Rainy night in the West Loop
fascinated by the reflections of street lights on sleek streets
[click here to view large on black: www.b12partners.net/photoblog/index.php?showimage=171 ]
Tag: West_Loop
Chicago and the First Snow of the Season
It has snowed before in Chicago this year, but not really a substantial amount. It also has been cold, but not this cold. Winter is officially here.
Cold with lows zero to 4 above…except 5 to 9 above downtown. Wind chills as low as zero to 10 below zero. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph diminishing to less than 10 mph late.
Slowly Creeping Home
West Loop commuters, moving about 5 mph.
[view large on black: www.b12partners.net/photoblog/index.php?showimage=169 ]
Snowy Ride Home
West Loop commuters, moving about 5 mph.
[view large on black: www.b12partners.net/photoblog/index.php?showimage=167 ]
click to embiggen.
There also was an incident where an accordion-style CTA bus lost control making the turn onto Randolph Street, skidded out of control, and ran up onto the sidewalk. The bus driver got out, and then left, presumedly to go get help. As a result, 2.5 of the 3 lanes of traffic were blocked for twenty or thirty minutes. Eventually an expert CTA driver arrived, and was able to maneuver the bus out of the jam. I took a brief video of the stuck bus for my amusement, maybe you’ll see the humor as well.
Nobody Home filmstrip
A view of the West Loop, the Abn Amro building to be precise.
Ready for Action
almost a cliche now, as so many other flickr-eenos have taken a similar photograph.
West Loop – historic Beaux Arts-style building that used to house the coal-fired generators and boilers for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, now converted into retail, office, restaurant space.
[view large on black: www.b12partners.net/photoblog/index.php?showimage=166 ]
I blogged about the conversion sometime ago, but am too lazy to look for the link at the moment
Michelle Obama at Blackbird
Wee bit of excitement in the West Loop today, as Michelle Obama aka Renaissance1 and her Secret Service entourage had lunch at Blackbird. Well, I suppose the Secret Service didn’t get any crispy confit of swan creek farm suckling pig with matsutake mushrooms, toasted walnut consomme and pomegranate confit delivered to their stations.
I counted three Chicago Police squad cars, and three SUVs full of Secret Service. The weather is bitter cold, so I didn’t attempt to get any closer, or to bring out my tripod for a better angle. Maybe she was doing a little shopping at Maria Pinto around the block?
Three other police squad cars in the area. Looks like license is 800 002.
I am obviously not cut out to be a paparazzo
click to embiggen
At least she didn’t go to Sepia…
Footnotes:- her Secret Service code name [↩]
Long Strange Trip of Bill Ayers
Fascinating1 article published in the Chicago Reader, circa 1990, about the man John McCain is trying his best to link to Barack Obama.
[The Haymarket Riot Memorial plaque that was placed at the Haymarket Riot location, 147 N. Desplaines, Chicago, IL 60661, after Bill Ayers (link to his blog) blew up the memorial to policemen. Now replaced by yet another memorial]
The students are already seated, quiet and polite in perfectly aligned rows of chairs, when Bill Ayers walks into the classroom.
It’s a Monday-evening political-science class at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a class devoted to the study of the “impact of the 60s on the 90s.”
“We’re very lucky to have Bill Ayers here,” says Victoria Cooper-Musselman, the instructor. “Bill was an active player in the 60s. You read about him in all the books.”
Ayers smiles, a boyish grin, and steps to the podium. He’s 45, but doesn’t look much older than most of the students. He wears his curly blond hair over his ears, with a rattail down the back. His T-shirt reads: “America is like a melting pot: The people at the bottom get burned and the scum floats to the top.”
He wears shorts.“To me it’s funny that the 60s are studied,” Ayers begins. “I get rolled in like a Civil War veteran. I feel strange.”
The students laugh. As he continues, they fall quiet. His voice is raspy, sexy, a little mesmerizing. He’s completely at ease.
The story he tells, a condensed version of his life, is a tale of extremes. He wasn’t just any all-American, suburban-bred boy; his father, Thomas Ayers, ran Commonwealth Edison. And he didn’t just rebel; he was a leader of the Weathermen, the most radical of all 1960s revolutionaries, who among other things bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol and sprung Timothy Leary from jail.
