Area Soldier Killed In Fort Hood Rampage
Stroger Makes Hollywood Play
Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
Okay, we had so much fun with yesterday's things that were awesome, we figured we'd bust out another list for today. Plus there's a boatload of terrific stuff. Today in awesome:
We were going to save this for our annual gift guide, but we couldn't wait. That ridiculously cool maps on the left is from Chicago's own Jenny Beorkrem. Typographic illustration + Chicago maps = time for new pants.
We can't stop listening to local outfit Five Foot Nine's "Back to the Tunnels." Extra awesome? Free download!
U of C econ professor Allen Sanderson's thoughts on performance enhancement in today's Trib are pretty interesting, but this part really caught our eye: "...Japanese baseball trading cards also list the player's blood type. O (the "warrior" class) is thought to be a good indicator of character and personality traits; most Japanese players in Major League Baseball have type O blood." Who knew?
Quizmaster Dave Ahrens at the Globe Pub is pulling out all the stops with a Family Guy round in tonight's pub quiz. (Dave's quizzes are a fave among Chicagoist staffers.) The fun starts at 8, but get there early to grab a table.
Flickr has unveiled its new functionality: Places. This is Chicago's page. Pretty and useful.
Wow, just when we thought the Drew Peterson story well was dry, this separated at birth joke comes along. Heh.
Coudal Partners has a new logic puzzle contest, and it is, as usual, a doozy. Man, there are a lot of kinds of logic puzzles, which on the internet is a synonym for "man, I just lost several hours of my life to this." You're welcome.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
call me a stickler for details, but some of these boundaries / neighborhood names are too inclusive and broad. i would be happy if it even stuck to the actual chicago community areas. the other neighborhood map, the ugly one with colored pencil fills you can find everywhere at least has actual data going for it.
does anyone actually call that area in portage park, etc... polish village?
I'm going to have to agree with Michael. My neighborhood, Avondale, has been swallowed up by this "Polish Village" noted on the poster. In the 4 years I have lived there, I've never heard of that area referred to by that name. As a graphic designer, I can say that I do like the overall look of the poster, but if the information isn't accurate, and my neighborhood has been more or less mislabeled, I can't bring myself to purchase one. Bummer.
This is definitely the coolest and most aesthetically appealing Chicago neighborhoods map I have seen, but I have to agree with the other commenters - many smaller neighborhoods have been swallowed up. I live in Budlong Woods, which is a really small area, probably covering just several blocks around Virginia Park (because it's such a secret gem of a place, no real estate map I have seen is very consistent with its borders). I still was secretly hoping that it would get its own spot on the map. Instead Ravenswood, the best catch-all neighborhood label has swallowed the area.
It's interesting, some real estate maps and websites actually refer to this area as Budlong Woods, and I know the residents do too, but most other Chicagoans who don't live around there, have never heard of it. I guess we are not trendy enough to get set borders or name recognition. Once I say, 7-10 minutes from Lincoln Square, then they go, "OOOOHHHHH!"
Just FYI, it's a lovely neighborhood - you literally feel like you are in the suburbs when you drive or walk around. It has an Edgebrook or Sauganash Village type of atmosphere, and it doesn't even border the suburbs like those particular neighborhoods do.
OMG that pic of Cowardly Lion and Drew Peterson are DEAD ON! WOW.
benschomatic, re; Avondale.
Yeah, that's what I came here to say!
Seems like nitpicking -- Wikipedia confirms the "Polish Village" designation, and clearly from a design standpoint it fits in better than "Avondale".
Christ, it's a piece of art not a survey plat.
yeah, it's nit-picking, but it's not representative of the chicago i know and grew up with. but let us remind ourselves: if wikipedia confirms it, it must be true.
Damn, that was going to be one of my recommendations for the Gift Guide, too!
I dig that map, and shall have one of my own.
Then here's a thought, Michael, don't buy one!
And I'm not saying a cite in Wikipedia makes it "true", more that it seems enough people use the term that it's not that crazy to appear on some artwork. How about some photographic evidence?
i like the newest neighborhood map but the fact that it says "home is where the hood is" has prevented me from buying it. i wonder if that could be trimmed off before framing without looking too weird
As long as its realitor approved. I lived in Logan Square and then it became "West Bucktown"
Then I moved to Humbolt Park and it became "Logan Square"
Spook you are responsible for gentrification and driving out the lower/middle class damn you sir damn you.
the new guest number 2,
Why are you being so defensive? People were just voicing their opinions on what we perceived as some faults of the map. I would love to buy one, but it would have been awesome if the smaller neighborhoods within the bigger communities were covered! That's all we are saying.
Jenny's my girlfriend.
But seriously, I apologize for being defensive but at the time I thought it was kind of shitty ripping on something that an artist obviously put a lot of time into and was never meant to be "official".
Whatever, I concede the point, there are certainly much bigger issues out there to tackle like the value of Spook's real estate!
Jenny's map is, to my knowledge, the firt map that I have seen that represents how people talk about (1)Chicago Lawn (shown here as "Marquette Park") and (2)the combined West Lawn--West Elsdon neighborhoods (shown here as "Midway.")
When I was growing up on the South Side, people would never say "I grew up in Chicago Lawn." It would be "Marquette Park" or "...near Marquette Park."
Likewise, no one I met ever said "I grew up in West Lawn" or "I'm from West Elsdon." That would say, "I from near Midway Airport" usually adding "near 63rd Street" or "near 55th street."
Thus, I think that this map is OK and even a bit brave, in going against the official names of those neighborhoods.
No map is never going to please everyone and I can see some things that I don't agree with, but maps/location names evolve over time, and this map shows some initiative about what people actually SAY when you speak to them.