Chicago resident and DePaul student Vadim Gershteyn has started a movement to get a bike lane for Broadway included in the Bike 2015 Plan, an initiative that will “establish a bikeway network that serves all Chicago residents and neighborhoods” and to “make all of Chicago’s streets safe and convenient for bicycling.”
Click here to join the campaign that will start a flood of letters to CDOT requesting that Broadway be included in Bike 2015 Plan.
Apparently, Broadway has been completely left out of this plan, which overall lacks many specifics in regards to how the city will make their plan's mission statement a reality. Broadway is a major north-south thoroughfare, yet is hardly friendly to pedestrians, let alone bikes. Currently, commuters wishing to travel north and south through Uptown and Edgewater must do so on Clark Street, which means a detour of up to half a mile in some areas.
I agree that a shared lane would be a welcome addition, and that the city needs to keep moving forward with it's plan to make the city more bicycle-friendly. Plus, a campaign of this sort will push the city to nail down decisions on many other routes, as well as on other aspects of Bike 2015 that may be on the fence, and will help keep this plan off of the bureaucratic backburner.
Finally, as Uptown and Edgewater gentrify into some of Chicago's more upwardly mobile neighborhoods, the city needs to fight congestion, and to work to keep cycling top-of-mind as a viable mode of transportation in the area. A bike lane on Broadway will help keep the far north side safe for commuters who choose to travel by bicycle.
Thanks, Vadim! You've got my support!
Thursday Hate - "Dum-da-dum-dum-dee-daaaaa" version
Why is it people in flag-shirts are the ones most likely to label somebody else unpatriotic? Most likely for not wearing a flag pin. Ironic, isn't it: labeling someone as less of a person for not wearing some arbitrary symbol, and then using that very symbol to cover your body - wracked by morbid obesity from decades of gluttony and slovenly behavior? I can't think of a bigger sacrilege, as it relates to the symbol that you are supposedly upholding.
And the Pledge of Allegiance: why does this still matter? Why do people get so worked up when someone refuses to take part? Or omits the "under god" addition from 1957, which was added during the height of McCarthy's communist witch-hunts and the Cold War? Declaring an oath to a piece of cloth does not make one a patriot.
The world has gotten way too small for this mindset. We've got bigger problems to deal with, and people who are basing their political decisions on these kinds of issues only add to them. If being a "patriot" is still important to you, yet you still realize that you want to make a difference, distinguish yourself through actions, not slogans or pledges or pins.
Dreaming David
Blue steel and crisp copper bristle
Between the stones and porticoes of
Your domain, under a watchful eye,
Guarding sanity and enlightenment.
My nervous watchfulness, restlessness
Missing something, that you were hiding,
Melted down my back in a warm rush as we
Chased your whispers over worn cobbles.
Amid the constant clamor and temptation
Your unseen stare was a song to me,
We ran a vortex that ended just through a door
A trap that promised eternity rather than death.
Breathless, it was always just one more
You played the joker before I laid eyes
Staying out of reach to keep me guessing
Thinking I would never reach the sacred end.
And of course, the playful ghost of a smile
Disappeared the moment I saw you.
Towering above all the others drawn
To the alter beneath in the temple above.
I imagined the stone you threw
Laying in a pool of the giant's blood
A warning to all who trod on knowledge
And keeping brutality at bay.
Never has intention been so sublime
Yet so sharp and strong and proud.
A razor, a savior
Of all humanity.
I dream of that stone
Of gliding under your shadow
To return to you.
Under copper bristles and crisp blue steel.
Ageless.
Forever.
In Stone.
And blood.
Between the stones and porticoes of
Your domain, under a watchful eye,
Guarding sanity and enlightenment.
My nervous watchfulness, restlessness
Missing something, that you were hiding,
Melted down my back in a warm rush as we
Chased your whispers over worn cobbles.
Amid the constant clamor and temptation
Your unseen stare was a song to me,
We ran a vortex that ended just through a door
A trap that promised eternity rather than death.
Breathless, it was always just one more
You played the joker before I laid eyes
Staying out of reach to keep me guessing
Thinking I would never reach the sacred end.
