Closed bars.

I'm shocked how many businesses and bars have closed in the late winter.

Several have closed in the Polish neighborhood alone, and also gone is this lovely pan-Slavic bar with a patio and a sullen waitress who got this genuine look of surprise and shock on her face when I pointed out that there was a fly in my water, and then picked it up with her nails and flicked it away.

I wonder how much of it is just the life of the city, and how much of it is the bad economy.

I was talking with the (Mexican) owner of a Mexican-Italian restaurant, and he thinks the government's lying about economic numbers.

I do too.