of the largest apartment buildings?
Any why on earth would CU never raise rent on CTB?! That would be the worst business move ever for CU!
“Good ideas” are one thing… realistic ideas are what real estate is about… Mr. Slicklen I’m concerned that you got your half-hatched real estate minor at CU.
BUT I’M SURE CTB WILL GIVE YOU A FREE BAGEL TOMORROW…since you basically suggest they are a historical landmark which should be subsidized by CU and kept running… even if they fail to be profitable (or popular) in the future.
CJ, Everything you say about
CJ,
Everything you say about CTB is on target. But as a former resident of the apartments above it, I can say with confidence that the upstairs of 415 College Ave. does not have the space to house a community center, a la Appel. It seems unlikely to me that even a major renovation could turn that space into what you are describing, and the foot traffic in the space outside of CTB and 415 would be atrocious. Cornell should, however, use the empty space across the street (next to Sheldon Court) to build what you are describing. While assuring CTB's existence for all eternity is a worthy goal, filling some of collegetown's empty storefronts is surely a more pressing one.
Sheldon Court
I agree with you about Sheldon. CU and Kaplan are blowing it. That space would have been (still is) IDEAL for a community center or magnet store (to bring business into Collegetown). Sheldon is a great location that is being neglected. Worse yet; putting Kaplan in there and wasting prime space on a study center that can be put on a 2nd or 3rd floor anywhere.
are you drunk?
This sounds like one of those conversations you have with your buddies after you've been drinking beers for a while (maybe at CTB?). Thing is, most of us sober up and then realize the idea was totally bogus, not profitable, unreasonable...
We will give you the benefit of the doubt and say you were still drunk when writing this. The option option isn't so kind for you.
Also... hey the 9's was for sale about a year ago for about $2 million... maybe CU should buy and protect that too? Oh, while at it, how about Dunbars and Johnny O's too!