CHICAGO | General Discussions

[the urban politician]

^ I liked it when I went, but I wouldn't call it the greatest thing ever like some people do.

I kind of wonder what it was like when the guy who started it was still alive....

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ I liked it when I went, but I wouldn't call it the greatest thing ever like some people do.

I kind of wonder what it was like when the guy who started it was still alive....

I mean, it's pizza, so I liked it, but it wouldn't crack my top 10 places in Chicago.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago

Had some friends who wanted to try Pequod's Pizza in Lincoln Park last weekend, and have to say it was very average at best. I don't understand the hype for that place. It is very bready (even for deep dish) and way way too salty.
I've read other Chicago forumers here recommend it to others, and I just don't get it.

Agree, I was underwhelmed. Didn't live up to the hype. Thought the standard Lou Malnati's was better.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Agree, I was underwhelmed. Didn't live up to the hype. Thought the standard Lou Malnati's was better.

I live in Minnesota now, and always have frozen Lou's in my freezer, and I thought those were better than Pequods. FWIW I think the frozen Lou's are about 90% as good as fresh.

[left of center]

I enjoy Pequod's, I think its fairly unique with good quality ingredients. But when I first took my girlfriend there a few years ago, she ended up throwing up later that evening. Suffice it to say, we have not been since.


I miss Pequod's, lol.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Agree, I was underwhelmed. Didn't live up to the hype. Thought the standard Lou Malnati's was better.

Although they're different pizzas structurally, I too was underwhelmed when I first had Pequod's (Morton Grove). . . I won't pile on any further as there is no such thing as bad pizza just BETTER pizza IMO. . .

. . .

[Klippenstein]

There’s a thread in City Discussions about how big a city can grow. In it, Chicago is being described as a monocentric city. This seems to make sense and could possibly be a limiting factor on growth. Probably not soon since there’s a lot of infill.

It just seems like this is part of a double edged sword that has benefitted Chicago and may constrain it in the future. For example, benefit of a strong core, good downtown urbanism. Perhaps on the other hand it seems like a lot of nimbys use this as a way to block development (“this is not downtown”) since downtown is the only acceptable business district.

Do you think this is true? Do you see this changing in the future? What hubs outside of downtown could have real potential for growth in this way?

Or do you see any nearby cities being able to develop enough to create their own node that spreads some of the gravitational pull of Chicago? Evanston, Joliet or Aurora might be our best bet. What do you think?

[Chisouthside]

I always felt like even though theyre spread out the suburban offices constituted their own node/nodes at least within Chicagoland.

[Klippenstein]

I found some useful info about the distribution of jobs in Chicagoland in this CMAP Document. It really doesn’t seem like there's a single suburb that competes, but overall they do have an effect. I suppose that could be an elegant solution. The one downside is that most of the South Suburbs are left out of this dispersed distribution of jobs.

It actually makes me think that the One Central development could be a boon to the South Side, but we need much more than that especially for the price tag. That money could instead be used to transition our industrial areas into green energy/tech hubs.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

There’s a thread in City Discussions about how big a city can grow. In it, Chicago is being described as a monocentric city. This seems to make sense and could possibly be a limiting factor on growth. Probably not soon since there’s a lot of infill.

It just seems like this is part of a double edged sword that has benefitted Chicago and may constrain it in the future. For example, benefit of a strong core, good downtown urbanism. Perhaps on the other hand it seems like a lot of nimbys use this as a way to block development (“this is not downtown”) since downtown is the only acceptable business district.

Do you think this is true? Do you see this changing in the future? What hubs outside of downtown could have real potential for growth in this way?

Or do you see any nearby cities being able to develop enough to create their own node that spreads some of the gravitational pull of Chicago? Evanston, Joliet or Aurora might be our best bet. What do you think?

The fox valley cities of Elgin, Aurora, Joliet already have a kind of a center of gravity and further in you have Naperville [ now the second largest city in the state of Illinois ]
But most people out in the outer burbs do have jobs actually and most don't commute over 25 mins. I Currently live in Kenosha live less than 5 mins from work. But the pull and feel of Chicago and a tie to the rest of the region is real here.

BTW every city or town I mentioned has Metra rail stops at multiple locations. Before was married I still had season tickets to the cubs and bears. Just gave or sold the games I could not go to for many years and I was living in Crystal Lake. But the dining, Musicals, museums, fests were and still are in the city. It's not like we don't visit. Before the 08 crash Elgin was expected to be at 200K people never got there but just its city limits are 114K people, and an easy extra 50K more people are around 10 mins away.

