Mayor Daley and the FAA got in a bit of a pissing match over the weekend, with the FAA cooling their jets after a Tribune article published Saturday cited the FAA as stating a 2004 cap on flights would not be lifted after the new runway opened at O’Hare. Flight restrictions were imposed in an effort to help ease flight delays and cancellations, and the two parties came to realize they had different expectations of......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

There's a stretch of freight train track and pothole-marked road that runs parallel to 41st Street that makes a great shortcut to the southwest side via bicycle, particularly on days where we don't want to fight the congestion of Archer Avenue. A service road at 41st and Ashland allows freight rail employees easy access to the rails. It also dumps us off at the Ashland Avenue Swap-O-Rama. If you've never been to the Swap-O-Rama,......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

Blurring the line between city and suburb, a proposal has been sent to Evanston officials for what would be the largest building in the suburbs. The building, a 49-story condo building, would be situated at Church Street, Orrington Avenue and Sherman Avenue. The triangular shaped lot currently has a two story retail building which would be torn down for the project. The project will no doubt have its opponents, when asked by the Tribune if......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

After months upon months of nothing but terrible to mediocre information, there's good news for public transportation users! Well, kind of. It's good news for those Chicagoans who leave the city for work each day, dubbed "reverse commuters." Metra will be adding service as of April 2, with a new, expanded schedule to help riders who are trying to get the hell out of the city. Metra is adding an early-morning line, affectionately called "The......

We know you've been writing to Blagojevich, Daley and all the CTA members faithfully each day, pleading for more money for the CTA (ahem). You haven't wanted to give in to your addiction to oil and drive a car, despite all of the ways lawmakers are trying to ease congestion. You may just start hopping around on jets if you get your passenger's bill of rights, but until then, you need some hope that your......

The Indiana Department of Transportation says quit yer bellyachin'. The proposed "Illiana" expressway route will not be determined by evil, land-grabbing developers; it will be determined by a state environmental study. The expressway, which the Indiana Senate OK'd, would connect Interstate 57 in Illinois with Interstate 94 in LaPorte County. Of course, the fact that plans will have to go through environmental and state checks before developers can begin the final phases does not mean......

One provision of President Bush's proposed budget could affect Chicagoans and city-dwellers all over the country. Bush is proposing a "congestion initiative" that would award federal grants to cities and states for building toll systems that charge drivers new or increased tolls for traveling in and out of cities during peak times. Congestion pricing could take the form of "cordon tolls," charges to enter the city proper, or monthly/annual fees for using High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)......

Well, it's been an interesting couple weeks for CTA watchers. We won't touch another argument about operating budgets with a ten-foot pole, but there really have been a lot of interesting, hilarious, and downright upsetting news regarding the agency lately. Really, the best (and worst) has been the RTA movie snafu. A rather embarassed head of the Regional Transit Authority apologized today for a video that was shown to Metra officials last week that was......

Architect Santiago Calatrava and developer Garrett Kelleher are making the rounds, looking to generate buzz for their newly redesigned Drill Bit on the Lake. The Chicago Spire (nee Calatrava Spire) as planned will be exceedingly thin and stand around 2,000 feet tall (160 stories): the Manute Bol of skyscrapers. When completed (or if, if you ask Donald “you’re fired” Trump), it could be the world’s tallest, eclipsing Taipei 101 and NYC’s planned Freedom Tower. The......

Drive Less. Live More. The new slogan and website from the Regional Transportation Authority is mostly aimed at providing details and tools for using public transportation. The tools are not necessarily new, some have been around for year, but it is great that the RTA has finally put all of these together in a central site. The site contains commuter calculators, which estimated for us that if we drove to work we would be spending......

The day before the day before the holiday is just getting started, yet we’re already counting down the hours until we can stuff ourselves silly. To get our minds off the siren call of the Ho Ho Freakout, we’re busy making last-minute travel plans. For those headed out to the ‘burbs, Metra will run extra outbound trains tomorrow and will offer a $5 holiday pass that’s good for unlimited rides on Thursday and Friday (the......

The debate over the possible locations for the new Children's Museum site flared up at a meeting of the Grant Park Advisory Council. That is to say, of course, that there was some continued opposition to the idea of it even moving to Grant Park. When 42nd Ward Alderman Burt Natarus spoke out against one of the first ideas for building the new museum on the Randolph side of the park, he had 2,100 signatures......

Hasbro has created a new, modernized version of Monopoly called "Here and Now" featuring popular destinations from around the country, and Chicago scored two spots on the board. O'Hare is available for just $2 million, as four airports replace the railroads. Wrigley Field also made the cut, landing in the green district right between the White House and the Las Vegas Strip. The Friendly Confines cost $3 million in funny money, which, ironically, is just......

