I agree. Shorewood did that with two fitness facilities across the street of each other and a half block North of the Shorewood Fitness Center. Curves has since closed, now an Insurance office. This is is the best "village planning"? Kind of like turning Riverbrook Restaurant into an unused parking lot.

Calderone Club just may have a leg up w/ the built in all day traffic from the Curves crowd next door doing their 30 minute circuits/workouts. Oh, the temptation.

Though, it will be interesting to see if the organic pizza restaurant, which will seat ~35 people, will seek to get a beer/wine license and if they do, will the Village of Shorewood step up and pay $10,000 tab for the license? There's lots of $$ to be made in those spirits and people like a good beer with their pizza. Then again, seems to be a steady game of musical chairs going on with the pizza joints on the other side of Shorewood every couple of years cycling one new pizza place in after the other, though those are pretty much take out.

What I am interested in is what happened to Mama Mia's takeout pizza/pasta on that bustling southern end of Oakland? Did they just close down that location or move to another one?

Cardinal-

Do you really think that an employee is going to choose the bus over their own car to travel to/from work given the choice/convenience? Especially when they are working late into the evening/stormy weather/snow storms. They'll just play musical chairs with their cars and move them every couple of hours or find a side street w/ fewer parking restrictions.

That wasn't my point. For a while they were right across the street from each other, Two bagel shops, two video shops, and nails and hair galore. The manager of Actea told my wife that they were moving because Oakland Ave was turning into a strip mall.

Someone's comment comparing NYC to Shorewood, I can't see how you can compare the foot traffic.

Does anyone know the vacancy rate in those condos?

Organic pizza? You've got to be kidding me. Ever look at the label on pepperoni? It can be done, but very expensive.

The manager at Actaea lied to your wife, Chuck; that's not the reason they moved their hair salon to the other side of town, but what exactly is your point?

It would be nice if we had some actual say in what type of business goes where in our village, but instead we get one of the editors of the Patch doing the equivalent of tossing a bone to a pack of wolves by asking us AGAIN what we'd like to see in the Armory building,(http://shorewood.patch.com/articles/what-should-go-here-corner-of-capitol-and-oakland#photo-12354051) (as if it'll do any good) just so that they can sit back and watch the ensuing argument, I guess. And the village seems to snap up whomever's business proposal seems like it will be the most profitable, regardless of whether or not it's redundant, unnecessary or in demand by its residents. Que sera.

Alol-

The only time a resident/non landlord has any say is when a zoning change is sought for a proposed business venture/development. Though, in Shorewood & w/ Mandel et al, you are repeatedly shut out/have no say.

I am still waiting to hear what's going to happen w/ Anaba and their seeking to tear down the house behind their business.

As long as the proposed business meets current zoning & code guidelines, then a landlord can put in any business they want w/out seeking any type of approval no matter if there are others just like it close by. If people want certain businesses to appear, then buy the property and seek tenants or become a tenant yourself. Otherwise, demand that the people who you have elected to "represent" you actually do that, which doesn't really seem to happen on many fronts in Shorewood.

Thank you for the info, Abfab. I have a question for you--does the village have any power over a piece of property like the Armory building that is just sitting vacant or is it all in the hands of the property owner? That might be a silly question, but that storefront is becoming an eyesore and I can imagine that the village would be getting anxious to have it occupied as soon as possible.

Alol-

2 things..1st the Village of Shorewood is dealing w/ Dan Katz who doesn't give a damn about anybody let alone village officials. He just seems to steam roll right over them and they take it. BTW, it would be interesting to know how much village taxpayers monies the powers that be gave him to make the Mandel development happen. Though, we all know that will never happen. He has them hog tied and they won't do anything.

AND...no, the village has no say on anyones property unless there are code violations or that property owner is seeking special permission for something. That Armory space can be vacant from now until the end of time and as long as taxes are paid and no exterior violations occur or anything pops up upon yearly inspections, Dan Katz can do whatever he wants.

Though, the exterior of that property looks more run down as time goes by.

I think there are other Mama Mia's locations around, although I'm not sure they're run by the same person (who is a woman, btw). I've heard the one on SS has older clientele who find the pricing reasonable. The satellite, which we used regularly, had, for lack of a better term, consistency issues that my wife and I kind of found amusing, if not appealing, but that I can certainly see being an issue for other folks. I'm guessing the advent of other pizzerias offering a more consistent product and delivery to the same area probably did them in.

I thought that Mama Mia's (Silver Spring and Shorewood location) were run by a man or as part of a family enterprise. Why? Because a couple of years ago he and I were in discussions for a space w/ his goal/intentions of him leaving the Shorewood location on Oakland. That never materialized and I don't know how serious he was at the time. I don't remember his name, but it was the owner.

The person who owns them is a woman whose husband owned them prior to his passing. I think he passed in the last 5-8 years ago. There was an article about her in the J/S maybe 3 years ago. That's not to say she couldn't have some other person running it for her, although article seemed to indicate she was very active in the day-to-day operations.

I understand that, hence my mentioning that, AF. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

There's a Jude Barbiere who, I assume, is part of the same family who, apparently, has places in Grafton and Pt. Washington. There is/was also another Barbiere's out on Blue Mound. Wouldn't be the first Italian family in the area to have family members go out on their own, resulting in businesses of the same name competing in the same line of business.

Yes, Jude Barbiere ran/runs the Silver Spring restaurant and he ran the Oakland Ave one. There's a joint called "Mama's" out on Burliegh and 80-something and the owner (?) is part of the Barbiere family that split due to some family rift. Jude had a quick temper and a penchant for coke, and I don't mean soda, so it's entirely possible that he could've done himself in, but he wasn't old--he can't be much past 45 if he's still around.

Bob-

There are a lot of "women" owned businesses for tax/legal /grant opportunities/funding sources & avenues/publicity purposes et al. It could have been her son because he is who I dealt w/ and who was running/overseeing things at both locations.

http://mamamiasport.com/

And this one, apparently.

New York City has a population of 8,244,000 as of 2011. Shorewood's as of 2011 is 13,228. Also, NY City is made up of 5 boroughs w/ Manhattan coming in @ the densest w/ 67,000 people per sq mile vs Shorewood w/ 8,300 per sq mile.

So, I doubt that every block in NY City has 2 pizzerias every 2 blocks. Though it may seem like that depending on which borough you are in.

As for an employer putting a lot of thought or any into how his employees will make it to work. No, at least not most. They're concerned w/ them showing up on time, doing the job right and not stealing from them..It's pretty basic really. How they get to work is up to the employee to determine and unless there are incentives or some underlying social cause/mission, then most employees are going to choose the most convenient and efficient way to get to their job ie their car unless they live w/in a couple of blocks. People have committments before and after work and are not going to waste god only knows how much additional time taking the bus and all potential transfers involved if they have other alternatives that make sense to them.

You also seem to disregard the high turnover that has been a part of the pizzeria next to Stein Optical on Capitol (is it Vedo's now) as well as the recent turnover for, what?, the 3rd time in as many years for the latest pizza joint next to City Market.

Mama Mia's Pizza on Oakland is now vacant.

Calderone is great but expensive. Time will tell how things play out.

N. Peske:

Considering that there's been an article is written about filling the space formerly occupied by a hair salon, I'd say that they all really aren't 'humming along'...

I've heard Vedo's does a good a good "slice" of its business during high school open lunch. In that sense their competitors are probably Sendik's, Subway, and Culver's. I've ordered takeout pizza a few times from them. It's fine but not distinctive.