register to use it. You can find out what your home (or any home) is valued at on the market, you can see an aerial view of its location, and track its value over time. If you own a home or if you're considering buying one, you must check them out on Zillow.
The $12 million dollar home (to be built on Howe Street) will be have 7800 square feet, which is $1538 per square foot. While the $479K home on Diversey has about 1250 square feet, which is $383 per square foot.
Long-time listeners at this blog know I've been following the creation and erection (so to speak) of the cupolas at Holy Trinity church near Noble and Division. The scaffolding finally came down, and they were looking their absolute best two weeks ago for a visit from the Vice President of Poland.
Richard de Wilde on Harmony Valley Farm in Viroqua, WIThese two events -- the spinach scare and happening upon the brochure -- coincided with my discovering the writer, Wendell Barry, who said:
James Welch and Joel Kelhma on Avalanche Organics in Viola, WI
Steve Pincus and Beth Kazmer on Tipi Produce farm in Evansville, WI
Jack Hedin and Rhys Williams on Featherstone Farm in Rushmore, MN
Martin and Atina Diffley on Gardens of Eagan in Eagan, MN
The Organic Valley Co-op in Viola, WI featuring the Shepard Family
Herb and Elizabeth Teichman on Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm in Eau Claire, MI
Chris Eckert in Eckert Orchards in Belleville, IL
Don and Anthony Cinzori on Cinzori Farms in Ceresco, MI
Lee and Laurie Arboreal on Eater's Guild in Bangor, MI
Bill Donahue on Donahue's Sunshine Farm in Collinsville, IL
Wherever they live, if they eat, people have agricultural responsibilities just as they have cultural repsonsibilities. Eating without knowledge is the same as eating without gratitude. What's the use in thanking God for food that has come at an unbearable expense to the world and other people? Every eater has a responsibility to find out where food comes from and what its real costs are, and then to do something to reduce the costs. All of us are now dependent on lots of products, the origin of which we don't know and can't learn.Food for thought, indeed.
A colleague suggested this thought experiment: what if we replaced “stormwater management” in every civil engineering text with “drinking water management?”
Comments are due by September 29 and should be sent to
Mr. Joseph Sobanski,
Chief Engineer
100 E. Erie Street, Chicago, IL 60611
"Burleigh will have a megaphone and a pompom. He will use
the space as a cheering section, encouraging and praising passersby for their
excellent pedestrianship and all-round human effort. "
For the record, I live in a townhome complex of 32 units on the city's near north side. The association sent out its annual report recently, and our total cost for water was $5,000. That works out to about $13 per unit per month. It's so cheap we don't even pay the bill individually. It's just covered as part of our association fees.Over the next 20 to 25 years we are going to find substitutes for oil -- there are substitutes for fossil fuels. There are no substitutes for water. It's an irreplaceable resource. And I think the eyes of the country and the eyes of the world are going to turn to those Great Lakes communities that sit on 20 percent of the world's freshwater.I'm coming to believe that we must attach costs to our natural resources that reflect their value and encourage us to protect them, just like I believe we must attach costs to our garbage to encourage us to reduce it.
discourse surrounding what she terms, "relational" practices — socially engaged art, community-based art, experimental communities, dialogic art, littoral art, participatory, interventionist, research-based and collaborative art.
Groundbreaking took place in late 1949, and the first full paper was printed at the new L Street site in November 1950. There was a very alcoholic, emotional party as everyone finally left the old E Street building behind. The party -- more of a wake, actually -- was, as someone put it, to "mourn the death of a building" which, with all its inconvenient horrors, was still much loved.
In fact, many longtime employees were less than enthusiastic about moving from the dingy but bustling E Street plant into the spic-and-span newness of the quiet L Street building. The new building doubled our press capacity, while providing modern conveniences like air-conditioning, soundproofing, and a clean environment, but it looked cold and impersonal in contrast to the old. One Post old-timer was quoted saying, "It'll be all right once we get to spitting on the floor again."
Once I got past the notion that I was probably inhaling nothing but bus fumes and suppressed the fear that every twinge was a bacterium coming to blind me, there is one word for what it felt like to dive into Lake Michigan this evening and swim along the lap lanes at Oak Street Beach: exhilirating. I recommend you try it.
My friend, the artist Jenny Roberts, who launched a lovely parking space party this past April, has a new project underway to expand on the idea. (See my previous post on her parking lot party here.)
Citywide parking space art event
Action/performance
This is a call for proposals for an action/performance to take place in early September (specific date and time to be determined) in a parking space somewhere in the city. The pieces should last approximately two hours.
The only requirements are that you:
1. Use a parking space with a meter
2. Don’t engage in any activity that would be illegal in and of itself
You will “rent” the space(s) by paying the requisite amount for the time. This payment should authorize and entitle you to use the space in any way you choose. Why should cars be privileged? Why should so much space be devoted exclusively to automobiles?
The purpose of these citywide action/performances is to interfere with the monolithic and unimaginative uses of urban space.
This citywide action is intended to extend and expand upon the parking space cocktail party piece held in April.
This is an art piece, but you don’t have to be an artist to participate.
Send your proposal to jenrobe@earthlink.net. The proposal should contain a brief description of your project, which can be solo or collaborative. Please include your intended location (by street number,intersection, etc.). The location is of your choosing and can be anywhere in Chicago. Please also let me know which dates don’t work for you in the first two weeks after Labor Day in September.
I will choose the date and time, consolidate the proposals into one announcement, map the locations, and publicize the time and date of the event.
All action/performances will take place at the same time and on the same date. Viewers may choose to attend one, a few, or all of the pieces.
Please send me your proposal by August 12. I will let you know the date and time by August 20.
--Jenny Roberts
A friend of the filmmakers introduced me to the documentary, Indestructible. I was so moved by Chicagoan Ben Byer's trailer about his fight with ALS, that I'm now a supporter of the film.
You know how when you hear about something from three, un-connected friends or respected sources that you realize it's time you look into it and discover it for yourself? 
