Chicago: I'm WIDE Awake, it's Morning! Pics~

Hello! I've always been a looker here, and haven't contributed much. So here are a few sample pics from a recent excursion to Chicago. I love this city so much, and plan on moving there in two years. Unfortunately, we were only in town for two days, so I didn't get a very comprehensive selection. I wish I had brought my camera on day two in Lincoln Park, we walked about 10 miles that day! Anyway, hope you like the pics. There isn't much pedestrian traffic, because we got up early on a Saturday morning. By lunchtime, the streets were filled! I ended up shooting a lot of WIDE shots, you have to in this great city! Cheers! Thanks for looking!>

Street performers YES / NO ?

ok wickedestcity posted this article in the random post.....I thought maybe it desreved it own thread......I like the street performer.....and no I don't live on Mich ave.....but I am down there often.....school, work and I eat down at Gibson's and rosebud etc fairly often.... .....anyhow is this banning of the street performers more nimbyism......I mean if you don't like noise why move to Mich ave...... also most residential aren't right on mich anyhow.....and those that are are not at street level...... .....our city just was diminished a bit I think here is article: City boots street performers off Michigan Avenue By Gary Washburn Tribune staff reporter Published February 8, 2006, 2:37 PM CST Responding to complaints from high-rise residents in downtown Chicago, aldermen today voted to ban street performers from four blocks of North Michigan Avenue and to restrict their activities near Millennium Park. The measure passed on a vote of 42 to 4 at the monthly City Council meeting. Aldermen Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Leslie Hairston (5th), Dorothy Tillman (3rd) and Ricardo Munoz (22nd) voted against it. "Music is not noise," Tillman said. "Michigan Avenue belongs to all of us." "I think that is what makes Chicago Chicago, " Hairston said. "I think it brings a lot to the Magnificent Mile." But other aldermen cited the rights of nearby residents. Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) proposed the ordinance after constituents in his ward, which includes downtown and the Near North Side, complained about noise wafting up to their high-rise windows from the street below. Natarus has said the issue also was one of safety, as people are forced to walk in the street when sidewalk crowds grow too large. Amendments to Chicago's Street Performer Ordinance apply to all street performances, but especially target so-called "bucket boys," mostly children who bang on five-gallon drums with sticks, sometimes in groups of as many as 20. They attract some tourists who throw money into coffee tins, with the money shared among the drummers. Those living downtown also have complained of saxophonists who play only one or two songs over and over again. The city's Committee on Traffic had voted unanimously Monday to recommend full council approval of provisions that: -- Prohibit all street performances on four blocks of North Michigan Avenue between Delaware Place and Superior Street. -- Decrease from 200 to 100 feet the distance at which sound must not exceed the conversation level. -- Prohibit performance-related sound to 80 decibels, when measured from 10 feet. -- Put new noise restrictions around Millennium Park during performances at Pritzker Pavilion. -- Increase the cost of a performance permit from $50 to $75. -- Stop street performances exceeding 55 decibels at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., or 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Some residents wanted performers banned entirely from the Michigan Avenue, but Natarus shot down that idea. The four-block stretch covered by the amendments is one of the most congested in the city, meaning that the ban may get legal clearance because it's a safety issue, the alderman has said, noting a federal judge could find a total ban unconstitutional. In other action today, the council increased the fines for talking on cellular telephones while driving to $75 from $50. It also received about 35,000 postcards from Chicagoans in support of a proposed Elephant Protection Ordinance. The postcards had been delivered to Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), sponsor of the measure. Smith said a hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for Feb. 23. Supported by animal rights activists, including the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the ordinance would ban disciplinary methods that hurt elephants, including the use of bullhooks -- sharp steel tools used to control the animals -- as well as electric shock devices and chains.>

A sham...where is free debate and the market place of ideas...Chicago papers complit

