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With the city hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, fewer police on the street to battle crime, and a transit system on the verge of another round of service cuts and fare hikes, the City Council is tackling the tough issue plaguing our city: suburbanites claiming the best seats at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. During the Council's budget hearings yesterday, it was Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) who spoke up, according to the Sun-Times. Said Ald. Schulter:
“You have people from the suburbs who get there earlier and glom onto all the seats. ... They’re putting their blankets across rows and rows of chairs...I was just wondering if there’s a way that there could be like a 15-minute time period where the people from our city have the opportunity to be seated first. Then after that, anybody”
Well, at least it's just a blanket and not, say, a giant two-by-four resting on two folding chairs. The city's Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg didn't buy Schulter's complaints, saying, "Everyone is given a period of time when they’re able to be seated, no matter where they come from...I don’t think we have an influx of suburban people coming.” But Schulter wasn't done, telling Weisberg of complaints he's received from his constituents and played the "in these tough times" card. No, really: "What we’re trying to do is look at — especially during these hard times — that our city residents are at least given some consideration somehow." Weisberg, though, wasn't swayed.
To be fair, the Council did talk budget 2010 at the meeting, namely the yearly cost to taxpayers for upkeep of the park ($7 million) and the plans to move some of the city's annual music festivals from Grant Park to Millennium Park in an effort to save some cash. Weisberg also discussed the sort of endowment that pays for the upkeep of Central Park and the struggles to found such a fund for Millennium Park and take the burden off taxpayers.
"In Central Park, the money was raised primarily from a great many millionaires who lived around the park — and they still keep it up...We may have enough millionaires around the whole city — and the people of Chicago who are millionaires have been very generous to the park so far. But, right now is not a really good time for anybody."
No word if the millionaires will be privy to better seats at next year's Country Music Fest.
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This is what Schulter and other alderman do instead of tackling real issues such as privatization, TIFs, corruption, transit and all that stuff. This type of stuff--no doubt important to a minority of people--makes the aldermen feel like they are really earning that pay increase of a year or so ago.
A fine example of the Midwestern territorialism that serves as source of far more problems in this city than most people realize. We are all dogs.
Yeah, because no one in New York is territorial. The way Mets/Yankees fans tear at each other makes the Cub/Sox rivalry look like the Algonquin Roundtable.
Saying Midwesterners are territorial does not imply New Yorkers are not.
Just out of curiosity, how do you define/see Midwestern territorialism in this area?
Territorialism is in the eye of the beholder, and like any other perception of place is purely subjective. Nevertheless, I do believe that Midwesterners are extremely territorial people, owing in part (by my way of thinking) to the strong sense of Protestant self-determination combined with Jeffersonian notions of landownership that persisted in the minds of early settlers. I think this manifests itself in a vast number of ways in the city, from the insignificant to the essential.
Some examples:
* Bridgeport politicians, or the very notion that politicans band together simply because they come from a particular neighborhood. "We gotta protect our own." Yes, this existed in other cities, especially New York, but it has persisted here longer and more strongly than most. Tammany Hall is long dead. The Machine sputters on.
* Dibs, the notion that I worked to clear this space, by God, so it's mine. I've seen this occur in other places, but I've never seen it sanctioned.
* People on subways. Those in seats who take up as much space as possible because it's their God-given right. People who claim their spot standing next to the divider who refuse to move back into empty space. Most subway cars I've seen at rush hour could accommodate many more people if those on board would simply move back.
* Bikes vs. Cars. Everybody thinks it's their road, and that nobody else has a right to be on it. Cars move right or left simply to claim an entire lane.
* Cars vs. Cars. This shows up in a thousand different ways, but most especially in the jockeying of position as people fight to be in front. On single-lane side streets, cars dart to the right at any opportunity--a light, a gap in parked cars--to move ahead one spot. On the interstate, (say, I-65 in northern Indiana), cars clog the left lane regardless of whether they're passing anybody, simply because they don't want someone to get in front of them. I can't tell you how many times on the Ryan I've seen somebody speed up simply because they were about to be passed. Or a lane ends, and people wait until the absolute last moment possible to move over, despite the fact that they had miles of warning.
