Category: Chicago-esque

Chicago related, duh

Beer and Pork

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Donnie Madia in front of Avec

Paul Kahan and Donnie Madia’s new beer and pork place is finally given a name: the Publican. Not sure of the location exactly, but it looks like it is on West Randolph Street somewhere.

After years of speculation and anticipation, it looks as though the beer-, pork- and fish-focused restaurant by chef Paul Kahan finally has a name: The Publican.

[snip]

The Publican (the name takes a little getting used to) will serve up beer-friendly foods (see the braised pork potee in the photo above), along with more than 100 brews from England, the U.S., Belgium and Brazil and more far-flung locales. The chef de cuisine is Brian Huston (pronounced like the Texas town), who worked at Blackbird years ago, went off to cook in Colorado and returned to town about a year ago to work on this project. While developing The Publican’s menu, Huston has been working at Avec and can be seen there almost nightly.

[From The Stew – A taste of Chicago’s food, wine and dining scene | Chicago Tribune | Blog]

I know D won’t want to ever set foot in the place, pork and beer are not favorites. Maybe if my brother comes in town…

update: location is 845 Fulton for this nitrate central.

Blackbird Project Named and Dated
The Blackbird/Avec team has finally announced that their third sib, a culinary homage to beer, pork and fish in the West Loop, will be named the Publican (British term for pub owner). The tentative opening date has been set for Monday, August 18th. Exec chef Paul Kahan and chef de cuisine Brian Huston have developed a network of purveyors to supply the restaurant with hand-selected, sustainably harvested seafood and sustainably raised heirloom pork to anchor a rustic menu of simple, eclectic fare. And beer enthusiasts are thirsty for the more than 100 ales, lagers, stouts and ciders to be served by the bottle, with another dozen available on tap (845 W. Fulton Market).

[From Blackbird Project Named and Dated – Best of Buzz – Zagat Survey ]

Supermarkets and the CTA

swanksalot0 comment

Sort of odd.

The Chicago Transit Authority is said to be looking into the possibility of having some L trains stop inside area supermarkets, or potentially consider adding bank branches and restaurants on its properties in an effort to get more mileage out of its extensive network of rail and bus routes situated on prime real estate.

“Right off the bat we are going to be looking at the idea of grocery stores right at train stations,” said Jeff Ahmadian, CTA’s deputy general counsel for the CTA, was quoted in a report in the Chicago Tribune. “People could get off directly inside the grocery store and go shopping without ever going outside,” he said, citing the Red Line’s Berwyn, Wilson and North/Clybourn stops as candidates for grocery stores, as well as other L stops that could also add supermarkets.

[From Chicago Transit Authority Looking to Add Supermarkets to Routes]

Don’t really see the advantage of this, I guess budget has to be spent somewhere, but seems like this is more of a way to waste money on consultants finding the perfect location.

To get the concept rolling, the CTA on Wednesday hired real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle to help it assess transit property, as well as secure businesses for CTA stations and other transit-oriented development. Chicago-based JLL will be paid $4.2 million over five years to represent the CTA.

National Guard Patrolling the Gold Coast

Seth Anderson0 comment

Such a strange proposal by Governor Blah-Blah1 – National Guard to patrol the streets because “crime is out of control”. Obviously, crime is not out of control here, there is just a slight increase in the number of annual murders, in specific neighborhoods.

Machine Gun at the Ready

A day after Gov. Rod Blagojevich called Chicago’s rising crime rate “out of control” and offered state manpower to help, Police Supt. Jody Weis carefully waded into the political fray Thursday on the city’s behalf, saying reports on the uptick in crime have been exaggerated.

At a news conference, Weis walked a cautious line, avoiding laying blame, asserting that his department has a handle on crime but still welcoming assistance. The superintendent said any deployment of state police would need more discussion and planning, and the Illinois National Guard isn’t likely to be on the way. Weis said the Guard doesn’t have the police powers necessary to help fight crime in the city.

The governor’s offer, which the administration said potentially involved using state troopers to patrol streets and National Guard helicopters to carry out surveillance, raised questions about whether it was more the result of a political struggle with Mayor Richard Daley rather than the need for more police.

