Sports well played equals being well paid in the West Loop

Last week I actually stood in a line to get into West End to watch game one of the finals with friends.

06/09/2010

My friend Mike is the general manager and coach of a Canadian junior hockey team, the Flin Flon Bombers. The team, which has picked up steam during Mike’s tenure, is actually owned by the city of Flin Flon and its residents. It is a big source of community pride, and is also counted on for revenue.
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Get it done

Trade off for recycling

06/09/2010

One of the threads that bubbled up Monday in city hall as aldermen batted around verbal proclamations of support for the city’s stillborn Blue Cart recycling program was whether or not recycling is a basic public service (like fire protection or street repaving) or a luxury that taxpayers can’t afford.
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Parks' public input process getting better

06/02/2010

Something that should be said about park planning downtown (“Mulling over North Grant Park,” Chicago Journal, May 27) is that the public input process has become more sophisticated at our urging.
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A wash?

Time will tell if a new Costco will be a net gain for local jobs

06/02/2010

Back in January, our sister paper Austin Weekly News published an article on a study carried out by University of Illinois-Chicago and Loyola University researchers about the impact Chicago’s sole Wal-Mart has had on the West Side.
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Park has no corner on public space

A rapidly growing neighborhood in a financially strapped city needs alternative ways of building community and a richer public life.

06/02/2010

Spring was officially delivered to the West Loop in early May. It came in the form of big burlap bundles of blooming fruit trees and shrubs trundled off trucks and planted by landscapers in Adams-Sangamon Park. With each delivery, it became easier to imagine this long fenced-off lot growing into a long-promised park.
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Noting the legal notices

People like me are probably making a big mistake not going to zoning committee meetings, where the decisions get made.

05/26/2010

Moving a loved spot

Cancer Survivors Garden needs a fresh start

05/26/2010

During a recent walk around north Grant Park, a Chicago Journal reporter came across the following scene in Cancer Survivors Garden, just east of Daley Bicentennial Plaza: a woman was using one of the stakes in the garden’s Positive Mental Attitude Walk as a brace for her exercise routine.
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The future of buses

05/26/2010

Our story this week about Chicago's proposed bus rapid transit pilot program is one of those citywide stories with a very local potential impact. One of the streets slated for bus rapid transit is Halsted, which cuts through Greektown and University Village.
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Making mixed income work

05/26/2010

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Plan for Transformation redevelopment called Roosevelt Square that is taking place in our community presents a unique opportunity.
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Seeing red at Buckingham Fountain

05/26/2010

Can someone tell me why Buckingham Fountain’s nighttime lighting this season is so strikingly mundane and unimpressive? Since I first became a South Michigan Ave. high-rise resident and an avid admirer of its Grant Park and lakefront dazzling views two years ago, the fountain’s dramatic multicolored, ever-changing, light shows have been a constant source of delight to me and have drawn certain “oohs and aahs” from my evening guests — until now.
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