Trackback: From Bill Baar's West Side

Bill Baar picks up the thread on an earlier post of mine and shares some insight into birds and buildings.

Limiting Banks through Zoning in Lincoln Park

The Sheffield Neighborhood Association recently reported on a zoning amendment passed by the Chicago City Council and introduced by alderman Vi Daley.

Essentially, the ordinance creates a subcategory of the new "pedestrian street" designation in the recently reformed zoning code for purposes of this ordinance only: pedestrian retail streets. A bank, savings bank, savings & loan association or credit union is permitted on lots abutting these streets within 600 feet of another only if reviewed and approved as a "special use," which requires a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

More on page 8 of the above reference report. Fewer banks? Hmmmmmmm. What's the catch?

Lincoln Park the Second

Great post over at Chicagoist (with a heads up from Tankboy) regarding the "selling out" of Bucktown and Wicker Park. Sam Bakken's opening paragraph rocks. Simply great writing.

Hey, it's a showbiz post!

Oak Park husband-and-wife team (and my cousins by marriage) Eric Anderson and Amelia Dellos recently e-mailed to say shooting for their documentary is underway.

Frustrated by the divisive tenor of last year's election, Anderson and Dellos immediately began pulling together their vision of a film that would interview citizens from one "blue" state (Illinois), one "red" (Kansas), and one "white" (Iowa). They intend to interview voters from across the political spectrum, and they hope the film will increase understanding among the many camps.

Their first interviewee was Dr. Lee Barker of Meadville Lombard, a liberal theological school on the city's south side. (See photos from this shoot here.)

Eric is an optioned and award-winning screenwriter and Amelia (aka Amy) is a writer and marketing professional. Peter Biagi will serve as Director of Photography. Mike Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies will help with the music. More info here.

Stay tuned. I think this one's going to be especially meaningful. (And, it couldn't be happening to nicer or cooler people. I hope they each break a leg.)

Piano, Flying Carpets, and the Art Institute of Chicago

Since 1999, Italian architect Renzo Piano (see here and here) has been working on creating a north wing to the Art Institute of Chicago. Groundbreaking will take place on May 31 of this year with a projected completion date of 2009. The total projected construction budget is about $200 million.

Basically, they're adding a north wing to the part of the museum that lies east of the railroad tracks. The expansion is also intended to help facilitate the flow of traffic within the building and to improve access for people with disabilities. They're also planning to relate it to Millennium Park with a brand new main entrance on Monroe.

Here's Piano's description of the new wing, taken from his website:

The new building will be located in the north-east quadrant of the Art institute site, at the corner of Monroe St and Columbus Avenue. It will be be a light glass, steel and limestone walls structure, which will fit perfectly into the 19th century architectural identity of the existing buildings.

This 230,000 square feet total structure (three floors above ground and one floor underground) will provide 63,000 square feet gallery of modern and contemporary art galleries. It will also provide new public functions: large educational facilities, a museum shop and a café located at street level. Underground will take place storage and various handling areas.

The building will be organized along a top lit internal street which will connect visually and physically the Art Institute to the neighboring Lakefront Millennium Gardens and their 10'000 seat outdoor amphitheater. This top lit 300 feet long internal street will create a new major north/south axis of circulation in the Art Institute.

The existing east-west axis of circulation will be improved by the remodeling of Gunsaulus Hall. This 19th century steel structure will be unclad and partially glazed in order to reveal its historical identity and to allow dramatic views to the outside.The new building will be protected by a 216-foot wide, square luminous sun-shading structure, like an umbrella floating over the upper floor galleries. This umbrella (flying carpet) will also protect the new south garden in order to create an outdoor sculpture gallery.

Um, did he say "umbrella (flying carpet)"? I'll be damned if I can figure out what he's talking about. An umbrella idea I get but a flying carpet? Kick ass for him if he can pull it off.

One of the most disappointing missed architectural opportunities in this city was the Museum of Contemporary Art's uninspiring choice of building design, so I would love to see Piano pull off something this creative and thoughtful at the Art Institute. I also like how his vision seems to respect and build on the existing nineteenth century building. It speaks quietly with an imaginative, light-oriented response to the stateliness of the current structure. (It also definitely conjures thoughts of Pei's glass pyramid response to the Louvre.)