[From Weis says he’s open to assistance from State Police, but National Guard wouldn’t help — chicagotribune.com]

Chicago is not Baghdad, nor Detroit, Gov Blah blah must have just been pissed off at Daley for some reason to even suggest such a strange thing without prior notice or discussion.

Footnotes:
  1. as Blagojevich is called in these parts [↩]

Green Merchandise Mart

Seth Anderson3 Comments

Green Exchange
Cool1. I’ve always meant to take a photo of this building. Now I have more reason to – I think this is a great idea.

Green light goes on at old Cooper lamp factory | Crain’s Chicago Business :

A Chicago real estate developer aims to turn the former Frederick Cooper Lamp Co. factory in Logan Square into a green Merchandise Mart, with showrooms featuring eco-friendly products and services.
After churning out lamps for 35 years, the 250,000-square-foot building alongside the Kennedy Expressway would become the Green Exchange, housing a building supply business, a furniture maker, a printing company and other environmentally conscious businesses, says developer David Baum, who bought the property with his brother Douglas last year. The companies will have greater marketing power under one roof than they would apart, he says.
“If you’re a customer that wants to buy paint that has no toxins, you may also have interest in using a green architect and investing in a socially responsible mutual fund,” David Baum says. “I think we’re hitting a tipping point in environmentalism and it’s becoming mainstream.”
…
He says he won’t seek city subsidies for the project. Several businesses have signed non-binding “letters of interest” to lease space in the building, including Consolidated Printing Co., which uses an environmentally sustainable printing process, and Greenmaker Supply, which sells eco-friendly building supplies.

(H/T)
—
Website www.greenexchange.com

and another repost2 : We wrote about this previously, the Tribune has more details.

Going green: Project envisions eco-friendly shopping center :

When David Baum decided last year to convert the old Cooper Lamp factory in Logan Square into a one-stop shopping center of green businesses, he knew it would be a risky and expensive proposition.

“Wind turbines don’t necessarily make economic sense today, but we want to engage the imagination,” said Baum, who plans to spend more than $30 million renovating the sprawling yellow brick structure where craftsmen once turned out custom-made lamps. “We do still plan to make a profit, albeit a small one.”

Baum is aiming to tap into the growing consumer demand for eco-conscious merchandise and services. Dubbed the Green Exchange, he wants his project to become one of the first places in the nation to offer an entirely green space for entirely green work.

Baum envisions places like an organic restaurant, an environmentally friendly building supply store, green-friendly architects and eco-design firms. There could even be a sustainable clothing store, a bicycle shop and a car showroom, he said.

The project would be three times larger than The Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center in Portland, Ore., where roughly 20 tenants, including Patagonia, offer sustainable goods and services in a 70,000-square-foot facility.

Continue reading “Green Merchandise Mart”

Footnotes:
  1. Reposted from my old blog to house a new photo [↩]
  2. combining two entries into one [↩]

Yats Cajun Creole

Seth Anderson4 Comments

Was walking east on Randolph, and glanced at a soon-to open restaurant called Yats Cajun Creole. The owner, Joe Vuskovich, a gregarious fellow, recently of New Orleans, came out and chatted for a minute or two. He said the restaurant will be be opening mid-July, or early August, if all goes as planned. I forgot to get a photo of Joe, but I did snap a shot of the storefront (forgive the poor exposure).

Joe mentioned he used to work in a factory over on Fulton1, so it was a homecoming of sorts for him. Also, his dad had been an oyster farmer, so the smells and sounds2 of Fulton Market brought back fond memories.

I am a great lover of all things New Orleans (mostly the music, but the food too), so am eager to have my first meal at Yats Cajun Creole.

Yats Cajun Creole

—
update, now open!

