Monthly Archives: June 2005

Illinois wind lifts off

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ELPC reports that over 3,000 MW of electric capacity is proposed for Illinois, enough to power over a million Illinois homes. Indeed, one 400 MW project near Bloomington could power a medium-sized city. Illinois is far behind some of its Midwestern neighbors in the wind power game because of its slow movement towards a Renewable Portfolio Standard and, compared to the Plains to the west, meager wind resources.

Localities, too, can charge ahead to encourage renewable energy: not only by doing as Chicago did and purchasing Green Tags, but through good planning. Klickitat County in southern Washington state has created a zoning overlay district that allows wind turbines as-of-right in parts of the county that are both suitably windy and ready to deal with the land-use impacts. The zone was created after a $500,000 feasibility study, money that it will quickly recover with 500 MW of generation capacity planned.

Biotic Bicycle Brigade rides to Ravinia

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The Biotic Bicycle Brigade invites you to ride to Ravinia this summer! Join us for three concerts by the renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Lawn seats at Ravinia are just $10 or free with student ID. Bring picnic materials, or help us make a picnic at locally owned grocers.

The ride is about 20 miles each way (about the same as the entire lakefront path), and we usually take a moderate pace (12 mph) up paths and shady residential streets. Bring lights and wear a helmet. New for 2005: you might be able to bring your bike back aboard Metra!

June 25 Saturday 4pm Bucktown — 5pm Lincoln Square — 7pm Ravinia
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (�Resurrection�)
CSO & Chorus conducted by James Conlon; Heidi Grant Murphy,�Soprano; Birgitta Svend�n, Mezzo-Soprano

July 15 Friday 5pm Bucktown — 6pm Lincoln Square — 8pm Ravinia
Bach: Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, Glass: Double Timpani Concerto,and Brahms: Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Cello, Op. 102
CSO conducted by James Conlon; Pinchas Zukerman, Violin; Amanda Forsyth, Cello; Jessica Linnebach, Violin; Jonathan Haas, Timpani; Svetaslov Stoyanov, Timpani

Aug 7 Sunday 3:30pm Bucktown — 4:30pm Lincoln Square — 6:30pm Ravinia
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor
CSO conducted by Christoph Eschenbach

Meeting locations
Bucktown at Damen & Wabansia, outside the Goddess & Grocer
Lincoln Square at Lincoln & Giddings, outside Delicatessen Meyer

Leaking the route map proposal

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My route proposal (239K) for the June 2005 Critical Mass ride. It’s much gayer than the other one. It also makes for a wonderful tour of pre-renewal South Side urbanism, although a truly proper tour of that would have to include much of South Shore.

Update: photos from the ride by: Art, Bob K, Bob M, Devin, Don, and Jordan. I recommend Don’s open-hydrant shots (way to avoid dousing the camera) and Devin’s shots on the Quads.

Perimeter Ride-30 July

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From John Greenfield:

Mark your calendar for the 4th annual Perimeter Ride, Saturday, July 30, 9 AM, meeting at the Handlebar, 2311 W. North.

This free, 100-mile ride moves at a relaxed 10 — 12 MPH pace with lots of stops for sightseeing, snacking, swimming, and other legal and illegal activities.

We’ll meet at the Handlebar for breakfast at 9 AM and hit the road at 10. The route is roughly the perimeter of the city, from Hegewisch to Beverly, Edgebrook to Rogers Park, and includes lots of off-street paths and the entire lakefront. We’ll wind up back at the Handlebar sometime after midnight for drinks.

If you’re not biking on the edge, you’re taking up tooo much space.

The Perimeter Ride is a fantastic way to see those completely out-of-the-way parts of the city, like the Calumet basin, that you’d otherwise have absolutely no reason to go and see. Plus, 100 miles isn’t nearly as far as one might think!

Photoblog

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This is not really turning into a cameraphone photoblog, but Flickr’s upload-by-email makes it ridiculously easy to send posts from, oh, a street corner or a nightclub or anywhere. I’m pondering switching to WordPress later this summer, which supports blog-by-email.

Banana

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Banana

Originally uploaded by paytonc.

