CHICAGO | General Developments

[k1052]

Originally Posted by streetline

Fulton River Park has a fenced in dog area, a lot of dog owners just can't be bothered to get their dogs there to do their business. Sort of like the new K2 tower a block away has a huge fenced in dog run, easily the largest in the area, and yet still has poop on their sidewalks every time I walk by.

People are too lazy, laws are too unenforced, and dogs are becoming too numerous for things to go on the way they are indefinitely. I hope that as technology advances, the city can find ways to make enforcing pet related sanitation laws profitable and thus practical. They're doing genetic tests on the feces on Montrose beach now, if they combined that sort of thing with a genetic marker record in pet registrations, they could generate a whole lot of fines...

Fulton River Park is basically unusable for anyone but dog owners now. They had to cancel the movie series they were running a while back because there was too much crap on the grass all the time. I walk by it twice a day 5 days a week and would never consider setting foot on the grass for fear of landmines. As for the sidewalks...yea...a lot of sidewalks in the area have a perpetual poop problem. I do wish there were some effective enforcement options.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Oh come off it, he didn't even come close to saying that. The question is why does every park have to be designed for children. Not every park needs a playground in it and this park is nice in that it doesn't have one and can therefore be used for a different set of activities.

^ He might as well have.

And I disagree. I actually believe that every sizable park (not the small pocket ones, but larger ones that serve the larger community around it) should have a play area for children if this city really wants to attract and retain families.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

This discussion is making my head hurt...



Why does every park need to be crammed with trees and entertainment options? I see people constantly using that field for exactly this reason: it is an actual open space where they can do things. Also, I would hardly call the awesome pine grove at the West side of the park a "sprinkling of trees" that is actually my favorite part of the park, it reminds me of the north woods.



Oh come off it, he didn't even come close to saying that. The question is why does every park have to be designed for children. Not every park needs a playground in it and this park is nice in that it doesn't have one and can therefore be used for a different set of activities.

Agreed, I'm in the area most of the time and the park is very well utilized; I see children playing with the water feature all the time. Just because its not a playground with swings and slides doesn't mean that its not "family freindly". I use that diagnol sidewalk all the time; its a great shortcut through that long block, and a perfect design feature given the nature of its location.

The only design failure aspect of the park is that the slope causes mulch and dirt runoff onto the Illinois St sidewalk during moderate-heavy rainfall events, but that's an easy fix.

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Also, I would hardly call the awesome pine grove at the West side of the park a "sprinkling of trees" that is actually my favorite part of the park, it reminds me of the north woods.

Fifteen juvenile trees remind you of the North Woods?

[wierdaaron]

Parks are a touchy subject on this forum, or at least the Chicago areas of it. I think that's neat. It's a cool thing to have strong opinions about, whichever direction they lean.

Anyway, Daley Bicentennial was convenient for me to walk through from work to home since its sidewalks were nice and straight. Thought I'm not sure "easy to get through" is a characteristic of a great park. Speaking of neo-classical parks, though, I'm a fan of Vienna's Stadtpark. It combines some classical "art in a garden" design aspects with nice meandering tree-lined pathways and (for the love of god) ample places to sit.

[ardecila]

If dogs are becoming a problem, the city can slow the growth in ownership and require no-dog policies as a condition of downtown PDs above a certain unit count.

Again, it's great if you wanna live downtown but it's really not a good or healthy environment for dogs.

This relates back to the park issue, too. It's great to have families in the city, but not every neighborhood needs to cater to families. This city has plenty of green leafy neighborhoods with small houses, bungalows, and spacious apartments/condos that are great environments for kids. Streeterville is not and should not be one of these places. On the other hand, the West Loop may evolve into a good place for families in the central area, with quieter streets, a healthy amount of townhouses, a handful of nice parks, and good schools nearby.

There are some fundamental incompatibilities here: living downtown should come with some trade offs. It's not a great place for families, pets, or vehicles but it is a great place for having work, friends, shopping, and dining right outside your front door. Trying to squeeze all of those things together just gives us these weird hybrid neighborhoods that please nobody.

[the urban politician]

^. You're making this too complicated. A frigging swing set isn't going to ruin your hip and happening life, but it may make life a ton easier for people living in the area with three year old kids who are chomping at the bit to get out of the condo and play

[denizen467]

Especially as we're on this Chicago parks discussion, I thought I'd point out the coincidence that the featured article on Wikipedia's home page today is about Millennium Park's bicycle station.

[LaSalle.St.Station]

Originally Posted by ardecila

If dogs are becoming a problem, the city can slow the growth in ownership and require no-dog policies as a condition of downtown PDs above a certain unit count.

Again, it's great if you wanna live downtown but it's really not a good or healthy environment for dogs.

This relates back to the park issue, too. It's great to have families in the city, but not every neighborhood needs to cater to families. This city has plenty of green leafy neighborhoods with small houses, bungalows, and spacious apartments/condos that are great environments for kids. Streeterville is not and should not be one of these places. On the other hand, the West Loop may evolve into a good place for families in the central area, with quieter streets, a healthy amount of townhouses, a handful of nice parks, and good schools nearby.

There are some fundamental incompatibilities here: living downtown should come with some trade offs. It's not a great place for families, pets, or vehicles but it is a great place for having work, friends, shopping, and dining right outside your front door. Trying to squeeze all of those things together just gives us these weird hybrid neighborhoods that please nobody.

Yikes....two steps away from hiring the child catcher from chitty chitty bang bang.