There are two kinds of drivers in Chicago: those who park for convenience, be it a lot, a garage or the street, and those who take pride in their resolve to always park on the street, more specifically in a non-metered spot. How do you recognize someone in the latter group? They usually announce their victory over “the system” as soon as they reach their destination. Example: “Where did you guys park? The garage? Ha!......

If you rely on the Dan Ryan Expressway to get anywhere on a regular basis, we feel really sorry for you. Starting on April 1, the Illinois Department of Transportation will begin a major renovation of the roadway that is scheduled to last for nearly two years. The construction will modernize the Dan Ryan, which now handles twice as much traffic as it was originally built to handle, but in the meantime it will take......

As far as excuses go you can't do much better than having to shovel the walkway in front of your house to have a hot toddy. Chicagoist long ago stopped coming up with excuses and nowadays makes toddies whenever the urge comes, usually in conjunction with the deep seated chills. While looking into the origins of the hot toddy we assumed it to be ubiquitous to the British Isles. We were more than mildly......

Citing longer response times due to increased congestion downtown, the city fire department is considering having paramedics use Segway scooters. Emergency response times have risen thirty seconds over the first part of the year because of more buildings and construction projects downtown and increased congestion around Millennium Park. Anytime Chicagoist sees an ambulance or fire truck struggling to cut through traffic, we cross our fingers and hope we never have a coronary downtown. No matter......

Some of you may know that way back in 1904, Chicago was supposed to host the Olympics... until St. Louis stole the games away! So Chicago has yet to host the Olympics. While there was a lot of recent coverage over New York's bid for the 2012 games that ultimately were awarded to London, maybe Chicago should throw its hat into the bidding for 2016. The USOC tends to back one U.S. city and Chicago......

Are you like Chicagoist? Does the warmer weather coupled with the tourist-laden congestion of the city make you yearn for a simpler life? (Tourists…we love you! Please continue to visit! You help keep our sales tax down to a manageable 8.75%!). Do you have visions of turning your 10 x 10 patio into a Martha Stewart/P. Allen Smith heaven, without the jail time or southern drawl? But then, like Chicagoist, you realize you’d never......

Is that bar 3 doors down from your apartment keeping you up at night with its loud music? Is it attracting the wrong kind of people to your neighborhood? The kind that puke in your yard and leave trash all over your stoop? Well, kick them out! Tell them you don't want them in your neighborhood! It's about to get easier than you thought. Mayor Daley is introducing a new ordinance to City Council. Under......

You might wanna watch out where you double park your car in the central business district. As part of Daley's traffic plan, starting today the new "fast tow" program will whisk your car away and you'll be up to your ears in fines. The goal of the program is to get traffic moving since it's estimated that as much as 60% of congestion is caused by accidents, or breakdowns, or cars parked illegally blocking lanes.......

Feel like your commute is sooooooooooo looooooooonngg? And there can't be anyone who spends more time getting to and from work than you do? Well, you're almost right. The Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey reported yesterday that Chicagoans have one of the longest commutes in the country. Only New Yorkers spend more time commuting than we do. Chicago ranks second in the nation for big cities (250,000 people or more), with an average one-way......

Mayor Daley is in Los Angeles this week studying the city's Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system, a network of computers, surveillance cameras and other traffic sensors that automatically adjust the timings on traffic signals to alleviate congestion. If the automatic adjustments don't work, workers can access any of the surveillance cameras to observe the problem and send police or traffic officers if necessary. The system also includes street sensors that will extend a green......

The IL State Toll Highway Authority has unanimously approved an overhaul that is designed to ease tollway congestion. That's the good news. The bad news for those who pay cash at tolls is that you're gonna have to pay double what those who have I-Pass pay. The $5.3 billion plan includes rebuilding 274 miles of roadway and removing toll plazas. It's expected to take 10 years to complete the project. To help pay for it,......

Following the great Chicagoist tradition (ha!) of Ryan Watch, we will now be officially embarking upon Keyes Watch. And what great timing, since Keyes said yesterday that he plans to make "inflammatory" comments "every day, every week" until the election. How convenient for us. It's almost too easy. So, to start us off, what inflamitory comments did Keyes make yesterday? Well, he likened "the political machine" that Mayor Daley controls to "the troll under the......

The woman killed by a Red Line train yesterday has been identified as Karen Klepper, 49. Witnesses said that the incident appeared to be accidental, and that Klepper simply slipped running up the stairs to catch a southbound train. It seems like more trains are hitting people recently; maybe that�s just our imagination. But you can�t get by without a little L love. We�re smitten with these classic L posters that advertise scenic Chicago as......