Footnotes:
  1. from his webpage: Most recently, Joe has owned and operated a wholesale business, (a) blending, grinding, packaging, and selling spices to the restaurant trade, as well as (b) offering his spicy native cuisine to restaurants in a pre-prepared fashion. After a few big clients went out of business about two years ago, Joe decided to launch a no-frills, back-to-the-basics, neighborhood restaurant. Thus, Yats was reborn. [↩]
  2. diesel, and food, and other less pleasant items too. I grew up on the edge of Toronto’s Chinatown, and we had a poultry market several buildings down the street, sharing an alley with us, so I know of what Joe is referring. Smells are such powerful unlockers of the dusty corridors of memory. [↩]

George Carlin and Lenny Bruce

Seth Anderson2 Comments


“The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of An American Icon” (Ronald K. L. Collins, David M. Skover)

Regional news outlets can find any national event and find the angle that links the story to the local market. Apparently, George Carlin got his second start in Chicago (or not, the NYT Obit claims Carlin started doing darker, topical humor in 1970, quite a few years past 1962)

The show was on a Tuesday night, Dec. 4, 1962, at the Gate of Horn, 1036 N. State, according to the Sun-Times report the next morning. One of the vice detectives checking out the show described it this way: “We were there about a half hour when Bruce appeared on the stage and from the first few minutes of his routine the air turned blue. Every other word [was] a four-letter one, and he spared nobody, including the clergy and the police department in his abuse.”

According to The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover, one of the comic’s signature bits, “Christ and Moses, [YouTube with photo montage of Bruce and audio recording of this bit]” was the bridge too far for the cops. In this bit, the two holy men unexpectedly stop by St. Patrick’s Cathedral, causing a panicked Cardinal Spellman to beg the pope’s help. (“We’re up to our ass in crutches and wheelchairs here!”)

At that point, the police stopped the show and arrested Bruce, charging him with “giving an obscene and lewd show.”

Also arrested were the club’s owner and bartender, as well as one George Carlin, 25, who refused to show ID. Carlin and Bruce shared a ride to the station in the back of a paddywagon, and when they were booked they both gave the same local address on East Delaware.

The incident left its mark on both comics. Carlin changed the tone of his comedy to be much more topical. He was arrested himself 10 years later in Milwaukee for performing his infamous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine.

“He was really a force for exposing hypocrisy,” Carlin said of Bruce in a radio interview. He later added: “Lenny Bruce opened the doors for all the guys like me; he prefigured the free-speech movement and helped push the culture forward into the light of open and honest expression.”

Bruce, meanwhile, was found guilty and later said this about our fair city: “Chicago is so corrupt, it’s thrilling.”

[From Carlin’s comedy was born in a Chicago paddywagon :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Entertainment]

Lenny Bruce, right as usual.

John Nichols of the Nation has a nice collection of Carlinisms. Like:

“Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians,” [Carlin] explained in a routine that challenged all the premises of today’s half-a-loaf reformers. “Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck.

Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain’t going to do any good; you’re just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans.

So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here… like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: ‘The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.‘”

and:

Recalling George Bush’s ranting about how the endless “war on terror” is a battle for freedom, Carlin echoed James Madison’s thinking with a simple question: “Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?”

and a favorite of mine:

“The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they’re an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying – lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else,” ranted the comedian whose routines were studied in graduate schools.

“But I’ll tell you what they don’t want,” Carlin continued. “They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers – people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they’re coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club.”

Maria Pinto and Michelle Obama

Seth Anderson4 Comments

Love Fashion

The West Loop – fashion capital of the Midwest! Not really, but worth noting anyway

CHICAGO — Election-year pundits have analyzed everything about Michelle Obama, from the size of her pearls to her newly hired chief of staff. But few have taken much note of the person responsible for one of her most formidable campaign tools: her wardrobe.

The designer behind much of Mrs. Obama’s public attire is an effusive 51-year-old Chicago native, Maria Pinto. A clothing resource to prominent local women including Oprah Winfrey, she was relatively unknown outside Chicago until 16 months ago, when Mrs. Obama began appearing on the campaign trail in Ms. Pinto’s streamlined pieces.

Ms. Pinto created the red silk-crepe dress and jacket Mrs. Obama wore on Super Tuesday and the white-cotton top and khakis she donned to stump with Caroline Kennedy. On June 3, Mrs. Obama sported a $900 Pinto-designed purple silk shift as she fist-bumped her husband before his Democratic primary victory speech in St. Paul, Minn.

The Obama buzz has helped lift Ms. Pinto’s brand. “It’s a huge compliment,” she says. Orders for her designs are up 35% over the past 12 months, and potential investors and employees are cold-calling, she says. Ms. Pinto and her staff of 18 will soon be vacating their modest industrial studio for larger quarters in Chicago’s West Loop, with a 2,200-square-foot boutique, Ms. Pinto’s first. The space is now being outfitted with bamboo floors and soaring, Italian-tiled columns for a July opening.

