The couple left their 9-year-old and 12-year-old at home alone in Uptown for nearly two days while they took a trip to Las Vegas last month. more ›

新年快乐! It's the Year of the Dragon. Check out some photos from Uptown's Chinese New Year parade. more ›

Joan of Arc, the Chicago-based experimental collective, will perform a world premiere, live new soundtrack to the Charlie Chaplin film His New Job, at the 2011 Chicago Book Expo, according to a news release. more ›

Police found a man dead on a baseball diamond in the Uptown neighborhood on Thursday, and a Friday autopsy shows the man died from head injuries. The man has not been identified. He was found in Clarendon Park near Montrose and Clarendon avenues. The death has been ruled a homicide. The Sun-Times writes: more ›

Sonic Drive-In is considering opening its first Chicago location in Uptown within the year. more ›

A 22-year-old woman fell to her death in Uptown while trying to climb a ladder to a rooftop party around 5 a.m. Sunday. more ›

Two of your favorite Chicagoist foodies, Minna and Caitlin, teamed up to try the new Uptown Pie Company, an addition to Wilson Yard's Cupcake Gallery. Baker/owner Darius Williams also added an expanded seating area to the existing space. Minna loved it. Caitlin hated it. Find out why, grab a slice, and let us know what side you fall on. more ›

The stately Uptown Theater at Lawrence and Broadway was once, probably, the greatest place in the world to see a movie. Larger than even Radio City, the Uptown was built in 1925 for the Balaban and Katz Theater company, who also gave us The Chicago Theater, The Oriental, the Cadillac Palace Theater, The Congress, the Riviera, and about 50 others in the area. more ›

A simple checklist can indicate whether or not a restaurant is a great spot for a dinner date. BYOB? Check. Cozy and welcoming interior? Check. Soft, romantic candle lit setting? Check. Great food for cheap prices? Check and Check. La Ciudad of Uptown is a neighborhood favorite that has it all. more ›

Is it a coincidence, political backlash or yahooligans having fun, the conclusions are undetermined at this time. But yesterday State Rep. and Cook County Commissioner-elect John Fritchey’s office was vandalized making him the sixth political victim this month. more ›

David Sedaris first caught the public's attention with his famed appearance on National Public Radio in 1992 reading his hilarious essay, The Santaland Diaries. He quickly ascended to fame with his tales of growing up in a, shall we say, eccentric family environment, with books like Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays on Ice. It is really no surprise to us that he would decide pen yet another holiday themed comedy being that he has done two already. This time around he recruited his, shall we say, completely wacked-out sister, Amy Sedaris of Strangers with Candy fame, to collaborate on this particular piece, The Book of Liz. more ›

Until (and if?) The Uptown reopens, all we can do is remember its glory days as one of Chicago's premiere showplaces. Via CompassRose and the Uptown Chicago History Blog, we came across a PDF of the August 17, 1925 issue of Balaban & Katz Magazine. This special "Uptown Theatre Issue" gushes madly about the brand new venue, declaring it "Not for TODAY---But for All TIME." It contains the Inaugural Program, which included a performance by The Edgewater Beach Hotel Oriole Orchestra, an operatic stage production entitled "Under Spanish Skies," and the main feature, The Lady Who Lied, starring Lewis Stone and Virginia Valli. (Incidentally, the film is one of the estimated 90% of silent films now presumed lost forever.) more ›

When Helen Schiller announced that she wouldn't be seeking another term as the 46th Ward's alderman, after the cheering died down from the Uptown Update offices, the question was: Who's next? The field is beginning to clear somewhat, with a handful of candidates tossing their hats into the ring, and Michael Carroll's hat has been among them for months. more ›

Though a few weeks have already passed since news first spread of Target's controversial $150,000 donation to MN Forward, a pro-business group that also happens to support anti-gay Minn. gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, the calls for a boycott from LGBT and other groups are still going strong. Tomorrow, as part of a national day of protest against the retail giant, activists in Chicago have planned a demonstration at the newly opened Wilson Yard location in Uptown at 11 a.m. more ›

