CHICAGO | General Discussions

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

and here's the perfect antidote to all of the recent negative news.



full article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/dinin...221-story.html



REJOICE!


i currently have a bottle of the impostor florida stuff in my liquor cabinet.

i'll have to polish that off and my get hands on a bottle of the new chicago-made stuff.

Awesome!! Always have Malort in the bar.

[Vlajos]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...glut-nevermind

No glut of apartments downtown predicted for 2019.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

No, not true. The city can still have basic design standards without having to intervene with every nook and cranny of life, but often they go way too far.

Simply put, ban streetfront parking on all commercial streets.

The proposed strip mall does conform to the city's design standards. It holds the corner and puts required parking in the middle of the site with no setbacks and the required landscape buffer from the sidewalk. The rendering in the Block Club article is poorly cropped but the intersection of 31st/Halsted is at the right hand side just out of frame:

https://blockclubchicago.org/2018/11...t-and-halsted/


There's a similar development on Western by Addison, if you want a better sense of how this relates to the street.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9480...7i16384!8i8192

Not saying this is the proper development for the Bridgeport site, which should be a mixed use building, but you can't deny this represents a HUGE improvement over the old strip mall paradigm, like the infamous turd across from the Kimball Brown Line stop:
https://goo.gl/maps/BCcdDLAMrEn

[the urban politician]

Why doesn't Disney do more long term shows in Chicago?

Anybody? They seem to have their more "permanent" presence in NYC, but I find that to be ill-guided.

Chicago gets nearly as much tourism, and much of it is the exact type of tourist that would love to see Disney shows like Beauty and the Beast, Alladin, etc. They could make huge bucks here, perhaps more than anywhere else except NYC itself.

The inspiration for this post is the news that Disney is bringing Frozen to Chicago for only 11 weeks in 2020. 11 weeks is awefully short.

[Steely Dan]

^ my guess is that frozen is going to prove WILDLY popular here and the run will get extended.

[lakeshoredrive]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Why doesn't Disney do more long term shows in Chicago?

Anybody? They seem to have their more "permanent" presence in NYC, but I find that to be ill-guided.

Chicago gets nearly as much tourism, and much of it is the exact type of tourist that would love to see Disney shows like Beauty and the Beast, Alladin, etc. They could make huge bucks here, perhaps more than anywhere else except NYC itself.

The inspiration for this post is the news that Disney is bringing Frozen to Chicago for only 11 weeks in 2020. 11 weeks is awefully short.

I remember when I was younger, Disney had a DisneyQuest attraction downtown that was open for like a few years. I’m not sure what happened to the building Disneyquest occupied.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by lakeshoredrive

I remember when I was younger, Disney had a DisneyQuest attraction downtown that was open for like a few years. I’m not sure what happened to the building Disneyquest occupied.

Room and Board Furniture.

[Chicagoguy]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Why doesn't Disney do more long term shows in Chicago?

Anybody? They seem to have their more "permanent" presence in NYC, but I find that to be ill-guided.

Chicago gets nearly as much tourism, and much of it is the exact type of tourist that would love to see Disney shows like Beauty and the Beast, Alladin, etc. They could make huge bucks here, perhaps more than anywhere else except NYC itself.

The inspiration for this post is the news that Disney is bringing Frozen to Chicago for only 11 weeks in 2020. 11 weeks is awefully short.

I think one of the biggest reasons for this might be Chicago's downtown theater supply. Broadway in Chicago has the theaters booked solid for nearly two years out, which leaves little room long-run shows.

Hamilton is already taking up the CIBC Theatre, and the Auditorium Theatre and Broadway Playhouse aren't the best for large scale Broadway-style productions. The reality is that all of the other touring productions are forced to share the Nederlander and the Cadillac Palace.

[bnk]

https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/3/8/...ng-orange-glow






Admire Chicago’s orange glow before it’s gone

LEDs are replacing the orange high-pressure sodium lights

By Sara Freund Mar 8, 2019, 9:30am CST














When the sun goes down, Chicago’s streets, alleys, and parks take on a hazy orange glow. The color from the streetlights has become part of the city’s character and to some it’s beautiful. Especially if you’ve ever had the chance to see it while in flight—the street grid moves glowing in amber. While the warm tint from the high-pressure sodium bulbs is comforting, slowly a whiter light is replacing it.