[From Fashion Campaign – WSJ.com]

I’ll have to pop over to the new boutique one of these days, and see what’s to be seen.

[Digg-enabled full access to article via this link, including several photos of Ms. Pinto’s fashion designs.]

Maria Pinto Coming Soon

Maria Pinto Permit

—

update, now the store is open.

Maria Pinto's boutique

Huffington Post to expand into local news

Seth Anderson0 comment

Chicago Daily News

Interesting. I wonder if there will be any real outreach to the already existing Chicago blogosphere? Sam Zell ought to pay attention, but sites like GapersBlock shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago.

Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in “dozens of US cities”. The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor.

“We are aspiring to be a newspaper in that we want to covering all news, not just the political blogging the way we began,” said Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media’s internal Future of Journalism conference.

“[Huffington Post political editor] Tom Edsell has been mentoring a small team of young reporters who have done a great job breaking news through the election cycle. We are working on our third round of financing and a lot of money raised will go to expanding that reporting team,” she added.

[From Huffington Post to expand into local news across the US | Media | guardian.co.uk]

Huffington’s model doesn’t include paying for content, will that continue?

RIP Brendan Scanlon aka Solve

Seth Anderson5 Comments

Solve Danger

[click image for full version]

RIP Solve aka Brendan Scanlon. Died entirely too young. My condolences to his family, friends, and many fans. I’ve taken several photos of his work, but didn’t know him personally.

Prominent renegade Chicago street artist, Solve, was one of four homicides registered in Chicago this weekend, raising even more the already large number of violent crimes and shootings in the city this year.

Only twenty-five years old, Solve, A.K.A. Brendan Scanlon, was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at 3032 W. Palmer Blvd. at 2:40 a.m.

A suspect is in custody for the stabbing incident, but no charges have yet been filed.

The murder Of Brendan Scanlon delivers a overwhelmingly saddening blow to the art and graffiti community of Chicago. Solve was a major influence and participant in the emerging and struggling Chicago street art scene in a city with one of the strongest anti-graffiti laws and tactics in the United States.

[Click to read more .: Chicago Street Artist Killed in Weekend Violence, R.I.P. Solve]

see also discussion here, and brief article at the Sun-Times.

Brendan Scanlon, of the 2800 block of West Palmer Blvd., according to the medical examiner’s office, was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at 3032 W. Palmer Blvd. about 2:40 a.m., Kubiak said.

As of 6:30 a.m. an adult offender was in custody, but no charges have yet been filed.

Solve

— update: obituary in the Sun-Times

At least one person is in custody for the fatal stabbing of a well-known local graffiti artist in the Logan Square neighborhood early Saturday.

The man was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at 3032 W. Palmer Blvd. about 2:40 a.m., according to police News Affair Officer Laura Kubiak.

The man, identified as Brendan Scanlon, was leaving a party when he got into a “verbal altercation” and was subsequently stabbed, police said.

Police were “talking to people” Saturday evening and as of 6:30 a.m. an “adult offender” was in custody. No charges have been filed.

Scanlon, of 2846 W. Palmer Blvd., died of a stab wound to the chest, an autopsy determined Saturday. His death was ruled a homicide by the County Medical Examiner’s office.

Scanlon graduated from the Illinois Institute of Art in 2007, and worked as a freelance artist and graphic designer, according to his Web site.

Scanlon is reportedly the man behind SOLVE, a local graffiti and street artist. Many people discussed his death on a Chicago Street Art online discussion forum Saturday.

“The Chicago street art and graffiti community has suffered another devastating blow to our family,” one of the forum members posted Saturday. A memorial featuring Scanlon’s work is reportedly being planned.

Scanlon wanted “to be a respected member of the international design community,” and thought “art is one of the things that makes life worth it,” according to his Myspace profile, where friends posted mournful comments Saturday.

Grand Central Area detectives are investigating.

[From Fight leads to fatal stabbing of local artist :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State]

GapersBlock profiled Solve, and some other Chicago street artists a while ago.


