Rebuilding plan passes
04/25/2012
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is building a new Chicago. The city council voted 41-7 to approve the infrastructure trust that will help fund city rebuilding projects with private investments. “We cannot have a 21st century city on a 20th century foundation,” Emanuel said, both before the vote and after the City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Read more...Speed cameras set to go
Sites within eighth of a mile of schools, parks ready for automatic enforcement
04/25/2012
Mayor Emanuel wants to change the behavior of speeding Chicagoans, one camera at a time. City Council approved the mayor’s speed camera ordinance in a 33-14 vote on Wednesday. Fines will be issued in certain school zones and near parks at $35 for speeding 6 to 10 miles per hour over the limit and $50 for 11 miles per hour or more over the limit.
Read More...Record stores' big hook
Music fans splurge at Chicago shops to celebrate new holiday
04/25/2012
It was early to be at a record store. Nine o’clock on a Saturday morning isn’t an hour many music aficionados usually see, much less wake up to get in line. And yet, outside Reggie’s Record Breakers at 2105 S. State St. in the South Loop, there were 15 to 20 people waiting outside when their doors opened two hours before their regular opening time of 11 a.m.
Read More...NATO security perimeter revealed
As peace summit goes smoothly at UIC, South Loop frets over NATO restrictions
04/25/2012
The sky was blue, the streets were calm and the cops looked almost bored on Monday morning in University Village. Just a block up Halsted Street, inside the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Forum convention center, were a bevy of former world leaders.
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Greening up the city
For more than 20 years, city helped citizens clean up for Earth Day
04/18/2012
It’s been 42 years since the world began celebrating Earth Day, and for the last 22, Chicagoans have been joining in for the city’s annual Clean and Green. This Saturday, residents across the city will join in again, spreading out across neighborhoods like mini armies equipped with rakes, brooms, shovels and trash bags.
War, with a woman's touch
Exhibit showcases work of female veterans
04/11/2012
When the National Veterans Art Museum’s staff found out that the Chicago Park District wasn’t willing to let stay in the South Loop location past the end of the lease, they tried not to plan their programming too far ahead. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t plan anything at all. And so, on March 10, the museum opened “Overlooked/Looked Over”: an exhibit that showcases the work of eight female veterans.
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Chinatown library looks to escape bind
New library building close to moving forward at Archer and Wentworth
04/11/2012
After years packed to the gills as the busiest neighborhood library in Chicago, Chinatown’s local branch seems close to getting a big upgrade. A six-story mixed use building at the southwest corner of Archer and Wentworth avenues is close to breaking ground, the developer said this week, with plans for an 18,000 square foot library on the fourth floor. The library will have its own entrance and signage.
Read More...Veterans Art Museum to leave South Loop
04/11/2012
The National Veterans Art Museum has been a South Loop fixture for the past 16 years. But that’ll change by the end of November, when the museum will pack its collection and move somewhere else. The museum is still working on securing a new location, but one thing is certain — it won’t stay in the South Loop.
Read More...Repainting the walls
Arts high school moving into Malcolm X College in 2015
04/11/2012
The Near West Side is getting another high school. The Chicago High School for the Arts, which offers its students the opportunity to focus on dance, music, theater and visual arts alongside their regular classes, is moving into Malcolm X College’s old building in 2015.
Read more...A new branded South Loop
Columbia students work with Fioretti, community groups to create new banners
04/04/2012
The South Loop is getting a new brand. Through a partnership with Ald. Bob Fioretti’s office (2nd) and the Greater South Loop Association, a group of Columbia College advertising students have come up with a new set of logos that will be used on street banners around the South Loop.
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