at the Haymarket Riot Memorial, 2009
Universal Human Rights
Tag: West_Loop
Everytrail Photostroll in River North
River North
Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps
I don’t know what has changed, but EveryTrail is a total battery sucker: an hour walk nearly completely drained my iPhone 3GS battery. Hmm, have to look into that, or else find a similar GPS application that does what EveryTrail does.
Anyway, if the Flash widget doesn’t load, here are some of the photos I took on this stroll with Flickr-eeno, phule
Union Missionary Baptist Church
940 N Orleans Stmaps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari…
Hail to the Thief -July 30, 2009
update of this photo:
No Coke, Pepsi
Mr. Beef, 666 N. OrleansView On Black
Misdirected Remarks – Agfa Scala
West Loop, near Canal StreetBenefits by Viewing On Black
Recession 101 – Agfa Scala 200
Kingsbury. Sort of a strange advertising message, no?
Both panels read:
Recession 101:
This is the worst downturn since 1929.
According to economists who successfully predicted 14 of the last five recessions.”
wonder who the sponsor is?
Chicago 2016 Olympic
River North, sans graffiti, at least at the moment.
Chicago 2016 Olympic City
River North, sans graffiti, at least at the moment.
GNIKRAP ON
or something.
City Farm
Division and Laramie, or nearby.
www.resourcecenterchicago.org/70thfarm.html
Unknown building in the background with what look to be wind turbines for generating electricity
Flag Waving
River North areaView On Black
Riverbend Blues in the sunlight – 3 Millions dollars?
Polapan version
333 N Canal St #3702, Chicago IL 60606 3 br | 3 ½ ba | 4,163 sqft | Apt/Condo/Twnhm $3,100,000 www.trulia.com/property/1083824292-333-N-Canal-St-3702-Ch…
Riverbend in the sunlight
no way I’d pay $3,100,000 to live here
www.trulia.com/property/1083824292-333-N-Canal-St-3702-Ch…
Price/sq ft $745. Yeah, I don’t think so.
Sensational 360 vws from the Penthouse at Riverbend! See every significant bldg in Chgo, up the river & Lake Mich. Never before on the market! This home is beyond compare. 12′ ceil’gs w/flr-to-ceil’g wndws. All bdrms En-Suite. 2 enormous terraces perfect for entertaining. Kit w/Buter’s Pantry. Gallery for artwork.
a quickr pickr post
Sidewalk Salads
I think this would be a fun field trip, traipsing around the West Loop with Nancy Klehm (http://spontaneousvegetation.net/). I’d want to wash the dog piss off of anything I foraged though, perhaps in a bath of lye and bleach1.
Armed with pruning shears and a paper bag, Nance Klehm walks along a Chicago sidewalk, pointing out plants and weeds that can make a tasty salad or stir-fry.
She snips stalks from a weed with downy leaves and white powder commonly called goosefoot or lamb’s quarters.“I collect a lot of this,” said Klehm, 43. “It’s indistinguishable from spinach when you cook it. I never, never grow spinach or other greens except kale. Everything else I forage.”
Klehm is among a small group of urban foragers across the United States who collect weeds and plants from city streets and gardens to use in meals and medicines. Some are survivalists while others are environmentalists or even gourmands seeking new flavours for cooking.
Klehm leads small groups of about 20 people a few times a year on urban forages in Chicago.
[Click to continue reading Urban foragers feast on sidewalk salads – Yahoo! News]
Also – seems like there is a lot of industrial pollution in the soil in the city, especially the older parts of the city like the West Loop area. Used to be a lot of factories around here in the days before the EPA was even a glimmer of an idea. Not to mention the Fisk coal plant nearby, spewing heavy metals.
Still, an interesting topic.
Footnotes:- kidding, almost [↩]
Long Term Future – E100S
Beaux-Arts former refueling station, now a mixed use office/retail spot
from the Green Line train at Clinton
Tesla Dealership on Grand west of Morgan
I’d test drive a Tesla: sounds like a fun car. However, way (way way) beyond my budget: $120,000 is steep for any item, much less an automobile.
[closest photo of mine I could find-this is 800 W Grand Ave, or nearby.]
Car companies have tinkered with all-electric cars for years — but have run into problems, particularly high price and limited range. The 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” told of the 1990s Saturn EV1 electric car — which General Motors recalled and destroyed.
