  We discuss how the inclusion of Hagedorn states near $T_c$ leads to short
chemical equilibration times of proton anti-proton pairs, $K\bar{K}$ pairs, and
$\Lambda\bar{\Lambda}$ pairs, which indicates that hadrons do not need to be
"born" into chemical equilibrium in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. We
show that the hadron ratios computed within our model match the experimental
results at RHIC very well. Furthermore, estimates for $\eta/s$ near $T_c$
computed within our resonance gas model are comparable to the string theory
viscosity bound $\eta/s=1/4\pi$. Our model provides a good description of the
recent lattice results for the trace anomaly close to $T_c=196$ MeV.