For three years Ayers’s wife, Bernardine Dohrn, was on the FBI’s list of ten most wanted criminals. They spent nearly 11 years as fugitives, living on the run “underground.”
“We were anarchists,” he tells the class. “We were willing to get thrown out of school. We were willing to go to jail. I make no apologies. There comes a time in your life when you face a moral challenge. You have to ask yourself: ‘Will I bow to conformity and accede to the world as it is, or will I take a stand?'”
These days, he takes his stands aboveground. He’s an assistant professor of education at UIC. He works in the university’s elementary teacher education program. His specialty is school improvement. He’s written one book on early childhood education, and he’s writing another about teaching. He publishes regularly in scholarly journals. Each year he trains dozens of would-be teachers for private, public, and parochial schools.
Personally, the McCain smear is so weak to be laughable. I mean come on, Obama was 8 when Ayers was on the lam. Not every politician is Billy Pilgrim, able to look into the past of everyone they meet like the past was a Chinese New Year parade float. Now, McCain’s guilt by association trick actually works quite well on connections between McCain and Keating – actually as some wag put it, the McCain Keating connection is more of a “guilt by guilt” association.
(h/t Whet Moser via Twitter)
Footnotes:- albeit horribly formatted [↩]
Stairway to a Two Bedroom
Stairway to a Two Bedroom, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
R+D 659 is overpriced, really
still working on our RFP1that never ends. 2 o’clock today might get some relief2
Footnotes:Patterns of Behaviour
Patterns of Behaviour, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
semi-abandoned building. Park planned, yet never progressed.
www.b12partners.net/mt/archives/2005/07/west_loop_park.html
I think there is problem with the site being so polluted.
Sangamon and Adams, West Loop
Had Enough for a Long Time
I think I just put sunglasses in front of the lens.
from a friends balcony on West Washington
Heart versus Head
Yet More Development in the West Loop
Received this letter in the mail the other day.
In accordance with the requirements for an amendment to the Chicago Zoning Ordinance, please be informed that on or about September 3, 2008, the undersigned will file an application for a change in zoning from DC-12 Downtown Core District to a DX-12 Downtown Mixed-Use District and then to a Residential-Business Planned Development on behalf of JRC 108 Jefferson LLC, whose address is 401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1300, Chicago, Illinois 60611 (the “Applicant”), for the property located at 108 North Jefferson Street, Chicago, Illinois (the “Property”). The Property is owned by the Applicant and JRC Jefferson DAS, LLC, JRC Jefferson JJO, LLC and JRC Jefferson EMP, LLC. …
The Property is currently improved with a non-accessory surface-level parking lot. The Applicant proposes to construct a 41-story building on the Property containing ground floor business uses, five floors of office space, accessory off-street parking spaces and 311 dwelling units, which must be processed as a Planned Development pursuant to the Chicago Zoning Ordinance.
[108 North Jefferson, Chicago, IL 60661]
Oh boy, more people are moving in, Ma. Where does all the cash come from to convert every single parking lot into a 40 story high rise? I thought real estate development was in a down-turn? There is the Catalyst, right across the street from this newly proposed building, R+D 659, the Emerald, and probably others. An amazing boom happening in my zip code.
More Red Wine Propaganda
[Wine-go-Round, 560 W. Washington, Chicago, IL]
Good thing I like wine1.
Red wine stops effects of high-fat diet
By Roger Highfield, Science EditorRed wine does indeed explain why the French get away with a relatively clean bill of heart health despite eating a diet loaded with saturated fats, concludes a new study.
Red wine contins resveratrol which can blunt the toxic effects of a high-fat diet
Many have speculated that answer to the paradox lies in their love of a glass or two of wine with a meal and have focused on a chemical found in red wine called resveratrol, also a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates and other foods.Earlier studies have shown it can blunt the toxic effects of a diet very high in fat, which causes liver damage, but this is the first study to directly look at ageing.
Today, in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers report that even low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of ageing, and may confer special protection on the heart.
Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the helpful effects of what is known as caloric restriction, diets with the full range of nutrients but up to 30 per cent fewer calories than a typical diet, which extend lifespan and slow the progression of age related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.