Anyway, here is the link for the photos of the new wing planned by Piano. He even includes close-ups of the "flying carpet," but they don't help me get it. Maybe you can figure it out. Either way, stay tuned. An exhibit of Piano's work opens on May 31 as well at the Art Institute.

--Art Institute Press Release from 2003 with background, overview

Housekeeping: Subtitle Change

Long-time listeners will note that I've changed the blog's tagline from "Money, Trees, Sidewalks, Glue" to "Building, Trees, Sidewalks, Glue." I had originally thought I would blog quite a bit about state and city budget issues, small-businesses, and other money decisions that affect the issues I care about (um, like building, trees, sidewalks, community), but it hasn't worked out that way. So, this fits better, I think. Also, I added a section for comments, so now all are welcome to join in.

"Architecture Days" and "Preserve and Play"

Two architectural conferences breeze into town this May. One looks like a waste. The other looks like good fun, if you're into that sort of thing.

The first, Architecture Days, is a commercial effort sponsored by Architectural Digest magazine. It runs in Los Angeles from April 27 to May 3 and in Chicago from May 4 through the 10th. Then, it closes out in New York City from the 11th through the 17th. I guess they're hoping their wealthy readers will jet set from one city to another because, although I received a flyer inserted in my Sunday Trib, they can't seriously expect Chicagoans to attend.

The list of featured tours includes Millennium Park, Modern Loop Skyscrapers, and Greater North Michigan Avenue. In other words, tours that are available around the calendar from the Chicago Architectural Foundation or that you and I could do ourselves. And, they're charging double what CAF charges ($25 vs. $12 for non-members.) Except for the fact that Digest readers are loaded, it smells like a giant rip off to me. Hope they have a nice time and head to New York. We can't really be bothered with it.

The other conference sounds more compelling if not a little sleepy -- Preserve and Play: Preserving Historic Recreation and Entertainment Sites. It runs from May 5 - 7 at the Intercontinental Hotel, and features seminar titles like "Music Under the Stars: Restoring a Community Bandshell" and "History Sells: The Making of an Amusement Park into a National Landmark." If you're into this kind of nichey thing, a lot of the seminars look cool. Another highlight will be Witold Rybczynski's keynote address on Thursday, May 5. His book Home: A Short History of an Idea is among my favorites.

Unfortunately, the conference is way pricey -- beginning at $175 for students and $345 for professionals. I received the brochure in the mail just two days ago, but the cut off for a discounted rate ($290) was April 12. I don't see any options for a one-day passes, which is too bad. I don't think I'll be going. If you go, please take a moment and leave a comment about your experiences. Thanks.

The Tiny Post with a Big Taste

Lovitt = Love It

Illinois Lawmaker Update from Illinois Environmental Council

I received this update of the activity in the Illinois capitol regarding environmental issues from the Illinois Environmental Council today. As a true outsider to Illinois political machinations, I'm glad to have this lay of the environmental land.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
3rd Reading Deadlines Today

Today is the deadline for bills to pass out of their original chamber. Both the House and Senate have taken votes on several bills this week to try to beat the deadline- and are still meeting as this update is being written.

So far this week there has been action on several key Illinois Environmental Council issues. As we reported last week, House Bill 2347, a bill to limit idling time of diesel vehicles, was called for a vote but then postponed when there were not enough votes in favor to pass the bill. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nekritz, was called again for a vote on Tuesday and passed the House 65-50-1. The bill will move to the Senate with Sen. Schoenberg as the chief sponsor. A similar bill, HB 3685 sponsored by Rep. Winters, would require school districts to adopt a policy concerning school bus idling but did not receive enough votes to pass (56-60).
Yesterday the House Environmental Health Committee met and approved an amendment to HB 2572, legislation that would ban the use of toxic chemicals used for flame retardants (commonly known as PBDE’s). Today that bill passed the House 106-0-1. The Mercury Free Vehicles Act (HB 1628) was also assigned to the Environmental Health Committee but was held in that committee yesterday.

Another piece of legislation sponsored by Rep. Nekritz passed the House today. HB 2390 would address the Illinois Supreme Court “Boub” decision by restoring some liability protection for bicyclists riding on roads.