The California-based Tesla claims to sell the only highway- capable all-electric car in North America or Europe, but it won’t be alone for long. Americans will be seeing more alternative-engine cars — all-electric, plug-in electric hybrid (like the planned Chevy Volt), conventional hybrid, and hydrogen-fuel cell — as car makers compete to offer more fuel-efficient models. Revving up the contest is last-week’s federal mandate that all new cars and trucks average 35.5 mpg by 2016.
Wisniewski’s Tesla isn’t exactly middle-market — it’s a two-seat sports car that cost him $120,000. The California company is working on a family sedan, which it hopes to start producing in late 2011, at a base cost of $49,900 after government rebate.
Tesla expects to open its first Chicago dealership next month at 1053 W. Grand.
“It’s definitely a conversation piece,” said Kevin Daly, Tesla’s Midwest regional sales manager, of his own Roadster. “It really has changed the script on what people’s thoughts are for electric cars.”
The car charges overnight, like a cell phone, using either a 110-volt or 220-volt charger. It claims to run 220 miles on a charge. Daly says the car runs well in extreme cold or heat (though he admits a sports car isn’t great in heavy snow).
The cost for the electricity is about 1 or 2 cents per mile. To get ready for guests with electric cars, Hyatt Hotels and Lake Point Tower in Chicago are offering charging stations, according to Daly.
[From Testing out the Tesla :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Transportation]
[Ogden and Grand – slightly west of 1053 Grand.]
First Bike Trip of 2009
I realized I hadn’t been on my bicycle since last year’s accident. Last weekend, we went to an art opening that was near the outrageously large pothole that caused last year’s spill: consequently I was determined to jump on at least a quick ride as soon as possible. Prove to myself I had no residual fear of biking in the city. Turned into an 8 mile excursion – I didn’t go very fast because I am woefully out-of-shape1, but no matter. Utter bliss. Didn’t bring my iPod, wore a helmet, still was delightful to cruise through alleys and streets. Sunday is a good day to bike in the city, traffic is significantly reduced, at least in my neighborhood.
Here is the route as reported by EveryTrail’s iPhone application:
(click to embiggen, natch)
First bike trip of 2009
Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging
I took some photos with my D80, will post those later at Flickr.
- wine belly especially [↩]
Flip HD footage of Haymarket
Because I feel as if I am underutilizing the potential fun of owning the Flip HD video camera, I am going to make a concerted effort to shoot more footage with the device. Viewer beware. My first attempt was pretty Cinéma vérité indie film bullshit – I need to drink less coffee perhaps, or invest in a tripod. I actually have a Flip HD tripod, but wasn’t able to use it because I was just leaning out of my window.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3DFiYclsPw
The footage was simply shot out of my office window. Less anarchists and police than in prior years – in fact, quite a lot less. Some years the street by the Haymarket Riot Memorial statue is blocked off, and a stage is erected. This year, the performers and speakers were shunted onto the sidewalk. I am pleased that nobody was run over by a car, as there was some portions of the crowd that lingered in the street.
Same video hosted on Flickr: wonder if there is any difference in the conversion codex?
The clip quickly thrown together in the current iMovie application, and audio provided by Wire1
Oh, used a handful of images taken also from my office window using my Nikon D80 with a 200 mm (digital) lens.
Footnotes:Reading Around on May 1st through May 5th
A few interesting links collected May 1st through May 5th:
- Today’s Stuff… | 1001 Positively True Stories of an Indie Filmmaker – "Today I saw (for the first time) footage from a Flip HD camera"
my footage, actually, which is embarrassingly brief and poorly shot. Oh well, I had fun making the clip anyway - theexpiredmeter.com » Blog Archive » Protect Yourself Against Broken Meters – "This flier reminds ticket writers of what the municipal code says in regards to parking at a non-working meter.
9-64-190 Parking meter zones – Regulations …It is not a violation of this section to park a vehicle at a zone or space served by a meter that does not function properly…"
- Friday Flashback: The Haymarket Massacre – Chicagoist: Chicago News, Food, Arts & Events – Photo of the Haymarket memorial sculpture by swanksalot
Since today is International Workers' Day, a day meant to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre that took place in Chicago in 1886, we thought a brief look at the tragic event important to the labor movement around the globe was in order.
EveryTrail test
Tested out a GPS iPhone application called EveryTrail. Merits further tests.