* The entire neighborhood structure. Other cities have neighborhoods, but few have neighborhoods as well-defined or distinct. We, in fact, brag about this, though in itself it is a mark of territorialism. We claim this space as ours! We are Logan Square!
* Pedestrians. Watch the jockeying for position as people gather at the intersection of, say, Adams and Franklin. Those who come up late always move to the front of those already there, and everybody encroaches into the street well before the light changes. This is a claim of territory.
* Gangs. An obvious one, as seen a few weeks back in the letter from the Fenger girl who described gangs based on residence on a single block. The entire Fenger issue is a sign of territorial attitude, people in one space literally fighting to keep people from another space out.
And there are dozens more examples. I could go on forever.
Now, a good argument is that you can see these things in many places, not just the Midwest, and that argument is correct. However, in my experience, these things manifest themselves here in much greater concentration and in much more profound ways than they do in other parts of the country. New York has a lot of it, as does Los Angeles or Houston or most of Florida or any of a dozen other places, but they don't have it all in combination the way we do here.
(Oddly enough, I've never seen a hint of it in the Pacific Northwest.)
/diatribe. Flame away.
Wow.
That's pretty much entirely fact free.
Let me guess, BA in sociology? I mean, an Anthro major would at least throw in something about divergent regionalism caused by distinctive environments.
Really, that'a about two steps away from "Star-bellied sneeches" logic there son.
As stated at the start, this is all a matter of subjective perception. Subjective perception is by its very nature fact-free. I can admit this about my comments. Can you?
Actually, having lived in the midwest and the east coast, one thing I noticed when I came back here was how 'cliquey' midwesterners are.
And I don't have a degree in sociology.
Maybe that is connected, somehow, to this territorialism. And I just had a recent conversation with someone, from the midwest, about how touchy Chicagoans about Chicago.
So, settle down jess, it's not the end of the world. Bluefairlane is not so far off the mark.
While some or all of those "items" may be true about Midwesterners, they also occur with frequency in other parts of the country (there were big arguments about "dibs" in recent years in Denver and Philadelphia. If you revise your argument to call it "human territorialism" it might be more accurate.
I agree, these things happen in other places. But, as I said, in my personal experience they are far more pervasive here. Yes, humans by their very nature are territorial beings. But I think Midwesterners are worse. Southwesterners may be as bad, and San Franciscans are horrible, but I think something about the settlement pattern of this region makes it more endemic.
But, as I said, in my personal experience they are far more pervasive here.
Ok, fine. So what are you basing this "pervasiveness" on? Just personal observation? If so, not sure how you can reach a conclusion like that without extensive knowledge and personal observation of every other region of the country.
I don't really have anything other than personal observation to base this on, but then all opinion about anything essentially derives from nothing more than personal observation. Personal observation is what drives any comment anybody ever makes on this site. I do think a more academic type could work up enough research criteria to assess this in what probably would be an interesting study, but despite Nevins' assertion, I am no sociologist.
I do, however, have fairly extensive knowledge of many other places within the US, having lived in many places and traveled often to many more. Like anyone else here, I've built a store of experiential knowledge from which to base perception. So just as many folks on this site often describe suburbs as cultural wastelands or rural areas as redneck backwaters, I describe the Midwest in general and Chicago in particular as territorial. I don't pretend to be the final word on the subject, though, and I don't advertise my views as anything other than my views.
Interesting.
I guess I was coming at it in a way that was less Chicago and more non-Chicago Midwestern. All these tribal behaviors in Chicago still amuse me, even after a while living here.