SOLVE
His handle is a verb, not a noun. SOLVE uses his street art to “foster a more positive, productive society.” His work tends to be among the most confrontational in the Chicago street art scene — and that’s precisely his aim. Although he primarily works in larger format paste-ups, SOLVE brings his inventive and colorful style to other aspects of the North Side, especially signal boxes.

SOLVE wants you to know that he is not in a gang. And neither are most street artists.

RIP Solve closeup

Solve RIP Heartbroken tiny RGB

Continue reading “RIP Brendan Scanlon aka Solve”

Bike Safety in Chicago

Seth Anderson0 comment

Cops on Bikes
[Cops on Bikes]

Maybe when the police finish re-training cars to avoid hitting pedestrians in crosswalks, they can devote some resources to the ongoing automobile vs. bicycle wars. I’m never riding without a helmet again, that’s for sure.

A ghost bike marks the last place Clinton Miceli, 22, rode his bike.

“When you got to know him, he was just hilarious and full of life. He had everything going for him in this world. For him to go, it’s just a shock for all of us,” said Rob Mach, Clinton Miceli’s roommate.

Miceli was a graphic designer. He was riding his bike home from work Monday evening. A man in an SUV opened his car door in front of Miceli. Miceli was thrown into the path of oncoming traffic. He died from head injuries.

“He just got into it this last summer, getting around the city. He thought it was a great mode of transportation. He was very careful about it,” said Mach.

On Tuesday morning at the intersection of Broadway and Patterson, another cyclist was hit. Chicago police say the CTA bus driver attempted to pass the bike. The cyclist survived that crash.

“People are out there driving with cell phones. People are out there driving, not paying attention, not being prepared to stop, not being prepared to watch,” said Rob Sadowsky, executive director, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

[snip]

“It’s usually people not paying attention or thinking they can out-speed you around the corner or something and turn right in front of you,” said Jennifer Gutowski.

In the incident Tuesday morning, the CTA bus driver was cited and suspended by the CTA.

The driver who opened the door in front of Miceli Monday night was also ticketed. A wake and funeral for Miceli are planned for later this week.

[From abc7chicago.com: 2 serious accidents highlight bike safety 6/11/08]

When I spent a few days in Seattle, I was amazed at the pedestrian’s power. Cars would stop hundreds of yards from any walker, even ones like me who were jaywalking. Bike riders were given wide berths by cars, and never tail-gated. I talked to some locals while riding public transit, and they all said drivers were well trained to stop for pedestrians, but that pedestrians never jaywalked because the police gave out a lot of tickets for this transgression. Toronto is the same: cars are very polite to pedestrians and bikes alike. Chicago? Not so much. Car is king, and you’d best not forget it.

Photo of the young man here

Big Bottom (Lounge)

swanksalot0 comment

Lake Street El to somewhere else
[Lake Street El to Somewhere Else – probably taken at 1100 West Lake, give or take]

Big Bottoms drive me out of my mind! – [Spinal Tap, if you forgot.] Anyway, of special interest as 1375 W. Lake is stumbling distance from me (or one El stop away if the weather is crappy).

Bottom Lounge (1375 W Lake St.) just opened. No, seriously, I’ve friggin’ been there man. And golly, is it big—well, bigger than I imagined. So impressively large is this new live music venue that ‘lounge’ seems totally inappropriate as a part of the name. Lounges just aren’t of this size, even in truth-stretching clubspeak. Though it’s not quite as deep in the live room, it reminds me of Washington D.C.’s Black Cat (the newer one), in that the bar feels like a rocker hangout that thrives regardless of what is happening in the live room.

The entryway is bigger than some condos I’ve been in, and there’s a spacious high-ceilinged bar there with vinyl booths. The live room (with its own absinthe-serving bar) is well proportioned. The generously-scaled stage looks made to accommodate multiple Mucca Pazzas simultaneously (a scary thought), and the sound system runs through a pro-size (Midas Verona 40×8) mixing board in the front of house. I haven’t heard a band, only DJs, through the system—I was at the final night of the Our Way of Thinking mod festival with Tony the Tyger and The Dust Junkies spinning obscure mod rock and Northern soul. The sound wasn’t overly loud, and it was clear enough to get the mini-dress-and-tight-suit set out on the dance floor and close to the Nexo Alpha speakers.