The protection of isolated wetlands has been a long standing issue for the IEC. Two Senate bills to address the issue were introduced this year. SB 761 (Sen. Clayborne) is an industry friendly bill that would weaken existing county wetlands programs in northeastern Illinois. This legislation passed the Senate late last night 34-17. Sen. Link also introduced SB 1695 which is the Wetlands Protection Act supported by the IEC and other environmental groups- however, the Senate failed to act on this legislation. Watch the Illinois EnviroBulletin for ways you can help defeat SB 761 when it is considered by the House in the coming weeks.

In related news, an initiative to provide authority to counties wishing to develop their own stormwater management plan was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 41-8-1 (SB 1910). This bill moves on to the House where Rep. Holbrook will be the chief sponsor.

The Color of Streets

I love it when old bricks burst out from under the asphalt on the city's streets. It's kind of a peek into the past. This photo was taken south of North Ave and just east of Ashland. On a sunny day like yesterday, the red is so rich and beautiful. It made me realize that people used to see this color during the long winter days all the time rather than miles and miles of gray asphalt.

Think of how different it must have felt moving around the city on dreary winter days with a baked red road where ever you looked or drove. It's so obvious to me now that I can't believe I never noticed: part of our blah-blah winter landscape comes from our unimaginative paving materials!

Why can't we make the roads brick red, or better yet, forest green? And, what about all that concrete? Someone ought to be able to figure out how to come up with a better color. Or, maybe they could make chia pet-like curbs with grass growing out of them. The possibilities are endless. And better.

The Museum of Nature/The Nature of the Museum

Through her letter to the editor of Inside Publications, Lincoln Park resident Ana Schedler Brennan brought to my attention the horrendous sign at the Notebaert Museum. Here's an excerpt:

The brashness of the bright, electrified, poorly conceived outdoor signs is an affront to all who value the limited natural park resource we desperately preserve at the lakefront. . . The Peggy Notebaert museum has, with lack of judgment and foresight, undermined its integrity by harshly overshadowing the very NATURE they exist to educate us about.

I drove by it one night a few weeks ago, and she is so right. It's ridiculous. But, it's also hard for an amateur like me to capture the problem in pixels. Here's a photo of it during the day(as my evening photo didn't take very well).




Why did they choose giant blue letters? I understand that blue is a nature color, but the museum is located in the park, not the water. At night, it shines like an illuminated Tidy Bowl.

Clearly this has been an institution in search of an identity for some time now. I think at one point in the last few years it displayed historical American documents -- like original copies of the Gettysburg Address not Audubon's sketches for The Birds of America.

Furthermore, the very name nature museum has always struck me as kind of creepy. Aren't museums for preserving stuff that would otherwise be permanently lost? Would it have hurt to have called it a center?

But, I went yesterday with three toddlers in tow (not all mine), and I think the place is beginning to gel. The butterfly room was stunning. Truly. It was probably my fourth visit in as many years, and the place was filled with them. I've never seen so many in my previous visits. Everywhere you looked, there was a butterfly with paintbrush-fresh colors floating along as if it was being bounced from a thread.

And, the tray of emerging chrysalises fascinated me. I studied it for a long time. The cocoons are hung in rows with straight pins and organized by species> You can see some that are empty because the butterfly has emerged and flown off, and others are in the process of emerging -- like halfway out in some instances. The chrysalises looked like tiny, conical seashells, but from each there were two faint, antenna-like things sticking out. They all seemed to have them, even the empty chrysalises. All of it very cool and wondrous. Plus, I didn't accidentally squish any of the butterflies on my way out like during my last visit.

The Museum is a descendent of the Academy of Sciences which was originally opened in 1865, and was most recently housed in the building where Armitage meets Clark. (It's now a zoo administration building.) This probably explains the wide assortment of old, taxidermied animals displayed throughout the place.

It's a hard juxtaposition to my mind -- the stuffed dead things amidst the celebration of the living -- and their use felt strained throughout the place, the worst being the giant polar bear standing on its hind legs in the entrance window. Somehow, it didn't work for me. Maybe if polar bears were indigenous to Lincoln Park, but I'm still not sure that would help. How educational can a stuffed bear really be? I guess it taught me that polar bears are extra tall when they stand on their hind legs and they seem to preserve well.

All that being said, I was pleased to see that the museum seems to be moving in a meaningful direction. We can only hope they'll come to their senses soon and get rid of the Big Blue Sign, less we begin to mistake Las Vegas for nature.