And of course, the playful ghost of a smile
Disappeared the moment I saw you.
Towering above all the others drawn
To the alter beneath in the temple above.
I imagined the stone you threw
Laying in a pool of the giant's blood
A warning to all who trod on knowledge
And keeping brutality at bay.
Never has intention been so sublime
Yet so sharp and strong and proud.
A razor, a savior
Of all humanity.
I dream of that stone
Of gliding under your shadow
To return to you.
Under copper bristles and crisp blue steel.
Ageless.
Forever.
In Stone.
And blood.
Shark Art Car
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| Shark Burning Man Mutant Vehicle - via |
Its summer time and that means shark season, so I decided to pay tribute to a few of the land shark art cars out there. If you see one of these in the rear view mirror, just let go by, they don't bite but will take a chunk out of your rear bumper if you decide to slam on the brakes. A "shark art car" sounds like an oxymoron to me but someone had to do it.
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| Montana Shark Art Car - via |
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| Shark Art Car - via |
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| Brooklyn Shark Art Van - via |
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| Shark Burning Man Mutant Vehicle - via |
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| Ripper the Friendly Shark by Tom Kenndy at burning man |
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| Shark Truck by Patrick Amiot made from a 1940s International Truck |
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| Simple yet very menacing |
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| Really Big man eating shark vehicle at burning man |
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| Another one from burning man |
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| Shark Burning Man Mutant Vehicle - via |
Lucky Stiff Wins BMW Art Car
Brad Carlile gets the "Lucky Stiff" award of the year for winning this beautiful ‘77 BMW 320i art car. It was painted on-site by Tom Cramer at his 2005 show at the Mark Woolley Gallery as part of the DeSoto building opening, Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft.
Brad, welcome to world of art cars, your life will never be the same again:)
Hump Day
Visual Aid of the Week:
Anti-bonk:
BYOB Duckpin Bowling in Baltimore:
Infinity:
Find me:
Running with it:
Anti-bonk:
BYOB Duckpin Bowling in Baltimore:
Infinity:
Find me:
Running with it:
The Hidden Side of Chicago's Bike Routes: Uptown and Rainbo Gardens
Moving south down Clark Street, through the heart of Uptown, the gentrification taking place in one of the Northside Chicago's last great “dirty” neighborhoods is hard to ignore.
Once lined with filthy bodegas, run-down body shops, greasy taquieras, roach infested Laundromats, and grubby whole-sale outlets filled with sweat-shop clothes, change is sweeping through like a firehose blast. There are now 6 sushi restaurants in the three-quarters of a mile between Winnemac and Bryn Marr. The African and Arabic restaurants are now gourmet wine shops and pet boutiques, gay gyms and lesbian bookstores predominate, and the Hopleaf is featured on Check Please at least twice a month by some Trixie who was finally convinced to venture north of Irving Park for the first time in her life. Once a low-key, secret-spot for the cool-kid-beer-snob set, you can’t even get a booth in there on a Tuesday night anymore.
As implied above, I have mixed feelings about Uptown’s transformation, as do many people. Take for instance, my first trip to the Green Mill in 1997; I’d moved to Chicago the week before. I’m glad that the sight of the woman taking a shit in the middle of Lawrence Avenue across from the Red Line station is not likely to be experienced by another newcomer, at least for the time being. But, hanging out at the Saxony Lounge, now the Uptown Lounge, and laughing about that sight over a 75 cent Pabst while waiting for the cover charge at the Green Mill to go down will also never be experienced again, either.
Yet, as Uptown is coming out of a long dormant period as one of the Northside’s rougher areas, some things about the neighborhood will never change, in both ways good and bad. The country bar, Carol’s - a mecca for Gulf War vets and hipters alike, is still on the corner of Clark and Leland, across the street from a brand-new bank branch. The Green Mill, the Aragon, and the Riviera will hopefully be there for a long time, and someday the Uptown Theater will join them once again. And as long as Alderman Helen Shiller keeps the rehab and section 8 housing prominent, it will always be a somewhat grubby place.