[Click to see a photograph and more info at Time Out Chicago: The TOC Blog Big Bottom (Lounge)]

Probably not quite as cool as the Lounge Ax (which was also stumbling distance from me, back in the 90s), but still good to note. I can’t say I recognize any of the acts currently listed, but that doesn’t even matter. Just happy something interesting landed at that spot and not another freaking condo building.

Bottom Lounge

Death at Blommer Chocolate

Seth Anderson5 Comments

The ABCs of Chocolate
[The ABCs of Chocolate-across from Blommer Chocolate Company]

First off, I have great sympathy for Gerardo Castillo’s family, that’s got to be a hard way to die.

Chicago officials and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration hunted Monday for the cause of a fatal gas release that killed a North Side man and hospitalized two others at a chocolate factory on the Near West Side over the weekend. Gerardo Castillo, 30, was killed Sunday in the second fatal accident since 2001 at Blommer Chocolate Co., 600 W. Kinzie St.

Castillo of the 1700 block of West Olive Avenue was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after a release of ammonialike fumes at the factory. A substance mixed into the chocolate somehow triggered a gaseous chemical reaction, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman said.

[snip]

OSHA last inspected the facility in 1994, said federal compliance officer Tricia Railton, who was reading from a report. Those safety investigations had to do with workers who were cleaning a piece of equipment that either had not been disconnected or was not marked as being potentially dangerous to the cleaners if turned on. It was not immediately clear if an injury prompted that inspection, Railton said. In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent an inspector to check the factory after a neighbor complained about the aroma of burnt chocolate. The unidentified complainant also noted a powder-filled plume churning out of a roof duct.

Based on what the inspector saw two mornings in early September, the EPA cited Blommer for violating limits on opacity, or the amount of light blocked by the factory’s grinder dust.

[From U.S., city probing death at chocolate factory — chicagotribune.com]

But this EPA thing has been ongoing for a while. In fact, we mentioned it to Alderman Reilly when we met him in his office just prior to Reilly being sworn in, and his staff was going to look into it. Pollution and particulates are pollution and particulates, even if they smell like chocolate, and shouldn’t be allowed to permeate the lungs of local residents (like myself, ahem). I am curious as to what the details of this September investigation actually were.

Previous coverage of Blommer on my old blog

Blommer Continue reading “Death at Blommer Chocolate”

Esquire Blues Redux

Seth Anderson0 comment

The Esquire in the Gold Coast has been shuttered for a few years. The last film I saw there was Fahrenheit 9/11, so obviously it’s been a few years. Still, I’ve always liked having a theater there, regardless if I used it or not.

Esquire Blues

M Development has withdrawn plans to build a boutique hotel on the site of the shuttered Esquire Theater on Oak Street and instead will scale down the project to a two-to-three story structure housing about a half dozen luxury retailers.

Efforts to redevelop the historic Gold Coast movie house have been in flux since the theater shut down in September 2006. M Development, the Chicago-based owner of the property, originally proposed a mixed-use complex consisting of a 100-room hotel and retail shops to replace the theater and some adjacent property it also owns.

The hotel portion of the project, which would have risen about 10 stories, encountered resistance from residents worried about traffic congestion and about losing the intimate European character of the tony street, home to Jimmy Choo, Prada, Barneys, Harry Winston and Hermes.

[From M Development cancels plans to build Oak Street hotel — chicagotribune.com]

So now what to do? Alderman Reilly, whose district encompasses this location, eventually decided against allowing the hotel to be built.

Putting a relatively tall building in the middle of the block of European graystones “violates basic urban planning principles,” Reilly added in the letter. Most of the buildings on the street are about three stories high.

He also said the proposed hotel would burden the neighborhood’s infrastructure, in particular an alley off of Bellevue Place (a residential street one block north of Oak Street) heavily used by a condo building and Sutton Place Hotel.

The one block street in the Gold Coast has a storied history. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, prominent Chicagoans established the block as an enclave for the wealthy, hiring European-trained architects to build their mansions. Many of those buildings remain, although they now house $1,500 handbags and $150,000 diamond necklaces.

Jeffrey Shapack, president of M Development, said the firm decided to forego the hotel and concentrate on the few floors of retail in order to get the project off the ground.