THis is disgusting....one of our alleged best universities shutting down free debate this is more insidious and dangerous than most realize......I wonder an aspect of our growing 'police state' mentality School editors say they were suspended for running Islamic cartoons By David Mendell Tribune staff reporter Published February 14, 2006, 9:25 PM CST The editor in chief of a student-led newspaper serving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been suspended for printing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that, when published in Europe, enraged Muslims and led to violent protests in the Middle East and Asia. Editor Acton Gorton and his opinions editor, Chuck Prochaska, were relieved of their duties at The Daily Illini on Tuesday while a task force investigates "the internal decision-making and communication" that led to the publishing of the cartoons, according to a statement by the newspaper's publisher and general manager, Mary Cory. Gorton said he expects to be fired at the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to take two weeks. "I pretty much have an idea how this is going to run, and this is a thinly veiled attempt to remove me from my position," said Gorton, a U. of I. senior who took the newspaper's helm Jan. 1. "I am feeling very betrayed, and I feel like the people who I thought were my friends and supporters didn't back me up." Nearly every major U.S. newspaper, including the Chicago Tribune, has not published the cartoons. They were first published in late September by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and reprinted in other European publications in recent weeks. The cartoons portray the prophet as a terrorist, including one that depicts Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb and another showing him turning away suicide bombers from paradise because, he says, heaven ran out of virgins to be given to martyrs. Gorton, 25, said he believes he made a sound journalistic decision in running six of the cartoons because the public has a right to judge their content. He said he consulted with top staff members and journalism instructors before making the decision to publish them in Thursday's newspaper. "This is not a publicity stunt, and this wasn't an easy decision," said Gorton, who said he spent three years in the Army as a medic and paratrooper before college. "I was stressed and couldn't sleep at night. But I just felt it was an important issue to address in the newspaper." Gorton's decision, however, caused an uproar in the local Muslim community and rankled other Illini staff members after the paper was deluged with negative letters and e-mails. Gorton himself said he received 300 e-mails. Two-thirds of the e-mails were supportive and a third were hateful, he said. U. of I. Chancellor Richard Herman also wrote a letter to the newspaper saying he was saddened by Gorton's decision. Then, on Monday, the paper ran an editorial apologizing for Gorton's decision and called the move "a blatant abuse of power" by a "renegade editor who firmly believes that his will is also the will of the paper." The task force will study whether Gorton made his decision in a vacuum that was improper according to the Illini's journalistic standards, written in 1947. The Daily Illini is an independent publication that serves the university community and is overseen by a board of directors that includes students and faculty. "The board and publisher reaffirm that final decisions about content in The Daily Illini rest with the editor in chief," Cory said in a written statement. "But the board and publisher also recognize that journalistic norms regarding professional behavior dictate that it is the editor's obligation to engage other student editors and student staff members in rigorous discussion and debate of sensitive content." dmendell@tribune.com>

Mag Mile, Rodeo, 5th Ave,......