While Mayor Daley still hasn't announced if he's running for re-election next year, one alderman who has found herself under fire won't be. Uptown's Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), who the Sun-Times' Laura Washington calls "the most controversial, provocative and misunderstood member of the Chicago City Council," announced she won't be making a run at keeping her seat in February's elections. In her column, Washington defends Shiller, who has battled Uptown residents over the Wilson Yard development as well as outbreaks of violence, referring to Shiller's "grit and gumption" and taking some shots at Uptown residents: more ›

The PR hits just keep coming for Target. The Minn.-based, growing retail empire is already under fire for donating $150,000 to a PAC backing Tom Emmer, an anti-gay Republican gubernatorial candidate in the land of 10,000 lakes who reportedly has ties to a Christian rock group advocating the murder of LGBT people. And, as reported by The Awl yesterday, the company's CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife are also on the record for donating $10,000, the maximum allowable contribution, to Rep. Michele Bachmann. more ›

The uptick in temperature usually means an uptick in street crime, as evident on the 4600 block of North Magnolia in Uptown last night. Lake Effect News is reporting that the street was a hotbed of activity, beginning with an altercation at around 7:30 p.m. in front of the Carlton Apartments, a "supportive living residence operated by Mercy Housing Lakefront." Two local men were arguing in the building's courtyard, when police say one of the men pulled out a knife and critically stabbed the other man in the chest. The victim was rushed to Illinois Masonic Hospital for treatment. more ›

A new study led by a UIC researcher - performed in conjunction with the University of Michigan - shows that "racial residential segregation in the Chicago area may be perpetuated by a lack of knowledge of communities across racial lines." In 2005, researchers surveyed more than 700 adults 21 years of age and older living in Cook County, Illinois to examine how whites, blacks and Latinos differ in awareness of neighborhoods in Chicago and surrounding areas. Respondents in the study were asked to look at a map which highlighted 41 communities located in and around the city and mark any area they didn’t know anything about. The researchers called these areas community blind spots. The 41 areas represented a variety of communities in and outside the city - from communities with expensive housing to those with moderately priced housing, and from communities that are racially segregated to those that are integrated. Regardless of the variety and types of communities represented, the blind spot communities were very different along racial lines. more ›

Lots of press releases grace our inbox at the Chicagoist offices. Every once in a while we get one that makes us do a double-take. Gerald Farinas's announcement that he's running for 46th Ward Alderman is one of those press releases. Farinas officially announced his candidacy Sunday at Chicago Solidarity Rally in Daley Plaza, held in support of the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. Farinas notes that, if elected he will "be the Council’s second openly gay member," after noting that "Farinas is expected to garner much of his support from reform minded Democrats and, as a former inner circle advisor to Keyes 2004, city Republicans wanting a seat at the table to have their voices heard." Besides Shiller, Farinas will face James Cappleman, who lost in 2007. more ›

it's one thing to run a restaurant and have a rodent infestation. It's another thing entirely to have that rodent infestation reported to the City Health Department because a customer saw a cook trying to kill said rodents with cooking utensils. That was the least of Nigerian Kitchen's worries. The Uptown restaurant (1163 W. Wilson) also had the following violations: mouse feces in the restaurant, cockroaches crawling on a wall, wastewater backing up form 3 clogged sinks in the kitchen and a mop sink being used to prepare vegetables. more ›

The legal fight over Uptown’s Wilson Yard took an unexpected turn this week as two bloggers were subpoenaed by an attorney representing the lot’s developer. The Chicago Journal’s News-Star reported that an attorney for Peter Holsten sent subpoenas to search-engine giant Google, asking for ownership information for two anonymous blogs that have been outspoken critics of the Wilson Yard development. Those two blogs are Uptown Update, which tracks news related to the Uptown area, and What The Helen, which was up and running during the 2007 aldermanic election that pitted incumbent Ald. Helen Shiller against community activist James Cappleman. more ›

Photo by trippchicago