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by ardecila

If dogs are becoming a problem, the city can slow the growth in ownership and require no-dog policies as a condition of downtown PDs above a certain unit count.

Again, it's great if you wanna live downtown but it's really not a good or healthy environment for dogs.
.

From my cold dead hands they will take my dog!! (channeling my inner Heston) That being said, these people who just let their dogs go do their business anywhere and never pick it up are disgusting. Nothing i hate more than that 1st warm day after a snowy winter when all the frozen turds everywhere come out and melt!! DISGUSTING!! Ban dogs from some of these parks completely, fine heavily for transgressions.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^ That won't work. It's been shown time and again that the severity of the punishment barely has any deterrent effect, it's the odds of being caught that matter. So unless we are going to install dog poop cameras, this behavior will continue as it does now.

[Rizzo]

Appropriate time for me to comment that I look forward to moving out of a downtown building where dog owners from other buildings let their pets piss on our doorstep. I mean seriously. Of all the places, you find an entrance totally acceptable? It's gone away lately since those people received fines, but it still doesn't encourage owners from appropriately training their dogs.

I have to agree we are starting to cross a new boundary for where dogs should be permitted or banned in certain areas. I know people that put their dogs in an 8' sq ft kennel all day while they are at work only to let them out to run in a busy, noisey, concrete downtown. It just doesn't seem right to me. Sorry. I grew up in a place where dogs had space and grass to run around, and that always seemed to me correct conditions for ownership of an animal.

Good news is many new buildings are adding dog amenities as they should . There should be a requirement in new construction here after for X amount of open space and dog daycare requirements before a building would legally be allowed to have pets in units. It's totally within the city's abilities to legally enforce pet policies as part of ordinances and codes

[denizen467]

^ Here's to hoping your new vantage point will afford some interesting construction site photos.


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The redevelopment of a giant Elston site into a mega Ford dealership just north of Fullerton looks to be a long process - site signage says they're opening in fall of next year. Does anyone know of any riverbank or bridge or similar work that has to be done at that location? It's hard to understand otherwise why it's so far out.

Design by Gensler, by the way. (Crain's)

[ardecila]

^ Why does that seem like a long time? 14 months seems like a pretty reasonable schedule to me, especially if there is remediation work. That thing will be huge; it's not just an average suburban car lot.

[Remy_Bork]

Here are some pictures I've taken recently. I've got to start bringing my nicer camera with me when I walk around.







The hotel being built in Chinatown at Cermak and Archer. They are starting on the fifth floor now, but it's going very slowly.



I saw them tearing down the sign at the closed Three Happiness restaurant at Wentworth and Cermak. It looks like the demolition on those buildings might be starting.





This is the site in the west loop for the project at Monroe and Sangamon by Mary Bartelme park.



This is the nearly completed apartment building at Madison and Racine.



This is more transportation related, but here is a view of the Peoria entrance to the UIC/Halsted station on the Blue Line. It looks like they're rebuilding it almost entirely.

[ardecila]

They're actually expanding the Peoria station house at UIC/Halsted and adding an elevator down to the platform. All with IDOT's money as part of the Circle Interchange project, CTA isn't spending a dime on this.

[the urban politician]

Thanks for the shots, Remy. You rarely see pics of neighborhood developments like that, so it's nice to see.

I'd really like to see more boutique hotel developments in the neighborhoods such as the one going up in Chinatown. It seems as if most out of town visitors are either going to stay downtown or near the airports.

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ Why does that seem like a long time? 14 months seems like a pretty reasonable schedule to me, especially if there is remediation work. That thing will be huge; it's not just an average suburban car lot.

I think it's 15 to 16 months. It feels long mainly because it's just a couple floors tall, and most of the site area will presumably just be (functionally) a surface lot. Also, unlike a museum or other institutional building, the interior buildout should be largely formulaic; it might not be as straightforward as constructing a budget hotel of comparable size, but I don't think the wheel is being reinvented here (just sold and repaired, heh). The remediation could explain the timeframe if it lasts a couple months or so I guess.


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Keeping with the motor vehicle theme, the Harley Davidson shop on Rush is boarded up and NY style hot dogs (whatev) and other temptations (looking forward to them) look like they should be on schedule to join Eataly across the street by the autumn as yet another option for local foodies and food tourism visitors alike.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ What exactly is a NY style hotdog? One that has sat in lukewarm water all day in a cart on the street and then smothered in ketchup?

[brian_b]

Originally Posted by ardecila

This relates back to the park issue, too. It's great to have families in the city, but not every neighborhood needs to cater to families. This city has plenty of green leafy neighborhoods with small houses, bungalows, and spacious apartments/condos that are great environments for kids. Streeterville is not and should not be one of these places. On the other hand, the West Loop may evolve into a good place for families in the central area, with quieter streets, a healthy amount of townhouses, a handful of nice parks, and good schools nearby.

There are some fundamental incompatibilities here: living downtown should come with some trade offs. It's not a great place for families, pets, or vehicles but it is a great place for having work, friends, shopping, and dining right outside your front door.

So... "those people" should know their place in this city! They don't deserve to have great access to their job; they shouldn't expect to be close to great restaurants, and shopping? Don't get me started on shopping! They should use Amazon and be thankful!

Trying to squeeze all of those things together just gives us these weird hybrid neighborhoods that please nobody.

Can you name a great neighborhood in the city that doesn't have lots of kids living there? I must be missing something.