However, one of the most tragic losses - historically speaking - for the neighborhood was The Rainbo. If you lived in Uptown before 2003, you might have known the Rainbo, at 4812 N. Clark Street, very well. In its final days it was a pretty fun hipster hangout: a late night roller rink and the original venue for the Kinetic Playground, now a half-mile east, just past the Lawrence Red Line Station. It was well known for its annual New Years Eve bash, featuring well-known nationally touring acts, including G. Love and Special Sauce.
The rock music legacy of Rainbo and the name Kinetic Playground goes much farther back in time, however. In 1968, three partners opened the “Electric Theater” for a show on April 5th, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. In spite of the citywide curfew, attendance was strong that night. However, soon a copyright feud erupted with a club of the same name in New York, and the owners were forced to change the name. Over the years, such names as The Small Faces, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Jetro Tull, Frank Zappa, and even Led Zeppelin performed at the venue.
Still earlier, you would’ve found Olympic hopefuls and the 1961 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks training on the ice-skating rink that was installed 1957. It also housed a professional bowling alley.
Prior to this era, and the urban blight which completely desiccated Uptown beginning in the late 50’s, Rainbo’s legacy was just as, if not more colorful.
Originally a railhouse on the outskirts of the city in the 1890’s, the structure went through several expansions, including a stint as a very popular outdoor music garden called Moulin Rouge Gardens, fashioned after it’s namesake in Paris, before being bought and reopened as Mann’s Rainbo Room, in 1921. Musical acts featured there through the first part of the Twentieth Century included Ruth Etting, Isham Jones, Frank Westphal, Ralph Williams, and Sam Wagner. It was here that Ted (Curly) Healy and Moe Howard asked Larry Fine to join their comedy act.
Despite all that talent, Rainbo had a difficult time during Prohibition, turning a blind eye to smuggled-in liquor, and running illicit gambling operations. Fronted by a newly installed sports arena in 1927 that featured vaudville, jai-alai, boxing, and wrestling matches, Rainbo was raided several times by federal authorities from 1920 – 1928, eventually resulting in a shut down in that year, and the owner brought up on gambling charges.
Reopened in 1929, the hard times continued through the depression. Its draw mostly came from the jai-alai and boxing matches, as well as continued gambling and vaudeville at the indoor casino - reopened as the “French Casino” during the 1933 World’s Fair. The Chicago mob exerted a fair amount of control over the establishment, via the Nitti Gang (John Dillinger spent his birthday there in 1934, the day before he was killed by G-men). It was shut down in the early 1930’s for selling liquor to minors and wouldn’t reopen again until after World War II, again featuring wrestling matches, largely in ignominy as Uptown began its slow decline into urban decay.
Today, 5 years after being destroyed for condos, Rainbo Gardens exists partly in name only, as Rainbo Village. A completely modern complex, it is still surrounded by much of the grubbiness of the earlier years, although even that is slowly being spit-shined by the gradual march north of Chicago’s up-and-comers.
Tip a hat to the Rainbo as you pedal past, and every once in a while, give more than a passing thought to what it once was.
Sources:
chicago.urban-history.org
wiki.answers.com
uptownhistory.compassrose.org
wikipedia.org
uptownupdate.com
Once lined with filthy bodegas, run-down body shops, greasy taquieras, roach infested Laundromats, and grubby whole-sale outlets filled with sweat-shop clothes, change is sweeping through like a firehose blast. There are now 6 sushi restaurants in the three-quarters of a mile between Winnemac and Bryn Marr. The African and Arabic restaurants are now gourmet wine shops and pet boutiques, gay gyms and lesbian bookstores predominate, and the Hopleaf is featured on Check Please at least twice a month by some Trixie who was finally convinced to venture north of Irving Park for the first time in her life. Once a low-key, secret-spot for the cool-kid-beer-snob set, you can’t even get a booth in there on a Tuesday night anymore.