[Klippenstein]

I must admit I don’t know much about the suburbs, but I’m definitely interested in learning.

At this point, it seems like ending the cornfield sprawl would not be a bad thing. Then perhaps there would be an effort to densify some of these town/city centers especially around the metra lines.

[SIGSEGV]

Schaumburg and environs is probably Chicagolands second largest core. The trapped satellite of Joliet/Aurora/Elgin/Waukegan/Kenosha are something different entirely. Joliet is probably the largest generator.of new jobs in the burbs with all the distribution centers and such but it's very dispersed.

[Tom In Chicago]

^What no love for Gary, Indiana? Surely you wouldn't park South Bend in that mix of satellite cities, or would you???

. . .

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

^What no love for Gary, Indiana? Surely you wouldn't park South Bend in that mix of satellite cities, or would you???

. . .

Gary doesn't have close to the same economic vitality that the Fox Valley does--the latter functioning as bedroom communities well as healthy job centers. Gary has a long, long way to go if it were to ever match the towns to the west of Chicago.

[Rizzo]

Just wanted to hear people’s opinions on this. Seems like 10-15 years ago a lot of hundred year old 6-16 unit buildings were being converted to condos from apartments.

This doesn’t seem to make any sense anymore unless the interiors are altered beyond recognition for current design tastes. For example, the only thing original in my building is the facade and staircase. The structure was totally demoed and replaced with steel so everything is open floor plan and mechanicals can more appropriately be embedded instead of it being an afterthought in cheaper renovations.

But while the building is practically new from a materials standpoint, insurance still considers it an older building. After talking to other HOA’s in similar 100+ year old courtyard and walkup structures, insurance has soared on these buildings due to replacement cost. Worse, is D&O insurance is really expensive for small buildings. Lastly, people don’t want to be on HOA boards. Unless it’s a big condo building where you’re likely to get 3-4 interested people of a building of 100, it’s more challenging in a 10 unit building.

That said, is there a future for smaller condo buildings in Chicago in older buildings, or will these all flip back to rental apartments?

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Handro

Gary doesn't have close to the same economic vitality that the Fox Valley does--the latter functioning as bedroom communities well as healthy job centers. Gary has a long, long way to go if it were to ever match the towns to the west of Chicago.

I'm not doubting this and was kind of half joking, but I'm wondering how the whole of Northwest Indiana compares? There's not an insignificant amount of heavy industry there. . . and what with all the companies leaving Illinois aren't they all just moving across the border?!?[/sarcasm]

. . .

[ChiMIchael]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I'm not doubting this and was kind of half joking, but I'm wondering how the whole of Northwest Indiana compares? There's not an insignificant amount of heavy industry there. . . and what with all the companies leaving Illinois aren't they all just moving across the border?!?[/sarcasm]

. . .

I've always felt that the Indiana business community was NWI to fail just to spite Chicago.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

^What no love for Gary, Indiana? Surely you wouldn't park South Bend in that mix of satellite cities, or would you???

. . .

No, mostly I just forgot about NWI! Gary/Hammond are indeed in the same class, probably. South Bend is just as far as Milwaukee though.

One of my favorite things in the world (Albanese Gummy Bears) is made in NWI. There may be additional redeeming qualities.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

There may be additional redeeming qualities.

I'm aware that it's rather gauche these days to speak of such sordid realities in some circles, but industrial capability still counts for something.

Civilization kinda relies on it.

The 3 major steel plants of NWI (Indiana harbor, gary works, & burns harbor) possess over HALF of the nation's blast furnace capacity to produce brand new steel from mineral ore. And the BP refinery in Whiting is the largest refinery in the nation outside of TX/LA (6th overall).

The dirtiest work of our civilization has to occur somewhere.

Unfortunately for NWI, it just doesn't require a whole lot of physical manpower anymore, thanks to radical amounts of automation over the past half century.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

No, mostly I just forgot about NWI! Gary/Hammond are indeed in the same class, probably. South Bend is just as far as Milwaukee though.

One of my favorite things in the world (Albanese Gummy Bears) is made in NWI. There may be additional redeeming qualities.

I second your love of Albanese Gummy Bears! Best ones made!

Aaron (Glowrock)