“This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode,” says senior author Prof Richard Weindruch of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
My thought is: everything that’s part of human experience is good. Drinking wine is part of civilization, there must be benefits.
Footnotes:- another post that never got posted, but now is, sans much from me [↩]
Aroma is Disgusting
We haven’t eaten at Aroma on Randolph for many years1 because I thought the place was kind of gross. The food wasn’t fresh, and the entire restaurant looked unclean, unkept, unswept, you name it. Apparently, my instinct was correct, the City of Chicago agrees that Aroma is gross.
Aroma on Randolph, 941 W. Randolph, was shut down after inspectors found dozens of cockroaches in the kitchen, particularly in the drip pan of a stove.
The restaurant also was cited for raw sewage backing up from a floor drain in the basement kitchen, no hand washing sink in the basement kitchen, a non-functioning hand washing sink in the kitchen on the main floor, no soap or hand towels at any sink on the premises, employees laying their shoes and clothing on top of plates and utensils, houseflies and fruit flies in the kitchen, and a poorly maintained outside garbage area (grease on top of and on the ground around the grease box).
CDPH inspectors also cited Aroma on Randolph for two violations of the Chicago Clean Indoor Air Ordinance. Inspectors found two dozen dirty ashtrays hidden behind the bar. The second citation was issued because management had failed to post “No Smoking” signs as required by law.
The Aroma on Randolph web site states, “Our restaurant has a smoking area…”.
Smoking is prohibited in all restaurants in the city, as well as in the rest of the state.
Today’s inspection was triggered by a customer who contacted CDPH via the City of Chicago web site to allege that she had found a cockroach in her food.
[From City of Chicago – Near West Side Restaurant Shut Down by City Health Department]
I’d be surprised if they manage to emerge from this violation: that’s pretty harsh. Also the first violation of “No-Smoking” I’ve ever heard since the ordinance was passed.
see this screenshot from their website:
Beer and Pork
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 ]
Topolobampo and Obama
Topolobampo is excellent, I’ve eaten there a couple of times. Sepia? Not much of a fan, but then we weren’t exactly treated like royalty, or potential presidential candiates, when we dined there.
The Obamas’ favorite spot for a night out in Chicago is the alta cocina Mexican restaurant Topolobampo, according to Michelle Obama spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. For a simpler bite, the Obamas turn to RJ Grunts, a cartoony Lincoln Park emporium of burgers, ribs and Tex-Mex standards, the spokeswoman says. On her own, Mrs. Obama has favored the more cutting-edge food at Sepia in the trendy West Loop neighborhood near the atelier of her suddenly famous dressmaker, Maria Pinto.
[From The Candidates Dine Out – WSJ.com
[Non-WSJ subscribers use this link]]
[snip] The WSJ’s Raymond Sokolov is a fan of Chicago dining:
Altogether more interesting on the Obamas’ dining list is Topolobampo, Rick Bayless’s superb little shrine to the full panoply of Mexico’s cuisine. We have eaten there happily for years, enjoying its authentic, even scholarly versions of classic dishes such as chilaquiles and Yucatecan roast pork. Topolobampo (named after a Mexican port) is one of the reasons we think Chicago is arguably America’s top eating city, with fewer high-end addresses than New York but a more stellar, dramatic pantheon.
From its diverse and creative menu, Topolobampo says, Sen. Obama often orders sopa azteca, a dark broth flavored with pasilla chilies, grilled chicken, avocado, Meadow Valley Farm handmade Jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips.
Sepia, the potential first lady’s glam West Loop haunt (she ate there last Saturday), was new territory for us. We started out with one of the restaurant’s signature flatbreads, this one topped with applewood-smoked bacon, chunks of pear and crumbled blue cheese. We also sampled the ethereally smooth and densely flavored chilled carrot puree with chive cream swirled on its mirrory surface.
As a nostalgic Great Lakes native, we were thrilled to find Sepia offered walleyed pike, moist and fresh as the northern waters from which it came, dressed up with wild mushrooms and a cashew vinaigrette. Other fresh and naturally produced items on the menu included elite Berkshire pork and artisanal domestic cheeses. If Mrs. Obama has the chance to encourage this kind of food in the White House and can get Mr. Bayless to bring a Mexican touch to state dinners, the Obama administration would be a golden era for American gastronomy.