“Based on numerous factors and considerations, we made the decision to move forward with a retail-commercial-only development on Oak Street with plans to begin development in 2009,” said Shapack. “This development has generated a lot of interest from luxury national and international retailers who like the prospect of having their own branded facade in a new building on Oak Street.”

M Development is also redeveloping Barneys New York down the street from the Esquire.

Plans are to turn the Barneys building at the corner of Oak and Rush Streets into a retail and restaurant complex and move the existing Barneys across the street into a new, bigger building.

Cuban and the Cubs

Seth Anderson2 Comments

Baseball and Beer
[Baseball and Beer – click for full version]

I am not a baseball fan (although I’ve been to a dozen or more games over the years), but I think the Chicago Tribune would do well to sell the Cubs to Mark Cuban.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, one of the Major League Baseball-approved bidders for the Chicago Cubs, expects to receive confidential financial data on the team any day now and said Friday on a Chicago radio show that it is his “job” to convince everyone he is the best choice to own the franchise.

Cuban also told WMVP-AM 1000 hosts Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle he “definitely would want Wrigley Field to be part of the deal,” despite the fact Tribune Co., which is parent of the Chicago Cubs, has considered selling it separately, either to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority or a private buyer.

[From Cuban says he will ‘pull out all the stops’ in bid to buy Cubs]

The genius of Mark Cuban is that he is sincere in his dedication to the improvements of his teams, and the city that supports that team. From all that I’ve read, Dallas has benefitted from Cuban’s ownership of the Dallas Mavericks.

“My job is to convince everybody involved that not only is it a good financial move to sell to Mark Cuban, but it’s also, you know, a good partnership move, that I can add value beyond just my checkbook to not just the Cubs, to not just the city of Chicago, but also to Major League Baseball,” he said.

“It’s about being a good citizen. It’s about contributing to the community, and to me that’s viewed to be just as important as Major League Baseball or the Tribune Co. You know, what can I do for Wrigleyville? What can I do for the community? And what are the ways that I fit in and add value? … There are a lot of things we can do communitywise that can enhance my chances, and so I’m gonna pull out all the stops.”

Asked if he believed he could rely on the support of Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who also owns the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, Cuban said they “get along pretty well” and “we’re actually on the same side of issues probably 99.99 percent” of the time.

“If you talk to any of the folks in the NBA, they’ll tell you that I’m a great partner, that I bust my butt to try to do what’s best for the league,” Cuban said. “That’s not always what’s portrayed in the media. But those who know, know, and I think that will pay off. And if I can come up with a competitive bid for the Cubs, then I think I’ve got a shot.

“If talking to Jerry is something I need to do, then certainly I will and, you know, knowing Jerry he’d be wide open to it. He’s just that good of a guy.”

I hope it works out for Cuban and the Cubs.

What alternative sites were explored?

Seth Anderson1 Comment

The Chicago Children’s Museum claim they looked into 37 alternative sites, even though the firm doing the searching wasn’t hired until April. Something fishy: corporations like Jones Lang LaSalle don’t usually work pro bono.

Opponents of Mayor Richard Daley’s plan to build a $100 million Chicago Children’s Museum in Grant Park demanded Tuesday that the museum release three years of records to prove it seriously considered more than three dozen alternative sites.

Last week, the Children’s Museum released a list of 20 existing buildings and 17 new construction sites it says it considered for the museum’s new home in a three-year search before zeroing in on Daley’s controversial favorite.

Residents of high-rises surrounding the Daley Bicentennial Plaza site and their alderman, Brendan Reilly (42nd), responded by questioning the veracity of the list.

On Tuesday, with a city council committee vote just two days away, they turned up the heat and demanded that the museum release the records of its board meetings and meetings with the real estate consulting firm that released the list of alternative sites.

The museum’s zoning application shows that the firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, did not begin its work for the Children’s Museum until April, so it could not possibly have conducted the search for alternatives, critics say.

Opponents of the Grant Park move also said museum officials spent the past year insisting that the “only location seriously considered” was Grant Park.

“Somebody’s not telling the truth here,” said Peggy Figiel, co-founder of Save Grant Park.

[From Museum foes demand proof of alternative sites :: The SouthtownStar ]

Tons of back story on this if you are interested.