Chicago Very Local News Round-up: Housing, Landmarks, and More

• Skyline named an accurate and commendable list of top stories from our neighborhood in 2006. They are:

1. Children's Memorial Hospital Announces its Leaving Lincoln Park
2. Setback for the Tax Cap Bill
3. The Chicago Historical Society's Revamp
4. Columbus Hospital's Demolition to Make Way for Condos and Townhomes
5. The Approval of the Lincoln Park Community Shelter
6. The Immigration Reform Marches
7. Daley's Shutting of the "Big Box"
8. Wrigley Field's revamp
9. The Displacement of Affordable Housing
10. 'Bad' Heroin Killing more than 260 in Cook County

• Sheffield Neighborhood News reports that the number of real estate transactions in the Sheffield Neighborhood Association area has declined by 15% (2006 vs. 2005), but single-family home prices rose by 17%. Time on the market also edged up by 9%. Condos fared more poorly. Their sales price increased only 2% over the previous year while time on the market jumped 25%. (This stats were reported by Rubloff realtor Paula Arnett.) . . . SNN also reported that DePaul University has begun a master planning process that will consider the future of the Lincoln Park and downtown campuses.

• N'Digo columnists Ziggy and Wanda Wright report that Governor Blagojevich appointed Louanner Peters as Deputy Governor at the end of last month. They write, "No other African American woman in the country has ever served at such a high level of authority." That can't be right given Condoleeza Rice, Carol Moseley Braun, et al. Maybe they mean state government or Illinois state government? . . . Also N'Digo features an intriguing recipe for Bananas with Pecans and Whiskey on page 17. Serve it over ice cream. Mmmmmm.
  Inside Newspaper has a great, year-end wrap-up of Chicago Landmarks issues in 2006.Find it here. (See pages 14 and 15).

• Inside Lincoln Park reports that DePaul University snagged a "Number 1" rating from Princeton Review for student diversity. Minority students enrolling in fall 2006 made up 28% of their freshman class. 71% of the class came from Illinois.

• Go Veggie! editor Kay Stepkin reports they have a newly designed website. You can visit it here. (Note to Kay: would love to see some recipes, too.)

• Northerly Island will host Polar Adventure Days on Saturday, January 20 and Saturday, February 24 from noon to 4 p.m. They're featuring snowshoeing, a live coyote, hot chocolate and more. (Go see Northerly Island before they do something dumb like build all over it.)

UPDATE: So sorry. I meant to include this link to Inside newspaper's year-end issue. This is where you'll find a very strong round-up of landmark issues.

Image courtesy of johnnyroadtrip.com