Chicago Goes Dark for a Few Million Feathered Friends

Chicago is part of what is known in orinthological circles as the Mississippi Flyway. Millions of birds pass through our city during the spring and fall migration seasons, but a lot of them get banged up or killed among our skyscrapers. The birds mainly fly at night and the building lights really confuse them.

Thanks to a woman named Robbie Hunsinger, and her organization the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a lot of the downtown buildings are now turning out their lights after 11 p.m. to protect the birds. There's more to be done, though. If you live or work downtown, you may want to read further on CBCM's website to learn about simple ways you can help. There's also more in an article I wrote for April's Conscious Choice.

Adopt-a-Beach this Summer

The Lake Michigan Federation is piloting a program where citizens can help monitor and care for beaches along the shores of Lake Michigan. If you're interested or just want to learn more, they're hosting an "Adopt-a-Beach Party and Training Workshop" on Tuesday, April 12 at 6 p.m. in their offices on 220 S. State Street, Suite 1900.

Citizen Epidemiologists

What do you do if you think big industry interests and a complicit government keep the public from learning whether or not there's a relationship between nuclear reactors and cancer? You do the studies yourself. That's what. Read more to learn how you can be a citizen epidemiologist right here in Chicago.

More Blue Bag Trash Talk

The Trib has been all over the Mayor's blue bag recycling program lately. Here's an excerpt from Sunday's front page article.

"The city has quietly begun allowing nearly 30 percent of Chicago's residential waste to bypass the expensive sorting centers built a decade ago to pull out recyclables. Tons of trash--rich with bottles, cans and newspapers that a few years ago would have been recycled--is now trucked off to landfills.

The city has ignored this river of garbage and recyclables when it computed its statistics, inflating its recycling rate and exaggerating the success of blue bag, the Tribune's investigation has found."

The failure of the blue bags is causing the Mayor's green reputation to wilt faster than a Gerber Daisy in a jam jar.

And those blue Dominick's bags can't be helping. Kudos to the grocery store chain for supporting recycling, but even in my household where we're pretty conscientious about separating our trash and using our blue bags, we completely ignore the Dominick's ones because they're too small.

More often than not they end up in our garbage filled with diapers or dog poop. Once the sorters see a few Dominick's bags like ours, you know they're not looking for anymore of them. Even we filled a few of them with diamonds.

The River's Best Friend

Great Q & A today in the Trib with Friends of the Chicago River executive director Laurene von Klan. For more than a decade, she's been advocating on behalf of this important natural resource.

Here are my two favorite quotes:

You don't oppose dyeing the river green for St. Patrick's Day. Why not?
It's not the worst thing that happens to the river. When you look closely at the problem, it's not something that needs to be our priority right now. . . . Studies show [that] for creatures who live in the river now, [the dye] is probably not harmful. However, one day when we have brown trout and native darters, we'll have to re-evaluate and look for new, great ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Have you ever eaten a fish from the river?
I have never eaten a fish from the river, but people have and people do. The other day I saw some men catching fish. They were very happy, and I attempted to explain to them the fish probably weren't good to eat. I tried to indicate to them that they should not let any pregnant women and small children eat it, but people do. Being able to eat the fish is inherent in the goal of making the river fishable and swimmable by 2020. The ability to eat from the river and streams in the back yard seems to me a basic human right. It's part of being alive and a gift from God, that's how I personally feel.

Wish I could make this, but I can't. Maybe you can.

Wednesday, March 16, at 6pm
Chicago Architectural Foundation
224 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60604
312-922-3432


Panel Discussion: Architecture and Art Collaborations

Moderator: Ned Cramer, CAF Curator
Panelists: Artist James Carpenter; architect Garth Rockcastle, Meyer Scherer Rockcastle, and artist Jason Salavon

Public art installations are often a component of public architecture such as courthouses and post offices. James Carpenter, Garth Rockcastle and Jason Savalon will discuss creating art and architecture for the people as well as the challenges and rewards of the artist and architect collaboration. This program is in conjunction with the exhibition "New Federal Architecture: Face of a Nation."

Sometimes I sits by Mike Helbing

Another post in my ongoing series exploring the 2004-2005 Lincoln Park Community Art Initiative. See here, here, here, and here.


Sometimes I sits, View 1

This sculpture, which is located just north of St. Michael's church in Old Town, didn't work for me so much. I liked Mike Helbing's idea of a big steel chair with crazy stuff coming out of it, but the crazy stuff to me was only that, crazy.