Mag Mile eyes name mileage The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association plans first unified marketing effort to brand the shopping district By Mary Ellen Podmolik Special to the Tribune Published February 14, 2006 It's not the Miracle Mile. That's in Coral Gables, Fla. It's the Magnificent Mile. And almost 60 years after the stretch of North Michigan Avenue got its nickname, business leaders want the Mag Mile's stature solidified and its moniker mentioned in the same breath as Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, the Ginza in Tokyo, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, which secured trademark rights to the name in 2001, is embarking on its first-ever unified marketing effort to brand the district. The campaign's slogan, "Feel Magnificent," aims to position the area as one of the great avenues of the world through a series of full-color ads and banners that promote its shopping, dining and hotels. A media plan in development would include ad placements on city buses, at the airport and in city and regional publications. However, there are two potential hitches to the fledgling campaign. The association needs the financial support of its members, which range from Garrett Popcorn Shop to the Peninsula Chicago hotel, in order to raise the $500,000 sought for the campaign's first year. The second hitch is connected to the first. No individual store, hotel or restaurant will be mentioned in the ads. Instead, the ads will direct consumers to a Web site where they can obtain information on specific retailers. Theoretically, a member who doesn't contribute could benefit as much from a potential increase in traffic to the district as one who did help fund the effort. "This is an overarching branding campaign," said Linda Tuke, a vice president of DHI Advertising and Design, which designed the campaign, pro bono. "It's not about the store or the hotel. There are people in this world with vision, and there are ones without." Members first learned of the campaign at the association's annual meeting Monday evening . So far, three of the vertical malls on the street, Water Tower Place, Westfield North Bridge and the 900 Shops, have contributed a combined $60,000. Any kind of cash outlay for advertising, much less one without its name, would be a foray into the unknown for Garrett Popcorn Shops, which does no advertising but still sees a steady stream of tourists at its North Michigan Avenue storefront. Yet Scott Schroeder, executive vice president and chief financial officer, is willing to look over the materials the association will be sending members over the next few weeks as it seeks a multiyear funding commitment. "I'm going to have to see what they're pitching," he said. "We may benefit in an unexpected way from a generic campaign because we are an impulse buy. Tiffany is not. People can come in and buy something for $2.25." Bob Killian of Killian & Co., a Chicago branding and advertising agency that is not involved in the Magnificent Mile promotion, said he thinks the campaign can be effective in the short term and long term, so long as all members are on board, both in terms of the financial commitment and the message. "If [the association] can get all the cooperation, and they get the money, it will work," Killian said. "They have to have everybody feeling like it's working for them. Magnificent is a huge promise. It also reminds the members they have to live the brand. The very first audience for any brand campaign is the people who live within the four walls. They have to treat customers magnificently and sell magnificent merchandise." The name Magnificent Mile was coined by developer Arthur Rubloff in the late 1940s. Currently, about 50 percent of visitors to the Mag Mile, which is bordered by North Avenue, Randolph Street, Lake Shore Drive and the North Branch of the Chicago River, live outside of the five-country metropolitan region. Retail sales last year for the district's 3.3 million square feet of retail space were $1.9 billion, according to the association, which says an average of 50,000 pedestrians are on the boulevard each day. Executives along North Michigan Avenue have talked in broad strokes for the past five years about the need for such a branding campaign, and the more they traveled to other cities, the more they returned to Chicago convinced they had to do something dramatic. If there is one city they point to as the textbook case of a successful branding initiative, it is Las Vegas, with its "What happens here, stays here" tagline. "Others have done a really great job in packaging themselves," said Rick Roman, association chairman and chairman and chief executive of the Signature Room at the 95th in the John Hancock Center. "We have not really entered into that arena. What we noticed is if we want to make sure we are competitive and getting that share of the visitor market and the local market, we've got to be proactive, or we're going to get left behind." Added Camille Julmy, vice chairman of U.S. Equities Realty LLC and a past chairman of the association: "We definitely have a problem in branding. Michael Jordan did a fabulous job for Chicago, but that was a few years ago." But the "feel magnificent" image is as much targeted to area residents as national and international visitors, since the city competes with reinvigorated suburban shopping districts for visitors. Woodfield Shopping Center and its surrounding area are heavily advertised. And a recent study by 4Insights Inc., a retail and market research consultancy, found that Naperville attracts shoppers from 144 zip codes. "There are probably people that get stuck in their suburban lifestyle and forget that Michigan Avenue is down the street," said DHI's Tuke. "Think about the soccer moms driving around in their mini-vans. We are going to start putting a couple other notions in these people's heads." - - - Mag Mile facts $1.9 billion in sales* 18.2 million visitors* 460 retailers 22,000-plus hotel rooms 275 restaurants * Annual numbers Source: Greater North Michigan Avenue Association - - - Milestones for Michigan Avenue 1909--The "Chicago Plan" was devised by local planners to transform Michigan Avenue from a trading post into a major commercial boulevard. 1912--The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, originally the North Central Business District Association, was founded to plan and promote the area's development and beautification. 1929--The Great Stock Market Crash ends the expansion of Michigan Avenue. 1947--As a leader of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, Chicago developer Arthur Rubloff launches an extensive promotional plan involving the construction of new buildings and renovation of old ones. The promotional campaign leads to the "The Magnificent Mile" name. 1975--The construction of Water Tower Place initiates a trend in modern Michigan Avenue architectural philosophies as the first multipurpose building where people reside, work and shop in the same structure. 1988-2001--This span marks the boulevard's second great building boom with the completion of the 900 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago Place, Crate & Barrel, 676 N. Michigan Ave. and the 600 N. Michigan Ave. buildings. 1997--A plan providing policies to guide Michigan Avenue's new development and evolution, called Vision 2012, is created. 2000--A nine-block mixed-use entertainment project named the North Bridge District, which included a four-level shopping center with Michigan Avenue's first Nordstrom store, is constructed. 2001--The Michigan Avenue association secures trademark rights for the "Chicago's Magnificent Mile" name, brand and trademarks. Source: Greater North Michigan Avenue Association>

Travis007 Takes On Chicago

Here are some pics of Chicago I took during a trip in December of 2005. Enjoy! >

Chicago Super Tower

i was cheakin out the sister site- SSP and under the chicago/fantasy section it shows 3 dif. buildings. but what caught my attention was that for this one tower they called "Chicago Super Tower" it had 30 different ideas for this one building when you would usualy see one or mabey two! so i was wondering what the deal was with this one. was this tower ever up for some seriouse descution or is someone just board? heres the 30 dif. options ,all 677.3 meters tall!! : SSP-diagrams >

UIC becoming a new hot spot?

Okay when people think of UIC, they usually think of its medical center, and its reputatation as a commuter school. The area is drastically changing though, it seems to really be catering to the students now. Perfect example would be Maxwell Street. I bring this up because if you walk around DePaul's campus at 11pm (I know becuase I practically do every day), the streets are full of students and gives it a certain vibrancy. Walk around UIC at 11pm and it looks like a cemetery. Much with DePaul has to do with the area its located in, but I think UIC is not improving only academically, but also in terms of vibrancy. Do any of you see this happening?>