The application seems pretty accurate: I didn’t follow this exact path, but 95% is close enough. All you do (once you have set up an account) is launch the program, give your trip a name, and then start walking. Every nth seconds, EveryTrail checks in, logs your location via GPS until you tell it to stop.
West Loop photostroll at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
and
—
update: Couldn’t stand being in the office, ended up here somehow.
Caldwell woods
Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging
David Simon and Ed Burns Working on a Haymarket Riot piece
As an aside to the main thrust of the Bill Moyers David Simon interview, Mr. Simon notes that Ed Burns1 is working on a Haymarket Riot piece. Oh please, please, please do this!! And please, please, please, I want to work on the set!. Actually, Richard Linklater was supposedly working on a Haymarket Riot film too, perhaps they could collaborate. Or share research, whatever, as long as I can help in some way with either project.
DAVID SIMON:
But I look at what’s happened with unions and I think– Ed Burns says all the time that he wants to do a piece on the Haymarket.
BILL MOYERS: The Haymarket strike.
DAVID SIMON: Yes. That– the bombing, and that critical moment when American labor was pushed so much to the starving point that they were willing to fight. And I actually think that’s the only time when change is possible. When people are actually threatened to the core, and enough people are threatened to the core that they just won’t take it anymore. And that’s– those are the pivotal moments in American history, I think, when actually something does happen.
You know, they were– in Haymarket, they were fighting for the 40-hour work week. You know? So, it wasn’t– it sounds radical at the time, but it’s basically a dignity of life issue. And you look at things like that. You look at the anti-Vietnam War effort, in this country which, you know, you had to threaten middle class kids with a draft and with military service in an unpopular war for people to rise up and demand the end to an unpopular war. I mean, it didn’t happen without that. So, on some level, as long as they placate enough people. As long as they throw enough scraps from the table that enough people get a little bit to eat, I just don’t see a change coming.
- David Simon’s long time writing partner [↩]
Streetwise Magazine May Be Forced To Shutter
A shame StreetWise can’t get a bailout from the federal government: they actually help people. StreetWise sells each issue to the vendors for $0.75, the vendors resell for $2.001, and keep the change.
StreetWise, the weekly Chicago magazine for the homeless, has fallen victim to a hobbled economy and could be forced to close its doors by June if it cannot replace hemorrhaging foundation support, its managers say.
A shutdown would end 16 years of publication and put at risk a non-profit publication that employed homeless Chicagoans as writers and vendors.
“We’ve been in trouble for a long time, but now we’re feeling like we can’t dig ourselves out so easily,” said StreetWise executive director Bruce Crane.Trying to stem the tide, the publication has switched from a weekly newspaper to a magazine, changed the makeup of its board and slashed staffing, services to the homeless and costs. The organization has sought to replace lost income with stepped up fundraising and grant-writing, and expanded its efforts to seek out advertisers.
Nevertheless, the savings and new funding sources are not enough to cover the loss of major foundation support that has kept the publication afloat in the past.
“If we get no grants, no economic stimulus funds, if nothing else would happen, we’d be 45 days from going out of business,” said StreetWise board vice chairman Pete Kadens.
[Click to continue reading Magazine sold by homeless may fold – Chicago Breaking News]
There are some dudes who have become veritable icons on the streets of Chicago, hawking StreetWise from the same corner for years.
Ironically, on the same day, Janie Lorber of the New York Times reports that circulation is up, at least in other cities (StreetWise is not mentioned).
Newspapers produced and sold by homeless people in dozens of American cities are flourishing even as the deepening recession endangers conventional newspapers. At many of them, circulation is growing, along with the sales forces dispatched to sell the papers to passers-by.
The recession has hardly been a windfall for these street papers, most of which are nonprofits that survive on grants and donations as well as circulation revenue. But the economic downturn has heightened interest in their offbeat coverage and driven new vendors to their doors.[Click to continue reading Rising Circulation, at Papers Sold by Homeless – NYTimes.com]
Doh!
