Results tagged “chicagojournal”

The Chicago Journal has an update on the Green Exchange, the eco-themed shopping mall that's slated to open in the old Cooper lamp factory on Diversey. There are two bits of news in the article: first, the Green Exchange is expected to open by the end of 2008, and second, "city planners are exploring the possibility of creating an eco-industrial park or green-themed planned manufacturing district nearby."

When lasted we checked in, all was not "love they neighbor" on the corner of Winchester and Thomas. Neighbors of the Inner Town Pub were angry about the drunken and sloppy behavior of the bar's patrons and wanted Alderman Manny Flores to do something about it. This week's Chicago Journal has a nice little wrap-up of what's happened since. Bar representatives, upset neighbors and Flores have been meeting on a monthly basis to improve...

We told you it was happening; now it has, and both the Food Chain and The Stew stopped by to take their respective looks at the new Pastoral in the Loop. Food Chain asked owner Greg O'Neill about the popularity of fancy cheese: "People have the sense that 'if I’m going to be bad, I might as well be bad with something good.'" Indeed, my friend, Indeed. Handlebar owner Josh Deth has been all over...

Just days after Ted Matlak lost re-election to Scott Waguespack in the 32nd Ward, a proposal to upzone a group of buildings north of The Crotch has surfaced. According to the Chicago Journal, local developer Krzysztof Karbowski has purchased the Northwest Tower at 1600 N. Milwaukee for $5.17 million, and is asking for a zoning change so he can build out the office tower, converting it to residential units, convert the adjacent Hollander Fireproof Warehouse...

We are growing here at Chicagoist, recently adding some new faces to the group so that we can provide you with plenty of mind candy. That's why we are sad to report that one of our satellite offices is closing down. The Chicago Journal, via Gapers Block, reports that Filter, in Wicker Park, is closing. Swank Frank, our favorite place to get a fried twinkie at 2 a.m. will also be closing. Bank of America,...

If you live in a ward that is contested, you've probably noticed that you are getting mailings from the aldermanic candidates where you live. Maybe you've even gotten the so-called "robocall" — a recorded message from a candidate (usually the incumbent) encouraging you to come out to vote (for them), and listing some of the reasons why you should. Our friends in the 32nd Ward tell us that the two headline candidates, Ted Matlak and...

Did you know that there's an Oscar available for viewing right here in Chicago, and that you can even make an appointment to see it and actually hold it in your hand? It's at the Newberry Library, a private institution that's open to the public and just far enough west of Michigan Avenue that you won't have to worry about shopaholic tourists when you visit.

Will the Wicker Park and Bucktown gallery scene become another West Loop, an explosion of art spaces on a few shabby-chic blocks? The Wicker Park and Bucktown Gallery Association hopes not. In this week’s Chicago Journal, Around the Coyote Gallery Director and WPBGA Founder Allison Stites talks about how she'd like to preserve the organic feel of the neighborhood art scene. And for the time being, they don’t have much to fear. The West Loop...

Last week we solicited opinions on Chicago's scariest places, this week: ugly buildings. The Chicago Journal is running a feature collecting submissions for the town's fugliest structures, which, we suppose, could also be thrown into the scary category if you're an architect or happen to own property next to one of these turds.

In what may be another effect of the softening housing market we discussed yesterday, the Falor Corporation, an aggressive condo conversion company, pulled the plug on Nicky Hilton’s much-discussed condo-hotel project at 500 S. Dearborn St. Paris’ little sis was to help Falor convert the Printers Row’s Hotel Blake into a “calmer version” of her South Beach prototype. Condo-hotels, in which investors buy individual hotel rooms to use as a residential condo, and then allow...

A recent article about tagging in the Chicago Journal has us pondering the fine line between street art and graffiti. Thanks to a piece in Time Out Chicago a while back, plenty of folks know about the “Preston” and “Night Moves” tags showing up in the Wicker Park/Bucktown/West Town areas of the city. But a month ago, we started seeing a series of rain clouds, often accompanied by the words “sleep in.” The Chicago Journal...

We know there are still a few people in Wicker Park who won’t accept that the neighborhood is completely and totally gentrified by now, so we’re here to tell you about another raze and another batch of identical condos that are inevitably going up to convince you. While the former New Light Missionary Baptist Church at the corner of Potomac and Leavitt is water-damaged, renovated far from historical status and might remind passers-by of a...

The Maxwell Street blues scene is a shadow of its former self. So it’s with sadness and worry that we read this piece in the Sun-Times this morning about Piano C. Red, one of the men who’s worked tirelessly to keep this part of Chicago’s history alive. Red, whose real name is James Wheeler, is known as one of the last remaining bluesmen in the Maxwell Street market, which is now located on Canal St....

Months back while writing a post about the now-defunct BOS Distilling Company we lamented briefly on the then-recent closing of the Artful Dodger. Folks with fond memories of the Dodger knew that it was being consigned to memory long before it finally closed its doors, with whispers floating around that the building at 1734 West Wabansia with the Queen Anne style architecture was slated to be sold, razed, re-zoned and turned into condos. Well, that's...

The Chicago Tribune’s readers nominated “Chicago blues” as their fourteenth and final nominee for the 7 Wonders of Chicago. But Chicagoist is wondering if we’ll soon speak of the blues as an ancient wonder of the city instead of a living one.

An article in The Chicago Journal last week detailed the efforts of a Japanese television crew that sought to document the last vestiges of the Maxwell Street blues scene. The authenticity of the current scene could most charitably be described as “in question” (if for no other reason but its presence on Canal Street rather than Maxwell Street. Fortunately, the flag for Chicago blues is still carried nightly by an army of local musicians in...

Chicagoist seems to be rapidly developing a weekly feature here called “Cool Pictures From John.” Last week it was the Sun-Times Demolition Derby and this week it’s a series of screencaps from the recently-released-on-DVD I, Robot. The movie takes place in Chicago in the year 2035. Apparently, this city’s in for quite the architectural boom over the next generation, the west side in particular (guess there’s a reason for that Circle Line after all!). Ah...