I don't believe you can separate Chicago from the rest of the Midwest as easily as most people in Chicago seem to do. Yes, you have that whole urban vs. rural thing which will seem to make for a different atmosphere, but the underlying motivations will be the same. I think outside the city, they boil down much closer to their Protestant work ethic origins, which in the current political climate manifests itself as the fairly conservative Republicanism you see downstate or in, say, Iowa. Iowa Republicans are very different from, say, Kentucky Republicans.
You keep bringing up Protestant work ethic, which is fine.
But much of the Midwest, including Chicago, was settled and developed by Catholics (mainly German, Irish and Polish, with some Italians). Not sure if that means anything to your point.
Speaking of which, the tool in question--Schulter--is from German stock. Just thought I'd bring it back kind of close to topic.
True, much of the Midwest and Chicago in particular attracted large numbers of Catholic settlers, so my use of the term "Protestant work ethic" or Protestant anything is really inaccurate. This is another difference in the Midwest, though, in that Catholic populations (for reasons I don't really know) seemed to embrace certain Protestant notions. Perhaps it has something to do with easy crossover with the Lutheran populations to the north. Perhaps it relates to the lack of anti-Catholic sentiment that pervaded in places with smaller Catholic populations, so Midwestern Catholics, at least in the city, could feel free to embrace their individualism and their natural urge to claim property. Catholic settlements I know in Southern Indiana and small pockets of Kentucky did seem to progress with a different attitude. I don't know.
Either way, I will say that I've pretty much run my course with this, so yeah, Schulter's a dick.
I don't think you know what imply means.
According to dictionary.com, just to be sure my weak grasp of English has not erred:
imply: (verb) 1. To indicate or suggest without being explicitly stated. 2. (of words) To signify or mean. 3. To involve as a necessary circumstance. 4 (obsolete) To enfold.
Now, I'll be honest and admit that I'd never heard the fourth definition, but I am familiar enough with the others to say that none of them apply to my comment with regards to New York, New Mexico, New Delhi, or anyplace else. I do find it interesting, though, that your mind automatically links any criticism of the local region with New York.
I'm glad you have access to dictionary.com. How else will you make a point?
So if everyone is territorial in their own territory why point out that Midwesteners are territorial? It's like demanding everyone assert they are, in fact, a mammal.
People identify with their locality. Shocking news.
I doubt you do. Just saying.
But hey, give us more of your asshole act. It's fun, if repetitive.
Yawn. Meta-commentary. So 2008.
Why don't you make your fucking point instead of merely trying to pick fights with others? Debate ideas, not personalities. God, you must get beat up in bars often. If not, you should.
If you are that bored, go read a comic book. Or write some screed against evil yuppies or whoever else is beneath your obvious brilliance.
You are just a different version of MM.
The person, using that term really loosely, telling me not to pick fights just posted 3 times with the same "You're a jerk! You're mean! Wahh! You're not smart like me in my idea-space" garbage?
Pot. Kettle. Bitch.
This is some nice pub for Schulter, a Daley-schill who has been in his office more than half his life. He makes some noise, his constituents (lincoln square liberals who just HATE it when they can't get the RIGHT kind of BOTTLED water at WHOLE foods) are so pleased that he's standing up for them.
But it's completely unenforceable. What? ID checks at the aisle? What if my friend is from Evanston and I'm from Chicago. Do we sit separately? Are we hiring ushers, cops? The logjam of people caused by checking residency would cause delays.
Again, it's not a real proposal. Just some drive-by whining to appease the stroller mafia up in Lincoln Square and distract from the actual issues in the city.
" stroller mafia"
Nice. And so fucking original, too.
So it goes for those who are cooler and smarter and more "progressive" than all the rest.
I love that LS has kids galore. I love living in a neighborhood with families.
Yeah, it sucks to move out of the way of the double-wides, but that takes, what, a half second? Suck it up.
Sounds like someone has a case of the Thursdays. You're particularly humorless today.
And you have no purpose but to get your jollies by provoking and insulting people on the fucking Internet of all places. You are clearly intelligent, yet this is what you do to relieve your boredom--provoking and insulting people on the Internet for no other reason than you can. Nice work if you can get it, even if most of us stopped pulling pigtails a long while ago.
