Tag: 42nd_Ward

Eye see u Willis

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Eye see u Willis
Eye see u Willis, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

(( The Sears Tower is n/k/a Willis Tower – but you knew that, right? ))

Eye (embiggening)
By Oak Park artist, Tony Tasset
Temporary Exhibit: From July to October, 2010.
Location: Pritzker Park, at the corner of State and Van Buren.
Insallation in progress of the 30-foot tall, giant eyeball made of fiberglass and steel, allegedly modeled on his own eye.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Film: Pistil
Flash: Off

took a brief walk before lunch today to gaze at this three story eyeball as best as I could from behind the construction fences. Isn’t officially completed until July 7th, wonder what else remains to be done? Maybe just shoring up the base.

Anyway, very cool.

CTA Red Line fire

Seth Anderson0 comment

Clark and Division Red Line

We happened to be walking past this area, and noticed the commotion:

Investigators worked late into the night Sunday to figure out what had sparked an extra-alarm fire on an underground track that sent 19 people to hospitals for smoke inhalation and respiratory problems.

Five people were transported with serious injuries, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said. The injured included a 10-year-old boy who was being held overnight at Children’s Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. The extent of their injuries was not known Sunday night.

“The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see across the aisle,” said passenger Dillon Johnson, 23. “We all started to sit down on the floor where the smoke wasn’t as bad.”

Fire officials said railroad ties caught fire just before 5 p.m. on the northbound track between the Red Line stops at Chicago Avenue and Clark/Division. Black smoke could be seen billowing from several subway grates and vents in the area, including near Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse on Rush Street. Red Line trains and several bus routes were redirected while firefighters fought the small underground blaze.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said it’s unclear what sparked the fire, but that railroad ties occasionally catch fire during the summer heat.

(click to continue reading Red Line fire: 19 people injured in CTA track fire – chicagotribune.com.)

Easily twenty fire trucks, plus various Chicago Transit Authority police cars, a couple of Water Department trucks, and police too. They had cordoned a large area off from cars, but were allowing pedestrians to still walk through, so of course I had to see what was going on.

Also yesterday witnessed a large arrest of some sort on Chicago and State Streets, an arrest that involved 7 or 8 police cars and SUVs, and a dude being detained on the ground in hand cuffs. Still don’t know what that was. Oh, and earlier called 911 when we witnessed a young boy riding his bike swerve against an oncoming taxi1 and ram his head right into a street light post. We heard the collision from a block away. He was with his father and a couple of brothers, all on bikes, but we were worried he might have sustained a concussion. Didn’t stay to see however, just called for an ambulance.

Crazy day.

Footnotes:
  1. the bikes were going the wrong way on a one way street [↩]

A Moment In Time May 2nd 2010

Seth Anderson0 comment

The Lens blog of The New York Times invited all photographers, of all levels of skill, to submit a photo taken at 15:00 UTC, which translated into 10 AM C.S.T. for me.

May Day Lingerers Chicago

May 2nd. Activists lingering at the Haymarket Riot Memorial Statue, with guitars and so forth.

embiggen

Uploaded to the New York Times “A Moment in Time” global mosaic.

Where will you be on Sunday, May 2, at 15:00 hours (U.T.C.)?

Wherever you are, we hope you’ll have a camera — or a camera phone — in hand. And we hope you’ll be taking a picture to send to Lens that will capture this singular instant in whatever way you think would add to a marvelous global mosaic; a Web-built image of one moment in time across the world.

We extend the invitation to everyone, everywhere. Amateurs. Students. Pros. People who’ve been photographing for a lifetime or who just started yesterday.

What matters more than technique is the thought behind the picture, because you’ll only be sending us one. So please do think beforehand about where you will want to be and what you will want to focus on. Here are the general topics:

Religion
Play
Nature and the Environment
Family
Work
Arts and Entertainment
Money and the Economy
Community
Social Issues

[Click to continue reading A Timely Global Mosaic, Created by All of Us – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com]

I was reading my Sunday papers (including, coincidentally, The New York Times), drinking my first coffee of the day, and almost forgot about the project. However, I remembered in time to put on a clean shirt and strap on my camera for a brief walk up and down my street. I took about a dozen photos, a few of which I’ve uploaded to Flickr. The photo above, of the Haymarket Riot Memorial Statue is the one I submitted, even though I’m not that happy with it, truth be told.