Footnotes:- or whatever they can get, a percentage of issues sell for more than $2.00 [↩]
Reading Around on April 12th through April 14th
A few interesting links collected April 12th through April 14th:
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Adventures In Foodie Land: darkness, lasers, ninjas, and child labor » NileGuidance: A Travel Blog – “Moto: In Chicago, the epicenter of the molecular gastronomy, Moto is the place to go for an adventure in food technology and what even qualifies as ‘food.’ Listed on the edible(!) menu are post-modern, multi-sensory concoctions by chef Homaro Cantu using mediums such as liquid nitrogen and Class IV lasers. Chili-Cheese Nachos as a dessert, made with chocolate and flash-frozen mango? Sounds like an adventure to me.”
photo of swanksalot
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The Inevitable Clash of Management and Unions | new curator – What’s the best way to diffuse a situation between the management of a museum and a union representing your disgruntled workers?
Hint: Don’t go saying they give “the public sector a bad name”.
- Can the Statusphere Save Journalism? – Recently, I enjoyed a refreshing and invigorating dinner with Walt Mossberg. While we casually discussed our most current endeavors and experiences, the discussion shifted to deep conversation about the future of journalism in the era of socialized media with one simple question, “are newspapers worth saving?”
[photo by swanksalot]
Reading Around on March 18th through March 19th
A few interesting links collected March 18th through March 19th:
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Reminiscing at Arco Arena – Quickly, I thought to myself, Jesus, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, but I can’t back down now. I noticed that he had just brushed his teeth and there was a little toothpaste in the corner of his mouth, so I pointed to the corner of his mouth and said: “Hey, Gary, you’ve got a little toothpaste in the corner of your mouth.” To this day, I have no idea why I said that. I just didn’t have an answer to “So what are you gonna do about it?” I knew I couldn’t say: “I’m gonna kick your butt” because I was a flabby 39-year-old sportswriter at the time and he was 26 and chiseled and no doubt would have beaten the hell out of me.
His response to the toothpaste comment was this: He came at me with an overhand right that was intercepted by either Sam Perkins or David Wingate, thankfully, because it no doubt would have hurt my face.
Then George Karl bear hugged me, to prevent me from charging Payton, figuring I had plans to do that, which I didn’t.
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Base Station Firmware May Resolve Time Capsule Disk Problems – “One piece of advice if you’ve had problems in the past: Back up any existing Time Machine disk images to an external disk using the Archive feature in Disk Utility, erase them from the drive, and start fresh with new Time Machine backups.
The Leopard-only Time Machine feature works as an incremental backup system, writing all files on a selected system to a disk image in a first pass, and then only creating copies of files that have changed each hour while Time Machine is active.”
- Gapers Block : Drive-Thru : Chicago Food – San Marino Deli: Welcome New Addition to West Loop Lunch Desert – Just noticed this place, but haven’t tried it yet.
“A small deli counter is stuffed with imported cheeses, cured meats, marinated olives, salads and a rotating daily selection of warm entrees like lasagna and herb-roasted chicken. Classic sandwiches are made with a few different types of Italian breads, cheeses and cured meats. The sandwiches are gigantic, even on an American scale. The meatball sandwich (called “American”) was about two feet long, with four 2-inch meatballs and a generous ladleful of homemade tomato sauce (I got two lunches out of it). There’s a full coffee bar that serves illy coffee and an assortment of simple but delicious-looking pastries “
Yelp is Fucked
Too many allegations of manipulation: I’d be surprised if they survived the year without substantial changes to their business model. Too much controversy: I know I would never look at a Yelp review on my iPhone without wondering if it wasn’t paid for. Until Yelp address this article directly, and credibly, they will not be trusted again. I know I’ve deleted their application off of my iPhone.
Monica Eng investigated the local Chicago variation of the story:
With the Web site Yelp still responding to allegations by San Francisco businesses that it manipulates the prominence of positive and negative reviews, some Chicago merchants are adding to the heat.
They allege that Yelp representatives have offered to rearrange positive and negative reviews for companies that advertise on the site or sponsor Yelp Elite parties.
Ina Pinkney of Ina’s restaurant in the West Loop said that last summer a Yelp salesperson offered to “move up my good reviews if I sponsored one of their events. They called it rearranging my reviews.”
The owner of More Cupcakes, Patty Rothman, said that last fall a Yelp Chicago staffer walked into her Gold Coast shop and “guaranteed us good reviews on the site if we catered one of their parties for free.” Offended but resigned, Rothman complied. And just as promised, positive reviews bloomed for the business right after the party, Rothman said.
Other Chicago businesses told the Tribune of similar experiences but asked to remain anonymous.