Anyway, this is spot on: "Schulter's a rubber stamp with legs"
And that's probably being rude to rubber stamps.
And don't forget: This is the alderman who wants to make it much more difficult for small local bands to play at small clubs.
Actually I derive a deep sexual arousal from arguing with people.
How does that make you feel now?
Happy for you. We all need our cheap entertainment, especially in times of recession. As for me, I like dangling raw meat in front of all the Golden Retrievers in LS, then running away as fast I can. I get exercise that way, too. And one has little risk of getting shot by angry yuppies.
You joke, but for all your supposed brilliance, all the ways you are better than us here today and yesterday and every other day, you still come back every day for more--in essence, to play with the dumb kids. Why is that? Too afraid to play with kids who might knock you down a few pegs?
Yes...Oh goodness yes...
*Ahem*
I mean, sure. I work with stunningly smart people all day long. The type of energetic go-getters who are reshaping education systems day in and day out.
It's fun to piss about with the kid in the helmet.
Though in all seriousness, I really cannot stand dogs and small children. Both are prone to excretion and drooling.
Which leaves out the elderly too I suppose, but at least they have fun stories.
You seriously use the term "go-getters"?
Interesting.
Anyway, I am glad that on your apparently frequent breaks from saving the world with other superheroes, you find time to visit the short bus. You really are a kind and generous person.
FYI: The above is sarcasm, not humor.
I suggest you visit dictionary.com to learn the difference between sarcasm and humor.
I love that LS has kids galore. I love living in a neighborhood with families.
Because your own wised up, pulled up stakes and filed restraining orders long ago.
I'm anti-family and pro-drugs.
"I'm anti-family and pro-drugs"
I am sure you feel cool and witty writing such a thing.
Keep...arguing....
This kind of crap is exactly why I never venture anywhere where there will be crowds of people.
And right on to what matilda said above too. There are way too many employees, and not just politics, but in any occupation, where there are people who will do anything to validate, or THINK they're validating, their existence.
So, Shulter is upset about the practice of "Dibs?" Only if it is practiced by non-Chicagoans, though. How does he suggest people prove they are not from suburbs? What a useless tool. If only he would pursue some of the real problems here in the city with such passion.
I say we dig a big-ass moat at the city limits and charge everyone $20 to cross. After that, they can put blankets on seats and park in residential areas and buy condos in Lincoln Park all they want.
I can just see Daley using TIF money to subsidize crony alligator breeders now....
Not an issue. I move lawn chairs and 2x4's out of the street if they're where I need to park, and if I was going to a concert at the pavilion and saw unaccompanied blankets over seats, I'd move them too. Too bad.
Just out of curiosity, do you have your funeral preparations already laid out? Pre-need counseling can save your family a lot of time and money.
Much as I hate it, you fuck with dibs on the street at your peril. At very least, your car is getting trashed.
I don't even drive and I move lawn chairs and 2x4s out of the street - it's just that satisfying.
Napoleon and ophmarketing are engaging in behavior that I find awesome. Thanks for moving that stuff, I concur with your assessment and support your tactics.
I move them so that I can park, but yeah, it IS kind of satisfying chucking that crap up on the curb, now that you mention it...
Sometimes I worry while I'm tossing lawn chairs onto the side of the road or putting them near a dumpster in the alley that some unwitting passerby will park in the spot and get into a confrontation with whatever jerk put up dibs in the first place.
In the case of a blanket over rows and rows of seats it seems a lot more direct: just move them and sit down. If someone has a problem with it, well, too bad.
People are getting kinda crazy around here lately...blatant broad daylight attacks. Grabbing a semi-automatic gun and killing one and wounding another because they got thrown out of a Halloween party to which they weren't invited. Thirty or 40 gangbangers brawling in the middle of an Uptown street, traffic and innocent bystanders be damned. So, yeah, someone getting murderously irate over having their law chairs moved from their shoveled-out spot is unquestionably in the realm of possibility. As in-the-right as you conclude you are, keep that mind.
