Miscellaneous and completely random brain farts about Chicago

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

You're right, that does look pretty silly. It looks like something an 8-year-old drew:

https://www.usflags.com/illinois-state-flag.html

It sort of looks like the eagle is straining to take a —.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ MO's state flag also — (so do most state flags).

Not as hard as IL's, but it's like a 3/10 as opposed to IL's 0/10.


The best flag to come of Missouri is the flag for the city of St. Louis.

Now that's a damn fine proper-looking flag.

I just looked up the St Louis flag. Yes, that's a good-looking flag.

Then I just looked up to see if KCMO has a flag and indeed it does:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Kansas_City,_Missouri

It's OK. Come to think of it I think I've seen it here and there, but not very often. Certainly not as often as I saw the Chicago flag, which was, like, almost everywhere.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Is there a single on-location exterior scene in the entire series that doesn't have an L train rumbling by in the background? (I'm sure there are, but it's still used egregiously as a setting device. Like, no —, we get it already, Chicago has L trains).

It seriously gives the impression that there are L's running down every single street and alley in the whole city.

I'd argue the L is Chicago's signature cliché. Just like every film or show set in Nola has Mardi Gras all year, every film or show set in Chicago constantly has trains rumbling down some gritty elevated structure.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I'd argue the L is Chicago's signature cliché. Just like every film or show set in Nola has Mardi Gras all year, every film or show set in Chicago constantly has trains rumbling down some gritty elevated structure.

Very true.

And I attribute it to the legacy loop tracks.

NYC and Philly also have legacy elevated portions of their systems too, but not in their central downtown cores.

It's very possible (even likely?) to be a tourist in those two cities and never encounter one of the elevated lines, but not so in Chicago. The L lines are front and center, visually and aurally dominating the heart of the city with the loop tracks, and then radiating out all across the city, and thereby getting indelibly associated as one of those "only in Chicago" things in the national psyche, like deep dish or gang violence.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

26. I kept seeing this flag everywhere that looked like this:

Besides the fact the flag is actually a pretty awesome looking flag in terms of design..... Each of those elements means something.

https://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/architecture-dictionary/entry/the-chicago-flag/

[Steely Dan]

Back to the "Squirrels of Chicago" discussion for a moment: so I'm drinking my coffee in our sun porch this morning when a large hawks swoops down in a flash and nabs a squirrel in the parkway in front of our building.

The hawk then popped up on our side fence where I was able to snap a quick pic of him with the unlucky rodent dangling from his talons.





To keep things on topic, I'm pretty sure that is an eastern gray squirrel, but I'll let our forum squirrel experts chime in on that.

Not sure of the type of hawk; I'm not really a "bird person".

It was a pretty — cool "wildlife in the city" moment!

[James Bond Agent 007]

That's a Red-tailed hawk (specifically, a juvenile one). Any time you see a large hawk in an urban or suburban area, it's probably a Red-tailed hawk.

The other kind of hawk you're likely to see in an urban or suburban area - a Cooper's hawk - eats mostly birds. Those are about the size of a crow.

There are a few other kinds of hawk you might see, but those 2 species will be probably 80% or more of sightings.

Yes, that looks like a gray squirrel too.

[pj3000]

Awesome urban wildlife experience!

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

That's a Red-tailed hawk (specifically, a juvenile one). Any time you see a large hawk in an urban or suburban area, it's probably a Red-tailed hawk.

Cool, thanks for confirming!

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

1. Much of State St, especially as you get toward the library, looks like it's about 50 years past its prime (haven't gone south of the library). I'm surprised that Barnes & Noble hasn't moved elsewhere by now. Weird thing about that is, if you go 1 block east or west it's fine.

That Barnes & Noble is the college book store for DePaul's Loop campus, which is in the same building as well as a couple adjacent buildings.

[jbermingham123]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

It was a pretty — cool "wildlife in the city" moment!

Brief tangent, but speaking of wildlife in the city moments:

not sure if any of you have spent much time in Seattle, but I moved here from the midwest about a year ago and have been dumbfounded at the number of bald eagles here. They are absolutely everywhere. Its hard to go more than a day or two without seeing one (usually two since they pair for life).

But hawks are more rare here! people get more excited about them than they do about eagles!

Not sure if i saw a bald eagle even once in my 10 years living/travelling between STL, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I dont think I did.

[Steely Dan]

^ I've seen eagles all the time up in rural Wisconsin.

But here in the city? Not even once in 47 years.

Conclusion: Eagles must be Packers fans.

[jbermingham123]

As an example of *how many* there are here.. one showed up on my neighbor's roof only minutes after posting that last post up there. Here's the above post in the foreground:

[Bonsai Tree]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ I've seen eagles all the time up in rural Wisconsin.

But here in the city? Not even once in 47 years.

Conclusion: Eagles must be Packers fans.

They'll get to the city soon, I'd guess. They are a pretty common sight along the Fox River and there's been a nesting pair in Busse Woods for years. They've also been spotted along the Des Plaines. I know I've personally seen at least 4 in the Chicago area in the past 5 years. They are definitely becoming increasingly common.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by jbermingham123

Brief tangent, but speaking of wildlife in the city moments:

not sure if any of you have spent much time in Seattle, but I moved here from the midwest about a year ago and have been dumbfounded at the number of bald eagles here. They are absolutely everywhere. Its hard to go more than a day or two without seeing one (usually two since they pair for life).

But hawks are more rare here! people get more excited about them than they do about eagles!

Not sure if i saw a bald eagle even once in my 10 years living/travelling between STL, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I dont think I did.

Back somewhere around 2000 one of the Seattle papers noted that, the year before, there were something like 30 nesting pairs of Bald eagles just within the Seattle city limits.

I did see a lot of Red-tailed hawks when I was there, too. But you had to go to the more inland suburban areas.

[JManc]

While we're talking about Chicago wildlife, I never heard cicadas like I have when I was there a few years. Was around August I think and they were absolutely deafening. Far worse than anything I ever heard in Houston where they do get kinda load every late summer.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by JManc

While we're talking about Chicago wildlife, I never heard cicadas like I have when I was there a few years. Was around August I think and they were absolutely deafening. Far worse than anything I ever heard in Houston where they do get kinda load every late summer.

Northeast IL/southeast WI are known to have some of the densest cicada broods on the planet. Some years are obviously worse than others, but the cicadas here are always loud in late summer.

I've grown up with it for my entire life, so it becomes one of those background noise things that your brain tunes out.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The SE corner of Wilmette that I grew up in decades ago had a very large % of its eastern gray squirrels with the black fur mutation, for whatever reason.

I've never seen black squirrels in such numbers anywhere else that I've lived in Chicago.

No idea if it's still like that up there.

I remember you mentioning you live in Lincoln Square; I'm not far at Damen/Irving Park and see black squirrels all the the time, so frequently that I reached out to the Illinois Dept of Natural Resources about it. They are all over this little area bounded by Western/Montrose/Ashland/Addison, but yes I had never really noticed any before I moved to this neighborhood a little over 5 years ago.

Interesting to see so many SSP also curious about squirrels...

[Steely Dan]

^ cool, I'll try to be more consciously on the look out for some black squirrels when I'm over by there.

Originally Posted by Handro

Interesting to see so many SSP also curious about squirrels...

But of course.

Squirrels are the non-repulsive cousins of the rats.

And while rats can do — urban a bit better, squirrels do great in cities like Chicago with lots of trees and parkways/small yards to bury their nuts in.

[chris08876]

Spotted this today. Just sharing. Thought it was pretty cool.

Home styles of Chicago:



Credit: Wonder City Studio