I couldn't note any logic to the composition or a sense of an aesthetic whole or idea. To me, it looked like wild rebar attached to a chair, which is cool, but, in the end, not pleasing for very long.

Also, the color and texture of the stainless steel got lost against the bland concrete, which is not the artist's fault. The piece was placed there by the Lincoln Park Community Arts Initiative committee, and I think I know why.


Sometimes I sit, View 2

The site selection near St. Michael's church allowed the sculpture's strongest attribute -- the option to sit in it and investigate the view -- to shine. Unfortunately, I don't think that the sculpture's "tentacles" would have provided much to enjoy without the steeple and some decent clouds for background.

But, maybe that's the one wonder of this particular sculpture. It invites viewers to look beyond the rebar and see the ordinary as something new.

Trip to the Indiana Dunes to Photograph Beer Cans

On Sunday, we loaded into the car and drove an hour to the Indiana Dunes. I've visited them so often that they seemed unremarkable this time -- like an abandoned t.v. set for some movie rip off of Lawrence of Arabia.

I'd like to ooh and aah over their natural history for you, but I just don't feel like it. This time,it took too much effort to overlook the ugly steel plant spewing crap into the air on the horizon.



Not exactly a Kodak moment, is it? I suppose it's even more depressing when I think of how interrupted the nature at Starved Rock also seemed to me when we were there two weeks ago. (See post here.)

My brother-in-law and his wife, who just moved back to Chicago from northern California, came with us yesterday. All I could think about was how much it must suck for them to be hanging out on the beach, staring at that belching steel plant. I mean they used to get to go to Napa Valley and Monterey in a morning's drive.

But Julianna waved off the thought and pulled from her backpack a giant plastic bag with a bottle of white wine sitting in it, literally, on ice. "I just think every day should be a celebration," she announced as she fished out some plastic cups. I love her.

Later, after we were all feeling good and the kids were playing in the sand, I walked along the shoreline and picked up garbage. I had an empty plastic bag in my coat pocket leftover from when I walked Boomer. So, I just started picking up whatever I saw and putting it in my bag. There was something importantly cathartic about it for me. With each piece I removed from the beach, I felt like I was somehow restoring nature to where it had been robbed. Or, maybe I was drunk.

Here's what I picked up:

• a crushed, plastic bottle that once held Minute Maid grape-artificially-flavored drink
  
• a large chunk of broken styrofoam with some blue backing on it (maybe a boogie board?)
  
• some little bits of styrofoam
  
• a straw, probably from McDonald's because it had yellow and red stripes on it
• a short, frayed piece of twine
• a faded piece of a Spiderman popsicle wrapper
• two white, plastic bottle caps
• and, these, the garbage prize of the day:

It's hard not to try to picture who trashed these on the beach, isn't it?
One good thing about picking up garbage as you walk along the Indiana Dunes shoreline is that your return trip is pristine. That is, as long as you don't look at the horizon.

Something to trapdoor a winter afternoon. . .

How I love what the Internet has done for us, serving up heaps of homegrown poetry on a chilly evening at the command of a few keystrokes. No down coat required. No pot of hot tea. Only a compliant search engine and an outlet for my plug.

Illinois' poet laureate is Bradley Caterpillar Professor of English (great title) Kevin Stein.

Here's an excerpt from his poem Home Economics published in his book Chance Ransom (University of Illinois Press). (With apologies to Mr. Stein for the inappropriate formatting of his poem. Blogger does not appear to appreciate the subtleties of "printing" verse.)

If not the Betty Crocker commercial,
then the smell of vanilla extract,
an oven timer slicing kitchen quiet:

something to trapdoor a winter afternoon
beneath memory's ornate noose
which is, alas, a noose nonetheless.

To put my neck in is to feel the clock's tick tock,
the porch knocker clacking,
to be the boy jerking open the oak door

for impeccable Mr. Burke,
tanned above polished loafers topped off with dimes.
He's come for this week's cake,

devil's food wiht chocolate icing
spritzed to resemble the sailboat
he floats the murky lake in -- Lady Luck,

all teak and brilliant brass.

Mother tents an Eisenhower hair net
over her bouffant--
cleanliness as style and substance.

She bakes other folks' cakes, pies, cookies.
No one says women's work.
No one has to.