That's why I drive a Jeep. All those unshoveled spots are MINE.
My theory on Shulter's rant: Suburbanites who do come to town for the free concerts at the park might make a day of it, arriving on Metra train early (I've seen them in the mornings sometimes heading east from Union Station on Taste of Chicago days), maybe staking out the good seats, having one of them hang out there while a few of them check out the sights in the loop. Locals either amble over from their Loop offices after work or just ride the bus from LP or somewhere else with a few minutes to spare.
Just a theory. But not something you should waste time trying to "fix" or enforce.
this is what they're talking about? THIS?
If Schulter cared about dibs, his office would've done something about it all the times my neighbors and I called a month after the last snowfall last winter when there were still chairs and even a tire along Damen and the side streets.
And Nevins, we don't have a Whole Foods in Lincoln Square. Just a pedestrian old Trader Joe's.
And Nevins, we don't have a Whole Foods in Lincoln Square. Just a pedestrian old Trader Joe's.
HOW DO YOU LIVE?!?
(Before this descends into a hate-fest, I grew up not far from Lincoln Square and it's a lovely area. The Yuppification, and the baby-bugaboo invasion has gotten a bit intense for me, but it's still a really nice neighborhood. Schulter's a rubber stamp with legs though)
It's rough, but we manage :)
I agree with you, though, about the yuppification. Going for a run down Lincoln is an exercise in futility. I love running at the people texting or who think they own the sidewalk because they have a dog and a baby (in a double-wide, SUV stroller, no less).
And, yeah, Schulter does suck. He's done nice things for the neighborhood, but not for the streets. My neighbor's garden apartment flooded for the sixth time in a year the other night. And some guy had to shovel water out of the CVS parking lot.
Why don't you and your (like-minded) neighbors just get together and move the street crap out of the way? I mean, really. I've lived in Chicago for nearly all of my 40+ years, and I still have no patience for someone who does 10 minutes of shoveling and thinks that means they own a segment of the public street three weeks after all the snow has melted.
I don't want to get on another rant about this well-worn topic but honest to god, it's getting our of control. I drop my kids off at their sitter sometimes and see a completely clear street—we're talking bone dry all the way to the curb—with selected spaces still blocked off. F*ck that. I'm parking there.
And this year, it's going to be even worse, with the new meters bringing in a whole new level of mess.
The problem with fighting dibs is it takes a communal effort. Just one on one, people get intimidated. Seeing a guy come out of his house with a hammer or 2x4 because you "took his spot" or finding your car keyed or mirrors busted in the morning is a scary prospect. Add to that streets and sans being pretty lax in dealing with the issue and even cops not wanting to get involved in some neighbor on neighbor screaming match.
It's easier to "respect" the dibs. But which we really mean fear retaliation. Cowardly, but true.
Well, the main offender on our street is a known gangbanger. So, there's that.
When I lived there it was a Butera.
Here's one idea. What if they posted signs at the entrance to the seating area that said "One person may save one additional seat. Please do not attempt to save more."
Or something like that.
I have no problem with one couple (two people) saving two additional seats, or one person saving one seat. It is the massive seat-savers who should be stopped.
Oh God. I agree wholeheartedly with Ward Up. This may be a sign of the apocalypse. :-)
Wow, and I agree too. Wait, I think I see locusts coming down LaSalle St....
Maybe I missed something here, but how the hell do they know that all these "offenders" are from the suburbs? I'm pretty sure Chicago residents are still allowed to possess blankets...
But the blankets Chicagoans own must display tax stamps.
Ha, either my sarcasm radar isn't working or I have no idea what you're talking about..
We both tried to be sarcastic, I think, and failed miserably. Apologies.
Perhaps, I just don't understand why an Alderman would show up to a concert, see a bunch of blankets on seats and assume its people from the suburbs showing up early..