It’s completely invisible amidst the stage-light glare, but here Evan Cranley, bassist for Stars, is waving a banana at the audience. (More precisely, grasping it lengthwise and thrusting it back and forth.) Why?

Later, Torquil Campbell said something along the lines of, “we could be the first generation that says, ‘forget about getting there on time, I’m going to save the planet and walk.'” Another little step in making “dead” environmentalism a little more alive and relevant to folks, I guess. A coordinated effort to make driving uncool — but who would fund it?

And yes, I managed to find the tallest guy in the place to stand behind; such is my fate.

Sox’ attendance woes in WSJ

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A Page One article by Erik Ahlberg gives some reasons why the winning White Sox still face a half-empty stadium in a sporting town. Personally, I think that fixing the urbanism could easily increase attendance, while generating additional revenues. I know that I’d be far more tempted to go to a game; surely someone who cared more about sports (even if she cared less about urbanism) would be similarly tempted.

The Chicago White Sox have the best record in baseball, and their best chance in years of ending an 88-year drought of World Series championships. But here in one of America’s great sports towns, hardly anyone seems to care.

When the Sox recently faced another first-place team, the Los Angeles Angels, only about 20,000 showed up, despite delightful weather and a 2-for-1 ticket special… Despite a mediocre performance most of the year, the second-place Cubs have played to 98% capacity, and nearly had a sellout April 23 when they lost to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates in near-freezing temperatures with 25-mile-an-hour winds blasting off Lake Michigan.

At the heart of the Sox’s troubled wooing of Chicago lies a conundrum worthy of Yogi Berra: They haven’t been good enough to win, and they haven’t been bad enough to tap into baseball’s romance with hapless losers. The White Sox won their last World Series in 1917. Even before the Boston Red Sox exorcised their 86-year curse last year, the White Sox had the American League’s longest drought…

Many people fault Comiskey Park, which one local columnist has described as having the feel of West Berlin during the Cold War. The park, which replaced the old Comiskey in 1991 and was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003, is bordered by a rust-stained concrete wall, train tracks and an interstate highway. Some of Chicago’s toughest housing projects loom beyond the outfield fence. There are only a few bars within walking distance… The Cell, as the team’s ballpark is often called here, was one of the last efficient but unappealing fields built before stadiums in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and San Francisco showed how to design a park that’s equal parts ballfield and tourist attraction… But many Chicagoans prefer the cozy confines of historic Wrigley Field, with its ivy-covered outfield walls, hand-operated scoreboard and neighborhood teeming with saloons.

“Even if we win the World Series this year, Wrigley will still sell out next year,” Sox first baseman Paul Konerko says. “But I can’t guarantee we’d be sold out here…” White Sox General Manager Ken Williams says the team appreciates the mayor’s support. “We just need him to bring ten or fifteen thousand of his friends.”

Terror alert

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Terror alert

Originally uploaded by paytonc.

Seen on Meridian St in South Pasadena across from an open house for CNU attendees at Mission Meridian.

Someone (whose name escapes me, as names tend to) spent a few hours talking with the neighbors at the little block party reception they were having. Turns out they’re longtime neighborhood activists, having gotten 30+ years of practice at it while campaigning against the not-dead-yet 710 freeway (which would wipe out 1/3 of South Pasadena). Overall, the neighbors admitted that they preferred residential development to the long-vacant lot. The main issue is indeed the trees: despite repeated assurances from both the developer and the town planning officials, a row of truly giant street trees all came down just a few weeks ago — well after major construction was done. The developer’s people said that the trees were diseased; they’re 80 years into their 100-year life expectancy, and have been badly pruned in recent years. (I also have a photo of the street trees up on Flickr.)

A secondary issue is the bulk of the loft building. It is indeed a few feet higher than anything else in the vicinity, and retaining those trees would have done a lot to mask that bulk. Apparently, they really like the Craftsman maisonettes, which are a great way to insert density into the low-scale context.

However, the escalation of the attacks from one development and a half-dozen trees to the whole of New Urbanism, and the loaded addition of “terrorism,” is just inexcusable rhetoric.