Options in the desert

Walgreens at Madison and Western offering more grocery items

06/10/2009

Spurred by a 2006 study of so-called "food deserts" - areas in Chicago where the scarcity of grocers negatively impacts public health - several Walgreens in the city have begun offering expanded food and grocery items. Read More...

They're still spending on summer music

Festival organizers haven’t seen huge fall off

06/10/2009

Music festivals are a staple of Chicago summers and while buying concert tickets might seem unreasonable in tough economic times, fans are still shelling out cash to see their favorite artists.
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Weird meters

Hives. Broken meters. Unadvertised hours and rates. Some are free.

06/03/2009

My favorite parking meters on the Near West Side have hives in them. Yes, honeycombed nests dangle where you'd expect to see a timer counting down the minutes you bought with a fistful of quarters. Read More...

Competing interests

Parking in the West Loop gets studied

06/03/2009

The West Loop could be the very definition of a multi-use community. There are hundreds of condominium owners who flooded into the area over the last decade or so, as well as institutions - labor unions, social service providers and non-profits - long headquartered in the neighborhood or on its edges. Read more...

Fronting Field?

Clutter a concern about museum site for Burnham Memorial

06/03/2009

Terraced land in front of and below the Field Museum is being eyed for a memorial to Daniel Burnham, the urban planner who laid out the lakefront, Grant Park and downtown. Read More...

Recession dining

Prairie District event spotlights South Loop establishments

06/03/2009

If you ask Sara Navarro Elias how the recession has hit Cuatro, the restaurant she co-owns near 21st and Wabash, the answer comes back that there has been a decline in customers and sales. When did that happen? Read More...

Kids first

South Loop field house starts with kids' area

06/03/2009

Park 550 is starting to take shape. The first phase of the three-part project that would convert the building at 1801 S. Indiana into a park district field house will see development of a children’s area over an L-shaped platform on the east side of the building’s first floor. Read More...

After flames, boards on windows

06/03/2009

A fire ripped through three buildings in Little Italy last Sunday afternoon in the 700 block of S. Aberdeen, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis. Read More...

Confidential minutes

05/27/2009

Illinois Medical District commissioners voted unanimously at its May 12 meeting to keep four years’ worth of executive sessions minutes confidential. No minutes from 14 executive sessions going back to Jan. 18, 2005, will be released. Read more...

Cop shop moves east

Location for new 12th District station connected to talk of Costco

05/27/2009

At the May 13 city council meeting, Mayor Richard Daley proposed a new station house for 12th District police, who patrol several Near West neighborhoods from a base at 100 S. Racine. The proposal is that a new station be built over several parcels of land around 14th, Throop and Blue Island Avenue. Read more...