Well, these are Chicago aldermen we are talking about. Yes, they are smart enough to hold an office from which they squeeze a decent amount of wealth, but that's about their only talent.
This is just noise designed to trick voters into thinking their aldermen really are doing something worthwhile.
Next, he'll want Chicago residents to be able to cross the street first.
I don't get the rationale behind this. Isn't part of the justification for high-dollar public projects like Millennium Park that they bring in people from outside who spend money without requiring other services and creating a net profit for the city? And now we're gonna tell them that we don't want them to do so?
I'll say it again:
In 2003 when my friend Barry was randomly murdered at Leland and Damen, Schulter's office offered us no help or support in our effort to catch the killers and inform the community. And believe me, we asked. A week after Barry was killed two guys of the same description robbed a woman at gunpoint a block away from where Barry was shot. This didn't interest Schulter's office. In general, aldermen are more interested in promoting positives than confronting negatives. Reward posters in his Ward were torn down almost as soon as we posted them, while other posters stayed up. I can't definitively say his office did that, but it was either them or the Chamber of Commerce, which licks his feet. Somebody wanted to keep up the quaint German village mistique for the future home-buyers quaffing steins at Oktoberfest.
This is the same alderman who, a few years earlier, had called the media and got on TV and in the papers offering a $500 reward to catch the notorious "no yuppies bandit" ... rallying for the homeowners of the Fightin' 47th! Gene Schulter! Da guy dat came up under Ed Kelly! Da guy dat gets tings done in da ward! The bandit turned out to be a disturbed teenager tagging private property. Shulter's priorities have always been wack.
I saw him and his wife walk into Jury's one evening years ago and the staff treated him like he was the local don. Why we re-elect these pieces of garbage I have no idea.
He's taking the same "nothing-to-see" attitude regarding the recent murder of the bar owner near Welles Park. What a useless tool.
Schulter also had a press conference once at Ravenswood and Montrose back when he ran agaist his old benefactor, Ed Kelly, for committeeman. He was railing against dirty politics for the cameras. You see, one of Kelly's goons had used some paint to doctor a Schulter campaign poster hanging on the Metra viaduct ... it said "Shitter."
It's all about priorities.
Very disappointing. Dozens of lengthy comments and no one bothers to rant about how much they hate suburbanites and/or the suburbs.
You guys are slacking!
Go back to Naperville if you don't like our failing to complain about the suburbs!
why aren't they being charged a small fee?
I know some of the beaches, etc in the burbs charge non-residents. Why can't Chicago do the same?
Oh no you didn't!
Because that's a thing they do in the 'burbs, that's why.
We Chicagoans are ferociously proud of the fact that the lakefront is free and open to the public, which I guess you hadn't noticed, which... well, I don't know what to say about that.
Wow.
It's kind of a big deal.
The free lakefront is now under siege as well. Daley wants parking meters installed at the beach parking lots.
Oh yes I did!
The lakefront is free to the public. Millenium Park special events, on the other hand should be free for the people who actually pay the taxes for the upkeep of the park. And considering how the city is reducing hours/closing services that are actually NEEDED in this city, this can be a way to get extra revenue.
Bah. It wouldn't be such an issue if people just did what Ward suggested and only saved one seat; when you have a bunch of assholes setting up camp early to save ROWS of seats for friends/family/buses it's an issue, and This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. In either case, I can think of quite a few things that alderman should be concerned about; dib seating should be at the bottom of the list.
Sure sure, I agree with all of this. Your previous post seemed to suggest that we should charge for BEACH access-- looking back at the comment, I can see I misunderstood.
My bad.
Isn't it GOOD that suburbanites are coming? They bring $$$ with them to park their giant SUVs, feed their kids, drink, and shop...which provides jobs for city people "in these tough times."
How does an alderman overlook the economics in favor of this pettiness?
Raising an endowment for the park is a great idea. Just don't ask any city official to do it...