Since the allegations were first reported in a San Francisco alternative weekly in mid-February, Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has been taking his side of the story in this controversy to the Web, the media and even Twitter.
[Click to read more of Chicago proprietors add to Yelp allegations — chicagotribune.com]
In other words, standard operating procedure. Pay for good reviews to be at the top, or else, your business will suffer. A Yelp mafia. “You wouldn’t want your pretty place to be messed up, would you?!”
Kathleen Richards of the East Bay Express started all the hair-shirtery:
During interviews with dozens of business owners over a span of several months, six people told this newspaper that Yelp sales representatives promised to move or remove negative reviews if their business would advertise. In another six instances, positive reviews disappeared — or negative ones appeared — after owners declined to advertise.
Because they were often asked to advertise soon after receiving negative reviews, many of these business owners believe Yelp employees use such reviews as sales leads. Several, including John, even suspect Yelp employees of writing them. Indeed, Yelp does pay some employees to write reviews of businesses that are solicited for advertising. And in at least one documented instance, a business owner who refused to advertise subsequently received a negative review from a Yelp employee.
Many business owners, like John, feel so threatened by Yelp’s power to harm their business that they declined to be interviewed unless their identities were concealed. (John is not the restaurant owner’s real name.) Several business owners likened Yelp to the Mafia, and one said she feared its retaliation. “Every time I had a sales person call me and I said, ‘Sorry, it doesn’t make sense for me to do this,’ … then all of a sudden reviews start disappearing.” To these mom-and-pop business owners, Yelp’s sales tactics are coercive, unethical, and, possibly, illegal.
“That’s the biggest scam in the Bay Area,” John said. “It totally felt like a blackmail deal. I think they’re doing anything to make a sale.”
[Click to read more: East Bay Express | News | Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0]
I wonder if my review of Sepia was buried for this exact reason [my Yelp review]. If you peruse Yelp’s page for Sepia, most reviews on the front page are raves, not the negative reviews like mine, and so many others.
The New York Times was interested too:
Local news outlets have raised questions about the company’s practices, including a recent article in the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly, with the provocative headline: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0.” It reported that Yelp sales representatives had promised to move or remove negative reviews for advertisers.
Mr. Stoppelman said that Yelp does not move negative reviews for advertisers and applies the same ranking system to all companies on the site. Many advertisers, including Mr. Picataggio of Tart restaurant, have negative reviews.
Some of the confusion may come from the fact that advertisers, who pay $300 to $1,000 a month, are allowed to choose which review shows up at the top of their profile page and block ads from competitors. For other businesses, the first two listings a reader sees could be an ad for a competitor and a one-star review.
“If there’s no clarity about that process at all, it exacerbates the suspicion,” said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and the former general counsel of Epinions, another review site.
Yelp’s lack of transparency does not affect its relationship with businesses alone. It also risks eroding users’ trust in the site. Eric Kingery, an engineer and frequent Yelp user in Chicago, discovered that a review he had written of a jeweler disappeared. “It just makes me suspicious of the impartiality,” he said. “It is a very useful service, but this kind of harms the integrity of the site.”
[Click to read more of Review Site Draws Grumbles From Merchants and Users – NYTimes.com]
Like I said, would be surprised if Yelp survives all this negativity without substantial changes to their methodology and business practices.
IDEO moving to West Loop
International design firm IDEO moves to the West Loop, well one office at least
Palo Alto, Calif.-based industrial design firm IDEO is increasing the size of its local office about 25%, to 20,442 square feet, as part of a move from Evanston to the building, 626 W. Jackson Blvd.
IDEO, whose design credits include the standup toothpaste tube, has signed a 10-year lease for the top two floors of the eight-story structure, says Menahem Deitcher, managing principal with office leasing firm Deitcher Group LLC, which is partners with Sterling Bay in the deal. He adds that they have another deal pending for one tenant to lease the second, third and fourth floors.
IDEO’s move-in date is June 1, Mr. Deitcher says.…
Founded in 1991, IDEO has 550 employees and six other offices, including two overseas. In addition to the toothpaste tube, the company also designed Apple Inc.’s first mouse, the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet cabin and the Samsung LCD monitor.
[From Product designer moving to former CHA headquarters – Chicago Real Estate Daily]
I know I have a photo of this place, I’ll have to delve into my archives
update 127/09:
Ha, I knew I had a snapshot of 626 W Jackson…