Here are a few others I took this morning. Click a photo to enlarge it…

Everlasting Broken Windows
Everlasting broken windows

Sunday Morning Parking Lot
Sunday morning Parking Lot

Contrained Urban Living
Constrained Urban Living – Polapan Blue

Roofs May Second 2010
Rooftops

Green Roof-esque
Green Roof-esque

Chicago Ice Age
Chicago Ice Age

Urban ritualized behaviors

swanksalot0 comment
Urban ritualized behaviors
Urban ritualized behaviors, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Developed in SwankoLab for iPhone using Vinny’s BL04, SwankoDev H1N,
and Grizzle Fix

Embiggen

seemed like a training session for office managers or something. Each had to receive instruction from a fireman, then take the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the bucket. After, the bucket was relit.

There were huge, billowing clouds of presumedly toxic smoke, though because of wind patterns, most of the miasma went into SingleHop, and Meiji, and didn’t waft across the street.

Mayor Daley’s Fence Inspectors haven’t discovered this alley yet

swanksalot0 comment

Probably because the lot is owned by the Hyatt, and the Pritzker family can’t afford to clean up their property.

Developed in SwankoLab for iPhone using Jerry’s Developer and Larry’s Developer

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/us/02cncpulse.html

After issuing only one fine for a landscape ordinance violation from 2005 until 2008, the city issued 51 in 2009, according to records from the Department of Administrative Hearings. The city meted out $29,000 in fines to businesses last year for landscape ordinance violations. Ninety percent of the violations cited a lack of the required fencing.

Deadlines for putting up fencing were phased in by area. Other parts of the ordinance require trees, hedges and screening of stored trash.

This alley has been this decrepit for several years, but I think the Hyatt purchased the lot in 2006 or 2007, and obviously they have higher priorities than urban beautification.

Turning a blind eye part two
Turning a blind eye, part two.
Another view of the fence and little shack of a lot owned by the Hyatt. Small businesses get fined by the City for eyesores like this; big corporations, not so much.

Removing Prime Time Parking Restrictions

Seth Anderson0 comment

Personally, think the parking restrictions are a good idea. I have enough trouble getting into my building during rush hour, if cars are blocking the impromptu extra lane, the congestion will only magnify.

Evening float home

Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration is planning to remove rush-hour parking restrictions on some of Chicago’s busiest streets.

City officials say the move will help businesses and make those streets safer, but it also appears likely to slow traffic and generate more money for the private company that runs the city’s parking meters.

Transportation Department officials sent letters to aldermen last month informing them of the change. In a letter to Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), the city said rush-hour restrictions would end on stretches of North Clybourn and Lincoln Avenues that have meters and “pay and display” parking fee boxes. The restrictions had prevented motorists from parking at the metered spaces from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

…

Mr. Waguespack remained unconvinced after meeting this week with Transportation Department staff members. “Is this about safety or about increasing revenue for the parking company?” he said.

[Click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – The Pulse – Prime Parking Space Is Opening Up – NYTimes.com]

Somehow this decision sounds more like a solution proposed by the private parking company.

Maria Pinto liquidating boutique

Seth Anderson0 comment

Local high profile designed Maria Pinto (we’ve discussed her store before) is closing down her boutique, located at 135 N. Jefferson St in the West Loop.

Maria Pinto

All of the praise for Michelle Obama’s grape- and tomato-colored sheaths couldn’t bear enough fruit to spare their Chicago-based designer — Maria Pinto — from the recession’s blight.

Pinto, whose work has been worn by not only the country’s first lady but also queen-of-talk Oprah Winfrey, will open her West Loop boutique for five final days starting Tuesday. Her daywear, eveningwear, wraps and one-of-a-kind accessories will be liquidated at 50 percent to 70 percent off their original prices.

In January, Pinto arrived at the decision to close her shop and cease wholesale operations, she said. A fashion designer for 20 years who previously worked for Geoffrey Beene, Pinto launched her own line in 1991. Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York and Takashimaya in New York, as well as high-end boutiques across the country, carried her pieces.

[Click to continue reading Maria Pinto: Chicago designer Maria Pinto liquidating boutique – chicagotribune.com]

I’ve glanced at her store window a few times, and I didn’t see any item that entranced me. Perhaps her best work was customized to particular customers, and not for display on a clothing rack.

And this statement mostly sounds true:

“In the general scheme of things, our store was doing very well. But our other retailers are paring down their open-to-buys (merchandise purchases) and looking to build sales through trunk shows,” she said. “It’s difficult because it makes your forecasted cash flow challenging. You’re waiting for the show to happen, waiting for things to happen. Before, the stores were committed to larger inventories.”

Any avid shopper can see the shift, she said.

“Walk through the stores and see how the stores are buying very differently. Saks had blast-out sales going in November 2008. November this year, there was very little in stores that was on sale. What was left was bottom-of-the-barrel. Everyone is having to reposition themselves.”

For 2009, total U.S. apparel sales fell 5.2 percent to $188.5 billion, market research firm NPD Group reported last month.