Safety Star by Victoria Fuller

Safety Star, View 1

I love this sculpture. It's my favorite in the 2004-2005 Lincoln Park Community Art Initiative. (See previous posts here, here, and here.) First of all, the sentiment of the title rocks -- like it's a contemporary St. Christopher medal for our neighborhood. Safety Star's proximity to the firehouse on the corner of Armitage and Larrabee (it's located in a small park just south of the building) makes the safety theme resonate even further.

I also love that the sculptor, Victoria Fuller, took a ubiquitous, mundane object and shaped a bunch of them into something new, surprising and captivating.

If you go see it, don't just view it from a distance. The sculpture rewards you for taking time to view it up close. Here's what you see when you peer through one of the cones' ends.


Safety Star, View 2

The black metals rings are the lattice work of Safety Star's support structure and aesthetically pleasing in their own right.

Finally, I love the burst of color Safety Star brings to my neighborhood, especially on gray, winter days. Here's a peek through the alley on the west side of the firehouse.


Safety Star, View 3

The sculptures in this program will only be displayed through April. Then, a new round of public art moves in. That's too bad for Safety Star. I think it's a keeper.

(Just for kicks, here's the other Victoria Fuller's art website. Adults Only.)

Blogging here and there. . .

Friends,

I'm delighted to be blogging here, too. So, if I'm not here, look for me there.

thanks,

jr

Presidents' Day Trip to See the Balden Eagles

We went to see the bald eagles yesterday -- or the balden eagles as our 4-year old who inspired the trip calls them. (Note: don't underestimate the educational value of hanging a dimestore birdfeeder in whatever you call your back yard. Little more than sparrows, cardinals and a few pigeons have shown up so far, but it got him looking through bird books until he decided the balden eagles were the ones to see.)

We piled into the family's new Honda Accord Hybrid and drove the 100 miles down to Starved Rock State Park. (Note about the Hybrid: once you've had the experience of stopping in traffic without the sensation of idling, you'll have a hard time going back to a non-hybrid again. They're so quiet. Who cares if they don't get all the predicted mileage? They're a joy over the noisier fume-belching SUV alternative . . . that we also own.)

Around last November, the bald eagles began showing up on the banks of the Illinois River for the season and the last ones will remain until about early March. Their three-and-a-half foot frames were so easy to spot perched in the bare trees that they may as well have been brown labradors. By the end of our trip (which included a "trolley" tour), we had seen nearly a dozen bald eagles -- several of them soaring overhead. They were magnificent.

In the last forty years, bald eagles have made a genuine comeback, moving from an endangered to threatened species, and since 1999, the federal government has been thinking of taking them off the lists. One Starved Rock official said they had seen as many as 60 eagles earlier this year and more than 100 last year.

The downside of the park is that it overlooks a dam and a lock. A lot of barge traffic, some of it marked flammable, passes right in front of one of the observation areas, but the eagles like the dam because it traumatizes the chad (fish) as they pass through it, making them easy prey. Untouched wilderness this state park is not.

From a lot of the park, you can see the locks and dam, a few farm silos, and some industrial sites, and along the trolley route to the observation area, we saw garbage lying all over the roadside. Meanwhile, the Starved Rock Lodge broadcasted music (Dreamweavers, Bob Seger) through loudspeakers mounted outside. Our experience ended up being more about the eagles' interaction with our built environment than a city escape to see a natural wonder.

The upsides are that the Illinois Audobon Society saved an important eagle roost, Plum Island, from developers, and that, um, we have state parks.

Yet, clearly, those of us who care about conservation and nature have a lot of work to do. The cliches are true that bulldozers are eating up our land and that we have to remain vigilant against some sorts of "progress." (I know, I know, it's on our list to get rid of the SUV. This is an awakening conscious at work here, not a perfect one.)

I asked my son this morning while I was buttering his toast what he thought about our trip to see the eagles.

"I'd like to go back."

"Oh, but most of them will be leaving soon and won't be back until next winter, a year from now." I said.

"That's okay," he said while focusing yesterday's binoculars on his cereal. "I can wait."

Text of Blagojevich 2006 Illinois Budget Speech

He's been governor for two years, and I still have to look up how to spell his name right. Why don't we just start using Bluhgoyavitch and hope he doesn't notice.

Here's the text of the budget address given on February 16.

Eric Zorn on Lerner Community Newspapers

Really nice Eric Zorn piece this week on the slow, steady disappearance of Lerner-run community newspapers. I appreciate how in touch Zorn is with the nuances of community life and the importance of noting a passing such as this.