Turn down a street where the city’s LED lights are installed, and it looks a bit odd at first. What might be sacrificed in familiarity, the city is making up for in savings. The Smart Lighting Program has installed 100,000 LED streetlights to date, saving the city $12 million on its ComEd bill, according to the mayor’s office. Ultimately, it’ll save about $100 million since LEDs operate with just a fraction of the electricity that the older streetlights use.

In the 1970s, when the city first began installing the high-pressure sodium bulbs people were not enthusiastic. Skeptics likened the streets to a yellowy washed-out, nightmare. Critics today question some LEDs’ bluish light, more akin to daylight, which can be eerie at night. The good news is that the city’s lights aren’t the bluest, the LEDs strike a balance between warm and cool temperatures making it feel more natural.

Eventually, about 85 percent of the city’s public streetlights will be replaced with LEDs. No more orange glow....

So before the last golden glow burns out, let’s admire the city under its older streetlights.

[Steely Dan]

^ i for one will dearly miss the orange glow of the city at night that i've known for all 43 years of my life on this planet.

but i don't think anyone can argue with saving $100M on electricity costs.

i wonder if my kids will be able to make enough memories of the orange before its gone forever.

[Via Chicago]

i dont know if you guys have actually seen the new LEDs, but i think theyre completely fine. its a more narrow focused band of light, but they seem to have them set up on the warmer end of the spectrum so its really not all that different. definitely not orange, but also definitely not the bright white/blues people were worried about (although they may have some set up on that spectrum on LSD, i cant recall). but the sidestreets and alleys are definitely in the yellow band and i dont find overly harsh.


https://energynews.us/2018/03/07/mid...d-controversy/

Street lights are measured in kelvin, which designates the color temperature. The earlier generations of LED street lamps had temperatures as high as 4,000K or 5,000K. Chicago’s will be 3,000K and able to be dimmed remotely during off-peak times, meeting two of the three AMA guidelines.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

i dont know if you guys have actually seen the new LEDs, but i think theyre completely fine. its a more narrow focused band of light, but they seem to have them set up on the warmer end of the spectrum so its really not all that different.

i think the new LED lighting is pretty noticeably different, at least to me it is. every time i'm on one of the new LED streets, i notice the difference right away.

the new lighting isn't objectively bad, it's just different, and it will take some getting used to after an entire lifetime spent in chicago's marvelous orange glow at night.

i will miss the orange, but there are way too many good reasons to switch to LED.

[SIGSEGV]

Why were Conor McGregor and the Irish PM here?

[RedCorsair87]

Ugh. Three parking lots and at least two undeveloped lots. We could be looking at up to FIVE supertalls here one day...

[emathias]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Why were Conor McGregor and the Irish PM here?

There can be only one.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

No, not true. The city can still have basic design standards without having to intervene with every nook and cranny of life, but often they go way too far.

Simply put, ban streetfront parking on all commercial streets.

By street-front parking you mean strip-mall type parking, right? At first I thought you meant just plain street parking.

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Why doesn't Disney do more long term shows in Chicago?

Anybody? They seem to have their more "permanent" presence in NYC, but I find that to be ill-guided.
...

Wait, you're actually calling for increased and literal Disney-fication of Chicago? After all the criticism New York endures for doing that to Times Square?

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by emathias

Wait, you're actually calling for increased and literal Disney-fication of Chicago? After all the criticism New York endures for doing that to Times Square?

Of course not. Obviously there is a difference between ‘Disnification’ of a city versus having resident Disney productions

[bhawk66]

^You think Chicago can support that? Maybe if like 2/3rds are foreigners who want a second home in Chicago. ...The business side will have to keep up with the residential side. And there are a lot of "young" and up-and-coming cities that are luring hot companies. Especially in warmer climates. Chicago is going to have to remain and increase there tourism viability and "vacation home" attractiveness. Just an opinion.

[the urban politician]

I definitely don’t see all of those lots all filling up with supertalls

[cozy]

Originally Posted by RedCorsair87

...could be... ...one day...

I think readers skimmed past these key phrases in your post