TIF Slush Fund

Seth Anderson0 comment

Mayor Daley’s budget is in deficit, municipal projects don’t get funded, schools don’t get funded, yet developers can get as much TIF money1 as they need, no matter what. No consequences, no strings. Just plain ole corporate welfare.

Half Done

A city panel approved another major increase in financial assistance for planned Loop apartment development that has struggled to get off the ground because of rising costs and the tough lending climate.

The Community Development Commission signed off Tuesday on a $34-million tax-increment financing subsidy to help pay for the conversion of a vintage Loop office tower at 188 W. Randolph St. into a 310-unit apartment building.

That’s more than four times the $8 million in TIF funds the city initially approved for the development back in 2006, when its total cost was estimated at $79 million.

But the projected cost had soared to $139 million in 2008, and the project’s developer, Village Green Cos., went back for more. The city complied by hiking the subsidy to $20 million.

[Click to continue reading Loop project poised to get another big TIF boost – Chicago Real Estate Daily]

Via Lynn Becker, who adds:

When, in 2006, a developer announced plans to rehab Vitzhum & Burns Steuben Club Building at 188 W. Randolph, an $8 million dollars contribution from the massive Central Loop TIF was going to kick in about 10% of the $79 million cost.

…

But wait – there’s more! The project is also getting $40 million dollars in tax-exempt bonds from the state, plus $37 million in tax credits. You, lucky taxpayer, kick in almost half of the project cost and the private developer gets the building. Socialism, Chicago style.

When Draconian cutbacks are effecting everything in Chicago from the CTA, to the schools, to 4th of July Fireworks, the city is diverting another $26 million in tax revenues to an economically unsustainable development.

[Click to continue reading ArchitectureChicago PLUS: Welfare Queen]

Really disgusting. The Vitzthum & Burns Steuben Club Building is not a cookie-cutter square box, but it isn’t in the upper echelon of Chicago architecture either.

from a CBS Chicago report (presumedly based on the press release from Village Green Companies)

The Community Development Commission approved a plan to redevelop the vacant and historic Randolph Tower at 188 W. Randolph St. into 310 apartments, retail and commercial space, according to a release from the CDC.

The action recommends the designation of Village Green Companies as the developer for the proposed $145 million renovation.

Plans call for the mixed-use building, formerly known as the Steuben Club Building, to be converted into 168 studios, 98 one-bedroom and 44 two-bedroom units, the release said. Sixty-two of the residential units will be made affordable to households at or below 50 percent of median area income.

Village Green bought the 45-story office building out of bankruptcy in 2005 and will convert the 80-year-old structure into apartments. Plans also include 9,500 square feet of ground floor restaurant and retail space. Village Green will occupy 11,400 square feet on the second floor as its Chicago regional office.

Amenities will include a fitness center, swimming pool and spa. A social club will be located on the 38th and 39th floors, offering 360-degree views of the skyline and Lake Michigan, the release said.

The Gothic-style building will have extensive work done to preserve its historic terra cotta façade and other ornamental details and a gut rehabilitation of the interior.

The CDC also approved a redevelopment plan for the proposed Randolph/Wells tax increment financing district. Creation of the district will support the renovation of Randolph Tower and help redevelop other underutilized and vacant buildings in the area.

[Click to continue reading
City OK’s Rehab Of Loop Tower, Home For Teen Mothers On West Side – cbs2chicago.com
]

Hey, build for the future, right? Demand for new condos might be low now, but in twenty years…

Via EveryBlock’s hyperlocal news

Footnotes:
  1. tax increment financing [↩]

Waiting for a Perfect Moment

swanksalot0 comment
Waiting for a Perfect Moment
Waiting for a Perfect Moment, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

in front of the St. Patrick’s church, no less

embiggen:
decluttr

I actually flubbed this photo a bit, at least from my perspective. I’m more used to using my 18-200mm lens for “street photography” than the 50mm lens I used this particular day. I think the focus was slightly off, so I used the Alien Skin Exposure 2 filter, with Kodak 25 (sharper) settings. This particular filter emulates using Kodak slide film, and subtlety sharpens the edges. In this case, the image came out pretty good, but I wish I had taken a better shot to work with. If you look at the larger view, you’ll see what I mean (maybe).

Also, the light pole “frames” are intentional. I had given myself an assignment on this particular photo-stroll; look for images that are framed by natural elements. In this case, the street lights.

In the future, I’m going to assign myself other tasks based on looking at photos I like. I’m thinking – negative space, abstractions, etc. The trick is adding a bit of theory on top of my photographic instincts. I’ve been taking photographs long enough that my eye is an extension of my camera, the goal is to challenge myself into pressing the shutter sometimes despite my finely honed instinct (which is not always correct, of course). Does that make sense?