Park board needs to grow up
Curbing public comments? Are you kidding?
10/21/2009
In 2008, park district board meetings were often stormy, filled with residents angry about the board’s footsie with private organizations (Latin School, the Children’s Museum) that wanted to occupy public land. Many people filed downtown to make their opinions heard. They did it, time and again. Read more...
Humanity - we love it
10/21/2009
This week’s front page features a story about a blog by Printers Row resident Mike Knezovich. Reading with Scissors, Mike’s blog, is riotously funny, worthy of more than a bit of your Web surfing time. Read more...
Everybody wants a piece
Chicago answers the corporate call
10/14/2009
Capital is mobile, like water pouring down a stream. Companies can move from city to city, shopping for the best deal, the biggest subsidy. And thus we witness the spectacle of municipalities scrambling over each other to offer up their scarce plates of gold to large, profit-rich corporations. Read more...
Welcome back
10/14/2009
In this week's Chicago Journal, we welcome Dick Simpson, a former alderman who now teaches and researches politics at the University of Illinois-Chicago, back to our pages. Read more...
Ground rules
Ideas to make the next development debate better
10/07/2009
This week's story about the $20.2 million foreclosure lawsuit hitting the developers backing X/O focuses as much on community process and debate that swirled around the controversial proposal as the developer’s woes. Read more...
Defining prerogative
A clear answer is needed
09/30/2009
One of the items on the deferred agenda of the September meeting of the Committee on Zoning was a zoning change needed for massive new student dorm proposed for Van Buren and Wabash. Read more...
The retail question
09/23/2009
It's nice to see a couple of new small-scale markets opening up along South Michigan Avenue. Sky Grocer and South Loop Market have distinct feels and products. Neither store will replace the weekly trips to the big box grocers, but both are poised to offer residents a convenient option. Read more...
UIC's outreach?
It's got to be all-out
09/16/2009
The University of Illinois-Chicago’s current master planning process is a bit passive aggressive. Online, at www.uic.edu/master_plan, the school has posted links to a blog about the plan, to files and to downloads. There’s a short history of planning at the school and documents about the governance structure of the effort. Lots to browse through and learn. Read more...
Students and the South Loop
09/09/2009
The Loop and South Loop as a mecca for university students is something of an old story at this point. Some 65,000 students now live and study downtown, according to the Chicago Loop Alliance. Read more...
Closer to reality
Remain skeptical, to the end
09/02/2009
We've spilled much ink on dead trees over the last several months over a hypothetical situation: the 2016 summer Olympics, which the city has pursued with the ardor of a teenager in love. Read more...