The Lerner people took community journalism just as seriously as those at the major papers take big-city journalism," said Greg Hinz, political editor of Crain's Chicago Business who was a political editor and columnist at Lerner earlier in his career. "Leo supposedly used to say that if someone dropped a nuclear bomb on the Loop, his lead sentence the next day would be, `Five windows broke at the corner of Lincoln, Belmont and Ashland yesterday when. .. .'"

I don't think the desire to read such deep local coverage will ever fade. After all, people are interested in what happens in their own backyards. I know that's why I got blogging about this stuff - to stop and smell the sidewalks.

A Closer Look at Illinois' 2005 National Endowment for the Arts Grant Recipients

I was reviewing this list of Illinois organizations who will receive grants this year from the NEA, and a couple of things struck me.

First, there are 37 grants for just over $1 million. Given our government's immense wealth, that's a paltry sum for one of the nation's premiere cultural hubs. Like you, I've always heard about how our government goes cheap on the arts, but until I sat down and reviewed this list, I didn't understand how cheap.

Secondly, the NEA identified a lot of deserving organizations. Some of my favorites include: Experimental Sound Studio, Redmoon Theater, Tia Chucha Press and Dalkey Archive Press. That being said, the ethnic diversity represented here seems minimal despite the many cultural ideas and creativity bursting from our city (and state).

As a side note, the Illinois Arts Council grants money to both individual artists and organizations. The 2005 individual winners have been announced. I'm still trying to track down the 2005 organizations who will receive grants. If and when I succeed in finding out, I'll be sure to share it here.

Then & Now: 1302 W. Belmont

February 1911. Exterior view of the W. R. Wieboldt store in Lakeview. (From the Chicago Daily News photo archive. Available at American Memory in cooperation with the Chicago Historical Society.)

Below, the same spot 94 years later.

Sun-Times' Washington blames Tillman for Slow Development in 3rd Ward

In today's Chicago Sun-Times, Laura Washington lays the blame for the lack of development along 47th street at Alderman Dorothy Tillman's feet:

Tillman, the longtime alderman and committeeman of the 3rd Ward, is the political boss of 47th Street. And a black history icon. . . . 47th Street runs through the heart of Tillman's ward. More than two decades ago, she inherited a shell of a neighborhood blighted by urban renewal, poverty and crime. And while there are some signs of progress, there are also signs of shame. . . .

Over the years, Tillman has put aldermanic holds on dozens of properties. Many of the vacant lots in her ward lay fallow today because she has chosen to hold up the city-owned land for the proper time. Her cast-iron grip on that land has crippled development that might have blossomed into jobs and hope long ago. . . .

Ironically, her most passionate crusade is rooted in the msot excruciating era of black history. Tillman has led a national effort to force the kings of commerce who profited from trading slaves to make reparations to their ancestors. . . .But history, especially the African-American kind, deserves as much passion from black leaders who get stuff done for those in need in the here and now.

Whether you roll or you stroll, today's 47th Street ain't the way it's supposed to be.

Chicago Wilderness Conference Set for Saturday, Feb. 26

Sign up now for Wild Things, the Chicago Wilderness Conference, to be held at Northeastern Illinois University from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The conference "brings together the region's best experts, most dedicated volunteers, and anyone interested in nature." Might that be you?

The conference will feature 15 different informational tracks:

• General Conservation
• Restoration, Natural Resource Management
• Ecology
• Flora/Span
• Fauna -- Birds
• Fauna -- General
• Backyards & Neighborhoods
• Public Education & Communication
• Arts & Culture
• Advocacy & Constituency Building
• Youth Education & Outreach
• Building the Conservation Community
• General Conservation
• Bonus Topics
• Case Studies

It's sponsored by Chicago Wilderness, an area coalition of nature organizations. Registration fees are $25 before 2/21, $30 after, and $10 for students. Lunch is $10 and parking is $2 before 2/21 and $5 after. See you there.

Fate of Senn High School in Edgewater Continues to Stir Debate

At a meeting last week in Edgewater, tensions mounted over the fate of Senn High School. The alderwoman, Mary Ann Smith, and a School Board Task Force want to hand chunks of the school over to the Navy for recruitment and training. Not so fast says the community. (Story from the Chicago Independent Media Center.)