As implied above, I have mixed feelings about Uptown’s transformation, as do many people. Take for instance, my first trip to the Green Mill in 1997; I’d moved to Chicago the week before. I’m glad that the sight of the woman taking a shit in the middle of Lawrence Avenue across from the Red Line station is not likely to be experienced by another newcomer, at least for the time being. But, hanging out at the Saxony Lounge, now the Uptown Lounge, and laughing about that sight over a 75 cent Pabst while waiting for the cover charge at the Green Mill to go down will also never be experienced again, either.
Yet, as Uptown is coming out of a long dormant period as one of the Northside’s rougher areas, some things about the neighborhood will never change, in both ways good and bad. The country bar, Carol’s - a mecca for Gulf War vets and hipters alike, is still on the corner of Clark and Leland, across the street from a brand-new bank branch. The Green Mill, the Aragon, and the Riviera will hopefully be there for a long time, and someday the Uptown Theater will join them once again. And as long as Alderman Helen Shiller keeps the rehab and section 8 housing prominent, it will always be a somewhat grubby place.
However, one of the most tragic losses - historically speaking - for the neighborhood was The Rainbo. If you lived in Uptown before 2003, you might have known the Rainbo, at 4812 N. Clark Street, very well. In its final days it was a pretty fun hipster hangout: a late night roller rink and the original venue for the Kinetic Playground, now a half-mile east, just past the Lawrence Red Line Station. It was well known for its annual New Years Eve bash, featuring well-known nationally touring acts, including G. Love and Special Sauce.
The rock music legacy of Rainbo and the name Kinetic Playground goes much farther back in time, however. In 1968, three partners opened the “Electric Theater” for a show on April 5th, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. In spite of the citywide curfew, attendance was strong that night. However, soon a copyright feud erupted with a club of the same name in New York, and the owners were forced to change the name. Over the years, such names as The Small Faces, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Jetro Tull, Frank Zappa, and even Led Zeppelin performed at the venue.
Still earlier, you would’ve found Olympic hopefuls and the 1961 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks training on the ice-skating rink that was installed 1957. It also housed a professional bowling alley.
Prior to this era, and the urban blight which completely desiccated Uptown beginning in the late 50’s, Rainbo’s legacy was just as, if not more colorful.
Originally a railhouse on the outskirts of the city in the 1890’s, the structure went through several expansions, including a stint as a very popular outdoor music garden called Moulin Rouge Gardens, fashioned after it’s namesake in Paris, before being bought and reopened as Mann’s Rainbo Room, in 1921. Musical acts featured there through the first part of the Twentieth Century included Ruth Etting, Isham Jones, Frank Westphal, Ralph Williams, and Sam Wagner. It was here that Ted (Curly) Healy and Moe Howard asked Larry Fine to join their comedy act.
Despite all that talent, Rainbo had a difficult time during Prohibition, turning a blind eye to smuggled-in liquor, and running illicit gambling operations. Fronted by a newly installed sports arena in 1927 that featured vaudville, jai-alai, boxing, and wrestling matches, Rainbo was raided several times by federal authorities from 1920 – 1928, eventually resulting in a shut down in that year, and the owner brought up on gambling charges.
Reopened in 1929, the hard times continued through the depression. Its draw mostly came from the jai-alai and boxing matches, as well as continued gambling and vaudeville at the indoor casino - reopened as the “French Casino” during the 1933 World’s Fair. The Chicago mob exerted a fair amount of control over the establishment, via the Nitti Gang (John Dillinger spent his birthday there in 1934, the day before he was killed by G-men). It was shut down in the early 1930’s for selling liquor to minors and wouldn’t reopen again until after World War II, again featuring wrestling matches, largely in ignominy as Uptown began its slow decline into urban decay.
Today, 5 years after being destroyed for condos, Rainbo Gardens exists partly in name only, as Rainbo Village. A completely modern complex, it is still surrounded by much of the grubbiness of the earlier years, although even that is slowly being spit-shined by the gradual march north of Chicago’s up-and-comers.
Tip a hat to the Rainbo as you pedal past, and every once in a while, give more than a passing thought to what it once was.
Sources:
chicago.urban-history.org
wiki.answers.com
uptownhistory.compassrose.org
wikipedia.org
uptownupdate.com
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